Shay Carl — From Manual Laborer to 2.3 Billion YouTube Views

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We have ShayCarl Twitter.

That's ShayCarl who got his first computer at age 27 to today his Shaytards YouTube channel that has roughly 2.

3 billion views Steven Spielberg have kids and Maker Studios with soap Disney for nearly 1 billion dollars and sense of being overweight.

The way to get to all of this she came to San Francisco to spend two days with me.

We need a bunch of weird stuff together a lot of Firsts for Shay a Russian bathhouse Acro yoga Etc is up and do a couple of segments.

We covered limited to the following decisions inflection point deer as well books quotes etcetera anywhere else before and much more.

So this conversation with yours truly and Shay Carl just one last some religion in this one particular religious person, but I've had staunch atheist on this season's and reasoning very interesting and we have had a number of the discussion.

And that try to listen to this tutorial and take as much as you can possible from it.

And with that said, please Jayhawk Michelle.

Wow, I'm here.

Thank you Tim.

It's so great to have you here and I don't know the best way to introduce you.

So I'm just going to read off a couple of bullets because I think your stories so fascinating your first computer 2007 Dell laptop 27 years old on Blake that's a taste of their self while I'm break at my manual labor that you are manual labor granite countertop job, you've noticed a lot of things about kitchen and house since you've gotten your attention to detail so they won't touch on the only one who got underneath your kitchen countertops.

I was looking at how the amount of a sink you are.

The only the one and only you also knows the handrails Pusha T.

Very first video on YouTube August 16th 2007.

I was a big year for me to get your first check from YouTube for months later 300 bucks.

Now, I'm going to turn the flash forward here as of this moment the Shaytards you Channel has 4.

2 million subscribers that have been washed by 2.

3 billion times and you're also one of the think they settled on 650 million towards the end, but we can call it won't delete lots of gum has lots of commas regardless and what a story I am thrilled to have you here.

We met I guess first connected on the internet's on Twitter and in person unexpected met at a Starbucks is the first place.

We know that's right on Route because my brother is he has a hunting channel on YouTube called hush hunting fish.

So Joe Rogan is big into hunting and because of that I started listen to The Joe Rogan podcast.

And then he tweeted the Jocko podcast.

He's like you got to check out this Jocko willink podcast on the Tim Ferriss thing.

Whatever.

I'm like who's Tim Ferriss I had heard about the 4-Hour Work week because I had a guy that was in church grown up grown or just like right when I came home from a mission that talked about your book, but I'm like me to check out this podcast listen to the Jocko podcast and was like amazed not only by him but by you and the you know, the people that you had on your podcast and so we were talking dming through Twitter about you know, being on the podcast and I was like no way because you asked me to go out your podcast and then you had Jamie Foxx Kevin Costner like I might how am I going to be on this podcast? And so finally we linked up in your like, okay.

Let's set a date and then like the next day.

I got invited to go to the White House to meet with Joe Biden and then we were meeting with everybody who was going to me and I walk in and it was like such a weird things.

I'd just been thinking about you and like I think that's Tim Ferriss right there.

That's that's too Hey Tim, Fair.

Does he know me and it was weird.

I was weird to see you after having just communicated about being on the podcast.

So I think all things happen for a reason but that's the way our first date was at the White House Instagram videos ever is you in it when we're about to walk out on the stage with Joe Biden.

I had just luckily pulled out my camera right as the guys like and the vice president of the United States of America and Joe Biden had asked us to walk out on stage with him against the wishes of the Secret Service.

You member that I do come with me if you want to walk out on stage with him and I lucked out and hit record on the Instagram video, right as they're announcing the vice president of the United States of America and then we go walking out with him and you're in that Instagram video has like two hundred thousand views on it.

So that's a very Monumental Instagram video for me to have been announced by the president when we walked out together so many lives in one and I'd like to start the very very beginning if you can talk about it ShayCarl.

What's the story behind your name? So my name is my name.

I am Shay Carl Butler.

That's my full name.

My dad's name is Carl Scott Butler.

And when I very first found the internet the very first interaction I had on the internet was to get a Hotmail email account.

And for some reason I think it's because of college when you when I went to ISU Idaho State University in Southeastern, Idaho gold Bangles, you had to like have a student login and it was like your first letter of your first name and then like the last four letters of your last name, so I always kind of figured that's how you had to name yourself on.

The Internet is just like your name sound like Myself ShayCarl.

That's my first and middle name.

I just kind of pushing together ShayCarl @hotmail.

Do not email me.

I do not check that email anymore.

And that was my very first account ShayCarl hotmail.

com.

So when I started my YouTube channel, I thought well, I don't know.

What a good username is.

Maybe I'll just use my email name, you know ShayCarl.

What's my name was not so that was my very first, you know, Monica on the internet was youtube.

com ShayCarl and that's my very first YouTube channel that I started in 2007 on a little $500 Dell laptop that I bought at 27 cuz I figured I'm an adult now I should get a computer and do adult things.

And so yeah, it was you.

No not and I say this to about Shaytards the main channels we have it wasn't my best marketing decision.

There's all kind of like Discovery as it happened, right? I didn't think like I'm going to have 4.

3 million subscribers one day.

What's a good name to have? I just thought I want to make a video I have Some things to say in these first forays into digital worlds are really any type of business world, even though you might not recognize it as such at the time is the implications of those first handles and I don't know if we got on Twitter like a lot of people like I was Twitter thing whatever like I'll just make up usernames T-boned Kona.

I think it was his funeral and for years and years and years eve.

Yeah just stick with it or he chose to stick with it.

I think it's changed.

But if we go back to your childhood you were you you were raised Mormon, is that correct? Correct.

So my grandfather Colonel Eugene Haynes Butler, he was in the United States Air Force told us many stories about Vietnam and Napalm and the power of that that gas He was born just Christian and was kind of searching for something and was in Germany stationed in Germany.

