The Art of Reinvention on YouTube - ft Speeed

It's TV and so if you don't want to entertain people, then you don't want to do this job.

“Today on the show, we're interviewing James Pumfrey and Jesse Wood from the YouTube channel, Speed.”

Now, these guys started this channel about 18 months ago and it quickly rose to 2 million subscribers.

And beyond that, in their first 60 uploads, they crossed 80 million views.

Speed is one of my favorite new channels on YouTube. And Jesse and James have a super unique perspective on the platform, because this isn't their first go at it. They worked for just about 8 years at the very popular car YouTube channel, Donut Media. Jesse was the Chief Creative Officer and James was the editor in Chief. Outside of personal finance and tech, car YouTube has proven to be one of the most valuable genres on YouTube.

It has a really rabid audience. And we've seen an influx of capital coming to the space from Doug Demeroy, who launched an auction website,

called Cars and Bids, he got a $30 million investment from the turning group to the company that James and Jesse worked at.

Donut Media, which got acquired for a reported tens of millions of dollars in 2021. In this episode, we asked Jesse and James what it was like to be at Donut Media, what they learned there. And what it was like to get acquired, some of the discomfort that came from all of that capital coming in to their media company. James described the time period after they got acquired as a gluttonous pursuit of growth. So we'll get into that, we'll talk about what it means for large capital injections to come into creative companies.

There was also a ton of good that came from the time that they spent at Donut Media. And we talked to Jesse and James about what they've learned and what they've now applied to their new project speed.

“Yeah, I think media companies like Donut or Vox or BuzzFeed have proven to be really great incubators.”

Some of the most prolific creators today have come out of media companies and James and Jesse aren't really that different. They came by our studio right before they launched speed and they pitched me this vision for what this channel was going to be. And the way James said it is he said it's not going to be a car channel. It's going to be much more like a men's magazine for YouTube. And I didn't really understand what he meant, but then as I started seeing the channel come to life, it was exactly that.

Just to give you an idea of what some of the videos are like, I'm going to read off some of these titles building a cheap fun project car in 48 hours that has 4 million views and that's probably what you would expect from the guys from Donut.

But then you have the best male hobbies according to women, 3.5 million views.

I tried 30 viral health trends for 30 days to see what's worth it, 3 million views, testing the same products from 1975 and 2025, 3 million views. What's the one about having a good summer? Have a good summer guarantee that has almost 700,000 views. So it's an amazing variety of content all aimed at one specific demographic and it really is this modern version of YouTube, which is more of a channel that's pointed at a demographic rather than a subject matter. It's not one format repeated over and over again, there's a lot more variety than we've seen before.

And as we get into this episode, what you're going to learn from these guys is how do you spin up a YouTube channel in 2026 that actually stands out that can attract millions of people because a stat that we just read on YouTube's official blog is in 2026 on average 20 million videos are uploaded every day to YouTube.

“That's crazy in a sea of that much content, how do you stand out and that's what we get into in this episode.”

We also talked to them about what a modern, small media team looks like, we ask them about their ideas for their videos and how they greenlight a video and then towards the end of the episode, they deliver their nine rules for how to start a successful YouTube channel in 2026. All right, I think you guys are going to really enjoy this. We loved sitting down with these guys. It's truly our favorite new YouTube channel. I think you're going to learn a lot. Here's our interview with James Pumpree and Jesse Wood from Speed.

I wanted to start the conversation around car YouTube and if you guys could just explain car YouTube because it's like a rabid audience. Everyone who I talked to about car YouTube thinks it's cool that I know about car YouTube. But what is the world of car YouTube? Wow, tough. And I think cars are something that lens itself to YouTube very well. I think there's opportunity to like, like it's a start and a finish of a thing. I think a lot of people who like cars don't own them or like have the ability to modify them.

And like build them in the way that they like fantasize about. So I think that car YouTube is like this weird thing where it's sort of like fantasy watching.

And so like I think that having that little thought of like, well, one day I could do this or like I'm like learning about this. So like when I am in the position to do this.

“I will be able to. I think that kind of breaks down a wall for people. And so like then they're not wasting their time. They're not just watching an entertaining thing. They're like learning as well.”

Like we did a video or like a series that don't know where it was like $10,000 engine in a $500 car. Like the thing I kept saying to the guys like the team I was like, our audience doesn't have the $10,000 engine, but they have the $500 car. And when they do have the $10,000 engine, if they watch this video, then they'll know what to do. You know, and it's not like I think you know millions of people watch that video. And millions of people aren't going to go do a case swap in a Honda Civic, but they're thinking about it. It's the same as like magazines I think.

Sort of the like as if you were watching NFL highlights, but thinking to yourself like actually one day. I could do it totally. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But it's not just builds, right? Like as even when I look at MKBHD and auto focus and the fact that he like Marquez was able to spin up a brand new car channel. And it's mostly just his perspective on the cars, right? Or like we've had Doug DeMiro on the show and just reviewing cars. Like it is a bigger category.

And like the the Venn diagram of like YouTube viewer and car enthusiasts seems to cross over in a pretty significant way. Did you realize that early on like were you a fan of car YouTube before you entered car YouTube?

“No, we weren't. That's why we did it. Like I think when Donut started, this is 10 years ago.”

I think a lot of the representation of like car guys at that point was very different than we were. Like everything like Lisa joke like every car thing was like a guy in Jean shorts like everyone dressed like shit. And I feel like some Jean shorts are cool. But this is back. This is 10 years. Yeah. Jean shorts are cool.

Yeah. For the wrecking. Some Jean shorts are cool. Yeah. Definitely wearing Jean shorts.

Yeah. You just have a number of Jean shorts that feel pretty passionate about. I knew I shouldn't have said this. We're off track, but everything was called like whiskey and octane and everybody's logo is like laser cut out of a piece. Like diamond plate and I won't defend that.

Yeah. Everything was like so like masculine and like tough and like everyone had like a slipknot beard. And like Jesse and I had liked cars, our entire lives. And all of our friends had like cars, our entire lives. And they were like more like us like wearing like skate shoes and at that point skinny jeans.

And the basic idea was just like, we think there's more guys like us out there. They would probably watch our stuff. And that's kind of how like the editorial side of donuts started. So like, yeah, I wasn't a fan of car YouTube. And so like we decided to get like do something different.

What was available to car enthusiasts pre-car YouTube was a magazine. Was there any TV shows about? There were a few TV shows. And there was so little available like on TV that anything would just be like successful.

Like I never, I was never into like muscle cars or anything like that.

But I would watch Hot Rod TV every Saturday or Sunday morning on speed channel. All car guys like of our age have the same like references because they were only like four things on. Like magazines were like a huge thing.

“And I sometimes actually quite often I think back on like how many cars I can look at right now.”

Like just like with Instagram I can look at pictures of cars so much or like watch so much stuff on YouTube. Because when I was a kid I would get like I would get super street magazine. Sometimes I would get import tuner and then I had a subscription to performance VW magazine. Like eventually and I would only be able to look at like four cars a month.

And I would like read about it and like first I'd read the feature article and then eventually I'd read like the readers rides.

Then eventually I'd be like rereading the ads just to like get my fix. And so like magazines are big thing big influence on us as well. And forums like scrolling through pages and pages and forums of all of people's build. So something I've noticed is that things like YouTube is largely a video game audience.

But do you think that's accurate? Like my read on this is like watch seeing a car build is not so different from the levels of a video game. Like seeing how someone does something. I wonder if that's just how people have been trained to think like there's so many hours spent playing video games because I've noticed movies are written like video games. No. Or say more about that.

Like hey I'm so and so nice to meet you. I'm specific about me you can tell my personality really quick. We got to get over here and do this thing and then they go and do it. What movie is that? I think a lot of movies. I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, just like the exposition and information is delivered.

“I think a movie is influenced by like video games.”

I think that's like 60 to 70 percent of movies that come on in Netflix that like you might watch a couple of them, but you're not telling anyone about them.

There's nothing remarkable about the movies. Yeah, I asked the question about like getting a little bit more of an understanding of car content and car YouTube because obviously that's your guys origins. But it did grow into a significant business, right? Like donut dug to Merle like that. These are these are big businesses. Even Marquez's auto focus. There's like large scale advertising that is connected to people who enjoy watching content about cars.

And maybe that's because the purchase intent of buying a car is such a significant purchase. Maybe it's because the ancillary lifestyle is one that is ripe for, you know, consumerism. But it is a category on YouTube that audiences are die hard passionate about if you read Reddit forums or read it threads about car YouTube. And you have channels like donut that have 10 million near 10 million subscribers. So it's a fascinating category on YouTube that I maybe is not as discussed outside of car culture as it is inside of car culture.

