We're All Insane - Failures of a Youtube Entrepreneur

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

Devorah and special guest Brandon Walsh discuss feeling like an outsider in school, the drawbacks of going to college, lessons from success on YouTube, and how social media can destroy mental health.�� If you have a unique story you'd like to share on We're All Insane, send a message to [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, it's me DeVora. I just dropped an all new bonus episode inside my new subscription channel, We're All Insane Plus. This week's bonus episode is called My Brain was Slipping into my spine. Listen now by subscribing to We're All Insane Plus inside your Spotify or Apple Podcasts app or go to we're all insane.com. Hey, look what your drink is doing in my nice coasters. What are you drinking there?

What is that? Apple juice. Honestly, what is floating? at the top of it. Bugs and cat hair. There's something floating at the top. I'm actually drinking alcohol tonight. Oh, are you?

Yeah, it's a late night episode. First late nighter, so I had to pull out the drink. I think it's like 0.1% alcohol. It's like 0.0. Well, kombucha does have some alcohol in it. There's legit shit floating. She's drinking kombucha, by the way. No, it's alcohol.

This is straight whiskey. We're both drinking whiskey. All I need is a cigar, but Devin won't let me smoke a cigar. let you smoke a cigar in your basement yeah you would not it would smell like cigars in here for months i mean that might be a vibe considering i'm joe ragan's that's what i'm saying every time somebody goes on joe rogan they're like they have a cigar and they put it like yeah i could be a pro although i'd probably get lightheaded and get really fucking nauseous and not be able to continue the show that'd be funny we just start puffing on cigars it would be i don't know how to feel right now

that I'm sitting across from a million view in how many days? Three days. I think I got lucky. No, I think it was two days. It was like two and a half. You didn't get lucky. You put it in a work. I don't know how to feel about it.

I don't know. You're dating a celebrity. Pretty much. I mean, you weren't always a cele and I liked you before you were a celebrity. So, oops, sorry. I like you when you're, I like this new table that you have here. when you're just a little boy. Ew, Dev.

You always say, oh, and I don't mean it that way. That's so wrong. Okay, so if anybody's watching, because they actually don't know you and they want to get to know you, Brandon is my boyfriend. I am. For how long now? Prinkish. Almost two years.

We're not three years. I always said three. If it was three, I think we'd be a little bit more bored with each other. Oh my God. It's so wrong. Well, you know, sometimes when relationships are going. going on for a little bit. It gets a little boring.

You just got to do things to spice it up. I think we're still pretty good at that. But take it away, Brandon. Tell them who you are. Give them the goods. Well, first off, I knew Dev, since I was like a kid, basically. How much older am I than you? Like three years?

I think it's three. I'm 25. It depends on the... It's two. It's two years. But at some point it's three. So Dev was friends with... my sister, my younger sister, Claudia.

And we went to the same school together and everything, but we lived very different lives. Yeah, we did. I was a dork. I didn't see you. He always says that. I guess you were, but I didn't see him as that. He was a dork, but I didn't see him as a dork. I was definitely a dork.

And she was the popular mean girl. Brain and the popular girl. The popular girl. I was mean, I guess, at times. At times. I'm since a changed woman. You were nice to me from what I remember. Yeah, I was never mean to you.

I always liked you. I always thought you were cool because you were always doing some cool shit. For example, cutting erasers and like lighting them on fire in your kitchen. I was kind of a weird kid. There was two things that I did that were weird. There's probably way more than two things actually. But like, yeah, I would cut erasers when I was bored. Like the ends, the ends of the erasers off of pencils.

And then one time I got in trouble when I was a kid because I got a bunch of leaves. and I put them in the backyard, right? And I made like a pile, like a little, like a little bonfire stop. And I let, I lit them on fire. And then there was like smoke that was rising in my mom's window was like in the back of the house. And she saw all the smoke coming up. And she comes down and like freaks out on me. It's probably like 13 or something.

I was just playing with fire. 13 year old kids love to play with fire. But like don't people say that's usually a bad sign. It's like the kids that either kill animals. No. Or the kids that play with fire. I was probably like borderline psychopath, like not full on. If all it's full on, that would be bad news.

But I was probably like borderline. Okay. Which is fine, completely safe. That's, those are the most creative people. I was going to say, the ones who are borderline psychopath. I guess like the cutting the erasers. Yeah, like all the famous artists, they're all insane. Yeah.

Hence, we're all insane. But no, like I, you know, maybe that's just kind of why you're just so cool now because you were the, you were the weirdo. You weren't the one really partying. You were the one burning leaves and cutting your, racers in the kitchen. Yeah. I'd have a lot of friends in school because, not because I was weird.

I actually, like, there were, I did have, I did have some friends. Um, but I never really like got along with most of the kids in like the public school system, really. I just, I just didn't. Were they not like? I was friends with people who were like way older than me normally. Well, was it because they were living different, like it was just the different lifestyle. Like, I think it was like a maturity thing, especially when I was younger.

So I was homeschooled up until. fourth grade. Okay. So I didn't really have a lot of interaction with other kids. I mean, I think so. I can't really remember. It was so long ago. But we would go to like homeschool things and there would be other kids and stuff and

they were always super weird. Like these kids were so sheltered. Like homeschool kids are the most sheltered kids on the planet. Well, I was going to say that actually reminds me. It's weird. Like I feel like lately I've been having flashbacks of my memories that I just like thought we were just gone. I couldn't remember.

But I actually, I didn't go to this school, but I shadowed the school. This was like around when I was shadowing different private schools and like Carver. I don't know why I was shadowing these like performing art schools because I don't know what art. I actually was trying to be an actress, but like that just didn't happen. But anyway. Kind of art in a sense. Kind of. But I shadowed this one school and it wasn't one of the bigger ones.

I don't even, I can't tell you the name because I don't remember. It was so small. There might have been like three kids in the class. It was bizarre. And basically I remember that the kids there were so fucking strange. Like, you know when you just know that you're just not like anyone around them, like when you're in a certain, you know, group? It's because homeschool kids are sheltered. Yeah, it was a very sheltered feeling.

Like, I just felt very out of place there. So I get that. Yeah. I kind of have the, like, I kind of think kids should be like thrown into the fire in terms of going in a public school and having to deal with a bunch of other kids being shitheads. Yeah, I mean. I feel like it strengthens you. And if you're homeschooled your whole life, you like, oh, almost don't know what what what real life is like yeah you don't know how to like interact with other

other humans and stuff but um yeah i went into elementary school in fourth grade and it was like a wake-up call because it was so different from what yeah what like i knew all i knew was being taught by my mom and then i had i had two sisters like claudian kennedy but um i never went to that was the first time i went to public school so it was just like so much different and and the kids I think like Cedar Mir. Okay. And then I went to Franklin for middle school. But the kids were, I don't know, like I didn't really like get along with many of the kids.

It was more so I would kind of pretend to get along with them to just like fit in. Yeah. But like I didn't want to be there at all. Like I absolutely hated school. Like I hated elementary school, middle school, high school, hated it. Like pretty much I blocked it from my memory because I just never wanted to be there. What was you do when you get home? Like was there like an escape thing you had?

It depended a, I mean, in like high school was pretty much just Creating things in video games. Yeah. And making videos. That's like I made videos when I was younger, even though they weren't put on YouTube. Right. You picked up a camera when you were super young and like just you were, I feel like it's funny Because whenever I see the videotapes, a lot of it was like directed by you.

Like usually it's the parents holding the video camera and like recording the kids, which I feel like obviously when you guys were young, it was stuff like that. But then I feel like there's so many when it's just like. your big ears and you're like, hey guys. The other kids were going to parties and I was making YouTube videos. I mean, that never actually got published because they're highly cringy. Yeah. Well, now they're kind of on there when because you've shown them on your channel.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But yeah, that's pretty much all I did when I was like super young was make videos and play video games. So in high school, did you have any friends or were you like the backpack runner? Well, you because like, because you think I was the back. What is a backpack runner?

What even is that? The kids that run from one class to the next. Like the ones that put the backpack on and like ducked down and they just zoom. You know, you know what I'm talking about? Like they would run in between class because I don't think that they hate. I mean, I don't blame them. I hated the halls. Yeah, school is terrible.

I think I was late to school like 100 times in, in senior year of high school. Well, I remember because half the time when we would. I just wouldn't go. I'd go. You and Claudia up, but you wouldn't be there. No. Like, I hate it. I feel like we only drove you maybe a handful of times.

Yeah, Dev and I are very different because I absolutely hated high school and you and you loved it. I loved it. You said that was like the peak. What do you say? It's like a peak of your life. High school. Yeah, for now. It's really.

Oh, my God. No, it was just, no, let me tell you why. Because that was the time in my life that I was the most carefree. I wasn't worried about death. I wasn't worried about safety. Yeah, like I think about like death. Like I take that more serious now. You think you're just going to like hit by a train randomly?

Maybe. But like I think I feel like you're pretty safe like where we live in stuff. No, but I take things more seriously now. I'm way more aware of my surroundings. I don't like to speed. Well, actually do speed. But like I'm more cautious. You definitely had a better chance of dying in high school than now.

Absolutely. Given the shit that you do. I never thought about the negatives of things. Like I was just looking for my next drink. I was just a rock star. It was just sex. What was it? Sex drugs?

and rock and rock and roll. Yeah, yeah, one time. No, that was legit my motto. Sex drugs and rock and roll in high school. Yeah, one time when we were in high school. I think I was like, I was probably like a senior and you were in ninth grade maybe. And don't go pulling some fucking shit out. What do you mean? I'm not pulling anything out. I was, I was, I had a stash of, of alcohol because I was going in a senior year, I started getting a little bit more cool. I would have parties at the house, even though it was with all the nerdy GT and AP kids. There was one like, um, GT class or no one AP class that we had in our high school and I invited all those kids over to have a fucking rager at my house and uh you guys knew that I had some alcohol so you were like you and Claudia yeah like Brandon I need I need some alcohol we were like can you hook us up alcohol yeah and I was like I was like I got you but you got to give me like 10 bucks so for 10 bucks I gave you some why would you fucking charge your sister and her best friend I'm an entrepreneur man I got I had to make some money that that was my lunch money for like a whole week that's true because things were only like 50 cents.

