Your Creator Cohort Is More Important Than You Think

So one of the biggest unlocks that I had as a creator is to not do it alone. When you can connect with other people doing the work, it causes you to one-up your game, right? You're getting exposed to people that are in the fight and in the battle with you. You are remembering that this is all about humans. At the other end of the podcast, the audio, at the other end of the video for YouTube, there is someone, and you have a chance to impact their life for the better. And sometimes when you do that, you start to chat and comment on each other's videos, and eventually you get to have a conversation over the internet for an hour with someone that maybe becomes your friend. And that's what happened today with Joseph Berta. He has a channel called Be Hamburgas, but we talk about productivity, improving yourself as a creator. We talk about creativity and what it means to follow that instinct and explore and have fun along the way. And we talk about just living the good life. Like, what does it take to live a life without regrets that helps you connect with people? You know, I really admired the joy, freedom, and exploration and curiosity he brings to his videos and how fun it is and how it incorporates the different areas of him. I hope you enjoy this conversation of Creators That Crush, and maybe you take away something that can help you figure out what your 1% growth or value add is so that you can have a sustainable, great career doing what we have the opportunity to do, which is express ourselves and make a difference. With that, let's get into the episode. I wanted to talk about what does it mean to crush it as a creator? You know, we were talking before this and you had mentioned that there has to be a desire to show up and improve by 1%. I'm curious, what does 1% look like to you, or what does that mean to you off the bat?

Yeah, you know, I, I think this is a really popular, um, it's a really popular mantra to go by, you know, is the improve by 1%. Um, I don't even know who the quote was. There's a very famous person who's done this quote. Many people have said it before, but if you improve by 1%, it's that incremental growth. So it's like, as long as you are heading the right direction, as long as you know the direction you're going, then you're going to make it to somewhere else that you want to go. If you don't know the direction, if you're not working on those little steps, those improvements from where you are, because obviously, you know, from where are we, we all start at different starting points, but a lot of times that initial starting point is not going to be where we'll be a year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years down the road. So it's important to keep that, I think, mindset of just, hey, you know, to get, I guess, rolling, to get, you know, to hit record. As a lot of other people say, you just got to press record, you just got to do it. You know, Think Media is big on just saying, hey, get one. But I think an important thing is always to remember that if you're not improving and you're not, you know, making things better, then you're, you're more likely stagnating really than progressing towards a goal that you probably have. So I think that's really just important to have in a lot of areas, is just that area of, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make those incremental improvements on my journey.

Yeah, that resonates with me so much because I started creating on YouTube, I think about 10 years ago. I've done over 700 videos and like 650 of those were like maybe 10 views.

And, oh man.

Yeah. And like, I think maybe this is an interesting thing to explore, but for me it was the beginning of YouTube was talk to a camera, not cringe when I hear my voice, not look like a deer that's about to get hit. So there's, there's skill development there that helped me improve but didn't get me the views or external results. Um, so I'm curious for you, like, how— like, when you say 1% improvement, is it those types of skills? Is it the actual video metrics as a YouTuber? Um, is it something else entirely?

