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Tim FerrissTim Ferriss

Casey Neistat Interview (Full Episode) | The Tim Ferriss Show (Podcast)

Casey Neistat (@caseyneistat) is a New York-based filmmaker. His online films have been viewed nearly 300,000,000 times in the last 5 years. He is the writer, director, editor, and star of the series The Neistat Brothers on HBO and won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards for the film Daddy Long Legs. His main body of work consists of dozens of short films he has released exclusively on the Internet, including regular contributions to the New York Times critically acclaimed Op-Docs series. He is also the founder of Beme, a startup aiming to make creating and sharing video dead simple. Casey is excellent at breaking every rule imaginable and having people (fans, sponsors, big brands, etc.) thank him for it. In this conversation, we dig into his history, techniques, influences, habits, and more… Intro [00:00] On the challenges of working in New York City [07:00] How Casey Neistat grew up [8:30] The story of Bike Lanes [12:32] How Casey Neistat responds when people ask, “what do you do?” [18:31] The story behind Make It Count [19:50] Casey’s pitch to Nike for the Make It Count video [22:51] Suggestions for packing [28:05] Thoughts on post production software [29:50] Where novice YouTubers waste the most time [31:28] Thoughts on how to be successful with YouTube [35:00] On the decision to make a daily vlog [39:20] The importance of devoting time to communicating with your audience [43:45] The story behind Casey’s first paid gig in the entertainment business [45:15] When you think of the word successful, who is the first person that comes to mind and why? [49:25] Who makes Casey Neistat feel star-struck? [54:56] Tips on developing the ability to be well-spoken [59:25] Rapid fire questions: Most gifted books, best purchase of $100 or less, and favorite vloggers [1:05:50] Common misconceptions [1:12:10] On how to say, “no” [1:14:05] What is a belief that you have that many people may think is crazy? [1:16:22] The thinking behind Beme [1:19:22] Top films that may not have been fully appreciated [1:25:36] If you could put a billboard anywhere and write anything on it, where would it be and what would it say? [1:28:42] An ask/suggestion for the audience [1:32:56] Connect with Casey Neistat: Like Casey Neistat on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cneistat Follow Casey Neistat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/caseyneistat Follow Casey Neistat on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caseyneistat How Renegade Filmmaker Casey Neistat Breaks Rules, Reinvents Himself, and Gets Thanked For It Show Notes: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/10/27/casey-neistat/ SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1dSzTkW About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 200 million downloads and been selected for “Best of iTunes” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://bit.ly/2rYjUBr Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: http://bit.ly/17jDHw3 Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/1avYUxq Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/17d94TE Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/2IfH37J Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/2IfH37J

Tim FerrisshostCasey Neistatguest
Nov 20, 20151h 39mWatch on YouTube ↗

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EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 8:55

    Intro and New York City Noise Pollution

    1. TF

      Let me just do a quick sound check. Uh, Casey, what'd you have for breakfast this morning?

    2. CN

      Uh, Honey Nut Cheerios, obviously.

    3. TF

      Honey Nut Cheerios.

    4. CN

      Obviously. [laughs]

    5. TF

      The breakfast of champions.

    6. CN

      Yeah.

    7. TF

      All right. Bear with me one sec.

    8. TF

      Optimal, minimal. At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start to shake. Can I ask you a personal question? Now we're just sitting in a broken cabinet. What if I give you all the pieces? I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton. The Tim Ferriss Show.

    9. TF

      This episode is brought to you by Vimeo Pro, which is the ideal video hosting platform for entrepreneurs. And in fact, a bunch of my startups already use Vimeo Pro, including Wealthfront, who uses it to explain how Wealthfront works. TaskRabbit uses it to tell their company story, and there are many other names you would recognize among their customers, Airbnb, Etsy, et cetera. Why do they use it? Well, Vimeo Pro provides enterprise-level video hosting for a fraction of the usual cost. Features include gorgeous high-quality playback with no ads, up to 20 gigabytes of video storage every week, unlimited plays and views, and a fully customizable video player, which can include your logo, custom outro, et cetera. You also get VIP support. And you get all of this for just $199 per year. That's $17 a month, with no complicated bandwidth calculations or hidden fees. And you can try it risk-free for 30 days. So check it out, vimeo.com/business. That's V-I-M-E-O.com/business and use promo code Tim to get 25% off. That's a special discount just for you guys. So check it out, vimeo.com/business, promo code Tim. Hello, boys and girls. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers, whether they are chess prodigies, hedge fund managers, celebrities like the governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or say, legendary music producers like Rick Rubin. Anyone in between, military, artistic, you name it, there are patterns that you can tease out, and it is my job to try to find the routines, the habits, the favorite books, the meals, the timing, everything that you can apply from their life to your own to develop your own skills, to develop your own version of success, both in your personal and professional lives. And this episode is no exception. I had the chance to chat with Casey Neistat. We've been trying to get together for a very long time. Casey is a fascinating filmmaker. He would also call himself a YouTuber. And if you look for his name on the interwebs, Casey Neistat, N-E-I-S-T-A-T, he's also @caseyneistat on Twitter, you find headlines like the following from Adweek, "How Filmmaker Casey Neistat Gets Away With Murder." That was the headline, and it talks about how he effectively took a budget that Nike gave him and used it to travel around the world with his friend, and then had Nike thank him for it. Another headline, "From Teen Welfare Dad to YouTube Icon," both accurate. Next headline, "Casey Neistat Can Pretty Much Do Anything That He Wants." [laughs] So you see the pattern here. And, uh, it's, it's a very fascinating story because Casey has done the opposite of what a lot of people feel you should do. In other words, he was a very popular indie director, uh, had won all sorts of awards at Sundance, popular on HBO, has a wall full of awards, and moved to self-publishing on the Internet instead, right? Now, most, most people look at, say, going on YouTube as a starting point to stair-step to more traditional media and distribution. He did the opposite. He's a high school dropout, and, uh, we met through a very good friend of mine named Sep at the MIT Media Lab. And we cover a lot. We cover his history. We cover overcoming adversity. We talk about his decision to vlog, that is put out one video t- per day, and how that decision made his popularity explode. He's a, he's a quirky guy. He's a f- he's very well known for running, so we talk about the physical aspect of his life. He still makes a lot of his own props, and there are lots of questions I wanted to ask. For instance, you know, if you are able to charge five, six figures, maybe more, for product placement in YouTube videos, why on earth would you start yet another company, a startup, a tech startup? He's a fascinating guy. I love his work, and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I enjoyed it. Say hello to Casey @caseyneistat, C-A-S-E-Y-N-E-I-S-T-A-T. And without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Casey Neistat. Casey, welcome to the show.

    10. CN

      Great to be here.

    11. TF

      I have had so many requests from my fans to connect with you, and of course, we have many mutual friends, Ryan Holiday, uh, Sep Kamvar, very old buddy of mine, among others, and I'm a fan of your work, so thanks for making the time.

    12. CN

      Yeah, it's great to, it's great to finally speak. I feel like you and I have tried to actually connect physically on the phone. Uh, I think there was a text back and forth at one point in time, so it's nice to finally, uh, it's nice to finally hear your voice.

    13. TF

      I think it's, it's fated to happen. You know, things connect when they're intended to connect on some level. And that having been said, you are in New York City and just had, it would seem like the, uh, the entire, uh, squad, squadron of police cars from NYPD pull up outside your house. This isn't like The Professional or anything. Is there any, any, any catastrophe pending outside of your, outside of your window?

    14. CN

      No, and, and I, I warned you of that before we started recording just to let you know that when you hear sirens in the background or whatever it might be, not to be alarmed. But-

    15. TF

      [laughs]

    16. CN

      ... I think one of the, one of the biggest battles for me, uh, of being a, a filmmaker making movies in New York City for 15 years now has been figuring out how to navigate the incessant noise pollution that is downtown Manhattan. Um, and to paint a little picture for your audience, my, my office is on the second floor facing Broadway. So that means it's at the exact height of all the exhaust pipes to these really loud buses that drive by, and I have single pane windows. So, um-

    17. TF

      [laughs]

    18. CN

      ... I will try my best, but if you, if you hear what sounds like, uh, uh, some sort of battle taking place in the background, know that everything's fine.

    19. TF

      [laughs]

    20. CN

      That's just New York City.

    21. TF

      I remember very distinctly this one night when I was working on my TV show, and we had to do voiceovers. We had to do pickup lines, and, uh, we were filming, I'm not gonna name the hotel, but, uh, in a hotel room in New York City that was on the third or fourth floor at a very busy intersection. And literally every time I got three quarters of the way through any line, we tried this at two different times during the day, we had to start over [laughs] and over and over. [laughs] It was just the most maddening experience imaginable. But, um, the, uh, the... How do you contend with that, actually? We'll, we'll start there because I remember this joke that someone told me about audio, and they said, "You know, why does thunder come after lightning? It, because even God has to wait for audio." And I- is that a, i- is that one of the biggest challenges of working in New York City, or are there other challenges that people might not be aware of?

    22. CN

      Um, I mean, I think that's probably the most, like, tactile. That's, that's probably the easiest to point to. But I'd say, like, um, to digress here, it's, it's more than just the battle that is, um, recording audio for films that there's this noise pollution in New York City. But my wife and I moved to, to Tribeca. We actually live on Broadway in New York City, and the, the grumbling of a garbage truck or a cement mixer or a bus, I, I've become so sensitive to that I, I freak out when it goes by, and my wife has to tell me to calm down, and it's one of the biggest reasons why I wanna leave this city now after 15 years, is it's just, it's a noise that... It's not just a noise like lightning or, I mean, like thunder or loud music. It's a noise that just kills all other noises. So it's like this black cloud of sound that prevents any communication or conversation or human interaction. It just destroys everything. Um, and it wrecks my world, and I take it so personally. Um, so it's like-

    23. TF

      And you're, s- s- so you've been in the city then for 15 years, but you grew up in Connecticut. Is that right?

    24. CN

      Yeah, so I lived in... I was born and raised in southeastern Connecticut, and I always, I always sort of preface that by saying I'm from the poor part of Connecticut. I'm from the shitty part of Connecticut, not... Connecticut is always, when people think Connecticut, they think Greenwich and the fancy parts, and Connecticut has kind of, uh, another side to those tracks, and that's where I'm from.

  2. 8:55 – 12:39

    Growing Up Poor, Welfare, and Discovering Filmmaking

    1. TF

      And is it true that you were on welfare at one point? Because I was-

    2. CN

      Yeah

    3. TF

      ... I was gonna bring that up later in the conversation, but I, I've read that, and is, is that, is that true? I mean, you dr- it, it, uh... Ryan and I have d- have talked about your background and how fascinating it is. But, uh, he, he told me that you had dropped out of high school, and then I had read that you were on welfare, but I was just hoping if you could provide some context around those kind of early years.