It's just like the biggest identity purchase you'll make no matter what level of socioeconomic status you're at. Like whether like $500 car is expensive for you or someone who's getting like $100,000 car. It's like the biggest purchase we all will make. That showcases our identity because people aren't really buying homes as much anymore. Young people, right?

But if you are buying a home, I've thought about this like you're not buying a home.

You're not like cross shopping house or you're like, I don't really like this house. We can afford this one. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm going to afford a home. Yeah, yeah, totally. And there's a level of identity to the home, but like the design and the aesthetic doesn't. It says something about you of course, but in today's era it kind of just says like, okay, cool, it's cool that you have the means to buy a home.

And you're not like taking the home around town. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

“I don't know, as someone who like I was not into cars that has like somewhat gotten into cars, I think it's because of that.”

Like I would start watching videos and be like, am I a guy who's into Polestar? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'd spend like a couple weeks being like, I think I am. I don't even know, I think I'm like a Rivian guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I think I'm like an old Toyota Tundra. Yeah, yeah. You just like go through these phases of like maybe I'm that type of guy. So James, and I have a joke that cars are like high stakes fashion. Yeah.

It's like the most expensive outfit you'll ever buy. Hmm. I like that. Yeah. Yeah, see, I didn't know.

I didn't know that. And so I drove a Prius when I was growing up. Yeah. And I didn't know how much it said about me. A lot of race car drivers that I know.

They're daily drivers. Really? It's the Prius. I thought it said a lot about me. Yeah, this is sick.

I got more to Prius. The new Prius looks great. Yeah. I'm not, I have not plugged into that. Yeah.

“But when did you guys realize or when was the realization early on?”

That like making videos about cars could be a business. Or that it was a business. Well, luckily, we didn't have to make that business. No, you didn't have to make it. You were aware of it.

Yeah. I assume I don't. Right? Yeah. This is like a business that can pay people.

So like, don't I was started by these three guys. Ben Conrad, Matt Levin, and Nick Maseri. And Ben was a director. And he had done a couple of the. Kevin block Jim Conrad videos.

And Nick was his producer. And then Matt worked at awesomeness. And so like they. Ben and Nick were like, we could take this like like tens of millions of people watch to those Jim Conrad videos.

And they were like, there's something here.

What if we started a business like doing basically this forever.

And then they knew Matt. And so like they brought Matt in and he became like CEO. And initially, don't it was kind of like.

It was like a lot of stunt videos and like brands would come.

“And they would be like, hey, can you like we have this like Lamborghini?”

Can you like drift it through a city?

Um, we're basically making a bunch of like Jim Conrad lights.

Yeah, yeah. Essentially. It's like stunt videos. So Lamborghini would come to you. And like monster monster energy would come to you.

Got it. And they would say that this is going to reach our audience. Cause they're into like, to stun you. Yeah. You guys make the video.

Yeah. And that was like an era of YouTube where it was like kind of like destination based content. Where like people would spend months like shooting like. And then like a helicopter comes in, you know, like Travis Pastrano jumps out of it.

The Devon Supertrap era. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like year was this.

If you 2015, 2016. And then I think in 2017. Matt, our boss was like.

“You should make a video where like you tell the history of a car.”

And at that point, like I had been a comedian and an actor in LA for like 10 years before Donut. And I was kind of done being in front of camera. I was just like kind of exhausted by it. And I wanted to just like shadow band.

And like eventually like direct commercials. And I was like, all right. So like I made this video. And at that time, I was like Facebook.

You got 3 million views on Facebook in like 24 hours.

And he was like, all right. Now you got to do one every week. And so like we started doing them every week. And it was consistent enough that Matt made the decision that we're going to move away from Making stuff based on like like pitching brands in order to make a thing to like,

We're just going to make things. And then we'll figure out how to pay for it later. And so I think like one thing that Jesse and I acknowledged quite a bit is like, We were able to learn how to do this at Donut with like a lot of guardrails. And like a lot of support and a lot of like money and responsibility and faith that we like

Didn't like in hindsight we deserved it, but like in the moment. It was like a lot of foresight on some people's parts to like give us the keys to this thing that like They had invested in. And like yeah, like we started making merch because Jesse and I were like, I wanted to design shirts and they were like, okay.

And so like we were afforded like a lot of slack and I think at a time when like, Get no business doing it. You know, slack and guidance. And guidance. Yeah.

It was very much like a incubator. Yeah. Now I remember the first time going in and like doing a data analytics meeting to just like see like, Oh, that's where people dropped off. And you know, before you just making branded content, You know, we didn't really like pay that much attention to like the nuances of the data.

Or we didn't even have access to it. You know, and then so there's like unlocked a whole new way of kind of thinking about the content that we're making and studying it in a way that I think like, Wasn't really available too much before this time. So for people in our audience who may not know your roles at Donut,

What were you both responsible for? And how did you guys work together? Like what about your working relationship at Donut told you,

“You should work together after Donut with what you're doing that with speed?”

Yeah. Jesse was initially like a freelance shooter editor. Like he traveled around with race car drivers. And like wouldn't be like their media guy or like do stuff for like tire brands. And he got pulled into Donut doing that.

And he shot my first video at Donut, which is don't get screwed by a used car. And we were both wearing bands authentic. And still, he was like, he was like, you skate. It was like very bus stop friendship.

It was like, oh, used to, he's like, yeah, I mean, too. And we just really liked working with each other. That first day, we bought this terrible old BMW. We got screwed by the used car ironically. But I remember driving it back and we were driving through downtown on the 10.

And Jesse was in front of me in the passenger seat of a car. He was like, hung out of the window and was like two inches above the pavement. And he was like shooting me at sunset with the skyline behind me. And I was just like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life with this guy. And so pretty early on, I think we connected.

And so I think, yeah, I think our,

I've never had a relationship where like, he doesn't want to do what I do.

And I don't want to do what he does. But we want to end up doing the same thing.

where there's like really no ego between us.

And there's no doubt that we have each other's best interest in mind. Because we have such a shared interest. And we like really respect each other too. I think one thing that's, you know,

“I think about that era of YouTube and how critical it was actually to have these incubators,”

like you described donut as an incubator. And I would describe Buzzfeed as a similar incubator. And vice as an incubator. And I think these frameworks where creatives were given a lot of leeway to just make stuff. And like your task was you had to make stuff at a pretty high frequency.

It's like you got to make something every week. And you guys got to work together and figure this out. But the stakes aren't like your, your, the overarching business is health is in your hands, but not like so explicitly.

And so you're just kind of having the creative freedom to play and learn. And I've noticed that that like some of the most prolific creators today are ones that came out of Buzzfeed or came out of an incubator. Because they have a sense of like how the systems work to keep shows and formats going. And I'm curious if you could speak to some of the things you learned within that time of like this is what makes a show work. Because you guys made a lot of shows like from that first video that you guys worked on together.

Donut was like a series of shows and a lot of different formats and shows and concepts. So, you know, we asked a similar question to the try guys about their time at Buzzfeed.

“Like what what were you guys uniquely good at inside of that incubator?”

Like us individually? Or just the group like why were you able to spin out good shows as a group regularly? I think that we had a team that was pretty die hard.

There was a lot of, I mean, from us to the interns, you know, everyone just was thought so privileged to be there and we were always there.

I'm essentially so. There was always ideation going on because there was enthusiasm and you know, we'd be there. Late almost every single night, those like first few years in particular. It was like fun. It was so fun.

Yeah. It's like smoke and sigs and like drinking beers and stuff. So fun. So that's the, that's what it was. Yeah.

Yeah. There was a good balance of that kind of like looseness there, but then also enough. You know, as I said earlier, like guidance to help kind of keep us on the rails that we are able to.

I don't know, like maintain the magic with the looseness, you know, there's a lot of accountability.

Yeah. So we would be playing jazz is what I say a lot. But, you know, we had accountability to be there to play the jazz. You had to show practice every day. Yeah.

We had like deadlines and if we missed stuff, like it was a big deal. Oh, six. Yeah. No six. I mean, like, and we eventually had like, and when COVID started, we had six shows a week.

Yeah. That's crazy. And, you know, every once in a while, your show team wouldn't upload on time. And like, that was a big deal. You know, and there's like discussions on why that happened.

“Or I think generally, we were okay with something not performing well.”

If you were like taking a risk and like we just like, ah, yeah, that didn't work. But if it didn't perform well because it like wasn't done, you know, or it didn't perform well. Because it was like poorly written or like poorly performed or it wasn't shot well or the edit sucked. Like, that was a big deal. You know, and like not just from us, from like Matt, who was like our mentor and boss, but like the entire.

