E133 - Supercar Blondie: How I Built a $100M Brand & Youtube Channel

30:25It's like a fashion show. Yeah, exactly. It's like, these are outrageous clothes, but. Yeah, and it kind of leads the brand. And it also, yeah, like the runway shows, you wouldn't necessarily wear most of those things, right? But it makes you enthusiastic about the brand. It's like, wow, this is cool. Look at what they've done. I'd never wear it, but it's cool. And it's almost the same as you said, exactly. It's like, wow, look at what they are capable of doing. I don't know if anyone wants to drive that around, but I'm a fan. I'm a fan. Like, that's cool. I guess it's quite a cool way of getting attention to the brand itself.

31:03Yeah. And I would imagine the designer is probably given a budget. Yeah. Where it's like, okay, you have this amount of money, go crazy. Yeah. Let's see what you can do. And, you know, if they never did concept cars, it's something to get excited about. Like, they take these concept cars all over the world. And for new generations or kids growing up to be able to see these incredible cars, they get excited about the brand. It like, it crosses over into production cars. If you see a Peugeot concept car that is absolutely outrageous and you're like, what is that? What is that? And it says Peugeot on it.

31:39You're like, Peugeot? Wow. I didn't know Peugeot could be that cool. Yeah. You know, because you have a certain perception of a car company and then they come up with something really cool and you're like, wow. It like upgrades them. It like levels their brand up basically. Yeah. There's one you did which was very cool. I think it was the Lamborghini Vision GT. Oh, yes. That was – but then that was also kind of like, yeah, I could actually see that. Oh, yeah. That's very Lamborghini. I can see that on the road. Very Lamborghini. Lamborghini is really good at concept cars because they are very Lamborghini design language.

32:11They just push it a little bit. But, yeah, you could totally picture driving that thing around. Some of them you can't really, but – Yeah. What happens to them? Do you know? It's really sad, actually. They just get put away into a shed. So they didn't get sold. No, and this is another thing that was something that we were focusing on. Let's sell these concept cars for the companies so that they can actually get new budget in. You know, someone will want to buy something beautiful like that. Over 10 mils and some of those. One of one. Some of them, you know. If they drive, it depends, you know, if they're fully functioning.

32:50Some of them aren't. You'd like push them. Yeah. Literally. Okay, ready? one two three push and everyone's pushing and then i'm like oh it drives not um you have to get that yeah clip of it moving for a couple of seconds you're like okay you know the one you know the one yeah jump in while it's rolling and i'm like yeah yeah um so why not sell it for the companies they get more budget in and then they can design an even better more beautiful concept car so this is a this is another goal of ours is to to sell some concept cars for the company as well because it is sad they go on a tour for like a year or two and then they literally get put away in a shed and not thought about again, which is kind of a waste.

33:27Yeah. Did it get to the point where you were looking around trying to find these concept cars and like going to check them out for the content or were they reaching out to you being like, hey, look, we got this cool thing? Both. Both. I mean, when I first started, no one was really covering concept cars. Yeah. So the brands were like, why do you want to film concept cars? I don't understand. We don't sell them. I'm like, because this is cool. Like people want to see cool stuff. And I've never seen it before. So, so many other people won't have seen it. And so, I started, it was proactive on our part at first, like really reaching out, going, hey, can we film this, blah, blah, blah.

34:08And everyone's like, why would you want to film that? It's cool. Let's do it. And then they started realizing, oh, yeah, it does actually help build the brand, getting concept cars out. And so, yes, they would reach out to us as well if they had a new one, et cetera, et cetera. so it goes both ways yeah really yeah i was trying to put myself in your shoes like to to be shown a car which is like a one of one which doesn't even make any sense like how are you supposed to review that properly like do they do they give you a little walkthrough saying well this is this is what it is and this is what it does yeah because it's it's one thing to know the technical side of a car but a concept car which is a one of one yeah if you told me to just give give everybody a tour of this concept car i'd be like this looks pretty cool like this goes up like this instead of like that exactly but that's it's one of one as you said it's not going into production so they've done some pretty crazy things so i do a walk around with the head designer who tells me all of his vision this is why we did this this is why the window goes on a certain angle or the windscreen wraps around the front and why we've done this why we've done that and so i go around every little feature and i learn about the vision when they tell you everything do you remember everything and then you're rolling and it just like okay so that's that's a skill yeah i i i'm quite good at like soaking in all the information and then just having it there and then i'll just kind of blurted out.

35:42I'll just walk around the car and I'll know what's happening. And a lot of what I did or what I do is like in one take, right? So it's just because it feels more relatable if it's not chopped up and edited perfectly. It's just like me walking around the car, it's relatable. And so, yeah, it is actually, I didn't realize it was a skill. I just realized like that's just - Yeah, that's a good point. I'm thinking of videos I've seen of yours and there's no cuts. Yeah. There's just, yeah, it's just something - that's hard like even when i'm filming yeah chris will know like if i tell us all his secrets he's literally got a library of me messing up yeah like it's and then when you mess up there's this internal frustration way like it's not coming out the way i want it to come out and then it just i have to just go off for a walk yeah oh i get you i've i mean there's so many bloopers i mean i i mess up i mean we all do right but like i kind of got to the point where i could really like soak in all the information and then just like it would just all come out and I would maybe only need to do like two takes.

36:42Then when I went through this burnout in 2020, oh, it was so bad. I couldn't even get one sentence out. It was like my brain wasn't functioning anymore. I wasn't sleeping at all, which doesn't help. But, yeah, it just – of course, like I didn't realize it was a skill until I lost it. Yeah. And I was like, I can't do this. And then I had to build it back up again and start actually knowing what I was doing. What was the burnout? How did you try and do too much? Or not sleeping? I mean, that's obviously quite a big factor. I was, you know, traveling all the time. And it's a machine. I didn't give myself one day off in four years.

37:20Like, not one day. Maybe Christmas Day, I think I got off, you know. And so, you know, when you're on camera, the energy you have to give to the camera is double or triple the energy you would give to someone just talking normally. So if you're doing that constantly all day, the energy that you give out, you need to give the same energy back to recover. But I wasn't giving any energy back into my body or my mind. I just kept giving, giving, giving energy. And it totally depleted me. I got super anxious. I got depression. Yeah, I couldn't sleep because of anxiety. And I'd never felt that way before.

