00:00 that made like 80 grand as a launch oh
00:02 wow and then we made a video about it
00:03 and I started doing 100 Grand a month to
00:05 what extent are you worried that Notions
00:08 Market will not continue to just keep
00:09 growing at this point it's like a lot of
00:11 just the anxiety you have as a CEO to
00:13 what extent do you worry about money
00:15 it's a good question you
00:17 know so Thomas you have had an
00:20 interesting story in that you were kind
00:23 of the OG productivity YouTuber and then
00:26 inexplicably you kind of decided when
00:28 you were at the at the height of your
00:30 career as a productivity YouTuber to
00:32 give it all up and start a completely
00:33 new YouTube channel completely from
00:34 scratch and now you're making more money
00:36 than you ever were before on that
00:37 brandom new YouTube channel what was
00:40 what was the thought process behind that
00:41 decision I so I did not decide to quit
00:44 my YouTube channel like that's that's
00:46 the first thing I want to say it was
00:47 like it wasn't like okay I'm done uh it
00:49 was more like I wanted a side project
00:52 and I had done videos about notion for
00:55 my main Channel they did pretty well and
00:57 I'm like I want to make more notion
00:58 videos but the ones I I want to make are
01:00 hyper Technical and if I put them up on
01:02 the main Channel people are going to be
01:03 like this is what is this this is so
01:05 technical so I made a second Channel
01:07 while I was still running the main
01:08 Channel and I just did it as a side
01:10 project and then uh we created creators
01:13 companion which is our notion template
01:15 for creators that started doing pretty
01:17 well as a side project I'm like cool I'm
01:18 going to take a month off to build the
01:20 notion template I've always wanted
01:22 that's called ultimate brain it's like
01:23 task management project management notes
01:25 all in one and the the idea was take a
01:28 month off build it get right back to the
01:30 main Channel what actually happened was
01:32 I took a month off built it sold it to a
01:35 3,000 person weight list that made like
01:37 80 grand as a launch oh wow and then we
01:40 sold it to the rest of our list that
01:41 made like 90 grand and then we made a
01:43 video about it and I started doing 100
01:44 Grand a month and I had to learn
01:46 customer support and I had to learn to
01:48 scale a team and um then I didn't have
01:51 to but chose to learn JavaScript yeah
01:53 and so you know a year and a half later
01:55 of spending a lot of my time coding and
01:56 building a business um we're finally
01:58 back in the main channel so so this side
02:00 project that was initially just meant to
02:02 be a side project started to do so well
02:03 that it became the main thing for a very
02:05 long time yep that's really cool one of
02:08 the one of the really interesting things
02:09 about your success with the second
02:11 channel is that you didn't really try
02:13 and cross post from like the main
02:15 channel to the second Channel or trying
02:16 to drive those 2 million subscribers you
02:18 had on the main Channel onto the second
02:19 you basically came onto YouTube
02:22 completely from scratch with a brand new
02:23 channel and managed to build a business
02:25 making 100K a month within a fairly
02:28 short amount of time s of yeah I guess
02:30 so so if you were to kind of connect the
02:32 dots looking backwards what what do you
02:34 think were some of the some of the
02:36 factors that aligned to make this like
02:39 what was the secret source that made
02:41 this suddenly work cuz a lot of people
02:43 would be like I can have 100K a month
02:44 business in in a few months by starting
02:46 a brand new YouTube channel whoa that's
02:47 that's intense well I should say it's
02:49 not a few months because I started TF
02:50 explains in 2020 like late 2020 and then
02:54 we released ultimate brain in 2022 like
02:57 April so going on two years at least a
03:00 year and a half um I think the biggest
03:03 thing like I can't even attribute this
03:04 to myself if we wanted to give it like a
03:06 cool you know name we could write a book
03:08 on I'd call it the coattail effect there
03:11 was already a big audience around notion
03:13 right like there's a ton of growing
03:15 excitement about it there's people
03:16 asking questions about it and I just got
03:18 to this point where I'm like I'm
03:20 feeling super compelled to build stuff
03:22 on notion all day long um there's like
03:24 this triangle I always try to put myself
03:26 in it's like what's the point between
03:27 there's a growing audience there's my
03:29 passion and my skills I want to be in