I can't remember what year but ended up finding some Mormon missionaries there.

The name of the church is officially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the nickname Mormons comes from The Book of Mormon, which thanks to Trey and Matt have popularized that book quite a bit.

If you've heard about the play on Broadway The Book of Mormon so, you know, but yeah, I was raised because my grandpa was baptized in Germany and started practicing and then he raised his family my dad specifically in the church.

And then I was as well.

I was born in Logan Utah 1980, March 5th 1980 Pisces as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In fact, I was born in the hospital that was 50 feet across the street from the Mormon Temple the Logan, Utah.

and yeah kind of was raised in that going to Scouts going to church, you know, we weren't super you know, like Mom and Dad if there was like a playoff game at the Jazz playing we might miss, you know, but we definitely went and I don't Not so hard in hindsight to think about your childhood because you have such a skewed perspective of it and it's weird to look back on it later.

But I feel like my parents weren't super passionate about it.

They were they knew it was right and I feel like they felt an obligation as parents to do what was right for your kids and that was to go to church and in many ways.

I'm very grateful because there was so much that I learned, you know, Ron Campbell for instance was my young men's president liked from the age of like 12 to 16 in the Mormon Church.

Sure, you know, you're in this thing called young man's and he was like a pillar of like who I wanted to become in life like their men like that that I have met through the Mormon church that I have been like I want to be like that guy 12-16 is really important.

So what can you explain the organization first of all and it's all okay.

So like in the church and we believe that you can receive the power of God, which is called the priesthood and What might be for many in a church that you you go you kind of you know, you reach certain level.

So at 12 years old you receive the iranic priesthood and when you receive that then you can do things like service the priesthood of God we believe is only for the service of man.

So ironic priesthood Testament misspelling it.

Yeah, the priest of Aaron the aaronic priesthood but at that early age you start a new serve the sacrament like the bread and water to remember Christ and his body and his sacrifice and then you know their specific things that it says that you can do witches like to bless the sick and basically it's an organization that you know that I can't go through all like that, you know the setup of it but you know every Sunday we have church and and the there's three hours is 3 hours.

The first hour is what it's called the sacrament meeting where all the congregation meets together.

And the main purpose of that meeting is to remember Christ to have the bread have the water and there's no paid Ministry in the church.

Everybody's volunteer.

So the bishop of the ward or what you might know as like the priest or the whatever the guy who's up at the pulpit and charge.

He's a volunteer.

He might be a dentist or an accountant or whatever and he has a calling to serve in the bishopric for anywhere from three to five years and then he's released and then he becomes a regular member of the church.

So there's different teachers in for the 12 to 16 year olds, you know, there's what's called, you know, we call it young men's president and we had a guy named Ron Campbell who was our like he was an older man who had a business and for 1 hour the the young man would meet with him.

We'd have lessons an hour per week every Sunday.

And then there was also a thing called Mutual which is like on Tuesday nights.

We would meet at 7 and do different activities a lot of times.

We just play basketball the church, which was our favorite activity.

Very interrelated to Scouts The Scouting program Boy Scouts of America specifically and that's not affiliated with the Mormon church, but the program and so it's very ingrained in the culture to get your Eagle Scout.

I remember hearing like when you go for a job interview one day and it's between you and another guy and you have your Eagle Scout, you're the one who's going to get the job.

And so that became a big priority growing up like you got to get your eagle and that was you know, advancing through Tenderfoot first class second class all the way up until you receive your Eagle Scout, which you know, you had to do this big project at the end of that was kind of like the final test becoming an eagle scout as you had to organize this giant service project.

And so just do those years those, you know, like you said those influential years from 12 to 16 I had you know, So very real motivating people in my life that were saying.

Hey pay attention like these decisions that you make matter, you know, you need to you know, begin with the end in mind in a sense where you need to think about what your decision to do right now.

In fact early on I remember talking about in these weekly meetings about making good choices in life and about not making the choice when it happens but making the choice right now see you in those nurses make the decision right now so that when you're faced with it, you've already made that decision.

I think that's just general good advice as far as thinking about an eternal perspective try to suck out of your life where you're in your mind so much what I mean by suck out is like pull out like Elevate where you're looking down become a third party or Observer of your own thoughts of your own actions.

You know, I'm not sometimes I think helps me live in the now where you're concerned about yesterday and you're worried about tomorrow.

If I'm able to kind of like step out of my body and a sense and look at myself as my own Devil's Advocate and be honest, you know, because a lot of us, I think are not honest with ourselves.

We lie to ourselves.

We like maybe sometimes our honest like they're the we know that there's something that we're struggling with and we don't want to stop that thing or we don't want to admit that we have that weakness.

And so even within our own psyche even with our own minds were unable to be like, hey Shay Shay.

You should maybe consider this, you know, and so I think To me that's what religion does and people might be like, how is that shape is like a side to really explain to have to tell the entire belief system that I have but it's basically that we live before we were born and that we were conscious spirits that knew that we were going to come to this earth that knew that this was going to be a testing ground that knew that we were going to be paired up with a physical body.

I believe our Spirits are real thing.

I believe that our Spirits are just a finer matter that can match with denser matter like our bodies are bones are tissue.

And that when we die those Spirit separate from our bodies and then the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that we will be resurrected and that that spirit will then again mesh with an eternal uncrustable physical beam of bone and flesh.

And so Thinking about that.

It's help me make life decisions where I am, like why not? Just thinking about what does that girl? Think about me or do I look cool in these shoes? I'm thinking You know, I'm going somewhere I came from someplace and I'm I'm going to go somewhere someday.

So I need to think about every single decision.

I make every thought that I have with that kind of plan in mind.

I think it has a built-in long-term perspective and the one of the things that I'd like to really just mentioned is Deciding how you're going to react before you have to react in other words.

This is very much longer lines of something.

