Deestroying’s $10 Million YouTube Dream

25:21And like you are now everything. You're the production company, the network, the talent. It's so interesting. It's the same way that like, you know, people talk about in sports that it's so interesting that Sports Illustrated didn't make ESPN. Right. They were the biggest sports media. They had an opportunity to step into television, but they were like, we're a magazine. Why would we step into television? You know? I bet they're kicking themselves now. ESPN comes in and then ESPN was late to the social party too. Yeah. You know, now they got Omar and they're like, they're good with social, but like they were late and they can't do what you do.

25:53So a lot of these big brands that, that you think have so much money and resources, but they can't, for example, the NFL love them to death. They're a partner of mine. But the reason they brought me in is because they want to relate to the younger audience. They don't know how to do that. They don't know how to bridge that gap. They started putting games on Nickelodeon with slime and stuff. And like, no offense, but what is that doing? Right. A little, a little corny. A little kitschy, yeah. Yeah. So they bring in guys like me to create more excitement and, and, you know, more accessibility to the sport and kind of bridge that gap between the older people and the younger people in the sport.

26:26I think athletes need to think about, you know, they build teams. They need to probably start adding a layer of like a head storyteller. Yeah. You know, like someone who's a, a, it could be an outside agency or something. I'm sure there's, there's agencies, I'd say marketing agencies that work with athletes, but there's a new form of storytelling that exists that I think it's very hard for the legacy sports media folks to understand, you know, like for someone to replicate what you did is near impossible because they would sit in a conference room and try and dissect it. You were actually just showing up to the field and just making it happen.

27:00Just making it. Yeah. And that like, even when you talk about AB, like he had a bunch of camera guys with him. It's like, there's a different, there's a different field to like, Like when you reduce all the friction down to just like you knew how to edit, you had the camera. And now to apply that to athletes isn't easy. I will say they're getting better. They're starting to realize that. And like a lot of guys are creating channels like Justin Jefferson. We collabed on a video way back then and he started his channel off of that. Cam Newton, now he's doing his own thing. But his first videos were kind of collabing with me and he blew up off of that.

27:34And I don't know. I feel like they're starting to figure it out. like for example again the first time i showed up to work with cam newen he had a lady with a clipboard he had a boom operator he had like two three different cameras producer and all this and i showed up with my camera a b same thing yeah their son realized that it's all about the raw it's all about people want to feel like they're there with you yeah people don't want the over produced and this and that it's cool to get there eventually but people don't want that from the jump i think it also depends though on what type of athlete it is yeah because like sometimes you have a superhuman athlete.

28:06Yeah. And you're like, I don't want to see them raw. Yeah. I only want to see, you know, I want to see them doing their, like held high to this, like the standard. So it is sometimes I think a little different. Um, like we used to help Jeremy Lin with his YouTube content and Jeremy is someone who I think was like, you know, he was like human, human guy. So yeah. How do you fix sports media right now? I don't know, man. I don't know if there's really a fix to it. It's definitely going to take time, but creating organic content, like you said, stuff with the football players, they wear helmets all the time.

28:41Nobody knows who they are. Getting to know their personality, getting to know their real people and things like that. I think people are interested in watching your favorite player ball out on a Sunday. And then let's say Monday, he's posting a YouTube video, my routine, how did I do that game? Or like leading up to that, just showing the human element to people more and letting people know that they're regular people. they're just really good at their craft i think it's exciting at least in my eyes i agree i think there's a recipe that you put in which is like connect the audience to the human under the helmet and then put them right into the gameplay like your most recent video it's a guy being interviewed the guy who's the one six times jpz he's won six times the one-on-ones you're sitting down with him he's talking about losing his dad right like it's a emotional moment you're connected with him and then boom here he is on the field he's in the game i now care i've never even heard of this guy you're rooting for him and i'm like oh wow i've never watched any bit of xfl really until now i've never heard of this guy but i really want him to succeed and it only took two minutes and now every time you tune in and they play now you know you're watching for him i'm gonna follow him yeah honestly like after this moment and it's like every time the xfl now posts any content and jp's he's in it or anything like that he always says just chill i don't know if you saw on his jacket.

29:56That's like his motto. Everyone's blowing it up in the comments. Everyone's like, oh, PC, PC. So like now you have that organic interaction. Now people have a story or a hook to the game. He has more opportunity now than a lot of players who are currently in the NFL. Yep. Right. A hundred percent. Was there, this is something we ask a lot of creators. Was there an amount of money at any point in your career where you were like, once I get that, that's enough. It always changes, man. It always, what was the first amount for you? obviously you had i don't even know 100 grand at first way back in school and then i saw that in my bank i'm like wow this is crazy but now i want to get to 500 yeah i got to 500 and then a million i got to a million i think my next number is like 10 so 10 million yeah after that who knows who knows yeah that's crazy it's insane bro it's insane you know you start start playing football in college and you think about like wanting to make 10 million dollars and the path is to go to the league.

30:53Yeah. That's been one of my biggest struggles. And a lot of people ask me, oh, why don't you play in the league? Why don't you, you know, this and that. And for a while, I just always, like I said, I want to make sure I was good and make sure my family was good. Yeah. And YouTube's taking care of me immensely. Yeah. Obviously there's other factors like the freedom and the time and all of that. But if you look at the numbers, I probably make more money than 95 % of NFL kickers doing what I do. Damn. So if I was to play in a league one, my first year, I'm not gonna make that much money. I'm probably gonna be signed to a league minimum, which is like maybe 500K.

