Roberto Martínez uploaded his first video in 2007 at 14, filming dice-stacking tricks in his bedroom with sunglasses on because he was embarrassed. He started combining blog writing with on-camera videos, inspired by early creators like the Vlogbrothers and John Green.
2007.
14 years old.
The first video I made about that was uploaded in 2007. I was 14 years old in my childhood bedroom, kneeling on a table that I had since I was very little. And those were my first videos, but they weren't monetized. So from these articles that I published on my website, I started making videos, and those were my first videos where I spoke. Also while I was having that blog, I started making videos about something called dice, and those were my first videos. Dice stacking was a discipline where you grab a glass, you. You have some dice, and you do tricks with them. Right? Those were my first videos. The first video I made about that was uploaded in 2007. I was 14 years old in my childhood bedroom kneeling on a table that I had since I was very little. And those were my first videos, but they weren't monetized. Combining the YouTube and blog parts, I said, well, I'm going to make videos of what I'm writing, because they were starting to become more like opinion pieces. And I started making my first blogs, that is videos where I go on camera and talk and read what I had written. But I was really embarrassed to go on camera. So my first videos were with sunglasses. It would be something like Superman or Clark Kent. And I would say that you would put on your aha sign that people wouldn't recognize me if I had sunglasses on. And so I started in secret. My parents never knew, and I started to publish my first videos. So I started this little path of becoming better, finding a format, and the project slowly started to grow. After several years of doing this, I started to have an audience. You were very consistent for a long time. What were you getting in return? What kept you disciplined? I did have a vision that this was going to be something big. When I started getting into the platform, I did see the first content creators emerge and grow. Who do you remember, for example? There are some called the Block Brothers who are still relevant to this day. In fact, you have a book by John Green that I'm glad to see. It's poetic to see a book by John Green, who has suggested most of his books to me. Which ones? It's the Anthropos Eining reviewed. Right? A very good book. It's the first book he's published that's not fiction. The rest are novels. So these guys start in 2007. They're two brothers. John Green was going to move to Indianapolis, so they were two very close brothers who were going to separate geographically. So they started this project where they said, look, in order not to lose communication. We're going to do a project where we're each going to upload a video a week telling each other what we're doing this week directed at the other brother. So we're going to set strict rules where we won't be able to communicate by text, we won't be able to call each other. The only way to communicate is by video. So I remember that I started seeing that, and it seemed like a great project to me. I mean, I started seeing it, like, halfway through the project, that half of 2007, and I threw myself into it and said, this has potential to grow, man. At that time, he had released his first book, which was called Looking for Alaska, and he saw how his auditoriums were starting to fill up because people were starting to become fans of his content. I understood that this guy is growing his career. Dr. Because he is doing an online project. And you saw why the guy documented his conferences. And he started the videos by saying, good morning. And the entire audience shouted, good morning.
