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MrBeast: Future of YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram | Lex Fridman Podcast #351

MrBeast is a legendary YouTube creator. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - House of Macadamias: https://houseofmacadamias.com/lex and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off EPISODE LINKS: MrBeast Main Channel: https://youtube.com/@MrBeast MrBeast Reacts: https://youtube.com/@BeastReacts MrBeast Gaming: https://youtube.com/@MrBeastGaming MrBeast Philanthropy: https://youtube.com/@BeastPhilanthropy MrBeast's TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mrbeast MrBeast's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrBeast MrBeast's Instagram: https://instagram.com/mrbeast Feastable's Website: https://feastables.com MrBeast Burger's Website: https://mrbeastburger.com MrBeast's Merch: https://shopmrbeast.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - 1 billion views and 1 billion subscribers 5:46 - Mortality 13:08 - Improving YouTube 15:31 - Twitter 20:19 - Brand deals 23:29 - Audience retention 28:08 - Hiring 35:46 - Talking to the camera 40:47 - Brainstorming 53:08 - TikTok 1:02:12 - Advice for beginners 1:06:28 - How to grow on YouTube 1:14:12 - Elon Musk and Twitter 1:15:37 - 10 million dollars vs 10 million subscribers 1:22:55 - Going to Antarctica 1:24:40 - Process of making a video 1:29:16 - Overcoming depression 1:40:20 - Building a business 1:48:15 - MrBeast Burger and Feastables 1:52:20 - Creating video games 1:56:29 - Making billions of dollars 1:59:03 - Money vs Happiness 2:05:51 - Mental health 2:12:29 - Love 2:14:37 - Legacy SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

Lex FridmanhostMrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson)guest
Jan 11, 20232h 17mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 5:46

    1 billion views and 1 billion subscribers

    1. LF

      I'm here with MrBeast, the brilliant mastermind behind some of the most popular videos ever created. Uh, do you think you'll ever make a video that gets one billion views?

    2. MD

      I think maybe one of the videos we've already made might get a billion views.

    3. LF

      Which one, do you think?

    4. MD

      Probably, like, the, the Squid Game video, with enough time. I mean, it's only a year old and it's already on 300 million or... Some of the newer ones we've, we've done have gotten, like, 100 million views in a month. Um, so those four projected over 10 years, 'cause YouTube's not going anywhere. Probably one of those.

    5. LF

      So over time, they don't necessarily plateau?

    6. MD

      What's interesting... Oh, uh, we're literally jumping right in-

    7. LF

      Yeah, let's go.

    8. MD

      I love it. It's good. Um, so I, I'm a firm believer that it's much easier to hypothetically get 10 million views on one video than 100,000 on 100. And part of why it's much easier, in my opinion, is, like, if you make a really good video, it's just so evergreen and it never dies. 'Cause YouTube, when you open up YouTube and look at the videos, they're just serving you whatever they, they think you'll like the best, you know? And so if you just make a great video, um, and it's constantly just above every other video, you know, ev- even two years down the road, then they'll just keep serving it and never stop, you know? Which is why it's much easier to make one great video than a bunch of mediocre ones.

    9. LF

      What about one billion subscribers? You've, uh, passed PewDiePie as the most subscribed to YouTube channel.

    10. MD

      Mm-hmm.

    11. LF

      Uh, when do you think you'll get a billion?

    12. MD

      Uh, let me do some math real quick. So we're on 120-

    13. LF

      So you think about this?

    14. MD

      No, I don't, honestly. I... 'Cause one thing you'll find, if you want to gain subscribers, if you want to get views, if you want to make money, any... Almost any metric in this, uh, video creation space, if you want something, it all comes back to, okay, well then just make great videos. So instead of, like, focusing on all these arbitrary vanity metrics, I just kind of focus on the one thing that gets me all that, which is make good videos. But... And that, I do think we will one day hit a billion subscribers. Like, I don't have a plan on going anywhere. Even though we're only on 120 million right now on the main channel, I think... Like, we're doing around 10 million a month now and, um, YouTube just... Yeah, I just don't see it going anywhere and I, I don't see any reason why I'd ever get burnt out or quit. So I think with enough time, yes.

    15. LF

      Uh, I wanted to ask you those family-friendly questions before I go to the dark questions. So now we- (laughs)

    16. MD

      Oh, we-

    17. LF

      Now-

    18. MD

      Have dark questions? Wait, no, no. But if you wanted to hook them, you would start off with the dark questions.

    19. LF

      That's true.

    20. MD

      That, that's how you get them.

    21. LF

      Okay. Well, let me ask you about the... A Twitter poll you posted, a $10,000 death poll.

    22. MD

      Ooh, yes.

    23. LF

      You tweeted, "If someone offered you $10,000 but if you take it, a random person on earth dies, would you take the $10,000?" And, uh, 45% (laughs) of people said yes. That's, at least at the time I checked, 850,000 people-

    24. MD

      Wow.

