165. How to Escape Small Creator H3LL ft. Sam Newton

0:00In three days, I grew 70 ,000 on Instagram. And did it grow your YouTube group as well? Yes, I grew 4 ,000 subscribers off one Instagram post. Most creators post for years with nothing to show for it. So how did Sam Newton post four times and gain 120 ,000 followers? It wasn't luck. It was strategy, storytelling, and showing up as himself. Showing up yourself and trying to bring your personality to the table, I think now more than ever, is going to be such a big thing. With AI, with people being able to create shit instantly, people are going to want to know the behind the scenes, how things were made now more than ever.

0:31Sam Newton:And they're going to want to know the story of who made it. In this episode, Sam breaks down the mindset shift that helped him build one of the most loyal communities online. Stop trying to talk to thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people or hundreds of people in general. Talk to one person. To me, that's how you build a community of a lot of people. And why many of your preconceived ideas for what separates stuck creators from successful creators are wrong. I don't think you have to live a certain life. You don't have to be a beautiful person with a cool story. Like just show up, tell the stories that you want to tell, things that excite you and that's going to start bringing people onto your brand because you can't fake being real if you're ready to finally escape small creator hell and build a real community online you're going to love this episode let's go okay sam most people i would say are grinding 24 7 on instagram they're trying to grow like crazy last year you grew 120 000 people in your community off of four posts why why do you think that is and now i mean now you're going hard on short form too i am i'm going hard one way but not as hard as like i think a lot of people are like when it's like every day they're i'm i'm trying like uh i'm trying different things for sure because i've been on youtube for so long that i'm like i still really like want youtube to be my main focus but i see i i've been a short form hater for so long you have to do i feel like we should roll these clips yeah i mean sam last time we had him on the show was like i'll never dude i'm still i hate i still i still fucking hate it don't get me wrong um but i do see the allure of like that top level like cold marketing getting people in to understand and then hopefully of those people 10 kind of start digging and then they can actually figure out who i am um but yeah i mean last year i just uh it was funny i think i posted like 15 times and of those 15 like four of them hit uh and it just went crazy in terms of uh um how many followers i got and from that uh a couple things i learned like one just like it's like crack that day that day came and i was like dude this is not that i've done it i would assume it's pretty similar pretty similar but um no it dude you wake up and you just check your phone and and in three days i grew like 70 ,000 on Instagram.

2:51And did it grow your YouTube group as well? Yes. I grew 4 ,000 subscribers off one Instagram post, which was crazy. But also there was like some things that I unpacked about that post that like made sense for my like long form content that works really well. Yeah. Let's get into this. A few things. Like I made the initial, it's like they're making a little, a girl makes this like little dick joke about how if you don't speak or if i don't know what she says uh maybe we can cut it in but she's just like hey if if you come to me and you're this size yeah yeah this size keep your keep your voice down and then i come in and i just start whispering like hi my name is sam and then so you have that hook obviously just like the classic instagram hook which i kind of understand like i hated it dude i hate the hooks and the bait but i i'm i'm starting to understand that you know there's a place for it where if you can hook them um get them to stop scrolling and then allow yourself to create content with depth after that then there's some some room to to play around and so i had that hook which i think a lot of people got uh some laughs at and then it went into some of my actual travel films it was like i make travel films check out some of my stuff and then it like transitioned in a cool way into my travel films so it had the hook then it had this like unexpected like diversion so i feel like short form as long as you can keep it as unexpected as possible people will stick around because they're like whoa didn't didn't expect that or you like they they think they know what to expect and it goes a different way um but then from there right you add that transition into my content or my films that i've made but then i added a voiceover like hey if you're still here let's talk for a second i'm sam i'm tired of making like short form content.

