The Zac Clark Show - From Teacher to 6 Million Followers: Tyler Jackowski on Anxiety, Imposter Syndrome & Finding Purpose

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Tyler Jackowski has built an audience of millions by making people laugh, but his path to becoming a full-time content creator was anything but planned. Before social media, Tyler was a teacher – an experience that continues to shape his life and his mission to give back to educators. In this episode, Tyler sits down with Zac for a funny and open conversation about going from the classroom to becoming a successful creator, while navigating the anxiety and imposter syndrome that came along with it. Tyler opens up about the period when he would leave social situations smiling and joking with everyone, only to go home and cry alone; the panic attack that sent his heart rate to 210 BPM; and how therapy, medication and learning to prioritize his own mental health changed his life. They also talk about Tyler’s years as a teacher, what social media gets wrong, his relationship with success, and his work giving back to educators through America’s Heroes. A conversation about what can exist behind the version of ourselves everyone else sees — even when millions of people are watching. Follow Tyler Jackowski Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tylerjackowskiofficial/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fishin4clout More about Tyler’s company – America’s Heroes Contest: https://www.instagram.com/americasheroescontests/ https://americasheroescontest.com/ Connect with Zac https://www.instagram.com/zwclark/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-c-746b96254/ https://www.tiktok.com/@zacwclark https://www.strava.com/athletes/55697553 https://twitter.com/zacwclark If you or anyone you know is struggling, please do not hesitate to contact Release Recovery: [phone] releaserecovery.com @releaserecovery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. table. There's no lacking space on the internet as long as you're coming on to it with the goal of finding a way to make someone's day a little bit better. Tyler Jekowski has become a friend and I am just obsessed with his story and his rise to stardom, but that wasn't without some mental health struggles.

The thing with mental health that pisses me off to no end is the level of assumptions that people decide to just accept. I was in a very, very dark place for a long time and I didn't realize how much. I was being affected by specifically my anxiety. And my heart rate went to 210 beats per minute for five minutes sitting still, which is not good. Panic attack. Yeah, real, real, real bad. Today, Tyler is going to take us and give us an inside look into what his journey looked like from a teacher up in Boston to a mega influencer and creator and some of the trials and tribulations that have come with that. I now have a loop recorder in my chest.

Wow. It's in there. And that was so that when I have another arrhythmia, my cardiologist wanted to know why. I have basically severe anxiety. And that's where I realized that this wasn't just like, oh, man, I'm a little concerned about what might happen. No, like, this was like doomsday if I let my brain keep thinking.

Disclaimer with today's guest. I know this show is very, very serious. But Tyler Jekowski is going to make us laugh. at some point. Jesus. Just because he will. Tyler, what's up? What's going to be here?

Listen, if you're not gonna laugh, you're gonna start crying. Why be sad? Well, it's a good place to start. Because you are not someone that has this, we all have stories. Sure. But you're not, like you hang out with me and Carl

and some of these guys that have these gnarly stories. Sure. It's not, not you. I mean, like, you can, you're not sober, but like you're attracted to the community. and the mental health, I think, component of it, which is like, and laughter is kind of a... Well, okay, I think it's funny, it's funny that that's sort of like the... I don't want to say assumption, because assumption has a negative connotation,

but it is sort of like the expectation that people have when they meet me that it's like, oh, he's just like, he's a happy guy. And it's like, I'm not going to pretend that right now in my life I am a happy guy, but I feel like all of the comedy in the... positivity and the energy and the desire to help out with like foundations like release and be around people who are success stories like that is from my own experience of like this is not the person who I've always been. You know, like the super happy go lucky guy is without a doubt not who I've been my entire life. And I think that, you know, it's kind of like, you know,

however far back you pull the bow is how far it's going to go. Like I feel like I was really, really low for a while because I was just, you know, I was in a place where I was doing a little bit too much for everyone around me. And it's like just that unfortunate class clown mentality of like, I'll do whatever I can to make everyone else laugh and make everyone else feel comfortable and make everyone else feel happy because I think that that's going to fill my cup. When in reality, it's like, it was so not the case. Or you're going home and crying. Yeah. Oh, 100%. I remember there were a lot of times where like I would leave a social gathering. You're like dapping everybody up and laughing and talking about the next time that you're

going to hang out and whatever. And then I'd get into an Uber or on a train or start walking home and whatever. And I would just be like beside myself, like just like holding it in so I can get home and just like let it all out. And I think that I did I did like the guy thing, you know, and we're obviously going to get into that. But it's like I did what I thought was expected to do where it was like if you're going to have emotions keep the shit to yourself, you know? And therefore, I waited until I was completely

by myself in that alone time, which I came to find was very important for growth, was used for releasing as many emotions as I could while I was out, you know? And I think that all of that time spent in an area where I felt very lost and very useless and very, you know, not bound for success, When I finally got into therapy and got my medication, I'm on Zolov now and, you know, still doing therapy and practicing everything that I've done in therapy. Like, I think that's similar to the bow coming back, like you gotta be in a pretty shit place

to recognize where you'd like to get to as a man. And I think that's a lot of the reason why, you know, when you and I first met, you caught me at like some of the best moments of my life, right? Like I met my now fiance three years ago and she's, We met at a soft bar event. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you were running the marathon for release. You ran New York and London. Yep. Huge. And we just clicked. And I remember that. I remember the cab ride home.

It was so easy to just chat about some real shit, some not so real shit. And you said something to me in that car ride. You're like, you know, man, like, look, like this thing has been like in and around my life. Yeah. Kind of like this substance abuse. And so it's like why I respect so much what you do. with release and I feel like everyone has some level of mental health struggle that you know really comes down to whether or not you're willing to talk about it yeah I'm so glad you remember that

that car ride so vividly because you're blacked out no no no not that but I've told people this is like my party trick now when I like I have a lot of friends that know who you are and I have people who are like the biggest fans of like the bachelor and all the stuff that's going on and like huge fans of you specifically. And do you know what it's like to have to try to explain to people that like the first time that I went to this soft bar event, I met Zach Clark. And then we were, I was, I was getting ready to grab a cab and you were like, where are you going? And I was like, oh, and you're like, oh, I'm going right near there. Come on with me. And I'm like, oh, all right, Zach Clark. Let me just get in the Uber with you. And I'm like, I'm explaining this to people.