Like you were kind of like embarrassed because we had like these individual show teams. Like we had an up to speed team, a dealist team, a money pit team. And we were all like pretty competitive with each other. Got it. Like we had like weekly daily data analytic meanings.

And like sometimes you walked in with your head high. And you're like, oh, yeah, Thursday. How did up to speed dude? Yeah. Check out.

Why don't you check that that peak right there. Oh, yeah. It's pretty good joke. And so like I think like a camaraderie mixed with an internal competition. Like we all wanted to be the best.

That's that's really interesting. Yeah. Like internal competition creates accountability and and like urgency. I think in a way. I want to dig into show teams because I'm curious like what a show team looks like.

Because I find it interesting that you came from comedy. Mm-hmm.

And even as I look inside of like the donut universe, like there was always a writer in the show too.

Yeah. The writing is the is the undervalued piece of our world. Yeah. Like when you have a good writer, everything gets easier. Yeah.

Like the production makes more sense. The post production makes more sense. We come from a world where we were never part of like and incubator. And so our our accountability was to each other. Mm-hmm.

“And I think we all we often still to this day looking at ourselves as good enough editors to be like,”

Well, we'll write it in the edit. Yeah. We'll write it in the edit. We use the title card here. Yeah.

We'll navigate this. But I have noticed as I've looked inside of a lot of really great media companies or YouTube companies. The the whatever the show team looks like. Like the writer is kind of the central piece. So I'm curious if you could talk about what the show teams look like and what you learned about what makes a good show team or the requirements to go.

Yeah. I think there's a lot of ways to do this. Whatever. And I think that we do it in a pretty specific kind of like harder way because we just don't know how to do it any other way. But like I think writing is like the center of all of it.

And I don't we were talking about it before we started shooting like I don't think we're at the point now where we're like 100% scripting every word. I was at that point at some time. But like if you ask me what I do I'd say I'm like a writer like I'm a writer. I'm a pretty good performer and I'm like a because of that. I'm okay YouTube.

But yeah. So like writing has just been at the center of everything from donut all the way through speed. And so like a show team would be the host at the center of it. And the host usually the host started as writers.

It probably wouldn't surprise you to hear that our like base formula for a show team basically looks like our.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like Nolan wrote for me forever.

And we kind of treated it like I came from comedy. And so like the only references I had for doing this professionally were like. Like I wrote on the lawyer squad. Tyler creator show on adult swim. Some of my friends run SNL.

And on SNL a lot of times you'll get hired as a writer and you'll write four people. And then eventually if you do a good enough job and our funny enough in the meetings. You'll get bumped up to like a featured player and then eventually a cast member. So like Nolan. We hired him as an intern and he was like hey I want to write.

And I was like all right you can write for me.

“And so I think through that it allowed me the opportunity to like mentor him as a performer.”

As well because I'm like yeah so you like you wrote this I would never say it like this like pay attention to like my voice.

Like I don't know that word. So like people won't believe it when I say it. And so like being able to spend so much time with him. That was not just me like teaching him how to do something that would benefit him. But like what benefit the company like he's doing is job.

And then eventually he was like oh I want to try to do what you do. And so like eventually he became a performer. I think there's a couple examples of hosts who weren't writers and you can kind of like tell. It's just like a better understanding of like what it takes to make the thing. And I think it's a mistake to treat anyone on camera on YouTube as like.

Just a personality kind of have to be like ingrained in the whole process. At least understand it. So writer host a lot of overlap there. And then generally like a director. And then sometimes a lot of the times the director would also be the editor.

“Yeah I think there's a similar overlap there.”

I think like the best directors oftentimes were editors beforehand just as you. Are already cutting it while you're shooting it. And so I think basically Jesse and I worked really well developing those first shows. And then we were like oh let's just do that more. And so like we would create these like two to three man teams where they sort of like filled the gaps for each other.

And eventually could just like make this whole thing together. So basically it can be two people but writer host director editor. Yeah and it could be two people. And do you feel like the director's job is to go like from the script of like we have a concept, the director pushes the like the schedule forward of like a we got to shoot it by this day or.

I think director. Predator.

Predator was a tough one.

“I think like as I remember when that came really time.”

Yeah, for those of you don't know Predator was producer editor. Yeah, yeah, they were like. Yeah, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's tough.

It's a tough name. I say the director's job is to know what the video is going to look like. Like that's that red path directs our stuff now and his I'll write a lot of our stuff. He write everyone at speed writes. But like even if I write a script or like I'm.

I'm in charge of like figuring out the words. Like a lot of times Zach will outline it for me beforehand. And it'll be like all right. So like in this part is where it's got to be like about this long.

“And I think you should mention that thing that you're saying in the meeting the other day where blah blah.”

And like right here. We're going to be blah blah blah and like so like right. Kind of like this little it'll be best in your voice, but like right this little thing. And so like I. I think I am like a visual person, but like Zach is very good at like knowing what the video is going to look like when we're done.

And figuring out all the things that need to happen together to get there. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it's interesting to learn again. I think like a lot of this stuff comes to life in these in these incubators.

And a lot of at that era it was like major or big company.

And then they basically bred independent creators inside of the company.

Because what happened was just like, hey, it's advantageous to us for you guys to just go make stuff. Right. And make it and have fun and just experiment and, you know, be on a weekly cadence but just make stuff.

“Then there was a moment and I think it's such a significant moment with the try guys because I think this is the best comp.”

When they were at Buzzfeed, what they told us was there was one day, there's four of them. And the show concept was these four guys go try something. And they got pulled into a meeting and they were like, we don't think it's efficient for all four of you to go try something. Can just one of you do it in an episode. And I think that is a metaphor for the turning point of all of these companies.

Mm-hmm. How do we get a little more efficient with this meeting? Do we actually need the four guys to go do it? Yeah, the prioritizing efficiency over the show that's actually performing the best. Yeah.

So looking at the show that's the hit and being like, it's not working. Yeah. Yeah. I am pretty adamantly against the concept of like efficiency being good. I think it's been shoved down our thoughts like convenience and efficiency.

It's like some of the best stuff ever is extremely inefficient. Like kind of like everything we're working towards is to be allowed to be inefficient. And so I think like especially I think, especially in that time we're like so much money was going into YouTube from like private equity and like big like Buzzfeed and donut and stuff. There you kind of forget that it is an artistic thing, you know, and. And once you start cutting stuff that like doesn't make sense to like some guys like well, I mean this is like a tail as old as entertainment I guess.

The bean counters man. You know, you you start whittling away the magic. Like wasting time is kind of the point. I felt like there was this moment in time where creator or like media startups started getting treated like tech startups where venture money came in. And the assumption was like, let's let's poor gas on the fire of what's working.

Let's increase the output of this product and our users, which is like the audience, but let's decrease the cost. And I think you can do that in software. You can solve how that math equation works in software. But over here you're solving how that works with like.

People's emotions because the second, you know, the four try guys are like know the shows the four of us going out and having fun that's a dynamic.

The second you're like, can it just be one of you? Your emotional connection to it is lost. And I don't think at the the the largest scale people understood that if you lose the emotional like if you guys stop caring about the show that's that the show stops. And that's actually a really bizarre thing in business and I think probably a misguided assumption of how you can invest in media companies or how you can invest in creator companies. Yeah, super fragile.

It's very fragile. Yeah. And I think like someone, especially if it's like a new boss or like a new superior or something, if someone comes in and gives you that note, that's like,

Like, I just feel like that's so disheartening because like you're like, wait, you're in charge.

Yeah, like, you know, get in my boss and like you don't get it at all. You don't even get why this is good. Or you, you once got it, but you now your mind is in the spreadsheet, right? And like you, you've created a situation where you don't have a choice. Uh, were there any specific moments at donut where the two of you felt that on a specific piece of content where you were like, damn, this isn't the same type of experience. But on the same type of agency, the things that we value are not valued and we need to move on.

I don't know if we have one as clear cut as the try guys. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Yeah, ours was sort of like a slow whippling away of our enthusiasm.

“Yeah, I think like once, like scheduling kind of took over and they were like five hosts.”

And I think also like donut, we kind of like blew up during COVID. And so we were very, we were very much individual creators or like these individual show teams. When we were all just like making our own shows and then uploading them to the same channel and kind of like waving the same banner. And like wearing the same logo on our shirts and I think I don't want to discount how big of a part of the sort of like vibe of donut that was like we were sort of like I've always been attracted to like collectives.

And I think in a lot of ways don't very much was like this collective of individuals that sort of just like repped the same set.

