How iJustine Got Started on YouTube, Her Multiple Income Streams, & Staying Motivated as a Creator

Announcer (00:01):
Are you an entrepreneur, creative Pro, or in a transition to becoming one? Welcome to the Create Something Awesome Today podcast, where it's all about enabling you to develop the skills and mindset, encouraging success and helping you to thrive with everything you do, and of course, helping you create something awesome today. And now your host, creative entrepreneur and founder of Awesome Creator Academy, Roberto Blake.

Roberto Blake (00:27):
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake helping you create something awesome today [00:00:30] with the amazing one and only I. Justine.

Justine Ezarik (00:32):
Hello. Thanks for having me.

Roberto Blake (00:34):
No, thank you so much for inviting me to Camera Camp and for doing this interview.

Justine Ezarik (00:37):
Of course.

Roberto Blake (00:37):
So Justine, you've been an OG creator pretty much since the beginning of YouTube, even probably even somewhat before YouTube, just like early internet. How did your creator journey start? I found you through an absurdly expensive long phone bill once upon time on the internet. Oh, yes. How your internet journey start?

Justine Ezarik (00:56):
Yeah, I mean that was super early on, so I feel like in the beginning, I mean there was [00:01:00] very early just various websites, I was kind of joining everything. I just kind of had this feeling that I didn't belong, I guess, to any sort of groups in school. I didn't really have friends that liked the same things that I liked. So when I discovered the internet probably around sixth grade, I was like, oh my gosh, there's a whole people that like Apple computers

Justine (01:19):
And

Justine Ezarik (01:20):
That technology. So it really started, I guess probably at a very early age.

Roberto Blake (01:25):
Yeah, no, that's about roughly the time I got into the internet. We probably from that generation of a OL 5.0.

Justine Ezarik (01:30):
[00:01:30] Oh yeah, definitely.

Roberto Blake (01:32):
Yeah, no, so interesting. What made you decide to start doing YouTube videos?

Justine Ezarik (01:37):
I don't know if there's anything specifically. I think it was just because I was making video content and I was posting it everywhere. So YouTube was just kind of another platform.

Roberto Blake (01:45):
And you were posting videos before YouTube existed? Just like me back in the day.

Justine Ezarik (01:48):
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And then I was posting it on MySpace, it was on Yahoo, it was on this website, rev, which was one of the first places I remember. Rev. Yeah, they still owe me $20. That's cool. I'm clearly over it. [00:02:00] But yeah, I was just posting content everywhere. I don't really know why I just was doing it to test these websites. There was also a very early website called Jump Cut, which then got acquired by Yahoo.

Roberto Blake (02:10):
I remember this.

Justine Ezarik (02:11):
Yeah, so it's also kind of exciting that same team is actually working on something now. Again. Very cool. And I'm working with them also on

Roberto Blake (02:19):
It. Nothing you can reveal, no exclusive

Justine Ezarik (02:21):
Kind of, I don't know how much they want me to say yet, but it is just cool to see something that was there when I started and now they're going to try to revolutionize the way that we create [00:02:30] videos now. Pretty

Roberto Blake (02:31):
Cool. No, that's very interesting. That is very cool. So you've worked with some of the biggest brands in the entire world, whether that's Yahoo, Microsoft, Sony. How does that happen? What can you tell us, reveal your secrets? How does that actually happen, those partnerships?

Justine Ezarik (02:47):
Yeah, I mean I do have an agency now that I work with. I do have a manager, but before that it was a lot of creators. We have an email address, like a business account, and people would just contact you through there and then you would kind of vet [00:03:00] it and be like, is this serious? Are you going to kidnap me? Is this real? I don't know what's happening. So it's kind of just a lot of trial and error too because you don't know who's real, who's legit, and it's a lot of research, especially

Roberto Blake (03:11):
Early on.

