In this multi‑speaker YouTube segment, host Victor Justin Rhodes uses a casual, behind‑the‑scenes vlog to promote his newly released book The Rooted Life and its accompanying bonuses, while simultaneously showcasing winter homestead activities and producing a collaborative video‑podcast with fellow homesteader Mike (The Fit Farmer) and other friends. The conversation weaves together several threads: a time‑limited marketing push (bonuses, audiobook release on Audible, Amazon hardcover, 5‑star review request, March 7 deadline), live demonstrations of animal care (ram, pig, lamb, chickens) and winter farm tasks, technical setup details for the vlog/podcast (cameras, lighting, Zoom, editing), and cross‑promotion with community members (Lacey, Jessica of Roots & Refuge, Morgan Gold, Mark from Inside Ideas). Throughout, Victor emphasizes the dual role of being a homesteader and a content creator, the challenges of balancing field work with media production, and the broader mission of inspiring self‑sustaining living. The segment ends with calls to action for viewers to purchase, review, and follow the collaborators’ channels.
Chapters
My goal of 10,000 books by March 7th. I told you about, what did I say there? Relate and show content from the book. Tell y'all about all the bonuses I'm giving away until March 7th, which is like 2 video chapters of our masterclass from it, 1 PDF that you get right away as soon as you order. How about this one? You already saw it a little bit. Friends Share. Ta-da! Mike from The Fit Farmer. His shirt says it all. Mike, an old-time friend, here for many reasons— to hang out, to be on our podcast, to do a feature on us, help promote the book. What's your idea for your story today?
I want to see, since all the animals and things you got going on, what all you do during the winter, this cooler season when it's not so glamorous.
Yeah, cool. I like it. So what I'll do, I'll try to stay out of your way with my vlog. I'll get some shots of you in action. That sound good? And then folks can go to your channel and check it out. All righty. All right, Mike, you getting a shot of this, filling up the buckets?
That's right.
Okay, I'm gonna get a shot of you getting a shot of me. Oh yeah, it's decent. Pig's nice to the chicken, they complement each other. This is a ram, a sheep ram, so we don't want him breeding the ladies. We want to breed the ladies in the fall so we have spring babies. And then we have a what I call a boulette or bolito. Look at Lil Spice. How you doing? I want to show you guys something. She's got a little tip, a little white on the tip of her tail, but she's obviously— she— I keep calling her she, she's so little, but it's a he. Good one, Polly, good one.
My buddy Mike has already reviewed the book, The Rooted Life, from my friend Justin Rhodes.
It's really cool to see a book that our friends wrote and tell their story and just see where they came from and how they've grown and changed. And you know, now they can help other people.
That is really neat to flip through here and to see pictures of their homestead It's just, it touches me. It's like, because I want to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who are mourning.
Also, our friends Jessica at Roots and Refuge.
This has been sitting on my table since it came in yesterday because I wanted to open it on camera. My friend Justin wrote this beautiful book called The Rooted Life. It's so pretty, beautiful photos. And it's a really great book. Justin, congratulations on this. I love the Rhodes family. They're very dear friends of ours. They have really like blazed a path as far as content creation in the homesteading world.
One cool thing Jonah told me is he put on his audiobook this morning and my book was playing, my audiobook. We got it on Audible, so that means it's out. That means anybody who pre-ordered that, it's out, it's available, the audiobook. Who's an audiobook fan? For the Dixons, let's do— they're talking about how much they like lamb. Well, let's have Greek tonight. My buddy Morgan Gold just did a TikTok book review.
The Rooted Life is now available, and I'm just looking at this book and it is just absolutely amazing. Photography is beautiful. It's a great story. It's a combination of like motivation as well as how-to. It's just super impressive, and I'm like so proud of my friend. For putting this thing out.
Well, don't mind the piano music, it's keeping Henry happy. Just got on a podcast yesterday with my buddy Jill Winger from the Old Fashioned On Purpose podcast, and at 10, I gotta start getting ready for that real soon. Mark, Inside Edition's podcast, pretty big podcast. I'm excited, uh, going on that. Actually, as a homesteader, I want to be out doing the crop gardens, but that's not my job per se. My job is creating content. This book is the latest piece, and by the way, we're pushing it hard this week till March 7th. We've got bonuses, and then I'm gonna cool off on it. So if you've already bought the book and you're like, when's he gonna shut up about the book? Soon. I'm just very excited. I want to spread the word. I want to make sure everybody gets it that wants it. It's gonna really change people's lives, so bear with me. March 7th is an important date. Lots of bonuses for folks that order by then. And then we'll cool off and just let it speak for itself. I really think it's one of those books that's gonna spread by word of mouth once people get it. I don't give enough margin in my life. That's 15 minutes before the podcast is probably not enough. But there's so much to do. I know you guys can relate. You guys all have jobs. This is my job, creating content. So there's that pull with me too, you know. I only have so much time to actually do the homesteading stuff, and today is one of those days. 10 o'clock podcast, um, then Mike's here. He's 2 hours drive for him. He's here, so it's like, well, let's get a video podcast from him for Abundance Plus because we don't know when he's coming back, you know, type of thing. So let's do that after lunch from 1 until— and then it's time to prep for dinner. So I'm kind of like, I found some stuff today for that garden project and maybe we could find some time or do it in the morning. Although I never found our long tape. Josiah, did you ever find our long measuring tape? Okay. Let's get the hose off this waterer. Mike, did you get the content you needed this morning?