31:25And that's like a big pay cut for me. So, I mean, money is not - At this point though, it'd be like a life move. Yeah, I know, 100%. It's more than just the money at this point. And also to create so many more opportunities as well. So, you know, back then it was about the money and I always wanted to make sure I was good and things like that. But now it's more of a fulfillment thing. That 10 million goal, when do you think you'll achieve that? if everything goes according to plan uh two years maybe damn yeah two years how old are you 26 wow yeah i i gave me and my business partner swiv we have like a retirement goal and i said by 30 i'm a i'm gonna be in a comfortable enough place to where i could walk away from everything and i have enough residual income coming in and everything coming in that i'm just taking care of and i could pick if i want to do something or if i don't want to do something and not rely so much on, dang, I got to pay my bills.

32:22And that 10 million, does that all come from sponsorships and partnerships? No, no, no, no. It's just business all around. Business all around. Business all around. Yeah. Not just YouTube. I know that the YouTube funnel don't last forever. So, you know, I'm going to take advantage while I'm getting it now, but I'm using a lot of those resources and revenue to put into other things. So. Are you comfortable from like a monetary perspective? Are you kind of just like set or do you feel like, like business wise, you still are working, you know, month to month or? Oh, no, I'm, I'm set, man. My operating costs is probably like a month, probably like 30, 40 K as far as payroll.

32:59That's pretty good. Whenever I host one-on-ones, they probably take like 25, 30 K to put on, but with sponsorships and things, I make that money back easily and a little extra. So I think I'm good. I got a lot of money saved up again. My, my content doesn't take a lot of production and a lot of resources. It's, it's kind of raw. So I feel like I've had the opportunities to really make a good amount of change. Yeah. I feel like my, uh, my returns like 80 % on my content. So that's good. Someone could do that math. Yeah. Yeah. So every, yeah, yeah, they can do that. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's important as a creator to keep your overhead low, you know, like you just have to monitor that.

33:40And because, cause if you ever want to make a pivot, you gotta have your, you gotta have your operating costs low enough to make a pivot. 100 % Because the industry can change at any time 100 % And your feelings can change at any time You can be like, I don't want to do this anymore No, that's true I'm kind of a frugal guy I don't spend a lot of money on things So I feel like I am set But at the end of the day, I'm a human I want more I see 100 ,000, I'm going to want 150 ,000 and so forth I'm glad you're open to talking about that stuff I mean, at first I wasn't But at the end of the day People know YouTube is a really lucrative business If you're doing it right So at first I was kind of uncomfortable about talking about my earnings.

34:19I remember my first time, even my parents really realized how much money I was making. For some reason, I think I was switching management or something. So my YouTube checks, instead of being direct deposit into my account, I got mailed a paper check to my mom's house. So she opens up an envelope and she's like, what is this? I'm like, wait, what? Send me a pic. And it's a picture of a check for 192 grand. I was like I'm doing good on YouTube mom and she was like what? You're making this type of money? I'm like of course I gotta pay taxes gotta pay my employees and got bills to pay and stuff but like that was a month right?

34:58yeah that's a month yeah it was the fourth quarter you know how the fourth quarter gets yeah so damn that's crazy though and but they never changed their views on me they didn't act any differently that's always been like a deep root of fear of mine once people realize like how much money I'm making they'll look at me differently or like treat me differently or things like that but my parents are solid bro my family's solid they never looked any type of way asked me for anything like yeah my parents are even like son don't feel like you owe us anything like it's our job to bring you into this world and like we raised you and now we did what we had to do like don't feel like you owe us anything if you want to take care of us great we'll take it but don't feel like you owe us anything you work hard enjoy what you do damn that's amazing my parents are amazing bro my parents are the best.

35:44They sound like great people. I love hanging out with them. Parents are the best, man. Are those, what is your monthly AdSense check now? It depends. You know, it's early in a year. So, you know, about a hundred grand or so. Fourth quarter, I think the most I ever saw was like 400 ,000. Wow. Like 380-ish for, yeah. Wow. Round it up, you know. But, yeah, I'm starting to figure out though that the sponsorships can be a lot more lucrative than ad revenue. Yeah. And it's so back and forth. Like it's, it's not consistent on the ad revenue at all. Maybe I custom more on one video or it's like a certain time of the year where, you know, so I don't focus so much on the ad revenue.

36:24I just try to make sure sponsorships are, you know, taken care of. And I'm getting to a point where I try to have every video sponsored. So got it. Yeah. So you're, you have like a deep understanding of YouTube. when I watch your stuff I really feel like you you're very you're not someone who like likes sports and was like I guess I'll put it on YouTube yeah like I can feel that you've been on YouTube for a long time yeah it's been a lot of years now you used to make call of duty videos on YouTube right yeah that's kind of how I got my start man back like 2012 when call of duty modern warfare 2 was like a huge thing face clam they were like popping doing their thing trick shotting and things like that i always adored their content i was like fathomed by it and i always want to make my own stuff but i never had to record the software my parents couldn't afford it it was like a 250 piece of software you plug into your computer then you need a computer to edit all of it i just didn't have the funds so i just ripped people's content online and just put my own spin to it edit it add some music i edited for some clans as well and i just post them up to YouTube.