And they're like, why, why do you have to lie about your life? And I'm like, okay, let me find a picture. There isn't one. Yeah. It doesn't exist. But no, I think that that car ride... Here's the receipts for all you guys. Of course. Thank you. I mean, being on the show, I hope this proves something. But no, I think that that car ride, and I was telling Rania, when I got back after that, it really solidified, it solidified that the people I was surrounding myself with walk to walk and didn't just talk, you know, because I feel like I was around that a lot, especially when I was living out in L.A. for like the better half of a year before we came to New York, I moved out there to be with Rania. And,

You know, the people, I feel like I met a thousand great people, but a lot of the people I ran into, it seemed like they were big on talking about being the best person that you can and talking about, like, you know, giving back and just being a good person and whatever. And you don't see much action. But, you know, with a lot of the people that I've met, including yourself and Carl and a lot of the other people that I've met

since I've been in New York, it's a lot of action. Well, it's, it leads me to a thank you, first of all. Of course. Thank you. And it's great to see you, by the way. It's so good to see you. It's always a pleasure. Yeah, I feel like we're both living these incredible lives. But that leads me to kind of an interesting question that I have for you.

So, like, how did you get to the seat, right? You are, for those of you that are listening that might not know Tyler's work, he is, he's made this amazing career through these classroom videos that are hilarious, but also so like heartfelt and profound at times. And I feel like you've just been able to connect with your fans and the people in such a way. So he's a mega like on TikTok. I mean, you have millions of, I mean, what you're? All in all across all the platforms, it's like a little over six million.

Yeah, it's a shitload of people. Yeah, it's a lot of people. It's a shitload of people. And so like going back to this, right, this thought of you, I don't think I heard you say that you were bullied growing up, but like, you know, being a little uncomfortable in these social situations and then leaving. then being in this chair across from me, how do you explain that? How do you quantify that? And is there ever a part of you that feels like I'm only here because of my followers?

I'm only here because I think that's like a big, like I want to talk to you because I met you and I like you. Of course. Right? But that's just something that's swirling for me if that makes sense. Well, I think that what a lot of people, first off, thank you for that overview. But it's like I think that what a lot of people refuse to compartmentalize when it comes to content creation is the followers become the importance rather than the message that actually got the followers.

So when I try to create the hierarchy of, you know, why people watch the videos, because I have huge issues with like imposter syndrome. I swear to God, somewhere inside of me, I feel like I deserve nothing. You know, it's weird. Like, I look at my fiance and how much I love her and how much she loves me. And for the longest time, I even like kind of play around with it. I like joke to myself now, even though like she's got a ring on her finger we got a date next year to get married she actually loves you dude yeah no she's a she's a life same way dude she's my favorite person i i couldn't like i i i think to myself i'm like you survived for 27 years and then you met the person that you're meant to experience life with you know and i don't think that that sorry i'm so ADHD but um

you're good where you're at there the hell was i saying well i don't know we were talking about content creation. Exactly. Oh, yeah. So when I make like this hierarchy of, you know, why people watch what I watch. You just want to tell everyone that you loved your wife. Because, well, that's part of it. Well, like, it comes from a root of like an imposter syndrome, right?

That's where I got to. Sorry for everybody. I'm super ADHD. I'm medicated. I swear to God. It just doesn't work. So, like, with all of the different aspects of my life, I'm living in New York City. I'm in Manhattan, which is like something that you see in a movie for me and for a lot of people

around the world. I'm with a gorgeous great woman who loves me top to bottom loves how weird I am, lets me be myself. My inner child is giggling all day long. And, you know, like my parents and I are cool. My in-laws and I are like, you would think that we've been family our entire lives. I have incredible friends. I'm doing this cool shit.

I have all of these people around me that push me to be even bigger and better than I am, but support me so that I can get there in a way. that keeps like my soul attached to like the physical being and I look at it and I'm like there's no way you deserve this there's no way you've done what you are needing to do in order to deserve everything that you have and therefore get to work and it's a really really tough situation for me because I'm like all right let's get to work right and I think that for me one thing that I've always tried to do is like I said before people please and I think for better for worse, that's kind of what started off the content. Because I started making content during COVID.

And it was, so it was a shit show of a situation. I had just gotten out of school and I was starting my first year teaching and I was also doing a one year master's degree. So for the first- Is this all in Boston? This is all in Boston. I went to a manual college in Boston. Got it. And while I was there, there was a school that we were sort of like, they were really close to. so we would do like, you know, substitute work and after school stuff. So when I graduated college, they were like, you want a master's degree, we need a teacher. And I was like, all right, cool, done. They gave me a ridiculous position.

We can get into that at some point. But I was doing my master's degree and teaching in my first year, which is just a bad group of things. I'd be getting up at like, you know, 530, getting to the school at 630. I was there until 3. I did the after school program to 5. I was at a manual for master's classes from 530 to like 930 or 10 o'clock every day. So that was every day and then COVID hit.

Wire to wire. Yeah. So then you're at home. right so school was different master's degree was different all of this and I was looking around and I was not in a good place in it of myself because I'm in my first year teaching it's rough I'm in my first year of like

the real career force shit show I'm not as developed as a man as I'd like to be just like in terms of my own happiness and that kind of screwed with me too I took all of those things happening and I was like people seem sad about COVID I wonder if I can just make them laugh

And in my mind, I was like, if I can make one person laugh with either some dumb shit that I say or something funny that I say in a conversation with my students or something in between that, if I can make one person laugh during this shit show of a pandemic, I'll feel like I got to work, right? Like I did that extra thing. You had to know that you had some skill. Yeah. I had to know that I was giving something. And I feel like teaching is one of those jobs where it's like in lieu of the fact that you sit in front of 30 students and, You really do, and your heart of hearts want every single student to somehow become the ultimate version of themselves, happy with who they are, happy with the life they've lived up to then

and ready to live the rest of it. Like, you want that for every single kid. It's so hard to want that for yourself, you know? So you spent all day doing that. But I was thinking to myself, I was like, I can find a way to do more because I always need to be doing more. I'm always not doing enough. So I was like, all right, we're going to make content.

I mean, you mentioned inner, I'm going to just stop you there for a second. No, please. You mentioned inner child earlier. Have you done work around that? Like, is there? I haven't done specific inner child therapy work. But I think that I've become more open to recognizing who my inner child is. Do you have a relationship with your parents?

