The Shintaro Higashi Show - Producing Shintaro's Content - An Interview with Greg

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Ever wonder who was behind all of the high-quality YouTube videos on Shintaro's channel? In this episode, you get to hear Greg discuss with Shintaro about his experience producing videos for Shintaro's channel. He talks about how the partnership started, how it's going and how he plans to take the channel to the next level in the future. Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hey guys, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yoo. Peter's in Korea eating kimchi right now. So Greg is actually producing it. He's my guest today. Greg is the guy behind the scenes for YouTube. He's also Judo Black Belt, one of my guys. Unbelievable footwork. I've been trying to get him to start a YouTube channel, The Show Tech Geek as well.

I don't know why he hasn't done it yet. All in good time. Yeah. Greg Reagan, right? Yeah. President Reagan does the Higashi. That's an idea. The man, the man. Shintaro Higashi. time. Yeah. Greg Reagan, right? Yeah. President Reagan does the Ashi. That's an idea. The man, the man.

Yeah. Shintaro Higashi. Yeah. We're here with Greg. We're going to talk a little bit today about the YouTube stuff. Yeah. Tell me more how you came about the stuff and yeah. So, I mean, we, like a lot of people in the Judo community, I'd say like 90% of them start

out watching your YouTube that you started doing way back in like 2015, right. You had, you had one big video cutting weight. Yeah. Interesting thing. Yeah. And that blew up. It's still gaining views, but then you made, um, five basic Judo techniques that everyone should know.

And that still to this day gets 3000,000, 4,000 views a month. Yeah. It's crazy. 3 million views right now. It's like if you search Google and basic judo, this guy's face shows up and it's you and Peter. And it's like, you got the long flowing hair. You got the look.

It's like people tune in two minutes in and out. So I was working construction before this but uh i've had a lot of video production background i have a comedy background so like timing and uh like education and and uh funny stuff is kind of what i do so when when we started making the videos i was like oh how do we make this a bit more abbreviated a bit shorter and more to the point. And I think we've gained at least 70,000 followers since like a year ago. Yeah. Which has been really nice. Yeah, for you.

And I mean, we've gotten so many visitors into the dojo. Yeah. Saying that they watch it like all over the world. Yeah. And- The double-edged sword though, right? I know. I don't know who's going to come through those doors.

Yeah, some random people. Five guests and you're like, oh man, you're going to kill these people. Exactly. You're going to wash all the geese afterwards. You're going to wash the geese if they don't bring their own geese. Yeah. So, but like in, like, it's so funny to live in the judo world where 90, you know, a huge majority of the U.S. population doesn't even know about the sport.

That's very true. And then. Very niche, very niche. And I go basically from the dojo where I teach the kids and I train, and then I go back and I edit these videos and I kind of live in my two bubbles. And then we go to like a judo competition or something. And you are like the biggest celebrity that ever lived. It's crazy how that is, right? Yeah. It's like there's a new level of celebrityhood. Like when I was competing, I was like, oh, there's that guy. Hey. Now it's like, oh, can I take a picture with you?

Yeah. It's kind of a funny jump in this day. It's like hard for you to coach even. Yeah. It's a little weird, but it's also cool at the same time, you know? Like, and people are always asking me, how do you do this? How do you do this? How did you get the YouTube following and stuff like that?

And a lot of it is you, right? You're the guy behind the scenes. Yeah. I mean, like it's, it's a team effort, right? You're like Mr. Beast kind of. Kind of. Kind of. We all, anybody who does YouTube always looks to that guy to be like, what is he doing?

You know, just seeing that he, cause he optimized it, right? He, he casts the widest net. Like he drives a train into a hole. It's like, who doesn't want it? Like, yeah, I want to watch that right now. Yeah. It's it right now. It's an amazing video. It's so addicting. And then, you know, we do like, uh, you know, uh, uh, uh, very niche technique. It's only going to capture so much on the YouTube audience, you know, and then we, you know, eventually, you know, a lot of our crossover stuff ends up being pretty good, right? Between the judo and jujitsu or gi and no-gi stuff. Yeah.

So it makes a good piece of YouTube content. Maybe not just YouTube, but like reels also, because that's kind of gaining in popularity. Like I know I spend most of my time just scrolling reels before I go to bed. You know what I mean? Well, our most successful reels start off with like a direct play to the person watching. Reels start off with like a direct play to the person watching. So there was the, I think your most successful short form video is showing Tomainage to all the BJJ guys. And it starts off with you going, you guys already pull guard and it's like, so

grabbing, and then you show Tomainage and it's like, just in that way where they pull guard, but it's, you know, you can finish the technique. So it's like. And a lot of our stuff is scripted, right? So everything is winged. So it's maybe your editing lot of our stuff is scripted, right? No. Everything is winged. So it's maybe your editing ability is like, oh, this is exactly where we need to start the video. And then this is where we need to cut, right?