37:33Meaning some gaming clans? Yeah. Like gaming clans, different gaming works back then. Everybody had a clan. So, you know, it was a million phase clans. Yeah. Editing is kind of how, yeah, kind of how I fell in love with everything. It was kind of my escape. Now I don't really touch too much editing. You know, you got to scale the business, but editing is like my, my deep rooted passion that kind of got everything started. When you were like during this era of, of call of duty, were you, were you also playing sports during this time? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I played sports my whole life. Sports my whole life.

38:01I started at like three years old in Costa Rica, kicking a soccer ball around, moved to America when I was seven, started playing travel soccer, uh, down in South Florida, Miramar. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar. Then moved a little more North. My parents got a house, continued playing soccer. And, uh, I don't know, my parents bought me an Xbox. I started getting on a game like every other kid and kind of was between both at the time. And at what point are you on camera? Like, when did you get a camera and actually show up in your own YouTube videos? Probably like 14, 15 years old. Me and my friends would do like skits and comedy stuff.

38:36There was this YouTuber I'd watch at the time. His name was Kevin Edwards Jr. And just me and my friends would kind of copy those skits, upload them to Facebook, YouTube, things like that. And they got some traction on Facebook. All the kids around the city and everything kind of knew us. So I don't know, that was kind of how I started putting myself on camera. Did you see, did money come in for those it was i mean i logged into it years later i didn't even know i was monetized but i logged in like years later they were like two dollars maybe and did people pay you to edit gaming videos when you were i got paid like a couple times not too much maybe like three times i'd edit highlight tapes for my guys and stuff through high school and college so so editing was always kind of a thing in my life yeah your own highlights too like sports highlights to be honest i was a kicker, bro.

39:22I ain't had that many highlights. It's just me kicking the ball repetitively. I mean, as much as I can edit those. Yeah. And was there a stigma at any time around you putting yourself out there on YouTube? To be honest, not really. I felt like that stigma came more once I got to college and I started like vlogging and I'd be walking around campus with a big camera in my hand and people were just looking at me funny. Sports teams and vlogging don't really mix. No, not really. Locker room culture and putting yourself out and editing videos. And the artist in the corner. Filming angles. Yeah. It's funny because my teammates at first didn't know what was going on, but they started to embrace it.

40:04Even like my coaching staff at the time. At UCF. Yeah. They saw me walking around with a little GoPro or like my vlogging camera and things like that. They're like, oh, there goes Delahaye again filming. Delahaye is my last name. They called me Delahaye. There goes Delahaye recording again. Oh, what you recording this time? This and that. And then I remember when they fully embraced it, it was like after a bowl game we had, I record the whole experience kind of showing us getting to the hotels and the different things like that. And at the end, the coaches saw and they're like, man, Delahaye, I ain't gonna lie, you're talented, bro.

40:33Like these are things we're going to look back on years and years down the road. Like, wow, I remember that moment. And you captured it so beautifully and so perfectly. Wow. Also such a good recruiting tool. Because I remember, I mean, you went to Colorado because of a video you saw of the lacrosse team. And then I made videos about my lacrosse team after I graduated that people have told me that they saw and wanted to go. Later at night, I'd go into like the indoor facility and I'd kick field goals and just work. And a lot of people would see the content and be like, bro, like this is really inspiring.

41:03It's really motivational. And it's like I seeing you work and seeing that you're human, you miss kicks as well. You don't just post the good things you're doing. Like it gives me hope. It makes me want to work hard. It makes me want to go to UCF. Like you said, it was kind of a recruiting tool as well. At what point did you start to understand that YouTube could become a business? Like the summer leading up to me making my decision, I saw that I was able to monetize my channel, but Google AdSense, you know how you have to link the accounts and all types of stuff. It was telling me I wasn't able to for the longest time.

41:35And I was like, hold on, I do have an old account. Can I log in? I deleted the account and I linked the monetization to my thing. And I remember I made a penny and I was like, bro, what is going on? Like I was just doing this stuff out of love, like out of passion. And now I can make money. And then the next day I saw like seven cents. And the next day I saw like a dollar and I'm like, bro, what, what did I just do? So that's when I kind of figured out like, okay, maybe, you know, something can come from this. I remember I was dating a girl at the time too. And she was like, why are you on this video stuff so much?

42:07Like, why are you editing videos and doing all this? And I'm like, it's my job. She's like, you're not making money. It's not your job. So the day I made a penny, just know I rubbed that shit in her face. I was like, I made a penny. It's my job now. So at what point does the school reach out to you about your YouTube channel? So college was interesting. My first year we had like a head coach who was kind of like a like a dictator. Like he's walking down a hallway. You want to turn around and go the whole opposite way. He's scary. So none of that was going. If he saw I was uploading any type of content, my freshman year I didn't really post much.

42:44So then we were 0-8 that year. Worst team in college football. He got fired. So then we had an interim coach step in. So I saw that as my opportunity. So I do like little trick kicking videos and things like that. So I made one and put it on Twitter at the time. And ironically, I didn't mean for this to happen, but the song I used was The Final Countdown. So the video started doing numbers. People liked it. And then he brought me into his office, the interim coach. He's like, bro, we're doing terrible right now. And you posted a kicking video during the worst season. And the song uses a final countdown.

43:17Are you like, are you trying to mock us? So he made me take that video down. But then during that, I'm like, okay, like there's a little bit of traction here. So once they were done, they were gone. We had a new coaching staff come in. That was more of a player's coach. They kind of just embraced it all. Then I started filming my stuff in indoor, me working out. I started filming me going to class skateboarding like we had this tradition at UCF which like during homecoming week everybody would like flood the uh the fountain and things just different aspects of my life and I'm posting them they're getting a little bit of traction eventually I was able to monetize my channel during that period and also me and my best friend did like skits we brought the skits back but we did it in a way that was kind of engaging with with the football theme I had going on.

