iJustine: Digital Influencer, YouTuber, Tech Reviewer, and Gamer

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I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is the Remarkable People podcast. This episode's guest is Justine Ezarek or as you might know her, Ijustine. She is a YouTube personality, actress, social media influencer and all around nice person. Have you ever looked at somebody and asked why does she have so many followers? Why does she get all the free equipment? Why does she get all the attention? Why does she get invited to the Apple announcements? And you get jealous and maybe even hostile. But Ijustine should not garner such reactions. I'm so happy for her success. She's been in four films, seven TV shows and 21 web series. Her YouTube channel has had over 1 billion views. Let that number sink in for a minute. One of the funniest things she ever did was show her iPhone bill right after the iPhone was introduced in June 2007. It was 300 pages long, but within 10 days of the release of this video it it had more than 3 million views and international media attention. She got more attention from many people when she started one of the Internet's first and most popular lifecasts, inviting people around the world to watch her every move 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These days, Ijustine is a one woman new media phenomenon. She has over 3.5 million subscribers across multiple YouTube channels. There's a lot to learn from Ijustine's story of ascension to the top of social media, how she uses technology and her video editing techniques. Also her sense of moral obligation. I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. And now here is Ijustine.

How do you define yourself?

It's crazy because I really don't even know anymore. I'm kind of like a content creating machine really.

Did you ever foresee when you started off as a live caster that it would turn into Ijustine the industry?

I don't think so. I mean I just really loved technology. I loved creating content and sort of making people laugh and the whole livestream thing. That I did, which was really wild because that was on Justin tv. That was before Twitch tv. It was before people were really doing live streaming. So at the time it was really difficult to kind of get that set up working because that was in like 2007. So it's amazing just to see how much you can now do just on your phone. And we carried around massive laptops and webcams and wireless cards, and it was such a process.

Has the pandemic and all this quarantine stuff, how has it affected your content creation?

I think as far as content creation goes, I mean, I have basically been working over the past however long I've been doing this to be able to just work from home and work from my office. I basically have my house set up as a studio. So in that regards, it's kind of the same. But I just feel weird making content. I don't want to be making videos about expensive tech when people can't even get a job to be able to buy it. So it's kind of been this fine line that I've been kind of walking. And when this all first started, I asked Twitter, I was like, what should I do? Us as creators and influencers, what should we be doing? And most of the people said, just create content like you normally were, because we need the escape. We don't want to be watching content about stuff that we've seen on the news. So I've kind of just been doing my best to create the same content that I normally would. I got back to doing gaming videos again. So I've tried to enjoy making videos as much as I can because that's when it truly shows for your audience, when you actually are enjoying it. So just continuing to create for them is something I've been trying to do.

I think it's important that people hear that this is a. A conscious decision that you've made to continue in the same vein. Because someone who doesn't know this may look at it and say, wow, she's so tone deaf. She's talking about thousand Dollar light ovens when 10 million people got laid off.

Yeah. And most of the companies that I've been working with as well, I'm like, okay, if we're gonna do this, how can we also give back? And in return? Or is there going to be a charitable donation? Is there going to be a discount? Is there, like, what is gonna happen? There has to be something else. But I also am working on trying to figure out a way to find tech that like a lot of us haven't ever used and sort of give to elderly communities or kids who are now homeschooled, but they don't have a computer to be able to connect to the Internet to even take these classes. So I think that's sort of my next step is how do I take all of these connections and relationships that I've made over the course of however many years I've been doing this and try to get all these companies together to try to help a lot of these kids and elderly people connect because it's so weird. It's like even just talking about this, you go outside, it feels like we're living in a movie, but it's real life.

What is your tech setup? Are you using all these Canon 5Ds or Sony A9s? Or is it just a bunch of iPhones?

No, I mostly am all Sony. So I shoot most of my unboxing stuff and B roll stuff with like the Sony A7 III, which is incredible. And it's because I do still shoot a lot by myself. So I kind of have a setup where they, they record externally to the Ninja Atmos so I can touch screen every like everything is basically set up within my reach. So I don't really need anybody else. Which is great because especially in a time like this where you know, you, you can't have access to people or anything and you kind of have to do it yourself. And I think that's one of the important things, especially for a lot of like YouTubers and content creators is at least know enough that if you do lose all of your people around you, you will have enough knowledge to be able to kind of carry on in the meantime. So I think that's something that is very important to me. Like I still edit a lot of my videos and just knowing enough, I think for a lot of people to be able to do this if you don't have anyone else is something that's really important.

