MrBeast: If You Want To Be Liked, Don't Help People & I Lost Tens Of Millions On Beast Games!
3112 segments
[Music]
there's a reason no one makes videos
like me because no one wants to live the
life I live or be in my head they they
would be miserable are you
happy
um I I'm going to be honest so far more
unhappy than happy well has it ever
crossed your mind to quit YouTube as a
whole oh yeah of course really yeah are
you oh
boy Mr Beast Mr Beast Mr Beast he is the
biggest YouTuber on the planet and he's
building Empires I mean is there
anything this man can't do your business
Empire is much bigger than most people
realize yeah I mean I'm only 26 and we
have the largest YouTube channel in the
world and Beast games is going to
shatter some pretty crazy records and we
do nine figures and feasts but a lot of
that stems from being a very confused
child that's not fitting in that feels
like a freak plus I really wanted to
take care of my mom because when I was
11 we literally went bankrupt and lost
everything luckily it worked out and
it's because I'm really good at
obsessing over one thing more than
anyone else on the planet like us 10
millions of dollars zombies games but
it's about making season one as good as
possible and I just really love solving
complex problems like how many kids do
you think are in child labor in West
Africa just on Coco Farms it's 1.5
million and so with febles we were
trying to get over a million kids out of
child labor but the ironic part is the
more I help people the more I get like
I've read over 5,000 messages telling me
to kill myself I mean there's definitely
times where I would cry but if my mental
health was a party I wouldn't be as
successful as I am this is the price you
have to pay but when is enough enough
honestly
this has always blown my mind a little
bit 53% of you that listen to the show
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[Music]
Jimmy we've really just only met and you
are already to me a bit of a Rubik's
Cube okay in so many ways and I've been
trying to piece the pieces together to
understand the the uniqueness of you
because you're so unbelievably unique we
just drove over here in the car and
hearing you speak about the way that you
view life and speaking to you yesterday
on the phone I've I've interviewed
hundreds and hundreds of people and I've
never ever met someone who has the
perspective on life that you have you
you are truly
unique what do I need to understand
about your earliest years to understand
who you are oh boy um yeah my earliest
years
I I'm just stubborn man I just never
give up I mean there was there's no
world where I ever would have quit I
just I I mean we're just jumping right
into it it's a great no intro or
anything just boom this how you hold
people um when I was 11 I just said I'm
going to be a YouTuber I'm going to die
trying and I meant it and there was like
even if no one still watches my videos
to this day I would still be going um
and so people hate it but I'm just the
most competitive stubborn person you'll
ever meet and I just never give up where
did that come from I have no idea to be
honest it honestly it feels like it was
just in my DNA and my bloodstream my Mom
hated it growing up we'd always argue
and like you know she has this thing
where like once Jimmy sets his mind to
something he just never stops and it
would always piss her off CU when it was
YouTube and she wanted me to be studying
or things like that but I really don't
know it's it's just always been how I am
and I think a lot of people have these
weird Tendencies and they tend to like
try to like uh unlearn them and like I
had phases in my life where I was like
am I too extreme like people are very
intimidated by me because I just am so
obsessed with work and I'm so Allin and
like is this like unhealthy should I try
to be more like a normal human
especially when I was a teenager it's a
lot easier it's funny when when you're
making lots of money it's like admirable
it's respectable it's like look those
are traits we want but when you're not
successful you know you're a lunatic
when you have all these traits and so
back then I'd occasionally be like man
like should I try to be more normal but
I just could never do it anytime I tried
to I mean i' I've mentioned this before
but one of the like things that like I
have a memory of that like really is
burned in my brain is like people one
time like a high schooler told me when I
was in Middle School like all you do is
talk about YouTube like do like know how
to do anything else like like you're
just like a freak and I tried to like
watch South Park you know cuz that's
what a lot of people in my school watch
to fit in and I just couldn't I was like
this is such a waste of time I don't
like I could be working right now and I
tried to do all these things to like fit
in and I eventually just like stopped
talking because I just didn't relate to
anyone and um people used to call me
mute like one of my teachers literally
asked like if I was mute like cuz that's
how little I spoke because no one in the
school I went to was entrepreneurial or
one to build businesses and I just
didn't want to do anything else and um
yeah eventually I started to succeed
found other lunatics and now life's
great but you know I like to tell the
story when I'm on podcast because if you
have a younger viewer who's in that same
spot you're not the problem it's your
environment and you just got to put
yourself in a better environment what
about your parents mom and dad you talk
about your mother a lot yeah um no I I
don't I didn't get it from them what
what influence did they both have on you
um well I don't really talk about my dad
much that's you know a long story don't
need to get into it but my mom
honestly it was it wasn't it's great now
me and my mom have a phenomenal
relationship but on the come up it was
it was pretty rough because in 2008 they
were over leverag so we literally went
bankrupt and so they they you know had
properties that they used to get other
properties and then when everything
collapsed they lost basically everything
and so my mom was working two jobs and
you know barely getting by and so we
like I I didn't see her that much
because when I I was coming home from
school she was doing her second job so
it was a lot because she was a single
mom raising us she's working all the
time you know um my I don't talk about a
lot of this you know I have Crohn's
disease so I was very sick growing up my
brother also had issues as well and so
you know we're not the healthiest kids
in our teenage year she's just trying to
get by and take care of us and then you
know she comes home and she just has
this brat that's being annoying and like
I want to be a YouTuber and she's just
begging me sometimes she would literally
cry and beg me to do homework and I mean
I
was I was I was like I didn't I didn't
mean it in a mean way but I mean I even
one time I literally told her if you
want my my homework done so bad why
don't you just do it you know like
that's that's what I told my mom like
what am I doing I don't know like I was
just like I don't I don't care like I I
just want to be successful I want to
build businesses and so it was like
bless her heart luckily it worked out so
now I spoiled her she's great she has
her second home anything she could ever
one she has and so the first uh thing I
did was take you know start paying my
mom take care of her once I started
making money cuz she gave everything to
like get me where I am and I wouldn't be
where I am now but it was like it was
like me and her spoke different
languages when I was younger you know
she she didn't want me to end up like
them you know and you get screwed and uh
not have much money and like the path I
was going down was just basically like
oh I'm going to be a homeless drug
addict and like her brain couldn't
compute the world I saw and my brain
couldn't compute the world she saw and
it was constant friction who was looking
after you then if she was busy working
and you were at home and your dad's not
around who takes care of you uh I just
me and my brother we're just there I was
just making videos you making videos
what age did that start the videos I
started at 11 11 yeah so I I I'm 26 now
I can't really remember life before
YouTube like my earliest memories are
basically when I started making videos
you said earlier um you don't talk about
your dad much yeah
you don't have to talk tell me about it
but why don't you talk about the your
father much ah don't worry about it I
know your mom has spoken about him
before yeah and it was a bit of a
tumultuous relationship yeah exactly
they didn't have the best relationship I
mean that's a topic for another day
honestly kind of a sour way to start it
off but yeah it's my mom is great I love
my mom she used to cry asking you to do
your homework a lot of things she she
would cry because I wouldn't put money
away when we started making money she
would uh she thought it was too risky
and I mean the thing is nothing she uh
would say was unreasonable right looking
back at it she was perfectly reasonable
in what she was doing I'm just a
deranged lunatic and was way too
obsessed with building the business and
way too Allin um like it's very cute one
time she like when we had I don't
remember like some month or made like
100 grand and I'm like okay perfect now
I can spend 100 Grand this next month on
videos and she like took like 5,000 of
it and put it away for me in my own bank
account without telling me but in case
you know I ever went you know was
overleveraged or went bankrupt like they
did and um I found out about it and uh
she's like please don't take this money
just let me set aside anything stop
spending everything on videos and I was
like no this is perfect now I can spend
more like this is awesome thank you Mom
and like but to me I don't I don't
really feel risk like I if anything it
like Risk excites me and like I have
very high threshold for it um so yeah we
just we literally weren't communicating
the same language but I don't remember
what age it was but eventually after I
took enough risks and figured it out my
mom just said to me you know what I'm
going to trust you like I have faith and
everything got so much better after that
point when like she stopped staying up
all night worrying about me and worrying
whether or not I was making the right
decision when she's just like Jimmy I
trust you I know this you think about
this all day like I'm going to just
follow your lead and our relationship
has been you know perfect ever since
then if IID asked 10-year-old Jimmy how
are you doing what would what would he
have said uh 10 I don't know but if you
asked me at like 12 or 13 I probably
would have been like [ __ ] like no one
watches my videos I just really want to
be a YouTuber I um I gotta I gotta make
this
work why did you want to really be a
YouTuber because kids say that but the
extent to which you said it and the
focus that you had on that particular
goal of being a YouTuber CU there's many
things you could have focused on you
could have been a video game player
whatever whatever but YouTube is a
particularly interesting thing because
you're on camera people are seeing it
there's a metric which decides how
successful you are um was there any
element of the on camera part that
was helping to solve for like the
feeling of isolation that you you seem
to have at that time no Community yeah I
think it's more to do with just I I
found out that when I was at a young age
probably around 11 that there YouTubers
that are making hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year and I was just like oh
that's it like just the money yeah of
course because back back then we didn't
have money and I really wanted to take
care of my mom and and just my family in
general so it was like everything it was
like this is what I love doing I I've
never had as much joy doing something as
I do this plus I could see a path where
I could actually retire my mom take care
of her pay her back for you know all the
night she worked so long so we could
um live comfortably and things like that
so it's just kind of the thing is I've
one thing that irks me is when people
try to like put someone's motivation
into like one little bucket like we're
very complex creatures and like you know
you have a girlfriend I I I would never
say oh you just like her because she's
pretty but you like her because she's
pretty but you probably also like her
because she's smart you probably also
like her because you know she's fun to
be around she likes similar shows blah
blah you probably if we sat here for 10
hours you could probably give me a
thousand reasons why you like your
girlfriend so it's like it's very
annoying when people try to put why you
like doing a certain job or building a
certain business into one bucket oh you
just do it because of money what if I do
it because I like money and I enjoy it
and it's a way to do this and it's a way
to communicate with people and community
and these other things you know what I
mean and I think that's a common flaw we
try to do it's like it's not that simple
I think it's a lot of people can't
understand someone being so relentlessly
focused on something with the level of
like commitment and sustained commitment
that you've shown yeah and so and I
don't know how I I agree because it's
very weird like how like I have extreme
Obsession to the point where like I just
think about stuff the same like for me
it's much easier to think about
something 16 hours a day for seven days
straight than it is like to like gear
shift constantly I'm like really good at
just obsessing over one thing more than
anyone else on the planet i' if I were
to say what's my superpower it's that I
can just obsess endlessly about
something and I can just have the same
thoughts over and over and over and over
again it's it's very weird like it's it
was it was it wasn't like it was work
for me grinding YouTube for those 10
years or whatever where no one was
really watching it it's just like kind
of who I am it would have had to have
been a deep Obsession because you were
doing it when no one was really watching
or paying attention or really when the
platform was there was literally a day
when I was uh 19 or 20 where I got I
woke up joined a Skype call with my
friends and where we like were reverse
engineering you know why certain videos
do well or whatever and I remember that
call being over 18 hours long and then I
hung up went to bed woke back up the
next day and instantly got back like
call and pick back like that was the