44:00Wide receivers would be like, quarterbacks would be like, different things of that sort. And those videos took off. Those did like millions of views. And they made me a little bit of money. And then I remember I had my bowl gifts from the previous year. And at this point I'm trying to market, I'm trying to get as many followers, subscribers as I can. So I post on my Instagram, hey, I got these bowl gifts. If you want to win them, I'm doing a giveaway. If you want to win them, all you got to do is screenshot this post, reshare it, subscribe to my YouTube and follow me on Instagram and I'll do a giveaway.

44:31First day I had like a thousand, 2 ,000 reshares. And at the time that's like insane. Yeah, it's crazy. And I wake up to a phone call from our compliance office and they're like, hey man, so I see you're giving away your bull gear and I see you got a YouTube channel. Are you making money on this by any chance? And in my head, I'm like, I'm not about to snitch on myself. Like, no, I'm not making any money. They're like, are you sure? Cause just letting you know, if you are monetizing your channel and making money, it could put your uh eligibility in jeopardy and if we find out you are making money we go through the season we win games then we have to forfeit those games because now we have a professional player that's getting paid on our team so then yeah i was like yeah you know what i am you were like good thing we're 0 and 8 yeah that was the following year right before yeah i know i wouldn't I don't care that year.

45:20Ain't nothing to forfeit. So, yeah. So, I mean, that was. So you said, yeah, I am making money. Yeah, yeah. And what did they say? They just brought me into their office and they're like, oh, we got to take a deep dive into all your content and all your social medias and, you know, talk to the NCAA and see if there's a possibility for this to happen. And the thing that I hated is during that whole process, it was a difficult process. I've never been through anything like that before. Or like, I felt like I was going through court hearings and different things like that. It's just be by myself and I'm in a room with a bunch of adults and in suits.

45:54And it's just scary. And you didn't feel like anyone was on your side. No, not at all. Not at all. So like, they're just diving through my stuff and every week it's another meeting. And I'm kind of documenting this whole process. When they first reached out to me, I put up a video online and I said, I forgot the title, but it was some along the lines of, do I pick my scholarship or my YouTube channel? Something like that. And like it made like national news, like ESPN picked it up. Good Morning America picked it up and all these different news outlets picked it up. And a college football kicker who's forced to choose between two things he loves, his popular YouTube channel and his football team.

46:33His name is Donald De La Haye and he says he doesn't want to give up making videos. And I feel like that kind of helped me in my decision-making process, is just seeing the amount of traction that I created. And in my head, I kind of formulated a plan. Like at the end of the day, if I go down because of this, like I'm going to market the shit out of myself right now. I'm going to step on the gas as hard as I can right now. So that if I am ineligible at the end of the day, I do have something that I could, you know, continue with. Were you making an amount of money at that time that you felt comfortable if it did happen and you were deemed ineligible and you lost your scholarship?

47:08To be honest, I took a huge risk. and I probably made like three grand that whole summer, which was not a lot at all and probably no means to live because it's three grand before taxes, before any bills, before any anything. But as a college football player at the time, we're getting no money. I probably would get like$1 ,600 per semester and that's like three, four months. So I don't know, it just felt like something and I was working for it and I could control my own. Was money an issue with some of the other players too? Like, was that something that was talked about? Like we're working really hard.

47:40There's no opportunity for us to make money. We're not getting nothing. Yeah. And I remember too, myself, obviously I wasn't financially literate at the time, but my first check, so what they do, they split the checks up. You get like 800 something at the beginning of the semester, then 800 something towards the middle. And what are these? These are like stipends, right? For food and housing? They're cost of attendance. I don't even know what that means, but I guess they're just helping us out with like different things. We're there. So, you know, if you got any miscellaneous bills or things like that, food, because they'd feed us and stuff.

48:08So it wasn't like it was to pay for housing and food. But I remember my first check,$860. I went to the Apple store, blew that shit on the iPhone. The whole check, bro. iPhone was probably like 840 bucks. My whole 860 gone. So after that, I kind of realized after talking to my mom too, I was like, oh, I got to save these checks. Yeah. So, but yeah, we, I mean, we didn't really make any money like that at the time. And UCF wasn't like a power five school or like a huge program at the time either. So we weren't really much coming into the athletes at the time. Talk to me through that decision of.

48:42It was tough, man. I don't know. I feel like I wouldn't say it was one of the darkest points in my life, but one of the most confusing points in my life because I'm doing something that's positive. I'm doing something that people are like proud of me for and commending me for and inspired by. But in this big, giant mammoth's eyes, it's like a bad thing because they don't get to touch any of the money as well. And what I hated the most is like the compliance officers made it made me feel like this is all going to work out. This is all going to be great. Like we're talking to the NCAA. They seem like they're figuring out a solution.

49:17They're figuring things out. Like every week, it's like a new meeting, new back and forth, new investigation, new this, new that. And just I don't know, it's frustrating. It's kind of crazy that like at that era, college athletes were giving so much to the school. given their livelihood, their health, risking so many things and making the school hundreds of millions, making the NCAA billions. And you're actually adding to the support by marketing the school right now. More people are like, Oh, UCF seems fun. Maybe I'll go there. Even non football players, right? Like just students can't tell you how many comments I had that said that like, bro, UCF looks lit, man.

