Casey Neistat's Latest Video, Prime's $1M Golden Bottle, Responding to hate comments

0:00The Colin and Samir Show is supported by Microsoft Copilot. This is something I thought I would never say, but can I share with you my favorite prompt? I mean, like when you say something like that, I have to say yes. Were you going to say no? No, but okay. Just let me hear it. So when I'm researching for a guest or I need to know a lot about a subject matter, I say, make me a podcast about. And when you do that, you're going to get a short blurb about that subject. And then in like two minutes, you're going to get a podcast. So check this out. Welcome to Co-Pilot Podcasts. Picture this, a guy working the front desk at a hotel, making lacrosse videos in his spare time, completely unaware that he's about to become one of the most influential voices in the creator economy.

0:38Today, we're diving into the remarkable story of Colin Rosenblum. Wow. Did you pay it to say that? That's crazy. That's very kind. It's crazy, but it's my favorite way to learn about a subject matter. I'm learning about so much more now that I can turn this research into like a seven minute podcast that I can listen to just when I'm walking. Did you tell it that I worked at the front desk of a hotel? Dude, the prompt is just, make me a podcast about Colin from Colin and Samir. That's it. I may be biased, but I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm hooked. So if you guys haven't checked out Copilot, check it out.

1:10Try it for your research. Try it for getting variations of your titles, your ideas. It's one of my favorite tools on the internet right now for our creativity. And now back to the show. What's up, everyone? Welcome to Creator Support. On this week's episode, we talk about some lessons that we learned from watching Casey and iStat's most recent YouTube video. We also talk about when it's okay to defend yourself in the comments, and we break down the genius of Prime's marketing by Logan Paul and KSI. All right, if you make it to the deep end, let us know. Okay, for those of you watching, I just want to acknowledge that I can barely recognize myself right now, and I know this is jarring for everyone.

1:51Here's what happened. Yeah, you've got some explaining to me. Yeah, yeah. I went to a barbershop that I've been going to more frequently, which has been a big change for me because I changed barbers. And they had a TV on. And my barber faced me towards the TV to watch an NFL game. So I wasn't aware of what was going on with my hair. Of course. And you trusted the barber. Yeah. Yeah. It just is... Listen, we didn't have a discussion, which is the problem. It's not a bad haircut. No, no. It's just shorter than I anticipated. It's just, it was surprising when I saw you this morning. Yeah. And the issue right now as a creator is that there's continuity that I have to take into account here.

2:33We're in the middle of shooting a course. For those of you. And you just lost like 25 pounds. Yeah. I look a completely different person. Yeah. So now I'm, I think for the next module that we're shooting tomorrow of the course, I'm going to have to wear a hat because it's going to be too jarring of a change video to video to go from the long-haired version of me to this medium-length haired version of me. Yeah, when I saw you across the coffee shop this morning, you gave me a normal head nod, like, hey, good morning. And I was like, how dare you act like it's business as usual? You like pantomimed a haircut.

3:06Yeah, I was like, and I was like scissoring around your hair, like my head being like, hey, man, before we just head nod each other, let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. Yeah, so for those of you who are going to take the course, I just want to acknowledge, there's going to be a section of the course where I'm wearing a hat, and it is to ease you into my new look. Okay, it's not... Again, it's not because the cut is bad. Yeah, it's not because the cut is bad. I think it's no fault to the barber. Nope. There's really no one at fault here. Yep. Except for the Philadelphia Eagles. What? That was the game that was on.

3:40Okay, anyway, welcome to the show. Against like winners? Yeah, I don't know. I can't tell if you're into sports or not. Welcome to the show. So let's talk about a YouTube video that both of us watched that we were having a lot of conversation about here in our studio, which is Casey Neistat's video. I don't even know what it's called. It's called My New Career as a Male Model and Professional Skateboarder. So it's classic Casey Neistat vlog, but it's classic in a way that maybe is most nostalgic for you and I because it's Casey interweaving a brand into his vlog format. And I think for all creators, we did an episode of Creator Support where we talked about Mr.

