How Speeed Can Make A Video About ANYTHING And Make It Successful

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We walk through how the guys left Donut, built Speeed from scratch, and learned to balance inspiration with packaging without burning out. We share what worked, what flopped, and why authenticity is the only sustainable strategy on YouTube.

• lessons from High Low and big-budget production
• why we left and how we kept it respectful
• first upload panic and the rebound
• the “magazine” model beyond cars
• experiments that outperformed expectations
• packaging rules: idea first, thumbnail second
• what the algorithm gets right and wrong
• analytics traps with the 1–10 ranking
• tools, sponsors, and weekly ops pressure
• small-channel shoutouts and influences
• live two-minute channel pitch challenge

If you're new to Speeed, you can check them out. There'll be a link in the description as well as the show notes if you're listening to audio podcast.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
At the end of the day, for YouTube, you have to be
authentic.
That's the only way to besustainable.

SPEAKER_02 (00:05):
There is no guarantee.
You can come from the biggestplatform on the face of the
planet and then try somethingelse, and it doesn't work.
So this was never guaranteed.
Hey, welcome to the only podcastthat brings you more guests per
episode than any other podcastin the history of podcasting.
I'm Travis, and I'm here with anincredible group of creators
I've known for quite a longtime, and I'm super excited to
have here.
They are the team behind Speedhere on YouTube.

(00:28):
And we're going to introduceeach one individually.
Usually I say, tell us aboutyourself, but there's like three
other people here.
So let's start with a person youprobably know a little bit best.
Uh, that would be James fromSpeed.
How are you doing, James?
Tell everyone about yourself.

SPEAKER_04 (00:38):
Um doing good.
My name is James Pumphrey.
Uh I am a co-founder of theYouTube channel Speed with three
E's.
Um and uh previously from DonutMedia.
And uh yeah, I'm the one in thevideos.
There you go.
Or not the one anymore, I guess.
Though these guys are in thevideos quite a bit now, too.

(01:01):
So awesome.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03):
Uh and the one who uh I've known probably the
longest out of these entiregroups is Jesse.
Jesse, tell everyone aboutyourself.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08):
Hello, good morning, good morning.
Uh I'm not sure what my title ishere at Speed.
I don't know if any of us knowexactly what our titles are.
Um, but do a bit of everything.
Um uh also previously at Donut.
Um, I was a chief creativeofficer at Donut um and left and
started speed with James.

(01:29):
Um and yeah, just uh continuingto wear multiple hats.
Uh but we can dive into those.

SPEAKER_04 (01:36):
Started speed with James and Zach in SR.

SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Yeah, Dan Jesse and Zach now, Zach uh 30 seconds in.
Well, people don't know who Zachis yet, so now Zach.
Who are you?

SPEAKER_04 (01:47):
How did you get in?

SPEAKER_00 (01:49):
Yeah, I'm Zach, I guess, one of the co-founders of
Speed.
Uh and yeah, I I kind of toJesse's point do a little bit of
everything.
Um help write the videos, shootthe videos, sometimes edit the
videos.
Uh kind of try to stay out ofthe business and admin side and
make that Jesse's job.
I've been pretty avoidant ofthat.

(02:10):
I'm like, yeah, I just make thevideos over here.
Um but yeah, and been in beenwith these guys uh since the
donut days was over there for Idon't know, six years or so,
yeah, from early days.
So been on that YouTube journeywith them and now on a new one.

SPEAKER_04 (02:24):
I'd say we're all creative director, and then we
all have like a job after thatas well.

unknown (02:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (02:31):
A job.
Oh, so that's just one of themany cats.

SPEAKER_04 (02:34):
Yeah, so we're all like creative directors, and
then Zach actually directs mostof the videos.
Jesse handles a bunch of thelike phone stuff, like being on
the phone, and uh I handle a lotof like I don't know, talking
parts.
He brings the magic, maybe thegenetic qual.

SPEAKER_02 (02:57):
The talking part's kind of important for YouTube,
I'm not gonna lie.
Yeah.
Um, but let's talk a little bitabout how you guys got here.
So, where most people would knowyour guys' work from and James
your face from is from DonutMedia, which is where I met you
guys, where I did someconsulting for Donut.
I still do.
Um, and there was a lot ofreally cool creative things you
guys did there.
For those who don't know, Donutis kind of this really cool.

(03:18):
You can say it's a car channel,but it's it's not just a car
channel.
Like there's all types of reallycool things going on there.
James, of all the projects youworked on over there, what was
kind of like one of your morefavorite projects you worked on?

SPEAKER_04 (03:29):
I mean, I'd say that the peak of Donut would be high
low.
Um, I think that was the firsttime that we stepped out of a
hallway and like away from agreen screen and decided that
all right, we're gonna do stuffin the real world.
And then we did multiple seasonsof it, and it was to be able to

(03:52):
make one thing once that wasreally successful was like a
real achievement for us.
But then to have a series thatwe could recreate multiple times
and get to the point where wecould like sell it to for like a
lot of money to a brand with theconfidence that we were gonna
deliver was you know like a hugething for us, and I think not

(04:14):
something that happens a lot.
And then I'd say like from acreative standpoint, you know,
like Zach that like Zachdirected all of the high lows,
and Jesse directed the firstseason of Hilo.
And so I think that like in alot of ways, what we carried
over on to speed was therelationships and like not like

(04:38):
friendship aside, but like theworking relationship and the
shorthand, and just like a lotof the experience that I think
we've gained came from thatshow.
Um, and you know, like dealingwith like big budgets and not
screwing up, I think was like ahuge rite of passage for us.
Shooting multiple days, dealingwith like a bunch of moving

(05:01):
parts.
Inevitably, everything goeswrong.
Um, and we have to figure it outand like a mix of like improv
but also very heavily written,like there was like travel
elements involved.
And so I just think like that uhseries really just kind of
checked all the boxes, and itwas kind of everything that
Donut was from like the historystuff, the video essay, the

(05:23):
science stuff, the like workingon cars stuff.
It was kind of like everythingtogether.

SPEAKER_01 (05:29):
I I think that Hilo was like an interesting uh spot
in the Venn diagram between likeit was loose enough that it's
still like in terms of from aproduction approach, loose
enough that it still uh allowedlike the YouTube uh magic and
spontaneity to happen, but alsostill uh tight enough uh that
you know we could operate aproduction at that scale.

(05:50):
Um, and I think like to me,that's the thing that I'm most
proud of with that because therewere so many moving pieces and
schedules and like James said,travel.
Um, but so keeping all of thosethings operational and like at
least roughly on time, but stillleaving enough, you know, like
slop um in there that we couldstill kind of let magic happen
along the way.

SPEAKER_02 (06:11):
Do you agree with all that, Zach?
Or are these guys wrong?

SPEAKER_00 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean, High Low was awesome.
I mean, what a product too tolike sell to a brand where
you're like, hey, we're gonnamake eight of these.
They're guaranteed gonna averagetwo million views, and the
audience loves it.
And we were at a point by thetime we were making like the
third and fourth ones that itwas clockwork for us,
essentially.
You know, like there's a lot ofdiscovery in the first one and
the second one, even, andthere's always something we're

(06:37):
pushing ourselves on each timewe revisit it because we want to
try something new.
But ultimately, you're gettingto a place where it's a team of
people who've done this, youknow, this is our third time,
oh, this is our fourth time, andwe've just got this huge product
that you can sell to a brandwith so much confidence.
Where we're kind of in theopposite situation now where
we're very experimental andwe're like, what's gonna work?