49:54I can't wait to go here. Yeah. You're like showing it in a positive light, helping the bottom line of the university. What a confusing scenario. I know. I feel like also what it was too was I was a kicker. And at the time I was a kickoff specialist trying to compete for the field goal kicking job. So I really didn't matter that much to the team. You could always find a guy to kick the ball off. Maybe if I was a quarterback or something, they would have made something work. But at the end of the day, I didn't matter. I was just a random kid kicking the ball. So, yeah. The process was tough, man.

50:25There was a lot of nights that I cried. There was a lot of nights that I called friends, called family members, and just to get their advice and hear their opinions on things. But at the end of the day, my gut just told me, like, you're doing the right thing. Just go with your gut. Go with your heart. Go with your gut. And, you know, things played out. What did your parents think when you finally made that decision? Because putting myself in your shoes, like, if I had a full scholarship to go to school, and then I told my parents back then, I'm actually going to pursue my YouTube career and forgo the scholarship.

51:01My parents would be like, what's a YouTube career? Yeah. To be honest, man, my parents, I love them to death. They're the best humans on the planet. They're supportive no matter what. And I will never forget these words. They told me, they said, hey, son, no matter what, whether you pick YouTube or you pick your scholarship, you're still going to be our son. And we're still going to love you to death. And we're still going to support you. So whatever you pick, as long as it makes you happy and it's what you want to do, we're going to support you. So my parents, brother, amazing. I don't know where I'd be without them.

51:29They always supported me. Wow. That's amazing. And did you feel how did you make that decision? Was it like public, like a public announcement? Was it like like so it was it was weird because like I said, it was a back and forth for like six weeks going in and out of meetings. And like, oh, hold on. Just and there even came to a point where they told me, hey, can you stop posting that way? the NCAA could see things better. I'm like, no, because if you guys kick me out, like, it's just going to stop my bread. I ain't going to make nothing. So, um, after the six weeks, I remember the final meeting, they called me into the compliance office and it was athletic director at a time and the compliance lady that was helping me with this whole process.

52:07And they sat me down and kind of, they were like, Oh, we're just going to get straight to it. The NCAA said, you either have to pick your scholarship and, uh, delete your channel, donate all the money back and you know get rid of all your social footprint or you have to you know basically just hit the road forfeit your eligibility uh keep doing your youtube thing keep making your money whatever whatever but you have to make a choice right now before you leave this office i'm like damn i wasn't expecting i wasn't i didn't know it was like coming up that quick so just i feel like the anger in me as well because i thought things were going to be good and and there was going to be opportunity for me to do both.

52:45I was like, bro, you know what? Y 'all could keep my scholarship. And I just walked out the room. Wow. Yeah. And like busted in tears. And like, I didn't realize the magnitude of the decision I made at the time. It was more of like an impulsive thing. Obviously it's what I wanted, but it was like a, bro, just have it. I'm out of here. And then before I even got to my car, my phone lights up with a tweet. UCF kicker Donald Delahaye deemed ineligible because of his YouTube channel. So it's like they were ready. They just want to press the trigger. So I don't. So they wanted to kind of send a message to the rest of.

53:17Seems like it. Seems like it. Yeah. So with that tweet getting sent, was there another wave of like media? There was a lot. The following day, like, and they told me I have two days to get out of my apartment and all that. they're like you got two days to pecker things and leave we got other people coming in that's ruthless so yeah i mean i had interviews good morning america i had interviews like espn like my name was in times square donald del hait ineligible this and that because youtube there was a huge influx of of media and just i don't know it's a blessing because that definitely helped me i gained like a hundred thousand subscribers wow like it it's kind of just blew me up and i knew now it was on me i'm getting all the things i needed to i'm getting all the wave, all the momentum.

54:00Now I just got to keep making great content. And what happened next? Like what was the next couple months like? Did it take off immediately? Like, man. So like I told you, I was doing a lot of this stuff with my best friend. Yeah. At the time he was dating a girl, he had a dog and he lived in a one bedroom apartment, not the nicest, you know, we're college students, one bedroom apartment. And I told myself, I'm not going back home. I'm not going back to my mom and dad's house. I'm not letting these people, not my parents, but just the outside world have the, just that feeling of, yes, he's not doing well.

54:34So I slept on my best friend's couch for like the next five, six months of my life. Basically homeless. He took me in. We literally grinded so much. We probably made like three videos a day. We'd wake up, figure out what we could do, go film it, run around the hot ass sun, come home, edit, post it, figure out what we're doing the next day. And it was just that constant cycle for months and months and months. And obviously things started growing. I think my first month or two after I left, I saw like 5k and 7k and so forth, but it just didn't feel real. Like it, it was like, ah, is this actually going to hit my bank account?

55:14Like, is this, you know, I feel like I'm living life on a cheat code. So I, we hung out and kind of stayed in that spot for like five, six months. And then eventually we're like, you know what we doing all right for ourselves now. Let's go and stay consistent. So let's get a nicer place. Let's move into a two bedroom apartment and so forth. But so your best friend was kind of like your business partner. Yes. That was my guy. Yeah. Still my guy. That's my dog still, but he's doing his own ventures. I'm doing my own thing. Did you get a brand deal at some point or was there some moment where it really hit financially?

