How Dude Perfect Built Their $5 Million Studio

22:05So yes, maybe we should technically be making a little bit more than these guys. but long-term the harm that that does to the relationship and it just makes those other guys feel less than less than that way or less appreciated less appreciative and less valuable to the company and if you're going to have anything that works long-term you just can't have that mindset at least in our opinion you're always going to have different levels of work i mean like garrett said he's been working a ton on getting this place finished because he he was the architect like and he knows this thing like the back of his hand and so he's for sure felt a bigger load on getting moved over to this office.

22:40And that's just one example out of 15 years of different things we've gone through and carried different weights on. So definitely the right move to switch it back to equal. Was it hard than giving equity to outside investors? You know, honestly, I would say no. I think we got to the point where we were so excited about what could be if we were to take on help, that we were more excited about what the future could look like with a team coming in even though we were giving up you know some of what we'd worked on for that but obviously it's you know we kind of felt like as we got to 15 years was like look we only have a couple options here you know we could ride this thing out until it till it's just over um or we could turn the page and bring in some people who could really help us take it to another level and we got way more excited about that maybe by the time you all come back cody will have his loft in.

23:31Like almost like a hammock. Cody is sleeping at some point during most days. So he just went ahead and said, you know, I'm going to go ahead and build myself a little bird's nest up there to sleep in. Is this like the main watch room? It won't be. It is for right now. The meeting we saw this morning, what were you guys doing? We were doing a watch through of the Mark Rober robot video. There's like 20 people in this room watching one of your YouTube videos. We try to do a team watch through of whatever the next video is so that in one moment people can throw out feedback to the editing team. It's also just shockingly helpful for the editors to just sit there and watch our reactions.

24:09It's simple, right? We just did a stereotypes watch through last week or two weeks ago, I guess, before the awkward stereotypes video came out. And it's just, I used to do all the editing, so I know you sit there and you get so into it yourself. Okay, I think this is funny, but is it actually funny? And then you watch people's reactions and they're just making their own notes whether we make notes or not about hey people this was a huge laugh line I thought this was funny but no one laughed stuff like that so watch these are great what's the most common piece of feedback you guys give on your own videos we'll get right back to the tour but first I want to say thank you to opus clip for sponsoring this video because if you don't use opus clip it's kind of like you're shooting basketballs without even looking at the hoop but with opus you can take long form clips and turn them into shorts by using their new ai and their new clip anything tool which allows you to take any video, not just podcasts, lifestyle videos, vlogs, and be able to clip it down.

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25:05Plus it gives you all the captions. It gives you title, description, and even a score for how well it may do on your channel. You can actually prompt it to get exactly what you're looking for. So Opus will know to take different moments from your video, piece them together and give you a short form clip. Use my link below to get a special deal so you'll be able to use it right away and make the most of it for your channel. All right, now back to the video. Today we said a lot of, can we minimize the yelling? Was a good one today. Too much yelling. Too much yelling. I mean, it's just - Get excited.

25:39Get excited, it's plot stuff. It's, hey, I remember this was really funny. I don't, didn't see that in the edit. Stuff like that. Was that a conscious decision that, and Ty, you do more of the front facing stuff. Yeah, they thought I was the most handsome by far and thought, you know what, he should be the guy. We pulled the mobs and he won. By a landslide, it was shocking. It was really, got out of hand. We shut the polls down. But hey, it turned out it was a good decision. They were spot on, those polls. They knew it. Those five letters, S-T-B-T-F, sucks to be the face. Yeah. What does that mean?