I remember hearing from Tony Robbins was talking about marriage infidelity.

It's already said you can't just have faith in your relationship and assume you're always going to respond in the best interest of your relationship.

You have to decide what types of Temptations are going to exist with what the exact situations are that my present themselves and decide in advance how you were going to respond in those exact circumstances as opposed to just crossing your fingers and hope it's all smooth sailing right and someone to talk about a a transitionary.

Maybe it's transitionary.

But so 19221 actually before I get there.

I forgot that to follow up on mr.

Campbell.

So were there any specific things that he taught you or specific characteristics that he had that made you want to model them? Yes.

The best way to describe it is like imagine Santa Claus imagine sitting down and hanging out with Santa Claus, right? Santa Claus is a who's seen a thing or two and he's generous right? He super liked nothing gets under Santa Claus's skin to me.

That's what Ron Campbell was.

The guy could tell a story.

First of all like he was raised on a farm and he would tell us story after Story of moving pipe.

If you've ever been on a farm, you know that you got to move the pipe to water the crops.

And so there's you know, these 20 ft long steel pipes with the water runs through that you have to pick up and move, you know, 10 to 20 feet over to the next Pharrell where the water didn't reach right and so he would just tell us these random stories of moving pipe and like guys that he works with on the farm like racing across like who can move pipe the fastest and he just had this ability to Captivate Us boys, right and end.

There's always lessons in the Mormon church.

If you go to any Mormon church in the world tomorrow or on Sunday, you have the exact same lesson if you're in Ethiopia, or if you're in Salt Lake or fear in Atlanta or Guatemala all the curriculum for the 16 million members of the church is exactly the same one that's in our geographical boundary broken up into geographical area.

So it's like if you live from in between Main Street and Center Street, then you're in this Ward and so anywhere in the world you can go the curriculum is exactly the same anywhere Main Street and Center Street.

This is another thing that made me think of some of my trips to Idaho and Utah just the way that the city Riley.

Itself Salt Lake specifically Brigham Young set it up.

So it's like easy it's like 1st 2nd 3rd, so I can just tell you an address and you can immediately find it just if you know how to count.

So where we going through talking about Campbell and his ability to Captivate and and he was just such a generous guy like he would do things like we're doing these high adventures and he would do if he was a successful businessman so he would be like, let's buy up a parasail cuz he had a water ski boat, right? So for one of ours out and he bought this pair of cell that you hook up to a back of a boat and you get a harness in and then you hit an eagle about it, but he had no idea how to work it so he had us and all of the scouts trying to figure out how to work this pair of sale.

And for the first four times, we had an upside-down.

We're like dragging people into the ground because it was flipped around and finally what if we flipped it over here's the jet skis.

Here's the parasail go have fun and don't break anything which we always did and when we lost his water ski rope, he was cool with that.

He was just a guy that was like I said like Santa Claus that will Had wisdom that was forgiving that was kind but you know also knew that you had to work hard that you had to apply yourself that you had to make good decisions that you have a purposeful definition of what you want your life to be just like you were talking about Tony Robbins.

I know what I want my marriage to be like I also know that I'm a dude who thinks chicks are hot, right? So it's like how am I going to be married to this one girl forever if I like to look at other girls boobs and not like I am not that kind of guy but I'm just saying dude, if you're honest and you see a nice pair of boots out there you're going to glance at them.

So, how do I constantly think about that right now and make a decision to turn away or maybe to like appreciate that nice set of cleavage that you got but I don't have to stare at it.

I don't have to like I'm a huge believer in you can literally do anything you want if you created in your mind first and I love James Allen as a man thinketh.

Is one of my favorite books where I think we so undervalue the power of thought every single thing in human existence was a thought first these microphones this couch anything.

We enjoy in the natural, you know, things are amazing.

The hyperloop Elon Musk is landing rockets in the ocean.

He had an idea to do that first.

So if you're going to be naive to the fact that you can think about bad things and not do bad things.

You're going to urine for a lot of pain in your life.

You have to control your mind.

You have to control meaning if you're if you're running on the fuel of negative thinking that will manifest itself externally and people think that's mumbo-jumbo the power of thought what the secret kind of stuff where it's like, oh, come on.

Give me some real life looking it was what are some real tips and tricks.

To me.

It's the it's the cliches.

I'll sign out real quick when I was exercising and losing weight.

I was 280 lb I decided to run the Los Angeles Marathon.

I lost a hundred pounds and I ran the Los Angeles Marathon accents run for other Marathon.

So what I was doing that because I'm a YouTuber because I have a big audience that watches my videos as I was losing this weight as a YouTuber you're constantly thinking of like, how can I tell my audience about this? I had I think at the point I had lost like 40 lb.

I was riding my bike up and down the Santa Monica Pier every day or the boardwalk there from Venice to Santa Monica and I had lost like 40 or 50 lb just ride my bike every day drinking a lot of water eating fruits and vegetables that stuff.

That's like if you're going to lose weight.

What do you do you exercise you eat right you get good sleep you drink while I was doing all that and I lost 50 pounds until one bike ride one day.

I'm like, what am I going to tell my audience? Like I'm excited to make a video to tell people like guy that just hit 50 pounds.

What if I've been doing I've been exercising I've been reading Health books been eating fruits and vegetables and like I can't say that if I make a video and tell people to do that.

They'll be like all those are just cliche, but I was like what that's what's working.

That's what I'm doing.

And so I on this bike ride.

I remember exactly where I was I thought to myself the secrets to life are hidden behind the word cliche.

So anytime that you hear anything that you think is a cliche and my tip to you is to perk your ears up and listen more carefully because the second that a cliche is being spoken a truth is being spoken there can be cliches and other things too, but it's so simple that we make it too difficult like think happy thoughts.

Then you'll be happy and most bulshit.

That's not that can't happen.