    4. CN

      Yeah. You know, I, I, I kind of, you know, I had a, I had a troublesome, like, adolescence, one of four kids, and my parents got a divorce when I was in, uh, I think a freshman in high school. And I think it's always a real challenge for, for any family. But at that age, I think it's probably the most... You know, I have a grown son now who's, who's a senior in high school, and the freshman in high school at 13 years old is such a vulnerable age for young people. Um, and I didn't cope very well with the issues that were happening at home, and I ran away from home and moved in with this girl and got her pregnant 'cause that's what teenagers do. Um, and you know, I had a kid. My son was born two weeks after my 17th birthday. Um, and you know, I never, I never went back home after running away from home at age 15. I never went to my parents for money. Um, I just kind of, when I say I, I left home, I, I proper left home. I never went back. Um, and yeah, when, when my kiddo was born, we were on welfare. We got free... Let me think. What was it? We got free milk, and then there was something else. It's like welfare is you get this, it's, it's, you get this credit card that you can spend money on, on anything. Um, and then you get free milk and maybe free diapers. I don't really remember how it worked. It was a long time ago. But certainly it was very helpful at that time in my life.

    5. TF

      And the, how did the bridge from that point to film come about? Because I, I'm, and we'll talk about some, some of your specific work, but how did that develop, the sort of interest and foray into filmmaking?

    6. CN

      Uh, you know, I think that it, it's funny 'cause, Tim, that question itself is something that I've only really been, started to examine in the last couple years of my career, um, as people ask me more and more, and especially with the launch of my tech company. And looking back, it, it, it, I think it's a pretty specific thing, which is that, you know, as one of four kids, it was like the middle sort of forgotten child, not the youngest, not the oldest, not the girl, but the other one. That was me. Um, so I always was sort of the loudest to get the most attention 'cause nobody paid attention to me, um, so my psychiatrist says anyways.

    7. TF

      [laughs]

    8. CN

      And, and I, I think, like, when my older brother, Van, who I credit with getting me into filmmaking, when he showed me in, in- 2000 or 1999 at how the first iMac, that big blue bubbly looking iMac thing, how you could edit video on that. I just saw something that, that really captured my imagination. And when, uh, he and I edited the very first thing I ever edited, which was taking my, at the time, baby son to the zoo, all of a sudden I saw this opportunity to take what was an idea or set of ideas that only existed in my head and turn it into something tangible, turn it into something that I could then share with people. And for someone who had spent my whole life then, all 18 years of it, 19 years of it, feeling like I never had a voice, all of a sudden via filmmaking, um, I sort of felt like I had a voice. I had a loudspeaker.

    9. TF

      That makes perfect sense. And from that, from that feeling, um, let's, let's flash forward for a second because I, I really want to introduce people to some of your work if they haven't, uh, seen it before.

  3. 12:39 – 18:31

    Bike Lanes and the On-Air Prank

    1. TF

      But could you talk about Bike Lanes or Make It Count, whichever came first?

    2. CN

      Yeah, Bike Lanes came first, but, um, Bike Lanes is a really good example of that. Bike Lanes was probably... There's only been a... How do I preface this? People ask, like, "Where do you come up with the ideas for your movie?" And I s- I always say, like, "Whatever affects me, whatever impacts me, whatever I care about is what I make a movie about." And Bike Lanes was a movie I made in 2010, I think. Maybe it was 2011, wherein I was given a, a, a summons from a police officer for riding my bike outside of the bike lanes, which for starters it turns out is not an actual infraction. Um, but beyond that, it really frustrated me because I wasn't breaking any laws, and I felt I was doing something that was completely just. Um, and I think what most people would've done is maybe gone to court and fought the $50 summons and probably would've won and wasted a half of their day in the process. But I redirected my anger, and I made a movie that really expressed my frustration but did it in a somewhat sardonic way. Um, and that movie went tremendously viral online. It was seen like 5 million times in its first day, and this is before I had an audience on YouTube. Um, and at one point in time Mayor Bloomberg actually, actually had to respond to a question about the video in a press conference. Um, so yeah.

    3. TF

      That's amazing. [laughs]

    4. CN

      That's a very, that's a really literal e- example of, you know, me being a frustrated kid and wishing I had a, a way for everyone to hear and a way to share my frustrations, and that movie is, is very much so a, a, a compartmentalization of that exact emotion and then, uh, outcome.

    5. TF

      Now, in c- in concrete terms, can you give people sort of a visual though for what you e- you ended up doing in that film? [laughs]

    6. CN

      Yeah, so, so the cops-

    7. TF

      It's very Buster, very Buster Keaton in a way. [laughs]

    8. CN

      The cop's argument was predicated on this idea that the bike lanes were there to keep you safe. The bike lanes are for cyclists. I was riding outside of the bike lanes, therefore, I was unsafe and should be summonsed, uh, or given a summons. Um, so I made a movie where it just sort of starts at the beginning where I say the cops said I had to stay in the bike lane no matter what, and no matter what is, is underscored.

    9. TF

      [laughs]

    10. CN

      And I proceed to ride my bike around New York City crashing into everything that is in the bike lanes preventing people from actually cycling safely within the lanes themselves, um, and that sort of crescendos when I, when I crash into a, a, a police car that was parked in the middle of a bike lane.

    11. TF

      [laughs] So with something like that now, the bike lanes, taking this frustration or dissatisfaction and scratching your own itch, which segues nicely into tech, and we'll, we'll get to that also. I mean, all- almost all the best founders I know are scratching their own itch when they create a product or a service. Uh, I mean, for instance, with, uh, the... Looking at the, the iPod batteries and whatnot, have you ha- have you had a case where you vented frustration in a public way that you regretted after the fact or wish you'd handled differently?

    12. CN

      Uh, regret's a strong word, but one that I look back on and sort of shake my head was, um, I was very young. When was this? I'm trying to come up with a year for you, Tim, and I don't know. But I was probably 22 or something like that, and I was a, I was a real, I was a nobody then, so nobody knew who I was. And I had just made a movie with my brother about bicycle theft in New York City, and they invited us on morning, local morning news to, to talk about bike theft, and they wanted us to recreate a bike being stolen. Um, and we showed up there, and this woman who was the, uh, the host of the morning, uh, of the morning news was so rude to us, um, 'cause we were just kids. We're two kids and show up early in the morning. She was so rude to us and so mean to us. Um, and then she swore at her intern in front of us, and we're just like, "My God, this woman, who does she think she is?" So we, we kinda pranked her on air, and my brother pretended to cut, cut me when he was releasing the bike. And I, this was, I wanna say, like, maybe when YouTube had just come out. This was like... So that had to have been 2005, 2006. And that scene went crazy, crazy, crazy viral. Um, and it's basically this woman talking to the camera about what's taking place, and here they are demonstrating a bike lock, and then all of a sudden I start screaming and drop to the ground and squeeze ketchup packets all over myself.

    13. TF

      [laughs]

    14. CN

      And, and at no point in time did anyone, especially the, the woman, think that it was real. I'm not a very good actor. Um, I had ketchup packets all over me, and my brother was, like, shaking his head. Um, but her response is what got people so excited 'cause she freaked out.

    15. TF

      [laughs]

    16. CN

      Um, she very quickly turned into that werewolf that was swearing at interns earlier in the day. And in any event, um, it became this huge story. It was all over the New York Post, and it was like, uh, you know, they, they vilified her, and it was... Whatever. It was what it was. But looking back at it, like, I'm not a huge fan of pranks. I'm not a huge fan at a laugh that's at someone else's expense, and I think so much of the response to that was, was out of context. Like, the world didn't know that this, that we were, that I was doing this 'cause this woman was mean to me. The world just saw me being kind of like a, a, a prankster, and that's an image that I don't like to project. So the, the fact that it was miscontextualized, um, I think is sort of a silly, uh, was a silly thing. But-

    17. TF

      That was the, the bike thief

    18. CN

      Yeah. Not, not the video itself, just this-

    19. TF

      Yeah

    20. CN

      ... this little prank that we pulled on air.

    21. TF

      Right.

    22. CN

      I think that it was... It sort of lacked the, um, uh, it lacked the societal or cultural relevance of maybe some of my other, uh, yippee movies that, that definitely had a purpose. This was much more of just a, just a being a jerk prankster kind of guy, which is definitely not how I'd describe anything else that I've ever done in the tenure of my career.

  4. 18:31 – 24:53

    Identity as a YouTuber and the Make It Count Story

    1. TF

      When, when someone asks you, what do you do these days, how do you answer that? I'm sure it depends on the context, but in general, how, how do you respond to that question?

    2. CN

      Uh, I'm a YouTuber.

    3. TF

      Got it.

    4. CN

      Um, you know, it used to say, uh, in my Twitter bio that I'm Casey Neistat, creator of the HBO series. At one point in time I said that a, like, uh, award-winning filmmaker. I don't think I gave myself that title, but others per- That's not an inaccurate title. Um, and now when I just take a big step back and I say, "What am, what... How do I want to be identified?" Um, I think being a YouTuber, being sort of, being like every other kid on YouTube is, is maybe the most flattering, uh, flattering context for me to live in. Um, I like tech entrepreneur, but it's just such a pretentious [laughs] kind of stupid title that-

    5. TF

      [laughs]

    6. CN

      ... if there were, if there were an easier way to say that, if there were a less annoying way to say tech entrepreneur, I would say that's, that's it, because 90% of my time is my technology company and 10% is creating YouTube videos. But 90% of my efforts in the tech company are internal facing, um, and not external facing, and 100% of what I do on YouTube, um, goes straight out to the world. So for, for all of those reasons, I identify most as a YouTuber.

    7. TF

      And, uh, let's, let's talk about, uh, one of your most, if not the most, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, popular video, uh, on your YouTube channel, which is Make It Count. Is that still the most popular?

    8. CN

      I think so. I don't know. The one I released, uh, the one I released 38 minutes ago I hope gets more, more views than that.

    9. TF

      [laughs]

    10. CN

      But we'll see. Um, yeah, and Make It Count is a really, is a really interesting case study, Tim, because that was such an inflection point in my career as a filmmaker. Uh, you know, so h- historically I had directed advertisements as, as a main, primary means of income, um, which is a really convoluted, unnecessarily complicated, somewhat ridiculous process where just a tremendous amount of money is wasted, and at the end of the day you turn out something that is sort of creativity by committee.

    11. TF

      Right.

    12. CN

      Which is mushy, invisible, and just no one cares about, and that's how I'd describe 99% of all advertising that's done. Um, and after my HBO show, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my career, I went to the production company that represented me, the company that brought me my advertising gigs. And I said, "All I wanna do is make awesome videos, put them on the internet, and then find companies that'll give me money to make awesome videos like my other videos, but I'll do it for them." And my production company shook their head at me and they said, "Good luck. It will never work like that." So I immediately stopped working with them and I went on my own. I kind of went rogue. And somewhere in there, Nike came to me and, and I did this tiny project with them which led to a larger project, which was a three, a three movie, a three internet movie deal. Um, and the first two movies were right down the line. They were, they were what you'd expect. I had big, big, huge, you know, $100 million athletes in them. They were very well received. I loved making them. But when it came time to make the third movie, I was really burnt out from, from the process and at the ninth hour I called my editor up and I said, "Hey, let's not make this advertisement. Let's not make this movie. Instead, let's do something I've always wanted to do, which is let's just take the entire production budget and travel the world, um, until we run out of money, and we'll record that and we'll make some sort of movie about that." And he said, "You're crazy, but sure." Um, it wasn't his ass, it was mine.