Justine Ezarik (03:11):
Definitely. Yeah. So I'm grateful to definitely have a team that does at least a lot of that kind of stuff for me now that sort of vets it. But I still get emails in my inbox. I meet people randomly and it's like, Hey, we should connect, and then we kind of figure things out. So it also I think is a lot of brand loyalty as well, or trust [00:03:30] as well is huge because it's a lot of brands know that they can trust me to create a piece of content that I'm not going to have a scandal

Roberto Blake (03:39):
Next week that you're going to represent them well, you're going to be a good ambassador and everything like that. And you've done a great job of really keeping your brand clean and avoiding inserting yourself into any controversy. And I think that you're a creator that everybody could be proud of. I think that nobody is going to have their kids tune into you and then regret it five years later.

Justine Ezarik (04:00):
[00:04:00] I mean, unless they watch some of my old Call of Duty video games, I was raging. But other than that, I have removed them since

Roberto Blake (04:08):
As a gamer does though.

Justine Ezarik (04:10):
I mean, if you play

Roberto Blake (04:12):
Play, it's like, no, my Xbox lobby days are lost to the sea of time forgiven and forgotten as they say. How does a creator do early in your early days of content creation or even before you got management, even when you're doing it yourself, what are some [00:04:30] of the things you did to vet brands and relationships?

Justine Ezarik (04:33):
I mean, at the time, I didn't really know what I was doing. So I think it's any new creators you just kind of take a chance. There was definitely some brands that I worked with that I never actually got paid or a lot of those types of things, but it's kind of the nature of that sort of thing. You get screwed over and you're like, I won't do that

Roberto Blake (04:49):
Again. I've even experienced that. Yeah, yeah. It's not getting paid is just, that's one of the worst things and everything now people have all these situations Linus with potentially [00:05:00] getting hacked,

Justine Ezarik (05:01):
Which was wild. I know there was one company that we had worked with that they ended up going bankrupt. So then it's like we posted those videos years ago and now they legally don't have to pay us because of the bankruptcy. So it's just kind of one of those things and you learn as you go and we all make mistakes and then it's like great. It is. People are always like, well, what's the biggest thing you regret? I'm like, oh my gosh. Well, I could go on and on, but if I didn't make that mistake, then I wouldn't have done this thing. So it all,

Roberto Blake (05:27):
There are lessons that build the success that you get to enjoy.

Justine Ezarik (05:29):
Exactly.

Roberto Blake (05:30):
[00:05:30] No, I appreciate that answer. That's actually really solid. We talked a little bit about the past. Do you have any favorite videos from the past that you always think of nostalgically or fondly or that you go back to?

Justine Ezarik (05:44):
I'm cautious. It's weird because I feel like I've had so many different phases

Roberto Blake (05:46):
You have,

Justine Ezarik (05:47):
Which is so random. And today we did a session with Renee Richie who was talking about keeping your channel consistent so that your viewers know what they're going to get. They don't know what going to post next. They know I'm probably going to post [00:06:00] a tech video, but that's not guaranteed. Maybe I might do a cooking video. Maybe I'm into snowboarding now. Oh, I think I'm going to skateboard this day. You know what? Maybe I'm going to start talking about that. I love jujitsu, so it's like no one knows what my channel is about.

Roberto Blake (06:12):
What's about you? It's about the journey of I Justine, you're one of the few creators who may have earned the right to a personality brand and a personality channel, and I mean that sincerely. And the fact that regardless of what you do, we do know what to expect. We know that this will be something that's filmed in a very high quality, with the same level of energy [00:06:30] and enthusiasm you bring to every aspect of your life. We know that we're going to get a fun, earnest, sincere video from a creator that we like. So there is continuity in your channel.

Justine Ezarik (06:41):
Thank you. Well, that's good. That's good. That makes you feel better. I

Roberto Blake (06:42):
Was continuity more than consistency, and I think those two things get confused,

Justine Ezarik (06:45):
Right?

Roberto Blake (06:45):
So yeah, I mean there are things that just are the I Justine experience.