03:30 the middle of those three points and
03:32 that was doing stuff for notion so it
03:34 was already a growing Niche what I
03:37 brought to it was a lot of experience in
03:40 teaching and producing good videos and
03:42 then I knew how to build free templates
03:44 I knew like the whole thing where you
03:45 can build an email list by giving away
03:47 lead magnets like that uh and we just
03:49 kind of got off the raises uh and then
03:51 you know it's just like that same
03:52 process of just seeing what works and
03:54 doubling down that in our case we
03:55 realized like build guides work um
03:57 covering new features work so that's the
03:59 majority of what we
04:01 do and yeah are you to what extent are
04:05 you worried that Notions Market will not
04:08 continue to just keep growing and
04:09 therefore you might be I don't know
04:11 making a Channel about a product that is
04:12 no long that no longer has all the hype
04:14 and the buzz around it um it's a nonzero
04:17 amount of concern I would say so the way
04:19 I like to think about this is you get to
04:22 space with a rocket and I guess unless
04:25 you're SpaceX now this this metaphor
04:26 falls apart but you get to space of the
04:28 rocket and you eventually have to
04:30 jettison parts of the rocket um whereas
04:32 if you're like I want one bicycle and I
04:34 will never replace any parts of the
04:36 bicycle like you can't get to space you
04:39 know you might have a vehicle that you
04:40 can keep traveling in forever but you
04:42 can't do like that huge burst so
04:44 sometimes like in business I think you
04:46 see it an opportunity you're like this
04:47 is an amazing opportunity for now maybe
04:49 not forever but I don't think it's a
04:52 dead end like anybody who's using notion
04:55 whether they're an individual or a team
04:57 needs to be organized they need a place
04:59 to externalize information if that's
05:01 notion forever awesome if it's not
05:03 notion forever I've built up this
05:05 reputation of somebody who can teach
05:06 that kind of software and those kinds of
05:08 workflows so if there's something else
05:10 that like eventually comes and takes
05:11 over or whatever it is like if I want to
05:13 teach that I'm going to be able to teach
05:14 that solid you know so you've been on
05:16 YouTube I guess in in total for almost
05:19 10 years now yep that's a pretty long
05:21 time or 2006 if you're uh technical
05:23 about it it's going to be my channel
05:25 nice yeah it's my thing you account
05:27 created in 2007 or something so it looks
05:29 a on YouTube for like 14 years um what
05:32 would be your top pieces of advice for
05:35 people who are let's say just started
05:38 out as creators like maybe they've been
05:40 doing it for a few months maybe up to a
05:41 year or maybe it's people who are
05:43 actually just thinking of like you know
05:44 what this Creator thing seems
05:45 interesting you've been doing it for
05:47 longer than almost anyone I've ever
05:48 spoken to um what what tips would you
05:51 have to newcomers in the space I feel
05:53 like people watching this video have
05:56 maybe taken your course or watched your
05:58 videos they probably haven't
06:00 like the answer is going to be that same
06:03 unsatisfying like if you're starting out
06:05 you have to start out and you have to
06:07 literally publish on a schedule and you
06:09 have to build consistency that's what it
06:11 is and ideally you're making content
06:13 about something you care about not
06:14 something that just seems that's like
06:16 going to do well externally because it's
06:18 a long game um actually I'll give a good
06:21 example for this I have heard that
06:24 people who run other productivity tools
06:27 have reached out to creators and offered
06:28 to pay them to build channels like
06:30 Thomas rck explains oh okay and I reach
06:34 I talked with one Creator recently who
06:35 was like I don't want to do that yeah
06:36 because the money's not the only
06:38 motivator yeah it seems like a
06:39 no-brainer for the brand like I would do
06:41 that if I was running productivity
06:42 software yeah like it's a no-brainer but
06:44 the difference and the thing that
06:46 they're missing is I wake up on a
06:48 Saturday morning and I will go build
06:50 notion templates they're not paying me
06:52 for that you know I make money through
06:53 selling ocean templates but when I
06:54 started TF explains I was selling
06:56 nothing I just wanted to do it that
06:58 badly yeah so whatever people are
07:00 creating on like it needs to be
07:02 something that they have personal
07:03 interest in because it's a grind
07:05 sometimes it's a long game and even once
07:07 you're successful it still can be kind
