Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Danny Casale: Authenticity is the Key to Success | E163

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

In 2017, Danny Casale noticed how negative and polarizing the internet was. He sat down at his computer for a couple of hours and created a humourous video animation about misinformation on the internet. This video was “Snakes Have Legs” and today has tens of millions of views. Since this video took off, Danny has been able to turn his passion into a very lucrative career. He has over eight million social followers across platforms, he’s written a book UR Special, and in 2021, he minted the NFT project Coolman Universe which sold for $3.6 million in just 3 minutes. While this may seem like an overnight success story, it’s not. Danny was creating on YouTube since he was a 5th grader in 2007, and he’s been doodling for as long as he can remember. All Danny’s life experiences came together at a pivotal moment to launch his career. Danny’s journey is a great example of how preparation and authenticity are the keys to success. In this episode, Hala and Danny talk about Danny’s life journey, being a creator in the early days of YouTube, his recipe for going viral, how he stays inspired, how he monetizes his art, his NFT project Coolman’s Universe, and so much more.  Topics Include: - Danny’s background - Early days of youtube and being a creator  - How there are no overnight successes - “Snakes Have Legs” and the experience going viral on youtube - Why Danny refers to himself as a “bad animator”  - The mission of his art - Where Danny finds inspiration - Danny’s recipe for going viral - The importance of authenticity  - How he grows his social platforms  - Danny’s team - How he monetizes his art - Danny’s philosophy behind brand promotions  - Coolman's Universe and Speshys - How he first got interested in NFT space - The true value of NFTs - NFTs for artists and buyers - On writing UR Special: Advice for Humans - Danny’s actionable advice - The secret to profiting to life - And other topics… Danny Casale (aka Coolman Coffeedan) is an artist in Los Angeles who has gained popularity through his surreal, humorous and crudely-drawn animations. Danny first went viral in June of 2017 when his cartoon titled “Snakes Have Legs” accumulated tens of millions of views.  Danny is also the author of Ur Special: Advice for Humans and is the creator of the NFT project “Coolman’s Universe”. In 2020, Danny made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.  Sponsored By: Sandland Sleep - Go to sandlandsleep.com and use the promo code YAP15 WRKOUT - Visit wrkout.com/yap to book a FREE Session with a world-class trainer and get 30% off your first TWO MONTHS with code YAP Coinbase - For a limited time, new users can get $10 in free Bitcoin when you sign up today at Coinbase.com/YAP Linkedin Marketing Solutions - Post your truth. Show the world the authentic, professional you. And join the conversations redefining professional on LinkedIn. 99designs by Vista - Head to 99designs.com/YAP to learn more and get $30 off your first design contest! Resources Mentioned:  Ur Special by Danny Casale: https://www.amazon.com/Ur-Special-Advice-Coolman-Coffeedan/dp/0593330102  “Snakes Have Legs”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HXMYm4k6w0  Danny’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClNHWmlNIgEXLotLtlY2mLw  Danny’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coolman_coffeedan/  Danny’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/danny-casale  Danny’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/coolcoffeedan  Connect with Young and Profiting: YAP’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting/     Hala’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/     Hala’s Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/yapwithhala/     Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/@halataha   Website: https://www.youngandprofiting.com/ Text Me via @SlickText: https://youngandprofiting.co/TextHala Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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stores. Taxes and other fee still apply. You're listening to YAP, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Halla Taha, and on Young and Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into

actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life, no matter your age, profession or industry. There's no fluff on this podcast and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of XFBI agents, real estate moguls, self-made billionaires, CEOs, and bestselling authors. Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity,

had to gain influence, the art of entrepreneurship, and more. If you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button, because you'll love it here at Young & Profiting Podcast. This week on YAP, we're chatting with Danny Kassel, also known as Cool Man Coffee Dan. You might know Danny as the creator of the viral video Snake's Sve legs, or for his many popular digital animations that bring

positivity and humor to social media. Danny has over 8 million followers across his social channels. He's the author of your special, Advice for Humans, and is the creator of the NFT project Coolman's Universe, which sold for $3.6 million in just three minutes. Talk about NFT money. That's a lot of accomplishments, but Danny wasn't always a mega YouTuber and creator. He started posting to YouTube all the way back in 2007

when he was just in fifth grade and his success is a culmination of everything he's learned over the past decade of making videos and creating art. Danny is a great example of talent stacking and how preparation can meet opportunity. He believes that authenticity is what makes his work so relatable and shareable, and I have to say I agree. This episode is chock full of inspiration and positivity, and so I'm super excited to share it with you all. In today's episode we'll get a look behind the scenes and understand the mission behind Danny's artwork,

why he's a self-proclaimed bad animator, how he's gone viral and grown his social platforms, as well as why he believes authenticity is the key to his success. Before we get started, I just want to say if you're unfamiliar with Danny's work, go ahead and Google it right now. Danny Cassal, you'll probably recognize his work as soon as you see it. His animations will make you laugh, cry, and not feel so alone. And I think right now we can all use more of Danny's positivity in our lives. I'll drop the links in the show notes so you can see what Danny is up to. And if you're looking to go viral, find inspiration and live a creative life, this episode is for you.

Hey, Danny, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thanks so much for having me. I'm stoked. Stoked to be here. Me too. I'm super excited. You are the definition of Young and Profiting. You are a very young successful artist. You make the very young, successful artist. You make the world laugh, cry, and think with all of your super cool digital animations and your work brings so much positivity into the social media world.

You are known as Cool Man Coffee Dan. And there's so much to talk about from your instant success with your NFT project to how you accumulated over 8 million followers across your social channels. So we like to go deep here on YAP and I wanna talk about your come up journey. So today you're a social media phenomenon,

you're best-selling author, you're an NFT trend setter, but just five or six years ago, I read that you were a struggling video editor trying to get your big break. So talk to us about how you got here and what this journey was like. Yeah, I was living in Brooklyn, it was my first apartment.

