Our thoughts on Yes Theory's new book, the most influential videos on YouTube, how to pick the right idea for a YouTube video

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 this episode of Creator Support. On today's episode, we're talking about a new campus for creators that's opening up in our backyard. We also respond to a quote from Yes Theory that we feel beautifully captures what it means to be a YouTube creator. Then we talk about how to decide which idea you should choose to turn into a video. All right, if you make it to the deep end, let us know.

1:44All right, man, final stretch of the year for us. This is, wait, is this one of our last recordings? Wait. In person. It is. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Whoa, crazy. Well, I'm actually off taking an international trip starting next week. We will still have episodes coming at the end of this year. But yeah, I think one of our last times recording here. What a year it's been. Where did 2023 go? I know. It feels actually really wild. People say that every year, though. Yeah, I guess people say that. No one gets to the end of the year and is like, well, this one was long and really dragged out. Well, I don't know.

2:19Maybe. Maybe, actually. Yeah, maybe. Well, as we approach the end of this year, we had an announcement of a project that we're involved in that went live this week. Yeah, went live in an article in Fast Company. The project is called The Lighthouse. And this is a project that is near and dear to us and actually in our backyard. So we record in Venice. We've been Venice-based for a while now. And this is a project, a home, a physical space for creators opening next either spring or summer in the old post office, a really cool historic building in Venice Beach. So let's tell a little bit of a background of how this project came together.

3:08So the project's put on by a company called Whaler. Whaler is a, you know, creator talent management as well as like advertising agency. They have like six different parts of their business. But the founders are really great. We've played paddle tennis with them before, Neil and James. Became good friends with them over the past couple of years. And Neil was pitching us this idea of, hey, what if I created like a home for creators, like a campus for creators that had studios in it and places to learn? And for me, I was like, okay, conceptually, it's a cool idea. We had a lot of different dinners where I was like, listen, YouTube Space has tried this before.

3:47It has to be different. And we just started getting to talking. And then one day Neil was like, hey, why don't you meet me here and come see this building I've been looking at? And from the second I walked into that building, I looked around and I was like, holy shit. Like I could see it. And, you know, one thing that we've talked about quite a bit over the past 12 years of our career, even today, it's a very isolating career to be a creator. even though we have a team, you kind of end up in a bubble. And when I stepped into the space, I looked around, it's got a massive upstairs, downstairs. And Neil painted the vision for me of there's spaces to record, there's a big lecture hall, there's meeting rooms, there's private offices, there's a coffee shop.

4:37And I looked at it and I was like, oh, this could be like the modern studio lot. This could be the space that for me personally, I've always dreamed of, of getting to go to a place where everyone is working on creative projects and everyone is learning from each other. And that was incredibly exciting. And the project started to become a lot more real when we saw the physical space. Then when we went to the Brooklyn space, you and I, that was an even more surreal experience because it was like, whoa, there's another one on another coast that actually was even more built out. And it had this incredible or has this incredible theater room in it that we sat in and we were like, oh, we could screen pieces of content here and people could watch and it could respect.

5:26The space can usher in the professionalism that I think the creator economy deserves. Yeah. I mean, speaking of the theater, each space, each campus will have a theater. And there are so many elements of the space and the plans for these spaces that, as you're talking about, just spoke to so many parts of our creator journey. For me specifically, thinking about all of the nights I spent editing in my studio apartment on my bed and getting up alone at 2 in the morning going to get a snack. there's nothing more isolating than like staring at a screen for six hours in your studio apartment and I think a lot of creators when they're getting started out experience that isolation and and that the problem with that is if you don't have a sense of community if you don't have human response to what you're doing sometimes comments and views they're just not enough yeah you need validation from people in person that you respect that's number one and number two you need people to learn from.