07:09 grind like doing it I think that's one
07:11 of the things where back in the day the
07:13 only people who did YouTube were the
07:14 ones who were intrinsically interested
07:16 in making YouTube videos right but now
07:18 with the proliferation of like you know
07:20 I guess some of some of the videos I do
07:21 of like this is how much money you can
07:22 make on YouTube y suddenly people are
07:24 like doing YouTube as a means to making
07:26 money rather than as a means to making
07:28 videos that they that they enjoy yeah
07:31 and I think uh you know if you're
07:32 working with a team like if there's
07:34 already an engine there's already a
07:35 product like maybe you get hired to make
07:37 content that's a different ball game
07:39 entirely but if you're just an
07:41 individual and you're like I want to
07:43 create content and you know I'm looking
07:45 at the lives of these YouTubers and I
07:47 see the the revenue numbers if you're
07:48 just an individual I truly think you
07:50 have to pick something you care about so
07:52 what does a day in your life look like
07:54 like I wake up at 7 because my dog gets
07:57 me up at 7 and she will not stop
07:59 annoying me until I get up so I get up
08:01 and I take her out and uh you know go to
08:03 the coffee shop for a bit and get some
08:05 work done go to the gym come here and
08:07 make videos with Tony uh I don't have a
08:09 crazy routine anymore uh I will a few
08:12 times a week instead of working here
08:14 take a 45 minute walk to a different
08:16 coffee shop and then get 45 minutes on
08:17 the way back so that's maybe 15,000
08:19 steps yeah I don't know uh build stuff
08:23 exercise hang out with my wife and then
08:26 when you're working so when you're in
08:27 the coffee shop or when you're here what
08:28 what does that working look like like
08:29 what's what's happening on your computer
08:30 screen if it's a day where I get to do
08:33 whatever I want these days it's
08:35 programming programming yep okay so like
08:37 one of the things I've been working on
08:38 recently is this really cool automation
08:40 where you can uh record a voice note on
08:42 your phone and you can get a full
08:43 transcription you can AI summary it all
08:45 goes to notion automatically I spent
08:47 like four months building that uh
08:49 there's a whole video about it on TF
08:50 explains there's more stuff I want to do
08:52 to that so if I get a day where I can do
08:54 whatever I want it would be that um it
08:57 seems like I don't get a ton of those
08:58 days right now because we have 11 people
09:01 so I would say half my time right now is
09:02 CEO stuff just setting strategy um
09:06 talking with team members making sure
09:07 everyone's aligned and then a lot of it
09:09 right now is we've been doing full
09:11 redesigns of our templates so the past
09:14 week or two have been the actual design
09:15 process this week is literally
09:18 recreating the design process while
09:20 filming it so people can see how to do
09:21 it themselves um we'll be re-shooting
09:23 our tutorial videos and courses yeah so
09:25 there's a lot of course and product work
09:27 right now yeah would you recommend this
09:30 career SL job to people who might be
09:32 looking at it from the outside and
09:33 thinking oh being a YouTuber seems kind
09:34 of cool uh yeah it's
09:36 rad uh you know there's downsides to
09:38 every job but I'll put it this way I had
09:41 a corporate Insurance once H it was the
09:44 first the only like full-time job I've
09:46 ever had I've had a zillion part-time
09:47 jobs I've worked on campus I've worked
09:49 in grocery stores all that kind of stuff
09:50 the only full-time job I ever had was
09:52 working at a Fortune 500 my job was
09:55 literally like running the corporate
09:56 firewall and I have journal entries
09:58 where I literally wrote this feels like
10:00 prison H and I know that there are
10:03 better companies out there there's
10:04 probably some company where I'd feel
10:06 happier but I feel so fired up getting
10:09 to build my own stuff every day I feel
10:11 so fired up working with a team that is
10:13 aligned with the stuff that you know we
10:15 want to actually work on uh I feel amaz
10:18 I just feel like it's amazing that I get
10:19 to create stuff every day so yeah it
10:21 rocks there's parts of it that's suck
10:23 there's parts to every job that suck in
10:25 general I think it's cool what are the
10:30 so the parts that suck for
10:32 me at this point it's like a lot of just
10:35 the anxiety you have as a CEO you have
10:37 like 11 people on the team it's 11
10:39 people plus their families um one person
10:42 on my team is now having their third
