What life is like right now...

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.

1:24Can I be honest? May I speak freely? Please. I'm very tired. Yeah. I'm very tired right now. Last week, we took an impromptu trip to Greenville, North Carolina. Yeah, we got a text on Monday. Yeah, Jimmy texted me on Monday and was like, hey, let's do a podcast. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, yeah, yeah, which is a classic Jimmy text. But I read it and I was like - It's classic because anything is possible in his mind. That's right. He said something on the Lex Friedman podcast where he said, like, you just have to push through no's. and he does like find a way to make something that's seemingly impossible happen.

2:02It's very easy to have your first response to almost anything be negative. It really is. It's very easy to hear something and think of all the reasons why it couldn't happen. Yeah. Much harder to think of something and go, yeah, you could make that happen. That's impossible. You could persevere. We've also been talking to Jimmy on the phone and like inherently very interested in having this conversation. So it was like, we basically just shifted everything around and flew to Greenville. Yeah, we got there on Wednesday. Wednesday night. Wednesday night. We got there on Wednesday night and we got to go to a main channel shoot.

2:32That was cool. Which was so cool. We got to actually be on set during a main channel shoot. It was so fun to watch live. I was like, this was a fun, like, I wonder if he's going to start doing like stadium style seating to watch his main channel shoot. Maybe. Because they're so fun to watch. There were a lot of people watching. There was a lot of people watching. Cheering. Yeah. And they were deliberately there. They weren't just like. No, no. They were asked to be there. They were asked to be there, yeah. But yeah, that was super cool. And then Thursday we recorded. We hung out at the office all day, which was super fun.

3:04And then came back Friday. And I got food poisoning. I've never even seen you like this. I'm still recovering from it. Like, it was insane. This was on the way back, on the flight back. And it had already been. Also, not a nonstop flight, which was challenging. Yes. Two stops. Not easy. you were not an easy travel day pale man to have yeah and for me to be pale it's not easy there also was a subscriber who came up to us that's right uh while we were waiting to get on the plane yeah and he was like hey are you are you calling from calling samir i was like yep yep we started talking great guy great conversation and then he looks over my shoulder and you are just limp in a chair with a press publish hat over your eyes mouth open asleep like yeah i mean and I was like, he's not feeling very well.

3:53He was like, oh, okay. I was in a dark place. I was like, I'm sorry, but you can't meet Samir. One of the bright spots of the trip was working out with Jimmy. Yeah. That was so fun. I took pre-workout for the first time ever. You did take pre-workout. You were hyped. Which is a lot of caffeine. Yeah, it's a lot of caffeine. I felt like a superhero. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's a lot, I mean, the interview is going to be coming out, fingers crossed, but like very soon on the main channel, working on it right now. And there's also a lot of BTS footage we took, which I can find something to do with it.

4:21Maybe we'll post it in the discord. We'll start, maybe we'll post some BTS photos in the discord. So everyone in the discord can check it out. Yeah. But it was a really fun trip. It's one of those things that you, you always call YouTube the ticket to the extraordinary. And like, I think for me, when I look at life right now, it's hectic, it's crazy. I'm tired, but I know that this is the thing that gets me really excited about YouTube is the impromptu. Like, okay, let's fly across the country and make this video. Yeah. And you don't know how long it will last. These types of things where someone will hit you up.

4:54Monday morning, we wake up, we come in here. We don't know that on Wednesday we will be flying to North Carolina. Yeah. I told you I was texting with my brother. Yeah. And he texted me first on Wednesday just saying, hey, what's up, man? And I was like, oh, I'm on a flight to North Carolina. He was like, oh, that's wild. What? Yeah. I was like, oh, yeah, I didn't know what was going to happen on Monday. He just goes, your life is crazy. And the next time he texts me is Friday. And he goes, how's it going in North Carolina? And I said, I'm already back. I'm in LA. Yeah. That's crazy, man. It is crazy.

5:23And I agree that there's going to be a moment in time where this is either not possible or not happening anymore. And it's like, although it's hectic and crazy, it's good to cherish these times right now. Yeah. The other thing is it's VidCon this week. Oh boy. As you're listening to this, we're in Anaheim at VidCon. If you are there at VidCon, we are doing Creator Support Live on Friday morning at 11 a.m. Look it up on the VidCon schedule. Come check it out. We will be there. We will also have something there that, Colin, you've been working on for months. Yeah. For the past couple of months, I've been working on this physical newspaper, which celebrates two years of our newsletter, The Published Press, which is crazy that it's been two years since we launched The Published Press.