Yeah. I think that we've had, you know, our, we've had our ups and downs. You know, it's been difficult. and, you know, I think there have been times where you would go so far as to say it's like, we're working on it, you know, where it's like you ask somebody how their relationship was their parents, they're like, we're working on it. Yeah, I mean, that's a fair answer and we don't have to dig into it. But the reason I kind of tie those things together is because a lot of times the person that

you're describing right, this guy who gives and doesn't say no and just wants to make other people happy is really just screaming out that they want to hug. Yeah, and I definitely did. I think that it's like, I don't know, growing up, I'm not like, I'm not worried about the talking about it. I think the thing for me is that I'm still working on fully understanding it, you know? So it's like, I could talk about it for hours, but I won't even know if I explained it in the way that's the most truthful to me yet. You know, because it's like this constant conversation that you have to have with yourself where you're like, what step has been taken to feel like, like we're closer. What step can I do to make it a little bit more clear that I want to be as close

with everyone around me as I possibly can? You know, but then I don't know. Another thing I'm trying to just focus on in this part of my life is that it's like I've become the most happy, the most successful, the most, you know, fulfilled when I've made sure that my cup is full so that I can fill everyone else's. That's what's different from when I started content because when I started content. I was like, all right, my cup's empty. Let's find someone else's cup and use it to fill everyone else's cup. And it's just, it's just a spiral that, you know, could have gone in a really bad way. You know, if I let it go too far, I would have dedicated my entire life to making sure that the people who follow me are 100% happy in doing anything I need to make sure that that

happens. These days, which kind of circles back to, that's where you lose your edge. I mean, not just in content in life, when you start conforming to the people around you and not being yourself. Yeah, 100%. But that's where I find a way to justify, like, I'm sitting at this table for a lot of reasons. You know, it's incredibly helpful that when, you know, if you take clips of this and we collab post it that a couple million people will see it, that's awesome. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that that's not good for everybody. But there is also context to it. I think that you and I have had a lot of really great conversations, necessary conversations for any people who just became friends.

And I think also I've done a lot of work to create a massive. message that is intentional, that is positive, and that's based in real actions that I do every single day that my followers can look at and say, I think that that would be good for me. So the follow then becomes less of a digit and more of like an acceptance of the message that I bring to the public. No, it's a big deal. I mean, it's a big deal for someone to follow you. Yeah.

And I don't care of you. You have six million or six. Yeah. For someone to commit to you. you and say I'm rooting for you. Most of them are. There'll be some hate in there. But most of them are rooting for you.

Even just to stop and kind of appreciate that is huge. 100%. What was the first piece of content you put out? Do you remember it? Dude, it's the worst thing you've ever seen in your whole. We got it. We got to play it. It's the worst.

Like if you can find it, Jay can't play it. So it's on Instagram. It's on TikTok. Because the TikTok was the first platform. So the TikTok, this is such a stupid-ass story. The TikTok is called Fishing for Cloud. Right?

So the word, that's, fishing, fishing with no G, the number four, clout, right? That's the TikTok. It's still the TikTok. I haven't changed it. That's the handle. That's the handle. So I haven't changed it because I'm like, what am I? I don't get a shit, right?

It doesn't really, nothing really matters. The reason why it's called fishing for clout is because it started out, I've been a fisherman my whole life. Like, I've been fishing my entire life. That's like one of my oldest memories with my dad. Oh, you're going to be scrolling for about eight and a half years. That's why I think. it's so funny. If you search Fishing for Cloud first video, you might find it because my followers

did the same thing where they were like, what was your first video like? And I was like, don't look at my first video. And they're like, that's going to be my new job for the next six weeks. I'm going to find your first video. Is that still your handle today? Oh, yeah. Oh, it is. Not on Instagram. On Instagram, it's Tal Jukowski official. It is, however, my YouTube, now that I think about it, why did I do that? No. No. It's, so the reason it's fishing for Cloud is because it was going to be a fishing account. One of my dreams, because I love fishing. It's like one of my favorite things to do.

It chilled me out. It taught me patience, like nothing I could have ever read in a book. So I wanted to be a fishing account. What's your favorite fish to catch? Largemouth bass or striped bass? 100%. Perfect. I love this.

So I wanted to make a fishing account, post a bunch of videos of me fishing, and then hopefully get to do a professional fishing tournament one day. You know, like the ones that they do in, like, Texas or Alabama. You know what I love about you? What? Is there's no like, I'm going to start this account and like catch a couple of fish. Like, I'm going to start this account and I'm going to win the bass master. But that's the thing for me is that it's like we live in a generation where it's like, if you say something long enough?

That belief in yourself is fucking, that's, that's all I talk about. It's like when people say like, hey, were you surprised that you were the last guy on The Bachelor? You're surprised that you ran a marathon that. Like, no, I'm not. I'm not fucking surprised because I believe myself. You got to be a little delusional. And a little bit, like, that's the thing. Isn't it funny that everyone has that one person, you know, you get to our age, right?

Like, or even like anywhere past, say, 25 years old. Everyone has that one person or a friend or a sibling or a parent or a family member that they look back and they're like, yeah, they were blindly invested in trusting that I was going to succeed. If you're that for yourself, you're a built-in battery, you know? And I think the thing for me is that it's like, what's the worst case scenario? some insane delusional shit that you're shooting for the skies hoping you experience one day doesn't happen that's okay do it with 15 other things yeah i'm sitting across from from zach clark in a podcast i'm living a street over it's like that's the thing for me is that it's like anything like delusional is delusional until it's not and it's fun until it's real and then it's really fun you know and i love

that i love that we live in a time where it's like there's not much that isn't possible If you get a good video and you reach out to Target, Target's going to be in your inbox. You know, it's like we're making life accessible and we're making the dreams that people will like put in the back shelf accessible. And I feel like it just comes down to like, how willing are you to admit that if something goes wrong, it's not the end?

Of course it's not the end. It's just a part of the story. So when did it change from a fishing account to a teaching class? Like, is that COVID? So, yeah, I think I start. it right before that school year started and I was like okay what I'm trying to do is give the listener like a little small journey into like you you at one point in time you had zero followers and zero likes and you you just said I'm gonna post this video oh my god is this it

is it the one that's like the carousel with like Tyler Childers in the background yep that's it how did you find that did you just scroll Oh my God What an animal Yeah that was the first That was the first one And now is that Is it doing well now

I mean it's got I'm gonna give a like from Jay It's got a thousand likes A thousand likes on the very first video That's 2024 This is two It's almost two years to the date 624

Oh no 2020 Yeah I was gonna say that There's no way that could happen But yeah that's the thing Is that it's like I started Okay so This is amazing He's holding a bass

a small mouth, a large... Honestly, if you guys want to just download it and play it for them, you're more than welcome. Oh, that's so funny. So to answer your question, to give that chronology, I started the account to be a fishing account, and I had no idea what I was doing. I just wanted to show off me fishing, because that's what I watch, and I was like, people might watch it, maybe I can turn into something one day. And as time went on, I posted a bunch of fishing videos.