Yeah, I sure did.
I think you did good. You asked good questions. It's a good piece. We learned— what do you do? Because we ended up learning— we ended up talking more about cows. Yeah, we talked about the winter stuff.
Yeah.
So what do you do? Do you pivot there or do you keep with the original idea?
I, I Usually somewhat keep up with the original idea. I think we got what we needed. You guys got a pretty good, uh, operation going.
Good morning. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I'll set out to film something and I think I know what the movie is going to be about, but then other things happen and I'm like, oh well, maybe it was about something else.
Yeah, I do the same.
Here you go, Mike, for staying here. Yummy, yummy. We'll see you at lunch. I just wrapped up a part— a podcast with Mark at Inside Ideas. He's still on. I said we're gonna want to say hello. So this is how it works, guys. I've got my main camera here shooting on me. I've got a light up there going. You can see how it looks. Looks pretty good, right, Mark?
It looks fabulous.
Yeah, we zoomed it—
it's real life—
in the beginning, right? We zoomed it in and out to try to match up our, our heads there. And you asked some good questions, Mark. What's your big, uh, what's your big takeaway? From our conversation for your own journey?
Well, I like chapter 9 a lot, Rooted as a Family. That, that's the, the best part of the book. As far as our podcast that I like the most is where you answer the question, what does a world that works for everyone look like for you? And, and you said freedom. And, uh, it's freedom because you're self-sustaining, you're a subsistence homesteader, you're growing your own food, which is like printing your own money. And if you do your homeschooling and home life and, and you create this, uh, this new environment, that is true freedom. And most people don't realize it.
This is a fun interview. This is going to be going up on— where do you want people to go? This is coming up tomorrow on YouTube and the podcast platform.
Be it all over social media, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, um, Inside Ideas will do an article on Apple News, so it'll be all over.
Well, this comes out tomorrow, which is the same day you're putting out the podcast, so folks can go check it.
All right, thanks so much.
Thanks, Mark.
You take care.
All right, that was great talking to Mark. Great conversation. Encourage you guys to check that out. But look at this, look at this, look at this.
It's out.
I just pulled it up. It is out, and hardcover, Amazon Prime. Let's go back and show you something. When I search for it, there's the audiobook. We got a review. Our first review. Hey, we got 5 stars. That's so helpful too, by the way. If you guys have already gotten the book, would you do me a solid and go review it? Or when you get the book, like if you've already bought it, when you get it, go give a review. It helps. It helps with the ratings. It helps with the— How do I read this review?
March 12th.
See all customer reviews. Oh, I hope Amber's watching this. Thank you, Amber. Close to my heart. First review: Popular homestead YouTuber Justin Rhodes shares insight on working within nature to produce your own sustenance and live a more abundant and connected life. As someone who believes in biophysical, social-emotional well-being, it was awesome to find a book that provided health and wholeness tips through nutrition. We do not realize how much we eat influences who we are and how we live. I would definitely recommend this book to all health gurus. Did you hear that, Rebecca? What? Our first review. That's fun. I just read our first review. I'm going to say that's helpful. Another good way to overcome a lack of knowledge is to seek out know-how from others. For example, Rebecca seems to have a knack for finding just the right author at just the right time. That's me. I'm on audiobooks. Mike's going to get our book. Before you go, Mike, this is going to be our podcast. You guys comfortable? We're just gonna have a conversation. Uh, right off the top, what's the meaning of life? Wow. Okay, we'll warm you up.
We'll warm you up first.
All right, we just wrapped up the podcast. What's the big takeaway, Lacey? What's the big word of advice for the folks out there?
Be the change in the world that you want to see.
Yeah, Mike has already come up with a new TV series. Yeah, feed change.
Yeah, okay, exclusively on Abundance Plus.
And I know him well enough that he's probably— you could probably bet on this, that it's actually gonna happen. He put up his first TikTok today. Next step, your own TV series.
There we go.
These guys ever make mistakes? As you've already seen, you're not going to wonder the same thing about Justin or Rebecca.
It sounds great.
This was our sound engineer at the audiobook. That's how I got to know you, and now I've hired you to do these video podcasts. That's fun. There it is, released today.
Congratulations.
Yeah, you have to buy it. I, I had to buy it.
I'll buy it.
I'll buy it.
I'll get one for my parents too.
All right.
Anything I've had anything to do with, they have to have at least one.
Yeah. All right, good. These guys, I remembered to cover them at 3 o'clock in the morning and it was already frosted.
I think everything looks good.
Okay, these guys are already a bit fragile. But yeah, I don't think, I don't think they're any worse. Yeah, Mike's pointed out they need water, and that, that's true. This soil is drier than the other one. Mr. Henry, give him a piece of lamb.
He already had it.
He loves it. You chewing it? You gumming it? Yay! What do you think, Lacey? Oh, you're documenting it. I am, you know, making an Insta story. Something like that. We'll see how it goes.
Who are you giving that one to?
Let us know what you think. Looks pretty. Here it comes.
Two thumbs up.
How long has it been since you've had lamb?
It's been a while. We haven't had lamb in a while. It's really good.