I was living with five other dudes at the time. This is like 2016, fresh out of college dropout, like only really accomplished two years there. And I was trying to find myself, trying to find my spot in this creative world. I was doing video at the time. I was shooting freelance video around New York City for like 300 bucks a pop, you know, 200 bucks a pop, you know, music videos and stuff.

And I was actually stoked to be doing that. But I always knew there was something more to what I could offer. And I didn't know exactly what that could be. And I was hoping I would just, I don't know, figure it out along the way. And did the video editing, you know, videography thing for a little bit, a few years actually. And the animations slowly started creeping into my life. And then one day, one of them went viral and kind of just ripped me out of,

you know, freelance videography world, scouring Craigslist every day to just, you know, pay rent and dumped me into a artist, animator world, which was much more exciting to me. And I'm glad it kind of happened that way. Yeah, that's such a cool story. So were you into drawing and things like that when you were a child?

I was drawing my whole life. I was never sure on how to make it profitable or turn it into a living. I remember in eighth grade Spanish class, I'm like doodling on my Spanish notes and I'm like, this would be sick to do this as a career, but what is that in tail? Like at the time, I assumed it was something like, I don't know, like getting hired to illustrate a children's book. That was the only thing I could think of. And even then that was fulfilling someone else's vision.

So I had no idea. And this is what, like in eighth grade, it was 2009, 2010, like social media still was kind of in its infancy. So I'm fair, I think it's right place, right time with my art, my doodles, and just, you know, the internet being able to make all this stuff happen and be able to go viral, be able to get your art in front of new people

that maybe wouldn't have seen it otherwise. I do consider myself lucky in that regard, but I also put in like a lot of hours into figuring it out, you know? So luck meets preparedness, I guess you could say. Yeah, and I think you're being a little bit humble because you were on YouTube since 2009, at least. And although you weren't doing the same stuff,

you weren't doing your animations, you still were figuring out the platform, testing it out, putting videos up and putting in those reps. So talk to us about what you were doing on YouTube before you first went viral in 2017. Yeah, I was on YouTube before anybody knew what the hell that thing even was. I was in fifth grade. It was 2006, 2007. My dad was flipping through a magazine at the kitchen table, and you found, you know, it was like top video streaming websites and YouTube was like, I don't even think it was number one, it was like number six. But we ran upstairs, like all excited

to check out these websites, and you know, we typed in YouTube into the URL bar and we're like, wow, this is really cool, because even prior to discovering YouTube, I was making home movies with my brothers and sisters. I'm the oldest of three others. And I would, you know, make all them be the little actors running around and like, you know, using catch up as fake blood type stuff.

But I never had anywhere to post it, you know, I would like, the closest I got is I would like, have my friends crowd around this little two inch camcorder screen or I would burn it to a DVD and show my family at like Christmas or something. But prior to that, there was no way to show your creations to other people. Definitely not strangers. So once YouTube came out and I started learning

on how to upload my movies to YouTube, you know, all of a sudden it was like, wow, like this video has 15 views. I don't even know who these 15 people are. I was like a very, you know, I'm like 11 years old at the time. So it was a very, that that concept was kind of instilled in my life very early on that you could create a thing Upload it on the internet and then people would find it and maybe they would like it I remember even I got my first hate comment and I was stoked. It did not bother me at all I was like well, I don't even know who this guy is, but he watched it and he hated it, but he still watched it

so Yeah, that was kind of like 2007, 2008, 2009, I was just like, kept uploading, I was doing domino toppling videos around that time, which there was a large community around that. I got a problem like just like a domino train, and then you just like watch them fall. Lock it down. I would spend hours doing that and my parents' basement as a sixth grader, you know, and

it gauged quite a community and I learned so much back then, like 500 subscribers, like walking around like the, you know, middle school hallways being like, none of these people know I got 500 subscribers, huh? Like they don't even know what YouTube is. They don't even know how to look up the videos. But it was cool because I feel like I had this secret society of like audience members and people I would collaborate with. And I felt like they were my friends. And that also instilled like a very early on,

like how to maintain that, like, sort of creative lifestyles. Like, okay, I'm going to post a video week. I'm going to respond to these comments, respond to these DMs. I'm going to hold a contest and there's going to be a winner from the comments section. That was like, nobody was doing that back then. And I think if I didn't do that back then, I definitely wouldn't be where I am now because you see what happened with like YouTube over the past decade, decade and a half. It just teed up everything that happened afterwards

with Vine, Instagram, TikTok. It's obviously, you know, online creator culture took over the world and I feel very honored to have been on the on the forefront of that way back when. Yeah and to me your story is this classic story of skill stacking. We talk about it a lot on the podcast. It's like you were doodling as a child, then you got exposed to YouTube, you figured out the platform, you got a little bit of success, you learned how to use it, you went into video editing, you learned how to animate,

then one day you stuck all those things together, plus your mission, which we'll get into in a bit in terms of bringing positivity to social media, you put that all together and you were an overnight success that really took 10 years to figure out all the skills that you needed. So I don't think it was luck at all, but I do think it was, you know, like you said,

being prepared and stacking all those skills and then attacking it at the right time. It was really good timing. Yeah. People love to use that overnight success word, but it's like, you know, you see, I created my first YouTube account in 2007. And it goes back like all those skills honed over time. I think the difference was when you start taking

on what I took on when I was only 11 years old, you don't realize you're learning. I was having a lot of fun doing it. It was such like I was in that hobby phase. I was just totally enamored with making YouTube videos, but I was learning crucial lessons along the way. And that really paved a really powerful path for everything that ensued afterwards with knowing how to handle going viral, which can be quite daunting for a lot of people, knowing how to sustain that, how to build from that, and then also knowing what to do with the high highs, the low lows, there's beautiful things that come with social media, there's really terrible things that come with it.

All those core values and lessons I learned without realizing I was learning, I think, because I was doing it from such a young age. So I do really, I'm very appreciative that my dad was looking through that magazine that won random Saturday, you know. Yeah, it's an amazing story. So you first went viral in 2017. You had this really funny cartoon called snakes have legs on YouTube. And it criticized misinformation on the internet.