6:36For you and I, we struggled for multiple years and then a huge inflection point was meeting and working with Yes Theory here in Venice and getting to see guys who were, in terms of their YouTube journey, years ahead of us in terms of success. We got to see some of their huge milestones and markers. We got to work on their projects. We worked on projects that allowed us to screen work in person at their studio and see what that feels like. So to look at, you know, the Venice campus and the Brooklyn campus and envision a future where we're screening work, we're learning from other creators, we're editing alongside other creators, uh, and getting to screen work and share insights and learning together.

7:24It just made so much sense to me. And I think, like you said, it wasn't until I walked into the buildings that I was truly sold. I think if you're going to open up physical space for creators, you better respect the physical space. It can't just be like a corporate building somewhere. It can't just be any building. There needs to be history. There needs to be a reason why you would want to be creative in that space. Yeah. I think that's the thing is these these two spaces really inspire creativity. And even as we started to talk further about the project and refer to them as campuses and recognize that there was a really big emphasis on education.

8:07And even as we're starting to get into education and build out courses, like the opportunity to do some of that in person, you know, I've talked about it before. I'm in improv class right now. If that was a digital learning experience, it feels like it would not be the same. What's really exceptional about it is that I go to a place, I'm with other people, we're learning together. That to me is what makes learning real. So as of right now, the announcement that came out, this is a membership model, meaning like a creator, if you're interested in this, you will pay a membership. And that membership right now is listed at$5 ,750 a year.

8:44So it's for the professional creator. It's for the creative individual who looks at that and is like, oh, that can be my office expense. I don't need an office all the time. I want to come in and out of LA and New York, or I want a space to come work out of and I want there to be recording facilities for me. That is what this is for. And obviously, that'll take shape over the next year, but it's been a really exciting project to work on. Our involvement, we are the co-chairs of the Creator Council. So our job is to look at membership for creators, what types of creators become members, what type of programming gets put into this place, what type of education, what type of brand partnerships, and just make sure that the space actually builds for creators.

9:30That's a really important thing. When we were talking to Neil about it, a lot of businesses say they're building for creators, but only a few of them are actually building alongside creators. So us being involved, that is our involvement. will also have a space in the Venice studio. I think it's going to be really fun. It's a great event space. Go to thelighthouse.com if you're interested in looking into more of this. But I can't wait for these to open and for there to be a space for creators to come hang out. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details.

10:09It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40 % your first year at lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. Speaking of that experience, especially that early experience, like I was talking about, of editing in my bedroom. Yeah. The experience of being a YouTube creator, I thought, was so beautifully captured in the new Yes Theory book written by Matt called Talk to Strangers.

10:52And I took a screenshot of this quote and I shared it in our Slack and I want to share it with all of you. It reads, Becoming a full-time YouTuber comes with certain obligations. It requires crafting the story of your life over living it. It means having your personality subjected to the opinions of people you'll never meet. And most of all, in order for it to work, it demands a constant obsessive attention. That hit me like a ton of bricks, specifically that last line. And most of all, in order for it to work, it demands a constant obsessive attention. I don't know if truer words have been written about how YouTube works.

11:35you know i i agree i i had never ever heard someone put a sentence together about what it's like to to make a youtube channel work and i want to caveat that this quote these three sentences are just a very small part of a much bigger book about how incredible it is to be a youtube creator and the journey that it can take you on and the people you can meet but it's also about some of the hardships. Yeah. For context, Matt decided to leave Yes Theory and leave YouTube. And this book was kind of his goodbye letter. And it's a beautiful love letter to YouTube. And the story of how Yes Theory came together and the serendipity and the like, it's really incredible.

12:18But I think there's a lot of truth in what Matt just wrote here. You know, I've felt this for the past, what, 12 years that we've been doing this. I've said this many times, but I don't think there's a week that's gone by that I haven't thought about YouTube. Of course. I don't think there's a day. Not a day, right? And specifically what we could be doing better on YouTube, how we could change a thumbnail, how we could develop a new format, how we could edit a video differently. Everything is, all of that is on my mind. And I was actually recently at this event with a bunch of YouTube creators.