Yeah, you know, I think the 1% improvement really is in all areas. It's not just related to make better videos. I think that's a classic one, you know, from my background background, I am a freelance videographer and editor by trade. That's literally what I've done for over a decade. I literally— that's basically one of the first jobs I ever had. I've never really worked a 9-to-5 job ever. It's always just been freelance videography and editing. So this kind of stuff has been my life. And one thing that I think was really interesting about YouTube, I really, you know, I'll say, I always say this, I swore off YouTube for so many years. I think people knowing that I was a videographer and editor, they were like, hey, you should do YouTube. And I was always like, no way. I was like, YouTube, I know how much work goes into it. I know how much— I know it's like, I wasn't, I wasn't, uh, I guess taken aback by saying like, oh, like it's gonna be easy, like how hard is it to make a video every week or something? I knew that it was an intense amount of work when it comes to storytelling, when it comes to script writing and the performance in front of a camera and the technical stuff and the B-roll and editing and packaging. I knew all those things going in, so I wasn't, I wasn't by any means lulled into that this was going to be a simple road. But I always swore it off because I was like, I know how much work it is, and I wasn't willing to make that trade-off of my time and investment for YouTube earlier on. I just, I had other priorities, and so it wasn't wasn't what I wanted. What really— the funny thing that got me more into YouTube was actually having my first son. So my wife and I, we— the short story is I was traveling over in Thailand. I ended up through a friend of a friend and all other kinds of things, I ended up working at a school that was over there in Bangkok. I ended up living there for 4 years. I met my wife who was Canadian. We got married over there during COVID We came back to the States. My wife now just recently got her citizenship. So, all right, that's awesome. And we now, we have, now we have 2 kids. And what really got me into YouTube was I had my first kid and I was doing more of the stay-at-home dad life. I've loved being a stay-at-home dad, but what I found was that I was spending a lot more time consuming than anything else. I was at home with the kid and a lot of times like, oh, throw on some YouTube, watch this, you know, I just was consuming, consuming, consuming. And it got to this point where I was like, man, I'm spending so much time just consuming all this content. Like now that I have all this time, you know, and I, it's like, I'm here, I can't, I can't go somewhere else or whatnot. I'm like, I'm, I'm ticked. I'm being the stay-at-home dad. It's like, now I think is the actually the perfect time to leverage into YouTube. And the other great thing was with the algorithm changes recently, with it more being interest-based versus subscriber or follower momentum, uh, there was a lot more there really was more opportunity, I think, for getting into it now. This is the one thing that I always tell other creators is that if you're a YouTuber, the biggest, probably awesome thing about YouTube is how it grows you as a person in every single way. It makes you a better scriptwriter. It makes you someone who's better at talking in front of camera. If you're not, you know, then you can become someone who's really fluent and has a good presence in front of a camera just over the reps. It makes you a better designer. It makes you care care less about what people think. I, just like everyone else, I hated hearing my voice. I hated making videos. I'd watch it, I'd be like, oh, and then I'm editing my video and it's even worse because you just have to watch yourself for hours and hours. And it's one of those things where you just, you get to the point where you're like, you know what, it, it's so freeing when you get to that point of just caring less about what other people's, what other people might think or the opinions they might have. Just realize people aren't thinking about you. They're not. And so I think the levels of growth that you find by being a YouTuber are there. And so there's that 1% incremental improvement in all areas of your life when you become a YouTuber. So I think that's one of the best things about it, honestly.

Yeah, I can't agree with you more on that. I've been doing a lot of like personal writing on creating content in general as a way for personal development and personal growth. My journey has been improving, being confronted with all the things that you think you're good with. Like, I can talk to a camera, no big deal. And then you record it and you're like, I crush it. And then you look at it and you're like, oh, that's not like how other people do it. And not in the comparison that I should be like other people, but in the— that ease of public speaking. Or why did I choose to like talk in circles for 5 minutes? You know, it's like, oh, that's a skill that you can develop to like catch yourself or to shorten it or to not ask compound questions. And I think there's a journey for creators that I've noticed where there's this kind of like inner work that they do through the work. And it's a lot like they're prolific, they're producing a lot, and they're slowly making those internal changes. And then it almost seems like something clicks and they're like the 10-year overnight success type person where it's like, oh, this person is crushing it. And you don't see all of that work behind, you know, and all those experiences and insights. Definitely. I think it's very fascinating. Do you agree? Have you seen that in your work personally or with others?

Yeah, for sure. You know, I always feel like obviously I have a unique advantage because videography and editing stuff is literally what I do as a profession. So that definitely gives me a leg up with where I start from. But even that, you know, whether you're starting from just more of a raw, you know, just your phone and a mic or you actually, your videos look more professional from the start. There's always that progression of really growing to tell better stories. You know, I'm really, I can look back already, it's already been a little over a year that I've been making videos on YouTube. I can look back at the early ones and, you know, I think this is a common thing as a creator to see, is you look back and you can, you finish a video and as you're publishing it, you think of the 10 things that could be better on it. That's just really an area where there's always that improvement, no matter where a creator is at, there's always that story arc of, of, you know, just progression from, from point A to point B. So I think that's, that's gonna always be there. I think that's one of the most interesting parts is of, you know, the evolution of a creator and as they grow through that, it's one of the most interesting things to observe for sure. Totally.