level of like hours we were putting in I
mean I didn't know anything besides just
trying to make it happen was that
anything else that you showed that level
of obsession too so at that age no from
I would say from 11 to well 11 to 15 it
was a mix of YouTube and baseball but
when I turned 15 I got Crohn's and I
went from like 190 pounds down to 139 I
lost all muscle I had and so I was like
all right I'm not playing baseball in
college anymore so then I was like [ __ ]
it it's just all in on uh YouTube and um
and then up until really febles it was
basically just YouTube for whatever I
never thought I would find like this
kind of love for build like I thought it
was specifically video making but I have
found over like the last two or three
years just in general I just enjoy
entrepreneurship and I've been really
deeply loving getting like obsessed with
Feasta and other things and so which was
very weird like when I first started a
chocolate company it was like kind of a
side thing but the more I started to
work on it I got a lot of the same high
as I got when I was making videos just
in different ways and so now I'm like I
know way too much about the chocolate
industry I'm like it's pretty crazy I
never imagined I would have put the
thousands of hours I've poured into
building feals and so I think just in
general it's just I just really love
solving consistent complex hard problems
I think that's like what gets me out of
bed and like the harder the problems the
more exciting it is consistent hard
problems I want to talk about that and
also Feast tables but you mentioned
Crohn's disease there and a lot of
people don't know what that is and the
impact it has on someone's life are you
aware of it I am because I had a team
member that had it so um in order to
help support them at certain times when
they had to leave and stuff like that I
got a little bit more aware of what it
means and what how it impacts you but
could you give me your perspective on
that yeah so Cron's disease words is
when your immune system attacks itself
so uh yeah when I was 15 I just started
going to the bathroom 8 nine 10 times a
day not digesting any food because my GI
track is like literally just attacking
itself it's very weird your immune
system in your gut thinks your gut is a
foreign Invader and so it just starts
attacking itself which if you're just
using the bathroom 10 times a day not
digesting food it's why you drop weight
rapidly and it hurts like crazy because
it gets very inflamed and it feels like
someone's stabbing you in the gut with
Like a Knife constantly when it's really
really bad which is what I had so I lost
50 pounds which is crazy because I was
already relatively lanky um and we were
just trying different medicine and then
eventually I'm on a pretty extreme
medicine called Remicade where just
basically you n your immune system which
is why my voice sounds a little off
right now CU I just got the flu I got
covid six times I got shingles like I
get sick all the time because for me to
have my GI track stop attacking itself
we basically have to shut down my immune
system so I have like uh really weak
immune system so I just get sick all the
time like why I have like random rashes
and things like that so it's like it
pretty pretty brutal to be honest and
then it randomly flares up sometimes and
just makes you very sick very tired like
I just just live life on hard mode to be
honest like if someone like if you wake
up and you have energy like you're
already Leaps and Bounds ahead of me
like I you know it's it's makes things
way more difficult and so you still wake
up with some days where you don't have
energy of course which is really hard to
believe for someone who's so productive
for everybody looking on yeah it's you
just got to really love what you do I
mean and push through it it's uh it's
pretty brutal because then you compound
that with always being sick and I mean
yeah like I just spent four days in a
hospital in South Africa cuz I got the
flu and it just takes me a lot longer to
recover from certain things so um it's
brutal and that's where like if I didn't
work so much I would spend more time
researching Crohn's because surely
there's a better way to stop it than
just destroying my immune system and
ideally I don't do that deep into my 30s
and 40s so I see it as a little bit of a
Band-Aid but um you know I've met with
the top Crohn's doctors in the world and
so far they're like this is just the
answer and you're just lucky your you
know gut isn't attacking yourself um
so but I don't know I I feel like the
medicine they give people Crohn's is
kind of silly and there's got to be a
better way to treat it I mean the
ultimate solution is they just cut me
open and cut out a large part of my GI
track and then there you go but you know
it's I observed in the the team member
that I had that had Crohn's just a bit
of a mental roller coaster as well
because there's an certain
unpredictability to it exactly which
makes life oh it's even worse when
you're filming because you got this huge
multi-million dollar set and 200 people
waiting on you and you know sometimes
you don't know if you're going to have a
flare but you just got to go [ __ ] it and
just down some caffeine and crank it out
I got diagnosed with ADHD you did yeah I
got diagnosed with ADHD and it made me
think a lot about myself and the way
that I am it's not NE I'm not the type
of person to like embody the label or
think it really means much I am just who
I am have you um are you in any way
neurod Divergent uh I've been told Yeah
by Dr I ADHD I mean I'm not surprised
because I just sit and obsess over
things constantly but I think um I'm I'm
happy with however my brain is wired I
don't really care to change it um I I
like I said I think one of my greatest
superpowers is my obsession and I think
some people would view that as a
weakness but I just like if you just
think about solving problems three times
more than everyone else like you're
bound to come up with different
solutions that's one of the things you
mentioned earlier you you like solving
hard problems consistently when you
think back over the last 10 years of
your life and the the success you've had
solving some of these hard problems if
you were to like break it down into some
components of um that you've learned one
of them is Obsession that you've said
yeah what are the
others I
mean it's all the typical stuff like you
are obviously who you surround yourself
with and um luckily I just got around
the right people in my later teenage
years because I I feed off the energy of
the people probably around me it's so
obvious like I start to talk like them I
become interested in the things they're
interested in I mean this is all obvious
stuff I'm sure you've heard of billion
times so but you know just got to I
always have to be protective of the
people I'm around because whatever they
say is what I started thinking on and
that's what I started obsessing over and
you know um one of the best things that
happened with febles is I just reached
out to all the fastest growing chocolate
companies all the fastest growing snack
businesses and everything and just
became friends with a lot of the
founders and you know that's what would
have probably taken me eight nine years
to like solve you know after 18 months
you know was probably one of the top 10
people in the world when it comes to
running a chocolate company and
understanding deeply just because it's
just ch codes um what about detail
sweating the small
stuff one of the things that I saw I was
reading the this that handbook that was
laked on the internet and one of the
things I saw throughout that was this
real obsession with the 1% and the small
stuff how do you feel about this by the
way and all of that stuff I wrote that
uh with with some of my employees when I
was probably
22 so there are some things that I'm
like I read I'm like oh wow I was an
idiot but for the most part most of it
still stands the tested
um and I I do think it's very helpful
you know what's funny a lot of CEOs have
actually told me that they make their
employees read this um went around all
of our slack channels we we all read it
yeah which is funny because I'm like
damn I should make an updated version of
it so everyone uh but yeah the thing is
it's the the core Crux of it is like
extreme ownership and don't make excuses
and you know um people always yeah I
mean the damn I'm getting a lot of DJ Vu
from when I was writing that it was just
a different time back then too because I
just I had no idea what I was doing when
I was 21 22 and I just found that I was
constantly telling like teaching the
same or teaching people the same things
over and over again and it was always
just like take extreme ownership take
accountability like sure I guess it was
out of your control but it could have
been in your control if you just thought
through it more if you just really cared
and that's what I was just trying to
convey in it and the other thing that
comes through in this but also all of
your work is just this idea something
that I've learned from you just from
speaking to on the phone yesterday that
nothing is impossible yeah exactly and
watching Beast games over the last
couple of weeks but also speaking to
some of your team there's clearly this
through line with everything that you do
of like extreme what it appears to me to
be extreme ambition MH and it doesn't
appear to be extreme ambition to you in
the same way that it appears to be
extreme ambition to me yeah I mean it's
just I mean is does physics allow it
then yes it's possible it just is it do
we want to put the time in I mean it's I
I feel like people over complicate a lot
of things um and something you've
trained over time or have you always
thought that I think I've just H it's a
good question I've never I don't know
why but when people tell me I can't do
something I and I don't know where this
came from it makes me just want to do it
more to be honest if you tell me I
shouldn't do something that's fine but
if you tell me I can't then I just
everything in my body just wants to go
[ __ ] you I obviously can I just I don't
know if I should but I can and then I I
don't know it's like the the the thing
is like to go viral you have to do
something that's never been done before
I've told this story before of like you
know if you're driving down the road and
you see a cow who cares it's a [ __ ]
cow but if you're driving down the road
and you see a purple cow you're like
you've never seen that before and it's
something you weren't expecting you're
going to go holy [ __ ] and you're going
to go tell your friends about it you're
going to remember that you'll probably
even think about it randomly once every
couple years why the [ __ ] was there a
purple cow and it's like it's the same
thing just one was a little purple and
like you can apply that same like uh
analogy to ideas like when you're
scrolling through social media to find a
video to watch there's things that you
know have been done before you've seen
it's you know roughly similar to stuff
before you're just going to scrore pass
it you'll never think about it again
just like you'll never think about a
[ __ ] cow on the side of the road and
then there are ideas that are like the
purple cow idea which is what I try to
do which are things that make you go
what the [ __ ] I've never seen that like
I I have to click this or I'm not going
to be able to sleep tonight because like
why is this video no way they did this
right but those typically are very hard
and usually to get that purple cow
effect they've never been done before
and something's never been done before
there's usually a reason because it's
very [ __ ] hard so you just kind of
have to train yourself to like not
resent very difficult complex hard
original problems and actually run
towards them because those are the ones
that you know tend to have more of the
Purple Cow effect where people have to
watch it and viewership is very
exponential it's way easier to get 50
million views on one video than it is to
get a million views on 50 videos right
and so um and because it like kind of
goes exponentially and it's like you
know pretty winter take all in the top
videos like you just really have to lean
into that purple cow effect if that
makes sense makes perfect sense if you
if you were to distill then say we were
coming up with a new how to succeed in
Mr BEAST's production handbook now what
would be the the the top five if I was
applying for a job with you what five
characteristics would I need to
demonstrate to be successful you got to
be very coachable because whatever I
teach you today is going to change you
know a year or two from now always
learning always improving coachable um a
big thing for me is you got to see the
value in working here like you really I
just I don't this isn't like a a job
this is a career like if you don't you
know realistically see a world where
you're working for me in 10 years then
um it's pretty hard for me to invest
into you at the level I want like I'm
not I don't like training someone for
six months they work here for a year and
then I lose them what I like is I train
someone for a year and then I get nine
years of dividends on the back end where
they Crush at their job and I'm
constantly paying them more because
they're becoming more valuable at time
like that is like the eighth wonder of
the world is investing heavily in an
employee and then they stick around for
a decade you know what I mean it's like
there are some of my top guys that I
spent three or four years in the
trenches with training and working with
you know they're like Tyler who writes a
lot of my videos and directs them I you
know probably talk to him five six hours
a day every day for four yeah around
four years and now because I can't spend
a you he spends 100% of his time writing
the videos directing the videos obsessed
over that whereas I could theoretically
Max spend five % of my time so he's
going to naturally just [ __ ] on me on it
because he can spend way more time on it
and it's like so you know I have full
faith in him but the dividends that I
get off of him after all those years of
pouring all that time and effort into
him and now he knows exactly how I think
what I value that I don't even really
have to communicate with them sometimes
I can just show up to film and like I
just trust that it's good you know and I
have a bunch of people across all my
businesses like that that it's like
great and if you know in a world where
Tyler's still working here 10 years from
now I mean the amount of value out of