My first viral video wasn't about school. It was like, my girlfriend at the time, it was like fish eye catch versus fish my girlfriend catches. And it was like me holding these little bink fish. And then she held like this bass that she caught one day. And it was just me like kind of shitting on myself and like the degradation comedy, which I love. But everybody thought it was hilarious. And I was like, all right, traction. Here we go. Probably like a thousand or two thousand followers from that. And then it was like, okay, now I have 2,000 people seeing everything that I post. So I was posting just this shit content over and over and over again. If people were eating it up. And, you know, it was fun for me because

I'm like, all right, I'm on my way. You know, like one day, the bass mass mass. some shit like this will, you know, knock on my door. And it's like, I, that probably could happen now, obviously. But back then, I was like, this is cool to try something that I really have never sunk my teeth into, you know. But then as time went on, obviously started the school year, kept it pretty much out of the classroom until COVID. And I was just trying to make videos to just make people feel a little bit happier, right?

The first video that I think did really well when I started with the classroom stuff, I used to screw with my students where I'd make, we're on Google Classroom. So you assign something to them. They pull up the document. And I would- There's no kids in the class. Well, they're just kids online. I'm at home.

Right. All on-in- Yeah, yeah. It was insane. So I'd send it out to them and they'd pull up the document. It would be like classwork and whatever. And it would be like directions, directions, directions, directions, and there was a point in the worksheet where I just wanted to screw with them, just to have fun, just to like to take the stupidity and the boredom out of this.

And I made one of the directions like, unmute. and tell Mr. Jay that he has a big nose. And one of them did it. And I was filming and they're like, Mr. Jay, your nose is big. And I was like, why would you say that? I was like, I'm going to call your parents. Like, you're,

you're going to get expelled from the school. And we were just, like, laughing about it. And just the way that it hit, you know, it was just the right timing. And it was a, it took something that was, let's put it as it is, a very dark time in education.

And it just took this moment. And it just made it very, like, silly and and lighthearted and that was I once I saw how that did and the the response to that I was like okay this feels correct for me right and I liked I liked showcasing that students are so goddamn fun is your guidelines around like showing the actual students did you show your students no no no no no no no no no no I read through the entire mass law on anything I also talked to my school I also was really good friends with almost every single parent because that I worked in, it's like K2 through sixth grade and most of the kids were there since K2.

So I knew all the parents and I would never ever, if there was a parent that was like, I don't want my child's voice in the video, it's not even a thought, right? And I checked in with every single parent. So, you know, everyone was aware of it. There were some parents, I had this one kid who, like, his mom would come up and be like, Kaden has a funny idea for a video. And I'm like, that's hilarious. I love it, you know.

Yeah, and that's when you realize that like not all is lost, right? Like some people like to have fun too. Well, they just need to know intention. You know, because in the end, I'm some dude that's teaching their kid. You know, I would want to know the intention of the guy as well, especially me being first year right out of college, probably hung over. Like, what's he doing in the classroom? But it's like, you know, once you get to know me, it makes a little bit more sense.

But yeah, since then, it's just been the school content. And I just. What's the precipice in most videos? Like, can you take the listener through? Like, when you go into making a video, are you? you're just a smart witty guy or what does that kind of creative process look like so none of the videos are ever planned you know all of it uh especially when i had uh my last year my fifth year in in in the classroom i was teaching high school i went from teaching like younger fifth

and sixth grade up to teaching 11 and 12th grade and you know obviously very different vibe but still so god damn funny and so genuine and so witty so what would happen is whenever lunch would come around. I was new to the school and a lot of the students were new to the school and I was in a turnaround school in Boston and it was a really, it was a tough school and a lot of the kids didn't want to eat lunch at the lunch room, right? So I would open my classroom and I was like, listen, I don't know any of these teachers. They don't want to hang out with me anyway. Like I'll open the door. If any of the kids want to come in here and have a place to just like calmly eat their lunch, I got 45 minutes to spare. So they'd come in and then, you know, I am not the type to

just sit there and be like, you're in the classroom. I'm going to be silent. We're going to have conversation, right? And it's almost always about stuff like I wanted to break from the classwork. So a lot of my students would come back and we just start talking. And they're so goddamn funny when they're comfortable and they feel accepted in the classroom that they just want to talk about all this random stuff that they have in the back of their minds. So I would just turn on the camera and they would come up and they, there was like there were so many different ones. A lot of it was like aimed at me, you know, like funny stuff where they're like Mr. Jay, I drew you. And then it would be a detailed picture of like a who from whoville.

And I was like, oh, great. You know, obviously everyone at home is eating it up. For me, I'm like, imagine being so comfortable with an adult in a school that you're willing to have this little inside joke that you think he looks like a who from whoville. Well, that's, you probably didn't realize that at the time, but as it pertains to the kind of mental health and some of the things we talk about here, most kids are telling us what they need, right? And that's just to be seen and to be appreciated. And by you kind of opening your classroom up to them and giving them this safe space,

you've probably impacted them more than you realize. Oh, 100%. And I think, like in the end, like I said before, every teacher wants to be the best teacher in the world. But in the end, that's obviously an unreachable expectation. But what you can do is you can kind of like model to the kids how you would expect any adult to treat you. And kids want to be taken seriously, especially like the young. adult students that I worked with, they want to be taken seriously. They don't want to get ordered around. They don't want the authoritarian stupid shit. They want to be treated like

people, you know, and a lot of teachers forget that because they're so like hung up on the idea of control and authority and making your classroom look discipline that you lose the entire essence of education. You're going here to find something you love to do so much that you're going to do it until you die. So why are you telling kids to stop talking? and you know read silently a book that they didn't choose you know and write a paper on a prompt that you made for them and then grade them on what they did wrong on your own work it's just like it's madness but with my students in the oh to I swear to God I'm not going to do this the whole podcast I promise you right now you're seeing my ADHD brain at work they'd come into

the lunch room or into my room during lunch and we just start talking and I'd record it they do the pictures of me I had a wall behind me for a long time that was like just all the pictures that they ever drew for me of me whatever i'd pin them up over there and then like we'd or we'd play like connect four and they'd always beat me because i'm an idiot you know and i think it's just fun to be able to have a relaxing well it's relaxing in the way that it's like i'm losing my goddamn mind they're just laughing at me but like i like them having that option of like we can just forget all the dumb shit that's going on around us the work the home life the whatever we can just play a board game and chill.

And then all of a sudden, their cups full when they come into my classroom and their work is a thousand times better than it ever would been because they respect the effort. You eventually decided to leave teaching many years later. Do you have any energy,

so you're a full-time content creator now? It is what I would say, more competitive than ever. Sure. Can you talk about how that feels. I mean, you've been at it for six years. There's a lot of these people coming onto the scene.

Do you ever feel threatened? Do you ever feel jealous? Do you ever feel envy? Or is it just you need to work harder? Man, there's room at the table. There's room at the table, right? There's no lacking space on the internet as long as you're coming on to it

with the goal of finding a way to make someone's day a little bit better. Or make your own day a little bit better by way of making content. If you're coming onto the social media space to bring a positive message or have a positive effect, there is no lacking space whatsoever.