Yeah. And I convinced you to give me 10 bucks. So what I did is I took like... Where did we scrap that together? I don't know. I took like 10th. There's like 10th of a bottle of alcohol left. And I filled the rest of the water because I was like,

I had the assumption that you don't even know what alcohol tastes like. So I was like, I'm going to give them this water down alcohol for $10, $10, make a huge return because this was cheap alcohol. This was like an $8 plastic bottle of Burnettes. And I just watered the whole thing down. No, I remember being dark. You gave us something dark. I don't even think you gave us good.

drink oh it might have been like a like Captain Morgan or something yeah you didn't even give us like any type of like alcohol not alcohol um what like vodka or anything it was something brown and then you watered it down and as soon as we took a sip we were like is he fucking serious like we you just charged us 10 dollars to give us watered down alcohol and you literally thought it was so funny and you didn't even feel bad you didn't even replace it I didn't feel bad at all because you shouldn't have had it to begin with that was another that was another thing I didn't want to give you like hard alcohol as you shouldn't have Jesus.

What were you? You were like 13 years old. No, we were 14 or 15. No, we were 15. 15. 15. 15. I don't know.

I think I made the right choice. I think it was the ethical decision to give you water down alcohol. And I made some money, which was great. So besides your house party, did you attend any like high school party? Not one. No. Did you ever want to? Yeah, I got invited to them, but my dad was super strict and would never let me go.

Okay. So instead, I sat in the basement and played. I played Minecraft and whatever else I played at the time I don't even remember But yeah That's what I did instead of going to parties in high school Super depressing

You just built your brain that way Yeah But you were talking about And I filmed YouTube videos Or not YouTube videos But I filmed videos Didn't you only do that for like a certain amount Like didn't you didn't do it as you got

I know you did You did it when you were really young I know that you were I saw clips of you holding the camera But then you also were doing it when it was like your stepbrothers also, right? Yeah, I mean, I would force them to do it. They didn't want to be in videos at times and I was like, you're being in this fucking video,

you have no choice. Like I don't have anyone else to work with. I can't film a video with the dog and you're the closest thing to a dog so I have to film it with something. That is not right. You're the fucking dog with the camera. Uh-uh, uh-uh.

Well, now look where you are. Yeah. It was, I don't know. So what about college? College was, so when I went from high school to college, that's when I like, I think I didn't go through, I'd have really like late puberty, which was weird. I don't think I went through puberty until like after senior year. Senior year. Like end of senior year.

Yeah, because I remember there was always some guys in, that were seniors that had fucking full grown beards. Like they looked like men, like 40 year old men, some of them. Yeah. You were like clawed size. still. Yeah, I think like end of senior year, I went through puberty. I had more control over my life because like my dad wasn't really like telling me what to do and like dictating my life. So like, I had a little bit more freedom. I went to college and when I was in college, that's when I got like my first girlfriend. And I lifted, all I would do is like lift weight. So I got like really

huge for that age. That was your peak biggest time, I think. I don't know if it was my, I, I was my, I weighed the most at that time. I wasn't like super lean or anything, but I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm always super lean. I wasn't super lean. I would eat so much. All I would do is eat food. Yeah, but I remember, I'm envisioning the Instagram douchebag photos that you would post, and you were ripped.

Unless you were just, like, upping the contrast and, and shadowing. Is that when you fell in love with me when you saw that? It was, you know, no, I, everybody knows because I've talked about it. I, like, thought you were cute when you were small. But then when you started going through puberty, that's when I was like, wow, he's getting hot. Hey, I'm Jeremy Schwartz from American Criminal. On this season, robbery gone wrong or cold-blooded murder? Either way, Boston will never be the same.

Listen to American Criminal, the murder of Carol Stewart, wherever you get your podcasts. Or to get early ad free access, subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at American Criminal.com. So you liked me when I still look like a child? Brinan, now it sounds bad. That's sick. That's disgusting. God, I was like, I was 70 pounds. You probably weighed more than me when we were like 13 years old. I was emaciated.

No, you didn't look like a child. You were just small. Yeah, I'm a scott. I never thought you were not cute. It's just when you went through puberty. It's like you grew, you grew all the sudden. Yeah, because you weren't tall when I met you. You were so short.

No, I went to the doctor and I was like, I don't know what's wrong with me, man. I'm not growing. Well, you grew and your muscles grew, and I'm assuming something down there might have grown a little. And then it was just like, you just blossomed into this man. And then you started going to your, to the outdoor festivals. That must have been the time when you actually enjoyed this.

Yeah, college was a little bit better, but I still hated school. Yeah. I really think school is not your thing. Not, well, not my thing, but I also think it's useless for most people. Completely useless. And anything that you want to learn, you can go online and you can learn. Well, I think college is the biggest fucking waste on the planet. I think too, there's, I know so many people.

Obviously, there's people that, you know, they, I feel like if you're going for something specific, like to be a doctor, to be a nurse, it's like, yes, you need it. But, like, things like that. But I feel like I know so many people that have gotten degrees and, you know, even master's in certain things. and then they either don't end up doing anything related to it or they still struggle so much to even get a job because it's not easy. And like I remember growing up, I was always told like,

okay, well, if you go and you get your masters, then that ups your likelihood of getting the job that you want or getting paid more. And I mean, while that's true, I guess, it's like you actually have to get the job first, which is not easy. Yeah. What I think people do is they like build constructs to make money and going to college was like a traditional thing that people inevitably were kind of forced into. Like I remember, I was the first person in my family, like immediate family, to go to college.

Yeah. And I remember it was like such a big deal. I didn't even go to like a prestigious college or anything. But it was such a big deal because no one else went. Yeah. So it felt like I was doing. So no one went at all? No.

Okay. So you went and you finished. Yeah. Big fucking deal. I went and I finished and got a decent degree. But my parents didn't go. my grandparents didn't go. I don't know if their grandparents went.

So I was like the first one to actually go to college. And it felt like I was doing something important. But looking back, I'm like, honestly, it's kind of a waste. Yeah. Like it really is. And I didn't know any better. To me, going to college was the best possible thing that I could do. Well, also, like at that time, if you were to think about it, what would your other options be?

You know what I mean? I feel like you're told that if you don't go to college, then you're not going to be able to get a good job necessarily. So it's like at that time you weren't thinking about being a YouTuber. You know what I mean? Were you? No, that wasn't a thought in my head. Yeah.

Like when I was in college, I was doing side work, working on websites. And that was like helping me pay for college when I was in school. And yeah, like I don't want to completely shit on college because I did meet a lot of people that got me jobs. So because I was in computer science. And because I was in computer science, there was a lot of kids who were working for these companies that we live in like the D.C. Maryland area. So there's a lot of like government contractors. And the kids in my class were working for the government contractors. So they were in school. So they were getting paid like six figures working for government contractors while they were in school. And I did projects with them. And I would always be the one who would take over the project. And I would end up doing the entire thing myself. So the kids would like sit back and like. I would have loved to be in a group with you. And this was only computer science. I would never do this in any other class. If I had to write an essay, I would find a way to, like, cheat on it.

See, I could have written the essays for you, and you could have done the group project. Because, like, I was so bad at any type of group project work, but killed it at writing. Yeah, it was any type, it was any long-term project that had to do with, like, building something, I would take over. And the kids, the kids couldn't. Didn't care. Weren't capable. Yeah. It's not that they weren't capable.

Some kids wanted to help, but it, like, got to the point where it's like, I'll just do it myself. like you're not you're going to be dragged along okay for anybody that doesn't know brannan this is like his thing even to this day because i know that like the way i mean look yes you're extremely smart but like you also have this control thing like i feel like when you have this vision to do something it is your way or no way and it's easier for you to just like say get the fuck out of the way let me do it i don't think you want help which is fine but like you i think it's also because you get ticked off at people sometimes. Yeah, I think I also like to just do things very quickly.

Like I like to iterate on things very quickly. And other people sometimes like take their time and go slow. Right. And like that will annoy me because like I want like everything that I like I want I want I want to be working with somebody who can also do things like quickly. Yeah. So I don't get like agitated. I don't know.

So it's good for connections. Yeah. was good for connections. I met a lot of people who were who had government contracting jobs who got me basically an in with these companies that were like literally like billion dollar companies and then they would give me web jobs. Like I built I was building websites for these like huge companies. And I remember the first one that I got, I would go in and I would have to like stand in front of like the CEO and like all these people and like pitch them to sell them on like the websites. And I remember getting the check for the first one. And this is before I ever got any money. And I charged, I probably charged.

than like like 10 grand or something at the time when I was in college. For one thing? Yeah. And they would give me like half up front. Okay. It might have been more. I don't even remember. But I remember getting a check for like $5,000.

Uh-huh. And I was like in my car and I was like, oh my God. That's crazy. This is fucking insane. Yeah, that's a lot. How old were you at this time? I was probably 19. Oh, Jesus.

Yeah. And I would never tell people my age. I would always just be like. Fake it till you make it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They would never ask me really.

So I would never tell them how old I was. Did you ever have any, like, so the first time you had to pitch something or go up and, like, present, did you have, like, any nerves doing that kind of stuff? Or do you think you've always been good at that kind of stuff? I don't get nervous when I know exactly what I need to say. Like, like, when I know about the subject, I don't get nervous. And when I know what the people, like, would want to hear, I wouldn't get nervous because I just, I just knew. But, but, like, going up and talking about something that I have no idea about, like, I'll drop the ball. because if I don't know it then I'm just going to.