26:12What does that stand for? I don't even know where it's. I think it started because somebody wanted an interview a long time ago and they wanted me to do it and I was like man I don't want to go do that and then that's where the jokes started sucks to be the face because you get to go do a lot of the fun stuff and then a lot of the not fun stuff too. There's perks to being LeBron and there's perks to not being LeBron yeah. As you guys are growing like you're like I want somebody else to be the face or like thinking about taking that pressure off. I mean I think the five of us are always going to be dude perfect as people think of it but I think the goal for us is that that content can expand and we know it has to expand beyond us in order to do the things and accomplish the things that we want to do so I mean Sparky is a great example but he wasn't on camera three years ago and now you know when he shows up if somebody's out getting surgery and he shows up in an overtime nobody even thinks twice about it because he's part of the team people latch on to them the way that they have us over the last 15 years and it's just helps us expand areas and the amount of content that we can't just simply don't have the time to do you know as the five of us you know we've added other trusted creators to the do perfect app for example like exactly and it's been awesome zach king mark rober's about to be added to it um yeah ryan trahan's on there and so we have even with those trusted creators we have moms watch through all all the content that goes on the app so that parents can continue to trust it.

27:43Almost like a focus group. Correct, correct. That's another layer of trust. Our hope is, just like Ty said, that if families trust Dude Perfect, they'll trust everything that's there and that'll be something that parents can really lean on without having to watch it ahead of time themselves. Looks like this is where we're gonna sign a lot of bottles too. We're doing a little special edition release of our body armor. Oh, there's only 100 of them. Pineapple-related flavor. There's only 100 of them, yeah. How do you guys think about getting into sports drinks? So far it's been unbelievable. It's been incredible.

28:09It's been really, it's been a great relationship with Body Armor. The flavors are good, partnership's good, and they're selling, which is good. Yeah, it's always a good thing. Yeah, that's been a lot of fun. We just did a taste test for our next limited edition drop the other day. We got some, we can't tell you what that is. We got some creative ideas for the next release. For the flavors. For the flavors, it was fun. Yeah, a little different take on the sports drink. If y 'all turn around, this is the editing base back here. How many editors is Dude Perfect? Corey, full-time editors. We've got about 8 to 10 on the production team right now.

28:42This is Tim. He leads... Tim Holt. Been here for nine years, Tim. Tim, what's up, man? Nine years. Tim is the head of post-production. Employee number two. Yep. You guys met Chad earlier, the other Chad. He was employee number one, and Tim's employee number two. Six months after hired Chad. You were employee number two. I'd all do perfect. Employee number two. Yep. Yep. It's been a fun run. And so Tim... Good call, man. Good call. Thank you. Tim leads the editing team. So what Corey used to do, running post-production, he handed off to Tim, who's done a far better job. Way better. Far better job.

29:16Went from the best. But yeah, this is kind of post-production world back here. Yeah. Editors, if they want to get away and put headphones on and tuck away into a little booth, these offices are back here. Once you get the footage, how long does it take to edit a Dude Perfect video? It depends on the series. Stereotypes, we turn around pretty quick. can be like five to eight days of a turn. I would say on average it's probably like 10 to 15 days of post. And then the bigger videos can be, you know, four to six weeks. Bucket list videos, quest videos, stuff like that. Airsoft with 100 angles. But I would say on average our turnaround is like two and a half weeks, maybe three.

29:57Impressive. Wish it was longer, but that's just kind of... That's where we are. Yeah, that's where we are. We're always throwing some new challenge at them. Like a couple weeks ago that we brought up the concept, Okay, huh, so apparently now everyone, Rover, Beast, they're getting all their videos dubbed in all these 12 different languages, 12 most popular other countries. But in order to do that, this is what people don't think about at home, you have to video lock it early enough for you to do that and then upload it at your normal cadence. So basically we're like, okay, cool. If we gotta turn it in, let's call it a week, two weeks early, that means we gotta somehow get ahead two or three weeks more than we currently are so that we can get on that cadence.

30:34Yeah, so it's stuff like that and we're always like hey, I know y 'all thought you were ahead but surprise We're gonna have to get more ahead or whatever well over half of our audience watches outside the United States, so Definitely something that we're looking to push into yeah, it'll be cool. You're the unsung hero Truly this is basically employee area So we have some executive offices as you come in on the left side those have the windows That's why they're for the execs that we have yet to hire but are working on it And now you're in kind of the co-working space. What's that Emmy Award for?