4:42Like I want to make films. I want to go out there. I want to see the world. Um, and it was just that other layer of expectations. Cause it went from a small joke to this is what I want to do. I want to tell stories. I want to travel. And, uh, I think a lot of people, um, you know, they saw that shock factor and then they're like, Oh wow, there's, there's some depth here. And then basically at the end, I have this call to action. Like if this is what you like, if this is what you enjoy, um, check out some of my stuff. and having that call to action that's what skyrocketed because you can have a drone reel get 10 million views and only gain like 400 followers but this yeah went crazy that's

5:21Sam Newton:interesting i'm always curious to know like should i say hey if you like this check me out more follow like i i never know if it's like cheesy to ask for it or or not but it was in a way that like tied together well with the video itself um i don't think i said like i don't know exactly what i said i don't i didn't say like hey follow for more like content like this it was just straight up like um damn i don't even know what i said but it was just like talking about the you know this is what i love and if this is something that you love too like let's make some stuff together you know and it wasn't on as on the nose but it really um knocked it out of the park in terms of like had the hook, had the bait and switch, like went into something completely different and unexpected, kept you on your toes.

6:09Then I added this voiceover and added some depth and some meaning and something that people can actually connect to me with, which I think is the biggest thing that like so many people aren't doing. I know people that like go viral time after time again. They're always on my page. I'm seeing them all the time. And then you go back and you check and you're like 60 ,000 followers. You're like, why is this not connecting to a bigger like amount of conversion in terms of people that follow um and i think if you don't have like that that community calling and that um kind of message to get people on board then it's a little bit tougher it's kind of just like fugazi almost you know like it's like fugazi fugazi it's you know it's in the it's like

6:50Sam Newton:empty empty views in a way it's like a vanity metric exactly it's like just because it got you know five million or whatever he's trying to get people to go to youtube to connect deeper and see these awesome videos that are taking so much more time. If someone was trying to, let's just say grow their personal brand, if they wanted to do something on YouTube or they want to do something on Instagram and move people to YouTube, what do you feel like are two to three different factors you would tell them to focus on? Showing up yourself is so, so, so big. Like, I think you guys can attest to this time and time again, because your brand is like, you've created such an incredible um not niche but like lane for you guys in in the creation world and you guys don't have like millions of followers or million but like you guys show up you show your personal story you guys always show up in your own content and you you tell your stories in ways that are so uh relatable and with the pod and with your own and like that's all you really need you don't need a huge following and the moment you start doing that uh i think you can connect to so many people um it's the thousand true followers type uh where if you can really really uh connect with people and so i'd say the first thing show up like yourself and like a lot of people are like ah it's a hard that's probably one of the hardest things right just start like instagram stories are so so easy they're gone in 24 hours no one cares just start posting stuff like hey i'm doing this i'm doing that and it's going to be weird at first but it's going to get easier and easier I always say Instagram stories another really really easy way to kind of get around it if you actually don't want to be on camera a very simple way to put yourself out there is voiceovers right you just film your day add the voiceover after because you can add character you can edit it later you can like really get an idea of like how you want to say it I think there's so many like animator youtubers that have like hundreds of millions of subscribers and people have never seen their fucking face but just because they're they're charismatic they're funny they're fun and they're just adding voiceovers on top of their stuff and so um showing up yourself and trying to bring your personality to the table i think now more than ever is going to be such a big thing because you know with ai with people being able to create shit instantly people are going to want to know two things they want to know the behind the scenes how things were made now more than ever and you're already seeing that on short form content um and they're going to want to know the story of like who made it right not only how was it made but who made it what's their story what's their motivation behind it and so i'd say that's the biggest one if you can learn how to communicate your own story and your own journey people will care so so so much more it's why so many creators are like like creator brands like emma chamberlain and all these creator run brands are killing it right now because people know the the story behind they understand the like what went into making it and the people behind the brand and i think it's the same thing with any kind of creation going forward like if you are scared of putting yourself out there um it's going to be much much much harder uh and then stop lying like people are like i'm an introvert i'm not good on camera i'm not like it i've been doing youtube for the 15 years now actually i think i sent you did i send one of you no i don't know if i sent i thought we were texting yes yes yeah i I got a YouTube.

10:17Weird, I didn't get that text. Yeah, I know, man. We just got something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You wouldn't know about it.

10:21Sam Newton:Do you even have his number? It's weird I didn't get that text. I know, I was the one who set this whole thing up. It's just been in Snapchats, yeah. But, yeah, it was the 15-year YouTube. You've been on YouTube for 15 years? I'm like, that's crazy. You've been at the game. You've been putting so many reps in. Yeah, but my first seven years of shooting was more like, I'm just filming my life. like I'm I wasn't trying to be a YouTuber I wasn't trying YouTube just happened to be the platform I put things on and then I think it's been the last like since 2018 the last seven years where I'm like all right I'm gonna try making YouTube a thing um but yeah it's it's something being on camera being good at telling stories being good at telling your own story isn't an easy thing to do and people think it's just a natural thing that that happens and I don't think you have to like live a certain life.