Like yeah, it's not going to work for you because you got a shity attitude, but, you know if you can just mentally Painting yourself if you can mentally say this is the life I want this is the kind of person I want to be really be this kind of person.

There's a Doctrine in my church that teaches that when we die, we're not going to communicate with these words anymore.

I'm going to be able to know exactly what's in your mind.

You're not going to be able to hide anything from me for instance.

You got to clean it up before you make me stressed.

You've known your entire life, I think about meeting somebody in a in a realm where you know, all of their intentions, you know, exactly how they feel that's going to be a different person to write.

So the goal on this Earth life is to become that person who you say you are right now because I believe whether you believe in God or not, like that's going to happen like isn't a text message just me sending you a thought.

I'm just like adding some letters and shooting it through the air eventually I believe.

You know and we can get into this to a technology that will be able to just you know, telepathy will be a real thing where we ndes near-death experiences you get on the internet.

You just type in nderu look up near-death experiences a majority of those people say that when they died or they're on the other side, they felt that this christ-like person or this God person whoever it was knew them.

They could not hide a single solitary thing.

Like they just knew every single thing about them.

So hearing about that.

I'm like, well, I better get my stuff together now and I'd really be that person because eventually you're going to have to be and you're not going to hide anything and I think that's what the internet is doing.

I think especially with the election, you know, like the presidential elections like we see who these people are right like you can't hide remember back when Clinton was running it and he's like I didn't inhale You know, but it's like think about where we're at today.

Like if some is like like Obama at his recent White House Correspondents Dinner made a joke about being high and and call Ivan.

I admire Peter, you know, like smoke marijuana to we're just more transparent now, I feel like I feel like it's a good thing the internet I've said this before is making the world a glass ball where we can see each other, you know, these leaders and countries in the corner of the Earth have been able to do horrible things to their people for decades, but now that we have internet where like they wait a minute you can't do that and because of that we have to be more honest as a society as individuals and and that comes into question 2 with what I do with my daily vlogging like is it safe is it, you know, sociologically responsible to put so much your life on the internet.

I just I guess on that tangent is really becoming the person who you say you are and think about what if everybody knew all of your thoughts.

I suppose Billboards in New York City that said be the person your dog thinks you are about you can tell the character of a man by how his dog and his kids react to him because dogs and kids are honest, right? So if you know somebody who's their dogs afraid of them and their kids are afraid of them, you know their character, you know, so that's a little aspect of becoming really who you say you are because dogs and kids know who you really are.

So I ask a question about their behavior modification and thought control in a sense.

Let's say that you wake up giving morning and you're not feeling like you're your usual optimistic self for whatever reason you just a pissy mood.

And things are looking a little dark around the edges.

What do you do to correct that what do you what's the internal dialogue? Where do the rituals on the internet for saying happiness is a choice like you can choose to be happy and that's actually something that I have learned through vlogging because I've said I'm going to make a video every single day for a year when I turn 29 years old.

This is kind of like how I really got my internet following is I came out and said your first video was that a cytus 2 years and a half year and a half and like when I first started YouTube in 2007, it was just like what I have a video of me upload that and see how it does.

What was the first video uploaded you can go on my ShayCarl channel.

It's actually Now that I think about it, it's me and my brother and my brother lost singing happy birthday to my mom after sucking helium balloons.

We all like Dallas like down three helium balloons and then saying happy 50th birthday to my mom.

I think that was the very first one but the real first video I think is me dancing around in a unitard.

My wife had this old unitard that I had found and I come out into the living room, like look what I found and we had this little digital camera and she just thought it'd be funny to pick it up and turn it on to the video modem and record me doing this is almost like blackmail material and then I'm like, oh yeah, what has that blackmail videos me and the unit are, put that on the internet know.

What was your job at the time? I was a granite countertop fabricator.

I know where bats around but what possessed you To put to record for that video up in other words.

Have you always been a performer since a young age? I was definitely a Class Clown type and you know, I so funny your story comes back to you as you live more of your life, but there's my grandpa had this old VHS camcorder and I used to always love to film people at that thing.

I throw in a VHS tape into the side just like a bean Urban Meyer News Channel and I would just film around the house and I still haven't done this but I know there are hours of like times.

I have the camera in my mom's face and she's like putting her hand in the Lansing turn the camera off Shay like so annoyed that I'm just filling her when she's pissed off Todd's write a call that it's just I turn the camera off turn the camera.

So yeah.

My dad owes used to say that I should be a lawyer cuz I was good at arguing.

I just I've always liked to talk I guess and I've always You know, I guess I have been that class clown type.

So when you two came along I was like I can do that.

I can talk like that.

The first guy found was Philip DeFranco Joe Rogan's podcast.

He kind of really got me into the world of YouTube and I watched feels like that's what I was thinking when she's a kid who has a TV show type thing.

I'm doing that has 60,000 people that subscribe to it.

And for all that I can tell he's doing this all by himself and he had like that I movie intro music don't hurt to donate, you know, like he had made this little intro or he act like he was picking up a phone and how did you meet? How do you beat him? So I found Philip DeFranco the first night I ever got on YouTube.

I got this computer.

I got it set up.

It was bedtime.

My wife's going to bed.

I'm like, I'm just going to get on the internet here.

I found Philip DeFranco that night and I was like, there's like people that are hanging out here talking and so I just subscribe to him that first night after and I'm like I can talk like him right after that maybe two or three days later.

He came out with a video called how to get a popular online show or series that had a contest where he wanted his audience to submit videos and then he was going to pick his favorite 3 and then those three voted on in the website and then he would promote that person to help them get more subscribers.

So at the time I was doing granite countertops, but I was also a radio DJ in the sense that I was calling into the radio Studio every morning when they did trivia and just trying to get on the radio I would call in and just annoy the DJs.

And I would just hit redial redial redial and I would get through at least once every morning sport.

I've never heard.

I don't think I told anybody that's pretty shity.