55:43I think my first brand deal, it was, uh, what's the pizza company? It's you keep it in the freezer. DiGiorno? DiGiorno. Yeah. And they had me do like a little obstacle course with like DiGiorno pizza boxes and stuff. And they paid me like 2 ,500 for a video and like a tweet or something like that. I was like, what the heck? These people pay me that much money just to be featured in one of my videos. So when I saw that, I was like, okay, like maybe I made the right choice, you know? And it's funny because I had all my teammates too that were back at UCF like, bro, like we so proud of you, bro. Like we knew you was going to do things like during the whole process, they were super supportive.

56:20They were like, hey, hey get your bread bro get your money bro get yours like they ain't giving us shit so like go get yours bro so they were super supportive um even after the fact they were super supportive and uh i don't know things just started rolling so when you're making those videos after you lose your eligibility you're getting some brand deals you're continuing to earn from adsense was it all an upward trajectory from that point on or have you hit any lulls it's it's It's consistently been going up. I wouldn't say like a spike, but it's the trajectory has been up the whole time. And your faith in YouTube, your enjoyment of the career hasn't faltered?

57:01No, I mean, obviously it's, it's not as exciting as it first was, but I still love what I do. I still wouldn't trade this job for anything. I'm passionate about it every day. Now my job is just a little bit easier and actually it's easier and a little bit harder now. because I've done so many things that now I have to start getting creative. Now, even like, for example, the one-on-ones, it takes money, time, a lot of logistics to make something happen. So it went from just going to the field, cutting on the camera, rolling, to now there's a lot of moving parts. I don't know if you guys checked out one of my most recent videos.

57:36I went to the field and I kind of told people I want to get back to kicking one day. Man, I'm kind of working towards that. And that video felt like one of my old, one of my old school, like authentic videos. I just pull up to the field, cameras rolling, put on cleats and just film. There's no type of planning. There's no type of nothing. So, uh, I feel like that kind of just reinvigorated me a little bit more as well, but I still love my job. I'm still very grateful and fortunate to be where I am. You mentioned the, the kind of revolving door of, of YouTube content when you're first starting out.

58:08what's amazing is like some of that old content still yeah picks up today right yeah like you you now have this like this catalog yeah of of content um and you actually did a deal with spotter yeah my guys can you explain how those deals work i mean we know how they work but i think a lot of creators have have been curious about this like a catalog you know licensing deal where essentially you. So basically a spotter will license a certain catalog of your content, whether it's your whole back catalog. I've done three deals with them now. So, yeah, so it's, they just licensed like the last year of my content.

58:48And I think it's for about five years or so. Um, and they give you a nice chunk of change, just dropped into your account and, uh, you're no longer monetizing those videos on your end, but they are collecting money on their end. Right. So it's kind of an investment for the licenses for the revenue. Yes. Yes. It's not. They don't own the content. Yeah. They own the revenue that the content makes on my channel. And for you, what is the money done for you? Man, it's it's helped a lot. To be honest, a lot of my content isn't so produced. Like it's not like a Mr. Beast video. I need five hundred thousand to make something happen.

59:22Yeah. So it's not all of it hasn't gone towards content, but definitely towards my team. My team is amazing. They've helped me create the beast that we watch every day now. Definitely have paid them a little bit more, upgrade their paychecks and things like that. I've invested in some property, retired my mom, helped her pay her house. Damn, that must have been. That was the best feeling ever. My dad's up next. He's just hard-headed. I told him he could have been retired. He's like, you know what? I love my job, son. I don't want. I think he'll just be too bored at home. He doesn't do much. That's also understandable.

59:55Maybe he starts a YouTube channel. Right. Yeah. So I've helped my family. I bought some land in Costa Rica with that. You know, my ultimate retirement plan, build a house there. And when I want to just fall off the face of the earth, I'm just disappeared to the house. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it.

1:00:32Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40 % your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40 % off. Terms apply. What do your parents think now in a moment like that? Man, I don't even know. They're just so proud, man. It's funny because my parents are like nonchalant. They're not like, they're like, oh my God, yes. Like they don't, you know, over celebrate anything. but I just know they're proud. They call me all the time, extremely happy. And like, I don't know, they just thank me for being able to help them. And you know, my mom, bro, she works so hard, bro. So hard. She worked at Publix.

1:01:06I don't know if you guys know what Publix is, little grocery store. And she'd work hours. She'd wake up at four 30 in the morning, clocking to work, get home at like five, still have the energy to cook dinner for us, clean up and do all these things, bro. Like my mom's an amazing woman. My dad works just as hard as well, but you know, I just wanted my mom to get off her feet. She would come home, complain her back's hurting, her feet are hurting. She hates that she has to show up to this job. Like whenever you brought up the job, her whole mood would change. So I was like, man, it's time. Ma, you don't got to do this anymore.

1:01:36So yeah. What I love about your career is that you now have a job that just didn't exist before. I know, yeah. And to get there, you have to trust your gut so much at so many moments when, again, you don't have anchor points for, I could have done that or I should have done that or maybe I'll follow what that guy's doing. Just blindly walking. Yeah. Yeah. And I just, that's what I take from your journey is that you just followed your gut and it's now worked. Do you feel like your situation, like to me, it feels like your situation was so loud. Yeah. Like I remember it very vividly. Yeah. That it had, do you feel like it had impact on where NIL went?

1:02:15I feel like it was very pivotal for sure. Obviously there's other situations like Johnny Manziel and the Reggie Bushes of the world and things like that. but I do feel like mine was a modern day, like awakening. Social media is so huge. Social media is taking over the world. Like everyone depends on social media, even these colleges that are trying to knock it down. So the fact that I had to get my eligibility up because of social media and the fact that I was so successful after, I feel like definitely played into their decision-making. Obviously today the rules are different for college athletes, right?