11:14You don't have to be a beautiful person with a cool story. Just show up, tell the stories that you want to tell, things that excite you. And that's going to start bringing people onto your brand because you can't fake being real. I mean, you could try your hardest, but I think after a certain amount of time, people can weed it out. I mean, I think something I respect a ton about what you've built in your content is it never feels like you've drifted away from who you are. Like for as long as I've known you, you put out what you want to put out. You don't really conform to like, Oh, this algorithm is, you know, is doing this certain thing.

11:48And I think it's, it's made people want to gravitate more towards you. Cause you're like, you just want to support this guy. You're like, I respect this. He's doing his thing. And in a world where like you stated, it's just like, my feet is filled with AI gorillas and pandas right now. It's fucking insane. What is happening and how many millions of videos are being uploaded a day that aren't a real person so i think you're so right where it's like if you can lean into your stuff your shit things that you've been through things that you want to talk about it's like people are going to find that and they're going to find it interesting and be able to like gravitate towards that and i i mean that's the type of stuff that i want to watch you know do you find yourself trying to search for that content right now like other stuff like that uh in terms of like what i consider yeah yeah yeah i mean it's not necessarily i'm not up against a panda video what i i mean when i can get a good ai stormtrooper vlog man i'm in there um no but i think it's less what i search for but more but more than what i gravitate towards like when you see especially with all this just slop and bullshit that you wake up you scroll um not on not unless you're doing the the rock it's 90 minutes baby yeah there you go um but you'll start scrolling obviously you know out of 20 videos 19 of them will be just like here's a trend here's a black bar with white text like boys trip to canada going crazy uh and just like these same and not there's nothing necessarily wrong with trends there's nothing necessarily wrong with experimenting and and doing different things but i feel like you kind of get used to what what you see you open up the app and you're like okay here's more of the same right and then when you find that one video and every 20 videos where you're like, whoa, this feels human.

13:30This feels real. This feels like it's coming from somebody that, that seems like they really care about what they're making. That to me is what, like where that longevity is going to come. And it allows a creator like me to have seasons, right? Where I'm like, there might be a three, four or five months stretch where my channel's not doing as well. Or where I'm not making as much content or films or whatever it might be, but people know me, they've been riding with my brand for so long. It's like your friend, Sam, this is what he does. And it allows you, like you said, just to kind of have this connection with the creator that you know them.

14:07It's almost like a friend that you've been supporting for so long that, you know, I can pivot, I can try different things. As long as it comes from me, it comes from their friend, Sam, then people will hop on board and still rock with it.

14:20Sam Newton:We hope you're enjoying this episode with Sam, but real quick, we want to tell you about an awesome free product we have for you guys. Okay. It's a 10 minute personal brand kickstart because we want to help you make better content online. It's the top link in the description and it's free 99. Go check it out. Okay. Let's keep it rolling. How do you think about long form versus short form when it comes to building depth with your audience and also having strategy when it comes to social media? Cause you're someone who, like you said, it's not like you're going every single week on YouTube or you're not posting every single day on short form.

14:52Sam Newton:So like, how are you thinking about your strategy when it comes to short form versus long form? And how does it play into building depth with your audience? Yeah, I think one on a call on a smear podcast, Jacob Collier, he said, it's not about the amount of people you've reached. It's of the people you've reached. How many did you move? And like, to me, I've never heard something that clicks so much because genuinely, if you're making something my my mentality it's like and and in order to move other people the first person you have to move is yourself right if i'm making something that at the end of when i'm finished like finish my edit like if it's if i'm trying to make something funny or stupid and i can't stop giggling like in the edit like this is so fucking dumb uh but i'm laughing i'm showing my voice like dude look at this uh then i know other people are gonna have that reaction or if I'm making something I want it to be emotional.