And then once we got back into like that big studio and then especially once we got acquired.

Yeah, the efficiency and like, okay, well, we'll have like James here and then he's got to like go over here and like it. It was like wildly inefficient before and we were kind of like on our own. Because like I would shoot at night a whole bunch or like early donut like Jesse night would like going on Saturday and shoot or like I like rewrite this whole thing like an entire script right before we shot. And so like once it got like.

“Super dialed between like where the hosts were and started treating I think when it started treating all the online are on air guys as like.”

Resources like nodes nodes to like move around like you will be creative during this time. Yeah, and then you go to this room and then you do your thing that you do stupid and like I think that was like the moment for me was like this isn't the same. And yeah, it started treating. Yeah, the guys who were talking as equipment kind of. So you guys got acquired by recurrent ventures and did you know about that prior to it or no before we got acquired.

Yeah, yeah. Because one thing you said in your video of why I left donut you said the original sin of donut was that you guys weren't equity partners that you didn't have equity.

“Yeah, I mean they've raised money to start donut and I think from the beginning don had a lot of like ownership that was never in the building got it.”

And so I think that was the original that was. Yeah, yeah, and we were kind of nobody's when we started you know so we didn't we didn't even know. You know that we of course and nor was that even like a probably a thought at that time. Yeah, but as a grew like again, it's like a lot of media companies are based on the talent like people follow people. Yeah, and I think you guys proved that as you've.

Started over on YouTube on a on a separate channel. Like when when when you left donut, did you have were there any fears of like. Losing even the like the audience the validation the like any of the things that came from being on a channel that was very beloved. Yeah, certainly there was a night where I was like that was like literally I was like I've ruined my life like I had a pretty good. Yeah, yeah, and I ruined my life.

Was that anything deeper on that was that rooted in in financial stability was that rooted in like just the whole. Identity that identity of being on don't know what was that where you when you're. I was in my I think I was in my bedroom or like I have a mirror between my bathroom and bedroom.

We had just put out our first video I think is what you're talking about and the first couple days it took a while to catch because we had just made a new YouTube channel and so the algorithm had no clue.

“And so basically all the views came from James's Instagram account and like the analytics source and we're like hmm that doesn't seem.”

Good, completely super low. So you spit you spin up a new channel and do the why left donut that's like classic.

You leave a media company why left Buzzfeed was like a meta in it of itself and you do that but like today that video has almost 8 million views.

So in those first few days first few days had less than 100k and got it. Yeah, I was like I've ruined my life. But then within a couple days that algorithm like found us or something and I woke up on we released it on Thursday woke up on Sunday and like the graph was like straight up but I was like I just start crying. I was like oh my god really like think I yeah because I was like I was like I've wildly overestimated how much people liked me. I guess they just like donut.

Yeah, you know. And so there was like the performance of the video. Yeah, it's too much you think people care about what you've spent the last nine or whatever years it was on this project. Totally.

I'm not like good at anything else.

Like I found this like weird thing. And I'm like kind of funny and I kind of teach you stuff funny. Yeah, I'm like so grateful that I'm being able to build a pretty neat little life for myself based on that but yeah we put out the video and like oh I guess nobody liked it. I was pretty confident that some people would follow and like we gave each other like a talk like Jesse and I went to lunch with like. Guy Billy and then like all the like arcs yeah like while we were super bummed about it.

And like I was like you know what dude like to Jesse I was like we did it before we're going to do it again brick by brick like we didn't bring a lot of the audience over with us but we'll just build a new one like they're out there and then like it ended up being okay. That video too, it's not like it's just a 15 minute talking head. Yeah, it's 45 minutes with a lot of music and be. And it requires a lot of my time as a viewer to watch that which is I think maybe what people don't think about too much is that the weekends are like the big like you put it on Thursday people are looking at that and being like I don't have 45 minutes right.

I got 45 minutes on Saturday. Yeah, I don't have 45 minutes right now. We've noticed with recent really long videos like the camping video like yet they'll perform better starting on the weekend, but like that video has had a peak during prime time. So like people would watch it like after work. Yes, eating dinner.

Yeah, I feel really cool. Yeah, I mean that's it's because people are watching YouTube on TVs. Yeah, makes a ton of sense. Do you have a sense of how much new audience you found maybe not with the Y left donut but you know I did not follow you at donut. I did not watch Y left donut when it came out.

I really came across you pretty much for the first time with the car hard video to think is video number two.

Right. Do you know how much. Explain that video.

“So the car hard video I believe was a history basically of of car hard and deep dive into the brand.”

And that's the video. That was the first true speed. How did you come across that video? I'm wearing car hearts right now. Yeah. I'm like I'm like a speed. Like I'm not the speed man, but I'm like an aspiring speed man.

It's hard for me to imagine you coming across that video. Really like a deep dive about a brand? Yeah, okay. No, that's actually like how I came about you. And I was like, oh, this is cool.

Like this is the type of stuff I'm into. Do you know how much audience is new? I mean, it's hard to say.

“I think anecdotally, obviously a huge percentage of it is donut.”

But I would say anecdotally in the comments, especially in the last like few months in particular. There's been a lot more of like I didn't even know you at donut. But like this is this is great. So I didn't I didn't watch donut, but I watched speed. Uh, what, what was the plan though when you guys left?

Yeah. We had no plan and it showed. Yeah. For years. You guys, I mean, when we, when we met,

I remember sitting on on our couch at our other old studio and you told me what speed was going to be. And you said it was, you were going to modernize the men's magazine. And I, I was like, wow, that's, that's really interesting. But I was like, is that going to work?

I don't even know what these guys are talking about.

“But like, you guys had a vision for it very clearly.”

Um, and I, I said this to you guys on the phone. But I've only seen two people execute a vision like that. One was when Cleo Abram told me the idea for huge of true and two is when you guys told me the idea for speed. Um, where those visions actually came to life exactly. Um, but prior, like, when you guys left donut was this the idea, okay, we're going to start our own channel.

We know how to build a show team. We know how to make weekly videos. We like making videos together. But was there was there a clear cut idea of what this was and what the business was going to be. And like, did you have a business plan or was it just like,

we're just going to keep doing what we do, but just not in this company anymore. We're going to do it over here. I would say that we assumed that we were going to do something together, but there very much was not a plan around it. Um, like, I actually quit before James could use it under contract,

but I quit and just went to New York for like a couple months to like not think about videos, especially car videos. Um, and James and I talked of, you know, a bit back and forth and James would volley like different variations of like a car. Channel kind of concepts. I don't know if we like bought this kind of car and I like built a drift car and like I learned how to drift and like it.

And there's just like that sucks.

“Um, and I think like the natural thought was like, yeah, I guess we'll just like do what I,”

the part of that I did it down at alone. And I think that Jesse being so uninterested in car content like definitely influenced me having like think about other. Other ideas. Um, because like whatever we were going to do, we had to be excited about it. And so I started thinking about like what we did like, and I think when we started,

I don't know where a lot younger. Um, and I think we kind of only liked cars, but like, because our job became cars, we had to find other things that we liked. And I also from Donut was like, I think we're like older now. You know, we have like, we've had jobs for a number of years.

And like we were able to sort of like indulge in other parts of life. You know, so like I got, especially like designing merch for Donut and like the apparel program like. We like started liking fashion and like I'd say like at the end of Donut, I wasn't really paying attention to car media as much as I was like men's wear. And like, it's still a big deal when a men's wear guy would like DM me or like follow me.

Like that's kind of how I felt early on at Donut when, you know, a guy from Hood again would like follow me. Like dude fucking Larry from throwing fish. Do you own me dude? Um, yeah. And so that kind of started the thoughts of like,

okay cool, like we have learned how to do all this stuff. Maybe it's not cars at all.

And then Zach Red Path was the first person I pitched the idea of speed too.

And it was like, don't up with men's wear. I was like, so I'll do like history of like supreme. I'll do like the history of car heart. Um, and I'll do like these video essays based on like, like men's wear stuff, like fashion stuff. And that'll be the first thing I do because that was the first thing I did it Donut.

And from there, I know that we can like read that and then start these other formats based on it. And so like eventually we'll do like product testing videos and eventually like we'll figure out some like travel format and we'll like grow it. But because of what we did it Donut, we know that we can start with this like little thing that I can shoot in my dining room. And we can figure out how to put a video out like pretty consistently.

“And I think within a couple weeks it of like air.”

And I told it to Zach first and I told it to Matt Levin who was the CEO of Donut.