6:03It is crazy. That blows my mind. For those of you watching, I'm holding it up right now. I guess if you're watching, you know I'm holding it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're listening, come on over. Then come on over and check it out. This thing is awesome. Like I'm really, really honestly impressed that this got put together in such a short window. It has really cool stories in it, really cool photos and just holding something tangible in a world that's getting increasingly more digital is just so cool. It was just so fun for me to do something I'd never done before. I've never made a newspaper or a magazine.

6:34And, you know, to work with Nate and everybody at our company, like to do this was really, really cool. and we're going to be giving these away at VidCon. And I want to figure out a way to get more out there. But right now, this is an experiment. We did a limited number of them. So we're going to be giving them away at VidCon. The main story in here is about the YouTube New Wave, which is something that we've talked about on the show quite a bit. If you want to read it, it's about Nate, who's one of the writers for the Publish Press, his experience going to Creator Camp and spending time with the YouTube New Wave.

7:06So I'm just pumped, man. Like this is a moment in time where we have a lot of stuff coming out. it's been like a grind to get here but there's a lot of stuff that's about to be released that's really cool. Like a lot of kinetic energy coming out of our camp. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think our schedule has been packed in a way that it has not been in a while in terms of going to Greenville. Yesterday we had Ali Abdaal here. We did an interview with Ali. We also had Colt Kerwin here. We also had Colt Kerwin and Kariza and Tejas. A bunch of creators come through which was really cool. And yesterday our studio felt like a clubhouse for the first time.

7:42It just felt like... Like the app? Yes, like the app. Yeah, so it's on its way down. No, but you know what I mean? Like there were groups of people having conversations. There wasn't, in our old office, there was only one conversation because there was only enough space for one conversation. We were in one room. There were conversations happening upstairs, downstairs, in different rooms. It just felt really cool. Yeah, it was really cool. It was the best use of this space. It felt like for the first time, our studio was becoming actually this hub for creators to come hang out. Yeah. Which was really cool.

8:13Let's get to a question, Colin. Okay. It's a question from the Discord. When to delegate? This comes from Aspire Shift. Here's an interesting question that might help more creators than just myself. When starting as a creator is the right time to hire someone to help you? I've personally been waiting until I get monetized or until I see some proof of concept before spending money on a team. But the workload is intense. It takes me over two weeks before I can get one video out. All of this work also comes with a heck of a ton of mental stress. I'm starting to lean towards the hire someone else side.

8:43What do you think? I don't want to give away too much of our interview with Elliot Dahl, but he's kind of answered in that. Yeah. It's answered in that interview and I'll give away part of it. Yeah. Let's talk about it. His advice was to make sure you have the work in front of you, like get the business, land the business before you hire. Yeah. Don't hire preemptively in hopes that that person will unlock business for you because that's a lot riskier and it may not happen. So what about if you have no intention of monetizing the work and you just need help getting it out? Then I guess you're in a position where you're just like bankrolling your own creative ideas and you have to evaluate that yourself.

9:20But you might want the project firmed up and say like, this is what I need you to do. Because one thing that adds a lot of mental stress is like, there's a team member there and you're like, so what do I get you to do? to do. Cause now there's someone sitting there who's like, so what do I do? Yeah. Um, so I, I think the, the clarity of like, here is the role I need filled right now. That is when you hire. And that's, that's my POV. And sometimes it comes from a project of like, we just got a brand deal. I need to make that video. Now I get someone to help me make that specific video. That's the best way to build a team or bring someone onto your team.

9:58If you're just kind of like, I want to make YouTube videos, you come help me. That might be premature. And I don't think there's a perfect answer here. It's a little bit of a clunky process hiring, right? Even let's say you land a brand deal and you've got work ahead of you, then you start the process of hiring. Hiring is difficult. It's its own skillset. And then once you get someone, even if you really like them and they're really talented, there's a timeframe there to get them up to speed. Yeah. Right. So it is kind of a clunky process. And a quote from Cody Ko, actually from our episode with him that I really enjoyed.

10:30And the reason I know this quote is because - Because of the quotes page in here. There is a top 10 quotes from the Colin and Samir show in the newspaper. And he didn't make it. And he got cut. Oh, wow. But it was because the quote was really long, and I'll just paraphrase it. Basically, it was about hiring. And he talks about when you are hiring someone, make sure you say explicitly up top when you hire them that, hey, this is your role right now. This is what we think it's going to be. but we are a fast moving company that has to change quickly. And the role may change the day you get hired.

11:01Is that the exact quote? Did you memorize it? No, no, no. No, no, no. But like that, I'm paraphrasing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's essentially what he says to like make it clear to everyone you hire that, hey, this could change. Yeah. Your job description could change on day one. That's totally fair because we're in a very dynamic scenario until you're at a point where for a period of time, you're like making a show. You know what I mean? Like I would imagine that some creators who are pretty set in like the show that they are making, like even TMG, right? So Cody and Noel, like some people now at this point who work for the TMG podcast, there's some roles that are pretty stable there.