15:45And I'm like choking up. Like when I made the video about my dad, I'm like, you should see me. It's like a meme, like in Premiere Pro, just bawling my eyes out and then stop. And then whenever, it's always this moment when a video is done too. Like for some reason, I finally watched that final export and I just, I just bawl. And I know if I have that reaction, that like actual, if it can move, if what I make moves me, it's going to be able to move other people. And that's so, so important. And so I think that's my number one thing, right? I have to create stuff that is genuinely going to move me because then if that happens, right, if I feel that connection, I know it's going to, you know, at least connect with a certain amount of people, whether or not it blows up, whether or not hundreds of thousands of people see it, there's going to be a higher percentage of the people that do watch it that are really going to fuck with it and that's the most important thing for me i could

16:44Sam Newton:just see you i'm just like you're like editing and you're just like bawling and you're just like you finish your edit you just take it you're like he's done it again he can't keep getting away with this he's too good it's so funny you mentioned something that i kind of want to backtrack backtrack a little into were you saying that you go kind of through seasons where you're like posting a lot or you know maybe you're taking a little bit of a break and you're like maybe views are down in a world where like that is your job how do you kind of overcome those feelings when we are like we're posting to youtube right and at the end of the day it matters what you you love the piece like that's number one right if it's what i'm getting from like all of us doing this it's like we posted something we loved it that's awesome it checks the box but also it is a business and it's how we live so i'm just curious like what you have to tell people about kind of these seasons that you write in and kind of how the ebbs and flows of being a creator impact you yeah i'm trying to figure out how to say this without sounding like douchey for lack of a better term but like i put in so much work to the point where i feel like i've allowed myself to have those seasons like if you're just starting you're like i'm gonna be a youtuber and you're six months in and you're like i just think i need like four months of relaxing and i'm burnt out like i'm just not going to post for the next six months it might not work out for you you know you haven't given yourself the the ability to have like a season of relaxing and just like stopping making things for a while because you haven't built up that base i've given myself that because i put in 10 years of work of just like yeah 15 now yeah uh of just trying to build an audience on a certain platform that once i've gotten to a certain spot i'm like all right you know it gives me time to look back or like I still have my sponsors.

18:36I still, I'm in a very privileged position to even walk away and then come back. Um, and so I think it's just really, really important to have that base and give yourself like, all right, I'm going to have a plan for at least a year, start building up, uh, focus on what you want to focus on. And then, you know, once you feel that momentum is real, then you can kind of, uh, adapt it. But, but for me, it really gives myself a lot of, gives me a lot of uh i don't know how to say it but like i know that when i don't post for a month and a half and i come back like people will be there you know but i think

19:13Sam Newton:that's attributed to the type of content that you make it's not you trying to go viral you're making pieces that are meaningful to you and it resonates with people and so yeah it allows you to build that depth with your audience take a step back i also think with the type of videos that you like to make specifically, you need to give yourself time to experience more life and find stories that you want to tell. Yeah. Because that's the kind of films that you want to make. And so it's almost necessary for you to take that step back, go experience life, go to Bali again and find a new story to tell, you know?

19:48Sam Newton:Namaste. With travel films too, I can't just wake up in LA one day and be like, damn, I need to make a viral travel edit real quick. like let's just fly to Alaska spend two weeks in Alaska like it doesn't work like that um well I mean you could do that but I'm saying I couldn't just wake up and just crush out and edit um the way that other people are like how can I go viral now it you have to to really plan out your stories and plan out where you're going to go next what story you do want to tell and it makes it a little bit more intentional um and less forced because I feel like people when you come from this place of like i'm sure a lot of people can relate you wake up in the morning you go on your phone you see all these people posting and then the first thing you ask yourself is like shit i gotta put something out there what am i gonna put out there you're already behind right you're behind the eight ball because now you're just like creating for the sake of creating and like sometimes that's good but if you're just doing that not because you're making something you want to but because you see a trend that you're like i gotta hop on this real quick and you're like i don't know why i'm doing it but like or i'm just gonna get a quick drone shot and for some people where some people are like i just need to get out of my head and post and some people are in that that that part of the the internet and i respect that i'm more of the like if if it means just like posting a one drone clip for me it's not going to do much uh it might go viral but it wouldn't really bring the depth that i'm looking for i'd rather spend a little bit more time and that's where i'm at with my short form right now my strategy where i'm like you know i'm gonna try to make stuff it's weird because i never on youtube i definitely don't make stuff where i'm trying to go viral but like now on short form i'm like fuck okay how do i you know i'm leaning into it a little bit but like i'm still trying to keep that um what i talked about earlier true where i'm like if i can make something that you know it does just reaches my audience already um and they like it you know if it gets 30 like my average view count on instagram reels will be like 50 to 100k and like if it can get like 50k on the lower end but i know it but mostly just reached my following but i made something with depth and i'm teaching them something honest or giving in my honest experience about something um then it's a win for me because then of the people that watched it i hope that those people are still moved and they connect to me more as opposed to like i said a a one-off clip or a trend that i made that might have blown up and i get that dopamine of like, look at all these people, uh, liking and commenting.