That kind of stuff plays a major role in it, no? Yeah. What I ended up doing is I'll, I'll cut the YouTube video into its feet form, like full length. And that has a particular timing because people, once they're invested, you know, there's, you can have a little bit of dead space, but not a lot. But then when you go into short form, it's like deliver and, and get the message out. You have 15 seconds max to really say it.

So I'll look through the video and I'll see, all right, what statement jumps at me? Like, what is the point that leads to the action? And then I'll just cut into that a bunch of times. And that's bunch of times. And that's the real form. That's real form. What about like a longer instruction form?

Longer instruction form. It's all about like, um, creating like a, uh, a through line. Yeah. So like having something that you're looking forward to and also delivering on the way there. So like, like if you look at the backend metrics, everybody loves when you throw Eugene. The moment you throw Eugene, everyone is a spike in retention. The second he's on the ground, people leave in droves. If I could just show Eugene getting bombed for like 30 minutes, it would be the most viral thing.

Except that as we went through the years, my camera gears improved, my editing quality. So it's just going to be a mess of video formats. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Interesting. So what is like sort of the next way for us to grow DJing? Like what is the next?

So, so the instructions have been doing pretty well and we could definitely do more of those. Um, we, uh, you know, every you've been doing a lot of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Yeah. So there's a good amount of crossover content that we could do there. But, you know, it's interesting. Our audience is so spread out. Like only about a third of our audience is actually in the United States.

Oh, wow. And then a third is in Europe. And then a third is the rest of the world. States and then a third is in Europe and then a third is the rest of the world. So I, I, I think maybe like, and then as far as demographics go, the United States audience pays the best and it's here, so maybe focusing on growing the sport here, but that's a heavy lift, you know, to really do that, but, um, maybe creating like a full curriculum, but that involves a lot of planning and kind of like meticulous things. Or leaning heavier into the entertainment side of it.

Maybe, you know, keeping it light. Yeah, he uses the word infotainment, right? Infotainment. You always say. Yeah. That's what we're doing right now. Yeah, exactly. That's what, yeah.

But like, yeah, like the best thing, so you're always focused on like the quality of the technique the proper information and i'm just focused on like if if no one's watching it then it doesn't matter the information because it's either tree falls in the woods as it makes out yeah so i'm trying to keep it at least moving and fun and then i think together we've we've like gone through the cycle so many times that it's like way easier to produce a high quality piece of content. And then every once in a while we get those like special ones where it really jumps and that gets a bigger net of so many people. But I'd say like, you know, the, the, the instructionals basically go doing more long form, concise things and making it both fun and entertaining and useful. Yeah.

Because the craziest thing that happens when these visitors come into the dojo is they go like, you are their sensei in Korea or in like the middle East or something, and they're, they're like, you know, they, they take all of your teachings and just redo it. So, you know, if we do like a more comprehensive instruction, then they could actually like take that and just have their textbook, their Bible. Yeah, that could be kind of a cool thing.

Yeah. You know, you've always mentioned like, you know, the higher ranks in judo up to the 10th dan is really more about contributions to the sport as a whole than personal accolades yeah i mean because you can't do judo after a certain age i mean right you can but to what extent you're not out there competing and winning stuff and you know right yeah yeah i mean it's so so to leave that legacy you know like um like your dad wrote a bunch of books and they're, they're very comprehensive and great books.

And now everybody's on online watching YouTube videos. So it's, you know, that's an amazing place to leave that mark and have that reference material. Yeah. So it's like, I mean, you've been, you've been making YouTube videos now for like four or five years, like on a consistent basis. Like, do you, do you like it? Do you enjoy making?

Yeah, I do. There's a little bit of validation factor, right? Like I'm in the dojo, I'm teaching this stuff. And then, you know, it gets pushed to a wider audience and those guys appreciate it. And that's always a nice thing, you know? And then it keeps me sharp too, because it's like, I have to be concise, have to be hit the main points right away, you know, because it's so easy to drove on and on and do like a 15 minute rambling technique session where no one really getting anything, you know, because it's so easy to drove on and on and do like a 15 minute rambling technique session where no one really getting anything.

And you know, quarter of the room is just like immediately like dozing off. That's just like a common problem. Right. So for me to be refining that into a very concise methodology of teaching, you know, it goes hand in hand with YouTube and at least YouTube, you have the metrics. Right. You're in the room and you're teaching and then, you know, you can't really be in tune with every single person in the room as you're teaching it, you know?

Yeah. But with YouTube, you do it, you put it online and you go look at the metrics. Oh, shoot. We lost 90% of our people. 27 seconds in, I'm just like rambling, right? Yeah. So that's always a nice thing about it. I enjoy it.