And I think a lot of creators have this mindset where they think that they need to be the best creator, when in reality, it's almost like that mentality of you need to be the richest person ever. There's always going to be someone richer than you, right? there's always going to be someone richer than you. Some stock's going to go up and all of a sudden you're the friend group or you're the guy in the friend group that has the most money that it's like,

but what's the point of that? It ebbs and it flows. And it's the same as with content creation where it's like when you try to lean in on competing against someone who's in a different niche than you, a different person than you a different message, all you're doing is altering your content so that it's going to ebb and flow with them. And when theirs comes down, yours is going to come down too and you're going to panic and not know what you're making content for.

But I think that the best content creators I've ever met and the most successful I've ever been is when I just like I'm riding my own wave, you know? And I think that when you when you accept the fact that content creation is a phenomenal thing when it's done correctly, you know, when it's used for a really great thing, it's the best thing in the world. because I'm talking to kids from South Africa. Are most of your followers, or a lot of your followers, like students? So here's the thing that's funny about it. I was with a bunch of other content creator friends of mine on a trip in Dallas recently, and we were just curious because we were looking at like our analytics and whatever, and we were looking at our demographics for followers.

And I have a friend, I have a friend Al who's ATX Hills on social media. he's a comedian and he was a teacher and all this he's funny as hell and he was looking at his age demographic and his is solidly i think his was 25 to 35 that means that his highest percentage is actually 25 to 35 and then i have a great friend um shelby lattermore that's my girl we met at the white house and she looked at hers and hers is between um i think it was like 22 and 28 something like this and i looked at mine and mine was 18 to 24 But what that means is that every kid, every 11-year-old in Cape Town South Africa, who just downloaded TikTok and made an account, they're like, you got to be over 18.

And they're like, yep, I am. Then that's an 18-year-old. So my following, I can't get an accurate reading on my follower demographics because under 18 is everything. You know, like I can't really even manage how many people under it. I've never, my TikTok has never been signed into by me. They don't verify age? I think that they try to, but you can just make another account, or you can just not, like, update the app.

You know, once you update the app, then it'll have these new expectations. But I'm pretty confident that the most common demographic for me is probably 10 to 15 years old, I would imagine. My demographic swings way female because I'm goofy, you know, but... Do you... That's interesting. Do you feel like you have like tricks of the trade or do you feel as though you just found the lane, have stayed in it and have been consistent?

Because there's a lot of like through lines there in terms of just life in general. Well, I think there definitely are tricks of the trade. I think that there's common sense things you need to do in order for your content to do well. I would say first and foremost being just high quality. Like there are settings that you can do on your phone to make the typical iPhone have, you know, like, 120 frame per second video that makes it a lot clear. You can do HD and 4K. And then your audio, there are options.

There are little shotgun mics that can make you sound like you're talking into a rotor, a sure microphone. Past the quality, because the fact of the matter is that when you're scrolling and you see a super low quality video, funny enough, your eyes probably go over the likes to see if it has a million likes and it's a low quality video, but it's so big because something hilarious happens. But if you see a low quality video and it's got four likes, you're like, aren't, This just got posted two seconds ago. Or it's not worth watching.

But when you see a really high quality of video, regardless of its actual viewership up until then, you're like, wow. Your brain feels like it's worth watching because it's a little higher quality, which is why there are these content creators using these incredible cameras to make regular TikTok and Instagram content.

But then from like an editing perspective, you know that everyone who's watching the videos, our attention spans are shot. You know, so if you keep your videos under 30 seconds for the first couple of months while you're gaining your following, you have a 1,000% higher chance of getting massive viewership on a shorter video than a longer video. That's just the fact of the matter. While people get to know you, if I had somebody asked me, though, like, if you started from scratch with content right now, what would you do? Short, funny, well-edited, high-quality videos. That's it.

That's it. Or teach them something. Yeah. My favorite, my favorite effect that you can do on Instagram. make it a 15 second long video show them how to get to it post it someone's going to follow because they want to know all of these tips and tricks or someone's going to follow because they're like you're funny and you didn't waste my time yeah it's interesting for me because I talk about a lot of heavy stuff and there's an element of folks will see it but they don't

want to interact with it because god forbid someone knows that they've interacted with a post about mental health or substance abuse or like so it's um it's an interesting way that and Instagram and some of these platforms have been set up. Can you share, you talked about being medicated, you talked about Zoloft, you talked about ADHD,

like are these, are you open, are they real, are you taking, are you making light of like 88? Like talk to me about your mental health. Talk to me about where you are today. So,

for sure, never making light of it because I was in a very, very dark place for a long time and I didn't realize how much I was being affected by specifically my anxiety for a very, very long time. Anyone with, anyone with eyes can see I have ADHD, and I needed to be able to segment my thoughts and sort of have everything in line so that I could be productive in multiple different

things instead of great at one thing and horrible at everything else. But the most pressing aspect of my mental health journey is my anxiety. And it hit me like a brick. So, So I, it was actually the, what was it, like the April before I met Rania. I had gotten out of a relationship and I told myself, I was like, okay, I stayed in that relationship because the person I was in a relationship with was a friend of mine before we started dating. And I wanted to make sure that that person was okay. And the relationship went on forever.

We became different people. We started fighting a lot. It just was not compatible. and we knew it wasn't compatible. There were many red flags stuck with it. It got to a point where I was like, this is insane, and it's getting to a point where it's like almost dangerous in a way. And I was like, I can't be doing this relationship.

So we broke up. And when we broke up, I told myself, I was like, okay, I'm going to dedicate some time to working on myself. I had always wanted to start therapy, and I started it right after that. So I got with a therapist for a while. And at this point in my life, I was switching, remember I told you I went from like younger grades to older grades in a different

school? So it was August of that same year. I was in Las Vegas visiting a friend of mine. And I was sitting in the lobby of the place that he was, his parents were living. And I was waiting for him. And I was just thinking to myself, I was like, huh, a couple weeks, I need to start at a new school in a new classroom, new content, new students, new coworkers, knew everything. And I was like, Oh shit in a couple weeks. I have to do that. And my heart rate went to 210 beats per minute for five minutes sitting still, which is not good. Panic attack.

Yeah. Real, real, real bad. Where were you? I was in Vegas visiting a friend. And I was just waiting for them to be ready to come meet me at the lobby of this place. And I'm sitting here and I'm looking at my Apple Watch. I still have a picture on my phone of the Apple Watch because I was like, there's no way this is real. And I felt my heart and it was like your heart's obviously done done done done done but mine was

done done done done done done like completely off and I was like holy shit. And I was like freaking out. And my mom's in medicine. She's in cardio tech. And I called her and I was like, what the hell was that? She was like you definitely had some type of arrhythmia. Did it stop? And I was like, yeah, after like five or so minutes it stopped.