Uh, so as we're talking about like the progress of creator, you said something before too that you realized you were consuming more than you were creating. And having your unique skill set as a videographer, I'm sure that, I mean, it's easier maybe for someone that is in the field to be like, oh, I could create something way better. And it's not too big of a lift where maybe someone like me who comes from an engineering, like a software engineering background, like I like methodologies, like I'm still trying to shake the habit of not having, just getting to the point. It's like, no, no, you know, part of, telling the journey of how you got to an insight is important. Because I also think that to be a great musician, you should listen to a lot of music and have an ear for it. You know, as a videographer, you probably have an eye for what makes a great video, a great video or not. So how did that experience sitting with your son or not, you know, going through YouTube Like, was there some video that inspired you to be like, okay, time for me to get after it and put my spin on something? Was there a moment that kind of pulled you?

I think for myself, I might have a little bit more of a creative edge to myself, maybe a more of a stronger desire to create and be creative than the normal person. Obviously, I believe every person is creative. But there's some people who there's just that a deeper desire to create something with that creativity. Man, I think it's just that creativity was just fueled by obviously when I see something like if I watch more YouTube videos that does inspire me, I'm like, oh, I see this video and it makes me think of a video that I would want to make. Like there's a lot of like daisy chaining of like, oh, I see this and it makes me think of this or how cool would it be to make this? You know, I feel like there's always ideas flowing. It's just actually creating those ideas. That's the real bottleneck. Neck. Um, and so yeah, I think, I think just when it comes to the more you consume, I think it depends. But I think for me, the more I saw stuff, the more it was like, you know what, I would like to, you know, see if I can make this a part of my life in some sustainable way. Because I think that's really important. I think a lot of people forget that is, you know, how do you make something sustainable? You know, it can be easy if you're single and, you know, maybe you're unemployed. You know, that makes it super easy. You know, then you could spend 12 hours a day on it, you know, with the right motivation. But, you know, for someone like me who now, you know, I have a family, I have 2 kids, there's a lot more time that's already spoken for in my life. So really, you know, YouTube can really become something that just consumes the rest of your time and some. So I think the important thing really is to, um, is to just really take a look back at, um, what the amount of time you're willing to give and what your priorities are so that you don't edge out your time that's more important with things in your life that you have, like your family or time with your kids. That's so important to not really lose sight of the important things while you're on this journey as well. Definitely.

I, late last year, started YouTubing the why I quit videos for creators that had subscribers of like over 100,000. It was always, it was interesting. There's some common themes of like, I stopped following what I thought was interesting and was doing what my audience expected. I'm just going through the motions. I don't— I'm not really happy about it. I think other people were trying to, like, had come up with YouTube. There's a particular creator that I'm thinking of who's like, my identity is tied into what people have seen about me, and I've been hiding this whole other part of my life. And I'm so afraid that if I show that, that people would judge me and I'll, you know, you know, it's really vulnerable. And, and so like to your point of not being all consumed by YouTube or social media or any of this is super important, you know, again, especially if you have family or you want to eat or live in a house and like those important things. So I'm curious, as a videographer and YouTuber then, what is like your creative process? Do you have a way to capture ideas as you see them? Is it just you show up, you know, in the hours that you have to create and you're like, what am I feeling today? And you just kind of channel it. Are you looking at analytics? Like, could you maybe walk through that a little bit?

Yeah, I'll try to summarize my creative process as much as I can, but you know, I think—

big question.