    25. LF

      Committing murder for just $8.5 billion in total. So, uh, what do you learn about human nature from that?

    26. MD

      That's a, a good question. Um, honestly, it was... This was, like, late at night when I threw that up too. I was just like, "Huh, this will be a funny thing." I assumed it'd be 90% no and, like, 10% yes.

    27. LF

      Yeah.

    28. MD

      But there, there are a lot of serious people. Um, for you guys listening, I, I just did this random Twitter poll where I was like, "Would you take 10 grand if it meant someone random in the world died?"

    29. LF

      Yeah.

    30. MD

      And a lot of the replies on this tweet were like, "Hell yeah, why not?" And I was just not expecting that. Um, and so I don't really know. I mean, I feel like your take would be better than mine.

  2. 5:46 – 13:08

    Mortality

    1. MD

      anyone who ever buried themself alive. You know, we... The coffin we used to bury me, we did so many tests. Like, that coffin was buried 10 times before I was, you know, for way longer than 50 hours. It tested the airflow and everything to the point where I was safer in that coffin underground than I was above ground. Like, so we just tend to just not leave anything up to chance, you know?

    2. LF

      Another strange question then, uh-So you recorded these videos f- to yourself, you know, five years, 10 years from now. Have you recorded a video that's to be released once you die?

    3. MD

      Well, first off, I am just glad that not every one of your questions have to do with, like, views or things like that. It's nice getting different questions. So this is... This is good. Um, no, seriously.

    4. LF

      It's a little dark. It's a little dark.

    5. MD

      No, no, but it's, it's fine because a lot of people just be like, "How much money do you make?" You know, just something that just... Everything's always about money now or for when people talk to me, so it's nice. Um, but for the videos I made, uh, for you guys who probably don't follow me too closely, when I had 8,000 subscribers when I was a teenager, I filmed a bunch of videos and scheduled them years in the future. And I said... I filmed one where I was like, "Hi me in a year," and the video went up a year later, and it was just like, "Hey, I think you'll have 100,000 subscribers." And then, I did one where I was like, "Hi me in five years." I was like, "Hey, in five years, I think you'll have a million," and then one that hasn't come out yet but comes out in two years is... was, "Hi me in 10 years," and I tried to predict 10 years later how many subs I'd have. That's what he's referring to. And yes, there, there are some that are scheduled, like, 20 years in the future. And so, if I don't die, I'll just move them up. And I remember, 'cause I filmed these though, like, seven years ago, but, uh, it was... I remember saying a line like, you know, "If I'm dead, then I'm currently just in a coffin." And like whatever, blah, blah, blah. And because-

    6. LF

      I do remember that.

    7. MD

      ... the only way the video would go up is if I'm not alive, and if I'm not alive, then I won't be able to push back the schedule upload date so it will go public automatically.

    8. LF

      Yes.

    9. MD

      And so, yeah, I have a couple of those. Uh, like if I knew I was gonna die of, like, cancer or something and I had like three months to live, I would vlog every day. I'd film so many videos, and then I would just schedule upload a video a week for, like, the next five years so it's like I'm still alive. And I would completely act like I'm still alive and everything. And I think something like that would be cool. It's... I don't know why, but I've, I've fantasized ab- not fantasized, but I've dreamt about that a lot. Like, I don't know, if, if I only had 30 days to live, what would I do? And for me, I would try to make like a decade's worth of content and schedule upload it so they automatically go public in the future, and so it's just like I never died. I'm just there.

    10. LF

      Yeah, it's a kind of imm- immortality, but it's also a kind of troll on the concept of time.

    11. MD

      Yeah.

    12. LF

      That you can die in the physical space, but persist in the digital space. I actually... I recorded a video like that 'cause I had some concerns, and I just thought it's also a good exercise to do, a video what, like, to be released if I die, and it was actually a really interesting exercise.

    13. MD

      Yeah.

    14. LF

      It's cool. Like, it shows, like, what you really care about. I guess it's like writing a will, but when you're younger, you don't think about that kind of stuff, but-

    15. MD

      Exactly. Mine was just dumb.

    16. LF

      Yeah. (laughs)

    17. MD

      Like, I'm, I'm bones in a coffin. (laughs)

    18. LF

      Yeah.

    19. MD

      Yours is probably so serious.

    20. LF

      No, it's fun actually. What, what you realize is, like, there's no point to be serious at this point. It's a weird thing. I guess you've done this, but it's a weird thing to address the world when you, the physical you, is no longer there. So, like, you know this would only be released if you're no longer there.

    21. MD

      Exactly.

    22. LF

      That's a weird exercise.

    23. MD

      And you know what's funny? Of all the people listening to this-

    24. LF

      Yeah.

    25. MD

      ... you know, we're probably the only two people that have made videos for when we die. (laughs) It's, like, such a niche thing.

    26. LF

      Yeah.

    27. MD

      And the fact that we're bonding over it's kind of funny.