It was super clever, very well made. And if I did my math right, you were just 21 years old when all of that happened. So what was that like for you when you started to go massively viral on YouTube? Yeah, I mean, there I was in that apartment packed with dudes and sleeping on a twin-sized floor, you know, mattress on the floor at an end of bed frame. I didn't have money. I didn't have a plan. I just kind of had that random three in the morning idea while I was brushing my teeth.

And I didn't even have like the punch line in mind. I was like, you know, let me, I know how to doodle. I know how to video edit. Let me see if I could marry these two skill sets together and try to make these drawings move and make an animation. And so I did that and I was like, improving, you know, voice audio and just kind of like having fun with it.

I was like, well, let me take it that little extra bit further and like make it relatable. Like maybe why would people want to share this and want to show their friends? And I was like, you know, 2017, I'm on Facebook as a young guy and so are all my friends. And you're just seeing like everybody hating each other and getting into fights with each other on Twitter and very polarizing political summer. And I was like, I'm going to make a message about how the internet can be used for amazing things. And you should stop being an idiot on it. It's a powerful tool that could do a lot of good. And that's the whole narrative. Like the guy reads an article on Facebook that snakes have legs, a snake literally slivers into frame and tells him he shouldn't believe everything

he reads on the internet. So I make that it took like an hour and a half to make maybe. And I just wanted to, you know, bang it out before I went to bed so I didn't forget the idea in the morning. And about a week later that that turned into my most viral video to date. I've tried to do the math. It has to be hundreds of millions of views because it's been reposted so many times in every corner of the internet.

And that was that wow moment for me because I've always been trying to go viral ever since I first logged on to YouTube in 2006 and here we are in 2017 and it finally happened. With a style, I kind of just stumbled upon and did randomly in the middle of the night. So I was like, wow, okay, that works. Now I'm going to do more of that. Let's see how far I could get this thing. Posted another animation a few days later, you know, same energy, same style. That one did really well also. And then I was like, you know what,

I think this is what I'm gonna do now. Like this obviously works. It's tough to find something that works. It's also tough to find something that doesn't feel like it's copying a million other things that was already done. Here's a oversimplified cartoon vibrant color style that is bad animation as I call it, but with powerful messages behind these simple

characters, powerful punch lines, relatable sort of thoughts and feelings that maybe people don't talk about as often as they should. So very quickly, I realized that I had something unique there around the same time I made a video about it was just a potato talking about how he's proud to be a potato and everybody loved that. It's like an analogy for just loving who you are. So it was very, it just came all at once and once all the followers started floating in, I was like, cool, let's see what happens next. And it was just that mentality of rolling with the punches. And so many years later, here we are. I love this story so much.

It's so inspiring. And it just goes to show that, like you said, you had years of hard work that led up to this. And then you ended up making this video on just a couple of hours, but it was the years of experience before that that allowed you to create that video on a couple of hours that went massively viral.

So I think that's the real lesson in all of this is that it was all of these experiences and thoughts and you even knowing that like, hey, it's the right time for this to go viral. This is happening in the world based on my experience. I'm going to put together this video and shoot my shot on going viral. I will say even with all those years of like practicing for that moment to happen, going viral like that is still a hell of a doozy. I it was a wild day. I mean, I was at my parents' house among Island while like I realized this was gaining like millions of views

on Facebook and stuff and my parents' Wi-Fi was horrible and I was like trying to keep up with everything so much so that I ran into the train station. It was like raining out. It was very cinematic. I ran to the train station to get on public Wi-Fi, and there I am sitting at the train station in a rain storm, just really taking in everything that's happening and making sure I'm maintaining all of it and asking all these accounts to tag me, to who weren't tagging me.

It was a full-time job for a solid few weeks to really seize the day and go in viral and make sure you're getting all the followers and views you deserve and making sure those accounts that aren't tagging you are tagging you. It was a lot, it was a lot. But I think I was maybe more prepared than the next guy because of all those years behind me.

Still a lot though, still a lot. Yeah, I can imagine. So let's talk about your name, Bad Animator. You self-proclaimed as a bad animator. Doesn't make much sense considering you're one of the most successful animators in the world. So tell us about that name. I love that name.

Even as this thing grows, maybe the animations get a little more fluid. I really am animate, no pun intended, in keeping the characters sort of overtly simple, borderline bad. Like, the mouth style, like when a character's talking, it's literally just open mouth, close mouth layers, very just, you know, simple. And that all kind of derives from literally my lack of knowledge

and knowing how to animate from that first three in the morning idea, but I still made it happen. Like I had the idea, I didn't wait to go to four years of animation school in order to do it. I just said, let me figure it out. And I did it. And I think that sort of authenticity and drive that I had that one random night, you know, and not overthinking myself shines through and inspires people.

And they're like, wow, like this is so simple, but it carries so much weight in its messaging that it made me feel a very certain type of way. It carries that sort of power. So I realized like early on with like this snake talking about how you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet and how you should use the internet as an amazing tool to do amazing things. This potato, who's

reminding you that it's okay to be a potato. In fact, it should be celebrated. You know, all these very borderline stupid looking characters carrying profound messages. I felt calling myself a bad animator, set the bar low so that when you come into it, you see this simple looking character. You're like, okay, this is either going to be a meme or some cheap joke or some shock of value thing. But then it like, this character hits you right in the feels. You know, reminding you that everything's going to be okay, that you're special, you're

loved. And I feel like people not expecting that is the right experience. You know, I don't wanna say an amazing animator's like, no, I'm like, I'm a bad animator, but check out what these characters have to say. And then that sort of creates the experience that I've seen really is most effective to people, to the viewers.