11:37I would imagine, you know, there's some consistency in that format. But as a creative company, you're always in a state of exploration. You're always just being like, so what next? What do we try next? I got, I have something that I want to say from the Jimmy podcast, but I can't. I feel like you just got to hold. can't do it. You just got to watch that one when it comes out. But he says something really good about this specific thing. Okay. This is an interesting one. I think it's fun. From the discord from Reed Kimball. At which point during your editing do you find it's helpful to get feedback on your video edits?

12:08I have a short that I think is in a good place story edit wise, but there's been very little sound effects and color work done. I'd like to know if others find the story in my one minute, 40 second video as funny as I do. Should I keep going until color and sound effects are more polished or do you, yeah, basically that's the question. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would say get feedback before color and sound effects. For sure. But at the same time, my biggest pet peeve, and I think that a lot of editors would agree with this, is when you show something to someone for feedback and they're like, there's no lower third right there.

12:42Yeah. And you're like, obviously there's no lower third. Like I'm just putting the story together. So, you know, they're like, it's not colored. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, I got eyes. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? And like, I'm guilty of giving that type of feedback because you have to be sure. You never know. And you've given that feedback. It's just part of the process. But I think you have to be clear. That's my gripe. Yeah. I would say like where I'm not, I'm not super loose with who I take feedback from anymore. Right? Like I'm very specific and I need it to be a collaborator. Someone who has collaborated with me before.

13:16So they understand where I'm at in the process or where we're at in the process. because if you send it willy-nilly to someone, they're going to give you those notes. Can't be sending it willy-nilly. Can't be sending your cuts willy-nilly. Can't be dropping frame IO links all over the internet. Definitely not. So yeah, I think it's about where you're getting your feedback from and like trusted voices because creativity is subjective. Some storytelling is not subjective. It's like that didn't connect to that. So you got to fix that. But some of the creativity is subjective. So you want to find someone who shares the same taste or that you trust their taste.

13:49because you and I have even watched cuts and been like, I prefer it this way, you prefer it that way. If one of us gives someone feedback at our team, right? You could say something and I'll reverse it and do something totally different. And so we have to talk first and be like, okay, wait, let's agree on the feedback so we can go tell our team. Yeah. Because there's two of us. And that just shows you like, even though we're the same company, same brand, very similar taste, we have different preferences with editing. On the topic of miscommunication, I'll give a great example to bring people into our world.

14:21And this is, I think, specific to how hectic this time is right now with VidCon and Greenville and everything. But I walk in and Jesse's like, are we filming creator support today? And I was like, no, we're not filming creator support today. Right. And then you walk in like 30 minutes later and you're like, let's get set up for creator support. Right. And I'm like, all right, cool. Yeah. Like you just never know. Like there's a lot happening. I was discussed in Slack, but yeah. Who reads the Slack? Who reads Slack? We read the Slack at this company? Okay. All right. All right. All right. Fair.

14:49Wait, on the topic of editing, I want to give one gripe and one delight. Yeah, please. So a gripe is with Adobe Premiere and just my relationship with it over the years. Yeah. Because I feel like it's, I love it. Okay. It's like giving me everything. Okay. But it's like hitting me in the face right now. Yeah. You know? It just crashes. It's like slow. It's got, it's had bugs. It always has. Always has. Always has. Always will. It's got bugs. It's my gripe. Yeah. Delight, for the first time, we uploaded a video and checked off the box. Oh my God. Where you can sign Premiere into your YouTube account and just have it export and upload directly to the back end of YouTube.

15:25I can't believe we've never done that before. Like over a decade of working with Premiere and YouTube, and we've never done that? We used to just sit and wait for the export. And with like two-hour long 4K conversations, it's no joke how long it takes. It takes forever. And we'll just sit there, and then we'll be like, okay, now we can upload. I can't believe we never knew that. I used to come back to the office sometimes at like 1130 at night. Right, right. Just be like, okay, now it's exported. Let me upload it. Yeah. Also for the, the crew, uh, the discord crew, um, what's so interesting about discord to me is how much of a like democratic society it is.

15:58Like the, the, the people spoke on discord that the gripes channel should be gripes and delights and it has changed. And I just think it's so funny and interesting to like talk to the mods and be like, this is what the people are saying. We need to take action. You know, it's like, like there might be an uproar. Uh, I just think it's so fun that like those types of things can happen. And that there's like, there's, you know, culture that emerges within our own community. Um, we're giving a keynote at VidCon with YouTube. It goes along with the video that's on the main channel right now about YouTube trends, or if it's not there yet, it will be there, um, very soon about YouTube trends where we talked to a, uh, an employee at YouTube.