4:26Beast's interwoven advertising, how he basically takes a critical moment in his stories and then is able to weave an advertiser's messaging into that and do it in a way where the story is progressing and the ad is progressing at the same time. This is different. Yep. this is a more old school way. And there's something about how Casey does this that made me fall in love with advertising. Yeah. I want to get to his older stuff. Yeah. And what he did for us. But I think what you said about Mr. Beast versus this, I want to talk about a little bit further how Mr. Beast, it's still like 90 seconds worth of the overall video.

5:08Yeah. And there's parallel narratives like you're saying. There's the story and then there's the brand story and he finds a way to keep you engaged and you're getting information from two sources. They're somehow related. And it makes you want to watch that section of the video. It's one of the better sections of the video, which is great for an ad integration where you're taking up 90 seconds. You want to make it more valuable. That's your business. You want to make it one of the best parts of the video. Casey makes the entire video essentially about this brand. And the whole thing is entertaining.

5:39And we're like bought in. Yeah. Of course, the viewership is very different. Sure. You have no idea you're watching. I mean, this also very well might not be an ad. Like it might not be part of his deliverables for Lululemon. Totally. And let's be clear, this is about Casey being in a Lululemon commercial and getting to act in that commercial, like a nationwide commercial. It could be a deliverable. It could not be. It's unclear to me. But the thing that I wrote down was most creators, including ourselves, the way we position a brand to our audience is we introduce a problem and show you how the brand is the solution to that problem.

6:20Right? What Casey does here is he introduces a friend to his friend group. Those are very different things. Like if I was to sit down with a group of friends and tell them about a solution to all of our collective problems, you know, hey, I just started working out at this new gym. It's great. The classes are short. It's fun. Now I'm introducing a solution to a collective problem. We all want to get more fit. Here's a solution. What Casey's doing is saying like, hey, you remember a couple years ago I told you that story about how I went on that trip? that was with this friend, Brad. And Brad's gonna come hang out with us for a bit.

7:00So let me tell you all the great things about Brad. So you have a good feeling about him when I introduce him to you. That's what Casey does. Those are two very different strategies of how you introduce a brand. And every time Casey has introduced a brand on his channel, it has that feel to it of like, he's introducing a friend to his community and building up the context so that you know that they have played a pivotal role in his life. Yeah, and for me, he makes it aspirational to make, whether this is an ad or not, to make, I guess I'll just say, to work with brands. Yeah, yeah. You know, from the beginning of watching the video he made, Make It Count with Nike, or the Mercedes series, the four-part series he did with Mercedes, the video he made with J.Crew, I watched those videos of I don't know how many years ago that is at this point But when you and I were watching those videos, I remember thinking like oh, I want to make that video I want to work with that brand.

8:05That is an entire lifestyle. That's an identity He manages to wrap up like working with a brand into his identity so seamlessly That it's contagious Like when I watched the lululemon video I you know, I want to be a friend to lululemon at this point Like, I want to be in that ad. I want to be there in Vancouver. Yeah, I just want to be in an ad now. Yeah. Yeah. He does this thing, though, where he pulls out of the vlog and he sits back down in his studio. And he does this really cool thing with the calendar where he pushes it, like, you know, far back in time. And he shows that the pants that he's advertising, in July of 2017, he has an Instagram photo that you can go look at where he is wearing those pants.

8:50So he's proving to you again, this has been a part of his life for a while. Then he shows screenshots of the email exchanges between him and Lululemon because he wore a Lululemon shirt when he ran the New York City Marathon. So again, he's building context and a relationship with this brand and also these people. He's showing they're having regular communication. These are like subtle things that feel like they're just part of the story, but it changes our relationship to this brand and to this experience that a creator that we like is having and makes it a more like pleasant experience for us.

9:30And again, it's the whole thing is about him working with a brand, which is incredible. I watched this video and I took a step back and I was like, I'm not sure there's many other creators, if there even are other creators who can do this. The only one that I think you and I both talked about this, which is really interesting, was Colt Kerwin's first branded video. He walks into his room, which is the content closet where he lives with two other creators. And he pulls up the camera and he's like, guys, we finally did it. Because of you guys, we got the first sponsor on our channel. So thank you, OnePlus, for sponsoring this video.