I mean just in terms of like draining first job out of college when I was commuting in my mom's hand me down minivan that the seats got stolen from you.

So depressing I would listen to Sirius radio and the I would call in the entire commute when I was stuck in traffic on 101 trying to be the exact same thing, but nobody thinks to call in and try to like become part of the conversation.

And the reason I did that it's cuz we were on the job.

We were the granite guys in the shop in a polishing Granite we had the radio.

One to every morning at 10 a.

m.

When they did the trivia, we'd all be like calling to the radio station and I got through so many times they gave me a nickname program director of the radio.

He said listen, if you stop calling in in the mornings, I'll give you your own segment on Saturday so that it was called the answers never dirty so that the trivia question be like 20% of women like this in bed and you be like, what is it? But the answer to make silk sheets or something that wasn't dirty but the ant the question always sounded dirty.

So you never knew what the right answer the first question and then slowly the first guess was always a total gas.

So one day we called in and we just said croquet we thought and I thought like croquet would be funny as the answer like the sport of croquet cuz who knows what the answer is and so then every morning we just let it be funny if we all.

About croquet something like the question might be like 30% of dude said they like this before going on dates, but I would call him.

Is it read croquet weekly, you know, just like some stupid thing about the game of go again, and it was just as random enough thing that I did enough where I got this name called.

Okay Shea and then to the DJs were annoyed by me.

So the program directors listen will give you your own gig as a dog house Wednesday where couples would call in and say why they were in trouble with their significant others, and he said I'll give you a job as one of the judges who gets to talk for like 90 seconds on the radio and explain why they thought which person was in the deepest dog house, right? So that was like my very first gig in the entertainment world and at the time I still had a job at the granite business.

So like every Fridays or whatever they did the doghouse thing.

It's like go out and hide my boss.

I was on the radio on the radio and like all of my co-workers and they became the radio.

I was a judge on dog house Wednesday did well on that and then when the weekend spot from the Friday Saturday and Sunday weekend position for the DJ was open the program director is like hey, do you want this job and only pay 50 an hour, but you can be on the radio 4 hours a night and I was like, yes, and I would have to drive like an hour round-trip 30 minutes of the Studio 30 minutes back to get paid $32 and the gas was like 20 or whatever just to be on the radio.

And so that was my first, you know session into entertainment and this goes back to the question.

You were like 28.

I was skip about 28 28 and 1/2.

Djx.

Love doing that.

I loved my favorite thing was being the guy on Friday nights at 5 p.

m.

When it's like this weekend and I was like, they're the party guy was the rally behind it's the weekend and it's time to have a good time because I had just come from that not you know, I was working from 6 a.

m.

To 6 at night at the granite shop.

I was working 12 hours a day Monday through Friday knowing what it felt like to celebrate Friday afternoons.

And then to detest Monday morning.

So are its owed on the detesting we were right.

I took a saw the reservation which was great cuz I was a fantastic story on.

Control or improving Happiness by way of choice.

And you said you learn that through daily blogging.

Yes.

So like when you get on the mic, you got to have some level of you no enthusiasm, right? Music Channel check out this new song Right waking up as a human being sometimes.

I'm in a bad mood.

Sometimes I'm frustrated.

Sometimes I feel like crap and for whatever reason we all go through it.

We all wake up total crap and like you hate everybody like screw it.

I don't care everything down.

Like I feel everything up and punch people like I have that anger inside of me as well.

I think some people like, oh, well, it's easy for you.

It's not I think people don't realize that everybody suffers whether you know, some people put on a better show than others.

It depends but what I found is knowing that I had to do a daily Vlog knowing that I had to like log myself even in those bad moods.

I found myself turning the camera Vlog Vlog YouTube largest in my smile.

Turn the camera off and then all the sudden I would feel better feel my body was different and their studies that if you sit up straight if you did if you breathe deep if you smile if you just I have a thing where like I'll just look in the mirror and this might sound really crazy.

I'll just look in the mirror and just like laugh at myself and animals break down this wall of being so pretentious about not being able to be silly.

You know, I think there's a great power in being silly.

I think there's a great power and not taking things.

So seriously and so by just sitting up straight putting a smile on my face and kind of Faking it till you make it you actually do feel better.

There's real power in this is research to support that two other studies to support it is out of this great Ted Talk on blank in the woman's name blond hair short cut a bob haircut who talks Posture and looking at self-reported averages of set a well-being and so on which would correlate to this cuz I think you're very good.

Not only had improving your own mood, but improving other people's moods around you.

Should everybody should go to twitter.

com ShayCarl and look at the profile pic.

And now with that in mind I'm going to segue to what happens at the TSA when you show them your ID because I've seen So funny story me and my buddy kassemg who's the comedian on the internet and not a chipper guy.

He's like one of my friends who just hates going in public with me because I like to talk to everybody and try to make people laugh and he's I found the comedians are darker people, you know, yeah, it's very very less.

So but still a fair percentage it's like they use their comedy to kind of it's like a therapy for some other deep things that they're doing what I don't know.

I'm not trying to psychoanalyze comedians, but that's his type.

Right? Like he doesn't like people doesn't like anything but he likes motorcycles and like cars and stuff.

So we got some deal with Harley-Davidson who's like, hey we want to pay for you guys to go to motorcycle school rank give you motorcycles when I give you motorcycle jackets and because we're social influencers, like there was no money exchanged.

It was just like our bikes.

And your Twitter picture every once awhile me and cast me like sweet.

So we went through this two-week motorcycle training course, we got our motorcycle licenses.

We went to the California DMV, which is never a pleasant experience and finalize you were living in LA and finally we take the test all that stuff.

It's me and we can actually go out and ride and it's time for the picture right so cast him standing there and has a right as I go up to take the picture.