Your mind just blank. Yeah, my mind goes blank or I'm thinking about other things. Makes sense. It needs to be something that I actually care about and know more than that person. Like I know more than they do so I can properly like pitch it to them. Makes sense. So after so you did that for a while, the website stuff. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And then I basically. So it became your full-time thing. Yeah. And it merged into the girl I was dating at the time. her like stepdad basically got me what this was still I was still in college he got me a job offer at this startup in Maryland and like a startup company is like basically a brand new company who gets funding and then they try to like grow the company or whatever yeah and I got I got a job doing

software development for them so I started uh I started working for them and I ended up merging into sales and then I ended up doing nearly like everything for that company that that that I worked for. And I got really good. I would always go on trips and have to sell things to people. It was like, it was basically just like a marketing company. So you'd have to travel for the company too?

Yeah. And I would travel around and I would sell things to people. And I was like really good at it. Like I would like sales was one thing that I was like super good at. So I made like a decent amount of money from that. And then while I was doing that, that's when we started getting into. the YouTube space, but this was super early.

This was like five, six years ago. Yeah. And I was probably, I was maybe like 21 or something because I remember I was just able to go to bars, like sneaking at bars my whole life basically. And then I was actually able to go to bars. And yeah, we started doing the first thing that we did was the body paint thing with my mom. So my mom would always body pain. I would always get super embarrassed by it.

She did it since I was in middle school, basically. And I would, I would always get super embarrassed because I would have always. walking to the house and um there would be like a like a naked girl in the kitchen getting painted and then it a rumor got spread around school that like my mom painted naked girl so everyone come up to me and was like hey man can i like buy a ticket to your house to like watch the girls get painted naked oh my god yeah and i was like uh no did it were they were coming up and like saying anything about how you had a melf oh yeah so they knew what she looked like that was another thing yeah Yeah.

That's, that was like, I was known for having like the hot mom. A hot mom that paints naked girls. Yeah. Everyone. Yeah. And I feel like that's tough. I feel like that's tough not only like being a boy, but also like being a guy that like it wasn't the kind of guy like, oh yeah.

Hell yeah, man. Like, oh, fuck my mom. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, because I feel like there's guys like that that just don't fucking care. But I feel like obviously you are more like the reserve type. So I feel like that only probably made it worse. It made it like.

Yeah. I was also like half the size of everyone in school. So like I couldn't really say anything. Yeah. So it was just kind of like awkward. Like yeah. Yeah. I was just like, oh, yeah.

But then there was a time where you, I guess what, with a time that you got painted. Remember you got painted? I remember like you got painted one time like for the first time like shirt and pants. Or maybe it was the shirt. Yeah, but I was like, I was probably in college by that. Okay. But so in high school, that's what people. Yeah.

Yeah. And like high school, everyone was like, yeah, you have the mill for like paints naked girls. And I was like, yeah. That's me. Yeah. So it was awkward. Yeah, it was awkward for sure. But you was it like so I guess it was college that you started kind of diving into putting it on social media. Wait, let me ask this because I kind of like reversed what I was going to ask.

Was it so when you got body painted for the first time, I think what was it like a Superman thing? Wasn't it a superhero thing? Yeah, she painted me as like a superhero. Oh no. Yeah, but that was when we started doing this stuff. So that's what I was going to ask you. So the first time you were painted, is that when you guys started kind of like putting it out there? Or were you like just painted for her once just for one of her events that she had? Yeah. So stepping back a little bit.

Okay. So my mom was body painting. And when I was in like college, I saw it as like a good kind of marketing opportunity. And that's when I first started becoming friends. Like my two best friends are Nick and Corey for those of you who know who we are. Those of you don't. Yeah, my two best friends are Nick and Corey. We started.

I knew them from. high school and they were basically my we were all dorks complete dorks and the only reason I think we became friends is because we were dorks and that's just what happens when there's no one else to become friends with. There's three dorks in a room. They become friends. I think we started playing some game together but either way that doesn't matter. My mom was doing the body painting and I'm like I'm like this is a really good opportunity to start getting into like social media because Instagram started becoming big at that time. And I was like, this is a good opportunity.

This is a very visual thing. Like, I think it will do super well. My mom just had no idea what to do with social media stuff. So I'm like, I went to her and I was like, mom, I will like invest money into trying to make this grow. Let's make an Instagram account and a YouTube account and start like producing content. So we produced a few different videos. She had models at the time. We painted them.

they didn't do like that great and then i i started kind of playing around with a few different things and then suddenly we one one day it was maybe like the fourth girl that we painted or something for youtube video we would do like time lapse youtube videos we put it on instagram and the next day it had like 10 million views in a day yeah and i was like what is going on it was just this was before they had reels before they had stories. So this was just a regular post. All you could do is videos, basic videos, and a square. Right. It wasn't even like the long ways yet. Yeah. You couldn't, you couldn't do anything else. So it got like 10 million views and I was like, oh my God, I think we're onto something. So we kept doing it. We probably did like, not even kidding, like 50 to 100

different body paintings of random girls. We would message girls on Instagram, me, Nick and and Corey, and be like, we would just try to find attractive girls and be like, hey, do you want to get body painted and they would always say yes. Yeah. And it blew up pretty fast because I remember, like I knew what your mom did, but that was because growing up, my mom knew her and then obviously being best friend with Claudia. But I remember, I guess I would have been in college by then also. Not yet.

You were still in high school when we were doing it. Well, I remember more people started talking about it. You were in college. Yeah. Yeah, you were in college. But I remember people started talking about it like not even knowing. really. I don't think that it was Claudia's mom. It was like just Jen the body

painter. And she became kind of like a little local celebrity because there was no one else in our town. We lived in kind of a small town and there was no one else in our town that was getting that much social media attention at the time. So everyone kind of like knew who she was. And then that's when my younger sister

Kennedy started. She was like my mom's assistant on the body paint page and people loved her personality. And that's when they kind of kept saying like they wanted the audience really wanted Kennedy to see Kennedy more in the videos

so I basically told her I was like you should start a she like wanted to start like a face paint page or something yeah so I kind of helped her like do that and make the make the like page and like figure out what she was going to do and she did a bunch of like face painting and stuff that ended up like blowing up

that like blew up yeah those are really cool yeah But the body pain stuff, what I realized is like we really struggled to make money because we would always get demonetized on YouTube. We made no money from that. We didn't know what to sell. So I put in, I probably invested $40,000 to $50,000 into the body paint stuff. I used my entire paycheck that I would get from my job. I don't remember how much it was at the time, but I would use the entire paycheck.

And I would reinvest the entire thing into going on trips, like traveling around the country with the whole team to do the body paint stuff. Wow. So we were losing, I was losing my entire paycheck to doing this. And I was like, what? But I mean you believed in it though. Like you believed in it enough to invest in it. I believe that's, I believe that something would it came like would have come out of it. You know?

Yeah. And so I just kept like being persistent about it. Right. And yeah. Kennedy ended up doing, making a YouTube channel. And then her YouTube blew up. Right. And fast, right?

within what like she got like a million followers in a few months or something something ridiculous yeah something crazy and and uh i remember she got her first like ad sense paycheck and i remember it being it was like 15 000 or something it's crazy she was super young she was like just graduated high school and i remember being like what the fuck right i was like because the paycheck i was getting from work was obviously less than that i think it was probably a third of that well also like you probably we're like shit like I'm putting all this money into something and like getting nothing out of it. I was like what the fuck? I was like what am I doing? Right. So that's when I was I told my mom was like we got to stop the body pain stuff. This is this shit's not profitable. Like I'm losing so much money. Yeah. And I like I was like I have no money for myself. I put all the all the money into the body pain stuff like I got to do something else right now. So I decided to make my YouTube channel and Kennedy I remember she was maybe in like the first like or the second. or something. I don't remember, but the YouTube channel ended up like blowing up and to the point where

I was able to make a decent paycheck just from YouTube. So I was like, okay, this is a good opportunity. So I remember I went to the like CEO who in the company that I worked for and I had a meeting with him and I was like, I'm going to quit. I'm becoming a full-time YouTuber. He's like, what do you mean? Like what the fuck? Like you're going to quit a job to be to make YouTube videos. Right. And I was like, yeah, I don't know their choice right now. I mean, I'm making more money from YouTube than I am from this job. Right.

So it's like I have to make the decision at some point. So I left that and I started making YouTube videos full time. And they were mainly about like the family. And it just did super well for like a period of one to two years. We would film videos. I still lived at my mom's house in the cupboard in the basement. You need to talk about that. That was a bad.

Brandon lived in a little room. Yeah. So like. Not even a room. In cop. Did it have a window? It had one window, but the window was a window. Yeah, the window was a window beneath the deck.

Got it. There was no light. It was coming in. Yeah, there was no light that came in. It was terrible. You were like Harry Potter in the little closet. Yeah. I went.

So in college, I, uh, the first semester, I lived on campus. Mm-hmm. And I live with this like, I really hope he's not listening to this. I live with his one kid. He's a little bit smelly, right? To put it nicely. Yeah. And he would just play video games all the time.

And these college dorms were prison cells. It was smaller than this podcast room, literally. And there was two beds. And a microwave. There's no way. This kid would cook some weird shit in the microwave and smell it up to the point where I felt nauseous. I'd go and walk to get away from this dorm room.

And all he would do. I can't even imagine you being in a dorm room. All this kid would do is play video game. So like I, I, he's probably listening to this. He probably watches us. I'm sorry. I forget what your name is. That's even worse that you don't remember his name.

No, but it's maybe, hopefully now he's learned not to smell and not to smell up the place with his smelling food. Dude, and the worst thing, this is the worst part about guys dorms. Oh, this is so bad. I'm having PTSD right now, I think. Well, at least you're in an ice clean place. Our lives are so much different. Now it's insane.