    13. TF

      [laughs]

    14. CN

      And that's, that's exactly what we did, and Make It Count became this video about running around the world and sort of chasing after what matters to you. And that was the point. That was the message of the campaign, was to make it count, was to make every moment in life count. So there was something sort of poetic about the fact that by us going rogue and taking this budget and doing something we weren't supposed to do, but that something, that narrative was so perfectly in line with their messaging that in the end we, we had something that they were tremendously excited about. And that was... And I'm not sure anymore, Tim, because I haven't checked on YouTube, um, but that was Nike's most watched video on, on the internet for a number of years. Um, and everyone was really excited about the way that it, it turned out.

    15. TF

      What, what did the phrasing, what was your phrasing in the first phone call or email when you gave Nike the heads up on what you'd actually done?

    16. CN

      Sure. So [laughs] a little context for your, for your listeners out there. The, the video literally opens with scrolling text that says, "Nike gave me a budget to make them a, a commercial. Instead, I blew the budget traveling the world." Um, and that's literally what happened. So [laughs]

    17. TF

      [laughs]

    18. CN

      So, uh, some details around that to color in what happened specifically was like, firstly, this was the smallest budget of all three budgets, um, for all three videos. So this is the kind of budget that I would say would be equivalent to what Nike typically spends on craft services, what they typically spend-

    19. TF

      [laughs]

    20. CN

      ... on snacks for one of their huge music, for one of their huge advertisements. So there wasn't that much accountability. On top of that, they knew me, they trusted me, and they weren't working with me because they thought I could make them a perfect TV commercial. They were working with me 'cause they wanted something different.

    21. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    22. CN

      So I called them before, before I did this, before I took off and I said, "Look, I'm not gonna do the treatment." Um, treatment's like a script. "I'm not gonna follow the script. I'm gonna do something different." And they said, "Okay, what are you gonna do?" And I said, "I don't know." But I'm gonna travel and it's gonna be great." And they just said like... It was one executive in particular. It was a guy named Alex Lopez. He's still at Nike, and he's an incredible creative genius. And he was like, "Casey, just don't screw me over here."

    23. TF

      [laughs]

    24. CN

      And I said, I was like, "Alex, no promises."

    25. TF

      [laughs]

    26. CN

      "But we're gonna, but we're gonna go." Um, and then we were sort of like radio blackout for the next, for the next 10 days. Um, you know, we, how we did that movie and, you know, we hit like whatever, 15 countries in, in nine days. But we had a girl here in New York City, and she was working pretty much around the clock, and she would get an, an email from me from whatever Internet cafe I was in saying, "We wanna go here next." Um, and then she would figure out how to make it happen-

    27. TF

      [laughs]

    28. CN

      ... until, [laughs] until the money dried up.

    29. TF

      [laughs]

  5. 24:53 – 31:29

    Travel Hacks and Gear

    1. TF

      And when, when you were doing that, I mean, uh, you've, you've done a fair amount of traveling. I mean, did, did you ha- do you have any particular routines or tricks for maintaining sanity or at least minimizing, uh, completely burning yourself out when following that type of schedule?

    2. CN

      Um, well firstly, that type of schedule is a unique type of schedule.

    3. TF

      Yeah.

    4. CN

      That is, that is a Defcon 1 total chaos schedule that's completely unsustainable, unrealistic, and that I would advise no human being on Earth to ever attempt that. And like to add one detail to that, I did it with my best friend, Max. And we went... It wasn't till our sixth night of travel that we slept horizontally.

    5. TF

      [laughs]

    6. CN

      And that's not... Like, we were keeping track. So we were sleeping upright, coach seats, either on airplanes or on buses, like going from, from Zambia to, to Kenya. Like, we just, we never, ever laid down. And I remember our f- our feet were so swelled, were so swollen, that we couldn't get them into our shoes.

    7. TF

      [laughs]

    8. CN

      We just had these big, fat, swollen feet. Um, so I recommend it for no one. Uh, that said, I still travel quite a bit. Um, and I, I consider myself like a, a real expert when it comes to traveling. Tim, you're, you're someone who has probably defined what it means to hack life better than anyone else. When it comes to traveling, though, I think that, uh, I've got a really good grip on where all the loopholes and shortcuts are to really, like, remove the hate that is, uh, commercial aviation.

    9. TF

      [laughs] Could you give, uh, could you give people a taste?

    10. CN

      Well, sure. And it, it's funny 'cause you tweeted earlier today-

    11. TF

      And I know you have a video. I saw, I saw some fans link back to it.

    12. CN

      [laughs]

    13. TF

      So I'd, I'd love for you to give a little bit of color on that.

    14. CN

      Um, you tweeted earlier today, "What should I ask Casey in our, our interview today?" And somebody tweeted back, uh, some- something negative about the movie I made about how to get free upgrades or do my investors get angry because I only fly first class. And the truth is, if you fly enough, you can really, really crack the whole system that is, that is flying commercial. That said, it's very important to say this loud and clear. If you don't fly a ton, if you don't, if you don't spend at least 200,000 miles in the air a year, which is, uh, which is about six times around the Earth, if you don't do that, none of these tricks work. These only work if you fly a lot. But if you fly a lot and you fly with one airline and you really climb to the top of the heap, which is airline status, and you build relationships, you can almost always ensure that you will get special treatment. And after flying a lot, it kinda makes sense. Like, if you're the airline, why should you cater to a mass audience that just goes on Kayak in search of the cheapest flights and then jumps on a plane? There's no loyalty there. There's nothing there that incentivizes someone to fly with you. But someone like me who spends ungodly amounts of money flying and traveling every year, of course they, of course they wanna court my influence and my loyalty. And that courtship is something that you can exploit to your own benefit, and I guess that's how I'd describe what it means to hack, hack commercial flight.

    15. TF

      Do you, uh... If, if you're traveling and, and trying to travel light, but you're going to be recording video, what is your go-to gea- what does your go-to kit look like? What type of gear?

    16. CN

      Well, I always, I always travel light. I... It doesn't matter whether I'm going somewhere for an overnight or going somewhere for a month and a half. I always have the same setup, which is one small, um, as big as it can possibly be while still be a carry-on rolling suitcase and then my backpack. And all of my camera gear is in my backpack and my laptop, and all of my, everything else is in the rolling suitcase. But literally, I can't fit a pair of socks into my backpack, so I always have to have the second bag with, with the miscellaneous and clothing in it. Um, but camera gear is pretty cut and dry. I, I always have a point and shoot, and then I always have an SLR.

    17. TF

      What type of point and shoot and SLR do you, do you currently favor?

    18. CN

      Well, I, I, I... This is not by any means an endorsement because I can talk at nauseam about why this hardware is absolutely terrible and everything's wrong, everything that's wrong with it. Um, but it's my current favorite. So again, this is not an endorsement in any capacity. But I currently use the Canon 70D as my main shooter, including all my vlogs.

    19. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    20. CN

      And I do that because it's the only one that has... It has the best autofocus, um, technology of any SLR on the market.

    21. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    22. CN

      Uh, and when you're shooting with one hand, you can't be pulling focus, so that's why I use that. And then my, my latest point and shoot is the Sony RX100, which has been great, uh, but there are some reliability issues there, which is exactly what I expect from Sony, is reliability issues. So-

    23. TF

      What is-

    24. CN

      ... it's still far from perfection.

    25. TF

      I'm sorry. What is your, what does your post-production look like? What are you using to, to... What are the tools that you use for editing in post?

    26. CN

      So I just use Final Cut 10, which is really terrible software. Um, it's just not great. It's, there, there are very s- real reliability concerns around it. And it almost feels like it's been handicapped by Apple to, to appeal more to the, the consumer and prosumer than the professional market, which is, uh, antithetical to Final Cut 7 and every previous iteration, which was absolutely professional editing software. Um, I think they make this for- For people that don't consider themselves pros but want a lot of options. So there are some benefits to that and some detractions to that. Uh, and I feel like I've sort of maxed out what the, what this software's capable of. Um, and now I'm really starting to feel the fact that it's not, uh, it's not as capable as, as other professional grade editing software.

    27. TF

      Is there, is there any other software that you use in addition to, uh, in addition to that?

    28. CN

      Not really. Um, you know, I, I'm all about speed and efficiency. I, I upload every single day. Um, so with that, you, you lack the opportunity to spend a tremendous amount of time color grading or bringing into After Effects to clean up or do the kinds of things that technologies and, and software enable us to do. Um, I have much less of an appreciation for what technology can bring my work and much more of an appreciation for, for the craft of storytelling and, and sh- communicating ideas and sharing messages, which does not necessitate, uh, you know, w- the kinds of things that technology enable you to do today.

  6. 31:29 – 39:20

    How to Succeed on YouTube

    1. TF

      So, so looking at, say, other people taking a stab at YouTube, what, what are the biggest wastes of time, uh, generally speaking in, in your mind? Or how, how do novices waste the most time, whether it's in the filming stage or in, in post or otherwise?

    2. CN

      I mean, I, I think it's much... it's less technical than anything else. I think that the, the biggest waste of energy and resources on, uh, on YouTube is you see YouTube creators trying to copy and be exactly like someone else. Um, and the only thing that succeeds on YouTube are people that are thinking outside the box, doing new things. Uh, and I can talk about that, uh, you know, until, uh, until the cows come home because it's something I believe in so profoundly. But, uh, you know, YouTube is built on originality and built on unfounded genres and styles of content creation. Um, you know, I think it was 2011, YouTube spent $200 million. Uh, sorry for that beeping.

    3. TF

      That's okay.

    4. CN

      It's unbelievably loud [laughs] .

    5. TF

      That's all right.

    6. CN

      They spent, they spent $200 million on, um, uh, giving these huge budgets to known production entities, that is like the MTVs of the world, and like LACMA, for example, and all these big entities. 200 million bucks, they'd start YouTube channels, so original high-quality content would be made just for YouTube, and every one of them failed. And at the same time that they were failing and those $200 million were evaporating, all of these individuals, all these young people creating content that fit into no categories came up on YouTube in a huge way, and now it's those creators, those original creators, that are defining what YouTube is, and they're defining it in a way that does not exist inside any of the norms of filmmaking. In fact, almost without exception, most of the successful content creators on YouTube don't come from a filmmaking background. But instead, they've sort of, uh, they've, they've, like, metastasized what is a, a, a capability elsewhere, like a, an understanding elsewhere, and they've turned that into success on YouTube. Tyler Oakley was big on Tumblr. He was a big blogger, and he turned that into being a vlogger, and now he has, he's this tremendously influential, essentially talk show host, which is, which is what he does via YouTube.