1:02:47I just saw, I don't even know what these are based on, but a group released and ESPN posted about it, like NIL valuations. Did you see this? Yeah. Like they're, they're Arch Manning, like three, maybe 4 million. Yeah. And, um, uh, Bronnie at 7.2 million, Livvy Dunn at 3.4 million. Travis Hunter was on there. Travis Hunter at 1.7 million. Um, those valuations are kind of based on their following, their brand, like where they're going to school, their abilities. Um, but what's amazing is it's come a long way from like, Hey, here's$860 to cover your expense. And also, Hey, make a decision of if you're going to have your YouTube channel or play on the team to now, like there's probably colleges being like, come here.

1:03:34Cause you'll get better brand deals. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. A lot of guys like are getting paid just to sign a lot of quarterbacks. I don't know if you heard, but the Tennessee guy got like$8 million just to commit and go to their school. That's crazy how does that happen is that from um alumni groups groups groups yeah that's crazy because like you know how many 30 for 30s i've watched about like yeah on boosters how illegal it is yeah the thing is they've always been doing it now it's allowed now they can do it on top of the table right yeah and not only can they do it but like brands can get involved and so now there's there's a totally different landscape yeah now you want your athletes to have youtube channels yeah i don't know if this is true but i would assume that some colleges are teaching kids how to build their brains now right like teaching athletes how like how do you do what livy dunn did on tiktok or yeah obviously they they probably don't know much about how to do it sure you need guys like us that have actually built brands and have created content and that's probably one business i do want to get into just kind of um consulting for a lot of your schools talking to them doing little presentations and teaching guys how to make content.

1:04:47Um, I've thought about creating an agency, but you know, that's a lot of work. I'm not a lawyer. So, um, yeah, it's just crazy how NIO is a thing now and they could get paid. I feel like I, I crawled so that my fellow student athletes could walk and run. Yeah. What's your advice for these kids who are now like freshmen in college getting$8 million, like, or, or even if you're a financial finance, finance person in your corner um to create value again a lot of these kids like even to this day come up to me like bro like i want to get an nil deal i want to you know i want to be in content i want to do this and that and you check out their instagram and it's just like them posing at the gas station or like there's like holding this random stuff not even like just on their pages and like you you're not creating any sort of value you're not creating anything that a brand is going to see like, wow, this is compelling.

1:05:37I want to put my money behind it. You're just taking pics of yourself in an outfit or whatever it may be. Like create something, let the world see your personality, bring some type of value, whether you're teaching, whether you're entertaining, whether you're giving advice, whether you're doing something, bring something to the table. That's like a misunderstanding of, of fame or of like, like a very superficial understanding of fame where you see someone who's famous, who can post a picture of their outfit and people are like, you think you could do that? And you think you can do that. I mean, I, I remember when we first started on YouTube, like, uh, especially with this channel, we started filming our daily lives because we were like, Oh, vloggers like Casey Neistat or, or, you know, other people are filming their daily life and people love that.

1:06:14Here's my daily, here's me going to the grocery store. And you find yourself at the laundromat and you're like, this is not aspirational. And no one cares about this. And then you have to back into like, Oh, I'm asking people to invest time in this piece of content. And it's exponentially more competitive today. So now everyone's making investment decisions with their time. You have to think about it like that. So why would I invest with you? What are you giving me back? And that is, I think the space where everyone has to start of like, who's the audience and what are they getting in return for the time that they're spending with me?

1:06:50That's like the fundamentals of being a creator. And I think sometimes that can get lost. Um, and sometimes that, that return is entertainment, laughter, escape, right? But you have to, you have to be really clear on what you're giving people back. Yeah. I think advice I'd give for sure is get a financial, someone that can help you. Someone that knows more than you do. Cause that's a lot of money coming in for a young person to create some, some sort of value. Like I said, teach, entertain something three, do not lose sight on your sport there's a lot of these people their attention shifts so i want to make tiktoks now oh i want to do this i want to do that but they're not doing what they have to on the field and obviously number four continue doing your thing in the classroom is uh for me i feel like i was getting a marketing degree and i learned a lot of things from marketing i know school is not the most fun thing well for most i don't know if you guys love school but he loved it i was terrible at it yeah i was bad at school man i didn't love school and i feel like they teach with a lot of fluff.

1:07:52You dig through all that fluff, you find gems that you can use. So I find a lot of gems in my marketing classes and my sports business classes that I later applied to my life. So definitely continue doing your schooling, learn what you can, get a financial guy, ball out on the field and create value. What if you don't have an opportunity on the field? Like what if you're, what if you're deep on the depth chart, you know, and you're kind of like, I'm not going to get on the field, but I'm here. Even that's an opportunity. I think that's a huge opportunity. There was a basketball player at Ohio State, I think, who like never touched the court.

1:08:26And he ended up writing for, I think it was the Ringer for Bill Simmons. And he grew like a serious audience and following. I don't know if it was during, it probably wasn't during, I guess, but it was after about that experience of like never playing. Yeah. I mean, you could definitely spin things off. Like I said, I was a kickoff guy that, you know, I didn't, I probably kicked one field goal in my whole entire college career. So I can relate to that Ohio State guy, you know, like I, I had to put in the work and I was putting the work at practice. Obviously I never really got my opportunity, but you know, that doesn't matter to the audience if you're compelling enough.