You just don't do anything stupid and I can actually maybe we can scan my license cuz my licenses are sure what will bubbler have anything that needs blurring and then that will put in the I just like like deer in the headlights smiled Cheyenne eyeballs knowing they're going to make you retake it like it's the DMV right? Like you can't smile.

You can't do anything.

You have to have this like a serial killer.

Look on your face for them to identify you apparently like what people don't smile in real life.

So I do this and the guy laughs because I thought it was funny and he print out my ID and he handed to me and I'm like wait, let me keep this is like, yeah, it's funny and I'm like, are you serious? He's like, yeah.

I'm like Oh my heck.

So my license is me.

Like I was telling him the story where the white house without fail.

You could give me the grumpiest meanest TSA agent in the world at 5 in the morning who's taking IDs.

It's doing it all day long and I'm ninety-nine percent of the time can get them to laugh because they'll look at that picture and they're like, he's like you can see him in their mind to like they look at it and it's so different from all of the other pictures that they are just staring at all day long.

They'll either one smile right away when I look at the picture or two if they don't smile when they look at the picture when they look up You know, I like to imagine to like identify you if I'm doing the exact same face as I am in the picture 99 out of a hundred times.

I can get every single grumpy TSH in the world or at least crack a smile because especially at 5 in the morning and there's there's days where I don't feel like, you know being that guy that likes the photo looks like if the AC blower not going to make it to the show notes or the Twitter profile looks kind of like a ventriloquist puppet.

I would say is a pretty close proximation but should be daily blogging in addition to serving as therapy or just a proof-of-concept showing you that you can change how you feel.

It seems like I mean you looted to it earlier.

That was was that the Breakthrough mean was there? When did you realize that this could be more than a hobby? So I guess you know early on when I was you know, trying to make ends meet my sole purpose was to make money, you know to me that's what college was to me was like you went to college so that you could take a nap classes.

So you could get a piece of paper that said that you were responsible enough to get some stuff done and then that you can work, you know what I'm saying? So to me it was all about like, how do I make money? How do I provide for my wife and kids? How do I heal make this a thing? So, yeah, like the first time I figured that like YouTube was going to be an actual careers like the first paycheck I got and when I started YouTube, I didn't know you can make money at first.

It was just about the conversation just about connecting with people.

So you'll after like two or three months of making videos.

I got my first check for three hundred bucks and I was shocked I could not believe that I actually got paid for just being silly for just Thinking of ideas, you know weird skits that I was doing and I remember the first time I got that money.

I went down to the bank cuz I thought was a scam honestly, I thought Mike I don't know you to deposit $0.

11 in your account.

And then you go to the website you verify.

Yes, you put $0.

11 in my account and then your bank accounts linked.

So I was so scared to even link my bank account with my Google AdSense, which is how do you get paid? Because Google how do YouTube but then I was like what we only have $150 in there anyway, so it won't matter if I remember seeing the money in the Wells Fargo, which bank I have.

I remember seeing the money in my bank account and I remember going down that day to the bank to withdraw the cash cuz I was like if they give me the money then that's for real cuz I remember the transaction going to the bank saying I would like to withdraw that $300 almost like sheepishly like there's going to be snipers on the roof.

They gave me the $300 cash.

I walked out of the bank.

He's with this.

So from that moment on it became how can I turn this into grocery money into mortgage money? And that was my next girl.

I want to make a thousand grocery money.

I want to go to pay my house payment with this money from you too.

And if I can pay my mortgage at the time was like nine hundred and eighty bucks a month if I make $1,000 a month on YouTube that would free up so much time with my family or do other things and so that what that's what started it was the pursuit of making this hobby just like anybody who starts something from their garage into a full-time thing.

And how did you what were the decisions you made with the changes you made that helps you go from grocery money to mortgage money.

So it was more videos to be frank liked that the simple answer was more volumes means more views means more money and so it just educate Edition on YouTube.

You don't get paid on your subscribers.

So it doesn't matter if you can have 10 billion subscribe.

If nobody watches your videos, you don't make a dime.

It's all based on how many views you get so they caught CPM cost per mil.

I think that is Latin for thousand.

So every thousand views you average anywhere from two to five bucks.

So imagine that like I said here take this cup and go show it to a thousand people and I'll give you $3 if you like screw you I'm not doing no that's not worth my opportunity, But if you have eight billion potential customers everybody on the earth, whichever doesn't have the internet yet, but you can easily rack up some money if you get a lot of people are watching these videos.

So when I turn 29 years old, March 5th 2009, it was the last year of my 20s and I went through this like pre-bid life midlife crisis or unlike any more going to be 30.

Like what have I done with my life going to be a 30 year old man.

Holy crap.

What could I do for the last year of my 20s and at the time I was married with three kids, so I can't like you no sell everything and Motorcycle and drive to Peru or something like most people do or would think so.

I was like 365 videos on YouTube of the time as you got paid 2 months later.

It was like a 60-day paycycle so videos when I started March 5th those 2526 videos for that month.

I got paid in those at minmei, right? So we started the daily Vlogs March April May 3 months went along and then I saw our paycheck for the March twenty five videos that we did and that check was for $6,000 and I remember seeing that on the computer screen and just yelling at my wife like Come in here.

Come here.

Look at that look like what's that? Like, that's how much we're going to get paid next month on YouTube.

She like what are you serious and real quick.

I'm like six grand if I can make 6 grand a month that 72000 bucks a year.

I'm living in Southeastern, Idaho making 28,000 a year and I'm considered middle-class if I'm making 70 grand a year.

I'm going to be rich and so that first month of daily Vlogs what I saw when I get paid 6 grand this month to make these videos it was like everything else went went away.

The granite counter.

My wife came in and said you need to go finish that Granite job when I get paid 10 grand on this giant are remodeled the entire house kitchens bathrooms wet bar shower.

Everything is Big pay day on this Granite job, but I didn't want to finish it because I wanted to make YouTube videos.

So the second that happened it all became like this is our full-time job now like this is what we're doing and now a funny stuff.