    7. TF

      And, um, what... And so I'll, I'll tell you how I first came in contact with your work, which was I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, uh, named Jason Harris, who works at a company called Mechanism. They do a lot of work with YouTubers, and, uh, he, he's a very, very smart guy. And I was lamenting the fact that I felt like, uh, the ship had sailed on YouTube for me, and that it was, it was not the best fit because I couldn't find... It was hard for me to find popular YouTubers who were not appealing primarily to, say, like the 12 to 15-year-old demographic with, like, super fast cuts, um, and, uh, with a very, very particular style. And I was pointed to your work because, uh, a number of folks, including Jason, said it was very smart and probably hit a similar demographic, not so that I could copy it, but the, so I could look at it as a potential role model. So for, for, for someone, let's say, in my shoes, where I'm comfortable with text, I'm comfortable with audio, haven't done as much video, although, although I've dabbled in television, I, I, I, I am fascinated by the allure and promise and direct connection that YouTube offers. W- how would you suggest someone like me get started, um, on YouTube? Would it be with a daily vlog? Would it be with something else? H- how should I kind of get my feet wet and, and start getting enthusiastic about it?

    8. CN

      You know, I often get asked about what is the best way to achieve success on YouTube, and the truth is, if there were any one defined path, if there were anything that was sort of, uh, quantifiable or anything that could be written out, I think a lot of people would, would follow that trajectory. The reality is pretty far from that, though. There are, I don't know what the exact number is, but I think it's 1.1 billion different channels on YouTube, and there are 400 hours of content uploaded every minute of every day to YouTube. So, like, the vastness, the depth that is the ocean of YouTube is, is this huge abyss that's very hard to stand out. Um, and the only thing that I can say, the only advice I ever give is, is don't think. Um, consideration will not yield success on YouTube. I think it's purely based around action. Um, some other things that I, I push for is, like, quantity matters. It's not just the quality of the work, um, but it's also the quantity of the work. People look to YouTube not to find great, well-made films. They look there for relationships.

    9. TF

      Hmm.

    10. CN

      Um, I think that's why, yeah, I think that's why when you look at, like, I don't know, who can I pick on? Look at Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair is turning out this incredibly high production, star-studded content. Nobody's watching it. Nobody gives a shit. Um, that's not why people watch YouTube. There's no relationship there. The reason why I'm s- psyched to be considered and identified as a YouTuber versus a filmmaker is, is YouTube, unlike filmmaking, is not a one-way street. It's this reciprocal, um, symbiotic relationship that y- that your content has with, with a very specific audience, and then that, that audience has with your content. So to succeed within there is, is very challenging, and I, I think the only way to do it is to find your own path. The only way to find that path is to act, is to start going.

    11. TF

      A- and what, what, uh ... Let me dig into that because I, I, I like this thread. Uh, and I'll just draw a parallel in writing. So I remember at one point, uh, I was talking to Poe Bronson, a, a writer I admire, and I asked him what he does when he feels blocked. And he said, "Write about what you're ... Write about what angers you. Like, write about what makes you upset." [laughs] And, uh, thought that was very interesting advice, but that was a very ... proved to be very helpful and has been helpful for me when I feel like I'm having trouble getting started. Um, do you have any suggestions? I'm, I'm happy to act, and I think a lot of people listening would be as well, but how do they ... What might be some angles or questions or ways they can get started? Forget about success, just to start getting content out there.

    12. CN

      Um, sure. Well, I think that what YouTube uniquely possesses in its audience over any other, any other distribution outlet is that the audience is so fine-tuned to bullshit. Their bullshit detectors are so highly refined that even the slightest amount of bullshit will set off their alarm, and then you'll be rejected. The audience, the community will reject you immediately. So a great place to start is one of honesty, um, one of frankness. Um, and that sounds, uh, like [laughs] hyperbolic or wishy-washy, but the truth is being yourself on camera is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Uh, it's why the David Lettermans and the Jimmy Fallons of the world are so brilliant, is because when you're watching Jimmy Kimmel on TV, you really believe that that's who this guy is. And when you see someone who's uncomfortable in front of the camera, which is the vast majority of us, it reeks of something else, which maybe is something that's contrived or something that's forced or something that's faked.

    13. TF

      Mm.

    14. CN

      So I always say start from a place of, of honesty, and that's where the quantity comes into play, is because the more you're doing something, the more comfortable you become with it. Um, so I think the combination of those two, and if you throw in a little bit of passion, what truly motivates you, what are you truly interested in, I think you can find a really, uh, a- an actionable recipe for, for starting or building a foundation on YouTube.

  7. 39:20 – 45:14

    Daily Vlogging and Engaging the Audience

    1. TF

      So, so it's, um, it seems like, uh, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that y- putting out one video per day, that decision has made your popularity really explode. Um, so I'd, I'd be curious to know why you think that has worked, uh, or why that has happened. And then a question from a fan that came up was you said no to vlogging before because you felt like it could make things feel contrived. How do you feel about this now?

    2. CN

      Um, well, those are, those are two questions, so let me-

    3. TF

      Yeah, tackle one at a time

    4. CN

      ... tackle the first one, which is about popularity in, in YouTube. And the reason why I started daily vlogging was because, uh, I have to unpack this a little bit, but when I started my technology company, which is a social product, which is a, it's a social network, I always knew that I would need to lean on my own social reach and my own influence to build a core us- a, a core base of users for my product. Um, and then as I began and as my tech company and the, the, the construction of it really began, my social reach started to atrophy because I wasn't creating content because I had to run a company. Um, so when really trying to examine how can I address both of these issues, which is promote my own social influence so it will help my company, um, I just made a decision on, on my birthday of this year, my 34th birthday, that I'm going to start daily vlogging. Um, and coincidentally, I was, like, on this beautiful, lovely trip with my family in an exciting location in the Caribbean, and, um, and I had a lot of material those first four days and a lot of beautiful material to show off. Uh, and that's what I did, and when I got home, uh, the fourth vlog or the fifth vlog I ever made was, like, me returning to work, and I say into the camera, like, "I don't know how sustainable this is because I live a fairly ordinary life where I show up at work at, at 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. I leave work at 7:00 at night. I go home to my family, and I go to bed. There's not much in there that warrants vlogging every single day." Um, and the reason why I bring that specific up, Tim, is because that dovetails with your next question, which is I, I used to reject vlogging because it was a little bit of, uh, is the dog wagging the tail or is the tail wagging the dog, in that I don't wanna be living my life so it's interesting for my vlog.

    5. TF

      Right.

    6. CN

      And the reason why, uh, those two points dovetail so nicely is because when I said that on the vlog, when I said, "I don't know how to make this interesting now that I'm, I'm back at my daily life," I understood vlogging as a, a visual public diary of one's life, and I think that's where I was wrong. Um, and what this thing that I call a vlog, uh, and I, I embrace that title that it's a vlog, what it's become is instead a, a daily show for me, and that show sometimes, like, like the vlog I posted yesterday, for example, is very much so a diary. It was my wife and I and my daughter going on this crazy trip out to Queens to try to buy some funny clothes for a, a wedding that we're going to in a few months. It was very much so a diary. But then you look at some of my other vlogs, which are just me sitting in front of a camera talking to, talking to my audience about why I'm so passionate about filmmaking or, or something much more personal, and it feels, instead of a vlog, it feels much more like a, a confessional. And some of my vlogs are examining technical things like my cr- my electric skateboard. I've got entire vlogs dedicated to how this thing works, and some of them are about building things, and some of them are about how I structure my daily life. So really, I just post every 24 hours, and I call it a vlog because that's the easiest thing for me to call it that the people will understand. But the truth is, it's, it's not a diary of my life. Instead, it's this, it's this outlet for whatever it is that interests me.

    7. TF

      Got it.

    8. CN

      So I hope that answers the question from the fan. It's that I unders- when I said that comment about vlogging, I understood vlogging to be one thing. And then in practice, and this is where, this is, this really reinforces that idea that I said about action is so important. In practice, it really manifested as something wildly different from what I, uh, originally understood it to be.

    9. TF

      And in your, in your daily practice, your daily routine, um, I've read in, uh, that you might take, say, up to eight hours to edit one of your videos. I don't know if that's true. We can get a comment on that, but how much time do you spend interacting with, uh, fans or viewers on YouTube, Twitter, all these different social platforms? On a, on a, on an average daily basis, what would you say?

    10. CN

      I mean, i- in aggregate, I would say it's less than, less than an hour. Um, I try my best, but it's very hard. Usually, I check into my, my daily upload about an hour after it's been posted. I see who, who's commenting and what they're saying, and I jump in and try to reply to as many as I possibly can. Um, on Twitter, you know, you're, you're pretty great on Twitter, Tim. I've been following you forever. But, you know, you respond when you can. You have got a minute of downtime. No one's looking. You're sitting in a car. You're waiting for something, and you just jump on Twitter and you reply to a few tweets. Um, but I would say there's nothing more defined than that for me. Um, and I, I, I'd love to change that. I'd love to figure out a way to have it be much more inclusive of my audience. But regrettably, time is fungible, and to dedicate more time than I do currently to my audience would mean to take it away from somewhere else.

    11. TF

      Right.

    12. CN

      I'm just not in a position to do that.

    13. TF

      W- what, uh... And I do the same thing, by the way. I mean, when I post a blog post, typically I'll post at night so I can catch any errors [laughs] that fans will point out immediately. So I'll try to hit, say, the UK or New Zealand, and then answer questions the following morning, uh, or along those lines, and it's, it's something that you just have to batch. But, uh,

  8. 45:14 – 49:27

    First Paid Gig: The Clinton Teleprompter Story

    1. TF

      what was your first paid gig, uh, uh, related to film, or when did you realize that you could actually give this a go as a profession?

    2. CN

      Whoa, awesome, [laughs] awesome question. Um, the first paid gig I ever had was, uh, uh, to make a happy birthday video for this guy named Tom. Tom's husband, um, was getting, was... He was turning 50 years old. And Tom contacted my brother and I, and he said, "Hey, I've seen some of your little art movies, um, in the art world, floating around the art world." This is like 2001, 2002 rather. And he was like, "I'd love to hire you to make a movie for my husband, uh, and for my husband's birthday." And we're like, "Okay, great." And he's like, "Just let me know what it costs." And all I knew at the time was that he was, like, a rich guy, so, like, we debated for days, like, what do we charge this guy? And we came back with what we thought was the most, like, ambitious number we could possibly go to him with, which is, like, we asked for $5,000. And the t- the truth is, we were, we were willing and ready to do it for $100.

    3. TF

      [laughs]

    4. CN

      But we knew he was a rich guy, and we knew that he liked us, and we knew that he had bought really fancy art, so maybe, just maybe, we'd get away with it. And he, he didn't bat an eye at it. He said, "No problem."