And she's like, okay. When you come back to Boston, we're going to get it checked out. I now have a loop recorder in my chest. It's right there. You can kind of see it. Wow. Yeah, it's in my chest. So it's in there.

And that was so that when I have another arrhythmia, my cardiologist wanted to know why. Because it could be a multitude of different reasons. It could be atrial fibrillation. Bad. B-fib, bad. It could be blockage hortland. And it could be a multitude. be a lot of different things. But one thing that he said, like, kind of offhandedly, he's like,

you also could have anxiety. You know, this is the anxious brain having, you know, bodily issues is very, very common. He's like, look into that. So I told my, uh, my therapist at the time, and she was like, yeah, I'd love to get you talking to a psychiatrist, all this. And, uh, I got into psychiatry and we did like this full blown evaluation. She was in, in conversation with my cardiologist. And they came to a like multiple reviewed decision that, I have like basically severe anxiety. And it's to the point where it's causing an arrhythmia in my heart. And arrhythmia is do a lot of wear and tear to your heart apparently.

So they were like, we need to get this under control like immediately. Now. And that's where I realized that this wasn't just like, oh, man, I'm a little concerned about what might happen. No, like this was like doomsday if I let my brain keep thinking. So with my psychiatrist, we discuss. Were the thoughts intrusive or they were just... I think I had like this lingering feeling that something was going to go wrong.

That like of all things that would happen, what's going to end up happening is that I'm going to be in trouble. Or I'm going to, like, I'm going to hurt somebody. Did you get in trouble as a kid? Yeah. I think like, I think like, again, with like the growing up situation, I feel like I had a lot of people who getting in trouble was like a really bad thing. You know, where it's like you don't want to get in trouble, you know? because it was like a severe response to trouble. And it taught me like this really weird fear of like cops.

Like I had horrible relationships with cops when I was growing up because I had a couple of friends of mine who like got like slammed to the ground by cops. We're kids. We're in seventh grade. We're at like a skate park and the cops would show up and, you know, we would mouth off. They would mouth off. And then they'd get like slammed to the ground by a cop. And I was like, okay, authority, bad.

And then I went into a high school and I was at a really, really nice. high school and anyone who was authority. I was like, get away from me. It's like, you're a dickhead. I'm going to let you know that, you know. So I think that that kind of instilled this sense of like, no matter what happens, something's going to go really, really wrong. And when I was sitting in that lobby in Las Vegas, I was like, I was like, I'm going to

ruin this. Something bad's going to happen. I'm going to do something wrong to these kids. These kids are going to hate me. I'm going to make a fool out of myself. I'm going to make the school look bad. I'm going to fail. I'm going to get fired.

and that caused me into it pushed me into this arrhythmia you know so i sat down with my psychiatrist we figured out what what specific medication would work we started a super super low dose because they wanted to make sure there was no issue with like its effect on me and then we went up by the smallest little tiny increments until you know everything was just i felt chill you know i was myself i was able to i was able to see clearly that all of this like oh shit feeling that I had wasn't real. Because without the medication and without the practices I do in therapy, in my mind, that oh shit was on its way to come get me.

And I'm just running from it. Right. Do you, uh, well, thanks for, dude. Thanks for sharing that. Of course. I mean, like, I sit in this chair a lot and I'm never blown away for what gets shared with me in this room. And I just, anxiety is this word.

that we talk about so much in society now, and there's levels of it. Sure. There's levels. There's sitting in this lobby, having a full-blown anxiety, panic attack, needing to go call your mom and probably go to a hospital, I mean, in reality.

And there is this little voice in our heads that just says like, you're not good enough. Or that's not going to happen for you. And I feel. like you just shared about like the the broad spectrum of of that. Well, I think that it's like the thing with mental health that pisses me off to no end is the level of assumptions that people decide to just accept. People think that when it comes to therapy that you're

throwing money at this person so you can sit on a couch and cry for four hours when in reality I have learned more tools to manage my instinctive reactions to things, whether it be doom and gloom. or anger, right? Like, one thing about me that might not come off from me is that when I get, when something happens that I don't like, I have this thing in my head that goes, you need to rip this room apart and start screaming and throwing hands and bugging out. Who was the airline recently? Dude, don't even get me started.

American Airlines, they already hate me so much. But in moments like that, my instinct is not, let's solve this problem. My instinct is find who's the first person you can scream at and start screaming. So the thing for me is I learned how to not be that guy through steps and practices I learned in therapy. I was capable of doing all of those steps and seeing the hope in those steps through medication. Because I had a chemical imbalance. You're made of chemicals. Everybody has this assumption that you're going to get drugged and you're going to turn to a zombie.

Are you out of your goddamn mind? My psychiatrist refused to give me more than 5% of the starting dosage of this pill. Well, you have a good psychiatrist. The fear and the reality of what can happen in this country is that there are psychiatrists that don't take the time to know their patients. Sure. And it is a number scheme for them, which is very sad. And it does happen.

which is why we talk a lot about patient rights and how you should approach those appointments and just doing what feels right for you. Like it sounds like you had a good experience in therapy. You've had a good experience through psychiatrists, which is fantastic, right? And there's people out there that, unfortunately, I've had terrible experiences, and they think they're a bad person because, like, therapy didn't work for them. Yeah, but I think the thing is that it's like I'm a strong believer that therapy is for every human that has a brain in them.

And not saying every human that's smart, I mean physically every human that has a brain that is completely impossible to fully understand. No one fully understands brain chemistry, but we understand what doesn't work in the way that we want it to. We don't necessarily understand what to what works perfectly, but we can identify when something's going wrong and when those identifications are in the form of becoming an aggressive person become having you know very bad thoughts you know, being a detriment to the health of yourself or the safety of the people around you, people don't want to take that as a sign that the chemistry that makes up your brain can be worked with, you know, and you can get to a place where you don't feel like you're being led by your brain.

You can feel like you're in control of your emotions, and you can feel like you can make change to things and handle events in a way that makes you feel happy about who you are. You know, that's what I was going for. I've seen you show up to many of our events, the release events, and I'm always blown away because the second you catch eyes with, and it's not just me, someone you know in the room, you have this huge smile and you run up to them and you're so welcoming. And that alone just changes the psyche of humans so much. And I'm curious, is that based on the environment? Like, you're just very comfortable there or is it just that's just who you are? I mean, I'm a huge, I value the way that I make people feel. I want people around me to feel like, because in the end, I'm not competing, right?