37:58I actually turned to my husband at the time and just said, I forget how to fall asleep. how do you fall asleep? He's like, I don't know. I closed my eyes. I'm like, I can't, I'm just not sleeping. Like everything was so busy in my brain. And then I went on medication. I went through therapy. I think the other really hard thing was dealing with all the hate, you know, like when you first start, especially for the first few years and like things look great on camera, but behind the scenes, I was struggling, really struggling with like how many people hated what I was doing and just like trying to tear me down all the time and that gets you were you you were reading comments yeah don't read the comments i mean even do you read comments i do because sometimes i like to see how a video performs but like in a good way now i'm pumping out more content so i just don't even have time to like check the comments good but what i am curious to is maybe if i put quite a bit of effort to a video and i'm like how do people oh but that's even worse you put in so much effort and then you read the comments you're like oh god i'm so crap yeah but it's just it's one of those things like there is it's like wow people are really picking up on everything everything to hate about so and you know you you can go through a hundred positive comments and then there'll be one hate comment and that's the one you take with you it's so silly but that's how your mind works yeah so i i try now i i stopped reading comments for years and i had uh someone else like reading them and replying and stuff because i also wanted to know how the video was doing right that's huge like to get the feedback and see you know what should i be doing better or should i be doing something differently but you need someone else to handle those comments yeah and then they can just kind of filter them present it nicely exactly a little bit of maybe constructive criticism as to what you should maybe improve upon but like just not say it in such a brutal way Exactly.

39:52You suck. Get off camera. Yeah. No, I get you. But this internal drive of you just constantly working every day, was that because things were going well and you were like, let's just keep going? Yeah. Or did you have like this end goal? Didn't have an end goal. No. And I think that's what was so exhausting. Yeah. It was like, where are we going with this? I think things were working so well and I only started when I was 31. So I was like, I'm already in my 30s. I gotta go for it you know because even at 30 you feel I felt old I was like oh my god I've just done 30 like and what am I doing with my life and there was one of those moments where so I quit my job at 30 and I was like oh my god I'm 30 I just need to go for it and so I just went for it and went for it went for it now looking back I was like I'm like you were 30 like calm down man there's still time so i wish i'd given myself a little bit of a break but also when you want to make something big you do have to put in that kind of work not quite to that level maybe but you do need to yeah there's this i think there's just phases and chapters especially if you start something new it's just gonna suck for a while and it's gonna be mostly you that needs to do everything and then you can pull back a little bit ideally the best thing to do is just build a solid team try and delegate as much as possible and not be such a control freak exactly but that's hard isn't it yeah you build up your brand your identity your everything i'm sure i don't know how involved you are now with editing yeah i will always proof watch everything because there's little things which i may add or just cut because to maximize the engagement i will just get rid of anything, if I start to feel like I'm getting bored, I'm watching myself and I'm like, you're fucking boring me, Mike.

41:45Yeah. I'll just cut it out. So this is really difficult. I know exactly what you're talking about because half a second shaved off a video can make all the difference in retention. You know, even just half a second, get to the point, half a second quicker, get to the next point, half a second quicker. The transition needs to be better, this and that. and we got to a point where we knew exactly what worked, right? And we'd check every video and we'd do the final edits. Just doesn't work if you're going to scale. Like we're now putting out 15 videos a day. I can't go to every single edit and be like, chop that there, do that there, blah, blah, blah.

42:25Also, you need to train your team to a point where they understand, but everyone has a slightly different vision. So it's not like they're in your head and they know exactly exactly to the second what you would want. So you just kind of need to trust them a little bit as well, which is really hard. Do you ever see a piece of content that's gone out by the team? You're like... Oh, all the time. All the time. All the time. You approved this. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the content is great, and I'm really grateful for the team. But, yes, some of the content, I'm just like, how did the idea get through?

43:03Why was it approved? what is this edit and why is it on my channel? And I would get quite angry about it at the beginning because I'm like, I didn't build my reputation and my channel to this point where I expect the absolute best from every video to then just kind of hand that over and it to be mediocre or average. I don't accept average. It's just, you can't. But at the same time, you can't micromanage. and it's so difficult. It's like you need to step back and sometimes if a piece of content goes out that's really bad, you're just like, okay, it's just one piece of content. Move on. We'll do better next time.

43:41And you just need to like let it go. All right, guys, quick pause here. I've got a question for you. Are you in shape? Are you not in shape? Is there work to do? Most likely. If so, I have the tool for you which is going to help you out massively. It's the thirst app. This is something which I personally use myself when it comes to my training and my nutrition. I have all the programs in there which I use on a regular basis and for those who are just looking to lose a bit of body fat the same thing goes for women as well a lot of people don't realize that I used to coach for a large chunk of my life so all of my coaching experience has been put inside of this app I want you to learn as much as possible about how to get yourself in shape there's exclusive videos in there telling you how to do it how to execute exercises properly the foods which I eat and a newly added nutrition section where you can track your meals and your daily macros is pretty much this pocket-sized version of myself which I'm going to carry around with you all day every day so if there's something which might interest you which it definitely will do I highly suggest to check out links in the description head over to the thirst app get it downloaded you will not regret it let's crack on with the episode if you if the team use much AI content.

44:52Yeah, we are. I think I saw, I think it was like a camper van. Yeah. And it did well. Yeah. It got me. It got you. And then I was like, hang on. Hang on a minute. This isn't real. Functional. How dare they? They tricked me. Yeah. Yes, we tricked him. I love it. The response is, what's the goal there? If you do good AI, then it's just interesting content. Like if it's real content or if it's AI content, if it's interesting, it's interesting. People want to watch it. So what is difficult is that AI content is performing better in general now than real content. So what are you going to do? Do you jump on the wagon or do you go, no, I don't agree with that.

45:38I'm not going to do it. No, you need to go along with trends. And so it is annoying that AI content that isn't real and is a little bit sometimes is doing so well because I'd much rather do real content but if it's not performing I've got a team of people I need to support like I need to pay their salaries each month so if AI is bringing in more money than something else that's something I need to I need to bring on board you know what about you what are you doing AI wise I mean everything's AI like my entire physique is AI like I'm actually a fat guy under this it's just a fat guy but we have this cool AI filter.