So how many Sony A3s are you running? What's your like? Seriously, what's your. I'm geeking out here. What's your setup?

We do have three Sony A7 III, but we use like a 135G master for a bunch of close up stuff. And usually the 24 to 70 is like the, the go to lens and then we use like the Sennheiser AVX wireless microphones and I edit on the Mac Pro which is beautiful. So it's a pretty nerdy setup.

Is it the $50,000 macro?

It's a few dollars and you Know, it's one of those things where it's like I do I buy a new car or do I buy a new computer? And obviously being me, I'm going to buy the computer and walk everywhere.

What is your lighting? Are you using ring lights and stuff or.

We have, I just actually set up a new gaming station. So I just got the Elgato key lights, which you can control all directly from an app. But I have one really big light mat that we use that just lights up everything beautifully. And then we have a couple of the aputure dome lights that we have. So I have like an unboxing setup, I have a gaming setup. And then this is my office, which is actually terribly lit right now because we're not recording video. We definitely have a couple different sets where it's just kind of turnkey, press a button, lights go on, cameras are ready.

When Martha Stewart has, you know, 20 people there.

Right.

How many people do you have when you do an unboxing?

At the most one, if I have a second camera that I want to have roaming, but I also have the second camera set up stationary so I don't need anybody else. Again, it's just I have these two monitors that sit in front of me and I can hit record on both of those and they record the solid state drives directly. So I don't even have to touch the cameras. I do nothing. I'll still set a timer for thumbnails and I'm just like holding up the product. The thumbnail photo will take in three seconds. And yeah, I mean I really can do everything myself, which is great, but it's also that I have to go edit it all.

I've noticed that you immediately get everything Apple. Are you on like Tim Cook's BFF list? Do you have to ask them for it or are they begging you to please? You know, Ijustine, please look at our new iPad Pro.

It's so funny because it's like ever since I was little, it was my dream to work for Apple. Like I was probably 10 and I wanted to live in Cupertino. I didn't know anything. We didn't really travel very much. So I'd never really been outside of like my little town in Pennsylvania. And then the first time I went to Cupertino, I was like, huh, okay, this is interesting. It's not what I envisioned when I was a 10 year old, but, you know, being able to cover stuff with Apple now, you know, in the sense of getting to go to events and review the products, has Been. It really is a dream come true.

Does the box with the iPad Pro just arrive the day after they announced it? They hand it to you at the event. Tim Cook is not exactly sending me anything.

I think I'm press and media now, so I think just however they do those sort of things with press and media, I still buy everything though.

You buy everything?

Yes.

In order to maintain journalistic purity or because Apple's too cheap to give it to you?

Well, I mean, it's. I just, I do buy them, so.

But, no, but the day the iPad Pro is announced, you can't go to a store and get it, even if you're Ijustine.

Right?

I mean, is it a press pool?

I mean, it's all, it's all like press. Yeah.

So they basically. They send one to you and one to Marquis Brownlee and that's it, that's all they have to do. Right. End of discussion.

I was actually very surprised, especially with this iPad Pro, because I mean, I'd used my previous one just to watch content. And then I loved what they did this year is they showed a bunch of these commercials of showing all the things that you can do like create a podcast and this. And I was like, can I really do all of that? So I really did test it out. I went and edited a 14, 15 minute vlog that I created. Shot everything on the iPhone, edited all on the iPad. I was okay, so I guess it is possible.

Possible or easy.

I got inspired to start a podcast. I was like telling my sister, I gotta start a podcast now cause I got a new iPad. She's like, that's why you wanna start it? I was like, yeah, I think so.

Do you have to pay for anything anymore?

I do. See that's the thing is, I mean, I buy all my cameras, all my gear. I mean, sometimes Sony will send things to review, but for the most point, like I spend a lot of money on gear and gad. And sometimes I just don't like asking for it either. And sometimes when, you know, companies or brands do send you stuff, they obviously expect a lot in return. So sometimes I just, I don't want to have any bias, I'm just going to pay for it. But yeah, I'm definitely very lucky to get a lot of gear to check out and review. So I'm very thankful and grateful for that. But I do spend a lot of money on gear.

I don't get nearly the amount of stuff you get, but at some point it just becomes a burden. I mean, you've got to figure out everything. I mean, people think it's. It's just opening a box, but it really isn't.