12:56And the thing that we were talking about was this really weird feeling when you're at an event and you have this nagging feeling in the back of your head of like, there's something I could be doing right now to grow the channel. Like there is something I could be doing and I'm choosing to not. It's a very, I think that is like one of the pieces that makes it that such a constant amount of attention. Yeah. It was Eric who said on our channel, as a creator, you're only capped. Your earning potential is capped only by your willingness to work. Yeah. That really like you always can put in more effort to pull a lever, to find more viewership, to make more money, to grow the business.

13:45So is there a way to do YouTube? Like what is the healthy way to build a YouTube career? I mean, the only way I know is to have a creative partner and people around me. Right. I truly, I don't know what it's like to do it on your own. And I'm sure Matt feels that way a bit too, of not being able to see a version where he does this alone. Right. You know, he has a big community around him and specifically the other guys in the group. Do you have any insight on how to do it in a healthy way? I think this year specifically, I've like redeveloped a relationship with YouTube a bit. but I still like, I think as a creator, you're inherently, the second you lose a bit of that desire to evolve, change, and up-level what you're doing, you might just fall out of it, right?

14:46Or maybe that's the fear. I just think it does, I think this is a true statement. Like in order for it to work, it depends a constant obsessive attention. Like I think that might just be the truth. I don't know if there's another way to do it. And I think as we go into next year and think about, we are heavily developing new formats now, which I'm really excited about. And as I look down the lens of us developing new formats and some of the plans we have in the first three months of the year, I'm like, whoa, that's intense. That's going to be an intense an intense three months that's going to require 100 % of our attention.

15:30Yeah. What I find to be so true about that last line is that, you know, sure, starting other businesses, it demands constant obsessive attention. But I feel like some of those businesses get easier over time. And this one still demands this constant obsessive attention in a way that I don't know other businesses do at times when you're able to scale them. Because these are, for the most part, unscalable. It's true. Creator businesses. There are ways, and there are some channels that do it. But it's difficult. I'm curious what you think about some of the lines that come before that last one. It requires crafting the story of your life over living it.

16:15I find that to be more true for some creators than others, for you and I with this format, with a podcast and what our channel is, it's a very true representation of who we are, but it's still a small window of who we are. So it's not like we're intentionally crafting a story of our life, but there is a story of our life that is unfolding, that is very powerful. It's a window and I'm not actively working to build the other stories in my life to be like, let me try and have a full perfect picture of what I feel represents my whole life on the internet. You and I just have a portion of our lives.

16:56Yeah, I think this would stress me out quite. I think I would not be capable. I've desired to vlog before, but I don't think I would be capable of it. I do think there's a story and a narrative of our brand that constantly needs to be crafted, and needs to be taken care of and needs to be thought of. As we're starting to launch new projects or get connected to new projects, there's a lot of storytelling that needs to happen in the industry or to our audience that needs to be really clear-cut. But yeah, I don't feel like I'm storytelling about my life. I actually have talked about this with a ton of creators.

17:31I'm so incredibly happy we found a format where I can be myself, be 100 % myself. I don't feel like I'm acting, which is amazing. Now this next line, similarly, I think, affects some creators more than others. Yeah. I do think it holds true for us. It means having your personality subjected to the opinions of people you'll never meet. As much as you and I can say that we are maybe not impacted by comments, it does impact how we go about our day, how we think about what we do. And they don't have to be, it doesn't have to be the most, you know, offensive comment of all time, but comments, good and bad, wherever they come up, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, whatever, we see all of them for the most part.

18:22And so you're constantly sort of, you're getting these quick jolts of like dopamine or, or feeling somewhat worse about something you did multiple times a day, honestly. Yeah. You know? Even if it's minor, you're still getting adjusted. I'm always impressed with the people who don't have YouTube Studio on their phones or don't check it. You know, I'm always impressed with that. But yeah, I mean, that is a massive part of the job. Your goal, you know, inherently, I had this interesting experience on Saturday where it's not actually people I'd never meet, but for some reason ran into more people that watched or channeled than maybe any other day in my life.