46:13Dude, this is amazing. Can I have some of that please? Wow. Not bad, mate. I like it. Okay. So when does the filter turn off? Do it? Should I leave before it turns off? Okay. Okay. Nobody can see the real me. Okay. Give me a heads up. I might peek back in around the door. Maybe not. That's it. No, I think so far it's been quite good for idea creation, maybe some scripted and so on but in terms of the visuals not really but don't you want to clone yourself at one point and be like if my clone can do the same this is the thing that interests me is if i can create coaches like clones of myself who who think exactly the same way as me and then the masses have access to that coach yeah and imagine how much more content you can put out yeah you know the only problem that i have is that my opinions and thoughts have changed over the years so if you were to train an ai bot or an ai version of mike thurston it's going to take everything that i've put out over the past 10 years now it's going to probably take something which i said in 2017 and be like mike thurston believes this but i'd be like no no i did believe that once upon a time but now i don't believe that so how do i yeah i would probably have to train it from scratch with with everything up to date right now, which again, in a couple of years could change.

47:38I mean, I think there'll be a point where you just attach like an AI monitor to yourself. And as you go about your daily life, it will just learn exactly how you think, what you say to people, how you approach people, your values, your morals, your stance, everything. There'll just be some device that you just attach to yourself and it will learn exactly who you are and how you present yourself in the world. And then boom, W. Boom, cancelled in three days. Cancelled. Damn it. Didn't work out quite as I thought. Yeah, imagine. Oh, no. That'd be the worst. Like, no, it wasn't me. It was my clone.

48:17Oh, sure, Mike. Sure. Well, the good thing that could work is if it's speaking a different language. That's a cool thing, especially if it can figure out that the mouth thing. and perfectly translate what I'm saying, then, you know, I could be absolutely huge in China. Huge. Exactly. That is, oh, my God, the opportunity. You guys know. So we're looking into that. The technology that we have access to at the moment isn't amazing to be able to, like, move the mouth and the lips perfectly to another language, but that's something I would love to do. Um, currently I have this scammer called, it's the worst one ever, like really bad.

49:03Um, Kate Evans, Kate is the name. And it's obviously not one person. It's like a group of people who is scamming every, is trying to scam every one of my followers. And they come to me and what they've done is they've used AI to change the mouth. it's not even my voice but the mouth moves to whatever they're saying which is my face my mouth saying hi i'm the real one my name's evans kate you need to send me money for this and that and blah blah blah and i'm like it's clearly not real but people i only know that because it's not my voice guys i need investors i need investors it's not real it's not me ever as well Yes, that's how we're funding our SBOs.

49:48Yeah, it's me, actually. So it's been bad because I've had people reach out and say – they reached out to my sister, actually, and said, listen, we're about to lose our home because my husband has been speaking to Evans Kate. He believes it's you. Can you please send a personal video with his name to this guy? And I'm like – first of all, I was like, I'm sorry, but it's – it's your fault for like not looking into this properly. There are so many videos of me being Alex Hershey and Supercar Blondie that why in the world would you believe that suddenly I have a different name and a different voice and everything?

50:24You know what I mean? So I'm just like, some of that's on you. But I was like, look, I'm going to help out. I'll send a personalized video. And I used his name. I'm like, hey, I'm really sorry. This is a scam. Wife writes back and she goes, he still doesn't believe you. I'm like, then I can't do anything. yeah you know i can't and so people are and there are so many people writing to me now on my personal page like how dare you how dare you scam me out of money you blah blah blah i'm like i'm not even you're you're now reaching out to someone called alex hershey you're not even reaching out to evans kate so it's like i don't know i don't know what people are thinking like how how are people getting scammed so easily i just i don't get it yeah it does sound bad but a lot of the time it's It's like, come on, you need to have a little bit of common sense, critical thinking when it comes to social media.

51:11Due diligence. Just Google around a little bit. You know what I mean? But I mean, this person, whoever they are saying, I want to marry you, you're the love of my life, all of this. And there are some lonely people in the world. It's sad, but it's true. They're sitting at home. They don't have much going for them. They don't have a specific goal to be working towards in life. And here comes someone promising them money, love. I mean it's it's it used to get me a lot when I had uh this was like probably early 20s and the only platform I had was Instagram so people would just take my pictures and put them on dating sites and basically yeah either getting women to give up nudes or all sorts of stuff and then it would come back to you and people would be like you're disgraceful you're either that or they'd be like oh um you know I've kind of been speaking to this person for like a year they've in love with this person and they find out oh this is actually like so they're like in in love with the the image with you with thinking it's a completely different person but then because of other social media platforms like youtube i think it's that's helped a little bit because people are like oh actually no this is the actual real life yeah it still happens though yeah so how much of your content or is is your main platform is youtube right it's yes the best one i would say it's just like the most engagement and and stuff like that that's where where it comes to building brand loyalty and trust yeah for sure like now there's there's like four four channels i have wow there's a the fitness focus one my main vlog lifestyle one which was the original one i've done for 10 years this this podcast one and then another in-depth uh very sciencey health wellness biohacking one which i co-host with someone else okay so how often are you filming quite a lot There could be crazy busy weeks and then less busy weeks.

52:58But it's one of those weird things where it's like there's always more to do. It's a machine. It's like feeding this machine, especially with YouTube. They punish you if you don't consistently upload. It's like you can never take a break. So with me, I'm quite good at not letting that take a hold of me, becoming a slave to the system. I'm just like, if the video's not ready or I've not posted for a week, I'm like but is this that is this new you because back in the day years yeah because I always had deadlines of like I have to do this I have to post this amount and I realized how stressed out I was getting and I was like for what what like what is the point but now because you're taking it more casually more relaxed with your um scheduling are you earning less money now because of that you get smarter like once you you get to a certain point an audience can be monetized if you have the right offers available most people just get caught up in the loop of thinking i need more followers i need more engagement more likes but they don't have a solid business behind it so if you're trying to basically live off youtube ad revenue like that's not a very sensible thing to do because it's going to be completely reliant upon how many views you get and constantly putting content out have you ever put on have you ever put uh content out to facebook uh there was a period of time where i did but it didn't really seem to work well what What year was that?

54:23This was a couple of years ago. The reason why I ask is because there's this golden era of Facebook. Yeah, where they were paying crazy money for the revenue. It was more than you two. Mate, 2020, 2021, 2022, there were like a few key creators on Facebook. I was one of them. Julius Dean was another one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes we catch up and we just reminisce on the golden days of Facebook. Like, remember that time? and in one month I would earn a million dollars and it was nothing, it was so much more than YouTube so we were just like went for it. Now, oh my god, 80 ,000 a month? It's gone down by 10 times and Facebook is such a difficult platform to be on as a content creator.