31:08It's a great question. That is not for us. Not for us, actually. That is for our production for our Amazon Thursday Night Football. Broadcast. We won the, what was the actual? The best tournament broadcast? Yeah. Yeah, so funny, it's funny to us as the five dudes. The talent, I guess, is not allowed to win one. Why? I'm not sure, but that's just how it works. So a bunch of people on our staff. interactive experience yeah got it for making the whole thing they want to two in a row but you'll see them in people's offices you will never see one an hour because we're not allowed to get one not really sure how it works and an actual emmy yeah as you can tell we're excited for the team very excited for the team we're excited for our team wait what was this for again our alternate broadcast for thursday was on for amazon is that where um like almost like manning cast that you get yeah yeah correct we did that the last two years and it's been really fun and yeah grateful for the show to have won.

32:00Might dabble. Emmys are cool, but this is the real trophy in the office. If you look up there, 2021. Tyler told me. Oh, yeah. I guess the first winner. And then 2024 will be another one here. Conveniently, they left off 2020 was me. I don't know why we started in 21. Maybe on the back. No, it's not. If I remember correctly, Tyler did win the year that no other dudes played. I don't remember. Details, details, details. Here we are. Yeah, about that. We did just have our draft the other night. Thursday night's first game It's very exciting fantasies not real, but it is really serious around and unlike gimme's we can actually win these so we care about Yeah, we did

32:45That's my name oh weird Chad Coleman, huh? I don't remember you know what operations producing Really

32:59What were you responsible for? Coordinating live social content. He was the snack guy. Live social content. We had a social guy for that. Playoff music. But then we can also... They love that kind of music. No, it's just the playoff music at the Emmys. When the guy's speech is too long. Yeah, you're trying to get him off stage. Oh, the playoff music. My whole team here. It's a different kind of... Oh, thank you! We're going to commercial break! Pimple hoser. Tyler could not have done it without y 'all. Hey, thank you guys. This is for you. This is for you. So back there in the dude's suite is where our offices will be.

33:38But because they were painting and everything, Cody's like, well, this one already has furniture in it for one of our CEO or someone else. Big Boss is in town. We came in one day and Cody had his stuff all in here. And I was like, honestly, he's really smart. So that's just smart. They're saying, though, our offices will be completed by this week. So that's big news. Really? I'm not buying it. I paid the lady and said, hey, do mine first. How did you get the idea for the hammock or the loft up there? I like naps and there was no room on the floor. So I said, let's go rooftop. Yeah, like the bird's nest for Cody.

34:08Yeah. Dude, who designs your merch? It's so well done. Oh, that's all not me. I would say Garrett has had more of a hand in our merch than any of the days. We've changed companies a few times, but the hats have been staples. Yeah, and also your logo. I just feel like this one, this one, y 'all may have seen this true brand. Dallas upside down started and we worked with the guy. He was kind enough to let us in. And so that's been really fun. It's been the top seller. How did that take over? Like I feel, I see that hat. Dak wore it and then it kind of was. Yeah, Dak wore it and went nuts. There, here you go.

34:41There you go, yeah. That's how it all started. Pretty creative. I love it. Yeah, make yourself at home. I'll be moving soon, so it's all yours. The other day we had, we do two a year make a wish days. Oh wow. and we have the families come by, and that's humbling and, yeah, kind of emotional, honestly. But that's really cool. Twice a year, and there'll be 20 or 30 people at a time that'll come through. So that was fun because they got to see the office before really anybody else. So we made it as fun as we could with it being a work in progress out there. But these are the types of things that we would have for the families, and this is our new board game.

35:21um Tyler came up with the original board game idea on a Home Depot box and so I would say that was an example of something we were very physically involved in that maybe people would be surprised they would think somebody just made it but Ty made it and came up with all the little gameplay and played it with his kids and so then we brought it up to the office and everybody played it we tweaked it until they made it into a real game so that's been a ton of fun and this was in Walmart this was in Walmart Corey wrote the Dude Perfect book so we've done a couple of books now but this has been the main one.

