0:00 Yo, what was like the biggest amount of money that you took from like a sponsor and you didn't even believe in their product or whatever? >> So, this was a million dollars. But, it was not a sponsor. It was actually a brand new platform that was launching and they were signing creators at the time. >> Oh. >> Yeah, so have you guys ever heard of Vessel? >> Yes. >> I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> I remember Vessel. >> So, if you haven't heard of Vessel, this is the reason why. Cuz they went under. So, it was like Jeff Bezos and all these >> dudes coming together to compete with YouTube and then they were trying to get a lot of creators on YouTube to jump on this platform and then I was like, what's going to make it any different? But, the concept was they get um the first release before it goes on YouTube. >> Yo, yeah, this is the thing where you would shoot videos, but then you would release it on Vessel for like 3 days or a week or something like that before you
0:51 were allowed to release on YouTube. >> Yep, that was the contract. So, our first offer, it was crazy. Our first offer was I think it was like 60 Gs or something or 70 Gs for the whole year to license like a whole year's worth of videos. And then we're like, okay, if they're going to do that many videos, I think we could push back on it. So, we pushed back just a little bit like a regular thinking you might increase, I don't know, 20% maybe even 50% and out of nowhere they're like, okay, you know what? This is what we're going to do. We're going to license your whole library and however long for a million bucks. And at this time like me and Joe have never even heard of money over >> They went from a $60,000 deal to a seven-figure >> They're like, okay, okay, you you you you you ████ bargain hard. Here's a million. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. This is why they're out of business. >> So, we've never we never uh we never saw money at that scale. We're like, what the ████ I I remember reading the email
1:42 like four or five times over cuz you know like you don't want to mess up the zeros. And I'm like, am I ████ drunk right now? Like, what the ████ Cuz like it's one of those when you get a contract like that, you're like, send me the contract now cuz I don't want you to ████ think twice about it. We're we're ████ sign it. Now now owe me the money, ████ But the whole pitch is they're like, "Oh, you know how like cuz we had all these meetings going through it and since day one I always thought, man, this ████ ain't going to ████ work, dude. That's not how the internet works." So what they were trying to do is [snorts] like they're like, "Oh, you know how like in the movies like there's the whole first window opportunity. They release it into the theaters and then after like 2 weeks or 4 weeks then they we could go to like online or Blockbuster or they print it to DVD." So they're trying to like monetize every single window. I'm like, "Uh-huh, yeah." And they're like, "Well, that's what we're trying to do with the
2:32 internet. So imagine JKN, it's over here first for 7 days, blah blah blah blah blah, and then it's over here." And then in my brain I'm like, "Dude, internet people like internet people are Pornhub people. They want to jack off now. They don't give a ████ what ████ Jenna Jameson's going to do in 7 days. This ████ ain't going to ████ work and internet people are cheap people. They're just wait the 7 days and go on like why would they pay you a subscription fee if they could just watch it here?" But a million dollars is ████ crazy. So I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Yes, sire. Whatever you want." So we went through with the whole thing. It was supposed to be a super team like Jeff Bezos or someone from Amazon, someone from like HP, someone from ████ Hulu. It was like a super team. So it looked like they could not fail and the funding was like unlimited. But the whole time I was like, "This is
3:22 completely against internet culture. They don't understand what they're getting into." But who am I to turn down seven figures? And so that was our biggest deal. So it wasn't like a one-time seven-figure check. And we didn't get paid out the seven figures. That's what hurt. >> Yeah. But we got >> Did you get what percent of that did you get? >> Couple hundred thousand or something. Quite a bit though. Cuz I think it was like Yeah, it was like seven figures broken down to however many months. So every month we would get like a hundred or two hundred G check. >> Geez. >> And then they shut down though. >> So every time you see it you're like, "Oh, ████ That's crazy." >> They died before they could finish paying you out. >> Yeah. >> It's cuz they were They were just giving those things away, by the way. Like, I remember some of the parody You know, the people did s█████ music parodies? >> Yeah, yeah. >> Those guys all got a million bucks, at least. And they were just doing their s█████ parodies like a couple days earlier. But then they don't But these guys don't
4:12 understand, internet people are habitual, like Bart's saying. I remember Joe Rogan left uh YouTube for Spotify. I didn't watch him for two ████ years. Like legit. I knew I could go to Spotify to watch him, but I don't ████ do that. It's not part of my routine. >> Yeah. >> And these guys don't couldn't put it together. >> Patreon and members won that game, though, because you're not really leaving the platform for YouTube. But then like >> Patreon, it's like you have other offerings. And it's not the same content. >> No, it's not the same. >> Yeah, it's unique content or whatever, or it's special. >> But some people release first on Patreon before they do on YouTube, but it's usually like with extra ████ >> Or if they came from somewhere else. So, if you're like a stand-up comedian going into YouTube and Patreon, I think it's different. It's a different model. Versus if you're considered one of the OG YouTubers, and they have a habit with you on YouTube, now you do things differently. It's like viewed way differently.