someone like that is UN fathomable it is
quite literally the eighth wonder of the
world for a business and it's like
that's what I want but you only get
those kinds of people they see the value
for you know working for you and so they
have to like deeply believe like the
more valuable I become to this company
the more I'll be rewarded and they like
actually want to dedicate their life to
the business so that's very important
because if I really don't get that Vibe
then it's not fair to both of us because
I'm not going to invest in you like I
should because I don't think you're
going to be here in 10 years and then
you're going to feel that and it creates
so uh coachable uh sees the value you um
obviously obsessed I I don't I just
don't like working with mediocre people
I I mean I really just can't stand it
it's the fastest way to make me
depressed um is if I have to work with
someone who's just not Allin and just
loves what they do um it's just a lot of
you know stuff like that that I'm sure
if you listen to like a Steve Jobs
interview or something that he talks
about it's just the the typical traits
obsessed coachable Allin sees the value
and what is the single worst
traits mediocrity I mean it's it's just
like cuz they're not bad enough where
you fire them but not good the problem
is like I mean and you see it in full
effect great people just love working
with great people they do and there's
something about being around great
people that pulls some kind of animal
out of you that just makes you want to
do more and push more and believe things
aren't possible and I don't know when
you put me around a bunch of other
successful entrepreneurs I just turned
into a different human than if you put
me around I don't know a bunch of people
who are just running small businesses
and don't really care and don't really
have much ambition I'm like two
completely different humans and you see
that same thing in full effect you put a
bunch of a players around more a players
they just build off of each other but
you like put two or three C players
amongst a bunch of great people and
they'll start pulling them down they'll
start making them not want to work as
much and make work not as fun and so
everyone knows get rid of the C players
right obviously get rid of people who
aren't all in blah blah blah it's the
ones that are like they're not an a
player but they're not a c player so
it's kind of hard because you still feed
off the energy and if you get enough of
them it just drags the overall culture
down so those are like the worst um I
mean not everyone can be these like
world-ending Monsters you know there are
a lot of mundane things like you I mean
the book controller and accounting I
mean probably doesn't have to be the
best in the world but you know when it
comes to like the mission critical
things like making videos and things
like that like just the great people got
to be surrounded like that's one of your
number one jobs as Leaders just to make
sure your great people are working with
other great people because that's like
that's like the number one reason why
people leave jobs isn't money you know
what I mean it's that's like number four
on the list don't ask me to listen all I
don't remember I just know the number
one thing is do they enjoy who they're
working with and people will leave their
job because they hate working with
people way before they'll ever leave
because of money have you ever been
frustrated that the people you've hired
don't match your level of obsession no
because I just find the people that do
are there people that do oh yeah I've
there's so many people in my uh business
um I mean obviously you have to take
care of them pay them well like they're
they're not the kind of people that'll
just make the standard rate but um yeah
like people like kitner Russ and you
know even people on our editing team I
mean they're putting in most week same
hour same amount of hours as me and
they're all in see the vision it's like
it's hard to find those kinds of people
but um you know when you do you got to
treasure them and recognize that they're
unicorns and you have almost 500 roughly
500 people uh probably uh I think the
production company were around 300
feasts around 100 and then probably
another 40 50 scattered months
everything else most Founders that I
speak to describe scaling headcounts as
the the kind of worst past part of the
job more people more problems right yeah
that's uh that's an understandment yep
especially as someone like you who's a
creative at heart and who is very
focused and obsessed on I guess the show
and producing as you say often the I I
want to produce the best videos we
possibly can of course and then all this
other [ __ ] comes with it which is like
HR which every founder I speak to hates
I mean yeah I the the worst part is I
just have this very once in a um I just
very rare opportunity where I have so
much attention and so many people watch
my content and and I wish I had I just
wish I had more experience building
businesses you know I'm only 26 and this
is my first real business of every every
employee Milestone we hit it's my first
time hitting that right like when I hit
100 employes that was my first time
getting there and this that this was my
first time going from 100 to 200 200 300
and like with what I know now I could
have done it so much faster obviously
and it's just you know it's a little
brutal because like you like scaling
febles from you know 0 to 100 was way
easier than doing my production company
because I had been through the ringer
before and I learned a bunch and I get
better with time and I it's just the mo
honestly the most annoying part is just
ignorance right like because a lot of
things mistakes I make I look back and
I'm like oh yeah I probably should have
brought in people with more experience
working at a larger company earlier here
I waited a little too long here I
probably should and it's just like
brutal because if I had known these
things i' would be way further along but
I mean that's just how you learn just
got to make 10,000 mistakes every
founder says the same founder I've spoke
to says the same that unknown unknowns
exactly know it's just like so that's
where I mean my big thing recently has
just been trying to find people who have
successfully skilled businesses and like
bring them into my organization and
learn from them because I'm just so
tired of like being like [ __ ] I should
have known better but I didn't because
I've never done this before and so I'm
trying to find a lot of great people who
have been through it so they can like
kind of Mentor me along the way so I
make less mistakes which has been really
good um we brought in a new SE Suite
recently um I it's like always a hard
balance because I try not to in the past
I I have like you know decisions are
kind of like pendulums and I have a uh a
problem where I like I'll identify
something and I'll overcorrect the
pendulum one way and I'm like h no I
should have just stopped in the middle
and like my overcorrection in the past
was like corporate people try to build
too many systems and they kill
Innovation and so I was very anti likee
people with too much corporate
experience because they're going to just
destroy all the creativity but you know
that's why we're making so many
organizational fuckups because we don't
have anyone who's actually built the
business at this size and so you know
the pendulum was on the right and I
swung it all the way to the left of no
corporate and now I think we're in the
healthy medium where you know obviously
the people on our SE suite and the
leaders should have lots of experience
managing people at this size and skill
but it's just finding the right people
who can do it and build systems in a way
where it doesn't Crush creativity and
they actually value the product over
ease the D and my I'm on the a TV show
called Dragon de in the UK and um my
stuff is significantly smaller it's like
a percentage of your your viewership but
even I am slightly terrified with hiring
people because it's quite clear to me
that there's a huge incentive for anyone
that I work with to say that I did
something bad and in the early days of
my first business um what happens is the
journalists go to everyone that works
there yep and they ask them what was he
like you you have the same problem you
have the same conundrum where anyone has
an incentive that works for you when
they leave so many different incentives
to throw an arrow at you on the way out
the door how how do you contend with
this yeah I mean you hit it on the head
uh you know I have four or 500 people
right now but we've also worked with
thousands of people in the past and so I
think it's just what comes with it but
at the end of the day you know as long
as what we're doing is moral and ethical
like like you said they're going to
throw arrows but you know I I'm just a
problem solver it's like whenever I see
the metaphorical Arrow I just go you
know what's the problem and if we did
something wrong how do we fix it or if
it's not an actual problem it's just
rumors I mean it is what it is and so
yeah I think it just comes with part of
it um I mean it sucks and it's
unfortunate but you also to think like
most people don't like their jobs too
and so it's not like this is even
specific to our industry like you know
just go ask a 100 random Americans of of
all the jobs that worked in their life
how many did they deeply enjoy and do
would they have nothing negative to say
so I think it's just part of it you know
U it's almost like a Pastime for a lot
of people just to like trash talk their
old jobs or whatever um has any of that
stuff ever got to you any criticism
yeah I mean Al cism all the time does
but I mean the thing is independent of
that kind of stuff it's just like I mean
I
for we are averaging like 200 million
views a video like you know like uh most
of it unique viewers like we're talking
like two plus percent um sometimes 3% of
humans alive watch every piece of
content I put out you know depending on
how well the Channel's doing and so like
that means like you could I could upload
a video and then with uh 365 days days
later you could grab 33 random humans
anywhere on the planet especially
because we do doves you know what's even
crazier is there you know YouTube's not
in China so that's like two to three% of
humans alive excluding China um or
China's mixed in there but if you just
take people excluding China it' be more
like 3 to 4% um but you could just grab
33 random people on the planet and one
of them on average would have seen that
video because the views are so [ __ ]
high so yeah I mean there's a lot of
criticism that's thrown at me and the
thing is you since stuff so Global
sometimes you know transcends culture
and not everyone views everything and so
everyone has different opinions and
stuff like that which is why it will
drive you crazy at our scale if you try
to make people happy because even if 99%
of people are deeply happy which is an
insane hit rate like if you make a piece
of content 99% of people that watch it
love it that is wild which that kind of
stuff doesn't happen but in our case if
just 1% unhappy that's 2 million people
which is more than anyone else even gets
on video views on videos so which will
feel like an insurmountable amount of
criticism and feedback and it's very
easy to like trick your mind into
thinking damn everyone hates me because
you're just you know focus on the 1%
instead of the 99 so I just came to the
point where you know I just have to have
my own internal guidelines of like do I
think what I'm doing is good do what I
think you know is moral ethical do do I
believe in what I'm doing if so [ __ ] it
like I'm never going to be able to make
everyone happy so I and if you just you
let the whims of the internet kind of
decide what is okay and what's
acceptable and and when you're being bad
or good then you you you don't have a
spine you don't have a backbone you
stand for nothing and and it it will
just destroy you mentally um and so I
mean I don't know what age I was when I
kind of got in that mindset but I just
was like I'm going to decide and I'm not
going to let the internet decide you
know what is okay and what's not and
then ever since I got to that point you
know people criticize me for something
and I'm like I don't agree then I have
like it's easy for me to just go oh well
I don't agree not going to make everyone
happy I believe what I'm doing is right
and um just move on the brain isn't
isn't designed for for this though no
it's not this is what I've come to learn
so do the podcast it goes well I'm it
feels like at the start everyone loves
me yeah and then I get further down the
line and it feels like everyone [ __ ]
Hates Me y because they you get attacked
from you can never do anything right
especially I've probably read mes like
comments or tweets or I've probably in
my lifetime read over 5,000 messages or
comments or something telling me to kill
myself you know what I mean you know
just like and what would possess someone
to tell you to like leave a comment
where it's like [ __ ] kill yourself
you know what I mean so agreed like
you're we were not meant to receive this
kind of feedback from basically anyone
anywhere in the world you know what I
mean just all con you know consistently
day in and day out for for my in my case
now over a decade has it ever really got
to you oh yeah of course I mean it it
does all the time or it used to all the
time I like I said what does that mean
in reality if I'm a fly on a wall in one
of those moments where you can recall it
really getting to you I mean back in the
day but I wasn't as confident in my
ability to to be successful and you know
when you're probably 20 and you're
hiring all these people you're you know
I I have highrisk tolerance but I'm
reinvesting every dollar I make I I'm
you know I'm hiring my friends from
school I hired my mom like these people
I really care about are depending on me
and then you know I upload a video and
it does bad and then people you know I
pour all my time and effort into it but
you know maybe it doesn't come across as
well like the V and you know some people
might have interpreted as lazy and you
read a comment being like wow what a
[ __ ] lazy like I thought you made
great videos or this this video sucked
and and you read that and the video is
underperforming and you're like [ __ ]
maybe I am being too Reckless and you
know I mean there's definitely times
where I would cry you know just because
I would just be like [ __ ] am I like not
doing this right or like they don't