55:14They constantly change their algorithm and what they're focusing on. So we could get it right for about three months and then they change everything and we need to start from scratch again it is such a difficult platform and so now we're trying to refocus again on on youtube youtube is more consistent i feel more consistent with you kind of know okay if i upload this many videos a month i get this amount of views and this amount of engagement this is going to be my revenue revenue roughly facebook you have no idea yeah we just the audience is just like so unpredictable sometimes as well it's like It's mental.

55:50It's wild, wild west on Facebook. Yeah. And we were just hacked on Facebook. So we've had someone steal half a million dollars from us on Facebook. What, from the account? Yeah. So instead of paying us in for like four, five months or something, they paid the hacker. Oh, my God. And we're like, well, so we're going to have to open a police investigation. And hopefully they can find the IP and whatever. Facebook's been pretty good. They're like, we'll make sure to pay you what you're owed. But it's been taking months and months. And I have a team, right? Like, I need to pay their salaries. Like, this is not funny.

56:28Like, being half a million dollars down is no small thing. Yeah, and usually if there is an issue, there's nobody to ask for help. It's very difficult to try and get to somebody who can. It's like all AI robots. You're like, did this help you? And you're like, no. I'm still missing money. Send money. Show me the money. Now. Yeah, exactly. It's rough. So, you know, we just had to expand through all the platforms just so that if Facebook's down one month, Instagram could be up that month. If YouTube's down, Facebook could be up. So it's like really diversified. And that's how we kind of keep it in place.

57:10And you also do TikTok on the Snapchat as well. TikTok, Snapchat, all of them. Yeah. All of them. Whenever something new comes out too, we're like on it you know and then that'll fail the platform won't go anywhere and we're like oh you know such a waste of energy but at the same time if it does work you need to be on it yeah if you're especially if you're on the first people yeah yeah so with the in terms of revenue per platform obviously there was a golden era of facebook is everything else kind of consistent or I can't imagine TikTok or Instagram paying. No. Instagram doesn't pay you anything, right?

57:48It's just if you get brand deals directly with brands, then, you know, you make that. TikTok almost pays nothing. So, you know, Facebook coming down so much has been tough. And YouTube, because I took time off. As you said, YouTube is really the one platform where people really bond with you and really connect and get to know you. And so because I wasn't appearing as frequently on YouTube, my engagement went down. So now I'm starting to try and build that back up again. So the revenue is not consistent on YouTube either. But it's okay. It's enough to run the whole business. We're profitable. And all of that money has now gone into starting up SupercarBlondie.com, which is the editorial website, and SVX Cars.

58:35so it's it's been it funds those other two businesses yeah for now it is weird because i feel like even now a lot of people who have these really amazing uh success stories building companies they've got all the money in the world but now they're they're like okay now i need the sort of like the fame and the status they're pumping all that money into the personal branding because of all the benefits that come with personal branding but then it's kind of like damn you've you've got to keep supplying people with something and i feel as though it's one of those things at least with me i'm probably going to be doing it long into the future but i want to try and make it as efficient as possible whereby i'm not literally filming every single day all day if i can just i set these hours per week where i film something and then we can just maximize that time used for for filming clone yes there's some people now do The 24-hour streaming on Twitch.

59:32I don't know how. It'll kill you. It'll kill you. You know, it's just, but again, like it's so populated. The internet, all the platforms, just so populated. If you want to make it, how are you going to stand out? You've got to do something different. But doing that stuff, it's just not sustainable. It'll kill you. Yeah. Like daily vloggers. Did you vlog daily? Was there a time you vlogged daily? There was a time when I thought about doing it, But I just knew that to do something interesting every day, I would have had the energy to do it maybe in my 20s, but not now. Not now. No. And to find something interesting every day means you're actually then starting to curate your life and you're not being genuine anymore.

1:00:13Like you have to find new activities, new things to talk about that actually are you really interested in? Maybe not. You just need content. And so it doesn't feel genuine anymore. So, yeah, I hope you find that sweet spot. Yeah. yeah i think i think i have i mean there was some times where i would go on a trip and it's like Do I just want to fully embrace myself into this trip and experience or do I also want to capture it? Because a lot of times after a trip and if I didn't capture it, I'm like, damn, why did I not capture that? But you had your time and that's so important. Yeah. I'm going to see the Northern Lights next week.

1:00:48Oh, cool. It's been on my bucket list for years. Going to go up there and everyone's like, oh, make sure you do content. I'm like, I'm not going to do anything. Like these memories are just going to be for me. And that's what makes it special, actually, you know, documenting every part of your life. It's just somehow just doesn't feel real anymore. You know, it's so much nicer looking at a sunset and going, this is just for me. This is for no one else but me. Yeah. And my energy and my heart and my healing. Sound like a freaking... There's a few times where I've documented, but with no intention of it going out.

1:01:22Okay. Because sometimes I do, I love the fact that I can look back at an experience or something I did. and I'm like wow I can just relive this moment over and over again not necessarily something that has to go out there it could be more of a personal thing but it's just interesting like just a very casual just pull it out say something and then really yeah see I'm surprised by that because you put so much of your life out there already I'm surprised that you would want to like film more yeah but yeah but you know what I mean like instead of just having it up here yeah you would actually want to take your camera out again I can't stand taking the camera out when I'm not actually doing it for work, I'm like, just put it away.

1:02:00Yeah. Because I kind of associate it with work. So I'm surprised that you're like, yeah, just for me. Well, I have the, if I can make it as convenient as possible, you know, now there's like equipment like the Osmo. Oh, yes. It's literally like that. Have you had anyone film you with the Google? Yeah, I've had someone try and interview me on the sly. But I knew, I was like, I know what's going on here. Good on you. I had no idea. Someone got you. Yeah. I'm such an idiot. You've got the big bright light there. Yeah, looking back, I probably should have seen that. I didn't – I don't know. I was so overwhelmed with everyone because I'd just come off stage for a talk and there were just so many people crowding around.