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That's trinom.nom.com.shap for 50% off trinom.com.shap. So would you say that your mission for your animations came first? Like the fact that you wanted to be more positive on social media timelines and things like that. Would you say that that mission came first or that mission really developed after you started going viral and realized, Hey, this is what's working. I'm going to keep it simple. Make sure my characters are simple. So my message really shines through because that's really my mission is to be positive

on social media. Yeah. It's a good question. I mean, I always felt like really bummed that the internet was such a negative place. I get it. Things have to drive clicks. Like, articles have to, you know, really make people mad

or sad in order to get views and clicks on their article. Like, at the end of the day, it's a business. I understand, but it just, it's a business, I understand. But it just, I don't know, especially during like a summer like 2017, which at the time was the most political summer of my life up until the past few years with COVID and everything. But that was like, when I saw it reaching this apex of negativity and I was like, oh, this

feels horrible. You see friendships getting ended, you see family members fighting with one another. And I'm like, can't we all just get along, Jesus? So I think at that point in time, it just ramped up to such a degree of negativity where I always felt this way, the know, the past, you know, the few years prior to going viral, me going viral gave me that stage, gave me that voice, gave me that opportunity to actually maybe broadcast my thoughts. And I kind of married the two, you know, this opportunity where I had an audience out of nowhere and this mindset that I've been in the past few years. And I said, let me actually, you know, try to get a conversation going,

like with the snakes have legs video and all these other characters, like, how can I maybe help a little bit? How can I help push the narrative forward? So it's definitely grown to be more focused on that. The past few years, as these animations and characters have grown in popularity, you know, I have my main character named Spesh, who, you know, it's the name is short for special, and he reminds, his MO is to remind people that they're special. And, you know, it's kind of been figuring that out along the way, like, okay, how am I feeling personally as an artist, like, what's on my mind? What would I want to hear to feel better?

And then what do I see happening out there? What do I see happening in current events? Like what's this ethos going on that I'm seeing on Twitter and on Instagram? Like how is that 13 year old middle school or feeling nowadays in 2022? Really just like listening and watching and learning and really trying to make my characters be there for people in these times of need or

or address what people are thinking about and and be the voice, you know, saying, hey, you're not alone in thinking these things. So yeah, it's been it's been a very very much a rolling with the punches sort of deal, but I've always wanted to do something like this with my art and I'm glad it's finally happening and people are getting a lot of Puditivity out of it. Yeah totally and so a lot of creators out there They really struggle with coming up with ideas and that's why they don't stay consistent They feel like they don't know what to post every day I read that you when you lived in New York,

you felt very inspired by your surroundings and that really helped fuel you. Can you talk about how you think of all these new, cool ideas and how you stay inspired? Yeah, kind of like what I just touched upon in terms of thinking about how I feel as the artist, right? Like, if you're making art or you're making a video or you're talking about a certain sort of thing, like you want to really believe in what you're talking about.

And if I can't think of a video idea or I have a writer's block, I'm like, well, let me just look within and see how I'm feeling or see what's on my mind. I had a video that I made once about getting a pimple and looking at yourself in the mirror and just having an absolute, you know, freak, you'd melt down, freak out, and the video kind of focused on maybe how the pimple feels. The pimple just wants to be your friend maybe, like maybe he's just popping up to say, hello. And that was directly from me having like a pimple that was ruining my week. You know, there's always something

that I feel is maybe going on in your life personally that so many other people can relate to. We're all human at the end of the day. We're all very similar. You know, it goes back to me saying, like, yo, I think we could all get along if we really try because we are all very similar. I believe at the end of the day. So certain values and certain things that maybe you're concerned about, millions of other people would be concerned about or care about. And when I'm living in New York City, especially surrounded

by people, all different sorts of people from all different sorts of walks of lives. I, you go for a 10 minute walk to the supermarket, you experience so much endless inspiration, really, but also just endless creative fodder for like, I wonder what this person's story is, or you see an old woman carrying like seven bags of groceries and you're like, dang, she's badass.

That's really cool. I wonder what her story is. You see, you know, you just see like little movie moments everywhere. And that was really, I was, that was a lot of inspiration for me, especially when I started first being on the, on the creative come up here. There was no shortage of ideas.

And now that I'm like in LA and maybe there's less people in the sidewalk, more so I do look within to see what's on my mind and what I'm thinking about to have my characters, you know, pontificate on and talk about. And I think that's been an interesting journey as of lately too. As you're talking, I keep thinking about what is your recipe for going viral. You've mentioned a few things. You mentioned, you tried to think about making things shareable or like what would somebody want to share.

You mentioned it being relatable and then also like the timeliness in terms of the topic. So what are some of the elements that you think about when you're trying to go viral? Definitely, relatability. You want other people to get something out of it. Now, that could be like, oh my god, like, they said it perfectly. That's exactly what I've been thinking about. That's exactly what I've been saying,

which is what I think happened with snakes, have legs. Also, you don't want it to, you either have to go super niche so that it speaks to this loud but powerful niche group or you want it to apply to everybody. I can't really do both. What I realized with the success in snakes have legs was every side of the political spectrum believed it was about the other guy. Like it kind of was left open for interpretation. So you have like everybody thinking the fake news is about the other party,

but like it didn't side with one side or another. So which I did totally accidentally, but I realized after the fact, but it was also just, you know, I would say knowing your audience, knowing how to relate to your fellow per human, and then also just making sure that the creative is authentic and genuine and shines through, especially now, like, people can sniff out a phony video, they could sniff out like an artificial artificial overproduced video. You often see on like TikTok,

it's like the iPhone quality videos that go viral. It's because it's so raw and real and authentic. So I think now, especially more than ever, especially even more than a few years ago, the more authentic it is, the more you're being yourself, the more likely people are gonna to really respond to that, because I think right now we're sort of at that apex of people just are craving authenticity. I think through apps like TikTok, people are finally getting that authenticity,

like a random 15-year-old will go viral for no reason in their bedroom. It's like, okay, cool. You feel that. It's fun to watch that and be a part of that. So, yeah, I would say to definitely just figure out like what that part of yourself is that you want to share, that you feel like, you know, other people would rock with. Yeah, I think those are really great points. So let's talk about how you leveraged YouTube to grow all these other social channels. You're huge on Instagram, two million followers on Instagram or more. You surpassed your YouTube following on TikTok.