    5. TF

      [laughs]

    6. CN

      Um, and then he said, "Here are a list of people I'd love for you to interview about my husband." And it was, like, President Clinton-

    7. TF

      Wow. [laughs]

    8. CN

      ... like Senator Hillary Clinton, like all the members of their cabinet. Like, all of these triple A rock star politicians, and we were just like, "Holy smokes, who is this guy?"

    9. TF

      [laughs]

    10. CN

      Um, and it was, it was Fred Hochberg, who is currently the chairman of the Import-Export Bank, and his husband is a guy named Tom Healey, and Tom is currently the chairman of the Fulbright Commission. Um, so they are two, probably the biggest power couple, one of the biggest power couples out there. Um, and they're two lovely guys who to this day I'm very, very close friends with. Uh, and we got our 5,000 bucks for that gig, and it was a, it was a huge deal.

    11. TF

      That's amazing. Did they just email you through the contact email on your website, or how did that connection happen?

    12. CN

      No, there was no website back then. Um, back then, uh, back then I was working for $10 an hour as, like, an artist assistant, and in the interim I was making... My brother Van and I were making these little movies in my apartment that we would post on literally, like, Apple iDisk.

    13. TF

      [laughs]

    14. CN

      And we'd email around the link so people could download the .MOV files and watch them. And somehow one of the artists we knew or something like that was like, "Oh, you gotta check out these two young maniacs that I've met who make these crazy little videos." And he saw it and he was like, "I don't want a boring video for Freddy's birthday. I want something that, like, is gonna keep people laughing." And he gave us this crazy, this, he gave us this assignment. We came back with something absolutely crazy that involved, like, um, that involved, you know, when we met with Hillary, or sorry, when we met with Bill Clinton, they had a prepared statement on his teleprompter.

    15. TF

      [laughs]

    16. CN

      And when the Secret Service left the room to go get the president, I deleted all the information off the teleprompter.

    17. TF

      [laughs]

    18. CN

      And, and while the president is sitting there in his seat waiting for the teleprompter, I just remember him being like, "Nancy, what's going on here?" I rushed over to him with my hands down so I didn't get tackled by security, and I was like, "Hello, Mr. President. My name's Casey. I'm here to do this interview for you for Fred Hochberg. Here's an idea I had." And he started laughing and he was like, "Boys, I love it." And we hit record, and we had the nugget recorded before they got the teleprompter up.

    19. TF

      [laughs]

    20. CN

      He was out of the room, and when he said the joke that we had him say in front of the 500 people at Le Cirque, where we showed the movie for Fred's birthday, it brought down the house.

    21. TF

      That, that's a ballsy move, but, I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. You're a pretty ballsy, bold guy to start with [laughs] .

    22. CN

      I mean, back then it was, like, definitely a nothing to lose kind of situation.

    23. TF

      Right.

    24. CN

      That was ... We were absolute nobodies. I was getting paid $10 an hour for ... I couldn't afford food back then.

    25. TF

      [laughs]

    26. CN

      And that's not, that's not, that's not hyperbole. That is fact.

    27. TF

      W- now, what, when you, um ... Well, let me, let me take a step back.

  9. 49:27 – 53:15

    Defining Success: His Grandmother and Daily Routine

    1. TF

      When, when you think of the word successful, who is the first person who comes to mind, and why?

    2. CN

      Oh, that's a tough question. Um, my grandmother. Uh, my grandmother's probably the most successful. She passed away two year, three years, four years ... Good God, I can't stop keeping track. She passed away at age 92, and she is, like, she's my hero, she's my muse, she's my everything. And the reason why is she started tap dancing when she was six years old. She was a little fat girl, and her parents made her do something to lose, lose the weight.

    3. TF

      Yeah.

    4. CN

      So she started tap dancing, and she loved it. And she fell in love with something at age six, and she didn't stop tap dancing until the day before she died at age 92. She died on a, a Monday morning at age 92, and the first thing we had to do after she died was call her 100 students to say she wasn't going to make class that day.

    5. TF

      Wow.

    6. CN

      Um, and for me, it's just like, I mean, she was never rich. Uh, she actually never had a whole lot of money. She was a tap dance instructor, but she dedicated all the proceeds from her tap recitals to the American Cancer Society to raise money to, to beat cancer, 'cause cancer took her father. Um, so she's, she's a total hero and a, a philanthropist despite not having the means. And then on top of that, it's just like, what, what is the ultimate quantification of success? For me, it's not how much time you spend doing what you love. It's how much time you spend or how little time you spend doing what you hate. And this woman spent all day, every day doing what she loved, all day. She spent almost no time doing the things she didn't wanna do.

    7. TF

      Mm.

    8. CN

      Um, she just did what sh- what she loved the most in life, which was dancing, and she did ... That was, dancing was her life. You'd wake up in the morning, she was dancing. Go to bed at night, she's watching Fred Astaire on TV. Um, and that was her, you know, that was 86 years of her 92 years of existence she spent doing nothing but exactly what she loved, and I just can't think of a higher benchmark of success than that.

    9. TF

      S- so how, how has that impacted you on a daily basis? And I'll just, I'll rephrase that. When you wake up in the morning, i- and you don't feel like putting out the video, right? Uh, do you have those days? And if so, what do you do in those circumstances? What do you say to yourself?

    10. CN

      Well, I always [laughs] wanna put out the video. I don't always wanna make the video, Tim.

    11. TF

      [laughs]

    12. CN

      Um, [laughs] so to, like, give a little structure to that, m- my day looks like is, um, I wake up at 4:30 in the morning, is when my alarm goes off. This is seven days a week. And I edit. I finish my edit from the night before. The edit gets done in, usually between 6:30 and 7:00. From 7:00 to 7:45 it's processing, uploading, um, the designing and, and color correcting everything, the thumbnail that goes on YouTube, preparing the post so it's up, it's live, it's rendered, it's fully processed, and it goes live at exactly 8:00 AM. That's seven days a week. Immediately after 8:00 AM, I, I work out, which usually involves running, um, you know, whatever I run, 8 to 12 miles, or going to the gym. And then I'm in my office, like, 9:30-ish. Um, I live across the street from my, from my office, so it's a pretty narrow commute. And then I work in my office all day long. I usually try to get out of here by 6:30, race home, give the baby a bath, um, and then hang out with my wife for an hour and a half. She goes to bed at, like, 9:00, and then I sit down and I edit until I pass out at my computer till 1:00 in the morning. I sleep usually on the couch until 4:30, which is, like, you know, three, four hours later. I wake up and I start over.

    13. TF

      Mm.

    14. CN

      And that is seven days a week for me. Um, sometimes on the weekend I spend a l- less time in the office, but that's every day. Uh-

    15. TF

      That sounds brutal.

    16. CN

      It's tough. It's, it's tough.

    17. TF

      D-

    18. CN

      So it's not-

  10. 53:15 – 59:22

    Eating Habits, Starstruck, and Seeing People as Equals

    1. TF

      Have you always needed very little sleep?

    2. CN

      Yeah, I've always ... I've never, ever been a fan of sleep. I, I hate sleep. Sleeping and eating are, like, my two least favorite things to do, and I'm frustrated every day when I get tired, and I'm frustrated when I get hungry.

    3. TF

      [laughs] I can help you with the latter. Maybe not the tired, but the, uh, I've been doing all sorts of fasting experiments. What time do you eat breakfast? And what do you eat for breakfast?

    4. CN

      I mean, I usually don't. Uh, I only ... Like I said, Honey Nut Cheerios when you asked me earlier during our audio tech test.

    5. TF

      During the sound check, right.

    6. CN

      Uh, because whichever, I have no idea who, but some, one of our team members at our tech company is a big fan of them. There's always Honey Nut Cheerios and milk in my, in my, my office. So when I hear somebody else spoon clanking the porcelain, I'm like, "Ooh, Cheerios," and I get up.

    7. TF

      [laughs]

    8. CN

      But just 'cause that's sugar and that's delicious. Um, but no, I don't, I don't know that I am a big breakfast eater. I usually just wait till I get really hungry, and then I eat until the hunger stops, and, and then I repeat that.

    9. TF

      Seem- seems like the most natural way to go about it.

    10. CN

      [laughs] I think so.

    11. TF

      As opposed to eating at the, by the clock. You know, I just have to mention, Honey Nut Cheerios, I had breakfast, um, with Larry King for the first time, uh, not long ago, and we met at a sort of a Jewish bagel shop. And he goes there every morning, and then eats Honey Nut Cheerios. So they have to keep it stocked at this place for him. I just thought that was one of the most unusual things I'd ever seen, but [laughs] Seems like a number of top performers eat Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, so maybe there's something there. Uh, when ... Now, speaking of Larry King, I've always kinda idolized him for his ability to get people to open up. Uh, do you ha- You've met so many people, so many successful people over the years in different professions. Uh, who has made you feel starstruck, and why?

    12. CN

      Who has made me feel starstruck? Um, God, that is a tricky one. Uh, it's funny 'cause, you know, I go to, like, a lot of big celebrity events, and it never really hits me with the kinds of people that you would think that it would hit me with. Um, I'm trying to think. Like, I met Jack Welch once in the street.

    13. TF

      Right.

    14. CN

      And for whatever reason [laughs] I was starstruck by him.

    15. TF

      [laughs]

    16. CN

      I was so excited to meet him. Um, but honestly, I don't know. I, I, I really just ... Starstruck is something that, that ... That's an experience I don't know super well, and I guess the reason why is it's just, like, I, I have about as much appreciation or understanding of that as I do when people get excited to meet me. And I say that right now looking out the ... I have a monitor in my office that a camera films just outside the, the sidewalk, and I can count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 kids standing outside of my office right now rating, waiting to see me.

    17. TF

      Wow.

    18. CN

      Um, that's every day. Uh, it's, it never stops. And I have about as much understanding or ability to understand, empathize with those kids outside my office as I do ge- the idea of getting starstruck. Um-

    19. TF

      So why Jack-

    20. CN

      To me-

    21. TF

      Why Jack Welch? [laughs]

    22. CN

      I, I have no, I have no idea. I mean, maybe it's just that I had just finished one of his books, but, um, and I had all these ideas in my head that he had planted there, and that's something flattering. But no, I, I, I don't. I, I definitely see people as, as people, at, at face value, and I, I think that, you know, what you contribute and what you do is incredibly meaningful and important. But, uh, at the end of the day, we, we are all people, and I think that it, it's tough for me to try to elevate someone else. And in the same regard, when I see videos that autoplay on Facebook of Syrian refugees getting beaten on the Macedonian border by officers with clubs, um, I would say that I have what whatever, whatever that feeling of empathy would be for a movie star, I, I share that with them, where I look at these people and I'm like, you know, I, I see Kanye West and I'm like, "Okay, he's a person just like me." When I see someone holding a baby getting beaten with a club while it's pouring rain out, I say, "That person's just like me." And it's very hard for me to, to think of a human being as some- as someone other than, than an equal.