I told it to both of them to make sure that they thought it was a good idea before I told Jesse because I know that Jesse respects both of those guys. And like if I was like, well, Zach and Matt think that you can sell him on it. Yeah, he might be like more excited. And so like he was and we started doing it and then I think within a couple weeks we realize like you know what I actually do really like cars. And so like we should do some car stuff.

And so like yeah the way we think about it now is like speed is like a men's magazine. Like a men's style magazine but like cars are part of a man's style. And so I think it would be cool if GQ had car stuff in it. And so that's just kind of like what it is. But that's that's not typical YouTube advice.

Like a typical YouTube advice today is like hey you got to be pretty pretty sure about who you're talking to and what the subject matter is you're talking to. And I guess those are two different things of like pick a pick a niche which is like in my head is a subject matter.

Like finance is a niche or you know our first business was in lacrosse like that's in the niche.

But but then you guys approached it as like hey we're actually going to talk to a specific person which is also a niche like a demographic is a person but it's harder to it's more abstract. Yeah I wouldn't see. It's not the smartest way to do it. But I also don't think that if we came out with the James Pumphrey car channel that it would be as successful as speed. You know I think we're trying our best.

This is as good as it can be right now like successful wise too.

And I don't know like I think I I mean there's a million things that like went into that I think that like.

When we started done that we were in meetings with brands. And like investors and stuff and we would have to explain to them what a niche was and like what niche content was and like millennials like. To like watch something about like one thing and like we're explaining the concept of what is YouTube now essentially. And then when we started speed like we would get that note from like agencies or like money guys or whatever like yeah but like you really should be doing like niche. Yeah yeah pick a lane and I kind of feel like that's not really their job to to tell us what is cool and like what the wave is like that's my job and as soon as like.

Somebody like that is like you know what you need to do and like they're all saying the same thing like my thought was like yeah that's over like that wave is over like.

“If you know what I'm supposed to do then I don't think that's what I'm supposed to do anymore and I think that like.”

Identity is different now and I think for a long time people like really. Decided to be a thing and then they were just like that thing and I think nowadays. People are more open to being like a bunch of different kind of things and like kind of cause playing as a mechanic for three days or. Like I'm an outdoorsy guy today and just like kind of embracing the nuance like in our lives a little bit and so they got that was kind of the bet that we made. I love that you said that if they are telling you what the wave is then that's going to be gone deciding the way it is not your job respectfully.

It's really interesting. Yeah I'm talking to this dude. Yeah but did you have as you went into it did you have like an understanding of how revenue would come in or even like. Because I think one of the reasons why an agent or someone would give you that advice is like then like okay advertisers know who the audience is it's much more clear. Yeah and I do think that like because I've wanted this myself I think that like.

That might influence.

“The thought that like you need to be niche more than the audience.”

Like I think like well it's really hard for advertisers to understand it's really hard to sell ads to like a men's lifestyle. Channel versus like a technology channel or an automotive channel and I wonder how. Like I wonder if the audience has a hard time understanding it or if like the brands have a hard time understanding it so like I wonder like what the. Yeah I mean the one thing I'll say is like I had this feeling but we've whenever we've talked about your channel to other people who kind of live and breathe YouTube.

The common expression is like it's a refreshing channel that it's like oh man thank god there's a channel that's doing. Something like this it's like the ingredients for me that feel really special is it's. Very relaxed like you're hosting abilities very relaxed you don't feel like you're screaming at us you don't feel like you're hitting lines like it feels like you are just talking to us which is a really.

“As much as that has been YouTube I think we lost it for a little bit.”

Yeah I would say you have your own theatrics too right there's an element of you could see what a late night myologue would be like. James was hosting you know what I mean like you like you go down directions that feel like a late host or even like.

John Oliver like you have that which I think is unique obviously that was the first job I ever wanted.

Yeah I wanted to be Conan.

He's like I don't know about the comedy.

Yeah that's the first job I ever wanted in like.

Last week tonight the kind of started when we started doing donut and so like was just like. A huge influence on the way that we wrote the way we delivered stuff the way we edited things the way that like. You can make things that aren't breaking right now. Feel extremely relevant so like car heart is a good example it's like. That story starts in the late 1800s but there was also a conversation going on last year that was like.

Is wearing work where stolen valor. And so like very. Last week tonight it was like all right here's something that you've seen on TikTok. Today yeah. Now let me spend an hour talking about like this other thing.

“And so yeah yeah I think about the ingredients it's like there's this.”

Ability to deliver in an engaging way. There's a refreshingness to the variety of the topics. There's an element of like oh shit I didn't even realize I was about to learn something. I guess telling you earlier like you drop into like a casual explanation of like calories. I didn't want you to recent videos but the graphics are actually as if it's Cleo Abram.

Like it's like pretty intricate which is surprising. And then I think there's an added element of fourth element of like. A surprising sincerity that I think is actually pretty hard to achieve on YouTube like in your video about how men can dress better. At the end you're like speaking to the audience in a way that's like hey you can actually just like feel better and be a better version of yourself. And that sounds really cheesy like when I say it.

“Yeah and when most people say that type of stuff you're like okay like everyone like enough but I think you found a way to deliver it with the level of sincerity that feels real.”

Yeah I don't know how you do that or I think that's got to be natural but I think that's an element too of like. As an audience member I'm like oh I feel like this guy cares about men and the people on the other side without it feeling performative. I do me and I'm like incredibly grateful that I'm allowed to do this like my job is so. Like not it's like I don't want to be like self deprecating my job is like. So made up.

Yeah like I I made my job up like I hang out at my house and then around 9 or 10 two of my best friends come over and then we talk about stuff we like. And then we like riff and then like all right are you ready to joke around on camera.

And I'm like yeah and then I do that and then an incredible editor makes me look even better.

And then a bunch of like dudes are like dude you're cool. Yeah that is great. It's amazing. So like I am so grateful for that and so like every time I ask someone to like give me their time. And my whole currency is a bunch of dudes time.

And so like if I'm asking them for their time like I'm going to give them like everything I can you know.

“I think the variety of some of these topics are so interesting to me like that that was something that fascinated me when I first started really watching your channel like.”

You know just to read some of the titles nine cool cars for cool guys 25 that has 3 million views how Nike finally hacked skateboarding. That has almost 700,000 views 10 habits to unlock a better life 1.5 million views. Why are like a camera so expensive 1.1 million views like these are that one was going to bomb. That was not going to work the first video is act directed. Maybe we should have waited to make him a owner.

I tried 30 viral health trends for 30 days to see what's worth like it did end up performing very well. Yeah did it didn't brought in a ton of new audience.

It has over a million views like it's pretty rare for you guys not to hit a million views now which is incredible because again like.

The more recent videos that I was even watching like how I lost 65 pounds without really trying right next to testing old versus new camping gear right next to doing a simple engine swap in 48 hours. Right next to the most regretted college degrees like just advice we would never give like the network model on YouTube. Still to this day in my opinion like doesn't work but could you see them all next to each other in a magazine. Yes and that is but nobody has ever suggested you know it was the thing back in the day right like Buzzfeed essentially was a magazine like just that era of those those media brands were magazines.

Yeah I'm not sure this works with different hosts though. I'm not sure I watch camping with a different host or two different hosts than one of the other videos about like weight loss or something. I think the difference yeah the difference between Buzzfeed. Like the magazine that Buzzfeed is I feel like Buzzfeed is like a rolling stone or something like a big Buzzfeed's obviously a big company and I think speed is more like. George like John F. Kennedy juniors magazine like it's a magazine but like the editor and chief is like you can feel him in it like you can very much feel.

The guys that are making speed yeah and so I think like it's more like.

“These like it's more of a zine right now you know where like the creators have faces and that's why I think it's like important from the get go that like.”

Yeah I mentioned Jesse in the first video like against his will like I was like I'm gonna film you want them to see you because then I'm not alone.

And we started I started pushing Zach into videos like I mentioned SR and so I think it's important to know the people behind it. Is that the extent of the company right now of speed and then core and Tim and then we just hired a second editor Tom six people. Yeah two editors what does Tim do Tim is like our COO so he's like doing up stuff he. Does all of our merch as we get into events and stuff he's producing more and more videos. Could you explain everyone's role including you guys up like here's here's everyone of course like roles change a little bit.

Do my best yeah okay I'm James I we just decided I'm CEO just very really like a week in a week. Yeah I'm the boss and my therapist said that I need to be okay with it. So I am. So I'm super fine. I'm cool with it.

It's great.

“Um I host the videos I think I probably think about like the voice of it and like where I think it can go the most.”