Like, when I was, I. I literally can't believe this was a thing, like looking back. Yeah. There was a, we had two dorms. I don't know what was wrong with my college because I've seen other college dorms and they look pretty nice. But something was wrong with mine. I don't know.

So our dorm room was really small. So we had like a dorm room. Ours was like on the right side. And then in the center was the bathroom, right? Tiny bathroom. How many people would share? Just you guys or? And then on the other side was another dorm room.

So it's four people. So there's four people sharing one bathroom. I would walk into the bathroom and there would be like a coating of pukes of pubs on the bathroom floor. Was there any like shit stains? Oh, there was all kinds of stuff. These kids were like relentless. There was shit stains. There was pubs like pubs to the point where it would like clog the drain and like you know when the water starts rising up.

Wait, were they like standing water? Are you talking about the sink? No, the shower. They would shave their balls in the shower. Got it. And it would be like, it's disgusting. And I would be like, I need to get the fuck out of here. So you were stepping on pubs.

Yeah, I would not use the. that like I would not shower in that dorm room I would go back home because I lived like what like 30 minutes away yeah about that which was so I'd go back home and I would shower at home I was like I refused to take a fucking shower in here it's disgusting yeah it was it was really bad and so anyway oh and then when I went back to my mom's right I lived in an even smaller room so I didn't so after living in the dorm room when I came back I no longer had a bedroom my mom rid of it. She, well, she didn't get rid of it. Right. I forgot. She gave it to Kennedy. So I had nowhere to stay and I'm like, mom. Because Kennedy was doing her videos down there.

Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. And yeah. I was like mom, I need somewhere to stay. And then in the big room, there was like a bigger room in the basement. Uh-huh. That was taken for some reason. I think my mom, yeah, my mom was doing body paint stuff in it. Okay. So the only room that was left was the closet. It was basically a closet. I was just trying to think what other room there was that you're talking about because I only remember the big the big middle section in the basement right right there's one next to it yeah the room that she was keeping the cats in yes that was my bedroom so so the bed I had like a full-sized bed and would take up the whole room and there was about this much space to walk for those of you listening it's about maybe like a foot or two yeah maybe a one foot

and a half yeah to like walk around and that was the entire bedroom so I lived in that bedroom for like probably like five years yeah no lights nothing but i had my i did have my own bathroom so there was right and then you were able to have a shower you were able to go upstairs i'd share a shower with the girls it's better than fucking pew boys one time and we had no door on the shower i remember it was literally the shameless house we had no door in the shower so one time i was a curtain yeah and my sister claudy she like walked in while i was showering well she didn't see you did she i don't think she did but we had no we had no door yeah it was a you had a curtain right Yeah, it was a fucking curtain.

I remember that. I remember I would wait to shit at your house until like everybody was sleeping because I was so scared somebody would like barge in. Really? Yes. Or like it would be great if your mom would go out because we could use her bathroom because she had a door. She had the luxurious door.

Oh my God. Dude, I'm surprised. Like that like I like took like a like a couple girls back to that room before. Really? Yeah. I don't know. Like I feel like back in the day, I wouldn't have. cared either.

That's crazy to me. Like if somebody like, you're at that age, it's like what do you expect to go to a nice ass house? I don't think I ever went to a guy's house that was like, it was a nice house. I think all of them had like shitty little rooms. I mean,

maybe not as small as yours, but. Yeah. I think that's why like, I would always think about it though. I'm like, if I go on a date with a girl, I just can't do anything.

I don't want to take her back to this place. But you did, you said. Yeah, but that was just. That was just like hookups. Like nothing. Yeah. I don't even remember.

remember. Okay. Yeah. But. So you moved back home. Yeah. So I was in that little room for five years. The room of torture. But, but I thought, I think it was good because I don't like spending too much time in a bedroom. I've told you this. I only like using a bedroom for like sleeping and like getting ready and stuff. I don't want to spend all day like sitting in a bedroom. Even though I know a lot of people like to do that. I don't because I want to associate my bedroom with like sleeping and that's it. And then like have an office. Well, you also have like a very different mindset than a lot of people. Like I think I think that there's some people that are able to work in the same place that

they sleep. And I feel like your brain doesn't operate that way. Like you have a brain that it's easier for you to get things done when you have the separate places. Like you have your bedroom for sleeping. You have your office for work or you go somewhere to work. Like I feel like it's you just you don't do well with that mix of sleep and work. You know?

Like I feel like even if you had even now that you have a bigger room, you don't, you're never in it unless you're sleeping. So I just think that's how you operate. Yeah. I like, I don't know. I think I like having more structure to things. Mm-hmm. Sorry, I'm fixing my chair. Yeah.

Like you wanted me to get a TV. Okay. Yes. Because you have roommates and it would be nice if we could watch some TV in the bed together. Like I'm somebody that loves watching TV in the bed. But that's not important right now. This is not about me. Or what I prefer, how I prefer to watch my movies with you.

But so what happened after? So you came, you were making the videos. And they were doing well because you basically had a shameless setup. Yeah. Like I, I almost. Did they pop off right away? I mean pretty much because Kennedy was blowing up at the time. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But the body pain stuff definitely fueled everything. But yeah, we were living in this shameless house and people loved it online. So like I, I didn't even have to. really try that hard to think of ideas. I would just film something random and people loved it because they loved this shameless thing of these three siblings and a single mom living in a house together. It just worked super well. And so I just ran with it and I would post videos like three

times a week. They would all do pretty decent. Like we're getting 500,000 views per video. And yeah, it just did it did well. And I was like, I was making good money for. from it. So I was like, I got to keep doing this. Right. But I also, it also kind of, I don't know, looking back, it wasn't necessarily what I wanted to do. It was just making really good money at the time. Right. And I think it was easy because, I mean, during that time, you know, quarantine ended up happening. And then it was just, you were, I mean, like, having the ability to be able to work from home and just make content with your siblings. That's perfect. You know what I mean. I feel like it set you up perfectly in a way. Yeah. So they because of the YouTube stuff,

I had a house. Kennedy and I, we, we had like a good amount of money at the time. Like not, not like a ton, but like enough where we could get an apartment if we wanted to. Yeah. Right. So Kennedy and I rented an apartment in Florida. So we live in Maryland. We went, we rented a apartment all the way in Florida. I don't know why. We just wanted to get away. So Kennedy and would go there once in a while to this apartment in Florida. And it's also where my girlfriend lived at the time. And as we kept doing YouTube eventually, it like didn't work out between me and the, and the girlfriend that I had at the time, obviously, because it's, YouTube is a very different

lifestyle than people who have normal jobs. Yeah, I was going to say it's really hard, I think, for a lot of people to understand it or to even really believe in it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Especially like, especially then. things change so quickly in social media it's not even funny but especially then everyone's like you're doing YouTube like how like how do you make money from this and I'm like you get paid

from ads right like attention makes you money if people if you have people's attention and they're spending their their valuable time watching your content and they see ads you make money from the ads like that's how content creators make money where they're doing brand deals or ads running on a video or anything like that that's how you make a living. So the more views you get, the more money you make. Well, I feel like even to this day, people still don't understand that. You know what I mean? Like you still have to explain that to people because they don't get it. Like there's so many times that I'll like meet people or just whatever it might be at the car dealership or something random and I'll tell them what they do and their

response or what I do. And the response is always, oh wow, like you really make money from doing stuff like that. Like there's so many people that still don't know. Like it's there and social media is such a big thing now. But I feel like a lot of people, maybe like older people, they don't know. And not even that old, honestly, maybe like 30s, 40s. Like it's shocking to them that you can make money doing things on social media. Yeah. No one understands it.

People also don't realize how hard it actually is and how much goes, how much goes into it. You're basically dedicating your entire life to it. And you're not going to live a normal life. No. So like people see it. The only thing that you're, when somebody posts something on social media, whether it's a photo or a video. this is something that's been like edited and refined over and over and over again so you're only seeing

the absolute highlights of somebody's life yeah unless it's this this this is different but um that's why i think that's why podcasting also has become so popular because it's more laid back and it's less filtered but you're basically seeing somebody's life through this like lens of editing and editing and more editing it's all that's literally people have the ability to show what they want you to see rather than what's what the truth is yeah but it's like a it's kind of a problem because if you want to get views then or likes on instagram or whatever the situation is you you have to do that yeah otherwise you don't it's kind of shifting right now but it it can be very unhealthy if you go too far into it and don't recognize like like what you're getting into right but yeah going back

to like doing the the YouTube stuff I was doing this stuff I was filming videos at home maybe like three videos a week Nick and Corey my friends at the time my friends were helping me were they so when you moved to Florida were they still editing like you would send them yeah so I would like be in Florida I'd film some stuff I would send it to Corey and like he would basically edit it and then uh we we made so many videos it was ridiculous and I kind of like left behind doing the whole like software engineering like computer science thing um because i was making more money from doing the youtube stuff so i'm like yeah i'm like i'm like i'm going to push into this further and further uh and i feel like and then and then you started being in the videos so dev started being in the videos

i don't know how much you want to talk about that but i think it's funny sure brand well no you originally asked me to be in some yeah randomly Right? Yeah, I asked Dev to be in some videos because I knew she would be entertaining for the audience. And I was always looking for new characters. Well, here's the thing. You, you know, saw, I mean, Claudia and I at that point were friends for maybe, I don't know, six years, five, six years. Yeah.

So you saw my personality through those five or six years that, I mean, I was just a wild card. I didn't give a shit. I feel like I had no filter. I still pretty much don't. I try to be better, though. But I think that you asked me to be in one. I don't remember what the first one was. I don't remember.