It's a lot for sure. Now I've been reaching out to people just in my. Like, my neighborhood or my friends and family if they know people that need any extra gear. So I've been going into my gear closet that usually I save stuff to sort of use for comparison reviews. But there's people now that, like, really need this stuff more than ever. So I'm just trying to, like, take inventory, see what I have that I can part with and make sure it gets to a good home so that I'm, like, very grateful to be able to do that and kind of give them homes. Like webcams. Like, people aren't able to even get webcams now. So I went and found a bunch of my old logitech ones and was able to ship them out to some gyms so that they're able to do live classes. And it's. It's really wild.

Do you ever wonder what your career path would be if the AT&T bill wasn't 300 pages?

I mean, I wonder if I would have been so much cooler if it was longer, if that. I mean, now, to be cool on YouTube, it would have had to have been like 5 million pages. But even then, I was working freelance doing video production, graphic design, so doing editing and things like that. So I still was kind of doing all of that stuff at the same time. And then it just sort of flipped and I started becoming my own client. So I really don't know. I would maybe be still editing or doing production work somewhere. But I feel like that video, it was so long ago. But at the time, people weren't doing the things that I was doing, Filming and putting videos and content online. So for me, that was more validation to my friends and family that, hey, look, there is something here to the Internet. Just trust me. I'm gonna quit my job and sort of figure this out. I might be homeless, moving to California in two weeks, but I'm gonna figure it out. See, look, this video did well. So that's really, I think, kind of all that really did at the time.

But it doesn't sound like any of that was planned.

No, I don't think anything in my life is ever planned, which is very strange or scary. But I feel like that is sort of what I guess the joy of the Internet is, because you really don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

Tell me about your editing process.

I Use Final Cut.

Final Cut.

Okay, Using Final Cut. Ever since the beginning, I actually took one of my first editing jobs editing Avid. But I didn't know Avid. So I went from college learning Premiere. And then this, this company was like, yeah, so we edit Avid. Do you know how to use that? I was like, yeah, of course I can edit Premiere. I'm sure I can handle this. And I get there on the first day, they were like desperate for editors. So I get there, I was like, oh, this is, this is way more difficult than I thought. And this is back in 2005, 2006, so online resources for these types of things that are like non existent. So while I was teaching myself Avid, I was learning Final Cut. And I got them to switch over to Final Cut. And then ever since then, so probably since 2005, 2006, I've been editing in Final Cut. And last year I released a Final Cut tutorial to sort of show people how to edit, start to finish a YouTube video. So that was really fun. I think getting into the education space has been so great because I've learned so much over the years and made so many mistakes that I'd be able to kind of help these newer creators and give them some of the education tools. It's been really cool.

Just for people who are listening to this and thinking, oh yeah, I want to be a YouTube star someday. Like Ijustine. If you were to count roughly now, how many hours do you spend filming, how many hours do you spend editing, and then how many minutes does that produce? So what's the ratio of filming to editing to final product?

I think it really depends. So for the iPad, review that video? I think so. I, thankfully I did have help editing and shooting that, but for that video particularly, we probably shot for 10, 15 hours over the course of two days and then maybe 20 plus hours editing. So my editor got a rough edit, I went through, cleaned up the first half, and while I was working on the first half, he was working on cleaning up the second part. And then we were just sending these files back and forth. And then at that point it was probably 20 hours later and we had a turnaround time of maybe three days. So.

And what was the final length?

Maybe 10 to 14 minutes. And then we have to do it all again. So it varies too.

We're talking roughly 40 hours equals 10 minutes.

Yeah, for a good video. Yeah. We want to make sure we get great B roll and lighting and setting up and trying to do different shots. I mean, some videos can definitely take way longer that. But then there's way longer than that. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, it'll go over the course of several days. If we're doing like phone reviews. I mean, it can get pretty, pretty intense. But then there's also very simple videos, which I did some Animal Crossing, which is a video game I've been playing. So for that I'll record maybe 30, 40 minutes and then I'll edit that video in 40 minutes to an hour and a half. So it does vary. Not every video is 40 to 50 hours, but some can definitely be more.

What happens when you hike up Mount Zion? It's like a three hour hike and it comes out to five minutes or something like that.

It all just varies. You know, when we do like hiking stuff a lot, anything that we're doing sort of into a moment to be able to film. So if my sister and I go on a hike, I can use that footage to shoot like a phone review or get some photos. So it's kind of like every aspect of my life I tie into making it a way to like make some sort of content out of it, which is fun, but also exhausting.