understand I put a lot of time into this
or or whatever why why you sometimes
you're like [ __ ] does the algorithm them
hate me am I being suppressed or
whatever back in the day um when was the
last time that happened that feeling
of um yeah Pro there was like a a month
probably last year where I I felt a
little bit of that just because um you
know just sometimes occasionally the
rumor and drama Mill gets mun up but you
just got to snap out of it and like I
said just go do I believe in what I'm
doing do I it's like it's hard because
you know anytime I do anything good it's
you know people are always like uh they
try to we're we're like condition in
America now when someone does something
good there's always some alterative
motive and I've I've always been
straightforward and just said a world
where I help people is just better than
a world where I don't like I don't try
to come up with this crazy like story of
of how you know someone helped me when I
was younger and now I I just want to
give back and cry I'm just like yeah I
can make viral videos and I think a
world where I do viral videos that help
people are better when I don't you know
just kind of that's my answer um but it
always does suck when people try to just
like I don't know the it's funny the
more good you do the more people think
you're secretly evil and it's like why
can't I just help people because it's
fun you know so occasionally those will
get to me and I'll just be like guys you
don't even know me like and like you
would think sometimes you'd read like
when I build wells in Africa or help
blind people see or things like that you
You' read some of these things online
you would think I'm Hitler I mean it's
crazy like how people portray it and I
just I don't know I wish people just
understand like in my opinion a world
where I help people is just more fun
than a world where I don't and it's
really not that deep the people around
you how does it impact them oh how does
the drama and that kind of stuff impact
them um to be honest in my case it it I
don't think it hits them that hard
because most things usually fall on me
and people want to go after me because
I'm the guy that does good the quotquot
philanthropist so usually I'm like the
one that gets thrown under the bus quite
a bit it's funny cuz I everyone that
knows you
knows you yeah whether they're really
successful people or people that you
work with that I've spoken to everybody
that knows you knows who you are and
it's it's remarkable to me that um
someone who has done so much good in the
world I've looked at your philanthropy I
know what you you're doing with Feasta
BS and the ethical sourcing of that when
I see someone that's done so much good
in the world still be misunderstood it
almost makes it almost makes me realize
that I should never fight it yeah I mean
the ironic part is the more I help
people the more [ __ ] I get to be honest
like it's it's so funny because you know
like the same day I'll uh drop a video
where I'll uh uh you know help a
thousand blind people see some other
YouTuber will drop a video where they
just bought a new mansion and it's like
everyone's like yes you know get that
Mansion good job and then they'll be
like [ __ ] you for curing blind people
Jimmy [ __ ] you you're using them and I'm
like no I just wanted to inspire people
to do good I mean you can buy a mansion
if you really want me to um so it is
funny I if you're trying this is a weird
sentence but if you're trying to be
liked I actually don't recommend you
like help people like I actually think
helping people will make the internet
like you less than if you just like buy
nice cars and do like the the typical
influencer path it's because they we
just so conditioned in America to see it
as like a shield and like no one
actually does good cuz they just find it
fun apparently um but I mean I don't
care I like I said it's just more fun
than if I didn't so I mean people can
[ __ ] on me for helping people I don't I
don't doesn't bother me anymore um but I
wouldn't recommend you get into it if
you want to be liked because I think
it's negatively correlated now
interesting it is so fascinating it is I
swear to God man
like people it's it's it's uh there I
could just uh I don't know do these like
uh $1 versus videos where I compare like
a $1 boat to a billion dollar boat and
all these other things not help people
and I would just get way less [ __ ] and
it's it's so funny cuz no one bats an
eye when I post that but when I give
hundreds of thousands of people in
Africa clean drinking water it's like
all hell breaks loose and I'm like guys
I'm just trying to bring attention to a
cause I don't really but the thing is
I'm just GNA keep doing it and I mean I
think in my case most people have
realized I'm not going to stop so
they're just kind of over you know
getting mad at me and they're just like
all right Jimmy's just being Jimmy I
think when the wind blows as well what
it does is it helps you to really
understand why you're doing what you're
doing and understand yourself mhm and so
when I've been attacked for like the
people I interview or whatever it might
be it's actually made me refocus on what
my principles are yeah because you have
to be really anchored to them it's like
I said you you have to know where your
line is and as long as you're on the
right side of your line then it is what
it is people on Twitter can say whatever
they want and I I think like that's the
only way to really survive at this scale
without going crazy is you you have to
determine where the line is not let the
internet
workaholism yes can can you give me a
window into the last seven days of your
life just give me paint me a picture oh
yes uh let me uh drink some water cuz my
flu well the I don't know about the last
seven days but in general we uh so we're
filming a video where we're doing the
I'm visiting the five most deadliest
places on Earth so one of the places was
a safari in South Africa so I flew to
South Africa um to spend time in a cage
surrounded by lions sick content it was
really good um which that was a [ __ ] to
get to and then I got the flu and so
spent a couple days in the hospital
there um and then we were going to go to
Snake Island to spend time there then
the W's deadliest Road and then we have
a couple other places but that got
postponed so instead got out of the
hospital went to Florida filmed with
Aaron judge then I went to or no went to
North Carolina we have this guy where I
built a gym and I told him if he loses
100 pounds before he leaves the gym it
has a big red circle around it I'll give
him a bunch of money so I filmed with
him then worked on the coming up videos
um that just a lot and then flew to
Florida filmed with Aaron judge flew
here just landed filmed with the reunion
that you were at with the contestants
for Beast games we're doing this podcast
what time is it like 1:00 a it's just
off to 1: a.m yeah 1: a the latest
podcast he's ever done lightweight I
always do my podcast at 1: a.m um my
last podcast before this was like 4 a.m.
um like like a couple weeks ago and then
uh we're flying to San FR to film with
Steph then we're Steph Curry yeah Steph
Curry then I think I'm going to Snake
Island then the deadliest Road um and
then I I won't I'll basically I don't
think I'll be home for another 16 days
so I'm just traveling around filming for
the next 16 days and then um yeah I
guess then I'll get home and then
they'll make me film at home how does
everything else in your life fit into
that in terms of like the gym I know
you've been working out a it's been
brutal it's gone to [ __ ] the last couple
months it's just it's really killing me
to be honest it's it was like so much
easier when you're bro if you don't
travel
constantly life is so easy when you just
wake up in your own bed and like waking
up in your own bed and working 15 hours
in you know your office or whatever so
easy compared to like all this [ __ ]
[ __ ] where I'm like I don't know the
time zone I'm in I don't know what place
I'm in I don't know where I'm going in
two days it's like like I mean some days
I'm going to bed at 10:00 a.m. other
days I'm going to bed at 5:00 p.m. and
it's like it's a mess it's really and I
I used to put up with it and and just
like and figure out how to do the
training but it's just I don't I don't I
don't know I need to truthfully whatever
is a priority you'll get done I just
need to make it a priority again because
I really do miss it it's just this the
hard part is putting putting Beast games
in the mix because I was already like
basically working you know whatever
every hour my eyes were away but then
Beast games is such a monster of a
project and I have to maintain the same
Youtube upload schedule and then I do a
lot on fetival now and then I have a
couple other businesses so I I just
honestly something had to to give and
sadly it was working out but it's
[ __ ] stupid so I need to like rep
prioritize my life where I can get I
mean it just only needs to be 45 minutes
5 days a week it does doesn't need to be
hard but the bigger problem is I'm just
not sleeping like I used to because we
got so much going on and so when I hit
it hard in the gym and then I don't get
enough sleep then that causes pretty
extreme fatigue the next day so it's
like I got to fix sleep first before
that but yeah it's uh got a lot going on
to be honest I'm dying how are you
feeling uh right now honestly fine I'm
jacked up on a lot of caffeine but I
mean just in in this Feast you know the
flu is not helping it's it's making
everything like 30% harder so you know
it's like life's like a roller coaster
there are going to be moments where like
right now I'm going to answer this
negatively but I don't want someone to
think that's indicative of like oh every
and every time you ask me this it's
going to be it but because of the flu
and the lack of sleep I mean I'm
struggling at the moment just a lot of
grinding um a little happy because we
just dropped the ending of Beast game so
it's like a little bit of emotional high
but after this I'm probably going to go
crashed be tired as [ __ ] in the morning
tomorrow which I hate um but yeah I
would say I'm on like the lower end I I
could use a couple good days to bring
the energy back up quick one I want to
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van.com for $1,000 off how do you think
about mental health I've heard you speak
about your mental health before and I've
yeah I don't well the thing is here's
the problem like it's uh if my mental
health was a party I wouldn't be as
successful as I am I mean and that's
just like a sad fact um like I obviously
never would have buried myself alive for
S days s days of solitary s days on a
deserted island 7 days blah blah blah um
it's it's like you know being
consistently uncomfortable and like cons
being able to consistently suffer over
long periods is like arguably one of the
deepest modes like there's a reason no
one makes videos like me like not even
close because no one wants to live the
life I live I mean there there are
months where I'm you know I think there
was one year I was flying like 200 days
like I was on a plane I mean it was it
was a [ __ ] fest but you know to get
these videos done and and I do
everything and it's like you know when I
when I wake up tomorrow and I'm going to
be pretty [ __ ] tired and feel like
[ __ ] I'm going to go you know I
something I always tell myself is how
you feel right now is why no one else
does what you want to do or does what
you do and if you push through this
that's just even you know more of a
reason why no one will ever be who you
are and so it's like I think being able
to push through unhappiness and do
things you don't want to do consistently
year after year over the course of a
decade is like the ultimate Advantage
like I mean I I think we'll hit a
billion subscribers and uh I don't think
anyone will be anywhere near close
because like once you make a couple
million dollars why would you live the
life I live like why why would you not
take weekends off why would you not just
film locally even if it means less views
so you can be on the right time schedule
why would you not you know prioritize
your sanity and that kind of stuff it
makes no sense but that's why no one
else does it you spoke to Colin inir two
guys that I met recently um great great
great guys um you said to them I'm
miserable a lot of times I have mental
breakdowns every other
week yeah I me those have gotten a
little better mental break down sounds
extreme it's more I'm like [ __ ] why am I
doing this this is so [ __ ] hard um
cuz it's just a lot man you're just
going constantly It's like because
what's funny is I think I said that
years ago but that was back when all I
was really was doing YouTube now I run
this chocolate company and we have the
show and we have a couple other stuff so
I think the the hardest part really is
gear shifting like and so I try to
bucket these things correct like if if
I'm on set you know and I have a 15-
Hour film day like ideally the thing I'm
doing in between filming or like related
to main Channel because I'm in the frame
of mind of that and that's one thing
that's really helped me not feel like my
head's going to explode like if I'm in
Chicago at the febles office and we're
going through febles marketing like and
then you come in and you go what do you
think about this bit for this coming up
main Channel video then I have to like
shift my frame of mind and like that
constant gear shifting I it like it'll
make my [ __ ] head hurt if I'm like
bouncing around too much I and it it
also just very not quarter I am I love
obsessing over certain things and I find
you know obsessing over things within a
business isn't like switching back and
forth between marketing and product and
a same business is pretty easy there's a
long way of saying like one thing that's
helped with that is like just really um
organizing my schedule and away where it
allows my natural state of mind to like
obsess over a certain business finish
that then move on to the next one
whereas before it used to be like 30
gear Swit shs a day and that that's just
miserable it's just not even fun to be
honest I had um Elon mus C I know
someone you you spoke about quite often
also someone that I speak about quite
often I heard him say when he was on Joe
Rogan that you wouldn't want to be in my
head and I think joean asked him if he
was happy or something and he doesn't
even like consider the question to be
important yeah so two questions there do
you think the average person would like
to be in your head and