22:19And these people are having arguments in my comment section. This is crazy. Uh, you know, but then there's never that conversion of community and longevity. And, and if you want to outlat, like if you want to really weather the storm and make this your, your thing for a long, long time, you're going to have to be a real honest person and people will start seeing that. And it doesn't matter again, that'll give you that, that space to have those seasons and to be able to step back and back into it. On the topic of community, I think it's rare for people to be able to bring people together in person.

22:52Like it just doesn't really happen a whole lot. And I think as AI comes more into the forefront of our lives, I feel like we're going to crave just being together. I actually have a crazy story for both of you. Yesterday, I was just DMing with somebody and they sent me a chat GPT thing. I had the dash and they left a quote on. And I go, you just asked me a regular question from chat GPT, brother. I go, you just gotta, I'm a totally normal guy. You just gotta fucking ask me a question. And it's getting so crazy. Someone asked ChatGPT how to ask you a question. How to ask me a question. And I was like, brother, I go.

23:21Sound more human. No, I literally said, I go, I can't. Sound chiller. I was like, I can't talk to you. I'm not even gonna lie. I go, this is super weird. And they go, what do you mean? I go, you just sent me a message from ChatGPT, asked me a question. I go, brother, you can just ask me a fucking question. Send me a voice. Send me a voice note, whatever. And I was like, if English isn't your primary language, I totally understand if you're using it goes no I'm from America I go okay I'm good like this is weird but I think though as it's like people are going to stop learning how to think it's going to get weird anyways but I was going with this on the topic of community is you really do do a great job of bringing people together why and how can people start getting the squad together getting the rocks together like if you just have like maybe you're tiny you're just starting out but like you're craving getting people together how would you recommend people go about that because some of my most like fun times in this space has been going to your events.

24:09Like it's so fun to like see people in person. Then you meet a couple of people and maybe watch your stuff or like, and just see all these people you see online and they're just super kind and normal. And I think it's really refreshing. Appreciate it. A quick conversational pin, go back to the AI stuff. I think everyone, everyone, everyone thinks the worst thing about AI. Like there's obviously a ton going on. Everyone thinks like the worst thing about it is like, Oh, they're going to take our job. They're going to like, Like all of these like these crazy clips coming out. The worst thing I've experienced about AI so far that's affected my life is the amount.

24:44And I'm sure you guys can attest to this. The amount of fucking AI emails I'm getting on a daily basis is blowing my mind of just people that's so obviously ChachiPT script. Like Sam, I love your videos and how they connect with community and how you love wearing turtlenecks and making travel films. I'm like, God. bro every day i get catfished and it's like my name is in all caps hey brayden figuero we've adjusted the rate for this it's now it's now 197 with the decimal yes yes how do they how do they find us dude i every day i wake up sometimes i get six of them in a row and i'm just like dude i'm not even opening you guys anymore because it's like spam emails have always been a thing but now it's ai spam it's a spam email not even written or created by a human and they're just like auto-generated dude it's there's that and then there's actual just people thinking they're sounding better by writing me a chat gpt email or like dude just be like sam i fuck with your work i really love what you're doing like now it's like the advantage of sounding more human but seriously it's crazy um back to building community back to building community wholesome um so i start by um creating a chat gpt prompt on asking chat what how to know um i think you hit the nail ahead man it's it's the internet's a weird place and and now more than ever people are really really craving um you know connection and and being able to meet people that they have a relationship with online you know it's that one-way relationship where they know me but i don't know them um and i think people are also for me i always say at my events like if we get the opportunity to talk for people that don't know every year in la i have a like a film festival a pseudo film festival for creators where we have like nine or 10 films and like 400 people come out we have a live dj and in and out truck it's a whole lot of fun uh people come out from all over the world but um for me what i always say is like even if we don't get the opportunity to talk like me and you who's attending this event like you're in this rare rare position where everyone in this room is a creator or a creative person right like look to your left look to your right maybe you came to meet me or like one of the other filmmakers but like fuck that take ignore that uh we'll be able to meet maybe talk for for a couple minutes but what's way more important is looking to your left and your right and meeting other people that are trying to do what you're trying to do not necessarily like i might have talked about this the last time i was on but like i always say people are like find a mentor that can guide you find a mentor and like that is finding a mentor is extremely important in any industry.