I think you're at three points, something million followers, which is incredible. Most people can't even figure out one platform. So what has been your success in terms of growing all these other platforms? Yeah, it's interesting. I think a lot of creators or pages have each platform fuel the other.

Mine is not like that. All these platforms have grown totally independently of one another. So, you know, the 3.1 million on TikTok is not the same people as the 2.7 million on YouTube, which is not the same people as the, what are we at? 2.5 million on Instagram, all different crowds. Like there might be some crossover, but it's majority different crowds that discovered me on that app totally independently from the other app. So I think it's, I post the same content across all those platforms.

And I think it's just the content doing its job in being super relatable and super fun to watch and finding its audience. Sometimes there'll be a video that gets 5 million views on Instagram and only 250,000 views on TikTok, but then sometimes there's a video that gets 3 million views on Instagram and then it gets 20 million views on TikTok. So it's kind of just adding and flowing like each video, even though it's the same video I'm posting across the different platforms on Facebook and YouTube and TikTok and Instagram, posting across the different platforms on Facebook and YouTube and TikTok and Instagram, they find their own audience that people, you know, that resonates with it. Sometimes to the extent where it does significantly better than the other platform, like I have

a few videos on TikTok that have like over 10 million views, which is crazy. So it really is just putting the love and care into that piece of content so that can flourish on any platform. You don't want to be catering to one platform or another because that's a quick way to burn out. In my opinion, if you really put all the love and care into one piece of video, you could divvy that up on all the different platforms, I think at that point you're set and it'll find its people on the different platforms. There's like two main strategies I feel like to go on social media.

One is to like play into the algorithm and like really figure that out and have like okay content. And yours is the total opposite. It's just like amazing content that is super relatable. That's totally different that nobody can replicate quite honestly, right? There's no, you don't have any competitors, whereas people in the self-improvement space or like whatever,

they've got all these different competitors, they got to learn the algorithm and the trick and the way to stand out. And you just go viral because you have amazing content. So it's really interesting to kind of think about the different ways that you can kind of grow on social media. And your strategy seems like the most simple, effective way. So it's really interesting to think about the different ways that you can grow on social media. And your strategy seems like the most simple, effective way.

I'm curious to know, how big is your team? It doesn't seem like you need that many people to manage all of this. Yeah, a team small. I mean, it all starts from myself, right? So I feel like if it were to be a team of 50 people, you lose that. So I have my manager, I just brought on within the past year, another sort of producer, sort of role to just help me manage all the creative that's going everywhere. But it's still a very, I have like my creative partner on the NFT project.

But still core team, these are all my friends at the end of the day too. I've grown very close with even my manager who has been my manager for the past four or five years. I feel like if you grow too quick and you hire like seven editors, 10 videographers, two assistants, it just turns into a little bit of an artificial machine that loses exactly what made the thing special from the beginning, which is that authenticity. So it has been an interesting, not a challenge, but it's a new thing in my life the past year or two where I have to navigate. Like, okay, how do I keep this all as authentic and powerful as it could possibly be coming

from myself, making sure it's all real, but also how to scale. And you need people to help scale. So, I looked to other people that I respect and other creators and how they did it. And I think so far, so good. It's definitely interesting, though, as something continues to grow, you just got to figure

out how to manage that, but it's a good problem to have. Yeah, totally. So, let's talk about your monetization streams because you monetize in several ways. You've got merch. You had a super successful NFT, which we're going to dive super deep on in a bit. And you also obviously monetize your YouTube channel. Talk to us about your different income streams and how you monetize.

Yeah, first early on, I mean, the only money I was making was virtually from brand deals, maybe six months or so after I got that first video went out, snakes have legs, I got a brand deal from a website domain company and it was really good money. I was like, holy, I can't believe this. This is awesome.

It was not a ton, but at the time I was like, oh my God, you're telling me I'm gonna draw and get paid this? Awesome. That was that, that was that, oh, okay, I see where this could go sort of moment, but even like the revenue from like YouTube ads, like it was deadly squat compared to, because my videos are short, you know, YouTube kind of favors longer videos. So, so I definitely mainly focused

on getting brand deals and brand partnerships. I worked with Samsung for a bunch of years. You know, stuff like that. I did merch over the past few years as well, making super hype, limited edition drops that you would only be able to get if you bought it over the weekend or until it sold out. So it's with the main two revenue income streams. I just relaunched, I kind of killed off the merch model recently and just launched my own clothing line called your special. And that was really, that that first drop was really powerful and awesome. So it's been this nice ebb and flow the past, you know, four years or so of working with brands that I really love and respect that we can genuinely do cool stuff together. And then also paying a lot of attention to, how can I make a dope hoodie that people are stoked about?

How could I make a dope t-shirt that people are stoked about? And then, you know, hyping that up and being like, here's why this piece of clothing is special. Here's why you should consider getting it. You know, and then the book even, that was a whole separate mindset. It's like, okay, I'm gonna work on this thing for a year and a half. How do I make it the best possible end product? I could make it.

So that's the commonality between all these things. The book, a video with a brand deal in it, a hoodie. You want the best possible end product, because if you just take a payday and you make like a mad video, you know, shouting out some brands that you don't really believe in or you make a crappy book just to get paid, there's no longevity there and it's not going to grow with you to be something truly great. So I always made sure this would, like I said, the authenticity always carries through. I truly believe that's what'll get the audience most stoked

at the end of the day as well. So I went on a little bit of a side tangent there, but I think main stuff was definitely the brand deals and the clothing. Yeah, I'm so interested in the brand deal. So I have a podcast network now and I actually represent 20 shows and influencers across social media, YouTube podcasts.

And I'm so curious, because I looked at your stuff and I was like, ah, he doesn't look like he does brand deals but he's got so many followers, he would make so much money. And now you're telling me you do brand deals, walk us through how you promote a brand on your channels typically.

Yeah, I mean, like that, a lot of people say that, which is good. You know, it's because I really make sure it's such a disguised ad that it's enjoyable to watch. You know, it's like, oh, wow, I didn't even realize I watched like a sponsored video. You know, I worked with Samsung for two years and I did a ton of videos with them, one of which being about these characters like jumping out of the tablet I was drawing on and just like interacting with me and it's like genuinely fun to watch with the internet domain company.