Justine Ezarik (06:51):
That is true. Yes, I get it though. That actually makes sense. That actually makes me feel better because all this time I'm just like,

Roberto Blake (06:55):
I try

Justine Ezarik (06:55):
Man, I just don't have, I'm not consistent in my uploads. But I guess [00:07:00] when you put it that way, then yes, maybe there is.

Roberto Blake (07:02):
Yeah, absolutely. And I am not just saying that to be flattering. I'm saying that that's a teachable moment to the rest of you that

Justine Ezarik (07:08):
For sure

Roberto Blake (07:09):
Consistency. I talk about it all the time when I try to help or coach or teach creators, but there's something to be said for continuity. Things that are like this is consistent to you regardless of what else you're doing.

Justine Ezarik (07:19):
True. That's very, very true.

Roberto Blake (07:21):
With that in mind, if you were starting a YouTube channel as a rookie today, if you were starting as a rookie today, what would that look like? I

Justine Ezarik (07:28):
Don't know. That thought is actually [00:07:30] really exciting because at this point I've gone through so many branding changes, this and that, just to go back, which I've actually thought about kind of doing this sort of at that point where it's not that I'm bored, but it's like I need to do something different,

Roberto Blake (07:42):
New challenge, new novelty, variety,

Justine Ezarik (07:44):
Because getting comfortable is very dangerous. That is the biggest lesson that I've ever learned. So I feel like I would probably start and just kind of think of the aesthetic that I would want and just kind of start with custom thumbnails, [00:08:00] making sure everything's consistent right now. I mean, they're sort of consistent, but when you go back through the years, they obviously are very different. So I think just being able to have a consistency would be such a great feeling.

Roberto Blake (08:10):
And I care a lot about brand aesthetic and those things because we started as graphic designers, both you and I started our background roughly around the same age as graphic designers. And so I also think that's a real advantage when you're starting a channel or even starting YouTube, is if you do think about branding consistent, the aesthetic, you have something that visually people [00:08:30] start to associate with you and then it makes your stuff easier to click on, easier to find and stand out in the sea of videos on the homepage

Justine Ezarik (08:36):
When

Roberto Blake (08:37):
They're scrolling. It's something that, oh, I can stop a familiar face and a familiar design or font or color and oh, that's my creator, and then you click. So I like that answer a lot, and I think that is a good place for a lot of people to start is start with dressing to impress, start with the look,

Justine Ezarik (08:53):
And then also don't think too much about it too, because you're going to learn over the course of your career [00:09:00] of what works and what doesn't

Roberto Blake (09:01):
Work and what you

Justine Ezarik (09:02):
Like, but just having that clean, fresh start and have that sense of aesthetic that you're going for, I think really will help.

Roberto Blake (09:09):
No, I couldn't agree more. I mean, I think that's really powerful and I think that's a really good tip. So everyone take notes there. What would you say is one of the biggest challenges you've had as a creator in your career?

Justine Ezarik (09:21):
I think it's definitely mean, obviously, to keep going because having done this for 17 years, which is wild to think about, there's people watching my channel that [00:09:30] aren't even 17 years old. I think it's, it is reinventing yourself. And like I said, I'm kind of at that point where I'm like, I want to do something different,

Justine (09:39):
But

Justine Ezarik (09:39):
Something that's not too different that my audience would be jarred by, but yet something that's, I don't know. I feel like I think all of us are having that same problem, especially with tech. It's how

Roberto Blake (09:50):
And TechCon is so good. Yeah,

Justine Ezarik (09:52):
It is. But it's like how many times can I review a phone that only has a few incremental updates? And I'm not talking about the iPhone, obviously I love [00:10:00] it. I will find a way to do it, but it's like even that though, I'm making the same video over and over again

Roberto Blake (10:06):
Year after year,

Justine Ezarik (10:07):
Just kind of with, well, sometimes I'm actually wearing the same shirt. There have been times, I think, I don't remember what video it was, it was for one of the new MacBooks that came out as I was filming this video with my friend who was at the last one. I looked down and I was like, I think I'm wearing the same shirt as the last video. And I was, see, you are consistent. I know. So it's [00:10:30] just one of those things I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm wearing the same shirt, doing the same video just with an upgrade. So it's like how do we keep that entertaining? And I think that's a question for all of the tech creators is how do we make this different?