    28. LF

      I think people should think about doing that. It's not just about YouTube, it's also social media 'cause think about it. Like, there's gonna be a last tweet, and a last, I don't know, Facebook post, or a last Instagram post. And, uh, yeah, it's... I feel like there's some aspect that's meditative to just even considering making a post like that, and also, it's a way for your... the people that love you to kinda, like, celebrate.

    29. MD

      Do you think that would help them cope or not? Like, if someone randomly watching this did film a video, you know, for if they accidentally die in some freak accident to be given to their family, do you think that would... And it was, like, a genuine-

    30. LF

      I think it would really help. I mean, it depends because, like-

  3. 13:08 – 15:31

    Improving YouTube

    1. MD

    2. LF

      If you ran YouTube for, uh, how long should you run it? For a year. How would you change it? How would you improve it?

    3. MD

      It's hard because, you know, obviously I'm biased 'cause we're- we're doing really well. But I feel like when I open up YouTube on my television, I get the videos I wanna watch. I don't... I don't know. I don't... I don't ever open it and- and wonder like, "What are these? What are these 10 videos on my homepage?" When I click on a video on my suggestions, I don't ever wonder what these are. Like I- I... A- and maybe it's 'cause I'm very a- adamant about like the kind of videos I watch, and I try not to watch videos that I don't want to get recommended more.

    4. LF

      Mm-hmm.

    5. MD

      Because I just-

    6. LF

      Sure.

    7. MD

      That's how I think, but I'm very happy with- with how it is at the moment. I think th- one thing though that I just hate with a passion is the comment section on YouTube. It's just so bad. Um, but that... I know that's not something that's gonna 10X the growth of the platform. But if you think about it, you go to Reddit to read comments and somehow, like, the... You know, usually the top 20 posts on- on a popular Reddit post are not spam.

    8. LF

      Yeah.

    9. MD

      You know what I mean? Like, have you ever clicked on something on the front page of Reddit and then most upvoted reply to it is like, "Go check out my site right here," and it's like trying to scam you out of $1,000?

    10. LF

      Yeah.

    11. MD

      You know, I can't even think of one instance I've ever had that happen. So, like, Reddit, it's so nice to click on posts and just see what people have to say. And I almost wish like you had that same feeling when you read the comments on a YouTube video. Instead, it's like... It's so many people just copy and pasting, so many bots that just grab the top comment from your previous video and paste it over, so the top comments on every videos are the same. And if the things that break through that are just scammers trying to get you to give them $1,000 for a free, uh, you know, fake ad.

    12. LF

      That comment section is one of the most lively on the internet. And so, it'd be amazing if YouTube invested in creating an actual community, like where people could do high effort comments and be rewarded for it, like on Reddit.

    13. MD

      Yeah.

    14. LF

      Like actually wr- write out a long thing.

    15. MD

      That would make me so happy 'cause like when I upload a video, I usually go to Twitter to see feedback. Like I- I read my comments and I'll flip through newest, but it's just... I feel like T- Reddit and Twitter just give me so much better filtered feedback.

    16. LF

      Mm-hmm.

    17. MD

      Especially now that with Twitter Blue, because people pay $8 a month, um, the- any... I've noticed like any tweets I get from verified users now, they're usually not just garbage troll takes. Like these are people paying $8 a month. Like they're usually relatively sensible. And so it's been pretty nice. Like after I upload a video, I just go on the verified tab on Twitter and just see what people have to say. And yeah, anyways, I live for the day that YouTube's like

  4. 15:31 – 20:19

    Twitter

    1. MD

      that.

    2. LF

      Uh, what do you think about Twitter? What do you think about all the fun activity happening recently since, uh, Elon-

    3. MD

      Yeah.

    4. LF

      ... uh, bought Twitter?

    5. MD

      I think he should make me CEO, like I tweeted. (laughs)

    6. LF

      (laughs) Well, I shou- I should say sort of we had w- we just, like a couple hours ago, had a conversation with Elon and, uh, you guys had an exchange of some excellent ideas, so...

    7. MD

      Yeah.

    8. LF

      Yeah, I- I- I legitimately think... Obviously you're exceptionally busy, but, uh, I legitimately think it would be awesome if you somehow participate in the future of Twitter.

    9. MD

      Yeah, it would be fun.

    10. LF

      'Cause there's so much possibility of different ideas. First in the sort of the, uh, the content, like dissemination, hosting, and all the different recommendation, like the search and discovery. All the things that YouTube does well.

    11. MD

      I think the most exciting thing is he's, you know, willing to move fast. And so I think there's gonna be a lot of interesting things that come out of it because he's just moving quick and a lot of these more mature platforms just take years to do the simplest stuff, and- and they're very bureaucratic and... Um, so it's gonna... I mean, it'll be interesting to see which way it goes when you just kind of take a move quick, break things, whatever type approach to social media. Uh, I'm actually pretty curious to see what features he rolls out.

    12. LF

      So what will be your first, uh, act as Twitter CEO?