I do. Yeah, it is a big question. I do suffer from the classic, um, the— I guess you call it the scattered creative, where there's not, you know, I don't have all of those processes and systems. I think organization is probably one of my biggest fatal flaws. I have to really work hard to be organized in some ways. Um, I think when it comes to, you know, When it comes to just the ideation stuff, the easiest thing is just when ideas come to me, or if I watch something, it makes me think of an adjacent idea or something similar to it. I just, I go to the classic, I open my Apple Notes and I just jot down a quick, either it's either the title, it's either an idea, it's either, hey, this happens, this happens, then this, what if this were to happen? You know, I just, I basically just keep a running list or multiple lists scattered across my notes of just different ideas that I would want. Um, obviously there's some little bit of like if something strikes, or maybe there's something that's, you know, kind of going on right now, I might be like, oh, I'll see if I can make a quick video on this. There's not too much. I really have— I have more work to do when it comes to the systems, you know, to really make things flow a little better. But, you know, I think that was a big thing for the channel that I started, um, BeHamBerta's. I named it that because, uh, we, we don't actually live in Birmingham as many people might think. We actually live in Bellingham. Oh, which is right on the Canadian border. I think Bham is normally thought of as Birmingham, but, um, I didn't know that before I started it. But basically Bham Bird is just because it was like, hey, like this channel can be any kind of video that's anything that's interested in my life, my wife's life. Like she even did a video, was on here. There's a few more. Like it's kind of was like, I think my strategy from the start was like, I don't— if I go too niche and I go too specific too soon, then I'm at risk for burning out before I've even crossed any kind of line to get somewhere. And so even though it seems like I didn't have a plan, and I think for a lot of reasons I didn't, I had basically a handful of unrelated videos that I just wanted to make. But my plan was, hey, this channel is going to be the sandbox channel where I try this YouTube thing out. I can— I have no limits on my creativity. I mean, within reason, obviously. I want things to be related to me, things I'm interested in. But yes, the topics and scopes is so wide that you would look at it and you'd be like, you know, it's like, who knows what's gonna come out next? And it's very true, you know? So it was a lot of like just basically making anything that I wanted to create and then being able to create that and put that on a platform. And honestly, there's something that's so freeing and awesome about being able to do that. Um, I think this honestly is a great way to start for any person. Um, obviously if you are planning, if you wanna make it a business, you shouldn't do this. You should do something totally different than this. But I think if you want to break into YouTube, and you want to just basically have a channel where you're testing the waters and there's no limits, you're not constrained by a niche or stuff like that, I think doing the way I did actually is a great plan because with that way you really, you're not, I, there was no point where I was like, oh, I'm feeling burned out. The whole year I had a great time. I loved making all the videos. Sure, some took longer than I, than I was hoping for, but all in all it was great. I got to collab with a few good friends I had met on YouTube along the way. Those are some of the, best videos I had. My number one advice is don't do YouTube alone. Just find other people, whether they live close to you or whether they live in other states or other countries. Uh, you know, there's a guy from the UK I talk to on a weekly basis that we're good friends now. Just talk about YouTube and life and things like that. This guy in Arizona, this guy in Tennessee, like, I've met— and I just met these people within the last year just by being a YouTuber, and it's been awesome. So Really, I think, I think having no plan can be a plan for YouTube. And I think there's definitely something, but I think if you wanna make it a business, what you need to do is you need to plan a more specific and actually niched channel. And actually, I think taking that time to really do that work beforehand and plan things out, I think is gonna pay dividends down the road.

Hey, it's Shawn. Before we get back into this episode of Creators That Crush, I wanted to invite you to a free 30-minute call. If you are struggling with creative burnout, with confidence, with trying to make progress on your creative endeavor. And so on this call, spend 30 minutes talking about one of your big goals or aspirations, or we'll talk about something you're struggling with. And the whole goal of the call is to get you moving with some personalized habits or tips. And so I just want to interact with people and that's why I'm inviting you on this free call. So if that is interesting to you, please go to shawnbuttner.com and you'll see a button right at the top of the page called Schedule My 30 Minute Call. We'll get it all set up and we can help you start to progress again. We can help you go from crushed to crushing it as a content creator. So with that, scope that out and we'll get back to the episode. What I admire about the Sandbox channel, which I thought was just B Hamburgerz, just spelled weird.

No one can pronounce— trust me, no one can pronounce the name.

It's—

it actually, it makes it more funny because, you know, you just get— you get 20%. It's great.

Yeah. But what I really admired about it was the sense of joy that I you show up in the videos, it looks like you're having fun.

I am.

I'm having a great time. You never know what's coming up. And I remember when we found— I don't know how we got connected on YouTube initially, but that's why we're here is because you commented on my video.

I stumbled upon one of your videos. I was trying to just basically interface. I think a big thing is also meeting new people that are in your same boat. So I was just trying to meet and like watch other people that were like, hey, I'm just starting out. Because I think it's, it's so encouraging to just be surrounded by people that are doing the same thing. So like, you've been podcasting for a while, but like you said, you just started on YouTube recently. So I was literally just like, I was kind of just trolling for beginner YouTubers where I'm like, hey, where are my people at? You know, where are the other people that are doing this thing?. And I think there's a lot of benefit in— because I, you know, I found some really amazing friends through this process. And so just having that encouragement of— and then being able to see other people that were— had almost no subscribers. Now some of them, you know, they have, you know, 3, 4, 5,000 different subscribers now in the past year. And I, I found them when they had a few hundred or less. So I think there's something really inspirational about finding other people that you're kind of walking the journey with.