(06:57):
Let's try this, let's try this.
Where by the third high low, itwas like, we know like exactly
what we're doing.
We're just in a machine rightnow, churning it out um with a
lot of confidence.
And we have confidence, but it'sdefinitely much more
experimental what we have goingon now.

SPEAKER_02 (07:12):
Yeah, I remember like the first conversation uh I
had with James and uh Jess andJesse uh right after.
So I remember Jesse telling methat you guys were leaving
Donut, and I'm like, oh, that'sgonna be interesting.
And then when we sat down, um, Iit might have even been after
you posted your first video umwhen you guys were like, Yeah,
we're not just gonna do carstuff.
I was like, oh, that's reallyinteresting, but very risky in a

(07:36):
way, right?
Because it could just not work.
Like people know James fromDonut, so show me car stuff and
be funny.
And um, and we're gonnadefinitely talk about how you
guys have made that work on thechannel.
Because I think that's the mostinteresting thing about speed
right now is how you guys areable to do different types of
content and it make it work, butwe'll talk about that a little
later.
But coming in, like, I mean,first of all, tell me, I want to

(07:57):
hear each one of your storiesabout like what it was like, and
you're like, okay, this is thetime to leave donut and do this
thing, like bet it bet onmyself, so to speak, or bet on
yourself, or in a lot of ways,bet on James.
Because, like, really, to behonest, if if James fell apart
for whatever reason, uh, it kindof falls apart for everybody.
So, James, let's start with you.
Um, what was it like to go,okay?
I'm gonna I need to do this onmy own.

(08:18):
Um, I'm bringing these guysalong, and uh, it kind of is on
your shoulders.

SPEAKER_04 (08:22):
I think if any of us fell apart, I think speed would
fall apart.
So um I think it's a very uhthere is no like leader or
whatever, and I think thateveryone and I don't and I'm not
just saying this, I think wehave a group uh that contributes
pretty equally, and I think youcan see people's signatures
pretty hard on every piece ofcontent that we make.

(08:45):
And so like I really do believethat if it weren't for any of
like the original four peoplelike us, and then SR, our
editor, I don't think that speedwould definitely not look like
it does, and I would be I wouldpotentially go so far as to say,
like, I don't know if it wouldhave been uh whatever degree of

(09:06):
success it is at this point,because because it is so early,
and everyone is like everyone isbasically like the department
heads of donut, and so umeveryone was like confident
enough to really put their stankon everything, and so like the
reason our stuff looks like itdoes is because of SR, uh SR's

(09:27):
interpretation of like any notethat we gave.
The reason our stuff like movesin the way it does is like Zach.
Like the other day I was talkingto Zach and I got like
teary-eyed because I was like,yo, like I don't think this
would work without you, or Iknow that this wouldn't work
without you.
Um but yeah, so and yeah, we'relike the four of us together.

(09:48):
I say this a lot, like makes onepretty good guy.
And so because of that, I thinkwe're confident into making uh
some of the types of content wedo where like sometimes we'll
give like advice to our youngeraudience.
Um yeah, I don't know.
I think the writing was on thewall for a long time at Donut.
I think that we did some really,really cool stuff there, and I

(10:12):
think it was just this likelightning in a bottle thing that
we were all kind of pulled into,and we didn't know what it was
gonna turn into, but we all gotthere at the same time, and it's
just this like awesome thingthat happened where like a bunch
of young dudes were given waymore responsibility uh and way

(10:34):
more creative control than likein other situations they would
have been given, you know.
And at the helm, we had thislike really young, like kind of
brilliant executive, uh MattLevin, you know, hiring all of
us and encouraging us to uh tryhuge things and like sometimes

(10:57):
waste money, which is insane.
And I think like Matt was reallygreat at asking us questions.
Um, and so like Jesse and Idefinitely had creative control
at Donut, but like we'd havethese meetings with Matt, and
he'd come and he'd have likehe'd be like, So, are we uh a

(11:19):
DIY channel or are we anentertainment channel?
And you could tell he had beenthinking about that like for
like two weeks, and we'd belike, hmm, I think we're an
entertainment channel.
He's like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then like from then on, wewere an entertainment channel.
So if any like situation cameup, it's like, well, that's

(11:39):
which way it will go, andthey're just like a million of
those things, and I think thatlike anything that magical has
sort of an expiration date, youknow, especially and like I'm be
I'm past being upset about thisfact, but like we didn't own it
and it wasn't ours, and so liketo be to have this like magical

(12:01):
moment that happened and likethat moment is over, you can
either just kind of continuedoing that thing that, or you
can like go off and start yourown thing and scare yourself
again and uh try and create likea totally different, totally new
magical moment.
And I think that that is whatwe're doing right now.

SPEAKER_02 (12:22):
The crazy thing about Matt is first of all, he
he was an incredible guy.
I say like he's dead, he's notdead.
He actually hired me to help uhhelp donut and stuff.
Uh, so I'm ever thankful forhim.
And then when he went away, hewent away and did a YouTube
channel and overly successful.
Like, what is that?
That was first video out.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (12:42):
My narcissistic, like my self-absorb shit, like
not my narcissistic tendenciesare like he did that just to
tell me that he could.

SPEAKER_02 (12:50):
It's wild.
So, just for people who don'tknow, like again, like was just
explained, Matt ran donut, uh,then um left donut, and then
just sprung up some randomYouTube channel about like
comics or something, is gettingmillions of views.
And I'm like, he could have beenteaching all of us.
What what was I there for?
He had no face IP to bring withhim.

SPEAKER_00 (13:09):
He was totally fusing.

SPEAKER_04 (13:10):
He was on Donut one time on a phone call and he made
us blur his face out.

SPEAKER_02 (13:16):
He's a magician.
And uh, Matt, if you'relistening to this man, I miss
you, brother.
Uh what a what a great what agreat guy he is.
Uh Jesse, let's talk a littlebit about that.
So the transition from donut tospeed, um, one of the things
that uh I'm I'm curious about isyou have this kind of um, I
mean, it is like once it becomesmore corporate y, it's like, I
mean, I really kind of want todo this thing, but you really
are jumping off a bridge.

(13:36):
You're like, there's this thingI know, and then there's this
thing I don't know, which can bevery scary.
And you were in a veryinfluential part of that
company.
Was there a moment where you'relike, maybe this isn't such a
good idea?
Oh, for sure.
Yeah, it is February this year.
Yeah.
Uh every week.

SPEAKER_01 (13:53):
Uh no, I mean, yeah, it it's certainly scary, and
especially, you know, not onlyleaving to start a new thing,
but also leaving to do a thingthat isn't exclusively cars and
like you know, resting on ourlaurels and all the best
practices and stuff that welearned over the years with

(14:15):
donut.
But I think also, you know, atthe end of the day, we were
working there for you know, pushin 10 years, making thousands of
uh very specific kind of set ofcar videos.
Um, and candidly, I was justkind of for me personally, and I
think the guys will probablyagree with this to some extent,
but I was just kind of burntout.