I made a whole series about these aliens that crash landed to Earth and they needed to raise money to fix their spaceships. They'd go back home so they started a rock band and used their internet domain service to get the word out about their rock band. Stuff like that, like really fun, like the alien series was like super high. It has like millions of views because it was a genuinely good series that was sponsored by this company. But it was fun to watch,

even if you didn't care about that company at all. Like, it wasn't like, I hate subscribe to this company. It wasn't in your face about it. It's almost like product placement in a movie. Like, that's kind of how you treated it. It sounds like a super cool. Yeah, because it's, yeah, it's like, you know, you watch like an Adam Sandler movie and

he's like eating like peanut M&Ms, you're like, I can go for some peanut M&Ms, I guess. But it's like you're also enjoying a really funny movie a great time, you know. I feel like that's the way to do it. And unfortunately, a lot of creators like made it somewhat normal for you to just like blatantly shout out and add at the end of a video or just be like, yo, like, you know, go go buy this like product I don't believe in at all. It kind of just set the bar sort of low. So what I always made sure I did was make sure it was a real fun time to watch. Like it's an ad yes, but you want to have fun while you're watching it. Yeah, and that just goes to show, you know, you're really serious about your community and the

trust that you've built. And that's why you do really well with your engagement because they feel like they can trust you, like you're not just going to sell them anything or sell out. So I think that's really important. Yeah, exactly. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Exactly. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Hear that sound, young and profitors? You should know that sound by now, but in case you don't, that's the sound of another sale on Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform that's revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide.

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And right now as the app listener, you can get 15% off when you go to masterclass.com-profiting. That's masterclass.com-profiting for 15% off an annual membership. Masterclass.com-profiting. Let's talk about your NFT project. So you had this cool men's universe NFT collection of 10,000 NFTs called Specially's and it sold for 3.6 million and just three minutes, which is totally incredible. How did you first get interested in the NFT space?

I found out about NFTs, like most of the public did in 2021. It was January. I started seeing the word floating around. I didn't truly understand it. But once I got the concept, okay, it's digital artwork that, you own the metadata of and you could sell it, you could keep it forever, but you own that piece of digital artwork, which is really cool to me. And you see people being like, oh, you could keep it forever, but you own that piece of digital artwork, which is really cool to me. You see people being like, oh, I could just screenshot it and I was like, it's funny. You can't. Now I understand why you just can't do that.

So I still didn't quite see the utility in my art with it. I had all my friends hitting me up like, yo, you should do NFTs. I was like, I don't know, I don't really get it. So it was kind of just like me watching and learning a little bit more. It wasn't until March where I actually minted two NFTs and I just tried it. Like there were, you know, MP4 video animations on loop, on open sea. And they sold for like two Ethereum, one Ethereum each, much to my surprise. I didn't like, shell it on my socials or anything, like people found it and they were like,

oh, like, I love this artist cool. I'm gonna get it. I ended up losing all two Ethereum because I transferred it wrong. But it didn't matter. It was like, okay, cool. Like, there's demand here, I guess. So still though I didn't really do much else with that.

I was like, okay, that's cool, but it wasn't until over the summer where I saw these generative projects popping up, like Borde Piack Club and CryptoPunks, obviously, and cool cats. Once I saw those, I was like, okay, well, that's actually a really cool concept. You're telling me I could do a collection of 10,000 and also have them all truly be unique and have them be exactly that. Generative. You have all these assets that kind of jumble all together. And you have different rarity rankings on each accessory, depending on which accessory

you get and what combination of accessories you get, it determines the rarity of it and thus it determines the price of it. It was a really cool concept to me. I got excited about it because my characters fare so well to that style. By the end of the summer, after chatting with my buddy on how this would even get done, because he did a lot of research on his end as well,

I committed to it. I was like, I'm gonna do this thing. We built the team. And this was about end of August. And we minted in December. December 17th was public mint, and it minted out in about two minutes, which was really well to see.

That's so awesome. And so you drew these 10,000 characters by hand. Can you help me understand what people receive when they buy an NFT? Like what are they really buying? So you're getting a one-of-one piece of artwork, really. So you're getting a one-of-one piece of artwork, really. So you're getting a spech with this hat, with this sunglasses set, with this necklace,

with this pet that he's holding, all these one-of-one, there's only one spech holding in iguana, for example, while he's wearing a fedora, while he has a samurai sword on the back of him, you have that spech. And with all the metadata attached to each accessory, it kind of spits out very mathematically how rare that specific spech you have is. And based on what the floor price is and what Ethereum's at, there's a very calculated

way to see exactly how much that spec is worth. So right now the floor price as of today is something like $4,000, $5,000. So there's species that have sold for 11 Ethereum, 12 Ethereum, you know, $60,000 just based on exactly how rare in that collection that particular spec is. But sort of in a more emotional level, like maybe you get a spec because it's your favorite color, or you know, there's a spec holding a cat, and you're very close with your cat. Or, you know, there was a soon-to-be mother telling me how she got this spec that was like pink and chubby and holding a little baby because she was pregnant,

very pregnant, and that's how she felt. She was telling me she was feeling pink and chubby and she couldn't wait to meet her newborn and that special was holding like her, it's baby, you know. So it was very, there's that sort of level to it too where it's just a dope piece of art that you really resonate with. For whatever reason, it makes you smile, it motivates you for your day. And that's the reason I think you should really get an NFT, a digital piece of art, because it's like, why would you buy a painting to hang it in your bedroom?