It might have been like a, I don't know, like a truth or dare video or something. It was either that or maybe like a fitness one. No, it was a fitness one. Oh, it was. It was a fitness video. And then I think I was in a couple more after that. And that was around the time that I think I was going,

either finishing college and then go in any of my mask or something along those lines. And I had heard from a lot of people, this is I just thought about what you did and then it made me a little angry I'm going to tell you so I heard from a lot of people that these top

you know top of the line students weren't getting into the FBI like straight A's never went out and partied and like they just weren't getting in because of stupid shit and I'm sitting here thinking okay so there's just no way that I'm going to make it in the FBI because now there's like five to 10 YouTube videos of me

cussing up a storm saying that I'm getting nudes from my boyfriends and like just horrible stuff. So I end up pulling out from your videos and saying like I'm not, I can't be in them anymore because I need to focus on my, you know, schooling and career. And I'll never forget when I texted you and Corey in a group and asked if you guys could take down the video. Now it's funny because I know like if somebody were to ask me to take a video down of them, I would literally ignore them as well. Yeah.

But because it's like for those of you that don't really like understand this, wouldn't, you know, it's, this is our work in a sense. And when somebody agrees to do it and then changes their mind, it's kind of like it just doesn't work that way. Oh, I need to make you sign a form by the way that you don't try to make me take this down. Just kidding. But, but no. So it's like, you know, I remember texting you guys asking you to take down all the videos of me in it. And they both ignored me. You guys both just straight up ignored me. And I remember thinking. like wow, that is so fucking mean. No, I responded to you. No, but it was like days later. It was not right away. I was thinking about how to phrase it properly. But I was like, I'm not taking these videos. Yeah, he basically said no. So I basically once again was like, okay, no, no, no, no future for me. And then I think I took a break for a while from them. And then I was babysitting at the time and I ended up reaching it. Or no, no, no, I didn't reach out. I was at your house talking to your mom and I think maybe Claudia in your mom's room. And you had walked up and I'm like venting about how I didn't have much. money and what else. I think it was just mainly that I didn't have money. And I went home. And later that night I got the best text ever of Brandon. I thought it was like, it was like a dream because this was fucking. Oh, no, no, no.

Also, I was like so excited for your videos when you're doing challenge videos because I knew you always catered them towards me winning. Like when you would do the videos of like, whoever can eat the most gets 500 bucks. And I remember my credit cards were always maxed out. Like always maxed out. And I'd have to pay them off in little increments because I couldn't afford it and I wasn't making enough money. Yeah. But when you would do the challenge videos, you would always cater them towards me winning because you knew I needed money.

And like nobody else really like cared that much. And I'd get so excited when you'd give away like 200 bucks, 500 bucks was great. And so you knew I was like a money fiend as well as an alcohol fiend as well as a dick fiend. But anyway, so I was venting about how I had no money and school was just annoying. and then when I went home, you had texted me later that night and you were like, would you want to be in videos again? I'll pay like $500 a video. And I remember looking at my phone having the biggest smile on my face and like saying

out loud. I think I called one of my friends. I don't remember who, but I was like, I can't turn this down. I was like, I don't care if I ruined my opportunity of getting a job. Like this is a lot of money. And at the time, you're putting me in like two a week. Yeah. So I was bawling.

This was like, I mean, really, I was able to get my own apartment. I was able to get my own car, you know, like a nicer car. Yeah, that's like a full-time salary. Seriously. I mean, I was just bawling out and I was in a lot of videos. And I remember that I treated it like work because when I was sick one time, like really sick with strep throat, I was so mad because I was like, wow, if I don't go to this video,

that is $500 I'm not going to get. And I couldn't go because it was sick. But yeah, I mean, that was awesome. So I dumped my career for your videos because I would be nice and say because I believed in them that much. I did believe in them, but it was a selfish money thing, I think, at the time. Yeah. I did like being in them, though.

I always said that. Like, and I feel like I always say that to this day that, and that's honestly, for those of you wondering, the reason that I don't do my own personal YouTube, really, or fucking TikTok, because I don't like it, as you know. Um, not good at it. No joy comes when I fucking film myself. I'm not good at talking with myself. but I always loved being in your videos

and I feel like I'm good at talking to people and it's funny because I feel like I'm really good at acting like things aren't awkward or even if they are like I'll in a moment in the moment of things I'll be talking to somebody and it'll feel like it was weird but if I look back

if I really look back on it or if it was filmed for some reason I'm like wow you would never know that I was having X, Y and Z thoughts while having that conversation because I feel like I'm pretty good at making it seem chill Yeah. But yeah.

So I was in your videos. That's how I got in the videos and that's why I stayed in the videos because... That's funny because... You paid me off. Yeah. Well, I always had this like thing where I was like, okay, if I... The main people in the videos at the time were like my mom, my dad, my sisters, you. And then Nick and Corey were in like videos once in a while, but they were mostly filming.

Yeah, not really at the time. Yeah, not really at the time. So my thing was Claudia was a nursing student. and I didn't want her to become a nurse, like to be completely honest. And then obviously I wanted, like Kennedy was becoming a, she didn't go to college because of YouTube. So I was like, okay, Kennedy's going to be a full-time YouTuber. So that's set, right?

And then Claudia was a nursing student. So I was like, I'm going to figure out how to make Claudia also doing social media full-time so she can keep being in the videos because if she goes and becomes a nurse, then she's going to end up leaving the videos. So I had to figure out like kind of a strategy to get her to keep being in the videos as well, which obviously ended up working out. And then with you- Wait, so did she decide to make her own YouTube channel or did you kind of like push her towards that? I remember the breaking point was when we had, we filmed a certain video that probably would have prevented her from ever becoming a nurse.

Which video was it? When we had a party in the house, it was like the first party video we ended up doing. And that was the point where it was just game over for her. It was twerking and drinking on camera. Yeah, that's when I knew I was like, okay, Claudia no longer wants to become a nurse. I remember in high school, people were changing their names on Facebook so that jobs couldn't find

drinking pictures or something. Yeah, and we're out here just putting it up on the internet like. And getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views. Yeah. And yeah, with you,

it was just, I guess I kind of paid you all. Let's just sabotage her FBI career. you were fantastic on camera though that was the thing like I was like she doesn't she doesn't realize how entertaining she is on camera and she just sees it as like a side thing to do so I was like the only way to get her to be in these videos is to literally pay her to be in the videos because I know she needs money again I knew that was so I wouldn't I wouldn't be sitting here right now if it wasn't for you probably not that was your pain point at the time so I was like she needs money

give her money so basically you're telling the world that you're conniving little shit is basically what you're saying. It worked. No, it did work. You live in a huge, it worked. It worked. It did work. You live in a nice house. You have this podcast.

It all worked. It did all work, but what if it didn't? No, I knew it was going to work. Okay, so I'm just letting you know that if anyone goes down a rabbit hole, since you put us all in the rabbit hole, you better suck us back out. Oh, we're too far in. Okay. It is what it is at this point.

But, yeah, so we did that. And then that's, you and I weren't dating at the time. You were dating other people. And I was single. No, you weren't single the whole time. Well, like, I was towards. No, I was at that time. When I started paying you out single.

Okay. So, yeah, we kept making videos in the house. Eventually, it got to the point where I'm like, okay, we got to move out of this house. I don't know. I don't remember how old I was. Maybe like 24. I think I was like 24 because we've been in this house for three years. maybe going on three years.

You were not 24. How old was I? Like 25. You were not 24. That's young. Okay. I was 25. I don't remember.

I don't remember. Just 24 just sounds young to me. Like, I don't remember you. I feel like it was not. I mean, I, yeah. Yeah. So what happened is everyone moved out. I moved out.

I got an apartment. I got a townhouse with Nick and Corey. Kennedy moved out. She got her an apartment. Claudia moved out. Claudia stayed with my mom, I think, a little bit long. A little bit longer. And then eventually she was making enough money from social media where she could move out.

No, no. It was Kennedy, Claudia, you. Okay, I was the last. Oh, yeah, I was the last one. I remember the details. Oh, no. Yeah, I was the last one to move out. Oh, my God.

That's because I was always spending so much money. But yeah, I was the last one to move out. So that's when we got the townhouse. And then once we moved out, we didn't have the shameless house anymore. Right. So that's when I think. think we started actually like struggling a little bit more on YouTube because we couldn't just post random shit anymore. Well, I think to your channel, if you think about it, your channel changed so much.

It went from just your family. Then you introduced your two best friends and then your sister's best friend. And then I think when you moved into the house, then you started introducing like your manager. And then there was also like Rachel that came, you know, my friends were coming in. So it was like, I think you went from, you know, just family based content. to this kind of, it was like a vlog channel of just all different friends and you are just having anyone and whoever was entertaining, bring them is basically, I feel like what it was. Yeah. So this is where we get into the life lesson part.

Are you like looking at your glass because you need to be refilled? Yeah, there's nothing left. It's gone. The whiskey's gone. Well. And Dev has no alcohol at her house. No, I don't. I mean, my caboochism is it's tipping point too.

So anyway. Better use some saliva. I know. I feel like I need water soon. Brandon. This is not a full production where people can go get you water here, sir. Do you want water? No, I'm good.

Okay. I can suffer through it. Okay. I'm holding in my pee so you can suffer through your dry now. You can go to the bathroom if you want. No, I can't. You can't? No.

We're off limits from using the bathroom. Yeah, you actually can't leave the table. nothing, nothing can go off plan here. Okay, well, if I need to take a piss, I'll just pee in this cup right here. You just put it under the table. I think when we cut in, you shouldn't be able to see, like, if you had to pee under the table. Oh, so you just never know. No, like when I crop the video in, nobody's going to see if you pee in a cup under the table.

Oh, yeah, that's fine that I can do it. Yeah. Anyway, what was I saying? Just make sure a cat doesn't fight your day. You have dev has three cats. Everybody knows that. And they're biters. They're not biters.