10:44 baby which is amazing you know but it's
10:46 like there's anxiety around that it's
10:47 like oh man I have to make sure everyone
10:49 is taken care of and um that's just it's
10:52 a very different feeling to when I was
10:54 completely solo and it's just like yep
10:56 I'm just in my dorm room making stuff
10:58 all the other stuff I pretty pretty much
10:59 delegated like I don't like to edit
11:01 anymore I kind of got over it so I hired
11:03 somebody who loves to edit you know what
11:06 were the bits that sucked other than
11:07 editing when you when you didn't have a
11:08 team and you weren't like responsible
11:12 livelihoods it's a good
11:15 question before I hired the team I
11:17 actually liked editing so I think in
11:20 hindsight my brain would tell me that I
11:23 delegated stuff way earlier than I
11:25 actually did um if you were to ask my
11:28 wife she would say like yeah he had many
11:30 many years of just stubbornly editing
11:33 himself staying up till 2 a.m. waiting
11:36 until the very last sponsor deadline
11:38 second to get things done uh you know
11:41 when it comes when I really comes down
11:42 to it I feel like the editing and the
11:44 pressure I put on myself and especially
11:45 the perfectionism in the edit was the
11:47 part that sucked the most researching
11:50 creating content even filming to a
11:51 degree isn't that bad um for me it was
11:54 just the edit H to what extent do you
12:03 question I once read that when you get
12:06 more money you spend more time worrying
12:08 about that money and I would agree with
12:11 that sentiment now um and I think
12:14 there's a lot of psychology bundled up
12:16 into that there's a lot of ego there's a
12:17 lot of like wanting to sort of stay at
12:20 the same level as your peers um so
12:23 there's like you know there's there's
12:23 games of pecking order stuff like that
12:25 but I think the big anxiety that I deal
12:27 with is just like I know what the burn
12:30 rate is for our team and payroll and I
12:31 want to make sure like we never have an
12:33 issue with that so I worry about money
12:37 perspective uh right now because we're
12:39 building a startup called fly lighter
12:40 that's like we've we've hired Developers
12:42 for that full-time uh that's a big
12:45 addition to our burn rate and that
12:47 project's making no money right now cuz
12:48 it's not released yet so that's
12:50 definitely anxiety but you know
12:52 personally I don't worry about it too
12:54 much yeah this is something I'm trying
12:56 to figure out for myself because you
12:58 know even though like like for us the
13:00 margins of our business is like 60%
13:03 gross margins right um you know becomes
13:06 30 40% once you take uh net once you
13:08 take tax into account MH that's pretty
13:10 reasonable as far as businesses go but
13:12 because this is the only business that
13:13 I've really ever ever run yeah there's
13:15 always this sort of scarcity anxiety
13:18 about money in the background where it's
13:20 like well you know I don't really Vibe
13:22 with doing so many sponsored videos but
13:23 the sponsored videos bring in so much
13:24 revenue and like oh you know that means
13:27 if we cut them out completely then we
13:28 would lose this amount of money and you
13:30 know that's some that might be a million
13:31 a year that we're losing out on by not
13:32 having sponsors even though I don't
13:33 really want to do sponsors and so I I I
13:36 often have this sort of battle with
13:37 myself of how much like when is enough
13:40 enough and at what at what point is
13:43 it prudent to make decisions that
13:46 increase our bottom line versus that
13:49 don't but for the sake of my own energy
13:52 levels or what I feel like doing I don't
13:54 if any of that makes sense so do you
13:55 feel like part of your anxiety comes
13:57 from the the feeling of leaving money on
14:00 the table like knowing you could be
14:02 more I think so I think it's the knowing
14:05 that I could be making more and
14:06 therefore equating that to therefore I
14:08 should be making more and the worry that
14:10 in the future you know right now I don't
14:11 have that many outgoings it's all fine
14:13 but in the future let's say I want to
14:14 have kids um and stuff will I regret not
14:17 making hay when the Sun was shining cuz
14:19 the sun is currently shining and may not
14:20 be shining forever cuz YouTube careers
14:22 feel like somewhat Emeral kind of thing
14:24 which I mean that's a super common thing
14:26 um like with nebula that that comes up
14:28 so often and we get creators coming in
14:30 who are killing it but then there's this
14:32 pervasive feeling like oh tomorrow could
14:36 and I don't know how true that is like I