Yeah, you want, you want to find your class that you're coming up with because your cohort for sure. Yeah. Or just, yeah. Um, so I appreciated that, that we connected. And, um, again, as an engineer and wanting to be on a one-track mind, I think it really hurt me in my early videos and early creation in general because it's like I talk about like high performance and personal development stuff and nothing else. But I want to talk about music and I'd like to try to do a different style of video than just an educational talk-to-camera thing because that gets kind of boring over a while. And so yeah, I just, I really admire that, that breadth of joy and the freedom it seemed like you had to just, hey, I like this idea, I'm going to run with it and Thanks for the inspiration.

Yeah, of course.

So I'm curious for you personally or in your work, have you seen where creators kind of lose their agency? They get caught in the— you know, it's like you show up with this idea of what the job is going to be. You realize it's something different and then you feel like you're stuck. Do you—

have you seen that? Yes. Yeah, for sure. You know, honestly, even, you know, one of the, one of the guys I became friends with as we were doing this, We had some conversations even earlier on where he was kind of like, you know what, like, I'm, I'm, I'm going down this road, I'm doing this kind of YouTube channel, but I don't even know if I want to make this kind of content. I don't even know, like, he started to see early on, you know, that, you know, started to make those questions of whether or not this was the correct path for him. And so I think that's a common thing, but I think the most important thing to do is to not ignore those, those signals that you're getting where you're like, oh, like, I'm not sure if this is right. I think The amazing thing about humans is there's always— there's, it's never too late for reinvention. It's never too late to reinvent yourself. It's never too late to make a pivot, to shift things, to start anew. Um, you know, I think the great thing with YouTube channels is you can, just because you start with one niche, you can turn the ship. Sure. It's, it's like with any kind of big object, it can be really bulky and hard to turn, but once you get it turning, you can actually get it turned and you can get it moving. And the classic one is, um, for a YouTube content creator, there's Dave Jementa. He did a board game channel. He had one of his videos blow up, got him 8,000 subscribers, and then he was like, oh, I don't want to make videos about board games. Like, that's not what I want to do. And so then he pivoted into YouTube growth content, and it was tough because he had kind of a split audience, you know, it was kind of a lot of the board game people and whatnot. And, you know, he made a video, he's like, hey, you know what, I know a lot of people came for this, but this is, this is what I want to do. I want to head this way. If you want to stay along for the ride, that's great. If you don't, I understand. But you know, he pivoted, you know, and now he has, I don't know, 70, 80,000 subscribers, you know, running a successful content creator, YouTube growth YouTube channel. And you know, the thing is he started that with a channel that was totally in a totally different niche. And I think that can be done with any person. So I think when people, I think the mistake is the sunk cost fallacy. People think, oh, I've already put this much time and effort and stuff. I just need to I just need to grind it. I just need to keep doing it. But especially with YouTube, that's never the good option that you should do. It's never a thing where you should say, hey, let me just stick it out because it can turn into such a grind. I already— I haven't reached that, but I know that that's the case. So I think the important thing for creators to know is that if you are getting, you know, if you're getting more of an inkling of where you want a channel to go, then go that direction. You know, I would, I would go and go that direction sooner rather than later. I think that's what I would tell every creator.

Yeah, I would second that. Especially I think the general creator, creator like shifts in the environment have been more of showing up authentic, right? We have to prove that we're humans now because AI robot can copy our faces, right? And so how do you, you do that? You have to show up authentically. Prove that you're not a robot. Yeah. Especially. Yeah. And so, yeah. So if you have that inkling, like, follow it and see what happens and you'll be happier for it. If. Okay, so if you were to live a life you did not regret on YouTube, what do you think is the essential makeup of that? Or what do you think a creator would have to do um, in your experience?