Yeah, I mean, don't you feel like you're never. Not on.

Thankfully, over the past couple of years, since I've been doing more tech focused content, I can. I do have more of a break. And since I've started working with an editor, because before it wasn't. I mean, I was probably producing. I mean, I was running four or five different channels. I mean, I was probably making 50 to 60 pieces of content a week, like by myself. And it was really miserable. I had a gaming channel which I would post two videos every day. I would do an iPhone video every day. I would have a vlogging channel where I would film an edited vlog every day. And then my main channel, I would film three or four videos a week for that one, which were like more concise edited videos. So that kind of drove me crazy. So I think at some point I had to just step back and say, I'm gonna have one channel. I need to sort of be a little more laser focused or I'm not gonna be able to enjoy doing this as much anymore. So I kind of went back and I just thought, why did I start making YouTube videos? What were the top three things that I love? And let's just focus that. So I went. I was like, okay, I love tech, I love travel, I love food. Okay, I love video games. So maybe that's four. Oh, now I love my dog. So I just took my channel and kind of focused it back and that was super helpful. And I think for a lot of people that feel that burnout, just kind of going back and picking at least three things that you love for me was like super helpful.

How do you prioritize your platforms? Because you're on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Like, how do you.

Yeah.

What goes through your mind when you.

There is kind of sort of a little flowchart that kind of trickles down. And the good part about creating the YouTube content first is I can take pieces of that YouTube content and cut it down to an Instagram type video the Instagram shares to Facebook. And then we'll create some vertical content for Instagram stories, which then can be taken over to TikTok and then Twitter. I'll sort of edit together like a one minute highlight of that video.

You, you think you can deploy the same content on TikTok as that that's derived from YouTube?

Sometimes, yeah, but only if it's something that is shot that way. It's not always. Or if I'm like in the middle of doing like a review video, we'll stop and specifically shoot a piece of content for TikTok. And then the interesting thing with TikTok is, is their hashtags and trending topics are kind of the way that you sort of work with their algorithm. So every day I'll go on and I have a bunch of content shot on TikTok already that I just feel like one day a hashtag is going to pop up and this weird piece of content that I've shot will work out. So a bunch of the things that I've been posting even over the past couple of weeks, I've shot maybe a month ago, which is, it's a big secret, but it's like one day this piece of content will make sense.

What's an example of a hashtag that someday may make sense?

So this one video, it was like a trending sound or something. I just kind of mimicked the sound. It was, it was so silly. It was, oh, you don't like me, that's fine. Okay, bye. It was, you have to watch the TikTok. I didn't do a very good job of mimicking the voice, but that specific sound I had saved and then I used that video in the sense of saying corona. Like we don't, we, we don't like you, like bye or something like that. So just kind of using something that makes no sense at the time, figuring out later on down the line, you can make sense of it, if that makes any sense. There is logic to this madness, I swear. It's just sometimes I can't exactly explain it.

Well, how do you come up with content ideas? Is it basically your life? And then you were gonna go up Mount Zion anyway, so you decided to make it into a video. Or did you say one day? Wow, we need some hiking. Let's go. Where should we go?

Well, I think it's just we love to hike, so those types of things is just a natural integration. And it's always really great to do camera review or things like that. So it's kind of just like ancillary content to what I'm already doing. And I used to love to vlog, which would be like filming your daily life, but then that got exhausting and it was just invasive and I was like, I'm getting too old for this. So I think being able to sort of vlog and have a purpose around it, say doing like a camera review or a phone review, so that's kind of how I squeeze all of that stuff in. But as far as scheduling content and planning, most of the tech stuff, it just, it happens so naturally and rapid. It's like there's. There's a product that comes out. The embargo is in four or five days. Good luck. So that's.

So do you have an event calendar planned out for months in advance? Sony is going to be in New York on this day, and WWDC is this day, and the Samsung is this day.

I mean, that used to be what it was like. You would go out into public and go to events. So I think even though we still know that those, those timeframes, we know iPhone season is usually towards the end of the year. And then I feel like a lot of these companies still follow kind of a very kind of same timeline. So it is easy to pick and choose between, you know, okay, I need to have some silly content in between the tech slowdowns.

I think my daughter included, they look at someone like you and they say, what a perfect life. You know, she's at all the great events. She has all this stu for free. You know, probably she gets all the makeup and clothes and everything and cameras and cars and, you know, flamethrowers from Elon Musk. So. Well, how do you react when you hear young girls or young people aspire to be you or aspire to be an influencer or, you know.