(14:36):
Um, you know, after I left, Ispent some time just I went I
literally drove to New York andjust kind of did nothing and
like walked around New York, NewYork for weeks on end.
Um and James would, you know,James and I would talk, and uh
for a while I really did notwant to do anything that had to
do with cars.
Um you know, uh, but eventually,you know, I kind of came came

(15:02):
around on it to introducing apiece of that because it you
know, we still all love uh carsfrom a personal standpoint.
Um so I think it was like takinga step back to reassess like
what is authentic to us, and Ithink you know, we're not just
one-dimensional people, the carscertainly are a big part of our

(15:23):
personalities.
Um, but I think like reassessingthat what's authentic to us is
yes, some car stuff, but alsoother things as well.
Um, and so I think like at theend of the day for YouTube, you
have to be authentic to who youare.
That's the only way to besustainable, frankly.
Um and so like that that waskind of the breath of fresh air,

(15:47):
is just kind of reassessing umand doing like a new spin that
was like true to all of us.

SPEAKER_02 (15:54):
Zach, how was this whole thing pitched to you to
like uh spin off, do somethingnew?
Like, and what were yourthoughts, honest thoughts going
through your head as this washappening?

SPEAKER_04 (16:03):
Zach was the first person I pitched speed to.
I pitched it.
I pitched it to Zach and MattLevin first, so so that and then
they liked it, and then I couldgo to Jesse and be like, well,
Zach and Matt think it's a goodidea.
I love it.

SPEAKER_00 (16:19):
Yeah, I think James told me, and honestly, the idea
is not what speed is now.
Um I think the original idea waskind of just as you know, James
had a popular series on at Donutcalled Up to Speed, where he did
the history of each car.
And so it's like, yeah, what ifwe did up to speed, but just
about anything?
Um, and specifically James isvery into menswear, but it could

(16:40):
be beyond that as well.
Uh and I was like, Yeah, I mean,frankly, like James has such
good charisma that I'm like, ifyou want to make a history show
and it's the history ofanything, um, I that can work on
YouTube for sure.
Um and that's not what speed hasbecome, but that was the
original pitch, and I was like,that's a great idea.
And at this point, I don't evenknow.
And James was definitelyinterested in me coming on.

(17:01):
I think where was I at at thetime?
I was doing a big project withDonut.
I knew the split was coming.
This might have been like beforeeverything.
And so I felt like mepersonally, professionally, I
had a lot of options as far aslike where am I gonna where am I
gonna be a year from now withthis whole kind of explosion
happening?

(17:22):
Um and I honestly, it was whenyou said SR was coming on, who
is the fourth, uh, that I waskind of like, I don't care what
the YouTube strategy is.
I think I you know, like ifsomebody pitched me on a channel
idea and I thought the strategywas great, that could be a
reason I would join them.
I joined because the talent inthe room, though.
I was like, I don't we all knowenough about YouTube that I'm

(17:46):
not that that worried about usfiguring it out.
I just really believe in James,really believe in Jesse, really
believe in SR.
And so I'm like, the talent isin the room, we'll figure it
out.
Like, I don't have any doubtsabout that.
So that's kind of what was thedetermining factor for me, more
so even than the idea of whatspeed will be, was just like, I
just know with these four guys,we've all been doing this so
long that like we will figure itout.

SPEAKER_04 (18:07):
It might take us some time, but and I think that
that gave us the ability to likelike Zach said, speed is very
different than it was when Ipitched it to him that first
time.
And I think one of the reasonsthat it feels like it is
starting to work a little bit isbecause we the four of us can

(18:28):
evolve pretty quickly, and wetalk about it a lot, but like I
think it's we're sort of likebuilding it as we go, we're like
throwing the road in front of usas we drive, and I think that
because of that and our abilityto adapt and like our faith in
each other, like pulling it off.
Like, I think that's the reasonthat like it's not planned, it's

(18:51):
just kind of happening.

SPEAKER_02 (18:52):
One of the things that I remember having an early
conversation with you guys aboutwas um not pooping on donut when
you left.
Because it's such an easy thingto do.
You're you know, you you leave aplace that you work on, you're
like, that place was garbage orwhatever.
You didn't do that.
As a matter of fact, I think thevideo you did was almost a love
letter to Donut in a in a lot ofways, which definitely could

(19:12):
endear you to a lot of peoplebecause you could get uh mixed
into the drama of what happenedor whatever, and there were
certainly a lot of channels thatcovered it, which was kind of
crazy.
But um you really just had agenuinely cool video that I when
I watched it, I was like, Yeah,that's exactly the way you know
you leave something like that.
Because you just don't want toburn bridges regardless of
anything.
And I know you've been back todo some collabs and stuff, but

(19:34):
um what was what's your mindsetabout that?
Because again, it is a differentplace now than it was, and that
video again, I still think is anin so many ways.
I learned a lot of things inwatching it.
Just a really well done video.
Um, what was the thought processbehind how that you guys came up
with that particular video?

SPEAKER_04 (19:52):
Well, when you get a divorce, you don't start being
mean to your kids.
Okay, fair.
Fair.
And uh I think that you know theother guys will agree too.
At this point, like donut isstill probably the coolest thing
that we've ever done, and we'reextremely proud of all of the
work that we did there.

(20:12):
And I don't think that it woulddo us any good, or like do like
the legacy of what we built anygood to like you know, like
taint it with whatever happenedat the end of our relationship
with like the people who endedup buying it, or like the people
who ended up being in charge,you know.

(20:35):
So I think like Donut was aproject that we worked on that I
think we did a really great jobon.
And so, you know, it's I justwant to like keep it as that,
and then that video is sort oflike I think we are pretty good
at storytelling, like we reallylike it, and I think there Jesse

(20:57):
and I had a very unique POV ofDonut because we were there from
the very beginning, you know,like in a lot of ways, Jesse and
I started Donut, and so wewanted to, and there's a lot of
guys who were there before westarted doing Up to Speed who
would tell a totally differentstory of like what Donut was,

(21:19):
and then there was a bunch ofpeople who showed up after like
we were already doing in likeseason three of High Low that
have a totally differentperspective of what Donut was
and is, and like that's theirpeople, that's their story.
But I think Jesse and I were soinvolved in everything up until
we left that we wanted to likelock it down so we never had to

(21:40):
talk about it ever again.
And well, no, in like a way,like we didn't have to like be
like, no, actually, here's whathappened, right?
Like, we were like, hey, here'swhat happened.
Yeah, here's our story, here'sthe thing that we spent the last
nine years doing, and so likethis is canon, and we didn't

(22:01):
think anyone else was gonna everdo it.
So we were just like, and wedidn't want to do it, like I
wouldn't do it now, but like ayear ago, it was like very
appropriate for us to do it, andit was just like a love letter
to this thing that we did, andlike, okay, cool, canon, let's
like move on.