    23. TF

      Right. And, um, I, I realize I kinda walked over my own question, or probably walked over your answer to the when you feel demotivated or that you don't wanna make a video, what do you do? Is it that the ... Is it that your regimented seven-day-a-week schedule just doesn't allow the space for that self-doubt, or-

    24. CN

      Oh, no. You know, I, I didn't answer the question either. I, I digressed and something. But, uh, no. So it, it's very real, and waking up to edit, I never wanna do it. And like yesterday, I just said, it was Sunday morning, I was like, "I'm not gonna do it," and I didn't. I didn't get my post up until 1:00 in the afternoon. Um, and there's a total mutiny on, on, on, uh, Twitter by my, my viewers. But, uh, I don't wanna do it, but the truth is, like, I can only equate it to climbing a mountain. I've climbed, uh, some really big mountains before, and when you're the closest to the peak is when you wanna give up the most. But the return that is standing at the summit is such a victory that the minute you're up there you just wanna do it again, and you've forgotten about the pain. So the hate that is the battle of the edit, and the upload, and the bullshit, and the getting it done, and the technical problems that are outside of your control, and the camera not recording your audio, and, like, every other hurdle that rec- that, that comes between you and uploading, all of that is absolved, all of that is erased the moment you click upload. And it's replaced with this, like, sensation of adrenaline, and wonderment, and achievement, and accomplishment that is having made something that I now get to share. Um, and that was true when I was making a birthday video that a couple hundred people in a room got to see. That was true when I was making videos of my son when he was a baby, and I would share them with my family. And that's certainly true of my daily uploads on YouTube that go out to, you know, a million people a day.

  11. 59:22 – 1:07:45

    Self-Education, Reading, and Favorite Books

    1. TF

      And, um, I mean, you, you s- you seem to be very contrarian. I don't know if you've always been that way. Uh, but you're also very well-spoken, so you dropped out of high school. How do you explain that? How, how did you sort of develop that ability?

    2. CN

      Um-

    3. TF

      And it's not to say that someone who drops out of high school can't be well-spoken, but it's, it's, it's, uh ... I, I'm very impressed with how well-spoken you are, so I'd just be curious to know why you think or how you developed that.

    4. CN

      You know, I don't know. Maybe reading a lot, or I always try to surround myself with people that are smarter than, than I am. Um, I mean, I can remember when I, when I got my first real job when my, at the time, girlfriend was pregnant with my first kid, and I was 16 years old. And I was in the back of a kitchen, and everybody just sort of thought that I was an idiot, probably because of my age and the fact that I was kind of a dope, and I, I probably talked like an idiot then as a 10th grader high school dropout whose only previous work experience was selling dime bags in the parking lot of high school. Um, the lack of respect and what that felt like. And then I really remember, uh, you know, again, 16 years old in the kitchen of a, of a really dumpy seafood restaurant getting paid $8 an hour. I really remember what would happen when I acted differently around these, these guys that I worked in the kitchen with, how they would treat me differently. And every day became this sort of social study for me, this social experiment wherein How would they respond to me acting a certain way? And I remember, like, when they would pick on me, instead of me trying to come up with quippy comebacks to them, I would just look them in the eye and not say anything. And then the picking on me stopped immediately. Um, and I guess, like, that little experiment right there was something that had a huge impact on me because, you know, the more considered I am when I say things, the more I think before I speak and things like that, I think the, the more people respond in the way that I would hope people respond, and the more I feel like I'm doing a, a good job of communicating whatever it is that I'm trying to, to say, whatever information it is that I'm trying to disseminate, um, the more satisfying it is for me. It feels great to be understood. Um, so I just, I do whatever I can that best services that. Um, as far as the educational part or being a, uh, an autodidact, I, I'm a big fan of reading. I'm a big fan of, of World War II. And I always say, like, I got all my business, my understanding of business and how business and life works from studying the Second World War.

    5. TF

      A- any particular books or documentaries or resources on World War II that you're, that you're a big fan of?

    6. CN

      Oh, yeah. My... Probably my favorite, or at least my second favorite book in the world, it's a textbook, and it's called The Second World War by John Keegan. Um, and it, it's literally just, like, 1,200 pages at size six font about the Second World War. And I remember, like, getting in trouble showing up to work tired because I would be up all night long reading this textbook about World War II. It was so riveting to me. Um, I read it cover to cover probably three times.

    7. TF

      Amazing.

    8. CN

      Uh, and I remember reading in The New York Times that John Keegan passed away, I guess, you know, late 2000, maybe 2008, 2009, something like that, and being deeply sad that this military lecturer, this professor from England had died because I felt so close to him because I read this book. There was nothing more than an academic's perspective on the Second World War. It was not a firsthand experience. There's no emotion in this book. It's pure military [laughs] strategy.

    9. TF

      [laughs]

    10. CN

      And I remember deeply being emotionally affected by the fact that this guy had, had died. But that's one book in particular that, that really affected me.

    11. TF

      How were you introduced to that book? Or how did you find it?

    12. CN

      I have no idea. Uh, I mean, I can tell you s- actually, I was at a dinner party with a girl I had a crush on, whose mother was a columnist in The New York Times. And, uh, they were talking about World War II, and one of them said, "What year did World War II start?" Or something like that. And I remember thinking in my head, "What year did World War II start?" And I literally couldn't tell you. Forget about the decade. I couldn't tell you what part of the century it took place in. And I remember in that moment feeling like an idiot, the same way I felt like an idiot in the kitchen when I got picked on. And the next day, I just went to Barnes & Noble, because there was no Amazon then, and, like, found whatever looked like the most down the line, like, straightforward book on the Second World War so I could make sure that the next time I was in a conversation where World War II came up, I would be much more versed in it.

    13. TF

      [laughs] Amazing. And you, you said second favorite book. What is, what is the other book that was in your mind?

    14. CN

      Um, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

    15. TF

      Ah.

    16. CN

      Um, I have read that book more times than I can count. Uh, I cried at the end of that book. I don't know why. I guess I was surprised that Malcolm X was killed, even though he'd been dead for 40 years and I knew that he had been shot. Um, that book resonates me in such a way. You know, he, he... just, like, he was a bad kid. He was a troublemaker. He was arrested. He was thrown in jail as a dropout and a thug. And I say this, like, with some hesitation because that man's an absolute hero who, who really changed the world for, for the better and for so many people. Um, so I don't compare myself to him in any capacity. But certainly when I read that book for the first time, I saw so many parallels between his struggles, uh, again, in a universal way, and the struggles that I had. And, you know, he was a troublemaker. He wasn't selling dime bags. He was doing real crime with guns and robbing people. Um, and he went to jail. Uh, and, you know, he taught himself, educated himself while in prison to the degree that he developed an astigmatism in his eye from reading-

    17. TF

      Wow

    18. CN

      ... in, like, the super dim prison light. And he went into prison the, you know, uh, the degenerate thug that he was, and he came out of prison, I think, one of the greatest communicators of the 20th century, um, and someone whose, whose ideas and the profundity behind the way he was able to share those ideas affected the world and, and affected the civil rights movement in such a way that we still feel the impact of it today. Um, he's just such a hero. And that book is written so... i-i-in such a brilliant way that's so relatable even today that I, I can't think of another piece of, of, uh, of writing that's impacted me the way that movie, that book has.

    19. TF

      What-

    20. CN

      The movie sucked. Not the movie. [laughs]

    21. TF

      [laughs] Not the movie, the book. What, uh, what book ha- have you gifted most to other people? Is it one of these two or, or a different one?

    22. CN

      No, the book that I've gifted the most to people... Th- there's a real trouble with gifting books, which is that y- if you're gifting someone a book, it means you think that they're gonna actually read it.

    23. TF

      [laughs]

    24. CN

      Um, and I would say more often than not, most books that are gifted, say, more or, or are more a gesture by the person who gifted them to you than they are you receiving them. Like, most people who gift the kind of books that I receive, they just wanna feel special and be able to say, "I gave you that book." Um, [laughs]

    25. TF

      [laughs]

    26. CN

      That's a, that's a little cynicism for you. But no, the book I've gifted the most is a book called It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be. I think that's the name of the book. I'm gonna look it up right now. But what it is, it's written by an ad man, and it's about sort of the art of advertising.

    27. TF

      It's a great title. I mean, uh-

    28. CN

      [laughs]

    29. TF

      ... even if it's not the right title, I like the sound of it.

    30. CN

      The, the reason why I gift that book is because you can read it in, like, 40 minutes.

  12. 1:07:45 – 1:12:09

    Gear Doesn't Matter and Vloggers to Watch

    1. TF

      I'm gonna ask just a couple of, uh, rapid-fire questions. They don't need to be rapid-fire answers, but I'll throw just a, a, a, a bunch of questions at you. Uh, what $100-or-less purchase has most positively impacted your life in the last six to 12 months, or whatever comes to mind?

    2. CN

      A $100-or-less purchase. That's a really, really challenging answer, uh, question to answer. Um-

    3. TF

      Or something not extremely expensive

    4. CN

      ... I... No, I understand.

    5. TF

      Yeah.

    6. CN

      Um, so it's not that recent, but it, it is something that I say to young people who wanna get into filmmaking. But the movie that I shot, uh, the f- the camera that I shot the Bike Lanes movie on cost $150. Uh, and you started this interview out by, uh, by asking about that movie, and I think that speaks to just how impactful that movie was. And that movie was shot on a $150 camera from Walmart, and that movie was edited in iMovie, which is free software. So I think that when I look back at, like, where it's a really big impact's been when it comes to making a little investment, that that movie and that, that $150 investment and the impact that it had on my life and my career, um, is something that I often point to as, like, don't blame it on the gear. Don't blame it on a lack of resources, because it's never the resources that determine your success. It's, it's how you use what you have.

    7. TF

      And is there any entry-level camera that you might suggest to people now who are looking for an equivalent and just getting started, or is the phone good enough?

    8. CN

      I mean, I think the phones now are great. They're way better than good enough, but if you look at a lot of the big vloggers, like, vlogging was, was a, was invented by people just using the webcams on their computers.

    9. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    10. CN

      Um, so I really just don't think the quality matters. I think cellphones now are incredible. If you wanna get something bigger than that, you go to the store and you buy whatever the, whatever the cheapest Canon point-and-shoot camera is that all has a high-def video record button. They got stereo sound. They've got zoom. It's more than what you need to tell a great story. It's never the hardware. It's only how you use it.

    11. TF

      And speaking of vloggers, so I'm not familiar with the world of vloggers outside of your own. Who are a few vloggers, maybe they have different styles, that people could check out just to get a feel for how people are going about doing this?