10:12And that to me is that same feel of introducing a friend to a friend group. being like, guys, this is super exciting. This person is here. This thing happened. For all of us, it's exciting. Yeah. So two very different styles of advertising. I think, you know, you and I have always been interested in this. It is our business as creators to understand and recognize how people are positioning brands in their videos. But I think we're in a moment where this style is going to expand. It's going to expand beyond the like, you know, short brand integration. I think it'll probably go into more deep relationships between creators and advertisers.

10:52I do think creators are going to start to show up in more traditional advertising, whether that's on TV or likely also on YouTube. Yeah, it was. I just love seeing this video and thinking about how inspired and influenced we were by his early work with brands. especially while we were at lacrosse network like the science of playing fast which is a series we made for gatorade that's true was so heavily inspired by what he did that's very brands back then you know you and i were characters like running through tests with them and yeah you know it was just such a huge part of how we wanted to portray ourselves at the time totally um okay on this note uh we got a question that says i couldn't find the course you guys are talking about.

11:39Can you share an info or a link where I can sign up? I'm a new creator and I want to find out what I'm missing. Okay. Really quickly, just on this note, I know we've talked about this a couple of times. We'll put it in the link in the description here and on the audio feed. It's not out yet. We're still shooting it, but it is all about how to work with brands. It's about how to position yourself better to work with brands. It's about how to create long lasting relationships, how to get to a renewal, how do you price yourself. The course is best suited for someone who's not necessarily a new creator, but someone who's doing brand partnerships already and wants to take that business to the next level.

12:19It's very much for what we, the position that we were in when we were doing sporadic brand deals. We were doing like a thousand dollar deal here, an$800 deal here, and we wanted to figure out how do we actually make this consistent? How do we build something where we have a shot at making this a career. That's the moment in time that I think this is good for, not a brand new creator. So we'll be really clear about that when we put this out in the market. But right now it's just a waiting list. If you wanna put some information in and sign up for that waiting list, if you're interested, great, if not, no worries.

12:56Okay, I found this question to be super interesting, pretty unique. Hey Colin and Samir, I have a YouTube channel with my brother where I create four to six minute explainer videos. But lately we've been getting a lot of comments accusing our videos of being completely made with AI, even though we only use AI as a voice on our channel because English isn't our first language. What should we do about this situation? I would say be honest and transparent with your audience about the fact that you're using AI as a tool. I think that's the advantage of being a creator is that you can move fast enough to address comments like this.

13:33The fact that you even have these comments is actually a really good sign that people are watching and have a point of view about your style. That's great. Yeah, that is a really good point. Yeah, I think getting on the channel with a video titled like, Are We Real? Or like, you know, is this channel run by AI? Or even if you can find a way to weave it into some of your episodes so you don't change the value of the video to the audience, but you use the AI voice as almost a character. Like make sure that the audience knows there's the AI voice and then there's you and pop in at certain times. Yeah, I like that.

14:10Or like there's a world where all of your outros could be you and your brother. Being like, you know, thanks for watching. We're the ones who run the channel, subscribe. Like there's some version where you can have it become consistent. I think give a name to the AI voice. Ask the audience, like, what should we call this voice? I don't know if that's your brand because it's a little, like, kitschy and funny. Bring them into the world. But, like, bring them into the world, you know? Yeah, and also— What should we call this? I find this to be a really interesting use case of AI. English is not our first language.

14:44But we want to reach an English audience. But we want to make, like, video essays or explainers. Super interesting use case. I think the— There's only a few AI voices right now out in the market. Like, the 11 Labs voice is kind of the one that everyone uses. Also, HeyGen. great tool for this if you want to be on camera. Oh, so it can be your voice? Yeah. It'll literally be your voice. It'll change your mouth movements. Yeah, good point. So it's just you basically speaking in English. Good point. Hey, Jen, look it up. We made a short about it. Yes. All right. On this same topic, this comes from the Discord, from Learn How to Sign.

15:19When is it appropriate to defend yourself in the comment section? There have been so many times where I've felt the urge to pounce on a negative comment and attack. But then I think, to what end? Sometimes I shy away to not stir up the hornet's nest. I think I've only defended myself a couple of times, both because my blood was boiling and because it felt important to protect the brand's image and values. Do you all have advice on when it is and isn't appropriate to respond to negative comments? Great question. That is a good question. I think something to take into account here is your energy.