They bite me all the time. I'm kidding. They don't bite. Continue your life memoir that I already know the entire thing of and have this sitting here and listen to again. It's okay. I love hearing. You asked me to be on the podcast.

No, I love hearing your life story and I love hearing. Does that sarcasm? No, I'm serious. I think I'm picking up some sarcasm there. Listen. Any chance I get to hang out. stare at you. Oh, that's so romantic.

I mean, yeah, I mean, sometimes it's hard for me to focus. I get nervous. Oh, you do? From across the table, yes. You're nervous right now. I can hear it in your voice. A little bit. I mean, if Julie wasn't here, I might pause the camera.

If Julie wasn't here. Okay, before this turns into a podcast porno, keep going. Oh, my God. Poor Julie. Julie's fine. I'm dissociating. Okay. So going, yeah, going back.

So we started, I started putting other characters in the videos. I don't know. It's probably bad to call people characters. But it's easier to reference. It felt like a show at a point though. Yeah. Like it was kind of like that. Yeah.

So we were doing like the whole, we were doing like a reality show format. And I was like, I got to get people who were super interesting and entertaining. So we put like your friend Rachel in. We would have different people in the videos and everything. And they started doing like pretty decent. Well, we also were playing off the whole me and you thing for a little while. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we blew up too because people love relationship shit.

Like we weren't anything and then we became something, but we also didn't really announce it. So we would like flirt in videos and then I think when we, the first video with Rachel, it was like kind of to stir the pod of, oh, there's a new girl. You know what I mean? So people liked that, I think too. Because it really was like a reality show. Yeah. Yeah. People love that stuff.

And now nobody cares about our relationship anymore. Those views are just in the drain. Well, it's fine. Things change. But anyway, we were doing that. You and I first started dating. Views blew up because of that. Started putting more people in the videos, right? We're making so many videos. There's so many at this point. Like, I can't even keep track. Thousands. I don't even remember what we did. There's not thousands, but I barely remember what we did. And then, yeah. And then what happened, we made it. We're making a bunch of videos. And then I guess fast forward like a year that we had the, that we had the townhouse. And, uh, yeah. And, uh, and then. And, uh, And then that's when like Jesse came along and Claudia got a boyfriend. So now there was another huge spike. Spike in views and everything. And yeah, the whole time. And then I made I made another channel where we did a lot of partying and like bad stuff.

Yeah, it started out as like just vlog kind of very low-key us going and walking down the street and doing dumb shit. Like it was not, it started out very informal. Like it was just extra content. Yeah. Yeah. And people really love that stuff. But I don't know. The whole time I was like, we were making like pretty decent money, I guess.

So I was like, oh, this is good. Let's keep doing it. And, uh, but the content they were making, I was never really that like satisfied with. And then on top of that, I had, we kept scaling up, I think too fast. I kept hiring people like crazy. And you also were doing. doing these extravagant videos that were costing you. Like what was it?

Like one of them was like 10,000 for one video, wasn't it? Something crazy. No, the one was like 22,000. Which one was that? On a vlog. It was the one where we got like a mansion and like the fancy, remember the fancy car and that kind of stuff. Yeah, we spent like 22,000 on that video.

And on top of that, I ended up throughout this whole process, which took place over like a year or two. I ended up hiring like a manager full time. So I managed, I hired a. I hired Allie full time. I hired, ended up hiring two editors full time. Nick and Corey were also on the team.

So like you added all up, there was probably about eight people who were on payroll, right? Eight people. He's sitting here reflecting on his decisions. And I was making YouTube videos and there was eight people. So I think I was always trying to make sure that everyone was like getting paid and being happy. so like it literally got to the point where I I think I just completely ignored myself like I didn't pay myself any money to this whole process all the money that was made through the business which at one point was a lot like in one month we made like a lot of money and all that money would go to the videos funding the videos and then it would go to funding everyone's like salary and stuff and then there's pretty much nothing left at that point I wouldn't pay myself anything and it would be we was like a really bad cycle that I never paid attention to to the point where and oh on top of that we

had moods we had like our clothing line moods too and I was self-funding moods so I was using my own money in order to pay for the moods inventory like I wasn't taking out like I didn't have investment or like loans or anything like that so it got to the point where literally we were hitting the breaking like I was hitting the breaking point where like how to start letting people go because there's no more there's no more money left and it was getting hard and I started ran yourself dry there buddy yeah making YouTube videos started feeling it started being like tortured to make YouTube videos it wasn't the same anymore as when we were living in the house and stuff where it was just easy and I could like whip out of camera and film it no one really

wanted to drink anymore I was never really satisfied making these like drunken videos I was going to say you definitely I think if you even just look back on before any of of the YouTube stuff, like who you were as a person in general and like even the career path that you were taking, I just feel like you are a person that likes to use your brain. You know, you like to have something that has value and adds value and you use your intelligence. And I feel like I think, I mean, in this, I can relate to this just in my own personal things, but I feel like when you first start with something in along social media, whether it's any, you know, TikTok or YouTube or Instagram, no matter what it is, I think when you

or only fans in my case. But I think when you first start and you're basically, you have it easy. You know, like you're putting out easy content that doesn't really take time away from you and you're making good money. You don't really think of anything else in the beginning. But then I think once time goes on and either the money goes down slightly or, you know, you start reflecting and you're like, well, I actually don't like this. And this isn't bringing me any type of value or happiness.

I think that what, like I said, once you do it for a little while, then reality sets in. And you start to realize it's not actually bringing any value to your own self and like your own mind and what, you know, you have no passion. Yeah. I was like, I was like I have like all these employees and we're doing, we're making all these videos. But I was like, what the fuck am I doing? Like I don't actually like making any of this. Like this, none of this content is actually a reflection of who you are of who I am. Right.

Yeah. And I was like, I'm not actually using my brain whatsoever. Like this content has no value to society whatsoever. There's a group of people who do. enjoy watching it. Man, that's fantastic. Like, I'm glad they're entertained. But I feel like I'm doing nothing.

Right. So there was like so many different elements that came together where I had to make a decision. I'm like, and change it because it, I just wasn't, I wasn't happy. And I feel like the thing is too is you've, you tried to make the, I don't want to say the small changes, but you tried to do it in the most minimal way, which was like kind of try and change different, like, you know, test different formats and test different video styles. And I feel like none of it was hooking or working.

And I think you were so confused. And it wasn't until, as you know, like, I feel like you did a hard reset with everything. And you kind of removed every single thing, every distraction, like everything that was, I guess even like anything that was weighing heavier on your shoulders in any sense. I feel like you kind of just had to remove it. And then really focus on, okay, what can I do?

to make myself feel like I'm producing content that I enjoy and that I'm proud of, but then also actually start growing this channel again. Yeah. I think a lot of it initially was just like the reason I kept doing the content I didn't want to do was because of ego probably. Like I was just. You think? Yeah, because I saw that we were getting views and everything.

And I was like, okay, we got to like do what we're doing and take it to the next level, even though I didn't have, I didn't have a care in the world for the content that we were making. Right. And I think a lot of people get, especially in social media, you get into this cycle where you're like making something that you don't actually care about. But it's like a annoying positive feedback where people love the content. So it feels like you like can't stop. Yeah.

Oh, like go like make content with like at your mom's house. Like I would always, I would get comments like that for like a year after I stopped making videos on my mom's house. I'm like, I don't fucking want to. Like I never even wanted to do that to begin with. It just like ended up working out super well. and I'm very grateful that people appreciated and like that content, but that content was not a reflection of me whatsoever. I mean, it was a starting point, but everybody grows.

You know what I mean? If you didn't change and you didn't grow, then you wouldn't be growing as a person, you know, like mentally and just in general in your life. And I think that you can kind of hold that process out for a while of like kind of falling back into what is working and maybe not growing, but what you've been doing, but I think you eventually hit a point where just either completely plateauing or you're so like stuck in your own mind. Like you actually feel like you're going crazy in your own head. And I feel like for you because you're such a like a, I feel like your brain is very fast pace. Like you're always thinking,

you're always trying to make something better than the last thing and like improve, improve. And I feel like the style that you were doing wasn't really allowing that anymore. You know, it's like I feel like you kind of bled all of that dry and it was like you needed the next a big next step yeah so Leah at the time when I came to this realization I guess we had um an office that was on lease that was a lot of money still have it right now getting rid of it um our house I had like eight different people who were doing work on the channel besides myself so nine including pretty much nine including myself so um kind of slowly started getting like rid of it like kind of moving everyone off the team because it was the best thing to do and uh yeah like you said how to go through like a hard reset for the channel so

and you're still even in the like you're still in the complete beginning of that too yeah i know so it's not even so yeah this was over the last maybe like two to three months pretty much got rid of everything. Right. Yeah. Had a had a hard, hard reset, which was much needed because I think it was necessary for me to start making content that I actually am excited to make. And it's already working, which is great. But yeah, sometimes in like life you don't realize that you're stuck in this like shit cycle and some, and you have to force yourself out of it. And I was stuck in it for like three years and didn't even realize it. And I was just doing something that I shouldn't I shouldn't have been doing because I don't even know why I kept doing it. That's the thing.

Like I think I felt like I was responsible for other people to make sure that they, one, we had a machine that we made that was working. But it got to the point where I didn't want to run it anymore. Well, I think too that there was some confusion in there. because of the fact that you were scaling up in other ways, I think, to a certain degree. Like, okay, so you went from no employees to hiring almost eight employees. And then you did move out of your mom's house and got your own house. And then you were, I feel like making more extravagant videos and putting more, like, a lot of this money into these videos.

And you weren't doing those things before. So I feel like even though you might not have enjoyed that style, it kind of felt like maybe like you were growing in a way, even if, you know, even if you weren't really feeling anything from it. No, and I learned a lot. Yeah. Like, I learned a lot during the whole process. But I never had a lot of time to actually, like, think on things.