SPEAKER_02 (22:18):
I was going back and forth with Jesse on email.
I think I think James, you mightbe on it too, because initially,
when you put it out, it wasn'tdoing well, but again, it was
your first video ever.
So you guys were panicking alittle bit.
Um, I think you were comparingyourself to uh big time a little
bit.
Uh, I think we could say that.
What I think the funniest andprobably worst thing you did was
change the name of your channelbriefly.

(22:38):
Uh, and then we had you turn itback.
So tell me what the mindset was.
Because by the time you guys haddone that, I heard about it
after the fact, and I was like,no, no, no, go back.
And I explained how searchworks.
Tell me what was going on inyour mind when you're like,
okay, we gotta do this, we gottado this.

SPEAKER_00 (22:51):
James is a classic uh 30 minutes into upload panic
type guy, by the way.
Every video, every video,nothing's changed, Travis.
Uh and this was just the firstvideo.

SPEAKER_02 (23:06):
There wasn't, there was no, there was nothing else
there.

SPEAKER_04 (23:09):
Yeah, so we put out the first video, uh, and I mean,
obviously, we're nervous aboutit, and then it wasn't
performing very well.
Um, because we didn't like throwfrom a donut video into our
video or anything.

SPEAKER_01 (23:27):
So, like it was just blank slate the algorithm.

SPEAKER_04 (23:29):
Hello, new channel.
And like at one point, like 80%of our views, or like 60% of our
views, were coming from like myInstagram story.
And so, like, it was doing okay,very underwhelming.
And uh, we put it out on aThursday, and Jesse and I had
already like like I had likecalled him and I was like, you

(23:51):
know what, man, we did thisonce, we're gonna do it again,
like brick by brick.
We'll just like build, build,build.
We got this, and then the nextmorning I woke up and the graph
was like straight up, and itjust felt like it felt like we
were on a desert island and wesaw a helicopter.
Like it was just like so muchrelief.

(24:12):
Um, and it ended up performingreally well, but like it was
just like it needed our guys tofind it, and it really in that
moment, like, really, it wasyeah, we were on an island, and
the the rescue team was ourguys, it was our audience, and
so like our audience finallyfound us, and they were like,

(24:33):
You're good, and we're like, Oh,great, and uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:37):
Well, and and props to you, Travis, because I I
don't remember when exactly itwas that we talked to you, but
uh it was while it was stilldoing bad, and I said it was
don't worry about it, it's gonnado fine, and then like a day
later, you email me go, look atthis.
Yeah, yeah.
So Travis had faith.

SPEAKER_04 (24:53):
Um, I definitely said out loud to somebody, I
think I've ruined my life.
Was that when you changed thechannel back to your name?
Or was that a tough three days?
But I think we needed it, ithumbled us a little bit.
And so, like, I think we've beenapproaching every video,
remembering that feeling.

SPEAKER_02 (25:13):
I mean, first ones are scary anyway.
So let's talk a bit about thestrategy now.
Like, speed is this interestingchannel that in its name you
would think is car related.
And you do still do car stuff.
Let's be clear, you still do dosome car stuff, but you're able
to do stuff that has nothing todo with cars.
And I think in a vacuum, ifsomeone were to come to me and
say, I have this popular carchannel, but I'm gonna do a
video about like pants orsomething.

(25:33):
I'm thinking, bro, if you reallywant to hurt yourself in life
and never want to live again,you can do that.
But somehow you guys have videosthat perform very well about
things that have nothing to dowith cars.
So let's talk about how youapproach a subject that's so far
from what your normal coreaudience is to find a new
audience that would beinterested in these things.

(25:55):
What's the strategy behind allthat?

SPEAKER_00 (25:56):
I would say for us, um number one, I kind of we're
very lucky to have anestablished audience uh to begin
with.
I think that's the only thingthat allows us to do this to a
certain extent, and to have uhpersonality like James.
Uh but uh I would say ourstrategy as far as coming into
this stuff is just beinginspired by people.

(26:16):
Because I think something that'slacking in YouTube or that you
see across YouTube is, and wefound ourselves in this
situation where you're making itfor the audience so much or for
the algorithm so much that youdon't even care about like the
thing you're making.
You're just making it becauseyou know it's a good title, you
know it's gonna perform well,there's all these other things
influencing you, but youyourself are like not that

(26:38):
interested or inspired to makethis video.
And after uh a long, you know,like years and years working in
YouTube, I think that can leadto burnout.
I think we all feel that way.
So we're like, look, if you ifyou feel really inspired by this
subject or this thing where youthink it's interesting, and that
could be me, it could be Jesse,it could be James, could be SR,

(26:58):
uh, we kind of like bring it tothe table.
We're like, I've been readingabout this, or like I've been
kind of getting into this.
Like, could we make a videoabout that?
James really wants to make avideo about snowboarding right
now because he doesn't know howand he wants to learn how.
We will never make that videountil we think there's a YouTube
appropriate format and there isa title.
Interesting.
But I think there's been so muchabout working title backwards on

(27:21):
YouTube and packaging backwardsthat you can get really lost in
that.
And so we're trying to kind ofgo back to how you probably feel
when you're making your firstYouTube videos, which is you
have this idea, you're not eventhinking about title and
thumbnail because you don't knowthat that's important.
And you're just focused on thecontent of the video, this thing
that you really like, and youwant to make this thing, this
video, and your mistake is thatyou give it a terrible title and

(27:42):
thumbnail, and over time youlearn, oh, I need good
packaging.
So we're trying to kind of goback to that like initial
inspired feeling.
And then we will still nevermake the video if we can't come
up with a good title andthumbnail.
Like right now, we have no titleand thumbnail for James's
snowboarding video, so it'sright now it's not gonna get
made.
But maybe it does.
So like we keep thinking.
So it's kind of this like stayinspired, and we do believe the

(28:05):
algorithm has I think it'sgotten better at determining
like a video that's qualitycontent and getting it to the
people who want to see it.
So as long as you uh feel goodabout like as long as we feel
good about it, it's coming fromlike an inspired place, then
we'll make it after.
So that's like step one, andthen step two is like, well, how

(28:25):
does this work on YouTube?
Like, let's use all the stuffthat we know to make this work
on YouTube.
And that's to us, maybe it's notoptimal, you know, like maybe
there is a way we could begetting more views, but it's
more sustainable, and we justfeel like we're less likely to
burn out, we're less likely toget sick of what we're making.
And so that's kind of like Idoes that make sense?
That's like kind of ourstrategy, I think, for coming up

(28:46):
with content.

SPEAKER_01 (28:47):
Yeah, it's more of a long play, yeah, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 (28:49):
Yeah, and I think um it shows in the content because
if you again, if you if you justlook at the channel, like I'm
for example, I'm looking at havea good summer guaranteed.
I no way that works on acontent.
You're the thumbnail is if forpeople watching on YouTube,
you're gonna see this on thethumbnail on YouTube.
James just laying on some grass.
That's it.
And it just says do these sixthings.

(29:11):
It's like, what is this?
What is this video even?
It's more of a vibe like Ireally want to know why this
video why you guys think thisvideo works on on this channel.

SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
Uh this was a James, this was James came with the
inspiration.
You were very you were talkingabout summer a lot and were
really inspired and want to makea video about it.