19:08And to the point where it actually got uncomfortable. Like by the end of the day, I was like looking over my shoulder being like, is someone going to come up to me now? Like it almost felt like I was with my friend Mike and he felt like I had like set up the day to show him that people actually watch our show. It was a very strange experience. And I thought in my head, I was like the sheer nature of the goals that we have of experiencing growth over the next year or two will only increase that. Like, isn't that interesting that it's just kind of like, it's subjecting yourself to, to the, uh, judgment or even excitement of more and more and more people, uh, is, is, it's the by-product of growth.

19:52And I guess that's growth with any brand, but it's different when the brand is a human being that you can run into, you know, it's different from like, like when Nike grew, I don't know if how much over time, if you ran into Phil Knight, like, would you have an emotional reaction to him? Here's my gripe with this situation. Okay. All right. Tell me. The difference between on camera me and Sunday morning disheveled me is a large gap that is perhaps widening with age. Right. I look like a maniac on a Sunday morning when I'm going to get coffee. is my least favorite time to run into anyone. And if I do run into you, please come up to me.

20:34But just know ahead of time, I hope you hear this. I'm sorry. And I'm nervous that you're meeting that version of me. So don't get nervous because I'm the one who's nervous. Right, right. That's my gripe with all of this. Yeah. By the way, I'm - Clearly you can't relate. I can't relate because I enjoy - On camera you is Sunday you, apparently. Yeah, that's true. I enjoy meeting people who watch our stuff. I know. I enjoy it too. I'm just saying, you're saying you don't have a on-camera you is Sunday morning you? Definitely. Sunday morning is a great time, man. This Sunday morning, I woke up, worked out, went to a farmer's market, picked up a bunch of stuff, made myself coffee.

21:12I was dancing around. Exactly. That's where we differ. And I'm glad that we differ in that way. I think it'd be boring if we were the same. um so if anyone is interested in a book about youtube for the holidays highly recommend the s3 book talk to strangers it's such a good representation of what it's like to be a youtube creator and also you know looking back at at yes theories videos when they were on the rise and even their videos um today like it's pretty incredible that they're still to this day releasing the types of the quality of video that they release the viewership that they do like there haven't been that many people have been doing it for that long.

21:54Really, there haven't been. And I was looking at their taxi video, I hired a taxi, or I paid a taxi$10 ,000 to see where it took me. That's 5.5 million views now and will only continue to go up. And that's such a good video. And their most recent series in China, they have a video about throwing a party at a stranger's house in China. Great video, so fun. I mean, they're just the best YouTubers. Yeah, I think they're - filmmakers and storytellers, but when it comes to YouTube, they are. Yeah, they're such good YouTubers. They're the best. They're such good. And if you disagree, come at me. Well, let's talk about a hot take here.

22:30Come at me on a Sunday if you disagree. Let's talk about a hot take here. This was posted on the Reddit. What are the most influential YouTube videos of all time? Hey, all. I was watching an old episode of Creator Support and recently noted, Samir noted that one of his top videos of all time was Make It Count from Casey Neistat. got me thinking about what my top videos of all time were and which videos were the most influential of all time. We know these videos to be popular in the platform by pure view count. Many of the top ones are music videos or movie trailers, but I'm talking about the culture of YouTube.

23:00So which YouTube videos do you think are the most influential of all time, especially those that everyone knows and shifted the meta? And if Colin and Samir see this, what are your top five lists of videos if you had to teach someone about YouTube today? Oh gosh, wow. Yeah. That's a loaded question. That is a loaded question, but I think there's actually a group discussion for everyone who's listening. I think we should start a thread on our Discord. I think people should tweet this at us. I think we should, by the end of the year, come up with a top five most influential YouTube videos of all time.