You know, the celebrity ship kind of like comes along with it. It's kind of nice too. It's a nice attention. It's fun. It's not negative attention. Yeah. You know, and sometimes I say something and people get pissed off about that you know that's like not you know right like the guy that's mad about why he's spanish oh that's hilarious

there's always there's always youtube commenters i read every comment yeah i don't respond i want i want to respond i don't want to respond in your name, so maybe I'll respond on my issue. But man, the online martial arts community is a place. Oh, definitely. That is definitely an interesting place. That is. I don't think it's too meta. Yeah. Like, let's say you already watch the podcast.

You already listen to the podcast as I do it with Peter week after week. Since Peter's in Korea right now, you know, eating bulgogi and stuff. Like, you were like, all right, let's do this thing. And now we're doing it. And then we have three cameras set up, which is different from our usual, like, I forgot it was broadcast or something that we use or Riverside FM, this setup, right?

Like, how do you envision this? And what is it going to be different? Are we now catering more to a YouTube crowd or like, how is this podcast going to be? So I can see like, um, like your vision here. different are we now catering more to a youtube crowd or like how is this podcast to be so i i can see like um like your vision here so it's it's it's the integration of talking and the visual of it so like people love like reaction videos so and and the number one thing that that that reaches over from international judo is highlights you know it's just basically people getting slammed on their head so the for me the one thing that i found interesting as i got better in judo is as i watched the highlights i started to be able to predict with much more accuracy who was going to

get bombed like i can just start from a blank canvas and be like oh the guy in blue is about to get it and then i'd watch it and i'd watch it like four or five times. And it's like, oh, a big Uchimata, big Ippan Senagi. But then I'll screen record it and then slow it down. And you realize like, oh, this guy's throwing his leg back. It's seemingly at random. And you're like, oh, this was actually set up from a mile back in everything you preach, but it doesn't make it, you know, to the highlight reel, which is like, you know, it's like basketball, right? Nobody sees the good pass. They just see the dunk. Yeah.

So, you know, if we could watch these highlights and then we really go granular and break it down, that would be fun. That would be a podcast with it. So like, we'll, we'll watch it together here and then like with the keys on and then go and do it and kind of have that, like. That sounds like a fun piece of content yeah and that grows it out too because it's like you know like um you know you were saying oh send me your uh you like in the other podcast that was in reference to online stuff you know reposting resharing so like there's

there's the videos themselves with just like some yeah uh, like re-dubbed Russian techno track behind it. Yeah. And then, and then there's like excruciating breakdown videos, but no media or faceless, like behind, you know, just at their computer breakdown videos, which I, I, I, maybe I'll pick the negative connotation out of the more content the better right so the more people are watching it's amazing but to have the face the investment and the name all of a sudden it breathes beyond the sport but that's a YouTube video not a podcast all right it could be I mean the um you know like for our channel like the average video of anything you and Eugene do is two and a half minutes. If I can't get the message out by then, people are gone.

Yeah, for sure. But for the podcast, the average is about eight minutes. So the people who go in. No one's listening right now. Is that what you're telling me? We're 13 minutes in. Yeah. Everyone's checked out.

Well. Send them crazy. Yes. Yeah. A little bit. But with that kind of a format, that cycle, all of a sudden it's like, okay, you're going to see another highlight. Yeah. Great.

And pay off. Your reaction, another payoff. And then us doing it is like all these repeating things. Let's do that. Let's do that. I think that can be great. So if you guys have any highlights that you're like, oh, do this one one send it you know send it to the or put in the youtube comments so as opposed to like doing something completely new right let's just say we're just having a conversation about

let's say osorogare and it's just a podcast on its own do you think you could do it in a way where it just cuts between the cameras it's much more visually stimulating to make it a little bit more retention stronger so you can you can only squeeze that yeah lemon so much because speaking about a judo technique is but you could cut in videos of people doing it right yeah well the only problem is like triggers copyright yeah then all of a sudden like uh you know i'm i like already sometimes i'm having to go around like recording walls and get clips and stuff like that. If it was a bit more readily available. I would preemptively film some of those, some of those stuff.

Yeah. Or actually postemptively what are the afterwards? Yeah. Yeah. Post-production. Yeah. Post-production. Yeah.

Yeah. And we're talking about sort of guys like, oh, we're talking about high right versus right, you know, extreme. How to set up an Osoto to Taniyatoshi, we're talking about this. That's maybe one of the finishes that most people do. And then as we're talking about it, clip in a video of me and Eugene doing it. Would that be a lot better of a content as opposed to just me and you talking about it? It would be a bit more visually appealing.