5:02 >> It was just a different time, too. People weren't consuming like that online. >> They'll just find something else, man. >> But I was like Like, you know, for us, we had a team of like 20 or 30 people, so we spread checks all around. But when it was When I was like, "Damn, when you have those at home by yourself beauty vloggers or whatever," I'm like, "F███." They were just crushing. People with zero team, that was crazy. >> Michelle Phan, Andrew's choice. >> Yeah. >> Just murdering. >> Yeah. >> But >> Michelle Phan probably got like a $10 million or something. >> But that was the biggest thing where I was like I didn't believe in, but can't say no, no matter what. >> Yeah, I believe in money, for sure. >> And who am I? Who am I to doubt these geniuses, these CEOs, these execs? Who am I? Like, who am I such a lowly servant? Like, who am I to doubt these guys? >> Bro, you are already willing to do it for 60 grand.
5:53 >> They weren't asking you to like advertise them on your normal channel or anything, right? >> There might be like little stuff like that. Like, "Hey, you can watch this first 7 days earlier or whatever." And then like, yeah, the whole workflow wasn't that much different. It was just like, "Hey, what's up? Editors, let's just get things a little bit faster, 7 days earlier. We're going to put it here and then we're going to upload it here." And everyone's like on board. This is Yeah, this is when we still had the everyone was working out of the Monterey Park office. So, we'd have like our editors meeting all the time. So, it was so easy to do that we're like, "What the ████ No way. That's it?" >> Yeah. >> Crazy. >> Is it that deal that got you guys where you're like, "All right, we're just going to elevate. We're going to go into the downtown LA office and get a bigger spot and build the the set studio and all that." Was that that the deal? >> We were able to grow the team and pay people better. >> Yeah. >> For sure. >> To scale JK News cuz before we only I think maybe upload like once or twice a
6:43 week before we became like like 100, 200 videos a month. So, we that helped us scale, for sure. >> We only had a handful of editors, but then once that happened, we had like 10. >> Yeah. Cuz it was like it was more like JK Films and then JK Party was behind the scenes back then. And then so, we do have like a team of like two or three editors. And then the spare time we're like, "Let's experiment with JK News." So, whoever had like leftover time, they would experiment with JK News. And then as we scaled, then we were able to have like 10 dedicated JK News editors. From all of that. >> Like, Ask the Feels, we had JK Gamer, we had so many channels. >> And then your individual channels. >> Yeah, we had our vlogs, but that was later. We did the vlogs way later, yeah. >> At least this brand wasn't like, I guess like something that went against your personal values. It's just another platform. >> Yeah, it wasn't like ████ crack cocaine or something. I would have to
7:33 promote that. >> [laughter] >> Looking back though, we were pretty stupid about like a we refused a lot of deals cuz we had like this idea of what honor was. But also, I remember thinking like we'll never do um certain things like alcohol and and all that. And >> Better help. >> like tobacco. Yeah, and then I was like, that's so stupid. We should have took everything. What are we doing? [laughter] >> Yeah, like nobody really cared at the time anyway. Yeah. >> damn. Yeah. >> Back then, less people probably cared. >> Yeah. >> Probably be more cool now if I saw old tobacco ad of yours. >> I was a smoker saying that I won't do any tobacco product. >> [laughter] >> That's >> Dude, I was the opposite. I remember doing um I used to hate these guys who did the anti-smoking campaigns. I still do. I think those guys are like preachy as ████ And they would do these corny
8:24 commercials about like what smoking does to you or whatever. And I'm like, I'm like, this ████ is so corny to me. Like, let people smoke if they want to ████ smoke. Leave them alone. And then those guys came to me and they're like, we'll give you 15 Gs to do to like incorporate us into one of your videos. And I'm like, sign me up. Let's ████ go, boys. >> Hell yeah. >> Like, you know what I mean? [laughter] Like, it just immediately you grow up. >> Yeah, of course. >> You're like, why why did I care about that again? >> Well, that's like if everyone could be put to that test, you'd have a whole different world. >> Oh, yeah. >> Dude, we we got one of our first really big gigs was for an anti-smoking campaign thing. It's like 2015. >> Why do they got so much money? What the ████ >> I don't know. >> It's cuz of the the I think the taxes on cigarettes. Part of it goes to them. >> To battle themselves? >> That actually makes a lot of sense. >> To market against themselves? >> But uh I remember we get this gig and then there's this like freestyle section after like the speaking panel or