    13. MD

      I can't spoil it.

    14. LF

      Okay.

    15. MD

      (laughs) I gotta get hired. (laughs)

    16. LF

      (laughs) What do you think about video on the platform? I mean, do you-

    17. MD

      On Twitter?

    18. LF

      Yeah. Do you think that's an interesting or is it, uh, like messing with the- the medium, the nature of the platform?

    19. MD

      I think Twitter will always be closer to TikTok than it is to YouTube. Like I don't... At least in its current form. Like I don't- I don't see 20 minute, one hour long videos or whatever, you know, even 15 minute videos being watched over there. I see it more as like the short and snappy stuff closer to TikTok.

    20. LF

      But at the same time, Twitter has a really good comment section for the internet.

    21. MD

      I mean, it's almost weird why... Like why doesn't Twitter allow you to embed YouTube videos? Like why- why does st- You should just ask Elon that. Like I don't know if that's a YouTube thing, but when a YouTuber posts a video, why do they have to link to YouTube? Why can't they just embed it on Twitter and you just play it there? I mean, wouldn't that just solve a lot of problems?

    22. LF

      Yeah, but then the- the two companies would have to agree to integrate each other's content.

    23. MD

      I don't know, but it seems like a win-win. (laughs) I mean, well, it's more of a win for Twitter 'cause then people don't have to leave the platform. I mean, that-

    24. LF

      Right.

    25. MD

      That'd be the- the easiest solution.

    26. LF

      But who gets... Like when you watch the ads on a YouTube video that's embedded in Twitter, who gets the money?

    27. MD

      It would still be YouTube. But at least then right now people just post a link and it takes you off Twitter and it just kills your session time on Twitter.

    28. LF

      That's really interesting but the- the... Yeah, 'cause the Twitter... Whatever the- the dynamics of the comments, especially once the spam bots are taken care of, Twitter just works. It's really ni- so Reddit is a nice comment section from the internet. It's like slower paced, more deliberate.

    29. MD

      Yeah.

    30. LF

      Like higher effort.... Twitter's like this high-paced, like, ephemeral kinda stream, but there's the vote... The upvoting and the downvoting works much better 'cause you could do retweeting, right? 'Cause the social network is much stronger than it is on YouTube. Like, the interconnectivity-

  5. 20:19 – 23:29

    Brand deals

    1. MD

    2. LF

      So, you do, I don't know what you would call them, but, like, integrated ads in your videos, and you do it, I would say, masterfully. It's like part of the video.

    3. MD

      Are you talking about brand deals?

    4. LF

      Brand deals, is that what you would call that?

    5. MD

      Yeah, yep.

    6. LF

      So, it's a brand deal, it's part of the video, it's still really exciting to watch, and yet there's a plug for the brand.

    7. MD

      In general, just brand deals, since you brought it up, um, integrating them well, I think that's something a lot of creators don't do. Like, they'll just do a brand deal out of the blue. They'll just be filming a video, and then around the three-minute mark, just start talking about a random company.

    8. LF

      Yeah.

    9. MD

      And you... I feel like if you don't want viewers to click away and you want people to not get pissed off and call you a sellout, you gotta find a way to integrate it in the content. And ideally, use the money and the video to make it better. Like, as... The easiest thing you can do when you do a brand deal is just tell people how you're using money from the brand deal to make your content better. And if you do that, like, no one cares. Now, they're supporting you for it, and you go from being a sellout to, like, "Oh, I'm doing this to make better videos for you guys," you know?

    10. LF

      I don't know if you can share, but would those brands, when you have discussions with them, are they strict about how long you need to be talking about it? Or is it more about they're leaving control to you about the artistic element of it?

    11. MD

      The problem is the, the ones who don't give us the artistic element, we just don't really work with anymore.

    12. LF

      Sure, yeah.

    13. MD

      Uh, because it's just, you know, we get 100 million views a video now, and I can confidently say I know how to entertain them and convert them better than these random brands. So, uh, yeah, if, if they don't give us that freedom, I just won't work with them.

    14. LF

      So, you have that leverage, but for smaller creators.

    15. MD

      It's a lot harder, yeah. And they're, they're gonna just say, "45 seconds. Here's what you say. Take it or leave it." And it's, like, pretty brutal 'cause I think, just in general, if brands were more accommodating to let creators tell their story of the brand and talk about the brand in a way that felt a little more natural, I, I think it'd be... A, it'd be less cringe. It... People would be less likely to go, you know, tap, tap, tap, skip. And, uh, obviously it would convert better, but they're just so afraid and they want this standardized thing. "Say these words in 45 seconds, right here at this three-minute mark."

    16. LF

      Yeah, I often think about how to resist that.

    17. MD

      You just don't do them though, right?

    18. LF

      Not on YouTube, right. I do... On the audio, I do ads in the very beginning and I say, "You can skip them if you want."

    19. MD

      Gotcha.