It'd be a bit more digestible. talking about it would be a bit more you know visually appealing it'd be a little bit more digestible you know one of the ideas i i had for a while was like just the just the title like how to watch judo yeah because i noticed with that same like hey it took me a while to even get like well who has advantage while watching it like i don't think people as easily get the nuance of judo because it's like i'll never forget this the last year watching the world cup and being just like stunned but i was like oh my god this sport is so easy like ball goes in net that team wins like more possession time the better that's it yeah it's just like so easy to get i'm like judo it's like oh it's just like you know so many

minuscule rules and then even if you're like in dominant position the whole time, I watched a French girl be, you know, be completely out dominated the whole time. And then, you know, she's just like, oh, right. Bad at position attacking, super athletic, super strong, you know, kind of just did it. You know, it's like, wow. You know, so you don't really know what you're watching a lot of times. Right. Yeah. Because it breaks so many of the rules.

Yeah. Well, I think, you know, it's kind of funny. Like, I was re-watching your podcast with the guy in Boston. I keep forgetting his name. Travis?

No, Jimmy. Jimmy Pedro. Amazing interview. Now, especially reflecting since the end of the pandemic to now, like, where he's taken that site, the American Judo System,

and then, like, looking at travis on youtube and like he hasn't posted in over a year and then looking at these other guys in the youtube sphere um i mean like i'm looking at like eras right so so jimmy pedro his dad your dad like that was like first wave in a way judo in the united states and then you have like the on the competitive way then you have like the travis stevens and then uh kayla um and all these people that was like another major push to and ronda rousey to try to like push judo past that threshold of like establishment in the united states and now like the way that the international uh judo acceptance into the olympics is set up it's much it's even harder now to get in from our country so you're like third wave of like influence into the, into this world.

Yeah. You know, like there's, unless there's this, I guess there's an LA Olympics coming up. Yeah. Unless that is crazy. It's you.

So. That could be crazy. Jackie Nesta is doing really good, you know? Yeah. I think he's an American. Oh, there'll always be,

you know, guys at the top of the chain or whatever and getting to those stages but as far as like influence yeah and and reach it's like yeah maybe we need a couple more guys like me doing this stuff right you have any tips for content creators out there like what metrics they should be looking at and stuff and like how does somebody like start creating content in this space? I mean, what's, what, what, like, so the first thing is like all the, like so many martial arts videos out there, like such a vast majority are, I don't want to say poorly produced, but they're almost like, like they, they don't acknowledge that this room is echoey, like an F-headed room and it's, there's no camera movement and it's, or it's very shaky or it's like just increasing the quality of production makes watching it that much better and easier. And then it's like, just do like not making it a job, like keeping it fun. If it's fun for you, it's fun for me.

So I'm going to stick around and watch it. And then, you know, like, like you're always telling me, just making it happen. That's because you don't have anything unless you have something. Yeah. You know. It's true. So what metrics are you always looking at

when you're talking about YouTube and content? So always like... Imagine drop-off, right? So time when people lose attention. So I can always worry about drop-off when it... Like the first one's click-through rate. Does the video catch you at the beginning? Do even click it with the thumbnail and the thumbnail that combination that's everything yeah and so if it's very catchy like there was the one where i was like no gi judo

takedowns and it was um you and eugene and you have eugene in this like lock yeah headlock yeah and i'll be like you just look right at the camera and the thing caught it perfectly in focus i'll oh that's it it's done and that thing caught it perfectly in focus. I was like, oh, that's it. It's done. And that thing has like 150,000 views. And it's great. You know, and beyond that, it's like the same five basic judo throw things. The second they see you, they're sticking around.

They're listening. So beyond that, it's like, yeah, like get to the point, get to it faster. You know, just don't be afraid to cut out anything and all and everything that's uh slowing it down like my my best uh litmus test is i'll just like watch it and just be myself and if i if i zone out and start going on my phone i'm like i gotta cut this yeah because like if I don't care. You're a judo guy in the judo world. I'm making the videos, and I'm zoning out.

If that happens, I can't. Yeah, it's got to be fast. Jump cuts. Jump cuts are very unique to YouTube. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just the easiest thing. All right, guys. Thank you guys for watching. A little loose cameras left and right.

Yeah, nothing's perfect. All right, so, you know, reach out to Greg. He's on Instagram, gregan13. One. Oh, gregan1. Sorry. You know, ask him questions. You know, reach out.

That's what he's trying to be doing this for a living now. You know, YouTube stuff, content creation stuff, video editing, all this stuff. So, you know, if you have an interest proposition, he's $8,000 an hour. That's my base. Yeah, yeah. You can reach out to him and then ask him all the questions you want. interest proposition, he's $8,000 an hour. That's my base. Yeah, yeah. You can reach out to him and then ask him all the questions you want. Okay, will he respond? Maybe not.

Who knows, right? But if you have a good proposition, he'll probably listen. And, you know, he's the man behind the camera, the ideas man. So, you know, Greg, thank you for being here. You got it. And let me know what you guys think about this form. And then Greg will read it. Awesome.