Yeah, I mean, I, I'm. It's. Oh, my gosh. It's such a, I guess a big responsibility as well. I mean, I feel like, I don't know, I mean, growing up I didn't have anyone to look up to that like the things that I liked. There were no girls that were into video games. There were no girls coding. I was the only girl like in my coding classes. And so I didn't know that. It was, I guess, weird at the time that I liked these things until everyone was sort of like, why are you playing video games? Like, that's for guys. I was like, wait a minute. No, it absolutely isn't. But just growing up, not having anyone else to look up to, I guess was kind of weird. So like, I'm very excited whenever like little girls will come up to me and they tell me about how they're taking coding classes or they're really into tech or their new phone or they love video games. And I think that's just amazing because, you know, to go from not having anybody to look up to, to me thinking that I was weird and something was wrong and now like it's accepted and it's cool and I don't know, I'm definitely very honored and excited about that and to be able to sort of teach kids to edit as well. And we did an this past year actually was in January, right before all of this kind of happened called Vlog University. So we had a bunch of classes and it was like a two day event here in LA where people basically came. It was like a crash course on how to create content from editing, shooting, marketing, lawyers. We had my whole team there just giving all of the advice that we've learned over the course of 13 years. I was like, this is what it's all about. This is just making sure that these people have the tools that they need to go out and create and create kind content. I think making sure that for creating content, that's. I don't know, that's kind is very important because there's so much out there that people are creating that's. It's just not something that. I don't know, if I had kids I wouldn't want them watching it.

But do you, do you ever say to people or tell them, you know, just so you understand, a 10 minute, funny, interesting, cool video took 40 hours to make? I mean this is.

I let them know and then they shortly, soon figure it out. Yeah, because it does seem like it's so easy and it does seem like it's so glamorous. But it's like I spent a Lot of time sitting at this desk editing. I think people are very surprised to hear that I still edit any of my videos at all. I mean, I've made. I don't think anyone's ever made a thumbnail for me. I make every single thumbnail. I upload the video, title it, make it live. And I don't know, I guess that's just how I've always done it. And I think having that channel being actually me is something that I've always been very careful about. And the guy that I do work with, Tyler, he's amazing, gets my views and perspective and kind of adds his own flavor to it. So I'm very grateful that he gets it.

So what would you tell this young girl, teenage girl? What's the first step if you want to be like me?

Yeah, I think just figuring out what is it that you're passionate about. And if there is something that you could see yourself making videos for longer than a year, like, what would that be? Because I think it takes at least a year to sort of find your groove, get comfortable in front of the camera and just, I think, you know, just starting with your phone, like, you can shoot and edit everything on your phone, no matter what phone you have. Like, it's. It will be good enough to sort of figure out lighting, figuring out, like, your tone and just kind of going from there. And it's okay to be nervous in front of the camera because I think that that's the first thing you're like, but I can't talk to a camera. Like, you're not talking to a camera. Just imagine that you're talking to somebody else because at some point that is what you're doing.

And what if this person says, but you have millions and millions of followers? How do I even begin to get a follower?

Yeah, you just start. And I think you look for communities of people that are kind of doing the same thing as you and just start interacting and just really reaching out to people. And one of the things that, that I've talked about before is collabs is such a weird thing because you're. You want to collab with these bigger creators, but you have to be careful because a lot of times these creators aren't just going to collab with everyone because they don't have, like, you don't have an arsenal of videos for them to judge on, like what type of content you create. They don't know what type of videos you are going to make. Is there going to be a scandal or something in your near future, and then that reflects on you. So I think that's really hard to. To. For a lot of, like, bigger creators to just start doing collabs with everybody. But I think reaching out and getting into those communities is important.

So for the people who, including me, don't exactly know what the word collab means in this.

Oh, yeah, that's what we call it.

What exactly are you saying?

We call them collabs. So it's like just like a collaboration. So like a YouTube. So you. I'm basically, we're doing a collab right now, you know, so it's just reaching out to YouTubers or other people that you want to make videos with. And a lot of times, you know, it's. It's scary because they. You don't know if they're gonna say yes or they're gonna say no, and then everybody's busy. So it's. It's definitely crazy. But I don't think it's something that is necessary. I think just building your brand, figuring out your voice, and what you want to make videos about, get comfortable and just be consistent, I think is the biggest piece of advice. But it all sounds very simple in the long run.