9:14 whatever and it's like in Long Beach or whatever during this time. And the only guy who was available uh during that particular time that we could send down there was a smoker. It was JD. And he he would he smoked cigarettes all the time. But he was But he was the only guy that we were like, oh, this this guy's available. He can like for sure do this. He'll he'll kill the freestyle and stuff, too. It'll look really dope. And his career he has a charisma enough to speak on blah blah The only thing is that he does smoke cigarettes, but I mean obviously he's not going to smoke that day. >> [laughter] >> After that event. >> Are you sure he didn't have a smoke break while in the middle of a dance? >> Dude, that's just so funny, but it's like >> Is he Korean? >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. >> But I mean he was also adopted in Colorado, so his last name is McElroy. >> Yeah. >> What if that was a psyop of the no smoking nonprofit is to make it so ████ lame that everyone goes, "I'm a smoke, man. I don't want to be like these guys." >> [laughter] >> Seriously. >> Like if you have a guy that's like
10:04 >> That's funny, dude. >> Don't smoke. YOU'RE LIKE, "F███ YOU, DUDE." >> [laughter] >> WELL, THOSE are the people that were telling you not to have sex or like dorks and ████ >> Abstinence is cool. >> Yeah. Virginity is cool. >> Abstinence was backfired so hard. >> Dude, the right wing culture now of like hey, we need to everybody have kids. Everybody like make make babies or or else or whatever. And it's just like you guys are so ████ corny now. >> They really don't do cool well. >> No. >> No, conservatives are not cool. >> Yeah, they're not cool. >> Liberals are way ████ cooler. >> a monopoly. >> They're way ████ cooler, man. >> Yeah. >> They've always just been closer to culture, I think. >> Yeah. >> And conservatives are always like, "Ew, culture. Uh." >> [laughter] >> But lib- libs are cooler until they get pissed off. Conservatives are whack until they get pissed off. >> Yeah, that's true. That's true. >> [laughter]
10:54 >> Isn't that kind of funny? >> It is funny. >> Like one side gets a tantrum and the other side will actually like ████ you up. >> Yeah. >> There's this guy you guys seen Benny Johnson? >> I don't think so. >> He's a hardcore right-wing guy. He posts like every single day just pictures of his kids and he's like, "Have babies. Like it's the best thing you'll ever." And it's just like so corny now. It's like, "Dude, you >> Makes you not want to even if you did. >> It just seems like he's a gay guy who's pretending not to be gay. >> [laughter] >> LOOK, I'M NOT GAY. I HAVE CHILDREN. >> YEAH, it's like, "Okay." >> Would a gay guy ████ a girl? >> Right. It's like just show us cool stuff with your kids and we'll do that math. We'll do the math, dude. >> need the preachy ████ >> I know. You don't have to tell us that word for word. Yeah, that's whack. >> We don't need a virgin coming out going, "Hey guys, I never had sex." And we're like, "REALLY? >> DUDE. >> LOOK AT HOW GREAT MY LIFE IS. I PLAY CHESS WITH MY FRIENDS." >> Don't you think more people actually do
11:45 need that though than not? >> What they need is a ████ ████ guzzler >> It's anti >> going, "Hey guys, you should have more sex. You could be like me." And everyone's like, "Oh, ████ no. ████ ████ ████ no. Hell no. I don't want to be that." >> Somebody lame needs to say it, but ████ guzzlers aren't lame. They're cool. >> They actually are pretty cool. >> Right. ████ guzzlers aren't lame. >> Like Charlie Kirk was always saying, "Don't have sex until you're married." And everyone's like, "Whatever." >> [laughter] >> You know what? It doesn't work. >> They just They should just do like like satirical stuff for that. They should have Lisa Ann tell you not to have sex. >> Exactly. >> Till you're married. >> [laughter] >> And then everyone could just call her a ████ in the comments. This hip You're a hypocrite. This is hypocrisy, you ████ >> Like yeah. >> No, they need to get someone that's like a fentanyl dude from downtown LA going, "I ████ a lot. You need to ████ more." >> And then everyone's [laughter] like, "Uh, that's what I'm going to turn into? I don't want to do that."
12:36 >> That's the thing cuz if you get those guys who don't have teeth and they're going like, "Don't do drugs. You'll end up like me." Everyone's like, "I don't believe you." You know what I mean? >> Yeah, like I ain't going to be down that bad. >> I'm not one to one like you, brother. Like >> Yeah, exactly. >> It has to be reverse psychology where he goes, "You know how good crack is? It's so good." And then we're like, "Oh, I ain't touching that. I'mma be like you." >> Yep. Yep. >> Yeah, that's true. Like it's like back in the '90s when they're like, "Don't join gangs, okay? Don't join gangs." The ████ coolest guys are gangsters. >> You have a gangster with no legs. You just [laughter] have a bullet wound and you're like, "Hey, you want to be a gangster?" >> Or just show me a gay gang. >> Yeah, that's true. [laughter] Like my uncle >> "Okay. F███." >> Like my uncle showed me a a mafia dude with a gay scene and he goes, "So, you still want to be a gangster?" >> [laughter] >> That's why he quit. >> That's right. The Yakuza gay sex scene? >> [laughter]
13:26 >> Didn't somebody find that clip? >> Yeah, I found the actually. >> And they sent it in the comments. >> And the And the trailer shows nudity. >> Yeah, it's crazy [laughter] on YouTube. >> We're like, what the heck? >> I also remember like, remember this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, and they crack an egg? I just remember that made me hungry and I wanted eggs.
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