15:54is it worth your energy? Like is the comment actually taking control over you? Like is it affecting you so much that it's ruining your day? Or is it something that you actually want to like set the record straight about the tone and the culture that you want to have in your community? Right. Like if you feel like the comment is affecting other people in your community in a negative way, then I think that can be a good time to step in with your belief. but if it's just something personal to you and it's like grinding your gears and you're angry about it i would think about if it's worth the energy to comment yeah totally is it actually going to do anything if you comment so to answer the question personally like if there's any level of negativity towards us or towards the content or towards the channel we don't reply to it like Like everyone, this is the context of what we do.

16:51We put out a video and we just put it out on the internet for people to judge and watch, like, hate. Just that's what we do. I think if there's any level of rhetoric that doesn't align with the environment we're trying to make, there's a lot of tools for that. Whether it's like putting the words in the backend of YouTube that you allow or not allow on your channel, just blocking someone or deleting their comments. And like, there's a lot of simple things to do there. But yeah, I don't really engage with like negativity. I do think some of it is interesting feedback. I read some of it and I'm like, that's interesting.

17:27But I can look at it all from like a very objective view of we're making a show. Some people are gonna like the show. Some people aren't. We're very unique styles of hosts. Some people like our style. Some people don't like our style. That's just, you know, it kind of is what it is. If someone's like personally attacking you and you find it to be just like not something you want to engage with, like there's a super clean option to like block someone or, you know. But I don't think being combative and going back and forth, I just don't find it to be a good use of time. I was watching this weekend the Sylvester Stallone documentary on Netflix.

18:06And after he had his hit, which was Rocky, that he wrote, he then went and did a few other videos that like, or movies that bombed. Yeah. And he was so combative. He would like outwardly on talk shows say that he wanted to fight the critics. Like he'd be like, you show up in any alley and I'll be there. And it did not bode well for him. Sure, yeah. Like it's not the right response. And he knows that looking back now. Yeah, yeah. It's also though, like you have to acknowledge some of this stuff does get you pissed off. Like it's your identity. It's your work. It's you. You take it personally, of course.

18:42it's been over time that I feel like I've been able to look at all this stuff objectively. It has really helped to separate myself personally from the work we make. And if someone criticizes the work we make, I don't feel like they're criticizing me. They're criticizing the work we make. Yeah. And that's okay with me. And I think you don't like the work we make. I've started to understand too, that whatever we're putting out on the internet, people will take it as everything. They know about us. Yeah. The only reference point they have for me as a human is what they experience online. Yeah. So they'll take what we give them and then they'll make assumptions about the rest.

19:24Yeah. Based off of what we give them. And there's nothing I can do about that. That's true. Right? Yeah. People will make assumptions about the gray areas, about what you don't say. Mm-hmm. And that's just part of the job. Yeah. Okay. Also from the Discord, Coach RT. What are the best ways you've found to make money? Apart from the obvious, AdSense and influencer agencies, what are ways that you've found to make money on your content creation? I'm a growing creator, recently got 3 ,000 subs in the last month and have 200 ,000 followers on TikTok, and I'm looking for ways to make money. At this point in time, I'm unsure how I feel about partnering with brands unless I truly believe in them.

19:59But obviously with my sub and follower count, I'm not in the position to pick and choose. So I'm wondering what other ways of making money you found that feel true to yourselves as people. Thanks in advance. So in terms of the, the quote unquote best way to make money, uh, I, I think that, um, AdSense is a very interesting new version of monetization. And I know he said apart from the obvious, but I just want to talk about a little bit in my experience and in our career, there was a large part of our career where I said AdSense is a non-factor. I don't look at it as any part of our business. It's too volatile, all the above, which is true.

20:47But when you build a really big library of similar types of content, for us, it has become a much more significant part of our business now. and one that now we have no choice but to account for. It cannot operate as just found money or something we don't look at. So I think AdSense right now, I thought about this this weekend. Like if we stopped uploading for the next year, I wonder how much we would make from AdSense. It wouldn't be nothing and it would probably be somewhat significant. And that's a pretty amazing thing as a creative. Everyone is always searching for like, how do you do that?