I am so cool with where I'm at. Like, when you see my wife and you see what I do for a living and you see the friends that I have, like, you need to understand like, I'm good. therefore I want to keep having good fruit on the tree. So when I come into a place, I want everyone around me to be aware of the fact that I want nothing but to have everyone feel as happy as I'm feeling, right? And what's good about that is that a lot of the people I surround myself with make me feel that level of happiness. So that initial reaction, it has nothing to do with trying to like get people to feel happy. That's like me almost being like relieved that I have these common faces.

What are the odds that on this earth I can walk into a room and have so many common faces that are happy to see me? Right? It's like it would almost be unnatural to not throw my hands in the air and go running over to someone that I see. You know, I see you at a release event

and I'm like, hell yeah, Zach's here. I love that guy. It's like all of the memories that I have. You were so nice after that Kenneth Cole event. Like you came up to me and you were... And there's a part of me that wants to tell you that like, thank you. because I need that.

You know, when you're the guy on the panel or up front or with the mic, I always tell the story. Like the first time I ran a marathon, people made fucking signs. They were like all lining up on the streets. My mom, my dad. Everyone's called me the night before.

This is like the greatest thing ever. And then you start to taste success. And now I've run, you know, whatever 18 of these things. Like, I am lucky if my mother texts me good luck. You know,

like that's like that's a home run. Like no one gives a shit. Well, let me tell you something about you, right? The thing about you is, I've known you for less than a year. In that less than a year, I have seen you speak in so many occasions, whether it be a conversation with you and me, or between like four or five people,

or in front of a crowd of people, or at a panel with Carr, Radke and KJ, in all of the talking about all of the things that you care about, pales in comparison to the action that you've done, right? because anyone can talk, but all of the talking that you've done, which is positive, incredibly, is backed in fivefold the amount of actual action, right? And it's like in doing that, it's like you gave me an opportunity to run a marathon and raise money for the foundation and talk about my experiences with it. And now you've kind of started the wave in me where I love release and I love running for mental health.

And I love, you know, having this like personal. relationship with the entire process, and it happened because you gave me a shoulder tap, you know? So it's like all of your actions supersede the talking. And I think that in your mind, you might even think that you're, you, you hit more people by talking when in reality, it's like, for anyone, talk is cheap. Your actions are the ones where people are like, oh shit, he's very serious. And he's not just talking to like have a good speech.

he's talking and then he's going out and doing it sevenfold. That's what I've told everyone who's asked me about you where I'm like, these are the people that you want in the room. These are the people that you want to be seeing you accomplish things. And these are the people who you want to be sharing in the success. You know. You get it too because as you gain more notoriety and I think you're downplaying a little bit of the impact that you have.

I mean, you have a tremendously loyal and engaged following. more people are going to want your time. Of course. You know, and for someone like you and for someone like me and for men,

saying no is, it's really hard. 100%. It's really hard. And if I can give you anything, Tyler, it's just like, protect your peace.

Of course. And you'll know. Like, you'll know just by looking like who loves you and who loves, you know. Yeah,

exactly. And it doesn't feel good. Well, you know what's funny. It's like, you brought up earlier, like me leaving the classroom and I've had a million people say like, oh, you, you like probably weren't going to. You didn't want to keep teaching one way. Yeah, sell. Oh, 100%. I couldn't even begin to describe to you the level of guilt that I felt the first time that I was like,

what if I tried content full time? It was like that thought that you have, like when you know a relationship's not working out and you're like, what if I break up with this person? The back of your brain's like, no, you can't do that. You love this person. And I had that relationship with the possibility of leaving the classroom and I was like how am I going to make any impact? How am I going to like feel fulfilled in all of this? And since then, people have asked me, they're like, do you ever miss being in the classroom? Would you ever like come back to the classroom? I miss the classroom every day. But I'm also a proponent of making a change and I want to be someone that the people who follow my content can rely on to help them either through modeling or just advice or just

a laugh, which is how it started in the first place. And if I ever felt like I could make a more substantial change in a classroom with 30 students than I can on a platform with 190 million views a month, I would be in the classroom the next day. But with the platform that I have right now, I can make legitimate tangible impact for people around the world. And I want to keep sizing that up so it feels even more tangible for everyone around the world. And I feel like it's walking in that direction. That's what makes me very happy. Yeah, so much of this just brings me back to this thing that I've been thinking about

a lot recently was just as humans, we need permission, like permission to just go do the thing that you want to do. And look, I grew up in this idealistic mindset that I was just going to like get married, have four kids move to the suburbs and ride off into the sunset. And for some people, that is truly what they want. Yeah. And for me, prior to getting sober, that was truly what I wanted. Sure.

And no one at any point stopped and said, hey, Zach, you know, you're like, you don't have to follow that path. A hundred percent. And so, like, for you, Tyler, it's like, you taught, you're a good person. You did the whole America Heroes, which we might not have time to get into, but he did this. Just give me two seconds on America Heroes. So America's Heroes Contests, I, when I got out of the classroom, actually, even when I was just first wanting to, um, be a teacher. It was Mr. Cabrera in high school.

This is so good. Oh, it's incredible. So Mr. Cabrera was a math teacher in high school and he was just like, he was the first person I ever had flipped the classroom where instead of doing like classwork in the classroom and homework at home, you watch a video of him instructing at home and replay it however many times you need and come back in the classroom and do the practice together. Oh, wow. I don't think I was the only kid who said that I needed something different, but I and a

couple of other kids were like, dude, I don't get geometry. you got to do something different. He was the first person to be like, okay, I got you. Next week he came back in. He's like, we're going to flip the classroom. And it completely changed the way that I look at math. It changed the way I look at teachers. And in that moment, I confirmed two things.

One, I think I'd make a really good teacher because I want to make students feel the way that I felt when he did that for me. The second thing was, this dude's not getting paid enough because he just went through loads and loads of admin to get this confirmed that he can do this for me. right he needs to get paid more so i've always wanted to make a company where we have these contests that just allow the ending of the stigma for teachers of you know not talking about what happens right i want teachers to be able to come on to the contest and say my name's judy i dealt with abcd i put my all into abcd i all of this where they can really unload everything that

makes them the best god damn teacher you've ever seen will you vote for me and then people send votes, you know. So we ran a couple of contests last year. I'm working on the licensing since now it takes place in New York. I just want to make sure that everything's cool. But they win like five grand or something, right? Or when they went 10 grand? So the first two were five grand out of my pocket. And I don't miss that money at all. Like I remember the first two people that won. I call them whenever they win. And I just like, I was losing my mind. But the third one is what we're kind of like trying to move into. And I want to make it more regular where I had a sponsor. Right. So I had a company this like school travel company

sponsor a $10,000 first place prize and a trip to Cabo for two. Nice. Second place got $3,000. Third place got $2,000. So we gave $15,000 and a free trip to Cabo to teachers, right?