14:40 think a specific source of income could
14:42 go away pretty quickly but if you're
14:44 navigating your career intelligently
14:46 like you're building connections You're
14:48 Building skills you're always learning
14:49 new things I think there's always going
14:50 to be opportunity for
14:52 you like I don't know and then and then
14:54 that creates a weird dichotomy in my
14:56 head because part of me is like you
14:57 shouldn't believe that you should should
14:58 believe in back against the wall so you
15:00 fight like a caged animal uh and then
15:02 the other side of me is's like yeah but
15:04 really if your channel you know burnt
15:06 down tomorrow night is it not true that
15:08 you could go do Consulting and make a
15:10 killing doing it like yeah I
15:12 could so I think uh part of my
15:15 motivation is like but I don't want to
15:16 do that yeah I want to build things and
15:19 and show them off to the internet all
15:20 day long so that's what I want to keep
15:23 working it's interesting though I don't
15:25 get the uh I don't get the anxiety of
15:27 like oh I should be making more money
15:29 H it just isn't there it's my anxiety is
15:31 all like are we making enough to
15:33 comfortably make sure the team is taken
15:34 care of and there's no threat for that
15:37 yeah so what what gives you that like
15:40 why I guess why don't you have that
15:42 anxiety of I could be making more money
15:44 because my motivation is purely
15:46 Discovery Discovery my my my driving
15:50 motivation yeah like the other
15:51 motivation is like take care of my team
15:53 especially take care of my mom uh I moov
15:55 throughout to Denver like I want to make
15:56 sure I can take care of my mom forever
15:58 but beyond on that I'm not that
16:00 motivated by money as a scorecard I'm
16:02 more motivated by like the feeling I get
16:04 when like say I'm programming something
16:06 and I'm like hitting an error for an
16:09 hour and I finally figure it out that's
16:11 what I'm after I'm after like okay I
16:14 superpower so I'm just kind of always
16:16 chasing that nice um and it just so
16:18 happens like I feel lucky that my
16:21 particular interests lead to discoveries
16:23 that help to build good
16:25 businesses um you know it' be harder if
16:28 like I want to just paint all day or
16:29 something you know or maybe I can
16:30 monetize that there's a lot of people
16:32 who have done that um but I often think
16:34 about this fact like for whatever reason
16:36 I'm interested in programming business
16:38 building weird productivity tools uh my
16:41 only non- monetizable interest is music
16:44 so even then you've got some tracks on
16:46 Spotify so yeah I did I did like a okay
16:49 let's make $1,000 from music challenge
16:52 did that and then I'm like that's all I
16:53 ever want to do nice how did you make
16:54 $1,000 for music um same way well
16:57 actually I don't I don't know if you
16:59 took it far enough to do this but you
17:00 totally could so I made a study playlist
17:05 and got a whole bunch of followers on it
17:07 and then uh just dropped my music into
17:09 it when I released it oh nice and so you
17:11 get those free streams as a result of
17:14 yep and you've made more more than ,000
17:16 from people streaming your like two
17:17 songs mhm oh that's pretty cool yeah I
17:19 mean I think to break it down on Spotify
17:21 they have like maybe 300,000 streams put
17:24 together and then on YouTube maybe
17:25 400,000 views oh wow so that's about it
17:28 and then I don't know if people have
17:29 bought it on iTunes or whatever nice I
17:31 play but yeah and and you make music so
17:33 you could do the same thing yeah drop a
17:36 drop the study track into your uh into
17:40 did to to what extent do you run the
17:42 risk of uh Hobbies becoming not fun when
17:46 them not so bad anymore I used to run
17:50 that risk a lot especially like when
17:52 when my focus was all on the Thomas
17:53 Frank Channel there was like this
17:54 feeling like okay well I got into
17:55 weightlifting I should make
17:56 weightlifting content I got into music I
17:58 should make music content I should just
18:00 like become this Superman who makes
18:02 content about all of his interests and
18:03 that I was running risk for out okay cuz
18:06 everything I would look at was like okay
18:08 that's content yeah I would like read a
18:09 fiction novel I'm like can I build a
18:11 parable out of this and make a video on
18:12 it now I'm like there's so much more
18:14 clarity I teach notion and I'm building
18:17 a startup so I'm going to make content
18:19 on building businesses and maybe a bit
18:21 of like productivity to that end but I
18:24 no longer feel that I think honestly