secondly are you happy uh well no the
average person does not want to live the
life I live or be in my head they they
would be miserable because you're just
working all the time and they they would
probably just ask themselves why am I
working all the time why don't I why
don't I do literally anything else I
mean because there I mean obviously I'm
not a robot there are times where I'm
like [ __ ] I really want to play this
strategy board game I want to do this
thing and I'm I look at the schedule I'm
like oh maybe I could do that in four
days and you you know and the the hard
thing is it's you really have to like be
delicate with the framing of your mind
because it's very easy in moments like
that to go [ __ ] I'm like a zoo animal
like I don't I don't have free will I'm
like a little robot to my businesses and
like
um and so you have to like be very
careful and sometimes those emotions
take over and especially because I'm a
very defiant kind of guy and I'm like
but I really want to do this thing but I
can't because I got to go film this
video and I got to do this and I got to
speak at this conference and I got to do
this networking thing and blah blah and
so um yeah I think most people when that
feeling comes up of like am I just a
[ __ ] animal like do I have any free
will they would probably get very
depressed and but I've been able to like
work through those and and just I always
try to you know your brain you just it's
you just got to control your thoughts be
like well this is the life I chose this
is you want success you want to change
the world you want to do this and this
this is the price you have to pay you
should actually see this as a good thing
because this is why which is why I'm
very uh diligent about how I frame
things in my mind like this is why no
one else will do what you will do and
this is a good thing this is what you
are feeling right now is your Mo it's
you're lucky it's hard push through it
and you'll be happy you did you know and
so that's kind of how I try to
view it um but no I don't think most
people would be happy living my life
they would be like oh let's just grab a
couple million dollars and be happy are
you happy uh it depends what day you ask
me right now I'm having a good time um
other you know when I was had the flu in
Africa sitting in a cage of allance [ __ ]
no so what's your Baseline how would you
describe your Baseline probably uh this
year probably so far more unhappy than
happy and it's just they're just things
you got to do that just aren't fun you
know but I I think I I really deeply
enjoy working on feasts and I'm trying
to spend more of my time building it the
problem is it's just I uh it's just
opportunity cost because I'm the only
one who can be in front of the camera
and film and that's what's like brutal
especially with Beast games is I'm just
filming so much it added so much [ __ ] to
my yearly filming like doing this giant
show on top of already having the
largest YouTube channel the world I was
already filming some months 25 days a
month so I'm just like that's just the
rough part is because it's like it just
all rests my shoulders and if I don't
film there is no content like the
channel just literally ceases like if I
stop filming and so you know I I have
found more and more that I'm finding
more joy in entrepreneurial things and
building businesses and I I I do think
I'd be happier if I could spend more
time doing that but it's just like weird
because I could literally hire anyone in
the world to do that whereas I can't
hire anyone to replace me on camera I
always wonder someone who um is doing so
well on a platform like YouTube where
the algorithm is always changing MH so
many YouTubers I speak to say that they
get burnout eventually they get like
creative burnout and they and they just
like delete their Channel you've seen a
lot of it recently over the last couple
years where YouTubers hit 10 million and
they just stop yep has that ever crossed
your mind to stop oh of course I mean
all the time seriously yeah but I I mean
like I this I feel like that's what half
this podcast has been about about how I
don't want to do things but I push
through and do it I think they're just
reasonable humans like they you know a
lot of them were chasing a goal of like
oh I just want this money so I can take
care of this things you know it could be
Noble things like retire my mom or just
not have to worry about money and then
they go why would I suffer now I'm good
when was the closest you came to
quitting oh man probably countless times
I mean all when I was in solitary
confinement for seven days I mean that
was [ __ ] miserable I mean I did quit
a video well I've quit a lot of videos
like no I mean as a as a Creator um I
mean I guess I never truly would have
quit I mean my biggest thing would be I
just would have quit for like a week and
been like [ __ ] let me sleep nine hours a
night and like um but like I spent the
fir we we did a video where we spent
seven days on a desert island first time
we filmed it on day two I woke up on the
beach and I had literally I didn't know
sand fleas were a thing I had like 700
bug bites up and down my legs all over
my body I was sunburned I was like a
little bit of meal I was like damn am I
going to die like this is crazy how much
like bug bites are everywhere and my
skin was so red and I was I couldn't see
straight and so I ended up quitting on
day two um which is brutal cuz you spend
all this time and money and you have the
crew out there and you flew out there
and you know it's it's opportunity cost
it's like that's a 7-Day window we could
have got a video and uploaded it and now
we don't like it's you know canceling
video like that is literally the worst
thing that could happen from an
opportunity cost perspective and that
was like you know and you have moments
like those and it's like [ __ ] like this
isn't even fun [ __ ] this [ __ ] you know
but but what about YouTube as a whole
because I feel like YouTube is like
throwing coal into a train then you just
have to keep throwing it in there once
you started you just can never stop
throwing it no you're running on a
treadmill CR up to the max especially if
you want to be a top tier creater like
me and it's just like who who can stay
on the treadmill the longest cuz it
never slows down if anything you're
making it faster um but no I mean I
don't think there's ever unironically a
time where I actually would have quit it
just breaks probably would have been
nice and when you think forward that
treadmill can you see yourself doing it
for the next two three four decades or
oh yeah of course I don't have any
intention of ever stopping okay um love
something that came into my life a
couple of years ago y you announced I
think over Christmas time that you had
proposed I think it was like Boxing Day
or New Year's Eve yeah it was on
Christmas day oh Christmas Day because
her family was in town so I proposed
okay how does that fit into this
craziness she's literally I you could
probably count on your hands the amount
of uh people on the planet that actually
would make a good partner for me and
she's just she's just one of them she
really understands that work is what you
know is what I live for what keeps me
going and she supports me and she
understands how important it is and it's
the big thing is hanging out with Tia my
fiance is is so frictionless we play the
same video games we watch the same shows
we're very interested in the same things
she loves learning like I do so um you
know it's exciting to see what you know
um lecture she listened to online that
day or like whatever weird book she's
reading and she just like everything
about being around her is very
frictionless which is great because like
obvious I don't have much time at the
house and so like the last thing that I
need is to come home from work and there
be friction and so we don't we don't
fight it's I you know I sometimes I'm
like wow this is like my best friend
this and she's hot this is great you
know um and so it's like it it feels
weird sometimes
people I mean anyone in a listening now
that's in a relationship I guess the
question they'd be thinking is like when
do you spend time together mostly at
nights um and the that but the beauty is
she gears her schedule around mine so
like she she'll work when um I'm working
and then she'll just travel with me and
so honestly a lot of it is on planes a
lot of it's in car rides or you know an
hour before bed or in the morning that
kind of stuff but it's like because
there are pockets of breaks on set and
things like that so it's just you know
having it's it's really hard to find
someone who is intelligent actually has
their own Hobbies things going for them
independent that's also willing to mold
their life around mine and not see it as
a demeaning thing because like yeah if
she was just like well I have this thing
going on and I have to prioritize my
life I would never see her but because
she's willing to you know mold her life
around mine uh and my work schedule that
that you know is that's everything um
and it's rare that someone's willing to
do that while you know being as in my
opinion at least from what I've seen as
intelligent and independent as she is
parents always message me and say Steve
wait till you have kids oh yeah that's
and that's the thing like my lifestyle
right now is would not work for kids so
I want to wait want kids but I want to
wait as long as possible because if I'm
going to have kids I got to be a great
dad like I really I really really enjoy
mentoring people I love mentoring you
know younger entrepreneurs and like help
like I've told this I think I told the
story on Joe Rogan I helped one of my
friends go from like 40K a month and
revenue to 400k on YouTube and I do kind
of stuff like that all the time I just
like one of my other friends has a um
snack cpg brand and I helped them grow
to eight figures in Revenue just for fun
I would just call them a couple times a
month and it's like there's something so
satisfying about helping other people
succeed and so I would love to have a
couple kids and just like really Mentor
them into like you know being badasses
but yeah not anytime soon like I would
be so absent if we had kids so just got
to like find that right time in the VIN
diagram where I could actually be
present in their life and your business
Empire I think is much bigger than most
people realize I imagine the majority of
people probably don't really understand
the context of business so they don't
really get it they might see you as a
YouTuber or a Creator but from the
research that I've done you run
a very very large business yeah I mean
we'll we do nine figures and feals I
mean we can say that yeah nine figures
and feable
so the business must be worth several
billions of dollars uh overall I mean
you could do do something like that yeah
I'm not going to get you to to try and
Hazard a guess I'm sure you know but I'm
not going to get ask you to predict that
but
but the business would be worth a lot of
money are you a billionaire uh on paper
yeah but I mean in my actual bank
account I've BL a million dollars so do
you pay yourself at all a little bit but
I also like I have some assistance and
things like that so it's like I try to
just pay myself what I spend you know
personally a month just to like stay
even how how do you how do you think
about money and all of this because most
most people in their lives are pursuing
money so that they can chill out and
retire but you seem to be pursuing it
purely for the sake of reinvesting it
back into the system money is fuel to
grow a business and then you make money
from the business and then keep growing
yeah and then you you find a business
that you enjoy that you know is better
for mother nature earth or people and
there you go you have a fulfilled life
that's my theory I just don't when I'm
70 I don't want to look back and have
regrets you know when is enough enough
such a cliche question that I'm asked
enough enough like building the business
never I mean I just want to keep like
building a business is like a video game
it's it's just fun you know like with
fbl right now um you know we're the
largest ethically soured chocolate
company in America and like it's just
fun to like look at something that's
been done the same way for 100 years and
go how do we just flip this on a Ted and
[ __ ] up this industry and you know how
can we pay our Farmers a living income
you know not use child labor etc etc and
so it's like you know I think if I was
just doing mundane things like everyone
else probably I probably would be bored
as [ __ ] if I would just sold chocolate
like everyone else made the same
repetitive YouTube videos like everyone
else I probably would be like all right
get me out of this I want to retire but
it's not what we're doing like we're
changing Industries we're impacting the
world like this this is the point of
life in my opinion you could do so much
with the gazillion people that list
listen and watch your videos you could
like start almost any business and it be
successful you could have almost any
social impact and it be profound and
save a gazillion people's lives do you
do you struggle with Focus
uh no I mean I do wonder you know
sometimes should we be doing more but I
I've really found a good Groove with
febles I'm very I keep looking over
there because there feasable sitting
over
there um I do feel like uh I've hit a
good Groove with that um and the ethical
sourcing on it and the no I mean yeah
obviously I get a bajillion
opportunities but just you know right
now this like I I think I said earlier
this is one of the few things in life
that i' I've it's scratched the same
itch as YouTube where building febles is
equally as fun as making videos for me
it is so delicious thank you they're so
delicious I'd really love to just spend
a moment talking about the ethical
sourcing piece because I don't think
that's something I didn't understand
until I did some research on you yeah
um why why does that matter so much and
what when you say ethical sourcing
what's the difference between what you
do and what normal chocolate big
chocolate in America uh well the big
thing is when I got into chocolate I
didn't I didn't know any of these things
um we we used to Source our Coco from
Peru cacao um which you know ethical
sourcing is not really an issue there
but the problem is majority of the
Wolves Coco comes from West Africa and
so as we got bigger you know everyone's
like hey you need to switch your supply
chain to West Africa I'm like cool um
and so then I started studying and