And then. And I talk about with them a lot Jesse's the president. Isn't it are you is that new lead the president. Yeah I mean we all wear a lot of hats but yeah I do all the emailing the course he does the brand stuff. Yeah the phone activities for the most part but also be involved in.

Ideas and the scripts and Jesse's the first person that hears about anything and so Jesse's.

Like I couldn't start a YouTube channel alone like Jesse figured out how to like do it. And then Zach is probably chief it Jack is chief creative officer and he directs all of our videos and. He works on like the visual style with me and Jesse and S R who's our like main editor and the four of us we own speed. Okay.

“And then we have a second editor this guy Tom which he edits strictly.”

And S R is responsible for like. So he is going to be all the edits and the tone like when we said speed is a magazine he.

Makes the videos feel like a magazine.

And then Tom just edits and then Tim like I said. Yeah Tim to the newest addition to the team but we lean on him for all up stuff he helps with like producing. He works as like a whole operation that he and his wife run for us and. Yeah kind of play safety. Yep.

Yeah. So you're the CEO. So do you are you responsible for the PNL of the business like do you. That would be me. That's you.

Okay. And so how does the business make money like percentage wise is it mostly brand deals is it brand deals add sense merchandise. How does it look it's a yeah it's about. Hopefully thirds the brand deals are more. But you know some months merge will outpace interest brand deals on good months.

Yeah brand deals add sense I would say. Usually the brand deals are a little bit more than the add sense but if we have longer videos in a month.

That's cool. That's great. Yeah.

What what surprised you going into running your own media.

Your own media company like coming from Donut to running your own. I just sit around Donut. Like me and like when we left there like 45 employees there. And Jesse and I were like what are all these people do. And then we started.

You were like oh. Everyone. Yeah. There's a lot of. Ancillary things when you're not just the creator there's a lot of things.

Yeah. Yeah. Even describing Jesse is the phone guy like I deeply understand that. There's just a lot of things. Yeah.

Which does make it hard to fill your day with just creating.

Like one of the gifts that I think you guys got it. Donut was like your days were just thinking about the show. Totally. And I think it's a thing where you have to like prioritize. Um.

Being creative and like even like having a creative vibe. Yeah. Like in the space where I think there's so many opportunities. Real or fake or potential that you can. Waste a lot of time and burn yourself out.

“And I think it's important to remember that like at the core of it.”

Is like making videos. And so like if you don't make good videos then all that other stuff goes away. So even if you like don't answer the phone or send that email in a timely manner. That the core is like the important. Yeah.

And it gets harder to keep making good videos because the better the videos are. The more people call and the more interesting the phone calls get. Yes. And the easier it is to be like we should prioritize that call. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We just said notice something that was like. Pretty cool and would be pretty fun. Just because we're like I think it would just like destroy the compromise.

Yeah. Without like naming the brand or going too much into it. You can talk about like what was the type of opportunity. It was like a brand that we have wanted to work with for a long time.

Even like at donut and never did.

And we worked with every other company in that like space. We worked with all their competitors. That was like the one that we wanted. And it was like wasn't the biggest opportunity. But it was just like getting in bed with those guys.

And so. Yeah. But I think like the. Sometimes I know is like powerful in a short way.

“And so like I think that relationship is like still there.”

We just had to say no to this one. Damn. But I think it's like responsible. Sometimes to say like well that would just like totally ruin three weeks for us. And I think the like the wave of consequences of just like ruining three weeks for us.

Isn't like worth it. Yeah. And I think honestly the discipline required to put out a video every week is pretty dramatic. And I want to get into that of like. What's the process.

How far out are you guys with the process like of green lighting one of these ideas. Like when you're sitting in a room being like. We should do the nine cool cars for cool guys like when is it. Clear to you like yeah that's a speed video. What how do you green light a video for speed because it feels like.

It feels pretty open. And I would say that's like you know in the in the next chapter of YouTube. But I've noticed as we've even sat and like kind of come back to the drawing board of what our channel can be. And what our show can be there's so many things I'm interested in. There's so much openness to like what I could pour myself into.

“And I think that that decision making is one of the keys to a good YouTube creator is like knowing what to make.”

How do you know what to make? I'm positive. We have a lot of fear around that session. Oh, for sure. For sure.

We definitely take swings and I think I think that fear is a big part of where we're at right now. Like we know we can make car videos kind of. Although we have had like some surprise vlogs. We're like really. What do you define as a vlog in viewership?

I don't. I don't watch. I don't track views after like 30 days. So there are a lot of videos that ended up not being flopped. And we're like kind of a longer play.

I think like not necessarily a viewership. He's of it, but sometimes will will know if we like really took a swing with a video. Like I would say we have a pretty good track record, but there's been a few times when we've been like just had to get something out.

But it certainly wasn't like our best work.

“So like I think outside of like what we know we can do.”

Every time we like introduce a new type of subject or whatever like go into a new niche.

We're basically asking the audience permission.

Like a big one for me was like how to dress better. And so like I was basically asking YouTube if I was allowed to make videos about this. And they were like yeah, I'm like great because I really want to. With like we tried 30 viral health trends. We were like, are we allowed to make these kind of videos?

And they were like, yes. We're like great because we really want to. We were like, and there's been a couple like we're not allowed to make. Like what? I don't think people.

So like we were like can we make a video about how like AI is so scary?

And we're all fucked and they were like no.

We don't think we want you to make those kind of videos. There's enough of those. Please stay away from those.

“Yeah, and I think that's a thing to like every video is getting made.”

Every type of video is being made by somebody. And some people are just going to do it way better than me. And so like sometimes the audience is responding where it's like, hey, an AI video about the world being really scary. We don't really like need that from you.

I'm like, no it. You kind of like cheer us up. Yeah, and we made a crypto video. And they were like, we don't really want that from you. I was like, you know what?

Good point. I wasn't super comfortable making it anyway. Yeah. And I think the takeaway from those two and a few other ones were exactly that, where it's like, that was a bummer.

And I think like speed is sort of an escape from people. And I think we're beating over the head by so much. Like I don't need to make people more aware about how fucked up everything is right now. I can like kind of help a little bit. And so yeah, so like every time we introduce something new,

it is asking permission. Like what's the next speed video coming up? The next one is 47 things everyone should know how to do. And so when who pitched that idea and how did that go? Like that's the one we're going to make.

That idea came from Zach just had a baby a year and a half ago.

And he realized that there's a ton of like basic things that his dad never taught him.

And so he started making this list of things my dad never taught me how to do, that he wants to teach his son. And that was like we've been talking about that idea since the first conversation we had with him about joining speed. And he was like, would this be a speed video? We were like, yeah.

And so like where like for a video, we shortened it to 47. And kind of focused on like the more practical ones because there's a lot that are like, sort of like a theoryal. Like these are like cut it onion and iron a shirt and don't stand in a doorway and take a compliment.

“Here's five knots you should know how to do know how to change a tire.”

And so I think like ultimately what we do think of it as like a magazine and if they they can be wildly different, we've sort of put in the work and continue to put in the work aesthetically and like viby and like the voice and the POV. So that we can I feel like we can cover a number of different subjects but still be very specifically us and very nuanced in the way that we do them. So that they all still feel like they're coming from the same place and that same group of guys that we've been. Really like like presenting to people.

Do you like a scheduled pitch meeting where you decide like okay, these are the next four videos? We should we do we don't we. We'll have it on the calendar and we'll be good for like two months and then it will will be busy and it will. Once you stop. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So that's come from theory yes, but yeah, practice sometimes. But yeah, as I think that's like a best practice like we. It you do have to sit down and come up with I do not every idea is like and then I was like struck by this. A lot of times it is just like the work like I think our best. Like runs are when we just do the thing we're like all right come with 25 ideas each.

And then we like read them and then if it's not one of those are like it'll be a number of those and if like one thing gets like.

Um, yeah, we do I think the best work when we're like make ourselves work.

“So what's coming out after things you need to know.”

Um, let's see. Put me on the spot. Um, we shot it. Oh, oh, oh, we're testing time saving products because there's a lot of gadgetry that you get served on Instagram ads or whatever, but we got a bunch of those things like a high tech toothbrush. Yeah, the toothbrush is what sparked the idea for the video.

Okay, so like have you seen it? It's like a mouthpiece. Yeah, yeah, it's like a smart toothbrush and apparently you can brush your teeth in 20 seconds and I just sent a link to that and I was like, is this something. And then we went from there because I thought it was funny. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a fun format on the surface, but we use it a little bit to kind of discuss them a little bit more like ethereal.