You want it to bring you joy. And so there's been a lot of people in the community that get their specific or multiple specials because they see some of themselves in it, which is really cool. Yeah, and I think it's super cool for digital artists like yourself because regular artists who paint or whatever, they can sell their paintings. Digital art, traditionally, people can just rip them, take screenshots, upload them, do whatever. Now you can actually own a piece of digital art and have that proof that you own it, which is super interesting. What about the services that you offer? Because I think you're also offering some sort of community and like access to you and your

community as part of this project, is that right? Yeah, so you know, there was a very interesting cultural fork in the road where people were like, okay, are these things actually gonna bring IRL utility to people? And a prime example was what Bordeaux Piault Club did at NFT and YC, where if you were a Bordeaux Polder, you were allowed into this party, this yacht party with like, you know, Chris rock

headlined a season sorry headlined. I think it was the strokes played live like That was a real experience that you could only get in if you held this NFT as a ticket or as a proof of like entry So that was a very interesting thing that when I heard about that, I was like, okay, that's a start to the conversation. Like, what else? And what I like, what I have envisioned for for specialties, if you have a special, is not only does that get you IRL utility, we have our first event coming up in New York

on March 19th, but it's going to get you that digital utility as well. Like for the first clothing draw, the first your special apparel draw, there was very unique exclusive items in the collection that you could only get if you verify that you were a special holder. For the event that's happening in real life in New York, you're only gonna be able to get in if you show your special at the door and that's gonna be an exclusive screening,

open bar, red carpet, movie event for an animated short film that I haven't released ever. It's gonna be first shown to the public then. So it's sort of the dynasties in between the real life utility and the digital utility and those sorts of two different dynamics working together, I think, provide the maximum amount of value to the person that's holding that NFT. And you want to keep fulfilling that for life really. As long you want to encourage people to hold it forever. You know, you're a part

of this club, you're a part of this family, this beautiful community. How can I, as the creator, continue to have you stoked about being here? And that's a really cool new element of my creative life as well. Like figuring out dope things to go down in real life, figure out cool digital initiatives to make you feel special and valued, like those exclusive items in the collection that if you're wearing it, that means you're a holder. If you see someone else wearing it, you're like, oh shit, like they're a holder too. So something like that, I think really gets, you know, a community really stoked about being there.

And what else can you say in terms of the successful ways in which somebody can launch an NFT project or how someone can evaluate whether they should invest in an NFT project? Basically, how can you tell if an NFT project will be successful? Yeah, I mean, if you're thinking about starting one, I would say, what is your character? If you're thinking about doing a gendered collection,

what's that character that, you know, is unique to you? Did you create a character that isn't ripping off something else? You know, is very unique and special to you? And why is that unique, why is that character unique and special to you? What's the story of that character? And can it be expanded to be a series of a thousand, five thousand, ten thousand? Can you draw up a bunch of accessories that are going to be

randomized throughout the collection to make every single one out of ten thousand NFT truly unique and truly special and truly cool to look at? And that just takes brainstorming and being really creative and seeing like, what could this thing be? Which is exactly what I did. I just sketched on Post-its and I saw like, okay, this hat would look cool and this color would look cool, this animal would look cool.

So just having fun on that creative end, but from a buyer's perspective, how to look out for a project that might be a good investment, a project that you might want to be a part of for the long term, is I think first and foremost, you have to really like the art. You have to really resonate with it and enjoy how it looks, or why would you want to have it in your wallet? You want to be stoked that you see it there every day.

But also, you want to read up on the team, is it a trustworthy group of people? Who is the artist? Is it an artist? Is it a fully doxed or well-known artist? Doxed means that it's just not a mystery person, right? So all those factors to make sure that, okay, this project is teed up for success in the long run.

I know who all these team members are. And also just read up like, hey, like, what are you gonna be getting out of it if you do hold for the long term? Is there incentive to do that? Will this character turn into the next sponge bob or Hello Kitty or the next Mickey Mouse, the next Pikachu? You have to or the next Mickey Mouse, the next Pikachu,

you have to really believe in what you're putting your money into. This is like the analogy I've been using is it's like you follow someone on Instagram, what's going to keep you following them? Right? What's going to keep you following their content and in taking their videos day in day out, what's going to keep you from unfollowing? They have to provide a lot of solid value for you. It's that same mentality, but now it's like people are putting their real money into it. So it's an actual investment,

it's an actual financial investment. So it ups the ante a little bit, but it's still the same framework in my head. The creator has to provide value to the receiver so that they want to stick around at the party. You know? Yeah. And if these are so cool, and I think you bring up a good point, you need to appreciate the artists and like the artists, because I believe that the value of NFTs go up as the

artist gets bigger and bigger. So like V friends, for example, as Gary V gets bigger and bigger. So like V friends, for example, as Gary V gets bigger and bigger, it's going to be worth more and more. So that's why the artist, I think behind it all, and like the meaning behind it all all matters because it could just be a fad. And in three months, if nobody cares about this person behind the project, then the project isn't going to be worth anything anymore. So I feel like your point is really a good point. I mean, with Gary, I'm not a holder in any of the V friends yet, but like I love Gary,

I have been an intakeer of his content and his messages for years. And I would be a holder for the long run because sure it gets you into cool events and it gets you, there's some of the V friends that get you going to a baseball game with Gary. It's like that's all fine and dandy and really hype. But it's also like personally, I would hold it even if it didn't get me that. Maybe one of the rank and one of the NFT rankings

that don't get you IRL access, I would still hold because I'm a believer in Gary and I like, he brought me like a ton of value personally. So I think that's completely, you have to really resonate with the creator. And if you have, there's a lot of NFT projects where the creator isn't even like a Borde et biax club. You don't really truly know who the creator is or who the artist is. There's a little bit of a disconnect there.