reading up about it and I um and I
noticed that 46% of Labor in West Africa
on Cocoa Farms is child labor and I was
like that's not that can't be accurate
and then I started digging deeper and
deeper and I was like holy [ __ ] it's
just almost half a labor is child labor
and so I started talking to all the big
chocolate companies or not all of them
but as many as I could get a hold of and
I was like so what what do you guys do
about this whole child labor thing and
they they constantly just telling me
like it just is what it is that's how
chocolate always has been I was like
whoa you guys make like a billion
dollars a year in profit you don't you
don't see an issue with that being on
the back of little kids and they're like
no you and then I you know I I have this
crazy clip on I have a documentary guy I
think you saw him Jeff who follows me
around crazy clip where I'm meeting with
like a
big um I got to be as vague as possible
cuz they're going to murder me got time
back to them but like a big supplier
we'll just leave it big like that and I
asked them I was like so do you have any
way I can pay extra to not use child
labor or anything like that or any
options and they were just like no and I
was and I my literal documentary guy is
just like filming and I'm in like this
big boardroom and I look at the camera
I'm like holy [ __ ] they just said that
on camera and uh and so I did all this
research and it was just like yeah no
and especially in America like there
there's some European chocolate brands
that you know try but uh in America like
really no one really cared I mean
there's plenty of options and plenty of
time to fix it plenty of money to fix it
so that just kind of honestly pissed me
off and like that so then I just was
like how do we solve this and so then it
sent me down the rabbit hole the
everything points back to like you know
to the reason chocolate and America is
so cheap is because they just don't you
know not the reason one of the reasons
they just pay the farmer so little like
Farmers make less than a dollar a day um
so like because of that they're forced
to use child labor because I mean they
literally just don't even have money to
pay someone who's not a child how many
kids do you think are in child labor in
West Africa just on Coco farms uh you
might have so in that 5,000 no it's 1.5
million you're joking yeah it's over a
million it's crazy so what we need to do
is we need to in my head get to a
billion dollars a year in Revenue as
fast as possible while being ethically
sourced and being profitable big part of
it is we have to be profitable while
doing it because then I can point and go
look we achieve scale ethically and
we're making money it's not that you
can't do it you just don't want to and
then um and maybe maybe we give them the
benefit of a doubt maybe they just truly
don't know how to do it at scale and
maybe it'll open their eyes and they'll
be like oh I guess it is possible and
they'll start to change the ways more
than likely they won't and I but over
time I hope we can just shine a light on
it using my platform and you know um
just show the model works and then I
don't know something I would love to do
in the long run is like you know how
there's like the fair trade logo maybe I
make my own version of it and I help
other chocolate companies Source their
uh cacao ethically and uh or something
and you know and I just educate people
on like if it doesn't have the symbol
it's probably using child labor and
something I there's some way where I
could play my cards over the next 10
years where we get over a million kids
out of child labor uh on Coco farms and
so I just got to connect the dots and
figure out the correct way to do it this
might sound like a Prett obvious
question but it's it won't be to
everybody why' you care so much bro I
just like I've been on these Farms I
don't want to get rich on the back of
little kids I mean it's just kind
of I I feel like it's kind of obvious
you know I maybe to other people on
chocolate don't care but I the first
thing when I heard about it I was like
why why is this a thing it reminds me of
somewhat of again of Elon Musk and what
his mission was with Tesla he kind of
knew that if he was able to prove that
you can have fast um nice electric cars
then the rest of the industry could give
up their excuses that it's not possible
exactly um what if someone comes along
though and they say Okay Jimmy we'll
give you five billion for feast hell no
I ain't selling that [ __ ] you're never
selling it no because the first thing
they would do to up the margins is they
just dropped ethical sourcing
you have people come along and offered
to buy your YouTube channel uh I mean
yeah I've been offered a billion dollars
here or crazy amounts of money there but
I mean it's you know what's funny is
Zuck got that famous billion dollar
offer for Facebook and he said what was
it he was like why would I sell the
social media platform I would just take
the money and start a new one and I kind
of like the one I have so why don't I
just keep it and I I every time I get
which I haven't in a while but you know
back in the day I used to like jokingly
poke around just to see what people
would offer me um and I would get those
offers and then I would always just be
like yeah I I would just do the same
thing I'm doing now so I might as well
just keep doing what I'm doing now you
know the money won't really change
anything well done and I don't think you
you've yet to get the credit you deserve
for the the lengths you've gone to with
febles no but I think it's really
important I know you're not doing it for
credit at all I know that you're doing
it to get the message out there so that
the industry changes but I think someone
like you with a platform that you have
that's able to produce chocolate that is
[ __ ] delicious they sent me a box of
it about six months ago and
I I hate so much the [ __ ] I'm
thinking of updating yeah I mean if you
hand them to me like hand me a couple
bars the there's uh a lot of stuff that
uh the problem is like if you look at
this and this you know from a distance
you can't tell really the difference
between the flavors like this is dark
sea salt this is just dark chocolate so
uh I'm about to update the wrappers
where we're going to put like colored
tips here so you can tell the flavors
from far away uh I think that's very
important um another thing too that uh I
there's just
a uh you made a mistake you put these in
front of me now I'm the other thing I W
to um I want to I was I've been
experimenting and the newer renders are
looking good with putting like right
here every bite helps uh get kids out of
child labor putting that on the front
and then I I'm you know we're messing
around with different Machinery I feel
like the images of the chocolate on the
front could be a little higher quality
the back is pretty ass um I want to you
know put some more messaging on the back
of it there's a lot that needs to be
like the white tips here it just makes
it so obvious from far away what this
flavor is whereas all these blend in and
so yeah brutal got to fix it you you
talked about your friends calling you
and asking you for business advice and
you helping them Drive their businesses
up but just watching you there pick
apart your own business made me think
that there's a lot of entrepreneurs that
watch our show that are early in their
own businesses and many of them will be
you're going to fail you're going to
fail a ton I mean when I first started
chocolate I mean it was it was hilarious
how bad I [ __ ] up our original Bars
were like very thin there's a reason why
like chocolate bars have these like
break points here where they like break
easily I didn't know that um and so mine
was just one solid sheet of chocolate
but that's almost like a piece of glass
whereas if you drop it it just shatters
into like a bunch of little pieces and
um and I also didn't know that there's a
thing called a a package engineer and
can you hand me a box of febles uh my
original chocolate box when you pop
these open and put it on a shelf there
this obviously the problem's fixed but
if if this was sitting on a shelf when
you grab this one these would all slide
forward and then they would fall out of
the box and or the box would fall off
the shelf because of the weight because
there wasn't right balance at the bottom
and the lips here this this didn't used
to be a thing so these were open and
there was just a bottom lip here and so
they would fall out like that um and
then the bars because we didn't have the
natural break points would shatter like
glass who noticed that um well me and
the thing is I I this a old team in
feasts I would tell them like there's
too many broken bars when I go into
Walmart I'm seeing too many that are
broken they told me like ah you're
worrying about this too much it's not
that big of an issue it happens to
everyone and I got to the point where it
was just [ __ ] pissing me off because
I hated like grabbing a bar off the
ground or seeing on the Shelf all these
like shattered chocolate bars that I I
put like uh I paid people to put GoPros
in like a a like a bag of lace ships
pointed at because I couldn't get I
tried to get Walmarts to give me the
security camera footage and they
wouldn't so I put hidden GoPros and a
bunch of random Walmarts just to pointed
at the feastival bars just to see why
are they [ __ ] breaking so much
there's so many shots of like you know
like a mom grabbing a bar and then she'd
be looking at it literally like this and
then you just see the Box just go and
she' go and they' just fall off the
shelf and then they just put it up and
you you know some of the bars would be
broken and it would just happen over and
over and over again because we didn't
engineer the boxes correctly they didn't
do anything wrong do you know how a
typical that is what you've just said
that you put GoPros yeah people told me
I was crazy the amount of people who
tried to tell me that was illegal I was
like bro I don't [ __ ] care I just
need know why my bars are breaking like
I'll delete the footage um and so I that
and uh you know I did a bunch of just
data and I actually I saw there's a
company called aosta where you can pay
people to go into Walmart so then I I
started paying where every week I would
send someone into every single Walmart
in America to buy all the broken bars
fix up the boxes it's pretty expensive I
think um you know it's like $100,000
just to send someone into every single
Walmart to clean them up $28 a pop times
5,000 um uh Walmarts and um yeah so I
was sending people into Walmart to clean
up the broken bars and that but I was
paying so much money it was $100,000 a
week just to send people in and then I
was buying all these broken bars because
I just really didn't want people to go
into Walmart and to buy a broken Feast
bar like that is literally the worst you
know consumer experience you can have um
and yeah and then I learned what a
package engineer is and I was like holy
[ __ ] this is your full-time job to make
it where my boxes don't [ __ ] fall
over where have you been but on the
point that I was saying your obsession
with the D of a product is it's
completely atypical and if I was to
compare this to a normal YouTuber and
their e-commerce brand oh they wouldn't
give a [ __ ] yeah I was I probably spent
thousands of hours obsessing over this
product I mean I know it doesn't feel
like it because it's just chocolate but
yeah I mean it's it's a problem from the
ethical sourcing to every little thing
about it like I don't I don't do
anything half has and didn't you drive
to a ton of Walmarts don't you oh all
the time that's what I do every day oh
[ __ ] we should go hit to Walmart we
didn't even go ah he's got a plan he's
got to catch yeah it's my favorite thing
to do is like sometimes I'll spend all
night in Walmart just uh scanning
products and looking at the daily
velocities and sales it's it's like uh I
had a layover in DC I live in North
Carolina then I was like wait a minute I
could just rent a car and hit like 30
Walmarts on the way home and just drive
home and so then I drove home from DC to
North Carolina and visited every Walmart
on the east coast in like the middle of
America just to like go look at the
chocolate aisle and see all the
statistics and things like that I asked
you earlier on if you struggled [ __ ] I
wish we could go visit a Walmart you
know how fun that would be it's like I
would love to educate you on the chocol
are Walmart still open now oh no they're
not okay we can do it another time I
usually what I do is I just bang on the
door and they let me in of course yeah
but what you just said there I'm I feel
like I'm getting at something here
because
99.99999% of entrepreneurs that I know
that just have one thing to do just to
run their business don't give that many
[ __ ] about the detail and you have like
a zillion things to do an Amazon show
which is like the highest future of
whatever of all time or whatever and you
have this massive Channel you have your
philanthropy you have all of this stuff
going 100 million followers on Tik Tok
gazillion followers here a gazillion
followers the numbers are just
unfathomable and you're still driving to
31 Walmarts to check if your chocolate
is breaking yeah well and I go in the
back when I'm there if it's not on the
shelf and I'll go scan it in and help
the employees and and is that is that
the difference well you just got to know
everything going on it's I mean it's
just first principles every if like like
I I hate when someone in my business is
like tells me something that I don't
agree with but I'm too ignorant to be
able to challenge them because then it's
like well who am I to you know I guess I
got to just take them on the word but
most people tend to pick the easiest
route or conform to the status quo and I
want to if I want to lead real
Innovation and like change the industry
then I got to know every little facet of
everything and so I mean at the end of
the day you know the Shelf is where
people buy it so I got to intricately
know everything going on at the touch
point of the consumer and you know how
it gets there how it's being stored at
the D distribution centers and then the
retailer and then on the shelf and what
what does it look like what's the
experience and everything because all
these little things add up do you not
feel like you spend your whole life
fighting people to raise their standards
to your standards because you don't
exist in a world of Mr beasts well that
that's the thing I used to think which I