It sounds simple, but I would also say it doesn't sound like there are any particular shortcuts.

There's not at all. I mean, I started my YouTube channel in 2006. That's a long time. You know, there's been a lot of YouTubers that have started their channels maybe a year ago, and they already have more subscribers than me. So that's kind of like, man, I've been doing this for so long. Like, why can't I do that? But the fact that I've been able to that do do this this long and stay consistent and keep creating content and still enjoy it is I'm like, okay, that's. I've at least done that some point.

Someone like Katie Courk said, who is this Ijustine? I mean, she's just like, been doing this for two years, and she's got 10 million followers. And I've been, you know, at NBC for 20 years.

Well, that's. I think it's. You think about like a band that comes out with a popular song, and you're like, I can't believe that they just overnight wonder this one hit wonder, like they had this song. They've been touring. They probably have 15 albums. They've been sleeping on couches all around the US touring. Like, it's never that easy. And I think I always try to think about that, too. When I see a lot of, like, smaller YouTube channels end up blowing up overnight, I'm like, how did they do that? You don't know somebody's journey. But you can always assume that it probably was a struggle, because, honestly, I don't think anything is easy. And if it is, then everybody would be doing.

Just to date myself. When Twitter started, I joined about six months into it, and I immediately went to about one and a half million followers. And so people were just going crazy. Like, guy, you've only been here, you know, three, four months, and you have one and a half million followers. How did you do that? Well, they don't understand. It took me 25 years to get to the point where I could have the awareness to get 1.5 million followers right. People who listen to this are going to look up to you. They're going to check you out. But who does Ijustine get inspired by as a video or as a content creator?

I was watching too many YouTube videos for a while, and then I started getting too inspired. And then when you watch too much, you start kind of picking up mannerisms of other people and things that people are saying. So if there's, like, a product that I'm gonna review, I try not to watch anybody's content until after mine is already done, because I don't want to have something that someone said. Sort of kind of just be in the back of my mind that, oh, my gosh, so and so said this about this camera. Now I'm going to be, like, obsessively looking for it. So I try to be very objective when it comes to things like that. But there's so many incredible, like, tech YouTubers that I watch now. But this is the weirdest thing, probably that really got me into wanting to do video in. I guess this would have been high school. The Band Tool. Really? The band Tool.

I'm too old. I don't know who Tool is.

You probably would, like, they've been around since, like, the 90s. They're like the experimental kind of, like heavy metal ish at all. Well, anyway, my favorite band, Tool, and they did a lot of, like, really kind of like, weird experimental music videos and stuff like that. They were all like, stop motion. So when I was in high school, very early, like, I was taking a bunch of art classes, and I was like, man, I really want to get into, like, stop motion and videography. So just this. This, the Band Tool, is. Was one of my first original inspirations of just, like, being kind of I don't know, like, different and not worrying about, like, what people think, because that's sort of something that they never were worried about. And obviously Steve Jobs was a really big inspiration. When I was younger, growing up, probably in sixth grade, I would say I did my first book report on Steve Jobs.

You did your first book report on Steve Jobs?

Oh, my gosh, yes. Admitting how cute. Have computers as much back then. And so my mom was a teacher, so she. We had an Apple computer in the house from a very young age. So I was always a Mac person. And then going into school, there were like these PCs here and then there were like a few rooms that had Emacs. But yeah, sixth grade, it was. I did a book report and I was like, this is incredible. Like he said, it's okay to think different. Like, that's me. Like, I'm always thinking different. So ever since then, it was just like this small child. Justine just always really loved the way that he kind of thought outside the box and things like that, you know. But it was just. He really did have a huge impact on, like, me growing up. And I'm definitely always very appreciative for that.

Okay. But today, you know, Sony comes out with the A10 or Apple comes out with the, you know, iPhone 12. And you haven't seen anybody else's unboxing and review. So you do yours and then whose do you watch?

Then I go to Marques's and then I go to Jonathan TLG today, and then I go and check out usually Sarah Dietschy. She's another female YouTuber as well. And then a lot of times my sister and I will both be shooting kind of a video at the same time about something. And so I'll kind of know what she's shooting. And then I usually go and watch hers and then she'll watch mine. So it's always kind of fun just to go back and I kind of just see like, the different takes that people have on things. And I'm like, yes, okay, we agree on this. Oh, we don't agree on that.

I love Market.