1:02:45I was trying to talk to everyone and then I just didn't notice this big blinking red light. I just didn't notice it. And so he was filming me and then my friend came up to me. He goes, you do realize he's filming you, right? And I, feeling like a numpty, was like, yeah, of course I know. Yeah, I knew the whole time. I had no freaking clue. So I was like, oh, God, what have I said? Anyway, whatever. I just, I don't like the fact that people are walking around with these glasses and they don't say anything to you. It's very sneaky. That's not cool. Yeah. Very sneaky. Not cool. Have you done any content with them, actually?

1:03:16Have you worn them? No. No. But I've thought about doing it, but then I'm like, am I just becoming a part of all this sneakiness? because I mean there's definitely certain places where people are not cool with you just filming them like here for example well you can't I mean it's still technically against the law I think especially if you're filming locals yeah in America places like America I feel like yeah I mean it's a free from yeah if you're in the public you can be filmed yeah pretty much I think that it is great to capture truly authentic and unique moments but I I wouldn't want to do it without someone's permission or I wouldn't want to upload a piece of content which makes somebody look bad no like that's in the early days I may I didn't really think about it and then I was like actually that was a bit of a well as you've matured you're like yeah okay like for example in my world I would uh see someone in the gym doing something incorrectly and then I would just film and be like look they're doing something incorrectly not their face but like I'd be like this is how you don't do it but then I was like you can't do that like a dick move that's a dick so okay if i see anyone now i'm like yeah but that was your content that was no no no no oh it wasn't no no it was just a few examples in videos where i remember there was one where someone was doing the walking on the incline treadmill and they were just full incline and i was doing it i was like oh guys this is how you probably shouldn't do it and it turns out But somehow that person saw the video and then complained to the gym and said, this person in the gym filmed me.

1:04:52You're lucky he didn't complain to the police. Yeah. Because that could easily happen. But this was reckless days of my first year of YouTube when I was 26. I didn't really know the ethics of YouTube and what's posted.

1:05:10Okay, we'll forgive you for that. Don't worry. You've moved on from there. Yeah. We all learn. Well, this is one of the reasons why I didn't do the podcast. Do you still have that name about you, though? Everyone's like, do you remember that fucking Mike guy? What a dick. No, I think I'm quite lucky because I came onto the scene in like late 20s. Yeah. So now, you know how everyone's getting on social media at a younger age, like in their late teens. Yeah. Like, I was an idiot when I was in my teenage years. I'm so glad there was no social media. The stuff that I did and was saying, I'm glad there was no records of it, to be honest.

1:05:44But when you're a kid, I mean, you are always going to say and do something stupid. Yes. And probably if you are an influencer, which everybody seems to be these days, you're going to mess up in public. Yeah. And it's going to be there forever. Yeah. I'm so glad social media wasn't around. Yeah. Like how lucky are we that our like teenage years and like early 20s weren't documented? You know, it's like I was a good girl. What are you talking about? Yeah, I actually feel really sorry for this generation that has to grow up constantly being online. And yeah, having their mistakes be seen by everyone and like always there.

1:06:26It's always going to be there. And the only thing that I'm like a little bit jealous about is the fact that I didn't, we didn't, how old are you? I'm 35. 35. So I'm 40. I didn't grow up knowing anything really about social media until what, I'd say 2015. It was kind of coming out. So I was already 30. And it's like, I felt like I was, I'd missed. Yeah, behind. I was behind the curve already. Like, you know, people on TikTok were 17, 18. I was 30 and I'm like a grandma in social media, you know? So I was like, oh my God. And that's probably another reason why I went so hard so quickly. It's like, I'm in my thirties.

1:07:12People are starting at like 17. I need to go for it. Like I don't have, they've got an extra, what, 15 years on me to get to where I am. I'm now here. I need to get to where they are within three years, not 15, you know? It's crazy how much money they can come into at such a young age as well. Yeah. Like when people ask me, would I change anything? I wouldn't necessarily change a whole lot. I would definitely still do all the things that I've done, but I would have just done everything way sooner yeah yeah 100 exactly I feel the exact same way but I mean it wasn't really around yeah it wasn't like like you started as well 10 years ago that's when it kind of was like that's when actually even 10 years ago was early days really Instagram was still really like only just kind of coming up so you still were early to it and you're five years before me jelly um but yeah i mean we we we make the decisions that we can at the time with the information that we have that's all that's all we can do right and so and look we are where we are today and we're doing okay we're doing all right i mean this view man this view this view is epic what a place but the good thing with i guess your industry is that cars are never really going to go out of fashion like yeah everybody is obsessed neither is fitness yes true unless all these new even more peptides come out and then people don't need to do anything just sit there and they're absolutely shredded and that's okay i'm good with that i need to be the person that comes up with the products yeah yeah i'll go in the lab i'll just like put some things together and then sell it i'll take that needle you you give i'm all for that so what is next for you for me yeah um just keep doing things which i enjoy doing this year in particular i said i wanted more adventures okay so going to cape town next week for a week never been there great there'll be miami and la and then for the rest of this year i want to try new places instead of going to the same places which i always go to i feel like sometimes when i'm most in my element is when i'm in a new place new experience new people and then to also capture it so i'm okay being on camera if i'm doing like fun things where it doesn't feel like work yeah and that feels like it's like i'm on a vacation holiday doing something new but at the same time it's work because i'm capturing it and it's you just vlog yourself by yourself both so sometimes if it's just like a solo trip i just have my camera and i think now the the expectation of these highly curated videos isn't what it used to be people are just quite happy with more personal authentic thing um but then sometimes if it's like going to be like an epic trip then i'll bring the team with me yeah so it's yeah just i just want to keep enjoying what i'm doing um hopefully being of use providing value inspiring people to live the life they want to live and at the same time get them off their ass and get them in shape yeah yeah or just more peptides yeah yeah um yeah no No, that's great.

1:10:22I want to do the same thing. Just as you said, like go and have new experiences, new adventures. Go places that haven't really allowed myself to go because it would take too much time off work. So I'm going to go see the gorillas this year as well. Oh. Go hike in either Uganda or Rwanda with a group of friends. I've seen so many of those videos where they're like literally like this far away. And it's in those moments where you go, gosh, we're nothing in the scheme of things. We're not that important. Look at this huge beast that could just like one whack of an arm and you're dead. And you're just like, I've got to live in the moment.

1:11:00It reminds you, okay, at any second, you could be gone. Let's really live in the moment and enjoy or try and enjoy something about every day. I got so caught up in work that I was like exhausted all the time that I wasn't really that happy. And now I choose when I wake up to feel happy. It's not always easy. I choose that. That's kind of how I want to approach my day. And then things will get you down and blah, blah, blah. But you need to keep refocusing, recentering on, no, I choose to look at the positives and not the negatives. There is a crazy hustle culture nowadays where it's always like work, work, work, perform at your best, get like more profit, more revenue, more this, more that.