I've said a couple times it was just
content but I realized it's just
everything I do like I just want to be
the best at it and that's it's weird man
because you just look at this choca bar
and you wouldn't you'd be like who the
[ __ ] cares but that's the thing it's
it's what I've really enjoyed the last
two years is I've gone as in depth on
this as I have YouTube and it's been
every bit as fun I mean it's very very
[ __ ] difficult and and hard
especially the ethical sourcing and like
I recently spent a week in West Africa
and I I went from the bean all the way
to the bar and like you worked on the
farm and follow the entire QC Supply
Chain and everything and it's not it's
like it's equally as hard as my YouTube
channel but it's also equally as fun and
I that was just that was a big eye
opener for me because I never thought I
would enjoy something as much as uh my
YouTube channel and that's what I was
saying earlier I've come to realize I
deeply enjoy building businesses and
solving hard complex problems even
though I know this is just chocolate but
I get the complex thing from the ethical
sourcing side just on a daily basis like
that that's fun with beast beast games
with this with all the other things
going on um your main Channel which is I
guess you probably still see as your
baby to some degree it's like the
Mothership right because it's the source
of it it's what allows us to do
everything like most people buying this
aren't buying it because of Beast games
do you ever get paranoia when the views
go down they haven't gone down yet
they've gone up every year for 14 years
but do you still get that that do you
still watch the video go live and look
at the back end no you don't no I mean
because it's like we uh I don't know I
just upload a video and then the next
day I look at the retention and the CTR
and if we [ __ ] up I just you know well
what we do is we call them after action
reports so I get all the smartest people
in my company like like uh we like we
actually just did one I wish I had my
had it on me but like we'll we I have I
pay this guy to just do a very in-depth
breakdown of like here's the retention
chart here's every time someone clicked
away here's where was the flattest
here's where was the worst you know
we'll take like so if I upload a video
that's 20 minutes we'll take our last 10
20 minute videos and we'll go you know
uh the median retention on the last 10
20 minute videos was 10 minutes and 6 or
55 seconds is the median so if the
retention on this new video is 11
minutes or above we did a good job if
it's below that then we did below
average and blah blah blah and and he
just does like a a giant like
presentation and so usually two weeks
after we upload we'll we'll look at that
with all my top people and then we'll
just be like what' we [ __ ] up what we do
well cool move
on and has there ever been a moment in
real recent times where you go I think I
need to spend more time on it again and
get back in there and because all the
time you know but a lot of that stems
from insecurity I mean cuz the thing is
of course we we had a video recently
every minute someone is eliminated it
didn't performed the best um you know
and their like our intro was a little
repetitive it was a little dark it um it
we had we brought back like losers from
Beast games to compete in a main Channel
video but the problem is some people
thought it was Beast games they like oh
I've already seen this there was just a
lot of rookie mistakes there and it's
very easy for me to like you know get
insecure and and like be like [ __ ] this
is why I need to be in the weeds but the
end of the day it's like it's not like
when I was calling all the shots I was
perfect either so as long as it's like
as long as when people make mistakes
they learn from them I have a say like
that I tell people all the time like
like whenever our new creatives [ __ ] up
I I'll look at Tyler I go Tyler's
literally cost me tens of millions of
dollars in bad decisions like this isn't
going to be the first time you [ __ ] us
out of a million dollars as long as you
learn from it it's fine um and so as
long as like that's where these after
action reports are are important because
as long as we when we mess up we
articulate why and it doesn't happen
again then it's just part of it but yeah
I mean if the same thing was happening
over and over and over again that'd be
like [ __ ] I need to get step in but my
my guys are just good like they don't
make the same mistake twice tell me
about experimentation and testing cuz
people look to you as the the real king
of like testing and experimentation how
Central is this to the success of
everything that you do very much and
that's the thing like that every minute
video like it flopped you know and that
was your your highest chance of flopping
is when you do something new like really
really new uh one of our bigger flops
before that too is we did this video
where it was like 10 minutes this room
will explode we built this giant Tower
had a guy start at the top he had to
make it it was a real- time shoot down
press a button yeah it was just didn't
perform that well people didn't really
like it um is kind of complicated blah
blah and it's like you have to be
careful because you know um I want I
want a culture where people feel
comfortable experimenting and trying and
feel fine failing and so you know when
that video failed or when you know that
every minute this someone's eliminated
like you know I don't go and yell at
people or call them idiots or anything
like that I just I'm like what did we do
wrong all right here's all the facts
just make sure it doesn't happen again
not going to be the first time you cost
me a bunch of money it's all good you
know I see this as investing in you guys
and let's just learn from it I was gonna
say because um or else if if there was a
culture of that then people would just
make the same videos again and a lot of
YouTubers just ch out the same format
I'm okay with my people failing I'm okay
with the video being 10 out of 10 like
as long as we actually took an honest
good um try at it you know and and as
long as we failed because we made the
wrong shot call not because we were lazy
not because we didn't put the effort in
ETC as long as if as long as it's just
like we made an educated decision to
test something or try something and it
just didn't work I'm cool with that we
can do that all day and like they know
that and i' I don't yell at people um
you know or get mad at them when they um
accidentally mess up like that I've
invested more than a million pounds into
this company Perfect Ted and they're
also a sponsor of this podcast I
switched over to using matcher as my
dominant energy source and that's where
perfect Ted comes in they have the match
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focused throughout a very very long
recording day no matter what's going on
and their team is obsessed with quality
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Heine and those of you in the US you can
get it on Amazon as you guys know whoop
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company that I have invested in and it's
one that you guys asked me about a lot
the biggest question I get asked is why
use whoop over other wearable technology
options and there is a bunch of reasons
but I think it really comes down down to
the most overlooked yet crucial feature
it's noninvasive nature when everything
in life seems to be competing for my
attention I turn to whoop because it
doesn't have a screen and will armed the
CEO who came on this podcast told me the
reason that there's no screen because
screens equal distraction so when I'm in
meetings or I'm at the gym my whoop
doesn't demand my attention it's there
in the background constantly pulling
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woop.com
CEO let me know how you get on you've
just concluded today the biggest
competition show I think of all time
well it is of all time but I think
you've got 50 gu you know largest sets
in history most World Records in history
largest cash prize in history most
winners in history most contestants in
history most camera yeah and what 50
Guinness World Records yeah that we know
of there's probably way more but yeah
you said something on stage which I
found quite interesting you said I kind
of feel a bit sad yeah I know because
every Thursday I got to look forward to
like seeing the internet's reaction to
Beast games and now I'm gonna wake up
next Thursday and I don't I don't get to
see what people think it's over they
they describe um this in the Olympics as
gold medal depression really yeah they
say I think it's I might butcher these
numbers but 70% of people after the
Olympics even if they won a gold medal
mhm experience depression afterwards
because they they' lost their North Star
that was giving them meaning in yeah no
I mean I'm not I I mean I I guess I'm
playfully sad but I don't it's fine we
just I got I have so much [ __ ] going on
I don't even really get to think about
that kind of stuff and you're on to the
next one uh yeah so we'll well Amazon
let's get season two in the books
already come on let's sign a contract
can't really talk about it is the most
me and Jack were talking about earlier
on it is the most incredible thing that
I think I've seen on TV and I just think
I just I think I said you on the phone
the other day
I watch it knowing that unless you do
another one I will never see something
on this magnitude and scale no one wants
to do something like I mean because it's
[ __ ] hard man and those sets and the
the thing is the reason why a lot of
reality TV doesn't feel that way uh and
we could have obviously done much better
storytelling and we will when we do
future iterations but the the at its
Crux like what people don't see is like
to have a thousand cameras recording the
amount of infrastruct like we broke a
world record for most camera cables ran
like the like the most miles of camera
cables and
like and the millions of dollars we had
to spend on storage and millions of
dollars on the control room and the
millions upon millions of dollars of
Hardware to edit it and like having to
bring in Adobe to custom change the
Adobe software where you could actually
have that many multi cams it's like it
is the the actual infrastructure to
actually be able to do that is
incredibly incredibly difficult and um
that's why usually what they'll do is
they'll be like all right here's a 1H
hour like if you're filming a reality
show here's a 1 hour window you know
they'll send out story producers they'll
put a camera on you they'll be like yo
can you say this line you're kind of our
villain this is what we're looking for
they'll kind of tell you what to say and
then they'll write the notes down and
they'll catalog it for the editors
whereas we're just like [ __ ] it we're
going to be filming you know 24/7 all
these cameras you guys be yourselves
we'll just capture it because you don't
know when someone's going to do
something weird you don't know when
someone's going to whisper to someone in
form an alliance you don't know so you
literally have to just be rolling and
you need these to be acceptable angles
so you need multiple an a cam and a b
Cam and all this which creates a
Monumental fuckload of footage but
that's what allowed us that was I mean
of amongst many things that's one of the
biggest uh competitive advantages we had
when filming Beast games is we put in
the effort to to set up all this
infrastructure we could actually capture
it and just tell the story how it is
instead of having to use story producers
to put words in people's mouths but it's
a [ __ ] nightmare man like I had over
150 people editing that I mean we're
coming through unfathomable amounts of
footage and and everything and I mean
even things from like the uh computer
network and our local it constantly
crashing because there's just so much
footage there and like if I were to send
all the Beast games footage to just one
editor it would probably be like
$300,000 in hard drives and you know and
if you have 150 editors it's just
impossible so we you spend millions of
dollars and you build a central uh
server room and so we have our own
server acts and everything and then you
have them remote in there but even then
just due to the sheer volume of footage
Adobe and everything was constantly
crashing and it's like it was it was a
nightmare on the back end but it's great
because that's why we were able to tell
what actually happened why it feels
different because we were recording
non-stop 247 I was wondering as I was
watching it if Amazon are aware of the
the fact that you're just going to give
away the money like this like when you
like flip the queen and it adds another
$5 million that didn't affect them I
lost a ton of money filming the show so
that that came out of my pocket because
really yeah we were we spent way too
much money on it I lost tens of millions
of dollars on that show really yeah I'm
an idiot because the lines came out it
was like Amazon give Mr Beast 100
million to do yeah show so I'm thinking
okay I'm doing the math I'm thinking
okay so he spent 20 odd million on the
prizes MH yeah we gave away so there
must be 80 million left or something I
mean so episode one we spent over $15
million on those Towers building them
all like that was the most towers ever
built the most hydraulic press or
whatever used I mean that that set was
[ __ ] crazy man we had to build a
th000 towers that were 10 ft tall safety
test them all put like get it where they
actually work we had to literally
hardwire them all and build like our own
software where we could drop people we
had to put up all the screens I mean
that was that that was that's like
arguably one of the largest sets ever
built in history that was just episode
one and that's just like the
construction of the set That's not
including like you said we we gave away
over $20 million I think over two
million was in episode one and then
episode two we have the city which that
was a 14 million dollar set build and
that was um huge I mean because that was
a real City that they were living in you
know um and then I could yeah go but
just between the 20 whatever two million
we gave away plus those two sets I mean
already right there you're probably
you're at over $50 million how much did
the whole thing cost that I have been
advised not to say because because
people will hear big number and be like
oh well I could have made a good show if
I had that kind of money but the thing
is they couldn't because it's if money
isn't everything like building and