18:26 ego-driven desire to make content
18:29 showing off the fact that I know how to
18:30 lift a weights or that I know how to
18:32 play guitar so that stuff it's just like
18:33 that's my life I lift weights play
18:34 Guitar Play video against my friends and
18:36 when I'm at work I do technical stuff
18:39 okay so you have this very clear
18:40 separation between work the thing that
18:42 you do for work yep which is I make
18:44 notion tutorials and I or I make notion
18:47 stuff and I'm making the startup and the
18:48 rest of your life which is all the other
18:50 things at this point yeah yeah cuz I
18:52 guess with a lot of YouTubers and I
18:54 think I I've I've definitely fallen into
18:56 this myself it's like your whole life
18:58 becom comes the content right and yeah
19:00 like how did you get out of that like
19:01 way of thinking about things burnout
19:05 yeah uh several several instances of
19:08 burnout um and then you know I'll count
19:10 it as luck a little bit like getting
19:12 into the notion Niche when I did and
19:15 then starting to build products like
19:17 just going down that rabbit hole of
19:18 curiosity uh and and actually having it
19:21 pay off that was very helpful um and I
19:24 don't think that there's nothing from
19:26 that that can be learned by another
19:27 person even if they're going into a
19:29 different Niche because the real thing I
19:30 learned was just because I have a cashco
19:33 over here with the sponsors doesn't mean
19:35 that's the only thing I could ever do
19:36 and I spend a lot of time as a Creator
19:38 thinking this is all I could ever do I'm
19:40 making four videos a month they each
19:42 make 10,000 video or $10,000 each that's
19:44 our cap I do not see a way that we could
19:47 ever increase revenue or even match this
19:49 Revenue in a different way so I felt
19:51 stuck and then when I finally kind of
19:54 stepped back a little bit and started
19:56 exploring the notion thing I realized
19:57 like this is way way bigger than the
20:00 sponsor stuff ever was and it doesn't
20:03 require four videos a week it doesn't
20:05 require $1,000 or 100,000 views per
20:08 video there's just like this whole
20:09 perspective shift that happened learning
20:12 this thing yeah how's how has your
20:14 relationship with metrics changed over
20:17 time uh I have embraced the fact that
20:19 metrics give me anxiety a lot of the
20:20 times so I just don't look at
20:22 them that's um you know every business
20:25 Guru in the world would be like that's
20:26 the worst advice ever you have to to
20:28 look at your metrics you know what what
20:30 gets measured that gets managed um but
20:33 one thing they say like this is very
20:34 common in in startup circles is like the
20:36 Founder's number one job is to manage
20:38 their own psychology so if I know what I
20:40 need to get done and I know that looking
20:43 at metrics on a past thing is not going
20:45 to help me get that thing done I'm not
20:47 going to look I will look when it's time
20:50 to look uh there there's a line from
20:52 good to great that business book that
20:55 like good managers are the ones that can
20:56 like peel open The Rock like pel up the
20:58 rocks and look at all the bugs and
20:59 Squigly stuff underneath like the stuff
21:01 you want to leave alone so there does
21:03 come a time where you do have to look at
21:04 the metrics and dig in but I used to be
21:07 the kind of person who would just
21:09 check yeah same I I used to constantly
21:11 refresh YouTube Studio multiple times a
21:12 day I I would just habitually go to it
21:14 on my phone and now I can't even
21:16 remember the last time I opened it I
21:18 think every now and then I'll open it
21:19 just to click on the comments Tab and I
21:20 won't even look at the homepage that
21:21 shows my subscriber count change Revenue
21:24 what how well the latest video was doing
21:26 I'll just look at the comments tab to be
21:27 like are there any comments I can hard
21:28 to reply to very occasionally but I
21:31 think and I think a lot of creators I've
21:33 spoken to they sort of eventually get to
21:35 this point of realizing actually the
21:37 metrics are meaningless broadly um the
21:40 and and there's almost this sort of
21:41 separation of church and state
21:43 separation of like the creative from the
21:44 commercial and the metrics are too
21:46 focused on the commercial because it's a
21:47 lot harder to creatively make a video
21:49 when you're being like Oh but I've got
21:50 to hit 100,000 views for this video yep
21:53 and I mean I don't know if you feel this
21:54 one of my big problems is I will get
21:57 obsessed with the metrics and then I'll