    12. CN

      Uh, sure. I... So there's one guy who's a good friend of mine. His name's Ben Brown, um, spelled as you'd imagine. And Ben is, uh, Ben's a guy who, he's a really honest, frank guy, and I think what Ben does in vlogging, he's a daily vlogger, that's so... His vlogs are very much so by definition just a diary of his life. Um, but I think what Ben does better than anyone is he really is himself on camera. So what you're seeing on camera is who he is in real life, and what the impact of that is in aggregate is that after you spend day in and day out watching his 10-minute vlogs every day, is he becomes a friend. He becomes a friend by proxy, and he lives a somewhat adventurous life. He's got a beautiful girlfriend in Cape Town, South Africa, where he spends the majority of his time, even though he's from England, and then he travels a lot for work. His work is vlogging. Um, so you sort of, you span this guy's life along with him, and via that, you, you, you feel like you become friends with him. Um, so I think he really captures what is the, the romanticism behind vlogging and behind sharing your life in a, in a daily capacity via video.

    13. TF

      Got it. Any, uh, anyone else come to mind, just so people can look at a few different options?

    14. CN

      Sure. There's a guy named FunForLouis. Um, Fun, F-U-N-F-O-R, Fun, 4, L-O-U-I-S, Louis. Um, Louis is, is very similar to Ben. Louis is, like, a godfather of vlogging. He's been doing it for, like, four years. He's someone who is, like, 6'4" with long dreadlocks and just rejected the grind, and he wanted to live a life of adventure, and he literally is traveling 365 days a year, and he bankrolls it all by sharing those experiences that he, he does via his camera and via YouTube. He doesn't drink. He doesn't do drugs. He doesn't have a girlfriend. He's just an honest guy on sort of a, a, a journey to, to define himself. Um, and I, I find his vlogs to be very humble and honest, and, um, they, they capture who he is and, and he shares that in a way that I think is extremely relatable.

  13. 1:12:09 – 1:19:25

    Misconceptions, Saying No, and Hard Work

    1. TF

      What, what are the most common misconceptions about you or your work, would you say?

    2. CN

      [sighs] God, that's tough, and it's tough only because [laughs] I pay such little attention to the, to negative people and the people that are, are wasting their time criticizing. Um, what, what did they call that about Steve Jobs? His-

    3. TF

      His-

    4. CN

      ... his, like-

    5. TF

      Reality dis-

    6. CN

      ... reality distortion field [laughs]

    7. TF

      ... distortion field. Yeah.

    8. CN

      Yeah. Um, so what the biggest misconceptions, um, you know, people think I'm really rich, and I think that's a kind of a frustrating misconception. And the reason why it's frustrating isn't because I don't have a wonderful, absolutely privileged life, which I do. Um, it's frustrating because of how many times in life I've said no to huge paychecks because they didn't align with who I am as a person. Um- You know, I, I said no to a $100,000 job today on YouTube because of what they wanted me to do and what they wanted me to say. I just passed on it. Uh, and that's been the case from when I was really, really broke. Uh, if it wasn't something that I, I thought I could get behind, that I believed in, I just said no. Um, and I think that if, if money were my focus, I would've found a home in advertising, done very well there, and never looked back. But instead, I've, I've always stayed true to what really matters to me, um, this sharing ideas and sharing perspectives, and I've done that with tremendous f- financial risk, um, that, that has cost me, probably prevented me from being this rich guy that, that people think that I am.

    9. TF

      How, how do you decide what to say no to? So for instance, if, if you're comfortable talking about it, and, and I ask because I'm constantly trying to get better at saying no, and you mentioned Steve Jobs, and he was, uh, he's famously quoted for a lot of things, but one of them was, you know, "Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things," uh, or, "Being successful is saying no to 1,000 things," and sort of always striving for that simplicity. What did the company... What made you uncomfortable that led to the no? Um, or you could speak more generally if you want to, but I'm trying to get better at this myself, and I'm always looking for playbooks or rules that other people use.

    10. CN

      Uh, you know, I was terrified, absolutely terrified to say no for so long, and it's because it was such a novel idea, this, this idea that someone was willing to pay me to pick up a camera, something that I had not just done for free, but something that I had, like, spent every, uh, every last cent of my life to be able to do, and now people were willing to pay me, and they were willing to pay me a shitload of money, and then I had to say no. So it was something that was really scary for me to do. Um, but I would say that transition happened a couple of years ago, uh, and the more I said no, the more it made me feel better. And, uh, I, I don't know what the science to it is, but I can tell you that when I launched... Not when I launched, but when I got the first little bit of financing for my technology company, it went from being an idea to something more tangible. Um, I just immediately said no to everything, and that's pretty much where I lie right now is everything is given one filter, and that one filter is, is this good for me and my tech company? And if the answer is no, it's a, it's, it's a pass. And if the answer is a yes, it, uh, it gets an, an examination.

    11. TF

      And, uh, and I definitely wanna talk about Beme. For people who also wanna sort of develop this ability to say no, there's a commencement speech by Neil Gaiman called Make Good Art, which I just find fantastic, but he has some really good metaphors for this as well. Um, and I'm gonna come back to Beme in just a second, but what, uh, what do you believe that other people think is insane? Or what is a belief that you have that other people think, many people think is crazy?

    12. CN

      Uh, it's funny 'cause to the listeners out there, I'm talking to you right now, not Tim, but Tim sent me all these questions saying, "If you wanna rehearse for this so you have answers," and I came back with an emphatic, "I don't like c- to know the questions ahead of time 'cause then they're rehearsed," and now I'm finding myself with these really challenging, great questions [laughs] and I'm, I'm grasping, I'm grasping to come up with a-

    13. TF

      [laughs]

    14. CN

      ... an answer that's true. Um, okay, what do I believe that's, that's crazy? Um-

    15. TF

      Or that other people think is crazy, but you might not, and this is a, this is a common interview question, and this is a paraphrase that Peter Thiel, co-founder, uh, or former CEO of PayPal and, uh, first money into Facebook, that he uses a lot. Um, so this is, um, just some- something you believe that's controversial or that other people think is nuts.

    16. CN

      Yeah, I think you, I think you, they talk about this in the first chapter of Zero to One. Um-

    17. TF

      Yeah, I'm sure it comes up. I'm sure it comes up.

    18. CN

      Uh, I, you know, I believe in the religion of work, um, and working hard, and I think that, uh, I think that that's something that people resist and people resist the notion of, and the more I find myself sort of preaching the values and the virtues of that, the more resistant people are. Um, but I just believe that anything can be achieved through hard work. Uh, and it's hard, it's hard to say, as I, as I'm hearing myself say that it sounds like something that, you know, some, some dipshit guy who's found success will say, but-

    19. TF

      [laughs]

    20. CN

      ... I really, like... The truth is, the harder I work is... The harder I work, the more successful I am, and, and moreover, you realize that, like, you will never, you'll never be the best looking person in the room. You'll never be the smartest person in the room. You'll never be the most educated, the best well-versed. You'll, you'll never be... You can never compete on those levels. You'll never be the most edu... You'll never be able to compete on those levels. But what you can always compete on, the true, like, egalitarian aspect to success is hard work. You can always work harder than the next guy, and if you're willing to work harder than the next guy, you will succeed because most people, like I always say, when, when someone's like, "Yeah, but I'm, I'm not gonna dedicate, I'm not gonna commit to working like that. I'm not waking up. I'm not... How could you sleep a couple hou- I'm not gonna do, I'm not..." The second I hear someone say that, I think to myself, "Great, that is one less person I have to climb over on my way to the top."

    21. TF

      [laughs]

    22. CN

      Because I, I know what hard work can yield, and I know just how, just how meaningful hard work can be.

    23. TF

      Mm-hmm. There's, uh, one of my... I, I, it's, I, I, I don't know why I'm so embarrassed to admit this, but one of my favorite semi sort of, uh, documentary, but a, it's more of a historical reenactment, uh, film that I've seen is called Miracle, and it's a Disney movie with Kurt Russell about this, uh, this incredible story of the US hockey team in the Olympics at Lake Placid going against the, the Soviets, who were considered unbeatable. But in one of the training sessions, he says, you know, they're just bickering amongst themselves and, and, uh, and looking at hot chicks in the stands instead of taking the game seriously, and he's like, "Oh, well, I know you guys think you have a lot of talent, but talent, you don't have enough talent to make it in this particular game. But I can promise you that we'll outwork every other team that, that's going to play us in the Olympics." Um, so yeah, I d- I do think there's a lot, a lot to pull from that. The, um-

  14. 1:19:25 – 1:25:37

    Why He Started Beme

    1. TF

      Tech company. So tell me a little, tell me and the, uh, the listeners about Beme. But related to that, I mean, you have a, you have an amazing life. You've, you've created an amazing life for yourself through experimentation and hard work. Um, have been a popular director. You have Sundance, HBO, et cetera. Um, you can make a lot of money o- some YouTubers, I'm not gonna say you, but YouTubers can make, uh, you know, five, six figures for product placement on YouTube. So why on earth start a tech company? And, uh, and, and what i- what is the tech company?

    2. CN

      Uh, you know, it's, it's, it was at the height, it was at the, the peak of my career that I actually pivoted to starting this tech company, and the peak of that career was one of doing branded content deals on my YouTube channel. And yeah, those deals were six figures and, uh, and seven-figure deals. They were huge, huge, huge deals. And in starting my company, uh, my technology company, I actually shut down my production company that was doing those tremendous deals. So, uh, uh, part of that rejection around me being rich is because of that, is because I, I shut down. I killed the, uh, I killed the-

    3. TF

      The golden goose?

    4. CN

      Yeah. I killed, I killed the cow that w-

    5. TF

      Yeah

    6. CN

      ... that I had been milking for years to do this, because that's how much I believe in this. Um, but w- what started the tech company was this: I was, I was doing advertising work for YouTube, for my YouTube channel, and it was fantastically successful. I was tremendously proud of it, all of that. Um, but I really felt like I'd exhausted it. Um, I had reached a plateau where people... Uh, I was doing similar work, and even though it was good and people loved it, I didn't feel like it was moving me forward in any way. And it was around that time that I was invited to, uh, to MIT, uh, to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and I was invited there via the Sundance Institute and a grant from the, uh, Rockefeller Foundation. And they invited me to live on campus and work out of the Media Lab for six months. And I remember thinking about that, and my initial gut response was like, "Leave my company for six months? How much is that gonna possibly cost me? Like, I can't afford to do that. That's crazy. Say no to all this money. I've never said no to anything in my life." Um, and the more I thought about it, the more I was like, "You know what? I can probably afford to do this. I can probably afford to live off my savings for six months. I'll be dead broke at the end of it, but this is an opportunity unlike anything else." And I just, in the end, said, "Fuck it," and I, I went for it. And I lived on campus, and I never went to college, never went to high school, never went to college, and I just went there with a wide-open mind, and I had one agenda, and that agenda was when I leave here, I wanna make sure I have an understanding I'm doing something that I've, I've, I've never done before. I'm doing something that is not currently, uh, on the books, because I don't get it. And while at, at MIT, I learned one thing, one very meaningful, one very powerful thing, and that one thing was that with technology, almost anything is achievable. Um, and therefore, I t- I took that understanding when I came back to New York after my, my tenure there was over, after my s- semester there was over. My fellowship was complete. I came back to New York, and I came back to New York, and I wanted to solve a problem. Um, I wanted to solve a problem that I identified years ago but I didn't think was solvable, and I wanted to take this new understanding that I could solve big problems with technology, and I wanted to realize that. And that was the prelude to me starting a technology company.