His dick is as a 36 year old man today being a full-time YouTuber is the longest job I've ever had and yeah, and it was I guess the precursor to that is my biggest passion in life was to not hate my job because I went to college and I was just looking at people in the world and it seemed like everybody hated their job, right? It was a huge complaining point for everybody that you know, you love your life on Fridays and you hate your life Monday morning some like That's 80% of your life.

If you hate your job you hate 80% of your life.

I do not want to hate a majority of my life.

How do I get out of this rat race of you got to go to college so you can get this piece of paper so that you can go to this organization and show him your piece of paper.

And by the way, I'm an eagle scout.

Please give me a job.

I didn't want that.

I didn't want to be stuck.

That was the rat race to meet that was the controlling environment of Corporations.

Were you feel like you're a cog in a wheel that you have to do something that you have to watch your p's and q's you're going to get in trouble.

You can't think outside of the box.

You have to fit in with your co-workers.

You can't think of anything you need because it'll be ridiculed all that kind of stuff that comes from being at a job at job.

I didn't want and I fought tooth-and-nail against that she wants lips before.

Well, I was going to say before graduation, but that that sort of guests to the next question what has happened yet? Can you tell me a story about or describe the day you decided to you drop out? So I was in college simply because I didn't know what else I was going to do.

Right? I did serve a two-year Mission from when I graduated high school from 18 to 21.

I went to the West Indies and space in between graduating high school and going to college.

It was strictly service.

I was only there in the West Indies to teach the Barbados Trinidad Guyana those three countries West Indies Mission, which was my mission is made up of 16 different countries.

It's the entire Caribbean st.

Kitts Grenada Antigua Barbados all of that and set alarm for 7.

Which is a claustrophobic feeling when you can see the ocean from anywhere on the island like Barbados is 7 miles wide.

So if you're the top by you can look and almost of the ocean in it's kind of a claustrophobic feeling you're coming from Idaho good time to kind of like get out of the world and to not think about me so much that was a total service, you know, the thing those two years and so when I came back from a mission my main priority which is part of the culture of our church is to get married.

I remember like the last two weeks of my mission thinking okay.

I'm headed home.

Who am I going to marry? I liked Amber and I squat I marry Amber.

Okay.

I'm very number but like that was like the the thought process as a missionary.

It's very like K.

What's the next step in my life get married and that was like one night in the Anthony's I decided I was going to marry this girl who seemed like the most logical reason and then I came back and went to a play with my friend and found a girl on stage that was singing that I fell in love with that night and I told my friend Derek.

I'm at marry that girl which is my wife.

So I came home went to college sign up for college cuz everybody else was on my return missionary friends were all getting into college.

So it's like okay now it's time to get my degree and figure out what I'm going to do.

And because I was good with people I always thought I'll be in sales or marketing, you know, you take those bubble sheets in school like at least 90 questions and wanting to tell you what best job suits you which I was like, how did they know cuz like every questions like do you like this like like kind of like that and some like how do I answer this? That's all I know is bubble sheets.

I would answer in the way that I knew I wanted to be perceived.

You know, it's like I'm answer this because I answer this that means that I'm like this and I want to be like that which in a sense is like maybe that is real answer it so I hated those things to sew Went to college started taking all my generals had a business, you know, like I'm going to be in business.

I don't know yet and basically got to the point where I had taken all of my generals.

I was about to like yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, like I got to take philosophy and psychology and English 101 and you know, all these General prerequisite classes and I had met and married that's a huge long story, but I had met married my wife and we were pregnant with her second child Avia our daughter and I'll just tell you and this might be true for universities around the nation, but there is no parking little 2-0 parking and it's just ridiculous because they said that they were going to build a parking garage with my $2,800 tuition and they didn't and I was just pissed every morning me and my buddy Luke would come into psychology class and we do like you play the game this morning and the game was trying to find an effing parking spot.

Dollar in like parking tickets cuz I'm like, I can't find a spot to park near I don't care and every time they give you a ticket.

So one day I was at that spot where I was looking for a parking spot.

We're about to have our second cat.

I felt guilty for leaving my wife at home with our in our two year old son and she's eight and a half months pregnant and I'm going off to school everyday to me know I hated the fact it like my psychology teacher for instance.

You could just tell that she was unhappy person.

Right? Like she she knew all the psychological things from the book, but I could just tell she was a bitch like she just was angry like you couldn't if you made a peep in her class she would freak out and like this is a psychology person who supposed to understand the human workings of emotions and stuff and she can't get her own stuff together and why am I spending $350 on her book that she wrote and she doesn't even seem happy like this is worthless.

To me like sure I'm learning about Freud and all this but I guess I learned more from people, you know, then like anal stories.

And so I was just sick of it.

I was sick of what I saw as a rat race as like this convoluted thing to almost like mate.

That's a that's a business, you know, it's a business to make money.

And so I was like, I can't find a parking spot.

I'm done and literally that day I dropped out of college and I'd like to screw this.

I'm not coming back and I went home and my wife's like I thought you had class like nope.

I'm done.

I'm not going back to do but I'm going to job are they going to start my own business? I want to start my own business and I guess the one thing I did learn from college is I had a business 101 class from a teacher who really changed everything for me and she Define the secret to success as loving what you do and I you know would say that I defined it in different ways now but back then that was like a prophecy to me.

I was like, yes.

Why do you have to hate your job? Why do you have like just so you can get money to buy groceries in and get a house if they hate most your life like there's got to be a better way.

So when she said that that was like an epiphany to me.

Like that's the secret to life is to not hate your job is to find something that you love to do until that became from the day.

I dropped out of college with my Pursuit and I did a lot of things I sold Pest Control door-to-door.

I was a real estate agent.

I was a car salesman.

I owned my own granite countertop business.