27:21But what I would argue is might be more important is just finding other people that are at the same level as you that are trying to do the same thing at the same time. Because then you can, you're not like trying to get your mentor's attention, you know, like he or she are busy and they're always doing something. It's like, no, it's, you got your buddy, they're in the same position in life as you, like, yo, let's go do this shoot real quick. and finding those people, making that a priority to find those people that just want to go out and make things that are at the same level as you are, that are in the same season of life as you are for me is so important because I wouldn't be as successful as I am if I didn't find Luke, my business partner, at the time in my life in which I found him, right?

28:04Or if I met my buddy Chase at the time in my life in which I found him or my buddy Alex Romo. All of these guys, Chris Valderas like I I found friends at the perfect time that were at the same level as me that wanted the same thing that we could just help each other and grow together and um that to me was more invaluable than any mentor could ever give me so the community element like finding creating these spaces where other people can come in and just meet each other for me is so so important because that could like ignite that spark and just a few people to like find those friends because if you don't have friends if you don't if it's not fun then it's tough to it's also solo creating is like a very solo sport yeah like you're just by yourself a lot of the time so when you do find a friend we found each other on tiktok come on see that was it one dm it's amazing what one dm and 160 pods later crazy but i feel like you're so right you gotta you gotta dm some random dudes or girls on the internet and be like hey do you shoot like would you be down to go do this show up in comment sections just be involved like every community on the internet has like a little niche like community of people right like i'm in the travel film space right and then we cross over and like the creator film economy but even then you guys have like a separate niche that wouldn't quite tap into my like you guys have like not that i wouldn't say like hustle culture but like me and gary v don't have any fucking crossover you have uh am i we asked him about you oh yeah he's heard about yeah he said dude he's trying to come out to the next film festival he was saying that he's he's like you've been really hitting the gym god damn it uh i was like the slow-mo on my face really i was so earnest there for a second i'm like

29:52Sam Newton:did he really i'm like god damn it um fuck wait two things about your film fest that i just want to touch on one there was a creator that i found his youtube video randomly and i stumbled upon it and i watched it it was the cutest fucking video because this guy made a vlog about coming to your festival and being like this is like a dream come true and i remember just seeing it being like man how fucking cool is it that sam's having an impact on this kid where he this is like a dream come true for him to come to this event i thought that was so dope and then also this past time brandon and i brought our girlfriends and a few people came up and were like oh we love the fucking podcast gary v yeah he was one of them and our girls were like man like y 'all are kind popping and i'm like no no you gotta understand like if it's if if anyone's gonna recognize us it's gonna be it's in this room the five people that watch the show are dude that's like me walking around nab baby yes i'm kind of someone uh but it's yeah just in that confine no but shit like that that's why i do it man that's really what what makes me like gives me life because at the end of the day i don't think like he's not making that video because like he met Sam Newton or that he like I'm obviously I was an element of that but like what's more important is he comes to this event and not only does he he get to meet me it's like oh and then I I ran into the boys in the 505 pod I ran into this person and that person and then uh that I look up to all these people on the internet and on top of that I talked to this guy who's just doing like filming car washes right now and I like we talked about how we wanted to break out of our niche and like that all of these things like people don't get the opportunity if you're from like i'm born and raised in la like i've been surrounded by creative people my whole life and and you know la's got its bullshit just like anywhere else but the the privilege of being from la is like you get this you get creativity and you get uh people that want to get shit done constantly and i uh empathize sympathize empathize sympathize i'd say sympathize because i've never experienced or both uh yeah sure let's go with all of them um i i understand if you're from like bakersfield and you don't you've never experienced that community how hard that is and then you show up to something like that and you're like damn like this is what i need i need more people in my life and so that's why i just say just actively try to make uh whatever attempt it is even if it's like once or twice a year to just look at what other like what events are happening maybe it's a Sam Newton event in February in LA next year.