Like, I never had time to truly, like, sit down and think about, like, what ideas I want to make. What kind of content that I want to do? Like, we would have all these meetings and stuff, but I needed more time to myself to think about what do I actually want to do. Right. What the fuck am I doing here? I'm going to drive myself into the ground.

Right. And I would work, this is another thing that's really, really important for pretty much anyone who's looking to accomplish anything. I would work extremely hard to the point where I, like, I would not eat all day, like if I didn't have to. And I would stay up late and I would just grind myself into the ground. And I was always about like, you've got to take action and make things happen. Right.

But that's not always the best solution. You got to take action, but you have to have to have. have intent behind your action. And if you don't have intent behind your action, then you're just wasting your time. Yeah. So a lot of the things I was doing, I was spending so much time taking action on like stupid things that didn't actually matter. But I think, too, that you were, you were so stuck in the same thoughts that it was like

even if you spent 10 hours a day working on something, your brain wasn't actually getting to any conclusion because you never, I feel like you said, you never gave yourself a break or a time to actually reflect on maybe the more important things. I think you were so focused on like, okay, like ideas, ideas, ideas. And it was like they were just like none of them were just something that you were really passionate about. Yeah. But things are changing now.

Yeah. Well, I was going to say to you like, well, you kind of just said it. But if you had to give advice to people, I guess not even just in the YouTube world, like what would it be to be? I don't want to say to be successful, but. Well, it depends. because I think everyone has a different definition of success. But I think there are universal things that apply to everyone.

I think the main problem with just people figuring out what they want to do right now is the fact that there's so many distractions that didn't exist back then. Right. So back then it was very easy to figure out what you wanted to do. Like you didn't have many options. Right. If you go really far back, you really didn't have any options. Your options were like become a farmer.

That was that was all you could do like back, like way back. Or like a minor. Yeah, there's no job. There's like a few jobs. Yeah. It's like, okay, do you want to become a minor? Do you want to like scoop shit? Like there's not much that you can do.

Now it's very different. Right. There's so many different things thrown at you from all different directions. And because of social media, you go on there. And in the matter of an hour, you can see like 200 people doing 200 different things. And it makes it really hard for your mind to like process what you're actually doing. Honey has her little... The cat is trying to eat our device.

She put her little ball under the recorder. Oh, Julie, help her. Her little ball got lost under the recorder. This is the only podcast studio that's full of cats. Well, it's okay. Well, not everybody, but most people like pets. She'll be good now. Yeah, I think she's solid.

Go ahead. Sorry, I lost my trailer. What was I? What was I saying? You were giving your wise wisdom. Because there's so many distractions. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Distractments. Oh. Well, I'm just an illiterate. Fuck me, right? I swear to God, the longer I've been out of school, I just, I cannot fucking speak. And I make up my own words. So if you guys ever hear me make up words, just go along with it because, yes, I made them up.

Distractments is a new word. Well, just distractments. I'll say that from now on. Thank you. I'll understand it because it's actually in the divorce dictionary. Go ahead. distractions in the world yeah i was saying there's too many options i was saying there's too many options and people it's you get immense amounts of decision fatigue basically and that would always happen to me

so i think the best thing to do which i think all people should do honestly is you don't have to completely get rid of social media but at least reduce it down so unfollow everyone who's useless to follow i don't follow anyone i don't even use social media anymore can i pitch in yeah i think as a woman too if you're following a lot of other women that you feel like you're comparing yourself to, it's just, I mean, and I get it. Like, it's fun to look up to certain girls that maybe work out and stuff like that.

But if you notice that you're comparing yourself to other people, which is easy to do. I mean, even you know that with, like, YouTube videos and, like, seeing other people that are getting these high views, it's really difficult not to compare yourself. And then it just, you're, like, you can't control where your mind goes once that starts happening. It's like a horrible.

social media has its benefits but like when social media didn't exist there was no one to really compare yourself to besides the people that lived in like your town or something there was no distractments you did no distractments you didn't even know other people existed who were doing like this particular thing so i actually think it's better to have that mentality like don't pay attention to the other billion people billions of people who were in the world doing other things it doesn't matter like it really doesn't and social media exposes you to all these people. So it's almost better to get rid of it because I think in this day and age, success is dictated by your ability to stay sane, literally, because everyone's insane nowadays. We're all insane. No, but it's completely true. Because of social media, 50% of the population is like mentally ill to some degree. And-

As body dysmorphia, body image problems. There's so many different issues and the core of it, whether you have these ingrained genetically, it doesn't, it's indifferent. The core of these issues is because of social media. Right. And again, social media has its benefits, but it also has a lot of negatives. So you basically have to have the discipline as a person if you have certain goals that you want to accomplish, if you want to be a writer, if you want to be a model, if you want to make video videos, if you want to be whatever, whatever you want to do in life. If you consume social media too often, it is going to manipulate the way that you think.

And there is a very high percentage that you are going to become mentally ill if it's something that you're predisposed for. So you need to be very careful about what you consume. So the best option, or like if you want to completely solve this problem, the best option is just not to consume social media. Like I am happier not going on Instagram and like seeing what other people are doing.

Yeah. And I think too is if you can, create some sort of strict thing with it where you, if you need it for business or you need to promote something, you use it only for that. And I think two people maybe get worried like about what other people are going to think. Like, oh, well, I don't want to hurt people's feelings if I unfollow them, but mute them. You know what I mean? Yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, just don't. What I do, I don't care if I tell everyone this. I didn't give a shit. No, I mean, it's smart though. Yeah, what I do? So instead of unfollowing somebody, you don't have to do that.

you, Instagram has the option to mute posts and stories. So besides our group, I basically muted everyone, their posting and stories just so it doesn't even tempt me to go on there. And over the last few months, I don't even check it anymore. The thing is, it's pretty obvious. If you're going to sit there and you're going to scroll at any point in the day, even if you're bored, you're, whether you realize it or not, you're consuming Joe, Mary, Elizabeth's fucking life.

Like even if it's just them shopping at the mall, why do you need to see that? Does it benefit your life at all? No. Do you, I mean, and if you care about what they're doing, then that might be a problem. Well, on top of that, like your brain isn't capable of processing that many people's lives at once. No, and it shouldn't. Right. Why does it matter? And the thing is, too, it's like you were saying, it does distract you from what you're doing. It distracts you from what you're working on. And also, it takes one thing. And you might not even realize in that moment that seeing somebody's post or seeing somebody's story. fucks with your own head and in return can manipulate something big that you're working on. Like I mean, I know that like I was saying, this has happened to you before where I see how hard you work and the amount of hours you put in and all the thought that you put into your videos and everything that you work on. And then, you know, there's been times that you're like pissed off

or annoyed because somebody might not put in as much effort and then the views are just there. And it's like, you know, it doesn't matter, you know, why they're there for the person or not or whatever it may be. It's just the simple fact that when that comparison is there, it like fucking rips your brain apart. Like, and it's annoying. And there's nothing, once you see it, there's nothing you can do about it. And it really can distract you from your own bigger picture, which I think is the biggest

problem. And it's like, you know, you can care for the success of others. And that's great. And you can hope that people are living their best lives. But at the end of the day, you need to focus on your life and things that you're working on. And consuming that much of other people's lives is going to take away from your own focus on your own. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's why it's important to live more of like an

essential lifestyle where you're getting rid of a lot of the things that kind of cloud your mind. Absolutely. Especially if you're doing something creative like we did with YouTube and stuff. Like if you don't know if you're not creative, you basically get paid based on the quality of your ideas. So the better your idea, the more likely it is more likely it is to get views. the more the more money you make that's how you make money as a content creator you get paid based on the quality of your ideas so if your mind's clouded with all these things and you don't live like a simplistic lifestyle and your brain is basically all over the place thinking about what this person's doing that person's doing comparing yourself to to 100 people at once you're

never going to think of good ideas right so you need to be able to completely clear your mind and have like true clarity in order to think of better ideas. And you need to simplify as many things as possible. And that probably applies to anything that you want to do in life. Like if you, if there's something that you want to achieve, you honestly shouldn't really be paying attention to anything else because it doesn't matter. If your goal is to achieve a particular thing, if your goal is to be, have the best podcast on the planet, right?

That is all that matters. There's no reason for you to be thinking about what. Sally and Joe are doing or what they're achieving because it's irrelevant. Well, not only is it irrelevant, but I think the other thing that people don't realize is who you are is very different than who five other people are. And the way that, you know, not only the way that it might work for others, but the type of people that, you know, other people are, that's not you. And it's like, I've realized even doing this myself that sometimes I'll look at a bunch of

things. And it doesn't ever really work in my benefit because I end up comparing myself to the point where I'm like, oh, I wish I had that, like, I would do this a lot when I was younger. I wish I was nice like her or I wish I had qualities like her. But at the end of the day, it's fine to work on yourself, but you should never be working on yourself because you want to be more like someone else. Or, you know, and you can aspire to have things. Like you said, like the biggest podcast or the, you know, get X amount of views or have a huge

channel. But that's fine to have those goals for yourself, but they shouldn't be goals because you want to one up other people that are doing it. Or like you said, it just that should be no. no thought of what other people are doing. And like I said, it's great. If somebody else is having good success, amazing, good for them. But like you said, I think that's a really important part.