I was a school bus driver IC Drive school buses and I would like the kids throw snowballs at the school bus and they almost Broken Window 1 Days by the time they can't do it anymore.

But that was my ultimate goal is to not hate what I did for a living and when that first $300 check from YouTube showed up it was like this is it Define it differently now how would you define success or how do you think about that now? Well, you know now that I have money I Define it differently because back in the day to me success was money it was and not just to be rich and not to have cool things but to be able to provide to be able to you know, give things to my wife and kids.

That's why I love on Campbell so much early in the day because he had water ski boats and parasails.

I remember a family growing up that was their dad was a dentist and I just remember like they always had money to go to Hawaii and ski boats and stuff like that and I remember kids me like the so-and-so's they're so rich blah blah blah and I'll be like but isn't that why are you guys dissing on them? Like they get to go to Hawaii to get to do cool things so early on to me.

That's what success was to be able to provide to be able to give to my kids and my wife and now you find out that once you get money that it is not the answer.

This is not what gives you happiness.

That's why I define success in many different ways.

Maybe we'll get this towards the end.

But you usually ask on your podcast who is a successful person get worse when you hear the word successful.

Who do you think it was just it and that's it.

And now I was thinking about that question before I was coming and like without like name and specific people.

I think to truly Define somebody successful to me relationships with people are important.

So if you have a person that and to me, it's older people somebody who has kids.

To me the definition of success is being cool with your parents your grandparents and your kids like being able to navigate the difficult task of dealing with each other human beings, you know, if you're able to have a good you know, if you're in good relationship with your mom and your dad and your kids at Timmy, that's the definition of success.

And then sometimes you have to let those people go sometimes there's very, you know, I got it's weird being an adult now and dealing with your parents in a sense where it's like my mom and dad say things now that I don't agree with that at all, but I don't necessarily need to fight with them about that.

Right? It's it's being able to You know be open enough to accept other ideas and and accepting people for different spots in the road all at different parts in our life and because of the internet because of you two because of the Litany of comments that I've received just ripping my life apart for instance by reading thousands.

I mean this the comment section of YouTube could be considered the Cesspool of the human species sometimes like the worst things in the world are said in the comment section of YouTube.

So I've been ridiculed for everything under the sun whether it's how I installed my kids car seat or me believing that there's an afterlife, you know, like people will just shred any any idea that I have a part and sotomi success is Not judging somebody or not trying to you know, say a person is is is a certain type of person without knowing their whole story.

Right? Like I guess to Define that like whenever I see celebrities in the news like so and so did this it's like I don't really know the suffering that they're you know going through like you think about something like Prince who we all look up to or thought was amazing and then you just think that he must have been in a lot of pain.

He must have been really suffering but somebody like Prince can't come out and say that right he can't, I'm really struggling that's the point.

I would like a psychiatrist might have that same effect where the person that everybody comes to to talk to and they feel like they have to be the strong one and they can't talk about their own weaknesses.

So then they end up committing suicide or if you've ever known a friend, you know, it's like why don't you talk to somebody and it's this fear of being vulnerable I guess.

I mean, there's so many different pressures the if you think of something I was I was told.

Probably within the last two or three years but that being everyone is fighting a battle, you know, nothing about right and just assuming that to be the case.

There's a corollary to that that I was told at one point was don't assume malice when incompetence could explain it to me realizing that what that means is people are really trying to hurt you.

You know, I think a lot of times you think will that person is a vindictive evil mean person when really they're just not paying attention really like they're not purposely trying to hurt you or say mean things you nobody ever as it seems like everybody only does things for personal reasons, right? Like they're not trying to hurt you.

They're just trying to better their lives in a scent.

So knowing that helps when you feel like you're being attacked by somebody which is not necessarily the case.

It's just them, you know, not communicating well or one of those things, but we are just having a shity day and not human.

Change your mood.

I recently went to a Tony Robbins event and he talks about that a lot.

When you have to change your physiology like your body these bones night.

For instance.

When I ran my first marathon and I lost 200 lbs.

It was weird to see my stomach so thin like so close to my rib cage.

If you will and I were sitting in the shower after I ran the marathon and like this is such a weird thing to say but like my bones are right there like looking at my knee and thinking about what it look like inside of my body and if we realize that these bodies are tools that will help our mental state we can use our bodies to help us feel better.

So your question earlier is like what tips and tricks and things do you use Tony Robbins teaches this thing called priming in the morning where it's similar to meditation where you know, you're thinking about things but It's a very purposeful like you sit up straight your breathing in a specific way, you're thinking specific things and you can do things with your body that will change your entire mental perspective on things.

So and just to to underpin the broader strategy behind that also and if people want the details on the New York to Burnt interview that I did with him at his house so you can look that up but the Visa framework that he lays out that I think is very helpful is this right? I think it's state story strategy.

I believe like most people want to address their issue, but they're in a negative state right which leaves them to have an internal narratives that is self-defeating and they they see they only see problems as opposed to Solutions are alternatives and the point he makes is that you have to Dress in the opposite direction you have to you have to create the optimal state so that you can craft and enabling story.

I need a narrative and that allows you to to produce or plan the best strategy.

You can't make good decisions.

If you're in a bad mood, right like the decisions you make when you're in a shity mood are going to be shity decisions.

If you can make yourself become happy through these these things or just a better State you're going to make better decisions yet.

I use cold exposure for that quote that we might get the taste of that later when you go to the Russian baths at it with d The task is related to some of the specific what are some of the darkest periods that you faced or some of the biggest challenges that you've that you've had to overcome personally? Well, we'll talk about that one.

I think this would be shocking to my audience for those that are listening that have come over here from my section of the internet, but alcohol.

You know for 5 years.

And that was tough.

That was something that kind of and it's something that I haven't talked about honestly and maybe I want to cut the side of the podcast later.

But I mean, it's it's not an uncommon.

Challenge to face or addiction for that matter.

I guess I should talk about it.

My audience