32:39If you want to fly out, come on by, but just mark your calendars. If there's something in your town or your city that you can go to get yourself out of your comfort zone, just meet a couple of people. I fucking hate networking. I hate like just standing around being like, what do you do? Um, but like there is a certain element of like, okay, I'm going to just get out there. I'm going to see who I can meet. And like, maybe that one conversation can lead to something, uh, amazing.

33:02Sam Newton:So I wanted to ask you like what you think creators get wrong about building community online? And the reason I wanted to ask is because I heard once that if you're looking for friends and wanting to network, it's like you have to be the friend. I remember when I, after I moved home from college, I was like, I don't really know many people out here. And I was almost, I was waiting for someone to message me out of the blue to be like yo do you want to go shoot or you do the same thing and i wish i could go back and tell myself you got to put yourself out there be the friend reach out and make it a priority to put yourself out there because not that no one's coming to save you but like if no one's hitting you up you have to take the initiative to like put yourself don't be mad no one's helping you out on your short film if you haven't helped out anybody else on their short film you know um i'd say the biggest thing people are doing wrong in terms of community building in terms of just like connecting with people on the internet i always say when i'm talking to the camera when i'm trying to connect you know once that that the record button is going and i'm looking down the lens like stop trying to talk to thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people or hundreds of people in general talk to one person like to me that's how you build a community of a lot of people is you pick one person.

34:26Imagine you're just FaceTiming your boy or your girl or somebody that you really connect with. And you're just like, hey, this is what I'm going through. Or yourself 10 years ago, right? Just pick one person that you're talking to. And I think that's why you guys are so successful because it's like, I can tune in to the podcast and learn some stuff and get some valuable insight. But at the same time, I know it's just two guys fucking around, being themselves. and you talk to your audience as if they're just like your boy. It's like, yo, this is what we're doing. Whether you're in, you're out, whatever, up to you.

35:00It's almost like inviting a friend out. Like, yo, we're going to go swing by this bar to watch the game. If you want to come, come on by. If not, don't worry about it. We're going to be there anyways. If not, fuck you. If not, you're a bitch. That's probably how we'd actually go about it. If not, you're washed.

35:22every time uh those are the people that are on instagram man get over to youtube yeah help us out uh no but it's just like you you try to create this environment where you can be your honest self and talk to one one person and i think that's where the community comes because it's like totally when people are watching youtube very rarely are they watching it as a group you know i'd love to see the stats behind it but like i bet i can't imagine it's more than five percent of people are watching like unless it's you know girls girls night watching their music videos you know or like you show up music videos or what other kind of youtube videos dude girls do this is a real thing i think this is more of a guy's thing because we did that in college if we would be like going out or something like some whoever the dude was was in charge of the tv was like you would just see like asap rockies yeah also this is how the internet's fucked up my head i'm saying this is if I have friends that know I've seen reels of like well I know girls do this for sure dude I hang out around girls for sure no but I hang out girls it'll be like music video night and it's just Tate McRae on pretty but yeah I mean you think this you're like actually serious yeah

36:30Sam Newton:yeah I don't know if that's a real I gotta ask we gotta ask our girlfriends I don't think some girls when they hang out they'll be on the couch and just fucking roll Justin Bieber music videos from for sure i also haven't talked to a girl in eight years i feel like it's maybe more so like a podcast like a girl loves like a alex or a podcast type shit right but i feel like i feel like but as a friend you know you're having drinks i think youtube's gotta be less than one percent group i'm calling that shot right oh yeah yeah but i'm i'm not saying that i'm saying that it exists it exists come on the three percent women that watch this podcast let us know anyways uh what the fuck were we dying of?