He's great when he reviews things like our personalities next to each other. I mean, I'm always. I have to, like, bring myself down. So I don't seem too enthused when I'm around him.

Yeah, I first interacted with him when he was, I don't know, junior in college and he was shooting his videos in his dorm. I tell people back when I was in the software business in the 90s, your dream was to get into the Thursday edition of the Wall Street Journal. Right. And today I would say if you had a choice between being mentioned in the Wall Street Journal or Marquis Brownlee, you would pick Marquis all day long. I mean, it's not even close. Yeah, he is.

As long as he's talking good about your product.

Well, that helps too. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. No, and I. It's so interesting because we have. There's a 10 year difference, our age difference. So, like, I'll be talking about something. I'm like, wait, you don't even, you know, you were still in like middle school, so it's like talking tech like we have. It's not that much of a time difference, but it really is kind of in the long run of the things that you've experienced and grew up. And I don't know, it's really wild just to see what children have available to them now. Like my sister back in Pennsylvania, she recently had a baby, which I'm so sad I can't travel to visit. But it's been cool just to kind of witness her interacting with tech and phones and like, man, I can't wait to see the things that you're gonna see in your lifetime.

How many unboxings do you think you've done?

Oh, I don't even know. I mean, I have thousands of YouTube videos.

Really? Do you have a favorite handful or your most favorite unboxing?

One of my favorite videos was a holiday video that I did with Google and YouTube and we create. They were like, what do you want to do? Like, we'll do anything. I said anything. And I chose to do a stop motion Lego video. And it was for the holidays. It was like a stormtrooper Lego collaboration. So that was probably one of my favorites, actually that I've ever done. But as far as unboxings go, I mean, I think the Mac Pro unboxing was probably my favorite. And then some of my iPhone review videos are. I spend so much time on those ones. So I feel like those I'm most proud of.

Which Mac Pro unboxing?

The new Mac Pro. The latest one.

This latest one.

This latest one. And I rented three 8k reds.

Why do you need a red or much less three to unbox a Mac Pro?

I wanted to push this thing to the limits and I definitely did because we were shooting in such a high compression rate that when I was like, man, I'm actually able to lag this computer. What happened? They're like, well, what compression were you shooting? Nobody shoots in the Crazy compression that you were shooting. I was like, well, I told my friend who he works on Avatar, I was like, I want it to look amazing. He's like, okay, cool. We're gonna completely just destroy all of your hard drive space.

But. But you use three reds and then people are watching him on their iPhone sixes. I mean.

Yep. No, it's the principle of the matter. The fact that I shot it all. And it was really crazy because, I mean, the budget for that. Thankfully we did get a discount. I mean, it would have been.

Oh, you bought three reds?

No, no, no. We didn't buy them. But even to rent them, the insurance that you have to get the entire red packages, I mean, it would have been like hundreds of thousands of dollars just to rent for like three or four days.

Seriously.

So, yeah, so even the budget that I had for that, I don't even know if I made the money back making all the videos, but, you know, it was worth it. And, man, having three AK reds in my living room was incredible.

And this was in the house?

Yeah, just in my living room. We just kind of rearranged everything, and then we had to get lighting. And usually I never have to rent anything because I have all of the gear, but I was like, we need to make this look cool.

Okay. So do you have your iPhone handy?

Yes.

Can you hold it up? Can we see what Ijustine's home screen?

Oh, gosh. What's on my home screen? Do you mean to send you a screenshot?

Yeah, that's easier. That would be better.

Duh.

Like, I think that's probably easier. Oh, my gosh.

So now to wrap up a little speed round. So you just pick one or the other. Okay.

All right.

Okay. Okay. So Netflix or Hulu?

Netflix.

Wireless or wired? Charging?

Wireless.

LA or New York, LA. Mac or Windows?

Mac.

40 or 44 millimeter watch?

40. I had to think. Yes.

Okay. I don't even need to ask. IOS or Android? We know iOS, right? How many. How many watches do you have? How many Apple watches do you have?

Every, I think every one of them that's ever come out.

And how many. How many iPhones do you have?

Everyone that's ever come out.

Do you have any Android phones? Phones?

I do, yeah. I always have a secondary Android device, so right now I'm using one that will be out in a month or so.

Does it fold?

Oh, no, but that one's right here, actually, if you.

Oh, yeah. What do you think of a folding screen? Is that.

It's cool. Especially. I was actually Very surprised. The Z flip. I really, really like it. So this was, this was the one that I was using for a while, but I always have an iPhone and an Android, so usually just to make sure I'm not completely biased.