Yeah, it's like multiple animators who are doing it. You have no idea, and how could you emotionally connect with that? You kind of just have to look at and be like, ah, this looks dope, which is fine, but I think all projects moving forward is it really has to be a, you're in love with the artist, you're in love with the art, and you're in love with their vision. And it has to be those three things that keep you stoked about being a part of it for the years to come. Okay, so let's move out of the virtual world and talk about your physical book that you put out. What made you decide to write a book after all of your success online? I always wanted to write a book, you know, another thing that was always a dream of mine

and I was just never quite sure on how to go about doing it, but I started writing it in March of 2020, which was the scariest time in everyone's lives. And I kind of thought like, hey, if my characters can bring other people joy, hopefully these characters can bring me joy in this really strange time in my life. So I just sat down. I started typing. And before I knew it, there was a bunch of short stories and illustrations that I thought would make a nice little book called Your Special

Advice for Humans, which I started writing for my own self-help, but then I realized this would help a ton of other people out there. So what it does is exactly that. At the beginning of the book, my character's special introduces himself. He thanks you for picking him up off the bookshelf. And he takes you along a journey where chapter to chapter, a new character introduces themselves and teaches you a new life lesson that maybe you haven't thought about exactly that way before. And it's a really colorful book covered in my illustrations and it's also

for all ages because, you know, there's some deeper meanings behind things that, you know, maybe an older person would see rather than a younger person, it goes back to the potato video. A six-year-old can watch that and be like, ha-ha talking potato. But then a 30-year-old will watch that and be sobbing because maybe they had some self-conscious past few days and they're like, you know what, I'm going to believe in myself, like this potato believes in itself, that sort of mentality. It's a really, I'm very proud of what this book came out to be. Yeah, it really does have some deep meaning in it. So the book is really helpful for people

who felt alone in the pandemic. And the pandemic has really destroyed friendship circles. People are feeling more alone than ever. So I'd love to hear your guidance in terms of anybody out there who's feeling lonely because I know that you talk a lot about that. 100%. I mean, it's a very, very real thing, especially amongst young people during the pandemic. My own brother who essentially missed most of his high school career because of COVID. He missed the end of freshman year. He missed all of sophomore year. And even junior year is kind of wibbly and wobbly

because you know, you're half in, half out and you have masks on. And I think it's just now getting back to normal. But he essentially missed all of high school because of COVID. And what that does mentally, I see firsthand through him, like, you know, his first kiss, his first girlfriend, his first hangout session with his friends, his first party, like all these things that are supposed to happen during those years just didn't happen. And that's the case for so many kids around the world. And I feel like there's gonna be a little bit of a, it's gonna be a lot of fixing to do there.

But what I noticed was most kids that age and everybody really, but especially younger kids turn to social media to get their mind off things. And that's when I went full force with my characters to remind everybody that everything was gonna be okay, to all the lonely people during COVID that are even still feeling it now, I would remind them that it's important to look

at everything in the big picture and remind yourself that you're not gonna feel this way forever. And then also just find those little joys in life. Like I have a character named Blue Dude who says, hey, like there's a lot of bad things happening in the world right now. Maybe you're feeling a very certain type of way, but it's important to remember all the good there is out there.

And Blue Dude goes on to recite all the simple pleasures in life that we often overlook, like the smells from bakeries and smiling babies and that feeling you get when your crush says your name, the taste of watermelon in the summertime, stuff like that, that I feel like especially during COVID with everything seemingly going wrong and everything seemingly just being negative, it was important more so than ever to just really like check in with yourself and say, all right, I'm going to make a cup of tea, just treat myself or watch my favorite show, people need to treat themselves and remember that those small pleasures in life and be there for yourself and be your own best friend and remember like exactly what my book

and the videos preach is that you are special, you are loved and everything will be okay. Although it is easy to forget that, I think part of the reason it is easy to forget that is because we're not told those things often enough and they're not talked about often enough. So I hope that's what my characters can do for people. That was so powerful.

I'm so happy you came on the show, Danny. You're super inspiring, super motivating. I think everybody learned a lot from your story. As we wrap up, we ask some of the same questions to our guests at the end of the interview. So let's start with this one. What is one actionable thing our listeners can do today to become more profiting tomorrow?

Ooh, I like writing down to do lists physically on paper. Something about writing it down, post it, or a notepad with a pen or a pencil, and that's satisfying you get, feeling you get when you cross it out. I don't know. That just, that beats like a digital no-patter or something. To do this, change my life.

I couldn't agree. Getting your priorities right. What is your secret to profiting in life? Having really good advisors and people you trust in your life, you know people that you could ask real raw on bias questions to someone you could ask the dumb questions to? Yeah, I'm on Instagram and TikTok at Cool Man Coffee Dan or you could type in Danny Kassal on YouTube, anywhere on the internet. I'm on Twitter at Cool Coffee Dan. I'm sure you'll find me one way or another. You will find Danny Castle very easily. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Hallala. I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. Isn't Danny so awesome? He's such an inspiration when it comes to living a creative life and being passionate about your work. One buzz word that kept coming up in our conversation was authenticity. This is a key ingredient to what makes Danny's work so successful and unique.

Danny works really hard to make sure everything he turns out is distinctive to his style, yet relatable to everyone who watches. He's always creating from a place that feels truthful and authentic to him, which is why his audience connects with it on such a deep level. We also talked about the NFT space, and Danny gave some advice for creators and buyers. He said that if you're a creator thinking of minting an NFT, make it be a work that you're proud of. Success will come when you're authentic, genuine,

and passionate about what you're building. And if you're looking to buy into the NFT space, look for creators who are transparent and original in their work. Getting involved in an NFT project combines the joy of owning artwork you love with having an awesome community to be a part of.

Take both of these aspects into consideration when buying an NFT. Lastly, remember there's no such thing as an overnight success. Everything we learn eventually comes back to help us. This is super powerful, so if you have a side project or a hobby that you love, keep working on it and having fun with it. All this time you spend on your side gig, your learning and your perfecting new skills, talent stack, and meet opportunity with preparation. You never know we're being authentic and creative can take you. Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcasts with Danny Kisal.

If you enjoyed this episode, take a few moments to drop us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform. Reviews are super important to us, and so we always appreciate your feedback. You guys can also DM me on Instagram at Yab with Hala or Twitter at Yab with Hala, or you can find me on LinkedIn, just search for my name, it's Hala Taha.

Big thanks to the app team as always, I appreciate everyone's support, and this is Hala, signing. Big thanks to the app team as always. I appreciate everyone's support. And this is Hala signing off until next time. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben podcast. My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft.

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