SPEAKER_04 (29:30):
Yeah, I think it was I was pretty stoked about just
spending the summer with theboys.
And uh I think it came from aplace of like as an adult, I've
definitely missed entire summersuh or entire seasons because you

(29:50):
can as an adult.
And I think um it was just likethinking that like summer is a
thing that should be celebratedand And there's just like a ton
of stuff going on and trying.
I think in general, a lot of ourcontent is just like trying to
encourage people to try.
And I think that it's very easyto um sort of get tunnel vision

(30:16):
and focus on everything that'slike shitty.
Um and so I think uh encouragingthe audience to like just put a
little effort into something andlike you'll have a great time.
And so like the summer video wasreally just sort of like uh
summer is awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (30:36):
Take take advantage of it.
And I have to say, that one wascoming on the heels.
We had just done a similaressay, a love letter to cars, a
love letter to old cars.
Because I think James, again,this was one that was kind of on
the burner.
James has got his summer idea,right?
We're like, okay, well, can thisbe YouTube optimized?
Like, how is this gonna work?
Because, like you're saying,it's him laying on the grass,
you're like, what is this?
Uh, but then we put that oneout, and it was kind of this

(30:59):
heartfelt video essay format,and it did really well.
So that kind of was like, Allright, James, let's make your
summer video, you know.
Like, we've we've seen one casethat it can work, we'll give
this one a shot.

SPEAKER_04 (31:11):
And I would say those are like letter from the
editor type things.
Like, we kind of think of speedas a magazine.
So, like, speed is a uh GQ typemagazine, and it's been that way
from the beginning.
Um, I think it's like a men'slifestyle magazine or like a
men's style magazine, but likecars are included in men's

(31:35):
style, and it's kind of wildthat GQ doesn't have cars in it.
Um, and so I think in a lot ofways, like again, it needs to be
optimized for YouTube, but asfar as like the channel's voice,
um, as long as we can see it inthe same issue of a magazine,
then I think um we're willing tolike talk about it, you know

(31:59):
what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 (32:00):
I've never heard anyone talk about their channels
in magazines.
Very interesting because as yousay that I look at it, I go,
Yeah, I actually can see that.
I can totally see that vibe.
It's really interesting.
Um again, now there's like aLevi, is everything you need to
know.
And I know you guys probablylike, oh, I didn't do that well.
It's almost a half a millionviews.
Yeah, you keep it formed, dude.

SPEAKER_00 (32:17):
I mean, talk about one of our like two million view
views.

SPEAKER_04 (32:19):
Yeah, pick one that crushed, dude.
I'd love to talk about those.

SPEAKER_02 (32:22):
Bro, you're talking about pants, for God's sakes.
You only got almost a half amillion views.
It's probably gonna continue todo well over time.
And by the way, that summervideo is probably gonna get
views every summer.
You'll be the Mariah character.

SPEAKER_04 (32:33):
I'd say, is a big one for us.

SPEAKER_02 (32:35):
I mean, I really think it's gonna do well every
year.
But like, where did the pantsthing come from?
I just think that's so funny.
Levi's everything you need toknow.

SPEAKER_04 (32:42):
I think that one was honestly like a safe play.
I think that one was sort oflike um us regressing a little
bit and being like, I'll justtell the history of a thing.
And instead of history of a carthing, I'll tell the history of
a clothes thing.
And I think our audience hasevolved, or maybe the general
YouTube audience in general hasevolved a little bit, and

(33:02):
they're like, No, you can't justdo that anymore.
You have to do that plus anotherthing.
So if you look at like theJaguar video or the Nissan
video, like I think we can dovery historical heavy stuff, but
we need a stronger point ofview, and we need sort of like I
think the audience is asking forlike, why did you make this?

(33:24):
You know, and it can't just belike, well, because it's there,
dude.
It's gotta be, I think you gottatie it back into something
that's sort of happening or likeso could be affecting them
currently, is my bestunderstanding right now.

SPEAKER_02 (33:41):
And then you have that testing the same products
from 1975 and 2025, which twomillion views.
What's the let's talk aboutthat?
Can you take me into thesit-down conversation of the
pitch of this video and theneverything from pitching it to
how it went out?

SPEAKER_00 (33:58):
Well, that one started with a video that's
coming out this week aboutcamping with equipment from the
1920s, 1970s, and 2025.
Because basically, well, we hadthe dress better video, had a
lot of success, the bicyclevideo, the bike build had a good
amount of success.
So we're trying to find theseinterests that our audience has

(34:20):
that we can make videos aboutthat align with our interests,
and one of those is likeoutdoors stuff, right?
Camping, things like that.
We know that like theoverlanding community, there's
like good crossover with carcontent and actually
outdoorsmanship.
So we're like, let's make thiscool camping video.
And as we were researching itand finding all the gear and

(34:41):
stuff, this kind of other videolike premise started to emerge,
like another kind of thing ofinspiration where it's like just
looking at the gear, like wewould come across certain things
that like we don't need forcamping, like some tools or
stuff, like as on eBay lookingfor this old vintage stuff, and
we're like, Oh, why don't wejust make a comparison video?
It's way cheaper than this hugecamping video, and we'll just

(35:02):
test our audience.
It was almost just meant to be atest.
Like, how interested are they inseeing the technological change
of kind of guy stuff over thelast hundred years?
And it's a lot easier, we'llshoot in the garage, we don't
have to go out and camp, wedon't have to buy a bunch of
stuff, we can just buy likesmall things.
So it was very much anexperiment.
Um, and then when it blew up, wewere all I think on on Slack, I

(35:25):
was like, I don't understandYouTube.
I fully admit, like, I thoughtthis was gonna be like a five of
ten.
It was an experiment.
We were gonna read somecomments, and then it was like
it was a one of ten.
It was crazy, but it is such astraightforward, clear,
YouTube-built premise, and thevideo itself, the content itself
was good.

SPEAKER_02 (35:44):
And I think the it was a good play to have Coke uh
as the like the primary thingbecause there's everyone knows
Coke, right?
So it's an interesting thoughtright off the bat.
He's like, is he gonna drink1975?

SPEAKER_04 (35:53):
And again, that's like a little thing that isn't
even acknowledged in the video,really, but it is very much in
the public zeitgeist and likesort of like the ether where
it's like the whole maha thing,and Coke has like corn syrup,
and we're like bringing it backto like cane sugar, and so like
I'm sure there are a number ofpeople who are like, Oh yeah,

(36:17):
I'm gonna watch this, likeeither pissed about it or
something, but it's like it'sthere, you know.
And I think that whenever we cankind of tap into something
that's like there, like I thinkour Carhartt video tapped, it
wasn't like about it, but it waslike kind of there.
It was like during the wholestolen valor, you can't wear
work wear conversation on theinternet, and so like we didn't

(36:40):
make a video about thatconversation on the internet,
but we made a video during itthat the everyone involved in
that conversation might beinterested in.

SPEAKER_02 (36:50):
Uh Jesse, what's the most stressful part of this
process when you're making oneof these videos?