And now the only like hard part of that is finding companies that are willing to do that. But in the same breath, it's like when companies find out that it's an option, the world is our oyster. Right. Right. So I remember telling this teacher that he had won the trip to Cabo and he just broke down. And he was like, I honestly, I couldn't write my bio about everything that I experienced in the classroom.

He was a 15 year teacher. He had like a really, his school had a really awful event happened there. And he was very helpful in that event. Just an incredible teacher and so deserving. And there are so many other teachers who deserve all of that. more. And if I have the money to do it, I'm going to keep funding them myself. If there are companies that want to help me, they can jump on. But that's something that I want to really keep organizing and develop a team to make it sustainable. But yeah, America's Heroes is kind of a brainchild that I've wanted to do for a very long time. And it just makes me very happy.

You're going to be giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars. I want to be paying off loans. I want to pay off mortgages. That's what I want to, that would be amazing. I mean, just as you're sitting here, and I think teachers and therapists, man, our world has it all backwards. You know what's funny? Like, what's funny? It breaks my heart. I mean, teachers and therapists are historically underpaid, and it's what makes the world go around. It's crazy.

It's the core of everything that you see. Every person you interact with had either a great educational experience or a horrible one, and they're either succeeding in spite of it or because of it. of it, right? They either have a teacher that's like, okay, you want to be a dick to me? Watch what I'm going to do. And then they go back to the school and then they throw money at them to show that they succeeded even though they had to deal with them. Or they have the kids who come back and they're like, you made a sizable change for my life. And you're the reason why I pushed through the difficult classes so that I could get the diploma and get the degree and get to where I'm at, you did that. It's the core of everything. And if kids, if we

got to 90% positive experience in school, our entire society would look completely different. Do you think teachers should be paid based on merit? Like on, on, and I don't know how you would do a system, but how would you incentivize a teacher? Well, I mean, the reality of it is that teachers just want, like teachers are innately selfless people, right? They will give, you get it, but like, but I think what the way to incentivize teachers is to teach them that you're not wrong for wanting to take care of yourself. and allowing the vacation days and not having like the bullshit of like, oh, if you have vacation days, you have to set up your substitute.

It's as simple as saying, like, if you come into the school, we'll pay you $100,000. Let's call it that. You know, starting salaries, $100,000. And you get honored vacation time. Do you remember what was your starting salary? My first job, $30,000. I almost shit my pants. I was like, you're going to pay me to do this.

I almost pissed my pants. You know what my first job was? Remember how they were like, you need a master's degree. We need a teacher. I was like, yeah, where do I sign? They're like, okay, want me to tell you the position? Mind you, I was an English major. So my first job that got handed to me, and I signed before I even read the paper, was stream and writing.

You know STEM? I mean. So stream is science, technology, religion, engineering, arts, math, and writing. They added the and writing so that during my time at the school, I was still technically working towards my professional license. Because I needed to be teaching an English subject. but I taught all of those subjects to grades K2 through sixth grade. So crazy. It was nuts.

I also did not know what the hell I was talking about. I was like learning that the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell like in real time. The kids are reading. I'm like, holy shit. Was there any mental health resources in school, like in your school for the kids when you were teaching there? So in the last couple of years I was at that school, we had like a counseling system and stuff like this. But it was just done in a way that felt. therapist. Yeah, you know, it's like you can't bring in an adult that a kid doesn't recognize or trust to help them when they're in an emotional moment. They want to be with someone that they trust. And hopefully that's their teacher. But like, I don't know. I think that it's getting better because mental health is starting to get taken seriously more commonly. And I think that as time goes on, it'll become more, you know, relevant and necessary in the school. But when I saw it,

it was just, it just felt mismanaged and it felt like it was being forced. Like a kid's, a kid's little like back journal of like all of his experiences would just get handed to this counselor and they'd walk in and be like, what are you sad about today? It was just tricky. So what's next for Tyler Jukowski? Well, I got a big wedding happening next year, a little over a year from now. I'm not sure when this is coming out, but a little over a year in Cyprus, the beautiful Mediterranean island country. Cyprus. Very, very excited for that. Then, yeah, kind of just, I've been running the YouTube podcast and my YouTube series. The podcast is the no-one-asked for this podcast, and it's

just to feel good. I want people to come on and hear some good news because there's enough bad shit in the world. I have people writing and asking for advice. So it's just a fun opportunity to interact with the people who watch it and just tell everyone that it's going to be okay, regardless of how it feels right now. It's not forever. Yeah, and then my YouTube series, Classroom Horror Stories, I have teachers from around the world

and students writing in about the craziest shit that they've seen in the classrooms, and I read it out loud. That one's a little bit more focused on like the shock and awe and the comedy, but it's mental. It is really, really mental. So running that, we're playing around with comedy

and stuff like that around New York. Do you want to do stand-up? Is that? I would love to do stand-up. I've always appreciated stand-up. I think, again, the imposter syndrome of like nobody's going to find this funny. I did a couple of shows and it was the best time.

You know, so I just think it would be a fun opportunity. I've always had a lot of respect for comedy and comedians in general. But other than that, you know, on every platform, you know, I want to keep that growing and I want to keep working with organizations like release. And yeah, I just want to keep, I want to keep making real change. I want to be able to see change happening by way of all the stuff that I'm doing. And then obviously America's Heroes. I want to be running monthly contests.

I want to give away millions of dollars a year to teachers because they are the first people who deserve it and the last people who get it. Yeah. No, dude, I mean, look, I feel honored to have you here today. I want to thank you for sharing time and space with me. The fact that you've run two marathons with us and raise all that money and just,

I don't question the change you're going to make in the world. So I'm rooting for you. I'm going to be following along. if I can be of any help to you, obviously please, like, let me know. And I feel like we'll be running this back at some point. Oh, 100%. You've got a lot of life left to live. I don't think we've run our last marathon together.

You're always done like three hours before me, but that's okay. No, dude. Because I'll get there at some point in time. I love you. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. It's not the time. You know that.

But you're going to run a quick one. I want to get sub four. You will. I'll get there. You just got to put the miles in. That's the problem. that I have to put in my mind. I mean, like you're trying to give a million dollars a month away and do, you know,

stand up comedy and run a big TikTok account and do a YouTube podcast. And it's a lot. You're taking a lot. That's fair. We'll get there. And getting married. That's somehow the easiest part of it. But no, I appreciate you for having me, man.

Thanks, dude. Awesome.