    7. TF

      And, and can you explain the, the premise of, uh, of Beme? Tell people where they can check it out, but, uh, also the, uh, how it works, I mean, the basic, the basic, uh, conceit behind it.

    8. CN

      Yeah, sure. So that problem, that problem that I really wanted to solve was one that my life has been so impacted in such a meaningful way by my ability to share my ideas and my perspective. Um, but I have a unique, I have an unfair competitive advantage when it comes to sharing ideas and perspectives, which is that I know how to make movies. I have this creative expression, so I can share my perspective because of that. Um, Larry King ha- had a CNN talk show. He'd share his perspective because of that. And is there a way to, with technology, make it so you can actually share perspectives and share ideas without having to create something? Can you bifurcate this idea of creation from this idea of sharing? Um, and that was the problem that I wanted to solve. And to, to unpack that a little bit, even something like a, a YouTube, it first requires you to make a video, and then you have to upload a video. There's an active creation in there. When you think of something like Instagram, like Twitter, you have to come up with that clever tweet. Um, Snapchat, you have to shoot something, you review it, you edit it, you see what it looks like, you add some s- filters to it, you draw on the screen, and then you get to share it. What would it look like if you were to remove the entire process, all the mechanics of creation? And that's what Beme is. That's how Beme works. So literally how Beme works, and it's B-E-M-E, Beme. How it works is you cover the proximity sensor on your, on your cellphone, and the proximity sensor is this tiny black dot that's right above the speaker hole at the top of your phone. Um, and when you cover that sensor, it automatically starts recording a video clip, and the minute that clip is done, which is four seconds later, it's immediately posted to your feed. Um, so what that looks like in practice is when you see something of interest, when there's something you wanna share, an idea, a perspective, I don't know, some- a cute puppy, anything you wanna share, you just hold your phone to your chest or you put your thumb over the proximity sensor. The screen goes black. It captures. It vibrates when it's done, and then you put the phone back in your pocket, and you just shared something using the most media-rich content that's ever existed, which is im- which is video with sound, and you've done it without ever having to create, without ever having to, to confront that burden that is a creative expression.

    9. TF

      Very cool. Yeah, I've, uh, I've been watching it with, with great interest and, uh, playing around with it, so I encourage people to check it out. I know we are coming up on time for both of us, so I want to just ask a couple more questions, and then, uh, uh, absolutely gonna ask you to share where people can, can check out a number of things related to your work.

  15. 1:25:37 – 1:34:17

    Favorite Films, Billboard, and Advice to His Younger Self

    1. TF

      What are s- uh, the Some underrated, the most underrated documentaries or movies in your mind. Just a f- a f- they could just be a few films that people might check out that perhaps they haven't come across because they haven't been fully appreciated.

    2. CN

      Um, okay. So my favorite movie is, is probably The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which is a movie, it's a British movie that was made, uh, that was made, um, during World War II, and it's my favorite movie, period. It's a movie that Wes Anderson really studied, and you can see a lot of his style in that movie. Um, for example, like, the opening title sequence, all of the credits are embroidered into a gigantic blanket, and the shots are just-

    3. TF

      Uh-huh

    4. CN

      ... of that blanket. And this is a movie that was made in the f- in the 1940, I think, 1941. Um, and that movie to me is, like, that's my favorite movie 'cause it captures everything I love about filmmaking. Um, but it also had to be made at a time when, like, the country's priority was saving themselves from destruction and death, and instead, uh, you know, like, that's the priority, and instead, like, at that same time, they decided to make a movie. And, like, that is such a novel, such a wild idea. Um, and they had no resources. When they needed big, wide establishing shots, they just filmed a painting 'cause they couldn't fly a balloon or a- a airplane to take the shot because it was, it was during the war. Um, so that's my favorite movie. Other movies, like my favorite doc is probably, favorite documentary is probably Little Dieter Needs to Fly, which is a-

    5. TF

      Mm

    6. CN

      ... movie from, from Werner Herzog from 1997. Um-

    7. TF

      How do you spell Dieter? D-I-E-D-E-R, I guess?

    8. CN

      D-I-T-

    9. TF

      Oh

    10. CN

      ... E-R.

    11. TF

      Got it.

    12. CN

      And Little, Little Dieter Needs to Fly is about a, a... It's about a Vietnam, a US Vietnam fighter pilot who gets shot down on his very first mission, and he's trapped as a POW for a number of years. And the movie was actually made as a fictional narrative, uh, or non-fictional narrative, uh, called Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale a couple years ago. But skip the Christian Bale one. Just watch the documentary. That movie will bring you to your knees, and it shows you, like... That's one of those movies that any time you're having a bad day or you think you've got it hard, you watch that movie and you understand what it means to, like, to survive. Um, you know, it's a story of a guy who ate, ate maggots for four years-

    13. TF

      Ugh

    14. CN

      ... and finally escaped and the best friend killed. And, you know, much of the interviews that were done were with him when he was living, I think, in Portland, Oregon or something like that, and they, he, Dieter takes you into his basement and underground. He has, like, hundreds of pounds of sugar and flour and oats, uh, in the US in the '90s because he's so scared of s- being hungry again that he wanted to make sure no matter what, he'll never be hungry again for the rest of his life.

    15. TF

      Wow.

    16. CN

      And it's just like, it captures humanity in such a visceral, such a real way. And it's a work of, of nonfiction, so it's really... That's a movie that, that, that's, that's, that's moved me.

    17. TF

      Sounds like a great perspective adjuster. Uh, if you could have one billboard anywhere, uh, what would you put on it? And, uh, where would you put it?

    18. CN

      Uh, God, I don't, I don't know. I mean, it probably s- I'd wanna... I'd love to have a billboard, something that just reminds people to be nice. Um, [laughs] uh, where I would put it is wherever the most people would possibly see it, but I, I think that we, and I don't know that communication, uh... Actually, I do. I think that communication, social networks, the internet has made this better. It's, it's going in the right direction. But I think people are so quick to be judgmental and be negative, and the truth is, like, i- if you give other people the benefit of the doubt and you, you have a positive approach to everything in life, that you end up being happier and it's better for them. It's like that, that absolutely quantifiable mathematical equation, which is that if what's best for you and me is better for me than just what's better for me. Does that make sense? I'll say it again.

    19. TF

      Yeah. No, yeah.

    20. CN

      Like, something that benefits Tim and Casey is better than for Casey than just something that benefits Casey.

    21. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    22. CN

      Um, and I think positivity and, and being nice is a big part of that, and it's, it's something that's often overlooked.

    23. TF

      Agreed. What, uh, what advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

    24. CN

      20-year-old?

    25. TF

      Yeah. Or t-

    26. CN

      [laughs]

    27. TF

      Or 25, whichever you prefer.

    28. CN

      [laughs] I mean, I would say my 15-year-old se- self, but, um-

    29. TF

      Yeah, you can answer that one

    30. CN

      ... uh, it would be d- don't listen to anyone. Um, don't listen to anyone. I, I have a rule, which is always listen to everyone and then reject everything you don't like.

  16. 1:34:17 – 1:39:51

    Running Music and Where to Find Casey

    1. TF

      What do you... [laughs] People have asked me this, so I'm gonna ask you. What, what do you... What have you been listening to most when you run recently?

    2. CN

      [sighs] I mean, the problem with me is I'm not much of a music... I'm not much of a loyalist when it comes to music. Like, I, I hate the answer I love everything, but I love everything. Um, an old friend of mine, his name is Johnny. Uh, Johnny Famous is his name on, on, um, Spotify, and that's no H. J-O-N-N-Y Famous, Johnny Famous. I just listen to his playlists.

    3. TF

      Uh-huh.

    4. CN

      He's, like, this incredible DJ, um, who's DJ'd parties with me, all kinds of fun stuff, but I just go to him and I'm like, "Johnny, what are you listening to?" And Spotify enables that, and I just listen to his playlist. So that's not a super sexy answer, but it's the truth.

    5. TF

      No, it's specific. It's perfect. All right. I... This has been so much fun. Uh, I know we've, we've tried to connect over the past weeks and months, and it's, it's, it's finally here in front of us. Where can people find you on the Internet? Where can they check out you and your work, and maybe, maybe give them a video or two to start with, uh, also?

    6. CN

      Um, yeah. I mean, uh, everything I've ever done is on YouTube. Um, if you just type my name into Google, you'll find it. Uh, if I had to say start somewhere, watch that movie Make It Count, 'cause we just spent so much time talking about it. Um, and then another movie that I like to point to is a movie I worked really hard on that is kind of under, under-watched on YouTube, but it's, it's called Draw My Life, and basically, it's... it is, like, my autobiography that I made via little drawings that a, a friend of mine did, and it's something I worked super hard on, and it's like a 12-minute summation of, of everything I've done from birth until age 30 or so. And it's something I'm, I'm really, really proud of that little movie. Uh, and then your, your audience to download Beme, B-E-M-E. It's on the App Store now. We'll have it on Android probably in November. We're working really hard to get it there. But Beme is a really, really exciting, really... It's a burgeoning community that's growing every day. And, um, I don't know. It's, it's... The more people that are a part of Beme, the more exciting it becomes, so.

    7. TF

      Awesome. Well, Casey, thank you so much for taking the time. And everybody listening, for show notes, links to everything that we mentioned in this conversation, you can just go to fourhourworkweek.com, all spelled out, and click on Podcast. That also has all past episodes. And, uh, Casey, this was great. Hopefully, we can, uh, hang out when we're in the same city. And, uh, best of luck with everything. Thanks for taking the time.

    8. CN

      Of course. This has been fantastic. Take care, Tim. [upbeat music]

    9. TF

      Hey, guys. This is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up [laughs] in the, uh, the world of the esoteric as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little, tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com all spelled out, and just drop in your email, and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it. [upbeat music] This episode is brought to you by Vimeo Pro, which is the ideal video hosting platform for entrepreneurs. And in fact, a bunch of my startups already use Vimeo Pro, including Wealthfront, who uses it to explain how Wealthfront works. TaskRabbit uses it to tell their company's story. And there are many other names you would recognize among their customers, Airbnb, Etsy, et cetera. Why do they use it? Well, Vimeo Pro provides enterprise-level video hosting for a fraction of the usual cost. Features include gorgeous high-quality playback with no ads, up to 20 gigabytes of video storage every week, unlimited plays and views, and a fully customizable video player, which can include your logo, custom outro, et cetera. You also get VIP support. And you get all of this for just $199 per year. That's $17 a month with no complicated bandwidth calculations or hidden fees. And you can try it risk-free for 30 days. So check it out, vimeo.com/business. That's V-I-M-E-O.com/business and use promo code Tim to get 25% off. That's a special discount just for you guys. So check it out, vimeo.com/business, promo code Tim. And until next time, thank you for listening. [upbeat music]

Episode duration: 1:39:51

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