SPEAKER_01 (36:55):
It's a great question.
Um I mean, for for mepersonally, it's usually just
trying to make sure thateverything stays in sync from
like a production andcoordination standpoint, um,
that we have all the pieces inplace that the sponsors um are
lined up appropriately, that weget the ad spots shot and

(37:17):
plugged into it, and thethumbnail, um, you know, just
like making sure that all of thedifferent pieces that combine to
make a successful YouTube videocoalesce together because I have
faith in James uh and hisability to um, you know, really
carry the video um from apersonality standpoint and from

(37:38):
Zach, uh, you know, making surethat the format is is dialed in,
like we were saying, like theteam is there, and it's just
like kind of making sure that weall doing everything that I can
to make sure that we have a goodgame, if you will.
I think like that's the moststressful thing because it's
sort of like week in and weekout.
Um, and so just trying tomaintain the correct like

(37:59):
equilibrium so that we're alllike functioning at our best, I
think, is like probably the moststressful part rather than
anything specific with eachindividual video.

SPEAKER_00 (38:08):
We also slep all thumbnail duties onto Jesse
almost every video and put thatstress on him.

SPEAKER_02 (38:15):
What is something that a super fan would love to
know about what's going onbehind the scenes of speed that
like you guys really haven'tmentioned before?
What would be somethinginteresting or funny, or you
guys have like a ritual you do,or is there just something like
an inside joke you guys have, orsomething interesting like that?
We just got a dog.
Oh hey, really?
What can we have mascot?

SPEAKER_04 (38:32):
Yeah, yeah, we have a mascot now.
So all of our merch, the tag forthe speed.
He's chilling.
The tag for the speed merch is aDoberman.
Okay.
Um, and so now it's lifeimitating art.
I got a Doberman Pincher onFriday or Saturday.
Oh, so don't kidnap him.

SPEAKER_02 (38:53):
The merch happened before the dog.
Yes, it did.
Wow.
That's interesting.
So is he just trying to doubledown on the branding?
What's going on?
Yeah, basically.
It's like this brand, this is abrand play we're trying to do
here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
I mean, I love dogs.
I absolutely adore dogs.

(39:14):
Uh, look at that.
Uh that beautiful dog.
Look at that.
Look at that.
What's her what's their name?
Kobe.
Kobe, like like the beef.
Yep.
Or the Laker.
Or the Laker, yeah.
I mean, you know, okay, sure.
Uh beautiful.
He came with the name.
He's a rescue.
Um, but it's not a small dog.
Dobrin's are not small dogs.
No.

SPEAKER_01 (39:34):
75 pounds.

SPEAKER_02 (39:35):
My gosh.
Sweet, uh, look.
All right.
So um, before we kind of uh wrapthis up, I do want to talk a
little bit about some of thethings about YouTube that you
guys like, and then we'll talkabout some things you wish would
change.
So, what's your favorite YouTubething right now, whether it be a
channel, uh maybe uh a feature,you know, something like that.
What's your favorite thing?

(39:56):
We'll go around the room.
We'll start with Zach.
What's your like favoriteYouTube thing right now?

SPEAKER_00 (40:00):
Oh, I'm on the spot.
My favorite thing about YouTube.
I mean, like I was sayingearlier, I do think for better
and for worse, the algorithm'sgotten better at just finding
good content.
I don't know if you've like I'venoticed I get a lot more videos
with like 1200 views in my feed.
And I think that's because thealgorithm's gotten better at
knowing what I like to watch.

(40:21):
It's gotten better atrecognizing what's a good video.
And so that's scary because Ithink it's harder potentially to
have inertia as a bigger channelbecause YouTube's like, we will
punish you if you make badcontent.
But it is nice because you canmake something that you believe
is like just a holistically goodvideo, and you can rely a little

(40:42):
less on the packaging, I think,than you had to maybe five or
six years ago, because the algoralgorithm has like figured out
viewers better, has figured outhow to recognize good content.
So I would say I've just noticedthat trend over the last few
years, and as scary as that canbe, I think we're good at making
good content, and you know it itit just means you can't use the

(41:03):
hacks or the cheats as muchanymore.
And to me, I'd rather be in thatenvironment.
So that's kind of my favoritething I've noticed going on.

SPEAKER_02 (41:10):
Yeah, I agree about the algorithm thing because
ironically, um, about two hoursbefore this uh podcast episode,
I recorded another episode witha creator I only learned about a
week and a half ago, but Ibecame kind of obsessed with
them.
I had no idea they existed.
All of a sudden it came up myhomepage, and then hours later
I'm like going through all theirstuff, and I'm like, I need to
have this person on the podcast.
Which, if you're watching thispodcast, that episode will be

(41:30):
next week.
So make sure you tune in forthat.
Um, what about you, Jesse?
What's like your favorite thingabout YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 (41:36):
Um, I think there's sort of two sides uh to the
coin, I guess, is what I'll I'llcaveat uh this with.
But I do appreciate that YouTubeis seems to be constantly
innovating.
Um, in particular, it seems thisyear more so than past years.
There's uh you know a glut ofnew features um that they're

(41:57):
trying out between collabs, youknow, TBD, we'll see how like
the brand new brand slot umdynamic insertions works.
Um communities, you know, again,we'll see how it goes, but it's
clear that they're continuing totry things to stay relevant um
and be you know the bestplatform that they can be for

(42:20):
audiences.
So I I don't I I appreciate thatthat we're like in a uh a
platform with like seemingly aforward uh looking executive um
behind it.
What do you think, James?

SPEAKER_04 (42:36):
Um I think sort of like to echo Zach's point, and I
think like the what I'm gonnasay is allowed because of what
they were saying.
Like, I think that we are in avery like pendulum swingy
transition time, I think, in alot of places.
And I think we got to a point uhin like 2021, 2022, probably,

(43:00):
where like everyone knew therules on like how to do YouTube.
It's like here's how you make athumbnail, and here's how you
edit it, and here's how you talkwhen you're doing the video, and
here's like how you take thisidea and then you make it a
YouTube idea.
And I think you know, togetherthe audience and like a new crop

(43:21):
of creators have decided thatthat's not gonna be the way
we're gonna do it anymore, andthat means that we get to figure
out like a new way, and I thinkthat just because of how things
react, that I think that new wayis slower, I think like more
artistic, more cinematic, betterwritten, and like Zach said,

(43:45):
without a lot of the hacks, andI think that like a lot of the
things that used to be likerules are no longer the case.
Like, we make a big deal aboutthe fact that like we're not
just making car content, butlike I don't think if we made
car content, we would besuccessful.
I think people would get sick ofthat, and I think that I said

(44:09):
this on when we were on thephone last week.
Like, anytime an executive tellsyou that you need to do
something, is like, hey, youknow, like you really should do
a niche content, like nichecontent is really what is well.
I remember at the beginning ofDonut pitching to executives and
telling them what niche contentwas, and they were like, Oh,

(44:31):
interesting, but now they'retelling us that we have to do
it.
And it's like, well, as soon asyou say that we have to do it,
then it's cooked, and we have tofigure out the next thing to do
because like our idea is tofigure out what to make, and so
which being niche is still validadvice in a lot of situations,
um, but I think that like Ithink you know, like there is

(44:52):
like a certain freedom and acertain excitement to the fact
that like kind of nobody knowswhat you're supposed to do right
now, and I think that there's alot of people figuring it out
together and an audience that'slike very ready to look at a
bunch of different things, whichis pretty pretty exciting
environment to create in.