1:09:03At the end of the day, people saw me putting in work and do my thing and they kind of were bought into my story and they were rooting for me to finally, you know, get that playing time or whatever it may be. So I also think your sport doesn't always have to be what your content is about. Yeah. A hundred percent. Samir and I used to work more with athletes. We would always ask them, what would you want to talk about if you weren't getting paid? What are you passionate about? What are you passionate about? And it doesn't have to be your sport because if you're going to dedicate a long period of time to one, enjoying this and two, building a business, you better actually care about what you're talking about on a daily basis.

1:09:36Is there a student athlete right now who's also a creator that you think is interesting or doing something unique? I love Travis Hunter. It's like my little brother, so it's kind of a little biased, but he's at Colorado with Deion Sanders. You know, Deion and his team are doing some amazing things over there. Just the access that they're bringing and just the perspective they're giving to everyone, you know, it's just crazy. I love Travis Hunter. His stuff's good. Livvy Dunn's interesting as well. She's always on my TikTok page. She has a massive following. It's crazy. Did you see the controversy she got into with the AI?

1:10:09she did a brand deal for this ai tool that helps you like finish your essay oh no way and she uh she put like the way she did the brand deal was kind of like is it midnight and you haven't done your essay yet every college student is like yeah it is yeah and so crazy the college had to put out lsu had to put out a statement about it and i think like it's the wild west right now of this you know like there's all kinds of deals we're taking deals i remember when it first was a thing People will sign in the most random deals. Yes. Yes. Like pizza stores and just random stuff. They'll do whatever they can for a check.

1:10:47Local hardware store. Yeah. So I'm glad it's kind of fizzled out a little bit. It's still crazy. But, you know, now people are starting to figure out direction. I guess now the colleges are implementing programs and connecting these kids to people that can help them navigate that world. But still, it's tough, man. I love the idea of the local brand deal. Yeah. Because that wasn't really a thing. I would have loved to do a local brand deal. like a celebrity. There's this football player. His first name is DeColdis and he got a, Oh, I saw that. Air conditioning. That was a great commercial though.

1:11:16That was smart. Yeah. Even the Popeye's kid, you remember he was famous off the little meme back in the days. Now he plays football and he just got this crazy road opportunities. Do you ever hear from the UCF people? Man, I it's, it's, it's funny cause my first few years after I left, they were like my sworn enemy. with everything in me like didn't they like kick you off campus oh yeah i was i was about to bring that up i went while we were there while i was there playing our coach's motto was always your night now your night forever you come back train our doors are open for you so it's like okay cool so after i get kicked out i come back like a year and a half later i'm like all right i'm gonna bring my camera and i'm gonna go to the indoor and i'm gonna train so i'm in there training working out and i see like this uh guy i don't even know what his job was at ucf at the time and he's walking in kind of stops looking at the side of his eye then he pulls his phone out his pocket and gets on the phone and walks out like 15 minutes later like six cops walk in they're like oh um you're not supposed to be here i'm like what do you mean like our coach says it's an open door for former players they're like nah we just had a trespassing call on you someone called us and they want us to escort you off the property so they basically trespassed me that day because i was in their training so ever since that moment i was like you know what f you guys i don't want nothing to do with y 'all.

1:12:32I know you guys are like my old school and whatever, but I don't, if that's how you guys are going to treat me, then I don't want to be a part of things. Then, you know, I matured a little bit, grew up. I don't really hate anything or anyone. So I was like, you know what, let me give these guys another opportunity. Went back to some of their games and they had really open hands for me and open arms and accepted me. And it's funny because I was up in a suite watching one of the games and one of the alumni is like tries to fight me in there. He's like, you're an asshole. oh, you left this school high and dry and you, this.

1:13:03And I'm like, bro, what is wrong with you? So it scored the guy out. He was kind of like, he was angry. We could have been better. I don't, I don't know. He just, I don't, I really don't know. I think it was just jealousy. I don't know what it was. I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure it's, he was angry about that. Again, took it with a grain of salt, moved on with my life. But they actually asked me to come back and speak and teach them about NIL, which is very ironic. Wow. That's cool, man. That's a full circle moment. Very ironic. You didn't do it? I ain't gonna lie I didn't do it I didn't do it It was a new coaching staff Gus Malzahn he came from Auburn Got the job there They asked me to speak Eventually I wanted to get into it but I didn't do it because I feel like I wasn't prepared I don't really have like Well at the time I didn't really have None of my methods or like Anything to teach written down So I've worked on kind of a presentation But at the time I wasn't ready So maybe eventually I really appreciate that about you I think like, you know, none of this is just by chance.

1:14:03Yeah. You know, like, I think you are a real entrepreneur strategist, someone who's like, takes things like very seriously. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to come prepared. You know, again, I'm not just going to wing it, man. I winged it for a lot of years. It's not the right thing to do. I'll never forget being at that summit with you. And like, you know, you're, you're Pixar guy, Matthew Lund from Pixar speaking, you're taking notes and you're like, how can I apply this? you know and that that is i think someone who's willing to absorb things like that's that's how you evolve 100 with the industry you're willing to put your ego down because i could have easily been like i don't need this like right totally i have my millions of followers millions of views like what am i coming here for but once you humble yourself and realize there's always room to grow and there's always room to learn and you could always be better then your your ceiling is endless Yeah.

1:14:54It's a good place to stop. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate y 'all. This was amazing. I don't do a lot of podcasts, but this was dope. It was smooth, man. I appreciate y 'all so much. Appreciate it. My guy. Thanks for coming. Anytime. Anytime.