35:51I have the smaller one from years ago. Yeah and that was the one that Corey wrote the whole thing. Corey worked with another author to put this one together but Corey's been passionate about that side and Garrett's wife actually wrote the kids book. So we did a kids book which has been a ton of fun but we're looking to do. That's so cool how you guys have like turned yourself into characters. We've been, they mentioned like Duke Perfect Jr. We've been wanting to do an animated show for a long time. So that's something that we're going to use some of the funding for. With you guys as the characters.

36:22A Do Perfect animated show we just think would be a ton of fun. Yeah. That would go along with a book series. So that's a big concept that is not a small undertaking. I did an interview with Ryan's World. And the way they're thinking about animation. I mean, if you guys get in that space, it's like huge. Yeah, it's crazy. Do you see the floating logo in here? Welcome to the Do Perfect kitchen. Love it. I remember when we sat in a meeting and the team we were working with, it was called Jack Porter, who did a bunch of the designs in here. Really, really cool. They do a bunch of the college sports areas.

36:57When you walk into some amazing D1 place and everything's awesome on the walls, Jack Porter is the type of company that does that. So we've been working with them, killing it. So they helped us design all this stuff. It was really cool. They had these fancy renderings where you could stand out there with your phone and turn around and you can see what the space is going to look like once they put the graphics up on the walls and that helps me as a very visual person but so anyways they were like you want a floating logo we're like yeah we should do that we should do that oh my god thank you man oh see i know the upside down thing has like kind of been overdone a lot at this point no no we were early okay we were early with true brand we are like working on our merch right now we look at your stuff and the quality you're like that's the bar well thank you yeah thank you i mean so well done We're planning to do, I think we mentioned that we're gonna have a retail store here.

37:44We've never had a place for a store Yeah, so our hope is that we're gonna have stuff you can only buy here kind of like if you go to the Masters Oh, got it. You can only buy stuff there. That's kind of what we want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We want to have a different DP logo that you can just tell you got it at the store. That was an in-person thing. I can't wait to see that. So we'll see. We'll see. That's the game.

38:09So what happens in this room? This is the workshop. This is a Garrett special. In the last office, he finally said, I'm tired of the sawdust. I'm from builds ending up on everything in the entire office. So this is way larger than the last workshop. How many videos involve a set that you guys built? Almost every one. At this point. Probably most of them. Yeah. Some sets. How many sets do you keep after you do a video? Very few. Yeah, well we used to keep a lot and that was a problem because it would just take up space. So we tear them down and reuse the wood and the materials. But a great example of a set that took a ton of time to build that we essentially just took right apart and moved on.

38:48You got a little behind the scenes of the robot battle we did with Mark Grober. We kept all that though. We were gonna try to use it for something else. I was saying we kept the materials. Yeah, we kept the material but that took a month, two months to build. It's like this indestructible basically BattleBots set. Arena, yeah. And that was in the old space and now we're moving over here. But it's like that took forever to build and was incredible. And it's like, I don't know. What do you do with it, you know? The other day we had a bull in a china shop in here. Literally. The team made this into a china shop and we had a bull.

39:17So that was exciting. It was awesome. Where all the sets get built for our videos. That idea happened four days before the build. It was... You guys could turn it around that quickly. I mean every once in a while we'll be at the points this is for the rage monster in awkward stereotypes shout out Pretty funny video. I will say I can say that because I didn't do a lot of acting in it. It's pretty good. I Couldn't leave it at that

39:47But we had that idea because it's always tough this deep into it What are we gonna do for rage monster? You talk about the trick shots being tough to top There's a lot of pressure the kids put on like what's the next idea for Rage Monster? And so we were sitting there talking and Bull in a China shop came up and so we're looking at our Production team like can y 'all do this because it's kind of the only idea we care about now And they said yes, it was sweet. What's the most expensive thing you've broken in your Rage Monster segments? It's still I mean probably technically the basketball court, but it was already ruined So it was already getting taken up.

40:18We had a flood in the old office and so when we destroy it, it looks on camera like it was just perfect. It might be a house coming up is what I heard. A full house. It's a potential that it's not just a full house, it's a nice house. It's your house. No, it's not my house. Oh, and we're in the video.