16:42And one of the things we show is actually an image from the discord of this iceberg that, that shows the different layers of fandom in the Colin and Samir community. Um, and that is just one of the trends we talk about in that video, by the way, it's, it's really, uh, a fascinating conversation. I think like, if you want to learn a bit more about a broader scope of YouTube, check out that conversation. There's some of it here in the newspaper as well. I don't know what to say and not to say because I want you to go watch the video. Yeah. But I would just say that this is a conversation we wanted to have for a long time and we got to have it on the main channel, which was really cool.

17:17Okay. What's next? This question comes from Bryce James. Hi guys. Love the show. And I have a question about viewer conversion. Quick backstory. Over the past 2.5 years, my wife's socials have exploded with popularity and I now work for her full time. She is predominantly a shorts creator now branching out to more long form. We began the YouTube channel in July 2022, which now has 3.2 million subscribers and averaging 100 million views per month. A majority of the views are from shorts. However, 97 % of views are from non-subscribers. We're a bit lost on what tips can be implemented to improve these statistics and to continue building a long-term fan base.

17:55Any help would be appreciated. So the problem here is viewership, not community. Yes. 100 million views per month. 97 million views are from non-subscribers and primarily shorts. I think that is the reality of shorts creators. Yes, I would agree. You are producing content for the shorts feed. You're filling a gap, a space in time. Yes. It is like one of those, you know what those sushi restaurants where like there's like a conveyor belt of stuff that you can grab? I don't think I've ever been to one of those. Oh my God, Colin. I'm intrigued. Get it together. I mean, I go to sushi restaurants. I don't know how I haven't.

18:31I like sushi. What sushi restaurant? Gelson's? This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It'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.

19:08That was a weird slam. I'm sorry. I'm tired, man. I'm out of it. Okay. So let's just think about it as a shorts feed. Then fine. We won't think about it as a sushi conveyor belt. Just when you're producing for the feed, like anything could be interchangeable where you put this video that you're, like your wife's video. And maybe that's not the kindest thing to say, but the reality is like you are playing into a Shorts Feed and the consumer behavior is such that they're there for the Shorts Feed. And they're also there to be hit with something unexpected. Yeah. They're not seeking necessarily whatever is being shown.

19:47Algorithmically, yes, the algorithm like knows what type of stuff you like and it's going to show you things you like. But the goal there is to be really surprised by what you see. Whereas with long form content, it's a lot more intentional to click a title and thumbnail and say, I have chosen to be here for perhaps an extended period of time. Yeah. And I think this is where we think about like an audience is passive, a community is active. Those are your metrics that you want to think about. And with 97 % of your views coming from non-subscribers, that's not actually, in my opinion, an issue unless you think it's an issue.

20:22Yeah. Right? Like if you're doing 100 million views a month, like if that's what you care about, if let's say you're trying to get visibility, exposure, you know, you're clearly doing something right with the content where people want to watch it. They can swipe away from that content. They want to watch it. A hundred million views per month is really significant. If you're trying to build a community, then you're going to have to create new styles of content, right? And you might have to accept lower viewership for a bit. Yeah. And I think that's okay. The lower viewership and the different format of content is a barrier almost to make sure that the people watching 75 % of the way through care still about what you're putting out there, right?

21:01Like it's okay if you shed people because you're going to keep people who are actually interested. This channel and this show creator support is, is that right. It's like a filter. Yeah. It's like, Hey, you know, here's the crop of people who are really interested in this version of the show, like an active relationship with us where you ask a question and we answer it. I feel like the main channel is like a brie cheese and this is like a stinky blue. You know what I mean? They're both cheese. But this one's a little more like I'll see about that. You know what I mean? No. What? Are you calling this channel like moldy cheese?

21:40Well, it's a delight. It's very good. People like it. It's more of an acquired taste. It's like it's not for everybody. Whereas the main channel is more, you know, it's a Brie. It's like, it's a kind of, uh, does everyone like Brie? We got to stop with the food analogies in this episode. I'm going to just say that if your goal is community, you need to find, you need to find a format probably in long form. I would, I would suggest, um, that can build like a closer tighter knit connection that, that allows people to be actively involved in the stories. Um, and you can do that on shorts. I think people do that.

22:14Well, I think Cassie Ho does that really well, but she's super active. She's like, you guys are telling me X. So I did this. She incorporates a lot of the comments. Exactly. So you, you want to like one thing to try here is, um, I don't know what the style of content is, but incorporate the audience, like answer a question from them, um, be active with them, uh, invite them into your world. Be like, this is day one of me trying to do this. If you want to see how cheeky boyos do that. Yeah. Right. Where they take a lot of ideas from the audience. Yeah. Agreed. You know, cause it makes you feel like you're a member of the audience, even if it's your first time.