    20. LF

      Um, but-

    21. MD

      (laughs) I'm sure the brand loves that. (laughs)

    22. LF

      I don't... Like, the point is they... (laughs)

    23. MD

      (laughs)

    24. LF

      Th- so the funny thing about podcasts that's different than, than, uh, YouTube videos, podcast people actually do listen to ads a lot because they... It's slower paced and they like the, the creator voice, like, talking about the thing. Um, but in general, I just don't believe you should be talking about a thing for a minute exactly and that's going to be effective. I want to see the data for that. I think what's much more effective is the way you do ads, which is, like, integrate into the content. Like, put a lot of effort into making it a part of that, like doing the brand deals. And I just... It's difficult to have that conversation. It's like a very strenuous conversation to have to have with, with brands. You have to have w- each one at a time. And I just wish there was more of a culture to say, like, the quality of the ad read matters a lot more than the, uh, like, the silly parameters, like the timing of it, like, how long it is, the placement of it, all that kind

  6. 23:29 – 28:08

    Audience retention

    1. LF

      of stuff.

    2. MD

      What percentage of your viewers do you think have seen one of my videos before?

    3. LF

      What percentage of the viewers on YouTube, right?

    4. MD

      Yeah, of your viewers.

    5. LF

      Of the viewers on YouTube though?

    6. MD

      Yeah, yeah.

    7. LF

      Because most of w- people-

    8. MD

      Okay, sure, or, or all of them.

    9. LF

      All of them.

    10. MD

      It's just interesting 'cause you're, you're speaking very specifically, like, about my brand deal process. And so, in my head, I'm like, "Hmm, I wonder what percentage of these people even have any idea what he's talking about."

    11. LF

      That's interesting. I love the thinking about numbers.

    12. MD

      The, the whole time we were having this conversation, that's all I could think about is, like, "God, goddamn it. He's... There's probably, like, 50% of these people have no fucking clue what he's saying."

    13. LF

      Probably.

    14. MD

      And we're about to torture him for five minutes.

    15. LF

      Yeah, yeah, probably.

    16. MD

      But that's something I can't turn off in my brain.

    17. LF

      Less, less than 50%. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is that exciting to you? That, that there's, like, 50% of people don't-

    18. MD

      Huh?

    19. LF

      ... have not watched a MrBeast video. Isn't that an opportunity to, like-

    20. MD

      Yeah, I guess it's an opportunity to grow. I don't know. Honestly, I was just kind of excited to hang out with you.

    21. LF

      Yeah, me too.

    22. MD

      Yeah, so...

    23. LF

      I mean, it's just, it's an oppor-

    24. MD

      Today was a lot of fun.

    25. LF

      Who, who cares if there's mics? Yeah,

    26. NA

      ... having some...

    27. MD

      So, yeah, so it was kinda like having a buddy to go along the journey as I'm just kinda eating shit and doing my normal grind.

    28. LF

      Yeah, yeah.

    29. MD

      It was, like, kind of fun. And also, you just say really wise stuff constantly.

    30. LF

      (laughs)

  7. 28:08 – 35:46

    Hiring

    1. MD

    2. LF

      Anyway, I got to... I got to meet a bunch of people from, um, from your team. There's just, uh, incredible human beings. So let me just ask on that topic, how do you hire a great team? Like, what have you learned about hiring for, um, everything? For, for the main channel that you do, uh, for the, the React, the ga- uh, the, the gaming channel, f- to, um, MrBeast Burger, to, uh, Feastables, all that?

    3. MD

      The big thing is, especially in this content creation, 'cause it's not like anything that's done on Netflix or, or different, uh, content medians, I, I really need people who are coachable and, like, really see the value in what I care about because it's a very specific way of going about things, and it's a... Like, I think you... There's no one, like, plug and play. Like, if Netflix wanted to hire someone to do a documentary, there's probably tens of thousands of people you could hire that have worked on documentaries before. But if you want to hire someone to make super viral YouTube videos, you know, like we do, there's just no one you, you can really pull from. Like, sometimes I'll hire people from, uh, game shows, right? And they have all these preconceived notions about pacing and how a video should be, and you have to spend like the first year, like, breaking all these habits and, you know, and they think they're better than you. Like, a lot of people in traditional think they're better and they think their way is better than what we do. And so for me, it's a- almost easier to hire people that are, are just hard workers, that are obsessed and really coachable and just train them how to, like, be good at content creation and production than to hire someone from, like, traditional, which is the only way to really do it 'cause there's not that many YouTube channels that I've scaled up, so it's not like there's a huge talent pool of people who've worked on YouTube channels. Um, so it's easier just to train someone than just pull them from traditional 'cause traditional people just... I don't know, they have all these opinions and things and they just (laughs) think our way of going about things is dumb.

    4. LF

      Yeah. So you want people who have the humility to have a beginner's mind, even if they have experience?

    5. MD

      And see the value.

    6. LF

      Yeah.