40:46So what is this room? This is going to be the new set for Overtime. Okay, cool. So like Ty was saying earlier, Overtime has been amazing, and it's a lot of our deep fans' favorite thing, and so we want to give them kind of a season two, make it different and fresh, and so we're going to build that set right here. Episode 47, I think, which is insane. That's crazy. That's nuts. Yeah, that's wild. I mean, that is nuts. That is pretty wild. What does planning for an Overtime episode look like? Because it's mini segments, a lot of them are ideas that we've had for a long time, and try to combine them into the best, like, four-segment version.

41:22But it's a lot of creative, too, just to come up with four ideas. We found it's a good way to work in athletes or celebs, too, that either are trying to promote something or don't have a ton of time. We can usually film an overtime episode with them in a reasonable window of time. And so that's been a good recipe for involving them. It just gives you the freedom to try different things in an episode and it's been kind of a great testing ground for us. What's a creator or celebrity you've had on that you only had very limited amount of time, you had to get the shot? Like what was the most time - We had a pretty like set amount of time with Luca when he was here.

42:02And so we knew in advance exactly what that one was gonna be and really highlighted by Cody playing in one-on-one. I mean I'm talking just a feat of athleticism out of Cody there. It was quick too, we appreciate you letting that be quick. Yeah, I did my best. We were on a time crunch. Cody didn't try because of that. We'll get it back. I think you shot a backwards shot. It had a chance. When creators and celebs come on your show, their jersey sales go up, their subscribers go up. What's been the biggest impact on somebody who's come on your show and afterwards? We talked early days. Fantasy football draft numbers went up for those guys.

42:43Johnny Hecker as a punter. I remember that really put him on the map. you know he's he's great um it has been fun we talked about for football specifically like help take the helmet off of the players because you don't see other than just kind of a pretty boring press conference out of most of those guys you don't get a chance to get their personality so that has been fun for us to film with the athletes yeah um what's going on here what's the green room that's our sound studio no makeshift gaming studio right now so we are having a like a dude perfect gaming channel that Sparky heads up and we all like rotate in and play game with them and so so that's going on there until we get it set up in this corner over here when all that stuff comes away.

43:29You could maybe guess why these buildings are there but. Dude I'm looking I feel like I'm looking at Dude Perfect History right here. That is part of the idea. Yeah kind of a condensed version of our history. Those are the places where we have made the world's highest basketball shot from at different times. So started 2009 and good old Kyle Field in Texas A &M and then the next one actually jumped to here. That was a moving goal. Then Oklahoma City in 2016 and most recently hopefully the last one we will ever have to attempt. How do you guys think about topping yourselves when you go that high for a trick shot?

44:07Well, mostly when we were there, we were thinking, please, dear God, let this be the last one. Really? Because that took four days, right? Three days. Only three days. Only three or four days. It felt like four or seven days, probably. Took 40 years off our lives. I mean, it was crazy. Never should have happened. How do you guys think about your different formats? Because last time we did an interview, Ty, you mentioned, like, if you guys were doing trick shots, like, you wouldn't be here, like, 15 years later. Yeah, yeah. How do you come up with your different formats beyond just the trick shots?

44:34we try and come up with a new series at least once a year. And I would say 99 % of our ideas are in-house internally. I mean, we've tried outsourcing other ideation and stuff like that. And I mean, for us, we have some really creative people outside of the five of us, even on the editing team, and they're always pitching ideas. And it's just a group effort. That's for sure the hardest point, our hardest part at this point, is coming up with those new concepts and new creatives. But yeah, the Quest video with the MLB and then Cody's racing, it's usually a process of us all getting in a room together and throwing out a bunch of bad ideas that somebody takes and then turns it into a semi-good one.