SPEAKER_02 (45:10):
Before I ask you what you you don't like about
YouTube, uh, I want to bring upa point.
I know that some people areprobably watching this going,
you know, for so the super fansare gonna love hearing some of
this stuff, but I also thinkthere's people that are creators
that listen to podcasts going,okay, this is great.
So they were a big channel andwent and made another big
channel.
There is no guarantee onYouTube.
There are plenty of people whohave left big channels to try to
make their own channel and thennothing happened.
I just want to be very clearabout this.

(45:32):
One of the reasons that thisthis channel succeeded isn't
because they came from a bigchannel, it's because they know
all the things that they learnedwhile they were there to then
put into place from ground zerouh those same strategies.
It's super important tounderstand that.
And the best way I can explainthis is to say the word
Dunkleman.
And for those who know whoDunkleman is, uh, you'll realize

(45:54):
that, oh yeah, this guy used tobe the host on American Idol.
That is a guaranteed win.
Do you know he was doing likeUber last year?
Um, like there is no guarantee.
You can come from the biggestplatform on the face of the
planet and then try somethingelse and it doesn't work.
So this was never guaranteed.
Uh, just to be very clear, somepeople have a miss, you know,
kind of a thought of like, oh,well, they've always been big.

(46:15):
Nah, it's not how it works.

SPEAKER_00 (46:17):
Travis, I'm not gonna put anyone on blast, but I
would look at those channels.
Like some, you know, you've seenthe channels that go from a
million to 50,000, or you seepeople who break out on their
own, and it it's I would look atthose being like, this could be
us.
I would look almost as like alike to scare me into like
working harder.
Like, you know, I know this isnot guaranteed.

SPEAKER_02 (46:40):
No, it's not, but you guys are doing a great job.
All right, so tell me you canyou don't have to say hate, you
could say what I would like tosee in improvement.
However, you want to say it, itcould be something you hate.
Tell me something you reallydon't like about YouTube, and it
also could be somethingself-inflicted.
So, for example, I think for alot of creators, people hate one
of uh 10 of 10s.
They could say, I don't evenlike to know that it's a 10 of
10.
I wish I didn't know that.
So what it could be anything.
What do you really dislike aboutYouTube?

(47:01):
We'll start with Jesse first.

SPEAKER_04 (47:03):
Oh god.
I mean, I don't know what I'd doif I didn't have the 10 of 10
list.
Oh.
You like that?

SPEAKER_00 (47:10):
Uh can I make mine just can I just steal yours,
Travis, with the 10 of 10?
Um I do think that the 10 of 10is uh potentially damaging if
you're not digging into theanalytics enough yourself
because we have had so manywhat's actually been worse for
us is we've had a lot of liketwo, three, one of tens, and

(47:30):
they've stayed that way throughour next upload.
So in your memory, it's kind oflike, oh, that was like a
successful video.
But if you actually go back andlook at it, it plateaued really
hard.
So it hit our core audience, andthen nobody else in the world
cared about it.
And you can kind of fall intothis trap and say, Well, that
was a success successful video,but actually you can compare it
to another video that was aseven of ten and that one went

(47:53):
on to get more views.
And so it actually, unless youknow, it'd be nice if there's
like a click-down menu that letyou really say, like, hey, I
want to see my top ten, but likegive me this for like 90 days,
or give me this for whateveramount of days.
And so you can really fall intothis trap where you your idea of
which videos were and weren'tsuccessful can be really off.
Uh so yeah, YouTube shouldintroduce something where you

(48:14):
can control the time windowsbetter.
I like that you can compare twovideos curves, but we need like
five.
I need to see I gotta see.

SPEAKER_04 (48:22):
90 days would be sick because like I think that
seeing it uh in like since yourlast upload or whatever, like I
think that contributes to peoplehaving like such a narrow scope
and creating like the same thingfor the same 300,000 people or
whatever that just watch itimmediately.
Like our biggest video, like ourour video biggest videos that

(48:44):
have like the most views, butalso like brought in the most
subscribers were like six out often or lower.
Or lower for like a long time.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (48:52):
I mean, Leica was our worst performing video out
of the 10 graph, and it stayed.
I mean, it was like nine eightof ten by the time we uploaded
the next video, and now it'swell over a million views.
Like if we compare it to a lotof our other videos, it's done a
lot better.
So yeah, uh that is a YouTubefeature that could be better,
but also I think it's just as acreator digging in deeper to the

(49:13):
analytics and reallyunderstanding what's going on.
What about you, John?
That's mine.

SPEAKER_01 (49:19):
Uh I I know I don't mind.
I think it sort of uh ties intouh my biggest stressors, um
which I think is as I wassaying, you know, there's like
you know, two sides of the cointo like you have to be good at
so many different things andspecialties to be good at
YouTube now, between you know,just making the video, which

(49:42):
comprises you know how you shootit, how you cut it, how you
perform in it, what the titleand um format are, but then also
like all the extraneous stuff,you know, like engaging with
your community either on or offplatform, you know, having a
presence on different socialmedia platforms.
You should really have like aclip strategy, you know, so that

(50:03):
you're showing up in people'svertical formats, you know,
interfacing with brands andagencies and blah blah blah.
There's just like so many hatsum to not only wear, but if you
want to be successful, to begood at.
Um, and I think that that's justlike a lot to balance and manage

(50:24):
for anybody.
I feel I can't imagine being asolo creator um doing all of
this because I feel like all ofus are already sort of like, you
know, balancing, keeping our ourminds uh sane.
Um and so I think like that isthe biggest like downside, I
would say it's not necessarilylike a critique of the platform

(50:47):
itself, because I know thatthey're doing what they need to
do to you know work in thelarger um ecosystem.
Um, so I guess it's just acritique of how things are.
Um, but I think like that's thethat's the hardest slash worst
thing to me.
What do you got, James?

SPEAKER_04 (51:04):
Um I think it'd be cool if there's more of like a
curation element to it.
Like I think we all startedmaking stuff like when Vimeo was
really big, and I think likestaff picks was a huge thing,
and I know that uh that has tolook different at YouTube just
because of the scale.
But if there was some way tolike, oh, I like this creator,

(51:28):
like a soft collab situationwhere it's like, oh, uh, I'm not
making videos with this guy, butI f with him.
Yeah, I really like this guy,like uh like a shout-out almost.
Or like just like I don't know,I think just like a stronger if
you like this, then you'll likethis.

(51:49):
Kind of I don't know, just Ithink curation in general is a
thing that we abandoned tooquickly under the like with the
promise of like algorithmicthings, and I think I don't
think it's been I think it'smissed.

SPEAKER_02 (52:03):
Uh all right, two more things, and then we're out
for this uh podcast.
I love what we've been talkingabout.
Um I I want you each to tell mea YouTube channel that you
watched that maybe isn't like ahuge channel, something that it
could be a guilty pleasure, um,or it could be a surprise, but
like who's your favorite uhYouTuber that you like to watch
right now?
Um Zach, let's start with you.

SPEAKER_00 (52:21):
Oh, I gotta go to my homepage.
I mean, first things that uhjump out would probably be oh
man, I want to give like a goodanswer on one of these like
smaller channels.