    7. MD

      Like actually, a lot... You'll still get it. It's so crazy. Like, especially some of my other friends that are scaling up their YouTube channels, there's people that will come on and you'll ask them like, "What do you want to be doing in five years?" And instead of saying, "Oh, I want to be working on this channel," they'll be like, "Oh, I hope to be working on movies." Or this or that.

    8. LF

      Yeah.

    9. MD

      And they see, like, working on a YouTube channel as a launchpad to go into traditional and it's like, "No." (laughs) Like, you just don't get it.

    10. LF

      This is the future.

    11. MD

      This is the end goal.

    12. LF

      Yeah.

    13. MD

      This is your career. Um, and so I'm just so tired of having those kinds of conversations. Like, I feel like people really should be coming around.

    14. LF

      Are there, like, recurring interview questions that you ask? Is there, is there ways to get-

    15. MD

      Yeah, the biggest thing is like, "Where, what do you want to be doing in 10 years?" And if their answer isn't, you know, "Making content on YouTube" or... You know, if their answer is anything like movies or traditional stuff like that, it's like just a, "Hell no." Like, it just won't even remotely work.

    16. LF

      Oh, so you really want people to believe in the vision of YouTube as a platform?

    17. MD

      Yeah. I mean, ideally it's like, "Oh, working here." You know what I mean?

    18. LF

      So it's less about the medium and more about just being on a great team that's doing epic stuff.

    19. MD

      Yeah. Well, and yeah, the medium as well 'cause those ... It's just, it's hard to put into words but there's, it's just two completely different ways of going about things, you know. Like, our videos aren't scripted and, you know, it's a lot more run and gun. And when we, if we hypothetically blow up a, a giant car or whatever, like, you only have one take, you know what I mean? So you, um ... and it's not scripted, and so you have to over film, overshoot things, overcompensate for, like, the dumb way of going about it. And a lot of traditional people would be like, "Well, just plan what you're gonna say and just plan the angles. You can ha- cut the cameras in half, you can save 50 grand here, you can save a h- you know, $75,000 editing, this and that." And it's like, "Yeah, but that's not authentic." Like, that's, you know, and blah, blah. It, it, you, you get it. It's, it's almost so obvious that it hurts that I have to, like, constantly have these conversations, but it's the world we live in.

    20. LF

      But there's also detail, like there's a taste. Like, I've watched a bunch of videos with you and it's clear to you that you've gotten really good. I don't know what the right word is. Style or taste to be able to know what's good and not in terms of retention, in terms of-

    21. MD

      Yeah.

    22. LF

      ... just stylistically, visually.

    23. MD

      I don't have to think. I can just watch a video and it just, it just screams in my head, like, "This is what, this is what should change based on the, you know, million videos I've watched and all these viral videos I've consumed. Like, this is blah, blah, blah, what's optimal," and things like that. It's almost like your brain's like a, you know, like a, a neural net. And, like, if you consume enough viral videos and enough good content that you just kinda start to, like, train your brain to, like, see it and see these patterns that happen in all these viral videos. And so that ... Anytime I watch a video, or a movie or anything, I just can't stop thinking about what is optimal. And so it's like, it gives me a headache sometimes when I watch something too slow or I don't think it's optimal. Obviously, my taste isn't the end-all, be-all, um, but that's something that kinda torments me, if that makes any sense.

    24. LF

      Oh, you can't enjoy a slow-moving, like, movie?

    25. MD

      No, I can't. (laughs) And, and that's not to say there isn't-

    26. LF

      Your attention on The Godfather is horrible. (laughs)

    27. MD

      (laughs) Yeah. No, exactly. I've tried to watch that movie, like, three times.

    28. LF

      Yeah.

    29. MD

      But ... And that's not to say slow movies are bad. Like, there's an audience for it. It's just obviously not what I've trained my brain to like. And, and social media and YouTube right now, like, that's just not the meta.

    30. LF

      And in general, like you said, a neural network, you're training your brain in part on actual data.

  8. 35:46 – 40:47

    Talking to the camera

    1. MD

      habit.

    2. LF

      Is it weird to you to not be looking at the camera?

    3. MD

      This whole interview, I constantly have been turning towards the camera.

    4. LF

      (laughs) Yeah.

    5. MD

      Like, when I'm talking to him.

    6. LF

      Yes.

    7. MD

      It's, it's a habit.

    8. LF

      Yeah.

    9. MD

      Uh, 'cause my whole life, I've just been talking to a camera.

    10. LF

      Who are you thinking about when you're looking at the camera? Do you, like, imagine somebody?

    11. MD

      I'm fully thinking about the person just sitting watching it and-

    12. LF

      Watching.

    13. MD

      ... I almost-

    14. LF

      It's one-on-one.

    15. MD

      It's weird. When I'm looking at the camera, I don't see a camera. I'm, like, in a haze picturing what the viewer is seeing when they watch it-

    16. LF

      Yeah.