45:17And then we work on that until it becomes a great idea. What's been an idea that maybe you guys didn't think would work but has blown up? I mean, over time when we launched it, we had this concept of like a variety show forever. Had no idea if it would do well or how people would like it. And then now we've, this will be our fifth tour coming up next year that we've essentially toured off of that series. I mean, Quest, we didn't know how people would like it. Bucket list. It's just different, you know, variations of the things that we like to do anyways that are formatted in a way that feels like a new series or is presented in a new way.

45:55How do you guys think about, like, the division of what everyone does? I know, Garrett, you do a lot of the finance. Cody, you do a lot of the social media. How do you think about who does what on Dude Perfect? I would say one of our biggest goals moving over here and taking on the investors that we did is to try to get out of some of that so that we can focus primarily on that content. I mean, you've seen a lot of the other creator stuff. We feel like, yes, we were some of the first to do some of this, but we were a little bit slow in building out a full team to replace ourselves on a lot of the actual business work.

46:26So it's kind of amazing how much of the actual work we've done and are still doing 15 years later. So that's something we are very much looking forward to is getting some people in here who can do a way better job than we can at the actual business stuff. So that'll be great. What do you think people would be most surprised to learn you still do all these years later? Jared does payroll. Paying bills. That's wild. Yeah, I'm the HR guy. Really? So I'm still onboarding all of our people, which is people find that surprising sometimes. What does onboarding look like at Dude Perfect? employee handbooks, having them sign all the documents to be here, making sure that they have benefits, things that I didn't know anything about until I jumped into it a few years back.

47:09Why are you so curious? I don't know. I'm just curious. It's cool that you guys are doing all this big stuff, but also all the little stuff, too. I feel like a lot of people just watch you guys on camera, and that's it. Send your resume. We'll break down the benefit package for you.

47:28So tell me, what's this behind us? Do you guys train a lot for your trick shots? You can't tell? You can't tell. We train hours. Look at us. We're indestructible. What goes into training for trick shots? That's a great question. It's more for getting old. It's more the training as we approach our 40s. It's just smart. Probably biggest upgrade, we added a sauna and a cold tub. I saw that. We heard cold tubs fix everything. Well, we heard that that's supposed to motivate you to work out. Yeah, you can do that afterwards, right? Right, guys? I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, you guys have a tonal?

48:02We have a tonal. That's how Corey got hurt, actually. Yeah, it's not. I love the tonal completely. You got hurt on the tonal? Well, technically. It's not tonal's fault. I love the tonal. It's like my favorite product of all time. But yes, technically, yes. What have we got here, Gary? Explain it, G. Yeah, so we've got the sauna, and then... Wow, this needs some water. and the cold plunge because, you know, can't ever be too healthy. You know, so... So far, we have yet to be too healthy. Yeah. Nobody's accused us of being too healthy. Look, we eat a lot of junk food, so this helps us, you know, rid the toxins out.

48:39Sweat it out. But, yeah, it's just a little, like, we kind of keep this just for us five, and it's just a nice little, like, you know, recovery, reset the mind room. So, typically play small music in here. After a shoot or something? Yeah. Oh, dude, I have no shame in that. So, yeah. It's like kind of hitting the locker room after the game. Yeah, correct. A little ruckus for the dudes. Wind down and... Trick shots will wear on you, you know? Clearly. I had shoulder surgery recently. I'm going to be fine, guys. Don't worry. I had the same surgery that Ty has had and Cody has had. Me and Garrett are hanging strong.

49:15Kobe's next. We do too much stuff, man. We're due after 15 years. So it's fine. We'll be back. We'll be back.

49:26All right guys, thanks for the tour. Can we do a pound it, noggin to end? Let's do it. All right. Pound it, noggin, see ya! Yeah, should we do, should we do, burn the whole place down. Pound it, noggin, and then a tent? Yeah, okay. Looks like the left side's higher. Hey, just so you know, we're keeping this either way. Okay, cool, I love it. No pressure, no pressure. Pound it, noggin, see ya! Oh, dear. Oh no. Did I go in? Camera guy. I'm not the main guy. Oh no! I like it. I mean, yeah, it's great. That was grotesque. Yeah, it's crazy. Oh, he still hasn't made one. That is a firm claim.