SPEAKER_02 (52:34):
I I love the small channel shout out.
That's good.

SPEAKER_00 (52:37):
Um I mean for a long time I was really into Van
Nystat's videos.
Yeah, Van's great.
Um his stuff was his likeespecially his like early stuff
was really good.
His stuff now is good as well,but um you can tell that he's
he's like putting actually heslowed down his cadence, and I
think that's helped.
Um I really enjoy Dan Mace'sstuff for a long time, but he

(52:59):
goes, he's working for Mr.
Beast now, I think.
Um yeah, those are probably thetwo.
Go to the other guys.
Maybe I'll I'll I'll have one ina sec.

SPEAKER_02 (53:09):
Who do you watch uh for fun, Jesse?

SPEAKER_01 (53:12):
Um, someone who I've been really getting a kick out
of uh recently is Annie Austin.
Um he does some really funnyvideos that are like, where do
all of Grand Theft Auto's powerlines go?

SPEAKER_04 (53:24):
Are the airports in Grand Theft Auto efficient?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (53:27):
Um and it's it's really absurdist.
Um you know, just well whocares, but it it's it's
fascinating, and he uh is reallyfunny and has like a great sense
of humor.
I also think that he does anexcellent job weaving his ad
reads into the content.
It's a really specific thingthat I've noticed of his.

(53:48):
Um yeah, I'll try to think ofsomebody else, maybe James.

SPEAKER_04 (53:52):
You can think Van Nystat is a huge influence.
Uh I like this channel, IronSnail, that makes uh menswear uh
content.
It's very good.
Uh I like frugal aesthetic quitea bit.
Um and then right now I reallylike Will Tennyson, and he might

(54:13):
be the only YouTube I watchright now.
Oh, interesting.
Like he's the only huh?
I said interesting.
I haven't heard of that one.
Will Tennyson?
Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (54:23):
Yeah, he's great.
He's great.

SPEAKER_04 (54:25):
Uh fitness like bodybuilding stuff.
Uh, and he's just like very goodat YouTube and very
entertaining.
I'll have to check him out.
Which like goes againsteverything I've said on this
entire podcast because he isextremely niche and just like
plays the rules like super well.

(54:45):
But he's also kind of likesubversive humor, and he just
kills it, he nails it.

SPEAKER_02 (54:50):
All right, we have one last thing we're gonna do.
Uh, I've never tried to do thisbefore.
This could this could crash andburn, but I think it's gonna be
interesting.
I'm all about the content, soworst case scenario, it'll be
funny.
Uh, again, you guys started outum coming from Donut and then
having the knowledge that youhad, but also had a little bit
of a budget to start thischannel.
You had so had some thingsbacking you up.
Somewhat.
None?

SPEAKER_01 (55:10):
You said zero?
We had our own savings.
Yeah, we had your own savings.

SPEAKER_02 (55:14):
Okay.
All right, that's fair then.
I want you to start a newchannel.
You're gonna get I'm gonna giveyou guys two minutes to talk
about a new channel that hasnothing to do with cars, and you
have to tell me what the firstwhat the name of the channel is
gonna be and the video.
You guys are gonna talk realtime to figure it out.
You're you're your group, youhave no budget, you're just
three four, well, three guys,just three guys, because we
don't have uh the editor here.

(55:35):
And I want to hear real time youguys come up with that idea and
you can talk real time.
I'm gonna start the timer herein a second.
You ready?
This is a funny experiment.
Yeah, it's gonna be interestingbecause I wanted people to hear
like what this might sound likeif they were sitting in the room
with you.
Again, nothing related to stuffyou've already done, so it's
gotta be a new niche.
Ready?
Go.

SPEAKER_00 (55:55):
All right.
Well, I think we gotta pick aniche.
Do I have to be in it or can weget other people?
It's this can be we can hire.

SPEAKER_01 (56:02):
Well, we don't have any money.

SPEAKER_00 (56:04):
You don't have any money?

unknown (56:05):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (56:06):
I mean, for a long time I've been saying golf.

SPEAKER_04 (56:08):
Yeah, I was gonna say golf.
That's why I asked if I had tobe in it.

SPEAKER_00 (56:10):
Golf, high high CPMs, and I think, you know,
good good is doing good stuff,but I I think there's room for
somebody to really go in and dokind of what donuts are for
cars, but with golf.

SPEAKER_04 (56:21):
Yeah, I would 100% do a golf channel.

SPEAKER_00 (56:23):
Um I think you start.

SPEAKER_04 (56:25):
It's also fun.

SPEAKER_00 (56:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's fun.
You get to go outside.
You'd have to get like a dealwith a golf course.
That's kind of cool with youshooting certain stuff.
I would start, I'd go supereducational.
So like I think you should youcould take uh you know the
things that like the sim rigswhere there's some that can just
use like LiDAR off your phone,but then there's like$15,000

(56:48):
ones, uh shot tracer typethings.
You could do a comparison ofthose.

SPEAKER_02 (56:52):
One minute left, you need a channel name and a video
name.
Oh, channel name.
Channel name and a video name.
Video concept.
We got 50 seconds left.
Thwack.
Thlack.
I like video name.
Like what the concept topic isfor the video.
45 seconds.

SPEAKER_01 (57:11):
We could do uh classic YouTube format.
Cheap versus I would cheapversus expensive.

SPEAKER_04 (57:19):
I would do like cheap versus expensive like
starter golf.

SPEAKER_00 (57:23):
I would do like$10 golf ball tracker versus$15,000
golf ball tracker.
And you could just shoot that ata driving range, and you could
have a bunch of different ones.
You could dive into the tech alittle bit to fill out the
video.
Um and you could just do that ata driving range, so you didn't
have to like or in yourbackyard, maybe even.
I would try to do it somewherewhere you could shoot the ball
and then go see if it landedwhere the tracker said that it

(57:46):
was, like in theory.

SPEAKER_02 (57:48):
Five seconds.
Alright, so one.
Okay, so the name of the channelis ThWAC.
Thwack.

SPEAKER_00 (57:54):
And the first video is ten dollar golf ball tracer
versus fifteen thousand dollartracer.
I don't know if traces are.

SPEAKER_02 (58:01):
You were doing that because you're going to a golf.
So you don't even have to spendthe money on the fifteen
thousand dollar tracer, whatyou're saying, right?

SPEAKER_00 (58:06):
Yeah, yeah.
You go to a uh place that hasthis.

SPEAKER_04 (58:09):
And you probably you probably do one to three in the
middle of those.
Yeah, yeah.
But it's you call out the two.

SPEAKER_00 (58:15):
Also, Travis, we are not uh above buying and
returning products.

SPEAKER_02 (58:21):
That's the YouTube return policy.
I know all about that.
I mean, I don't know anythingabout that.
I'm a pure innocent boy.
I don't know anything aboutthat.
Okay.
Um thank you guys for coming onthrough.
If you're new to speed, you cancheck them out.
There'll be a link in thedescription as well as the show
notes if you're listening toaudio podcast.
You can check them there.
They got lots of cool thingscoming, so make sure you don't
miss that.
And of course, we got moreepisodes here on the podcast

(58:41):
channel, and we'll see you inthe next one.