21:59 be like okay well the next video I do
22:01 needs to be perfect I need to hit all
22:03 these beats I need to optimize for
22:04 retention I need to make sure I have a
22:06 perfect title and angle and everything
22:07 and then what happens is I don't make a
22:08 video yeah so part of what I'm realizing
22:11 that I need to do uh is go back to my
22:13 roots a little bit the way that I came
22:15 up as a YouTuber was I literally had an
22:17 app that would charge me money if I
22:18 didn't publish every Friday yeah it
22:20 would look at I think YouTube had RSS
22:22 feeds back then they've gotten rid of
22:23 them or at least they're buried but yeah
22:25 would look at the the RSS feed for the
22:28 if there was not a video it would charge
22:30 me five bucks and you know five bucks is
22:32 not that much money but it was like the
22:34 psychology of knowing you've lost yeah
22:37 against yourself and so are you going
22:39 back to having an upload schedule now
22:40 yes I am oh yep why why not just decide
22:43 you know what I'm I've I've been doing
22:45 this for 10 years I'm going to chill and
22:46 just make videos whenever I feel like it
22:48 um cuz I don't I just I want the
22:50 schedule for a while I want I want to
22:52 get out of that perfectionist mindset I
22:53 want to get out of that metric D mindset
22:55 so for a while I think it's just like
22:56 let's just do the exercise of publishing
22:58 again doesn't have to be forever you
23:00 know but it's like the same thing with
23:01 like if you've been off the gym for a
23:02 while a great way to get back in is like
23:04 okay three days a week I'm just going to
23:05 go it's going to show up that's my
23:08 metric and you have to worry about like
23:10 how many reps did you do how many sets
23:11 did you do like right now I'm at a time
23:13 in my life where the startup is almost
23:15 all consuming and then my wife wants
23:17 time my family want time so I do not
23:19 have time to go to the gym for 2 hours
23:21 but I do have enough time to do like 30
23:23 pulps a day on those Rings right there I
23:25 have enough time to go to the gym get a
23:26 half an hour just Blitz session in I
23:28 don't care if I'm getting stronger I'm
23:29 just getting it done so that's kind of
23:31 where my mind is at now is like with the
23:33 main Channel I want to be publishing I
23:35 have a lot to say I don't want to be
23:37 hindered by these these feelings that I
23:40 have to like have a perfect angle
23:41 perfect hook all that kind of stuff cuz
23:43 that's just going to cause me to not
23:44 make anything yeah managing your own
23:47 psychology and so for you managing the
23:48 psychology means the goal is I'm just
23:50 going to upload once a week or I'm going
23:51 to publish once a week and with that
23:53 goal everything else Falls by the
23:55 wayside like all of the concern about
23:57 the metrics and the imposter syndrome of
23:58 the overthinking and all that crap yep
23:59 because you have to hit that upload mhm
24:01 H what I really want to try is streaming
24:03 oh yeah we're doing our first one
24:05 tomorrow nice so we'll see how it goes
24:07 yeah yeah I always find streaming more
24:09 more energizing than just filming a
24:10 video mhm do you get the same feeling
24:12 when you uh speak in public yeah I love
24:14 speaking in public same right if I do a
24:15 public speech andless like yes this
24:17 feels so good I want to talk to everyone
24:19 afterwards and all this kind of stuff
24:20 but like filming to a camera that's like
24:22 no one else is watching other than once
24:23 it's been uploaded 3 weeks later it
24:24 doesn't have that same sort of emotional
24:27 resonance it's like yeah it's just like
24:28 I don't know like I was telling you at
24:29 lunch I wanted to be the guy in the
24:30 basement doing the it stuff and uh
24:32 becoming a YouTuber was not that
24:34 different I'm still in the
24:36 basement I'm just I'm talking to a piece
24:39 technology nice well thank you very much
24:41 Thomas I think this a good place to end
24:42 this we have to head to Denver Airport
24:44 cuz we're flying to La thank you very
24:45 much for inviting us to your lovely
24:46 Studio absolutely D all the best for the
24:48 startup um any final pieces of advice
24:50 for people who have watched the 20
24:51 something minutes of this video so far I
24:53 mean if you got this far and you are
24:54 trying to become a Creator this is the
24:55 one I always say 1% rule put yourself on
24:58 that schedule and then with each video
25:00 try to get 1% better in some area
25:02 animation eye contact with the camera
25:05 Cadence whatever it is anything
25:07 interesting just try to get a little bit
25:08 better amazing thank you so much