And then the point of our societal obsession with efficiency and time saving like James in preference. And how much do you think about like how it'll be positioned like how visual it can be in a thumbnail or anything like that? Or is that is it mostly driven by like this is something I'm personally kind of interested in and I can expand upon that. And that we think like the the men on the other side are getting served these ads to so let's like dig into this time saving concept. I do like it when something is like happening like it's like in the ether, I think that's best case scenario, especially if we can connect it to like something bigger and so like for me best case scenario is the conversation is happening.

It's kind of in people's minds and so like when our video pops up they're like, oh. Yeah, I've seen this like let's see where these guys have to say about it got it and then we kind of like can expand on that. I mean it's like different like with the camping video. We kind of just wanted to do a big video outside. But it was a number of things you know we comparing we knew that like comparing old versus new is not only like a great YouTube title, but it's also like a pretty interesting like curiosity gap that we're curious about.

Personally like how much has this stuff changed and so we didn't really have the title or the thumbnail specifically dialed in in fact we've a be tested probably like 12 versions of that, but we knew that just intrinsically in that concept would be packaging that would like work for you to. It was a great video of yours that I also thought was going to bomb when I saw it come out, but then I really enjoyed was how to have a great summer. Yeah, that was a great idea. Thank you.

“Yeah, that one was wild because I look that I was like yeah, nobody on YouTube wants to watch this video and then it turns out a lot of people and you should want to watch that video.”

That one certainly was one that the packaging was we're less sure. So we put a lot of effort into it. Yeah, we bought stuff for the thumbnail. It's not normal. Yeah, it's like we did like a and then that's the one that didn't even win. Maybe test we had like a barbecue grill going in. Yeah, so I think I think like the speed channel internally for us has represented this.

Creative freedom that I think we've always wanted as well as like kind of a line of sight into the potential to reinvent and I think we're getting to the point now.

A lot of people have been doing YouTube for a long time like decades or a decade. 10 to 15 years where you've been you've been making videos on YouTube and like as creatives we all change.

“And so I want to get into this concept of of reinvention and even just starting a channel because you guys put together this checklist of nine things that you need to have to start a YouTube channel.”

Yeah, is that right? And this is also one of the things that makes the channel so wonderful is like, you know, a lot of the 2020 to 2023 era of YouTube, especially on our show was heavily talking about retention. How do you keep someone's attention from the beginning of the video to the end? Like why would they watch until the end? And this is one of the most simple mechanics to say why I would watch until the end where there's a one through nine checklist and I want to know what all of them are and I can't know unless I watched the whole thing.

It's like, it's a very simple analog mechanic to keep me watching. So it's one of every video is a list. Every video is every video is a list. I have heard that.

Yeah, we were a little apprehensive to do a list the first time. I think it was nine cool cars for you guys just because it is so like base.

I think there's a reason why it works, like, yeah, it's just work.

“I pitched that video as a short and we're going to do it as a short and then I think Nike SB video didn't do very well and I was like mad at it.”

And so I called Jesse. I was like, fuck it. I'll just do like a car list. Yeah, I did really well. Cool. What does this mean? Yeah. All right. So let's do number one.

Number one. We've covered a lot of very good one. Tell us also what is this list? What is this list up? Okay. So this is the list of nine things that you need to have if you're going to start a YouTube channel and have some success.

“I think there's a million other ways to do this. This is just the only way we know how. These are basically the important things to us.”

I think, and if someone asked me what we do and what they should have, this is what I would say. Hopefully this works. A POV point of view. Every video has been made. Every idea has been made. Every subject has been covered. You can still make a video about it. You just have to make it yours and give people a reason to watch yours.

Even instead of someone else's, but in addition to somebody else's, like, there's been a million videos about roasting a chicken.

And I don't think that people only watch roasting chicken videos to learn how to roast a chicken. I think there's been a million videos about dressing better, but people watched mine in addition to some other great videos about dressing better because my position in my point of view. I'm saying a thing. Yeah, I agree with this that actually think now you need more POV and more conviction than ever before. And it's also that it's classic and media where like news is a great place to see this, where you go.

The news is the news, like there's something that happened, but the different networks and the different hosts give you opinion on that thing. And they have no opportunity to connect with you or share this with someone else if you do not have a strong and clear POV. Totally. And I think like I used to be able to just make a video on the history of a thing. I don't know up to speed was just like, here's what happened. And with speed, we've had to pivot it to like Volkswagen is turning their back on us. I told the history of Volkswagen in that video, but it's also like saying something like car heart.

We were talking about the history of car heart, but through the lens of like are you allowed to wear car heart.

“And so I think right now, I agree, it's 100% more important to have a POV than like ever. Yeah, there's so much stuff also my ability to get just the information, even from just typing it into chat you behavior.”

I can get the history of car heart in like a second. So I, I don't want the efficient version. I want the perspective. Yeah, why are people watching your thing. Yeah, I love that. So a partner is partner up. I think you can do it alone. I couldn't do it alone. I'm sure you guys can relate partners are good. I'm I'm good at the specific things that I'm good at doing. I think I'm also very good at realizing what I'm not good at. I'm a partner. I don't want anyone who is good at something. And so like there's just no way that I could be as good at four things as four people could be a one thing.

S.R. spent 200 hours editing the last build video. You know, Jesse is like so good at the phone stuff. And Zach like can visualize things in a way that like I never could. So I think creatively.

I've always been a fan of like collaborative creation. Like I've always wanted to be in a band and we treated donut like a band retreat speed like a band. So like creatively, it's really important. I also think it's important, especially with speed where we like kind of do give like advice or like perspective. If I were doing that alone, I wouldn't feel very comfortable doing it, but because I respect Jesse so much and I respect Zach so much and I respect S.R. and Tim so much. The five of us together kind of make one really good guy and we can keep each other honest and bounce things off of each other and sort of like.

You know and because I trust these guys so much, I can do that confidently which I think is a big thing.

I like that. Like if a POV takes risk and takes courage you want to mitigate the risk by having good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It keeps me from being like, what did I, yeah. And taking the wrong cues like he take cues from my comment and go a direction that you actually shouldn't go, but the people around you are like, now you're fine. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I'm I'm more personally connected to the comments obviously and Jesse is able to be like, you know, don't worry about it. Yeah.

We also keep each other accountable because we sometimes do you're ruining a bunch of other people's weeks. Absolutely don't. Yeah. And like Zach has kids and SR has kids and I I don't think Jesse and I would necessarily need to make a video every week to just support ourselves. But like we're so we have like a group of guys that are relying on we're all relying on each other. So yeah, it's not about there is no like I don't feel like it anymore. And so because of that, I think it pushes us to like try our best at everything.

“Easier said than done to find partners. Yeah, but but a team does create accountability, which I used something you guys mentioned with you and I think it's important.”

And then yeah, it'll also like to gas each other up.

To know. Yeah. So like creativity is only fun because other people look at it and go like damn that's cool. Yeah. Otherwise it's kind of like it's kind of it. I don't know you need that. Yeah. Yeah, but I don't even know how I would internalize this entire career if I didn't have you being like that was cool.

Yeah. Yeah. That was exciting and also that was bad. Yeah. Yeah.

We have a reference point. Right. What was fun about wasn't. Yeah. It's why the channels not called James Pumpery.

It's called Speed because like it's a project and it's a gang and it's like a group. And so like it's easy to think of it like in that way. Yeah. I just like I like partners. Number three. Gross.

Oh. How do references? Ooh. That's good. You got to like stuff.

If you're going to make stuff, I think sometimes this is overlooked. If you're going to work in a medium or an art form, you have to be a fan of the medium and the art form.

“And therefore you have to like have favorites and you have to I think it's helpful to have things that like.”

Are like north stars like I love certain things about Casey and I stat in the way he shot stuff. I love things about van nice that in the way he shot stuff. I love stuff about Will Tennyson and the way that he writes. I love stuff about Emma Chamberlain the way that she shoots the way that she's built her career. The way that she's like 100% herself and how she talks to her audience is a huge influence with how I talk to my audience with speed.

And so I think like if you're going to be a really great musician, you got to really love music. And if you're going to direct movies, you have to really love movies. And so I think to do really well in this, you have to like really love the thing and love little pieces about what people are doing. Because then you can like you still like 16 things, then that's your style, you know what I mean. And so like there's a reason that we use tape and there's a reason that all of our stuff is labeled and you know like Casey does that because Tom Sachs.

Yeah, you know and yeah so references. I'm assuming you've read still like an artist.

“No, you have it. You should read that book because I'm going to tell you maybe two hours to read is not very long.”

But it's the whole book is about this concept. It's about like, and we had Austin come on the show to talk about this this concept of like stealing like an artist because we we were noticing that on YouTube. It's like there's a lot of stealing. But it doesn't feel it's referential. Yeah, you know it feels exact.