21:22How can you make money without having to create more? So, you know, AdSense is a very compelling thing, but it only happens after years and years and years of building a library. I would say specific to this creator, Coach Artie, who has 200 ,000 followers on TikTok. Yeah. And feels like they're in a position where they can't pick and choose the brands they want to work with. I think at that point, you should think about maybe how you can make money from something that is actually non-related, but doesn't drain your energy for creation at that stage. I mean, there are so many creators. Remember Mark Rober?

22:01How many subscribers did he have until he left his job? 10 million. 10 million. Not that you should go to that extreme. He left his job at 10 million. But there is, you know, keeping money out of creativity can be really important in the early stages. So Coach Artie is coaching volleyball on TikTok. And to the tune of, you know, 200 ,000 followers, 5.5 million likes, like some of these videos have 2 million views, 1.9 million views. He has different playlists on TikTok where he's got like a serving course, a passing course. So the obvious here is like, is there extended instruction that people are interested in?

22:46Yeah. What about in-person volleyball training? Yeah. If that isn't something you already do. We've been talking about this idea of like practice, which I think would be really fun. Where like adults can come back to like whatever the high school sport they were and just do practice. Yeah. We don't have to be in the game. Yeah. I think it'd be really fun. But yeah, I mean like he has a Patreon, which is interesting. But I think there's a personalization here. to like one-on-one coaching that feels really in line with your value. And again, it's not anything of, it's just like if someone wants it, offer the one-on-one coaching to them.

23:19You seem very passionate about coaching volleyball. People seem to trust you. And over the next couple of years, your job is to build credibility as the best volleyball coach on the internet, right? Yeah. I just want to say, as I've been looking around Coach Artie's TikTok, Yeah. One of my favorite things is that he only follows one person and it's his wife. I love that. That's great. Wife of Coach Artie. And that's her TikTok? No, it's not her TikTok, but that's the description. Oh, unbelievable. On her page. Yeah. I mean, Coach Artie has a Patreon right now and it does not look like it's caught any, any level of traction.

23:57Maybe, um, you know, maybe because the TikTok to Patreon connection just doesn't, it doesn't work. We've heard that from other creators that like TikTok does not translate into paying members or subscribers. So double down on YouTube, try and find the YouTube audience and then either individual coaching or scaled coaching like a Patreon could work. But do you feel like right now everyone wants very accelerated path to monetization because most successful creators we've talked to, it's taken years and years and years. It's not an overnight thing. And there weren't even opportunities for us to monetize at the sub 10 ,000 subscriber marker.

24:40And actually even at the 10 ,000 subscriber marker, you couldn't monetize on YouTube, couldn't make money on AdSense, couldn't make money from brands. So you had no choice but to just keep growing. And do other things. And do other things. I think I think there's like a prematurity to starting to think like I'm ready to be in the business of advertising. Um, I really like the idea of in-person training because I think it'll continue if you don't do this already, because it'll continue to illuminate what are the problems that your community is facing and probably give you ideas for videos you could make.

25:11Yeah. Or what about camps? What about camps? Day camps, volleyball day camp. I love camp. Yeah. it's great you know though yeah i do find volleyball a little bit intimidating like when you get invited to adult volleyball and everyone there is like really good and you feel like you just walked onto that scene from top gun everyone's like ripped and they're spiking the ball and then it's your turn to serve and you don't even get it over the net you know no it's a real experience that i had it's just i found it to be intimidating wait this you weren't just saying a hypothetical. That's a real thing.

25:45Yeah. I find I last time I was invited to play volleyball. Where were you invited on the beach? Yeah, of course. I want a beach volleyball out here. I just find that sometimes it's hard to get the ball over the net. Listen, I don't mess around with volleyball. Like I don't play volleyball. Never have, never will. Okay. Played badminton last week. Cause you're afraid of it. Like I am. Yeah. It's just not my game, but you're afraid of it. Something a little scary about it. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. You know, people spike. I don't know. It's not my game. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There's a question about content marketing and I want to take a step back.