Well, I mean, obviously, I think— I mean, I think this, just like if you're going to ask what, you know, um, what's the, what's the key to happiness in life, you're going to ask that to any person, um, it is an answer that you can find out, but it is very unique and different for each person. That's what I would say. But I think some of the core tenets that I would say is, one, you do have to decide whether or not you want this to just be more of a hobby or something that you do for fun, for the creativity of it, or if you want it to be a business. Do you want it to be a source of income, your main source, a side source, supplemental? You have to make that decision, I think, is one of the first ones. So for this, I did want this to be some level of income, you know, whether it, you know, maybe it just pays for my internet, maybe it pays for our rent, you know, but obviously, you know, I want it to be something that is gonna contribute. As a freelancer, it's like, it's all about plugging sources of income into things.. So I think that was a big thing is like, yes, one big pillar is I want this to be something that can generate some income. But on top of that, I'm not someone who just feels like generating income is enough. Like I just want to do it just for that. I think one of the greatest things that you'll find on YouTube, and this is the great thing about YouTube also, is that when you start out with zero subscribers and you post your first video, this can happen on day one. You can make an impact in someone else's life by the insight you share, by The tips, the educational content, the, you know, even just making someone laugh, any of that can be something that really changes things for someone else. And so I think when it comes to that, the impact, you know, I think that's the thing that every YouTuber really, when they get a comment like that where it's like, oh man, thank you so much for making this video. This was so insightful, so helpful. That's like, that's really what it's about. It's about making that impact and that change in other people's lives. In a really like palpable, direct way. So I think those are the two things when it comes to really being successful on YouTube is one, what's your goal? Is it, is it to be creative? It's to creatively express yourself. That's a great goal in itself. Let that be the goal, you know, but is it to provide freedom for yourself? I think that can be another big goal. I think that's actually a root goal of a lot of people is they look at being a YouTuber as a freedom generator. And that's, I think, is a core thing that I believe too is, you know, really a lot of people were looking for, you know, we're, we feel kind of trapped in a 9 to 5. We feel trapped in like, oh, I got to pay the bills. I have these debts. I have these things that need maintenance or time or my energy or my money. I think we can get trapped so often. I think freedom, really, a lot of people, what they want, you know, they, I mean, some people want to get rich. I don't. I want, I want freedom. That's what I want. I want freedom to spend time on my own terms and to not, you know, to not be, um, held captive basically by an employer, by someone else. That's what I want. And so YouTube is a vehicle that can do that really well. And then the impact thing is important. I think purpose is just a foundational thing about how we were created. You know, I believe that we were created with a purpose, and I believe part of that purpose was to impact and help other people. I think that's— if that's the core of it, I think you can literally put that as a thing, as YouTube is helping other people with something. And so I think if you're doing that, if you're creating that value and that impact on other people's lives, then you're a success on YouTube, even from day one.

I love that, um, value of helping other people. I think that purpose of impacting someone else's life, it's why I do it. You know, speaking of like, you know, from my point of view, I want to positively impact people's lives. And this whole thing started with not knowing how to do that. And my journey on YouTube has been to try to figure that out concisely because again, like you, like when you end up regretting things from what I've seen and my coaching side, it's you are afraid to do something for others. And so you continue the status quo, right? And so for sure, being able to take a bold chance talking about something that you feel nervous about or something that you see and is revealing about yourself, to connect with people on that, right? I think so much of the connective tissue is doing that in a way where we see each other's humanity and kind of be like, oh, that's another human. Bearing their hearts, either through entertainment or something more serious or comedy or whatnot, you know, we're naturally drawn to that. And if you are making connections and helping people along the way and making bold choices towards that, that's how I've— maybe the answer I've arrived myself for that question. But yeah, I'm surprised. Every time I meet another creator that's like, oh, I want to help people in some meaningful way. And it's just, I very rarely meet creators that are just in it for the clicks or, you know, for the fame or for money or whatnot. It's, there is a lot of heart on, on YouTube, on, in podcasting as creators. I guess wrapping up, Is there any, uh, anything else you'd like to share about creators, about YouTube, about living a life, uh, regret-free that we haven't talked about yet? Um, or a good message for folks before we share where they can follow up and find you? Yeah, sure.