Like, key part of what you said is that it doesn't affect you and it shouldn't be something that you're focused on. Yeah. And it really comes down to just like mental discipline. I think the biggest thing that people can do. And I know this is this is probably something that a lot of people aren't like, like, I don't know if you would necessarily do something like this. But I think a big thing is.

setting rules for yourself. The same way. Like if you look at anything, if you look at anything in society, it's everything's like ruled and law based. You know what I mean? So basically if you go and you murder somebody, then the rest of the humans in this world are like,

okay, you murdered somebody. You should go to jail for it. Right. Because it's a bad thing. Right. You're being punished for a bad thing that you do. I think the same thing needs to apply to your life. Like you need to set rules for your life based on experiences that you went through

that had negative consequences. Because a lot of people who never accomplish anything life are the ones who repeat the same stupid things over and over again. You know what that is the definition of? Insanity. So there's a lot of people who do this. Yeah. And I would say more people repeat bad things

than the people who learn that all you need to do is make a list, right? A list of rules where if you do something that results in negative consequences, write it down and make sure that you never. do it again. And over time, as you build this list, you'll become more and more disciplined and you'll be more and more likely to accomplish whatever your goals are. Yeah. And you actually, like you said, you learn from your mistakes. You learn from things in your life. Yeah. Because it's really easy. I think it's the easiest thing is, because I even, I'm guilty of this too, and this is just a small example, but with the social media thing, I can sit here and say,

I know all of these things that I shouldn't be consuming other people's stuff. But out of habit and out of boredom, I still sit there and I scroll. But literally right afterwards, I almost get like, not pissed off, but I'm like, that was so useless. Like, why did I even open the app? I saw nothing that brought any value to my life. Well, also think about how valuable your time is. Yeah.

You only have X amount of time a day. Do you want to spend that looking at other people's shit? No. Who literally don't matter at all to like what your goals are. Like, it's irrelevant. Right. So I think writing, actually writing a list down of like rules and then re-referral, and then re-relibering rereading it so you can kind of help like make it more concrete in your mind.

Yeah. And you do this as often as possible because if you keep repeating the same things and they keep having negative consequences. Nothing's going to change. You know, nothing's going to change. What's the point? Right. Like at that point you're just being an idiot.

Mm-hmm. No, I agree. And I know for some people, it's, it takes a little bit of time, you know, and I think, too, that it's, I mean, I've listened to podcasts, like self-help podcasts and read books. and you know, you can read something that makes a lot of sense. Or for example, there's probably people listening that this makes a lot of sense to them. And they're like, oh, I should be doing that or I want to do that. But sometimes as humans, you know, we do continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

And I think it does take each person their own time to go through something enough before they hit a breaking point. And they're like, okay, I'm actually this miserable and I need to make a change. And like it's going to happen right now. But it usually, I feel like unless you're a very, very self-disciplined person, it's really hard to just, snap your fingers and say, okay, I'm going to mute everybody and I'm not going to go on Instagram ever again. So if you have that fallback, you know, don't beat yourself up. Like I feel like the most important thing I can say is always practice self-love within yourself. Like if you do something wrong or you revert back to the same mistakes or something that you feel like you, oh, like I've done that

before and I should have known better. Like realize that it's, it's good that you're realizing it and try not to do it again. Like try to always do better. And I just think that it's if you can just be patient with yourself, but also make those lists and work on yourself and know your goals and actually be working towards a better version of you and a better, you know, not better, but well, better version of you, yes, but just constantly working on growing yourself and growing, maybe it's a business you're working on or just something in your life. You could even be a relationship. You know what I mean? Just anything. Yeah. I think it's a matter of self-awareness and it's something that you have to chip away at. Yeah. So like if you, you have to start being able to recognize

if something you're doing is producing a negative outcome for yourself mentally. And if you can't recognize that, you're going to fucking struggle. Yeah. I don't know, go go to like a therapist or something because you have to have enough. Talk to somebody. Yeah, you have to have enough self-awareness to at least recognize that what you're doing is producing a negative outcome. Once you do recognize that, then you can actually start addressing it.

Yeah. So you can say, okay, every time I do this, this bad thing happens, I should probably stop doing this. I know it's hard to stop doing, but maybe over the next month, I can reduce it. Right. So you don't have to get rid of Instagram completely if it produces negative thoughts. But maybe start on following some people that lead to those negative thoughts that you don't need to look at every day because what's the point? Right.

Like, what's the point? Chip away, baby. Just keep chipping. Yeah. It's like a long process. It's not something that you're just going to switch every night. But anyway, moral of the story, there's too much to consume. there's too many things that exist online.

The human brain cannot take in that much information at once. The goal, the secret right now in today's day and age is if you stay sane, you will be successful. Literally, because everyone's fucking insane nowadays. 50% of the population is like clinically insane. So stay sane, people. Yeah, it's true. Social media is making people insane. But it's also...

But it's also great. Yeah. Make sure you subscribe to this channel. I mean, keep watching my videos. Oh my God. No, that is true though. No, I don't want it to seem completely negative. There's a lot of positives to social media.

There is. The fact that people can connect to people all over, you know, from all over the world. There's so many. The list is always, look, besides social media, there's always going to be positives and negatives to everything. And like, it's just about when you see the negatives, you know, chip away. them like you said and work on it's the same as alcohol if I drink eight of these I would be puking my guts up but I drink one so I feel fine balance balance it's all about balance which Brandon himself

is still learning I have balance no I'm not I don't know balance no that's good I definitely think that you have a lot of knowledge that you can you know help people with whether it's YouTube or just life in general I feel like you have a good big heavy brain on you well I love as much as I talked a lot of shit about it, but I do like love social media. Like I think we're very lucky that we exist in this time where you can do whatever you want. So as hard as it is where you're throwing all these things, you do have complete freedom.

Absolutely. And that's important because I don't know. I feel like this is the only time in history where you can literally do whatever the fuck you want and still make money from it. You can make a fucking podcast where you get hammered every night. and talk about anything you want. Right. And you can make money from it.

That's mind blowing because there's other people in the world that like the same thing that you do. So that part of social media I like a lot. I also like the opportunity aspect of it. Yeah. I like the game of trying to figure out how to make an interesting video. I like being able to entertain people. I like I want to make content that really shocks and alls and is original and authentic. that's like my mission right now.

That's all that I care about. Making content where people watching, they're like, holy shit, that was insane. Right. Not content where they watch a bunch of drunk people. Going out to a bar. Again, getting drunk, yeah. Yeah, I'm done with that shit.

For the people listening who like watching those videos, I'm retired. Sorry. No, I think it's great though. And I think that it kind of is like a full circle in a way. Like, I feel like you might not have started on social media, but like I said, I feel like you've always been a hardworking person that just likes to use his brain and do something.

I just feel like you've never just been somebody that just settles or anything like that. So I think the fact that, you know, you now are in a place where you're pouring all of your passion and all of your thought and your hard work into these videos and, you know, you're trying to turn it into something that is successful, you know, business-wise, but also brings you happiness and brings you pleasure and something that you're genuinely proud of. sharing and creating, I feel like you're finally, in my opinion, you're finally at a place that you might feel more. I also want to build things that eventually have an impact on society and aren't just like,

I'm not, I don't want to just make something because it benefits me. You know what I mean? And I felt like that was how it was sometimes with the content. I know there's people that are entertained by that sort of content, but I don't want to build something just because it like benefits me. Right. Just because you're making money from it or people are watching. I don't care about the money side of things.

a certain amount of money and it's like Yeah, Brandon has a sugar mama. He doesn't need it. Why do you need it? I don't care about a fancy car. I drive a fucking corolla. I like don't care about any of that shit. It doesn't matter to me.

He doesn't live in a closet anymore, but. All that I care about in terms of like business stuff right now is creating a video that has an impact on somebody's life in some way. Like that's the point that I want to get to. I want to create videos where people watch them, they go, wow. And they think about it for a week. Well, that's the point that I want to get to. You might not know this, but I'm sure that even when you were doing your drunk videos,

there's always going to be someone, at least one person, that it might seem dumb to you. And at the end of the day, like we said, and we've discussed already a bunch that, you know, your happiness is just as equally important. But those videos also, I'm sure, have brought light to someone's day. Like somebody might have had the worst day and was so upset. But then they watched your drunk vlog. or even one of your older, you know, family videos or the video that you just posted, no matter which video it was, they watched it and it made them feel better. So I think the most important thing, like, is for you also is to just remember that no matter

what you are affecting people and you are bringing, you know, light to people's days, especially if people are having a harder day and like your videos are their escape, essentially, you know what I mean? And I think that it's like that with anybody that creates content on YouTube, whether it's videos or even podcast or you know anything it may be TikTok like I feel like people go on those things to kind of escape in a sense and I feel like it's the best of both worlds is when they're you know they have an escape and it's also something that you are proud of yeah exactly yeah I want to get people like a next level escape we're getting there you are absolutely and you will and I feel like you're

on your on the road to that so and soon this would be the number one podcast in the world we are getting there and you can say when I maybe you have to box Joe Rogan one day when I well I'm I don't want to fight him I told I told I told I told Julie that I would take take it that he could still be on top I'll be right under him like I'll settle for that I'll let him have the lead that's nice yeah it is nice of me I don't I don't look at him as competition I look at him as a great man that I just will be one step under maybe one step over but I went boxing him. You won't box him?

No. I'll be on his podcast one day. But luckily, this was the first podcast that I was on. So you come on my podcast to talk about one day being on Joe Rogan's podcast. I will be on his podcast. Okay, that's great and lovely. All right. But what about the fact that you're on this podcast today?

It's fantastic. I told you I was happy this was my first official podcast. I was on it with with Jesse and Claudia and stuff. But this is like a one-on-one podcast. Yes. but I just want you to be aware that when this is just, you know, explosive, that you're going to be able to say I was the second one ever on, we are all insane.

I will, yeah. But that being said, do you have anything else to say? Because if not, it was so great having you here. I think that's it. And you've been totally cut after your Joe Rogan cops. You're cutting me from the podcast. Totally cut, fired. All of this footage is done for it.

Yep. Just trash it, not welcome back. Okay. Well. But seriously, thank you for coming on. And I'm sure everybody can learn a lot from your story. And I love listening to you talk and share your wisdom and brains. You wizard.

Thanks, Deb. You're welcome.