It's still reverently. Yeah, you gotta be like, Oh, fuck.

And I think yeah, like he talks about he always says like there's a lot of amongst thieves.

He's on or amongst thieves. He came up with something called the elevator test where if you were in the elevator with your inspiration.

Or give you high five. Yeah, well, we had lunch with Van and he's a punch in the face. We called it back a little bit. I love that before videos you actually want to make. I've made a bunch of videos. I didn't want to make.

I've made videos. I do want to make.

“And I think specifically in like starting a thing.”

This seems like an obvious thing that has overlooked quite a bit. So I think a lot of people say like, Oh, I want a YouTube channel. It's like great. What are your videos going to be? Like what do you want to make? And so like even with speed, like the dress better videos, something I wanted to make eventually. I wanted to put that out.

The first habits video that's something from the beginning that I wanted to make.

Specifically with speed, like I think speed to me was an opportunity because I owned it. To allow myself to be even more personal than I was at Donut because I think eventually with Donut. I was like protecting myself, not from the audience, but from someone else owning those parts of myself. And so almost like as an act of not rebellion, but like I was looking forward to like sharing my story and these things that I've done and learned with my audience in a way that was like 100% me.

So like I couldn't wait to make that video. And so I think before you start shooting stuff, there should be a lot of videos that you want to make. Even if you can't figure out how to make them yet, and you're working towards being able to make a certain thing. I think is like a beautiful thing, like you can't wait to make it, you know. Yeah, I think this one is so important and I think I would even like, there's another version of this of you actually have to want to make videos.

The video making process is not easy. It's hard.

So you have to want to do that because if you just want what's on the other side of it, then now you have videos you need to make.

Not videos you want to make and that's a that's now a very different thing.

“100% and I think so often the conversation with YouTube, especially is, well, what's going to perform well?”

Yeah. What can I do that's going to perform well? I think like in a lot of ways, like with YouTube, it's like self-inflicted all the bad things you've heard about Hollywood. Yeah, like you only want to make a blockbuster, like you can upload it for free and like make it for nothing, but like I only want to make the hits. And like brand deals like, yeah, like, well, I just think yeah, it's like self-inflicted the worst part.

So like, there is something to us at least like with this project where it's like, what do we want to make? What are we going to feel good about making? So as your recommendation there that like before going into launching a channel or something, you should write down like you should have a certain amount of videos you absolutely really want to make. Can't wait to make. Can't wait to make them.

And like some of them you can't afford to make and you're making other videos saving up for like the money or the equipment or like the support to like one day.

Oh yeah, one day I'm going to make this video. That's really good. You know, yeah, I think to your point, like especially as a new channel, you should be thinking about it in the context of like making videos and not making a YouTube channel because like the YouTube channel what is it besides just these individual nodes of videos. And so it's like, you know, you shouldn't be thinking about like I want to start a business. It's like, what do you what's the business do?

Yeah. All right, number five. Oh, a camera and a computer. Yeah. If you can figure out how to do it without them.

Good. I would argue there's some people who do this with a phone. Yeah. Phone is a camera and a computer. I'm so content.

Okay. Jesse brother. Yeah, that's one. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah. That's fair. Six. A vision. And also be ready to change it.

So like a vision like know where you want to go. You're not going to know how you get there.

“You should make a plan on how to get there.”

But like in my experience, that's kind of kind of go out of the way. I think with speed, I know what I want it to be. I want speed to be bigger than a YouTube channel. I want it to be like a respected entity in like the male influence space.

But I want, you know, the website to be a destination.

“I want to be respected by certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain types of brands. And I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

“I want to work with certain groups of people.”

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people.

I want to work with certain groups of people. I want to work with certain groups of people. I mean, when Donut started, it was that time. It was peak start-up time. I was making 60 grand a year.

I was 100 million dollars valuation.

It's not very much. It's just fake money. Everyone had a slip and slide or a water slide in their office. It was like peak, millennial, to be a millionaire's time. Money is fucking fake, bro.

I think it was a roaring 20-year-old. Yes, totally. It's by a fucking car and drive it off a cliff. I just bought a million-dollar blah blah blah. I think Speed is also a reflection of what it kind of feels like right now.

“I think in car YouTube, how many times do I have to see someone buy a shitty car?”

Yeah, how many times do I have to see someone lift something that shouldn't be lifted and jump it? How many times do I have to see someone like this car cost $17 million? It's like, I don't care. I think that you can kind of see that everywhere. Taylor Swift's lesson flopped. Charlie XX is the biggest thing on the planet right now.

Like I think that are in pop. Like I think that polished and kind of like this fake perfection is what that like letting us, like Mr. B's like, hey guys, like Photoshop thumbnail. That was a wave that happened and I just think culturally across the board. That's hair metal and we're going back into like a grunge phase where things are more

a little bit more authentic, not just fake relatable. I think like seeing the pieces a little bit more and actually like having a community but like providing something for that community is like something that's really important to us.

I just think things move in waves and it's an interesting time because I think this is one of the first

times that YouTube has been such a part of culture when culture as a whole is shifting completely and it's pretty fun to watch and be like a part of what that means as like a person like us. I love that. I think that gives me a lot of hope for the next chapter of YouTube. Yeah, that's going to be cool.

Within and more like tone down somewhat reserved, calmer vibe and channel. What are the bigger, I guess, more eccentric swings when you do think out like five years with speed.

Yeah, I know you guys mentioned something interesting about like a physical space. Yeah, I think the most interesting thing for us right now is like don't it was so big on YouTube. But we didn't really feel it outside of YouTube. Yeah, and so we'd like go to this office and we'd all hang out. We make a bunch of videos and we get a ton of views and that was kind of it.

Yeah, down in the mind. Yeah, towards the end I was like when I would shoot or like for the normal podcast, we'd be like, "All right, back to the content minds." Right. I was like mining views.

It was pretty joyless at that point.

You know, there was amazing time.

So I think like, and I think this might be the way across the board where it's like, "I want a really good YouTube channel."

“And where that's what we're the best at, I guess, the most experienced doing.”

I want to like a really good YouTube channel, but like speed is a magazine. So next year we're going to launch a magazine, like a physical premium magazine. I want the website to be a destination. So like part of that, you know, we'll probably do two issues next year, but with like the intention of doing quarterly in 27.

So like to support the in-between of that and also foster writers and stuff. Like I want a tumbler ass blog on speed.co. I want speed.co to be like a place people go every morning. I really do want a physical space. I'd love to have a gas station is like the dream.

That's a cool idea. I don't want to do like an Aero on gas station. That is right for LA. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, just pump me with cacao.

Yeah. And so like, yeah, I think. Yeah, I want to build this like kind of thing that means something to it. That's what I want it to be. I want speed to be a thing that means something to a lot of people.

And a place that like they can get information that they can trust from. And like for us it's mostly like culturally like what's cool. That's it. I want people to come to us to to be cool. Yeah.

You guys have really you know both like implicitly through us just watching the videos.

“And then explicitly today I think are giving us a lot of.”

Confidence in being like 36 year old dudes who are trying to reinvent on YouTube. I think just being like we are now we're into a lot of different things. Like how do we express that? And I think your channel and even this conversation has. Has given me a lot of confidence in that.

Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate that guys.

If there is one video like if if a YouTube was gone tomorrow, but all you could do is like save one video that everyone can watch and remember you for what would that video be.

Hmm. And why? Let's say pride and have it. Hmm. Um, I think as far as like saving something I think that video.

Tells my story the most. Um. And I think offers like. Um. Some sort of value to people who might watch it.

And it's. I think I spent a lot of time hurting myself. Um, and other people to learn those lessons. Hmm. Um, and so I think like.

If.

“Like I think we put that video out and Jesse was like, you know, this will change for people's life.”

Hmm. And I was like, that's cool. At least for. Yeah. For people's lives.

And I was like, that's cool. And so. To me, like. If what I've gone through. Could.

Um. Do that. And like, yeah, I think that would make like those 20 years of almost killing myself. Kind of. That's cool.

Hmm. Well, thanks guys. Yeah. Pretty good time. I can't wait to see what you guys do next.

And can't wait to see the entire list of 47 things I need to know. Yeah. Good. But what I want to do is to not get a lot of students. The Master by Tag Laptop.

He's the internet. He's a master. I'm so sorry. You can say that you can do that. Yeah.

You're a master. But you can't do that. Right. You're the master. You're the master.

Do you just do it with this story? And if you do it then you'll do it. Do it. Do it. Save.

Like this story. Do it with your money. Now it costs a lot of money.