1:11:44And I have a lot of friends who are, especially here, there's a lot of people motivated by money. Yeah. But I have, I've realized there's certain things which bring me satisfaction from life. And I don't think it's, yes, you need money, you need a certain amount of money. Yeah. But I'm just looking to get more money so I can just do more of the cool things that I want to do. Yeah. Live. Yeah. Live. Not necessarily just like acquire all these things just to show off to people. No. Good. I'm glad. Yeah. Because you can get stuck in that kind of rat race here. Yeah. It's like, oh, they have a better car than me.

1:12:18I need to work harder. I need to get a better car. I need to upgrade my place. And it's exhausting. Yeah. I need to just live. Did you ever go through a phase where you're like, oh, I'm going to collect cars? No. No. isn't that weird for me? And everyone thinks I have so many cars. I'm like, okay, what's in your garage? And I'm like, you're going to be disappointed. Two cars. And they're like, what? So I'm like, yeah, look, for me, I also don't want to spend money on cars. It's not a great use of money unless you're buying a collectible and it will go up in price. I don't want to be spending millions of dollars on cars right now.

1:12:55My money is going back into the business to grow the business. So everyone's super surprised that I don't have all of these cars, but it's just not my goal to have cars sitting around in a garage. I just find it useless until I get to the point where I have so much money that they're just investments, right? But at the moment, I just have my two cars that I love to drive. I don't need any more than that. So I've got the Rolls Royce and I've got my G-Wagon Brabus and I'm just, I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah. I might want a Lamborghini. Which one? I want the Revuel too. Oh, that's cool, yeah. Why? What were you going to think?

1:13:30You're like, please. I thought you were going to say a Urus or something. Oh, no, I don't want an Urus. Yeah. But there's so many of them here as well. It's like a G-Wagon here. There's so many G-Wagons, so many Uruses. No, I don't want an Urus. So for someone like you, if you want to get that car, do you get any perks? No. Like if you went to Lamborghini now and you're like, hey. Hook me up. No me? Yo. Remember this space? I've reviewed a couple of your cars before. Yeah. Come on. No. Oh, that sucks. Yeah. There are things like we got an offer. I can't say what car it was, but a very nice car worth millions of dollars.

1:14:14They wanted to market it. And so they said, we'll sell it to you instead of at 3 million, we'll sell it to you at 1 million. And then you can help market it for a couple of years. Which would be you saying, I have bought, like I've chosen to buy this car. I've chosen to buy this car. I would still have to be like, I'm working with these guys, like where I had, I have to expose the fact that I'm also marketing for them, right? Can't just be like, oh, I bought this car and, you know, all behind the scenes. It's like COVID. Paid advertising. Yeah. Like, you know, just, or just be, just be open with the audience.

1:14:48Hey, listen, this is, you know, we're, we're working together. decided I couldn't even do that because it's still a million dollars that I need to put into a car when I would rather put that into the business yeah you know so there's all these little you know so I do get perks now and then but it's not like hey have a free car you know yeah so I would like that you know which one I like um the Bugatti Mistral who doesn't yeah because like my thing I love convertibles like there is no better feeling I mean obviously when the weather's good here winter time drive around top down play music like okay so what what is your daily what do you drive my jaguar f-type oh yeah nice yeah beautiful sounding car yes like they don't make them sound like that anymore listen to you sounding so old back in the day we had real cars i love that car that the i want to get a new one this year but obviously i said before i'm kind of in a position where i want to get like a super luxurious car to drive me around yes so you want kind of a v-class yeah or roles no because i i like the idea of the v-class pimped out like the the fari car edition is pretty cool where you the uh screen comes up to the tv can't see the driver they're very cool complete privacy yeah um and then just lots of space and you've got a fridge in there and you've got like you can play playstation you can do everything close all curtains as you could be anywhere yeah i love that um but at the same time i do actually really enjoy driving so i've been pretty impressed with what aston martin had been putting out recently yes next week yeah no in two weeks i'm going to spain to test drive the new valhalla on the track yeah yeah is gordon ramsay got that i know i mean it's not out yet oh no he's got the valkyrie valkyrie came out and i got to test drive that on the track that was absolutely insane amazing car this is um the the next one the next like mid-engine um uh supercar that they're coming out with so i'm really excited because i agree with you the their kind of transition from having the engine in the front and being like a touring car to like these like mid-engine like yeah the new vanquish oh my god it's a monster and then the db12 beautiful car db12s i would i would that's probably the one that i'm just got my attention the most oh really interesting because it's I think it just looks Yeah Very good Yeah I think I would get the Valhalla Let me see Let me test drive it And I'll get back to you Yeah Well how much do they I don't even know yet I mean I'll get over there And they'll be like Oh it's millions Forget about that Is there any car brands Like there's certain car brands Which are They're kind of Reinventing themselves And they keep putting out Like these cool new models And then there's other ones Which are going downhill a bit But I don't know if you can say Because I don't know if you'll want to I'll say one that I'm really impressed with and you'll be surprised when I say this, Kia.

1:17:42The design of, I know you're like, wait, wait, wait, are you called supercar blondie or a Kia? Kia what? Kia, just as a brand. Yeah. Look at their design of cars from five years ago to now. Okay. They have leveled up significantly. I will see a Kia on the road now and go, what is that? They have beautiful design language now. and whereas back then i wouldn't even look at a kia this podcast is brought to you today by send us cash please yeah i'm looking pretty cool i mean okay like that's to be more specific sorry yes like for example this right what model are we looking at right now for the people who can't see the sportage it's like look at the lights look at the headlights i'm not saying that it's a super a fancy amazing car i'm just saying the trend where they've gone from to now is is is huge like the jump is incredible and then what's behind that jump is it just good a good team design team new designer um yeah i suppose they're willing to take more risk you know really it comes down to the company going okay we're really we're willing to reinvent ourselves whereas so many companies aren't yeah what's the freaking i forgot the name it looks like a defender but it's not defender it's the cheapest all everyone's got one of them to buy such a good car though yeah such a good car it like looks cool it's cheap it does what it needs chinese cars are they are gonna win i mean you look at all like the byds you know the you've got the jet tours you've got there's there's one which is like the equivalent of the maybach but it's like only 100k honking something like that there's there's i've seen a honking and it looks amazing like there's just the stance it's so aggressive and big and i was like wow that's an incredible car um what they're doing they're going to win the race i mean they they do technology better they get cars out quicker it's cheaper it's more connected but can they ever brand themselves as being luxury yeah i think so i reckon i reckon definitely i reckon it's going to happen i wouldn't say yeah right now if i wanted luxury yeah i've seen some cars that come across as very luxurious but sometimes the buttons don't work yet or you know what i mean like there are just some like niggly issues but 100 yes i think that we'll be able to um can they compete with like the likes of Rolls Royce?