    17. MD

      ... if that makes sense. And that's where I'll be saying things and I'll ... Or doing something and then, like, when I'm watching, I'm like, "That's not what I want." And then-

    18. LF

      Yeah.

    19. MD

      ... I'll freeze up. It's very weird when I'm filming. And then for people who haven't worked with me too much, they'll think, like ... I don't know. It's very weird, like, th- how I go about it 'cause I'll just be doing whatever, like lighting a firework. "All right, this is a $1,000 firework." And I'll go to light it and I'll be like ... and I'll, like, freeze, 'cause in my head I'm like, "This is ... I don't know. I don't like how that flowed or how that shot looked."

    20. LF

      Mm-hmm.

    21. MD

      'Cause I've ... It's weird. I can perfectly picture what I'm filming by just looking at the camera and then putting myself through the lens of the camera while making content. It ... I can do it at the same time.

    22. LF

      So you're, like, real-time editing-

    23. MD

      In my head.

    24. LF

      ... the video?

    25. MD

      Yeah, yeah. That's something that didn't, at the start, come natural to me. But in the last probably, like, five years, it, it's happened. And so I would say it's one of my greatest strengths but I don't know how I developed it. But anytime I'm filming anything, like it's almost like the, like, right side of my brain, I just, can just look at it and I see exactly what I'm filming and I can just picture it.

    26. LF

      Well, it's probably-... do, uh, recording the video, being the talent for the video, and then watching the editing, and, like, analyzing it carefully, and doing that over, and over, and over, and over-

    27. MD

      Yeah, you do that-

    28. LF

      ... you develop-

    29. MD

      ... 10,000 times, yeah.

    30. LF

      You do the editing more than the being in front of the camera, so, like, you s- you start to see yourself from that third person perspective.

  9. 40:47 – 53:08

    Brainstorming

    1. MD

      things.

    2. LF

      I got a chance to sit in to a lengthy brainstorming session with Tyler and others.

    3. MD

      Yeah.

    4. LF

      That was really cool. Can you talk about the process of that? Of, uh, people pitching ideas and you pitching alternatives or shutting down ideas and just going-

    5. MD

      Yeah.

    6. LF

      ... like plowing through ideas very quick?

    7. MD

      I mean, you kind of just li- described exactly what we did. Yeah.

    8. LF

      I mean, but the ideas are really, uh, really good. It's just tossing out, like, different categories of ideas and then also fine-tuning them to see, like-

    9. MD

      Yeah.

    10. LF

      ... "How do I change..." Like, thinking about the titles and the thumbnails, thinking about the story-

    11. MD

      I work so well off of inspiration. It's like, that's, uh, something ... Like, give- give me any word. I don't know, make it relative.

    12. LF

      Space.

    13. MD

      Space. Yeah, like, I went to space, you know? What happens if you blow up a nuke in space? Or I went to the moon, I went to Mars, right? Because you said that one word, it was able to inspire me to come up with four ideas. And so that's just... It's, for me, if you... The way to get 100 million views on a video is you need something original, creative, something people really need to see-

    14. LF

      Yeah.

    15. MD

      ... ideally never been done before, all these, like, things. And so you need, like... If you wanna consistently go super viral, you need just a constant stream of ideas. And the only way I've really found that I can consistently come up with 100 million view videos is to intake inspiration and then see what my brain outputs. And so that's kinda, at its core foundation, what I'm doing there, is just, like, intaking a lot of random inspiration to see what spawns in my mind so I can output it.

    16. LF

      But the neural network of your brain is generating the video, the title, the thumbnail-

    17. MD

      Exactly.

    18. LF

      ... all, like, jointly, right?

    19. MD

      Exactly. And that only comes because I spent 10 years of my life just obsessively studying all that stuff.

    20. LF

      'Cause you w- I mean, it seems like you would literally potentially shut down a video just 'cause you can't come up with a good title-

    21. MD

      Yeah, 100%.

    22. LF

      ... or a good thumbnail.

    23. MD

      Or a thumbnail, yeah. I mean, that's what happened to 70% of those in that pitch session. I was just like... Oh, what was one of them? Genius versus 100 people or-

    24. LF

      Yeah, like maybe Average Intelligence Versus Genius or something like that or-

    25. MD

      (laughs) Yeah, yeah. I was like, "What the heck is the thumbnail?" Even if the title was good.

    26. LF

      Yeah.

    27. MD

      Yeah. I mean, there's so many. But yeah, people don't click, they don't watch.

    28. LF

      That's so interesting, but you developed over time the ability to kinda give it what? What- what makes for a good title? Short?

    29. MD

      Not just short. It's also... I mean, if someone reads it, are they... Like, do they have to watch it? Is it just so intrinsically interesting that it's just gonna fuck with them-

    30. LF

      Yeah.

  10. 53:08 – 1:02:12

    TikTok

    1. MD

      life.

    2. LF

      How was it jumping on TikTok and trying to understand that platform from scratch?

    3. MD

      Yeah.