Okay. Sushi or barbecue?

Oh, barbecue.

Animal Crossing or Mario Kart?

Oh, no, you can't do that to me.

Oh, God.

Right now. Animal Crossing.

Okay, okay. And finally, Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram?

So if I choose one, do the rest go away? Is the problem not even die?

No, just, you know, your first preference.

I would probably go Instagram.

Okay, now, okay, now this is really my last question. So when I just seen. First of all, how do you pronounce your last name correctly?

So I say it right in the Ezeric.

Ezarek. Okay, so when Justine Ezarek wakes up in the morning, what's the first thing you check on your phone?

I will check my email and then I ignore it all and then I forget about whatever I read and then I go to Twitter, I go to Instagram, and then I'll probably open up Animal Crossing currently and then I'll realize all of the email that I forgot to write back to in the morning and then at some point I'll get back to it.

And is your main productivity a phone or a Macintosh like Gary? Gary V does not use a desktop. It does not use a computer.

Well, he probably doesn't edit all of his videos still. So I still have to edit a lot. So I definitely, if I, if I did not have to use a computer, I could. I would probably do everything on my phone. But I mean, even like doing photo editing and stuff, I need. Need an actual full fledged Photoshop or Lightroom.

So do you use Canva? Do you use Canva?

I don't know.

You don't use Canva? Do you know what it is?

No, I don't think so.

Justine. It cannot be true. Canva C A N V A. The online graphics design editor from Australia that I'm the chief evangelist of.

No.

Go to canva.com it it's not possible that you or Jenna.

No, I'm so I'm downloading it after this.

It is the world's best way to create graphics.

I know, man. I should. Well, I should check it out. I mean, the unfortunate reality is I'm like, I'm gonna open up Photoshop and Illustrator. I'm gonna just trace all this out and design it and lay out the look.

Oh, you're killing me. You're killing me.

I'm Sorry. Okay, just look at Canva.

Just look at Canva. Okay. I mean, it is.

It opened.

It's Photoshop for the rest of us. You know, seriously, on any given day, we make roughly 4 million graphics every day. So people use it to make 4 million pictures a day or graphics per day. So we have all the templates for all the standard uses. Instagram, you know, the album photos, the avatars, the presentations, everything. Everything is done for you, all optimized to the size, you know, the dimensions. Oh, my God. My life flashed before my eyes.

I'm so sorry. Well, so did mine, because I've been wasting a lot of time then you have been.

It's. It's Photoshop for the rest of us. In the time. In the time it takes you to boot Photoshop. Even on your Mac Pro, you could finish a graphic in Canva. I promise you.

Probably. Oh, my God. Okay, I'm gonna check it out and I'll report back.

I hope that Ijustine brought humor, inspiration, and information into your life. If nothing else, you learned how hard it is to make something like social media look easy. She is a remarkable person and a nice person to boot. It's comments time. Joel Jessel. Guy went big on this one. Kicked off with a true legend and great show. Can't wait to see what's to come on Remarkable people. After listening to the first 10 shows, I have not come across an interview I did not like, but have found a few that I love. Guy, thank you for creating such a great podcast with such memorable guests. Sean Thompson may convince you to pick up a surfboard and forever change the trajectory of your life. Another one a tin kc. I have never written a review before. I'm not sure what it is about this podcast that has me so kept captivated. Guy is an amazing interviewer. The production is great. The guests do not disappoint. One more from Mr. Andy 64. The Woz podcast was not what I expected, but absolutely amazing if you're an Apple fanboy or girl. I have been an Apple fan since the day I started using Apple II computers in high school. I've always been fascinated in how things come to be, and the early Apple was always something fascinating to a nerd like me. Never had the pleasure to meet Woz, but did have lunch with Jobs once. Back in his next days. This podcast gives a great insight into the creative mind of Woz and sets straight some of the myths of Jobs too. I can't wait to subscribe to the other podcasts after listening to this one. Hallelujah. Add your comments on your iPhone. Just get the Apple podcast app on your computer. Just go to the Apple podcast app. Again, come to think of it. So basically on your computer or on your phone, use your Apple podcast app to send comments and rate. Thank you. I'm Guy Kawasaki, and this is remarkable people. Thanks to the remarkable people who make this podcast what it is, Jeff C. And Peg Fitzpatrick. Until the next episode of remarkable people. Be healthy, be safe. Mahalo and aloha.

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