I mean, I think when it— like, all the things that we've been talking about, uh, I think one of the biggest things is where it's just like, don't be afraid to just make that next movement, you know. And like, for me, with starting out with the Behemd Birders channel, I'm going to continue creating stuff for that. It's, it's possible, uh, it might turn into the Bitcoin Birders because, um, now I'm not— I will say this straight out front— I'm not crazy into Bitcoin, but it's very, very interesting to me. And I think a lot of the public narrative— there's kind of a— there's an interesting niche between people that are just like, oh, like, go get this coin before it's too late. You know, the pump and dump people, and you know, the people that are just like, oh, crypto, like, worthless, it's a Ponzi scheme, it's this, you know. It's like, I made a video, one of my favorite videos that I made was where it's like, okay, like, Bitcoin's great, but like, what can you do with it? You know, it's like, can you actually spend it? And so like, my video was like, okay, I want to try to spend Bitcoin in real life and buy something. And so it took me, I, there were some areas some businesses in the area that should have spent, like, taken Bitcoin, but they either didn't exist or once that they did, it was on the map and it wasn't. And so I was just the whole thing. I was like, okay, well, and we ended up going to Canada. I had to cross over. Cause you know, the Canadian border is only 20 minutes from our house. So it's pretty close. So crossing into Canada and I found a coffee shop. There's actually quite a few, there's many more in Vancouver than, than in our area. But I found a coffee shop that accept Bitcoin. I bought a coffee with some Bitcoin and it was one of those things where it was like, just that kind of thing. It's like, it's very interesting to me. So this channel might, it might actually get a little more specific. I think it's still going to have a range of stuff on it, but it might fall more into that because that's kind of very interesting to me. There's a lot of, I think, areas that people just don't understand fully that I think, um, I think the, I think one big thing is the benefits in countries around the world is huge and no one's really talking about that. The, the way it can help unbanked people in other countries, right? The help that it has done is huge. But apart from that, I also like talking about YouTube. I love talking about YouTube growth and the algorithm and stuff like that. So then, being a starter, I created another channel called— it's called Creator, uh, Support Group. It was— or Creator Control Group. I can't even remember, it's so new. Uh, it's called Creator Control Group, and, um, it's one where it's just basically— it's either running experiments or looking into the algorithm, or it's like growing on YouTube, that interests me. So I was like, hey, I'm interested in this. Let me try a channel that's focused. And then of course, on top of that, I'm like, well, okay, I've got a kind of an unfocused channel that might turn into this. I've got the YouTube one, but I don't know if I really want to do that as my main bread and butter. But then really, like what I had said before about, hey, how to live a regret-free life, what I kind of thought about moving my BeHem Birders one to, I was like, you know what, I think that almost deserves its own channel. And that might be the main one that really ignites me the most, I think, is just basically— I think it's, it's talking about all the stuff I talked about so far where it's like, hey, what goes into, you know, a lot of people, they get to 70, 80, or even earlier, and they're like, oh man, like they look back and they kind of regret not doing certain things or spending so much time doing other things. And I think a lot of times if we spent a little more time on that path and like what actually fulfills us earlier on, uh, we'd be in a lot better place.

We'd be heading the right direction for a much longer Well, with that, one final question. Is there anything you found insightful or anything you really loved from our discussion today?

I like to ask that question. Oh man. I mean, I just think I enjoyed just having it. I love conversing and meeting. This is the first time we've been able to talk in person. So I think just, I think people need to just remember the value of people. I think sometimes, yeah, here's what I'll say. Here's my last word, is that I think a lot of times with the divide we're feeling, especially in America, we feel this left-right divide or whatnot. Honestly, I'm someone who does— I don't take sides. I'm squarely in the middle. I'm a middle person. I feel like every person has values. I think taking that time to just hear someone You know, and to recognize that we're all humans and to, you know, show love for someone, even if they don't share the same views as you, I think is something that's so undervalued right now. I think that's the thing that's going to move us all forward into better places is remembering the humanity and the love for other people, you know.

I second that. Joseph, thank you so, so much for being on the show. This was such a joy. And I loved being able to get to know a little bit more about you and to have a kind of random but cool conversation, uh, about life and creating.

So yeah, thanks so much for having me, Shawn.

I appreciate it. That concludes our conversation with Joseph Buttner. I really enjoyed this conversation. It was really great to get to know him a bit more, having talked with him on YouTube through comments and whatnot this past year. If you would like, the links to his channels are in the show notes, so be sure to check out his channel, and I hope you see the joy and curiosity that he brings to his work. Now, if you liked this video, you might like this previous one I did with Jeremy Enns, where we talked about your creative DNA and discovering that. So check that out. Either in the show notes again or on YouTube over here. With that, we'll see you in the next episode of Creators of the Crush. This is Shawn Buttner signing off.