managing it is is you know infinitely
harder but is it more than 100 million
yeah of course yeah of course I mean
well I just told you how we spent 50
million and that we're only two episodes
in so how out of pocket are you tens of
millions yeah it was not a good
financial decision to make Beast games I
lost money I would have more money if I
didn't film it any regrets no no it's
great I mean for for me I was it was
about making season one as good as
possible you know I can't let the
YouTube Community down because that you
know creators don't have a good rep when
it comes to doing stuff on streaming
platforms and you know I'm getting 200
million views of video on average over
the course of the first year and I'm
going to talk to these stream platforms
and they're like H we've been burned by
creators before I'm like bro I'm not a
Tik tocker that dances I have a
production company and I routinely make
spectacles and even me these streaming
platforms they weren't taking serious so
I was like [ __ ] like if I fail it's over
like no one's ever no streaming platform
is ever going to touch a YouTuber ever
again so my big thing was just making
sure this crushed and you know now the
doors are opening up I mean I'm getting
calls from creators left and right and
they're like Oho yeah streaming
platforms they wouldn't talk to me
before now they're coming like I would
tried to get a meeting with them and
they were like no now they're like
begging to like have meetings with them
and I already know of two creators that
have signed deals um just on the backend
success of Beast games and probably I
mean hundreds of hundreds of millions of
dollars is going to flow into Creator's
Pockets just because of Beast games in
the next year well the UN Rotten
Tomatoes which is not an easy an easy
critic to no you you got it was like 90%
approval from fans which is pretty
unheard of in Rotten Tomatoes I know um
but also I hear through the the grape
vine that
it is on track to become one of Amazon's
biggest shows of all time yeah see the
problem is I have to wait for them to do
a press release so okay yeah well I'm
I'm just
talking I got you I told him I'd be a
good boy and not leak things so but for
a a YouTuber quote unquote YouTuber yeah
well they did release it it was their
number one unscripted show of all time
and then yeah I mean the it's I I don't
think they'd mind me saying it's very
the show's very Evergreen like usually
these shows get a lot of attention then
kind of like Teeter off but ours is like
like over 700,000 new unique viewers are
watching it every single day like which
is pretty crazy because if we maintain
that like yeah it's going to shatter
some pretty crazy records and what's the
upside for you to continue promoting it
now that it's done because I put all
this effort in I want people to see it
yeah I don't get paid to like all the
promotion I'm doing now I'm not getting
paid for really but I mean but I mean I
guess the upside would be the better
season one does you know the more money
I get for season two three four five Etc
if I sit here with you in 10 years time
Jimmy yep oh Bo and everything went to
plan um you're 36 at that age I already
know what you're gonna ask yeah I mean I
hate that kind of stuff because if you
ask me the problem is if you asked me
this like five years ago I never would
have said anything about febles or a lot
of the stuff I'm doing now and so the
honest answer is I don't know I mean I
think in what I'm doing you know
hopefully by then I have two billion
subscribers on YouTube you know Beast
games is bigger than we ever imagine
hopefully feastival has gotten over a
million kids out of child labor by then
um and you know I probably will have two
or three other businesses that I'm very
passionate about that are hopefully
crushing
and yeah just I don't know and
personally maybe I'll have a kid by then
I don't know I mean only time will tell
it's it won't be until I feel like I
could actually have enough time to be a
good dad but I I don't even know man I
don't think about my personal life I
just think about winning and got to
build some photos I found that I loved
oh
okay holy [ __ ] is this me or my brother
me this one as well where did you get
these um internet these are on the
internet these are like the really
iconic photos that I from see really I
don't think I've ever seen this one
really yeah I don't do you recognize
anything in that photo other than no I
don't I was just thinking like what
house am I even in I might be at a
military base potentially cuz when we
were younger my both my parents are in
the military so they're traveling a lot
so this might just be like some random
house interesting I do recognize this
like this photo in the background I'm
sure you're throw up on screen I think
that that that was yeah that's on the
hallway beside her bathroom I haven't
been to my mom's house in so long um
interesting you you do so much for
children but if you could whisper in
that child's ear something about buy
Bitcoin what was it like two pennies
back then no um I know because I
wouldn't want I wouldn't say anything if
you gave me a microphone to talk to him
because the problem is I'd be I'd be
worried that it would change you know
the outcome of of how I became and like
I'm very even though I know earlier on I
was probably sounded a little depressed
because shit's hard but you know I'm I
am happy with the position I am in and I
would be worried that you know like this
is definitely a very confused child
that's not fitting in that feels like a
[ __ ] freak not this young one I don't
know what the [ __ ] he's thinking but
this one right here probably is around
the age where I was like [ __ ] I'm just a
[ __ ] weirdo I don't fit in with
anyone why does no one want to build
businesses and succeed but I think going
through that Journey was was important
and it's uh yeah it just gives me a lot
of conviction with things so I probably
if I wasn't allowed to say buy Bitcoin I
just wouldn't say anything what about
Taha yeah to my
mom I would I mean this well what's
funny is these are these are two
different photos of my mom you have like
this version of my mom I don't think
there's anything I could say that would
I mean cuz she's she was in the military
and they just beat
like systems and order into your head
and she this is probably right around
the time where we lost everything and so
this you know and she's at a very low
point in her life and so I don't think
there's anything I could say that ever
would have like convinced her that her
lunatic son is heading down the right
path and um you know but you know you
can see the difference here where it's
it's almost indicative where she's
smiling in this photo this is when I
gave her 100 Grand this is after we made
it this is after we had the whole
conversation where she finally is like
okay I'll Trust you you know there's a
the the whatever 12 13 years between
these two photos was a very hard journey
um especially when I stopped going to
college and I got straight zeros and I
mean she thought oh his life's [ __ ]
over I just wasted 18 years of my life
you know um so same thing I don't I
don't I don't think there's anything I
could say that would have changed
anything um if anything it would have
just gave her a heart attack do she do
you tell her now what she means to you
and how oh course yeah yeah and she's
she's very happy and like yeah we're
we're in a really good spot now I I love
my mom I mean because obviously I
wouldn't be here without her you know
what I mean if she didn't work multiple
jobs and do all the things she did to
put me where I am I mean even little
things like you know she uh would give
me like some months like you know 20 $30
and then I would take that money and use
that to like buy stuff to like help make
videos or or whatever um and even just
the fact that we had internet you know
what I mean and things like that which
you know I mean pretty basic now it
wasn't as common back then you used to
get a phone call and you're like house
internet I don't know if you would go
out yeah and so like you know um it
wasn't the best position but she gave me
all the tools I needed to succeed not
you know on purpose but she must be so
shocked well she's used to it now but
yeah I mean on the come up I mean it was
yeah I mean imagine being her you know
what I mean she used to when I turned 16
like she couldn't afford to buy me a car
she couldn't she couldn't afford like
the minivan we had like it was [ __ ]
piece of [ __ ] like needed a repair she
couldn't afford it like smoke was coming
out the front of it she was a an
absolute mess and then she comes home
and I'm just like I'm making YouTube
videos [ __ ] math homework mom and you
know and she's just like she I think she
was making $40,000 a year cuz I uh we
didn't talk about Fin is much when we
were younger but I remember I got a
$40,000 brand deal and then she told me
that's how much I make in a year and I
was like holy [ __ ] I didn't at the time
I was like I thought you made way more
than 40 Grand a year um and then I was
like why the [ __ ] are you working like
I'm getting paid this per video now on
brand deals and so um
yeah what an incredible woman I know
she's from everything she went through
to know she she just needs to be happy I
try not to stress her out she's been
through enough stress like her her job
is i' I've been making her not make I
mean she wants to do it but like
exercise routinely do all the like
system like body Health scans and you
know get on the vitamin grind and
everything because like I'm not having
kids anytime soon but obviously when I
do have kids I really want her to be
involved and she needs to be able to
play with them and things like that so
I'm like you know stress is going to
kill you you're not allowed to be
stressed you need to do all these Health
protocols you need to be like cuz you
know you might be in your 70s when I
have kids like you need to be able to
move around which means you might
potentially be 80 when they're like 14
or 15 like come on like what you do now
is indicative will represent how active
you'll be able to be in my kids lives so
like and we do the have these
conversations in a playful way so she's
taking her health very serious for the
future you're not a man that seems to
have many fears but that appears to be
one of them a fear that we both share
yeah exactly I mean hope she'll just
never die my mom's gonna live forever
we'll be fine Brian
Johnson we have a closing tradition on
this podcast with the last guest Le a
question for the next guest not knowing
who they're leaving it for okay do do I
get hit with the question first or you
get hit with the question first
okay would you rather die with a sound
body or a sound mind sound body or sound
mind oh I assume if I chose body then
like that would be like Dementia or
something on the mind um that's hard die
somebody or some
mind I mean what are you if you don't
have your mind I would say mine to be
honest amen yeah Jimmy thank you do I
get to write my question now you do I
want to say something to you though um I
have to give you a lot of credit because
so many people like us like our teams we
have stolen so much from you we've
stolen your principles your mentality
and it's made us be better creators
which has allowed us to live the lives
that we get to live and do these things
that we we love the most and um there's
always a cost I think to being different
and to being weird there's an upside but
there's also a really really really big
cost and you you pay that cost the most
when you're younger and you have to fit
into the the system and you don't get to
choose who you hang around with and
stuff um but then as an adult as you
said we all then clap for this the
unique ones the weird ones and we steal
from them and we aspire to be them and
we learn from them and you have in the
very short amount of time that I've been
speaking to you for like a week or
something have blown my mind open I got
to see the behind the scenes of Beast
games and my entire mind as I sat there
on the sofa I like remember where I was
sat when I saw the behind the scenes
just exploded MH and you made me um in
that moment realize how much I'd limited
myself as someone that I considers
themselves to be really ambitious I'd
limited myself and so I wanted to say
thank you because you're not just doing
that for me you're doing that for tens
of millions hundreds of millions of
people all at the same time and you're
giving them the the road map but also a
blueprint and the mentality and the
belief that they too don't have to live
the life that school or the system has
told them they have in the Box agre
exactly so thank you so much honestly
cuz we need more people like you and I'm
I'm your biggest fan thank you I really
really appreciate you thank you all
right let's see if we can break into a
Walmart you're so funny some of the most
successful fascinating and insightful
people in the world have sat across from
me at this table and at the end of every
conversation I asked them to leave a
question behind in the famous Diary of a
CEO and it's a question designed to
spark the kind of conversations that
matter most the kind of conversations
that can change your life we then take
those questions and we put them on these
cards on every single card you can see
the person who left the question the
question they asked and on the other
side if you scan that barcode you can
see who answered it next something I
know a lot of you have wanted to know
and the only way to find out is by
getting yourself some conversation cards
which you can play at home with friends
and family at work with colleagues and
also with total strangers on holiday
I'll put a link to the conversation
cards in the description below you can
get yours at the diary.com
[Music]
oh
[Music]
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Jimmy Donaldson, widely known as MrBeast, shares his journey and mindset in this profound interview. He discusses his deep-seated obsession with solving complex problems, which has allowed him to build a global business empire and create the world's most popular YouTube channel. He addresses the intense pressure of his work, the struggles of Crohn's disease, and the challenges of leading a massive team while maintaining his creative vision. Jimmy also delves into his ethical stance on chocolate production through his company, Feastables, and his philosophy on success, risk, and ignoring public criticism to focus on his core mission.
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