    4. LF

      So from being a successful YouTuber to understand a totally different algorithm.

    5. MD

      Yeah.

    6. LF

      Fundamentally different algorithm. What was that like?

    7. MD

      It's- it's- it's interesting. Well, not even just the algorithm, just the content. Like, I'm going from basically 15-minute short films-

    8. LF

      Yeah.

    9. MD

      To one... Sub-one minute vertical content. It's a whole different just ballpark. Um, and so the first little while I was doing TikTok, it- it was just kind of figuring out how... (laughs) What- what does MrBeast look like in this short form content? But recently, we've really started to catch our stride and come up with some original concepts and figure out how to innovate over there, just like we did on YouTube, because I don't want it... I didn't want it to just be shitty YouTube videos.

    10. LF

      Yeah.

    11. MD

      You know? And so, like, an example is, um, we played The Rock for 100K in rock-paper-scissors, and the loser had to donate 100K to charity. We did, um... (laughs) We went to random people on a campus and we offered them... So I- I said, "I'll give you $100 if you fly to Paris and get me a baguette." And then they said no, and I was like, "I will give you $300 if you fly to Paris and get me a baguette." And I was expecting this person to say no and it'd go up to like 10 grand, and he's like, "Yes." And so he flew to Paris, got a baguette, and brought it back, and gave it to me. And that, across everything, got like 450 million views. And it... 'Cause it's just really cool just to see this random guy get on a plane, spend a day in Paris, and we cut it up real nicely, and bring it back. And so we're starting to find just tons of original content over there.

    12. LF

      But it seems like an epic video to make for one minute.

    13. MD

      Exactly. No one on short form is doing it. That's the thing. It's like... It's just so funny 'cause like TikTok has been big for a while now, years. And then, um, you know, as- as we started to really figure out things on the YouTube channel and get it cranking where I have some free time, we- we set our sights on TikTok and like, "Okay, what are- what are people not doing? How do we make it better, put in more effort, make it good?" And we did the same thing we did at YouTube, just different over on TikTok, and it worked. And-

    14. LF

      Yeah.

    15. MD

      Now we're the fastest growing or most followed TikTok account in 2022. And it's just funny that no one else did that.

    16. LF

      And you're not afraid to do epic stuff, which I... Also during the brainstorming-

    17. MD

      Yeah.

    18. LF

      Some- some of the ideas, you were like, "That's better as a short." That's crazy.

    19. MD

      Yeah. Can you remember one? 'Cause I remember I said that a bunch, but I can't think of one.

    20. LF

      All I remember is that they were like epic videos.Like, really? You're going to do that for a one-minute video?

    21. MD

      Yeah.

    22. LF

      That's crazy. So, like, are you, uh, posting similar content to a YouTube Short as a TikTok?

    23. MD

      Yeah. Those, we just double up. It's just hard. You know, what's actually f- pretty fascinating, and people who do social media listening to this will probably find this pretty interesting, is picture, like, the content curation meta three years ago versus now, where you can make sub-one-minute vertical content and it go viral on TikTok, it go viral on YouTube Shorts, it go viral on Instagram Reels, it goes viral on Facebook, it goes R- Reddit, you know? You swipe through vertical content now. And Twitter, when you click on a video and you flip through it.

    24. LF

      Mm-hmm.

    25. MD

      So this is actually very weird. This is the first time in the history of, I guess, Western social media that one form of content could actually go super viral on every single platform. It's never been like that before.

    26. LF

      So they're going viral individual-

    27. MD

      Yeah, like, I could post something on-

    28. LF

      They're not, like, interbreeding or whatever.

    29. MD

      ... I could post something on TikTok that will get 100 million views, and then post it on Shorts and it'll get 200 million views, and then post it on Instagram and it get 50 million views, and then... You know, I haven't yet, but, you know, you can then turn around and tweet it and it get-

    30. LF

      Yeah.

  11. 1:02:12 – 1:06:28

    Advice for beginners

    1. MD

    2. LF

      Given all the wisdom you have now, if you were to give advice to somebody or, if you were to start over again, uh, y- you had no money, what would be the first 10 videos you tried to, uh, to make-

    3. MD

      Mm.

    4. LF

      ... on a new channel? I guess that's advice for a new person.

    5. MD

      Huh.

    6. LF

      And nobody knows you.

    7. MD

      Yeah, and nobody knows me. Yeah, like, hypothetically I have a mask on.

    8. LF

      And you also, I guess, don't have the wisdom.

    9. MD

      If I don't have what I have in my head, then I would say just fail. Like, just, uh, a lot of people get analysis paralysis and they'll just sit there and they'll plan their first video for three months, and-

    10. LF

      Yeah.

    11. MD

      ... I- I'm... Any of you listening, if- if you've, especially if you have zero videos on your channel, your first video is not gonna get views, period. It's not. Your first 10 are not gonna get views. I can very confidently say that. So stop sitting there and thinking for months and-

Episode duration: 2:17:46

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