1:20:17Probably not. But if you want to get something that works, looks beautiful, is luxurious and costs 10 times less, why not? The option's there. What's your experience been of you're getting your Spectra and then getting it absolutely pimped out? I know. It's outrageous. I know. I'm like, oops. I love it because that's my brand, right i need something outrageous and something that's going to like look different to everyone else i love the spectre some people don't like electric cars i love okay that car suits being electric it glides in silence rolls-royce is meant to glide in silence so it completely makes sense for this brand to go electric some cars like lamborghini doesn't make as much sense sense to go electric.

1:21:10They're known for their noise and their aggression and stuff. Rolls Royce, known for their silence. So I love the fact that it's electric and it feels, honestly, it's like no other car I've ever driven. It feels like you're driving butter.

1:21:26You've got my choice to know what music you're playing when you're driving that. Oh, I've got gangster music on it. I do. No classical. It's like polar opposites. but the way that it feels is so incredibly beautiful and the way when you turn the wheel the whole car leans into the corner and you just kind of glide around I'm like oh the road rage disappears it's just incredible and then yeah I got it pimped out by Mansory made it absolutely more outrageous like wide body kit lowered got more stars everywhere got Mansory like do you do you go to them and be like this is how I want it to look or do you sit down together and they give you a couple of options of what no i just said this is this is give me some like ideas and they give me some ideas i was like right i want this and i want that and also can you do this and they're like yeah sure so the carbon fiber was meant to be purple right and when it first came back it like takes six months to create this carbon fiber because they take the carbon fiber then they have like a textile that they lay over the over the top of the carbon fiber and you need to lay the textile in exactly the right way so it lines up, so it's, you know, at 90 degrees, so it's not a tiny bit skewed here and there.

1:22:40To do that layering takes like six months. And in order to make the carbon fiber purple, you would then tint the textile on top. So it all came back and I was like, I want it more purple. So they had to go back and tint it. Rough. off they're like of course i'm like yeah but they know like a lot of people are going to see this car so let's just put some effort right right right right but i was like i'm sorry guys and they're like no no problem we'll just re like tint it and redo everything and now it's absolute perfection like purple on purple which i never thought i would want but it's outrageous in all the best ways yeah it looks so much better in person by the way it looks cool on camera but in person you're like oh what a beauty do you often come to pick up your car and there's loads of people taking pictures of it uh yeah because it's outrageous what is it some people love it some people hate it i don't care i love it because it's different that's cool no i think it needs it suits you it needs to be like that outrageous yeah it's a little bit outrageous yeah that's true yeah yeah let's go dye hair yeah but i have i used to have pink hair so yeah no maybe i should maybe back there just be a bit outrageous have you met any of the like the top ceos and founders of some of these car brands yeah like um rimac the cone's egg so rimac so mate rimac is a good friend of mine actually we um we went because we're mutually we have a mutual very good friend and so we met on holidays last year and we were on a yacht together and um we just spent a few days together and he's a really really fun kind down-to-earth amazing like visionary guy I respect him so much and he's just such a good guy so yeah like Mate is a friend there are other CEOs that or owners of companies that I know personally um I try and keep all those relationships like on the down low because like Like, they're personal relationships and then there's business, right?

1:24:39So, I try not to mix the two too much, you know? But it's been amazing, like, the network that I've built of just meeting all of these incredibly successful people. You learn so much from them. And I think that's how you keep leveling up, right? It's just surround yourself with even more successful people than you are. And you keep leveling up and up and up. And that's how you kind of make it. Have you met Musk yet? No, never met Musk. No, you? No, he'd be cool to come on. He'd be cool. He's got about a billion things to do. But it's interesting how some of these CEOs and founders are really leaning into social media and just talking about the intricacies of what goes into building a car and then them kind of throwing in their personality and also just driving the frigging thing.

1:25:32Yeah. Have you been watching, Marte? You've been watching his stuff, right? yeah yeah and i've seen how especially recently you know matt armstrong the guy who rebuilds cars yeah yeah so i know alex gonzalez the guy who crashed his baguette and he's basically gone to matt and be like hey let's they want to fix the baguette but without taking it to baguette or getting any parts from baguette yeah and mate was like i think he said like you you can't do this like it's it's just not possible and then they were like off yeah let us show you yeah so i've been following this journey of them trying to rebuild it and it's going to be i mean i i understand why the the bugatti team are kind of not happy because for a car to be going that fast it needs everything needs to be absolutely signed off and like perfected so them putting it back together with these different parts and doing it themselves.

1:26:29Like, I don't know if I'd want to drive that car very fast anymore. No. I think, you know, especially with Bugatti as a brand, they really need to protect their brand and what they've built. And to have a Bugatti out there on the road that isn't actually built by them, something could go wrong. That's terrible press for them. Because no one's going to know whether it was built by Bugatti or not. If they see a Bugatti broken down on the side of the road and it's this one that's been rebuilt by someone else, everyone's going to be like, oh, wow, that's pretty bad. Is this the kind of quality Bugatti makes?

1:26:57So they don't want to be associated with that, which I totally understand, actually. And then it's the first time someone's taken that car apart and then you're actually seeing what they're using to put this car together. And you can tell it's very, very technical, but there are some parts which are surprisingly just from other automakers. Yeah, that's so common, though. Yeah. You know, they're all owned by... each other. So they're all going to share parts, right? Like Rolls Royce and BMW, you know, in Rolls Royces, you'll have BMW parts. And so it's, it's, but it's, it's the way that they put all of the parts together that makes it so unique and a different driving experience.