23:30That would be really cool. I like doing that because it feels impossible. It'll be fun to see where we end up. It would be hard to not include me at the zoo, but we don't have to include that. No, I think we got to take that one out. Okay, all right, all right, take that one out. Well, yeah, take it out. I'm going to say there's one that I saw that I remember seeing. Mr. Beast has to be one of these videos because I think he's influenced the platform greatly. But there's one that I remember the first one of his videos I ever saw was last to take their hand off a Lamborghini wins the Lamborghini.

24:09and it's a video that you and I talked about where we talked about a term called Jenga storytelling, which essentially meant that as time went on in that video, the stakes increased. But from the minute you clicked onto that video, you knew the end outcome of the video. So similar to playing a game of Jenga, you set up the Jenga tower and you already know it's going to fall. But what's exciting is as you pull a piece of the Jenga tower, it gets less and less stable and the tension rises as time moves on. And I remember watching that video and recognizing that storytelling tactic being used, that it was the first time I recognized that he had made a video that in the concept, it made you watch until the end.

25:01you know like the sheer concept of someone was going to win this car and you had to watch the entire process um i think that and there's probably something else in that area but that was probably a video that influenced how videos are made today on youtube yeah absolutely wow i'm just i've got a lot of nerves right now that i know that it's my opportunity to bring yeah yeah it's a video to the table and I just don't give another one. No, I just don't have it quite yet, but I'm searching. Um, I, I hate to say another Casey video, but I have to, I was trying not to say, I know, I know. Cause I feel like it's just so expected.

25:40I know, but I'm going to say my girlfriend Candace by Casey Neistat that for me personally, that might not be on the global top five list of most influential, but for me personally, his, uh, story about him and his, girlfriend. To me, it was one of the first times I had heard a personal story about someone that I could show to any one of my friends. They had no idea who he was, and they immediately became enthralled with the story of him and his girlfriend. It's some of the best storytelling on YouTube I think I've ever seen. I've got one. Okay. L Mills burnt out at 19. We saw that live. They did see that live at Buffer Fest.

26:18At Buffer Fest, and it got a standing ovation. and the transparency and the vulnerability in this video blew me away, you know, showing recordings that she did on Photo Booth on her laptop of her just absolutely breaking down and sharing that with the world when it felt like Elle Mills was at the height of, like, YouTube stardom. what could be going wrong. And to see her bring us through her burnout was like, man, it was just incredible. She's such an incredible storyteller and applying it to like a personal journey she was going through was just unbelievable. I'm going to have to say, I really like that one.

27:08Elle Mills, I think that whole Elle Mills era was incredibly influential. I'm going to say Jenna Marbles. the video about the face you make when someone comes up to you at a bar. That video was shot on a webcam and I think was upwards of maybe 10 or 20 million views. And it was one of the first videos that was passed around that was shot directly into a webcam with someone just being funny on webcam. I know she has another one called How to Trick People into Thinking You're Good Looking. uh that was supposed to 13 years ago direct into a webcam 72 million views you know like that that was a moment in time where i think a lot of people realized wait a second this is a place where people can just be themselves and talk directly into a cam okay i i don't know if this is quite a video that has changed youtube history forever okay if it's the most influential, but Cody Ko and Noel Miller, That's Cringe.

28:18Oh, yeah. Just the series in general, but specifically. That probably did influence YouTube quite a bit. I feel like it probably did. The commentary genre and watching a video with you and a buddy and just laughing with someone, I don't know. These guys. Sure. I've watched That's Cringe Vape Hotbox, which has 20 million views from five years ago, so many times. and I've watched it alone in my room and laughed out loud. And it's actually really hard to kind of make me laugh out loud from watching something. Like I don't really watch stand up on Netflix or something and laugh out loud, but these guys, like they got me.