37:10Sam Newton:Well, hold on, hold on. Music videos though are different than I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm saying in terms of, I know where I'm so back. In terms of who actually watches your videos in like a group setting or in a multiple person setting, it's so minimal. It's normally just one person on their laptop, on their phone. So talk to that one person. And when it comes to building a community, if you can connect to one person, that's how you'll be able to connect to so many. But instead of being like, you know, you click it and you're like, hey guys look think you're thinking about all these people that could be watching it instead just be like who's this one person that's watching right now i think i've actually never really heard it said like you just said it and i think it's so interesting you often think let's say your instagram reel gets like 10 000 views i'll see that number and i'll think damn if i was on stage and or in an auditorium or whatever and you see 10 000 people in front of you that's a fucking a lot of people but they're not consumed everybody's not sitting around watching you at the same time it's one-on-one so you're talking to maybe said 10 000 people but you're talking to each one of them individually through a screen i thought that that's really interesting yeah i think it also makes a lot easier like if you think about oh in terms of talking that's what i'm saying makes it you're just like this is one person that you're already familiar with too then you're just thinking okay just me and a buddy right now it makes it so much easier because god it's so hard when you first start out to talk to the camera.

38:32It's a skill. That is a skill that you pick up along the way. It's weird to talk down the bareable lens, but it gets so much easier over time.

38:40Sam Newton:Would you say a coffee meetup is like the Instagram stories of getting into getting comfortable with a live event? I don't know if I could do what you do. You put on a full fucking production thing. It started with 40 people in a room and then it slowly got bigger and bigger and bigger and now it's something that's bigger than I am. People will be like, when's the event this year? Even before I planned it, I'm like, ah, shit. I probably should start getting that together. People are hitting you up. Yo, are you going to Sam Newton's? Well, people are booking flights, right? And when I'm booking a flight, I'm two weeks out before.

39:15I'd rather spend an extra$300,$400. I'm like, book it the week before I go. But now I'm like, most people are like, I got a time off or they just want to get the better deals on flights. And they're like, hit me up in September. like wins the event uh i'm trying to buy tickets i'm like oh fuck no it's gotta be yeah and so but yeah i'd say just getting out like uh i know uh johnny out in uh uh chicago johnny hochstetler hochstetler shout out j hog uh shout out lab culture uh but he does like little coffee meetups in chicago right where it's just like 20 25 people and even if like i'm not going to those but i'm noticing that and like talk about someone who's doing a good job building community like he's trying to build a brand he's trying to build um lab culture and he's doing it from a way of like all right i'm building this brand i know people are connecting with me online but i'm also just going to step out and just get a small community together people that can drink some coffee hang out and and then you i look at videos of those events and it's like him and his buddies and everyone's rocking lab culture and everyone i'm like this is how this is how they're in the

40:23Sam Newton:lab dude they're out of the lab but they're gonna go back to the lab i'm surprised it's not having them at like 11 p.m you know it's like yeah late night neon yeah all dark blue it's like did you guys ever go to those uh gaming cafes back in like 2004 yes to play video games bro yeah we'd go and play like halo for a buddy's birthday and they're like no i didn't play that shit there'd be like eight of us in a line yeah lined up and it's just like uh it's a good time yeah i played um you bring your own controller that's how you knew you were tough and they said the kids who are rich would have their turtle beaches and i'd be like damn bro i need like how are you hearing me right now mine was all pc so it was all but it was a battlefront it's a nerdy you know nerdier and also just like i'm talking 2004 like okay i'm playing battlefront 19 something it was battlefield battlefield sounds yeah what's more nerdy that or i used to go to the boys and girls club and compete in Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.

41:20Sam Newton:That takes the cake. That takes the cake, brother. I liked Yu-Gi-Oh, though. Yu-Gi-Oh was sick. What was that white-eyes black dragon thing? Blue-eyes white-eyes. Okay, that was my guy. Oh, I had it. I had the whole thing. It was like 16 little pieces, right? No, that was Exodius. I had that guy, too. Yeah. Got that guy at 7-Eleven. I got my cards still. You had Exodius? Yeah. That's crazy. But they were for sure fake, because the 7-Eleven near me just would print them. It just came with a pack of all files. It just came with a single card. Yeah, no, I'm serious. I remember going. I was like dad You gotta buy this and he goes dude.