1:27:36So just because they use other parts, it's actually more efficient. Um, that's because that's what that company does super well. And there's no point in you trying to do it just as well. If you can just get it from someone else who's already doing it really well, you know, What's the point? Let's be efficient. Let's not add more cost to the car, which is then passed down to the customer, right? If they can keep the cost lower, they don't have to charge the customer more. Is there any car which you would love to have but is just not going to be a possibility? Yeah. But it is going to be a possibility.

1:28:09Okay, yeah, good. That's the mindset we need in here. 100%. This is a car I really want and I will have it. the Koenigsegg Agera RS. I will have this car one day, 100%. I drove one, absolutely fell in love. I've never laughed so hard in my life. Like, you know when you're just joyous? Oh, when you're driving? Yeah, when I was driving, I was just laughing. I was just so happy. It was just coming out of me. I was like, oh, my God, this car. Why? What is it? It's so raw. You can really feel the shifting. You can really like hear the like thunderclap every time you shift down, like this huge thunderclap that comes up.

1:28:47The driving experience is just like so different to so many modern cars now, which is just so easy to drive. You jump into a Ferrari, it's an easy car to drive. You know, you really don't have to think about it. Whereas back in the day, like driving an older Lamborghini or a Ferrari, you'd really have to think about it, you know. And you'd have to make sure that you're shifting at the right time as, you know, these are like exact revs and blah, blah, blah. Now it just does everything for you, right? It's super easy. You go into this car and you're like, oh, wow, everything feels more like you're doing it.

1:29:17You're in control again. And it was like when I drove it, which was a few years ago, it was worth$10 million. None were even for sale. I don't even think there is one for sale at the moment. And now it's probably gone up by a few more million. But one day I will have that car. Yeah. I believe in you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Would you ever sell the media company which you've… So, the goal is to exit in four or five years. I mean, that's why we've got the media company, but then we've got SBX. So, it's the holding that we would look to sell. Yeah. And the big ticket is SBX. It's a tech platform. We spent a year building it and, you know, put millions of dollars into this.

1:30:04and tech platforms are the really the ones that people want to invest in yeah um so while the media group is good and it makes money the the tech platform and spx is really where the big money is going to come in so in the next maybe four or five years we would let's see how we go but that would be the ultimate goal yeah yeah what about you uh if there's a way to exit the app which i have that'd be cool but the problem is i mean i don't know if you have the same issue probably not quite as much as me but whenever you're the face of something it becomes a little bit more of an obstacle so you want to try and build something that you're not too closely attached to yeah 100 that's what the goal has been like with me doing the the um getting other presenters right becoming uh getting the website that doesn't rely on me at all getting svx up and running i'm there as a face but it works without me yeah like i just took 10 months off i didn't do anything and it was still working so it's amazing like that's a huge goal of mine to be like wow i built businesses that don't rely on me every single day you know so it was there any like a big shiny object that you had to say no to where you were like god i would love to do this but i just don't have the just some like big deals money deals that came in and i was like i just can't do it i need to focus on my mental health and i'm glad i said no because money will always come your mental health is won't always be there if you don't look after it so yeah i was just like i'm off i can't do anything and then these deals would come in i'm like and i was like no okay i just need to stick to my guns and i'm so glad i did because i feel re-energized now i feel re-enthused i'm ready to go i'm ready to like and really embrace the year and embrace the business and just yeah go for it so yeah i've got a couple of rapid fire questions for you okay all right Answer as quickly as possible.

1:31:58God, I'm so bad at these. Okay. Because my brain fries. I'm like, I don't know. I panic. No, no, no. I panic. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Gas or electric? Oh, come on, man. Clock is ticking. Gas, fine. Gas. Nice. How dare you? I can't believe you had to ask me that. Manual or paddle shift? Paddle. To drive or to be driven? To drive. Lamborghini or Ferrari? Lamborghini. 100%. One car for the rest of your life? Rolls Royce Spectre. Nice. One car you regret selling? My Horican. Lamborghini Horican. Really? Yeah. Absolutely love that car. Would you buy it again? I wouldn't buy that Horican because it's just a bit of an older model.

1:32:47But yeah, that's why I want to buy a Lamborghini again. I need that sound in my life. That roar. You know? Dream collaboration. Dream brand collaboration. Ooh, dream brand collab. Oh. So a couple of years ago, Bugatti wanted to create caps with me. I was like, you want to co-brand Bugatti and Supercar Blondie together? That's cool. I was like, oh, my God, I've made it. That's a big one. It never happened. But, like, just to even be considered to have a brand good enough to collab with Bugatti, I was like, oh, my God, that's amazing. So, yes, probably Bugatti. most terrifying drive or car that you've been in that you've driven like a um actually it wasn't a road car like a rally car they're terrifying terrifying and i was being driven by someone else like a pro i was like i'm gonna die yeah uh and a car that surprised you the most

1:33:44oh um quick quick help um well now of course i can't think of any car a car that surprised me the most please help me what have i been in so you probably would have out of everything you've seen all the concept cars i i can't even imagine you being surprised or shocked by anything anymore you're just like well yeah of course it does this outrageous thing which yeah it's kind of true i had no idea that it would be of course the doors go backwards and up and around on the side of the car of course the doors have they have the doors itself have wings of course they do like you're right like i'm like okay cool like i've pretty much seen everything but like a car i don't know the kia i'm surprised how well you've been doing okay i'm surprised how well the design language has progressed in kia how about that such a bad answer great supercar bloody yay awesome so yeah i guess that is that is it thank you well it's been fun thank you so much for having me yeah i hope you've enjoyed it and i look forward to seeing what the future holds yeah and you too as well yeah yeah hopefully i'm going to work really hard buy some crazy cars and then sell them on your platform yes yes and before that just go bid on the v class yeah yeah just nudge it up a little bit i'll put in a good word for you, right?

1:35:10Thank you. Well, check this out. Where is that? Oh, Lithuania. Is it in Lithuania? Yeah, that's in Lithuania. Okay. Interesting. Well, we can bring that over for you. No problem. Okay. Yeah, we'll just ship it over. It's not a big deal. This is the thing, right? We just get the coolest cars from wherever and then people can just ship them to wherever you are. But I know there are V classes here. It's all right. I won't make you buy this one. You're off the hook. Thank you. Where can people find you? Just type in your name. Supercar Blondie everywhere. Yeah. And SBX cars, go check out the coolest cars in the world, please.

1:35:44Awesome. Please. Thank you so much for having me, Mike. Thank you.