Roberto Blake (10:41):
I think you also have to keep it entertaining for yourself to some degree to be able to make sure that you're not just going through the motions. And I think that's difficult. I think that something that I think helps creators is when they can start to challenge themselves maybe in the way they approach their content, where you said it's not jarring for the audience, but [00:11:00] there's also something they may not expect from you, but they're surprised and delighted by with that in mind. Okay, you've had this long career, 17 years, a long time to do anything, let alone be a creator. Over those years, how has your family dealt with your success, your notoriety, and just the fact that you took a different path in life?

Justine Ezarik (11:20):
Yeah, I mean, they think it's great. I mean, obviously my parents were worried at the beginning, well, we sure hope that she's able to survive. And I don't think really ever told them the hardships at the beginning. [00:11:30] I didn't want them to worry,

Roberto Blake (11:31):
Oh, no one wants to worry their parents.

Justine Ezarik (11:32):
Yeah. It's like I'm trying to prove I can do it. I can move out here and everything's going to be fine. But I think in that same vein now, it's like we're on family vacation and I'm shooting an iPhone review or I have to edit or I'm editing at the dinner table or things like that. So it's kind of just like, right. But for them it's exciting because if I had a traditional job, I might not be able to get off time to go do these things [00:12:00] randomly so I can take all of my work with me. Yeah. It's like always, man, I'm like, why did we have to plan this trip

Roberto Blake (12:08):
Around release launch SI was like,

Justine Ezarik (12:10):
Shoot, because that would be the only time that our other sister who has a traditional job was able to take off work. And I'm like, man, this is iPhone week. I'm stressed.

Roberto Blake (12:17):
That's Bree, right?

Justine Ezarik (12:18):
Yes. Yeah.

Roberto Blake (12:20):
Yeah, absolutely. That's cool. What still excites you or excites you the most about being a creator after all these years?

Justine Ezarik (12:26):
That we can do anything, and that's so empowering. [00:12:30] I mean, I am not doing anything super crazy, but just to know that if tomorrow I had a wild idea, I can go do it. But even just taking the example of I started a new hobby, I wanted to start snowboarding. I made that into a video. Insta 360 sponsored my first video, which was great because then I was able to buy my snowboard buy gear.

Roberto Blake (12:48):
That's a perfect experience to showcase that because that's who the customer Perfect. Who the customer would

Justine Ezarik (12:52):
Be action sports.

Roberto Blake (12:54):
Exactly. Which

Justine Ezarik (12:54):
I have been reviewing all of these 360 cameras for since

Roberto Blake (12:58):
Basically the beginning. I seen it. Yours are the ones you [00:13:00] and Sarah's are the ones that I typically watch.

Justine Ezarik (13:03):
And so now it's the first time I was actually able to show it in a sense that this is a great use case. So it was really, really fun

Roberto Blake (13:10):
And pretty accessible. I mean, there is a huge community for people who do snowboarding and skiing and everything like that. Even if they only do it once a year on vacation,

Justine Ezarik (13:16):
Right?

Roberto Blake (13:17):
Yeah.

Justine Ezarik (13:17):
This is the perfect camera for it.

Roberto Blake (13:18):
That's perfect. And there's so many other action sports things that then applies to, so no, it is a match may in heaven on that type of video. That's just brilliant. And it is exciting to be able to just take things you enjoy [00:13:30] doing and being able to incorporate them and say, oh, well, I can make a video about that now. A brand will sponsor it. It's going to be paid and I'm also going to have a good time.

Justine Ezarik (13:37):
Yeah, exactly. It's very

Roberto Blake (13:37):
Cool. A while back, you were very open on social media about a health issue that you had. It's actually the reason why I have an aura ring today and why I'm repairing my Apple watch. My Apple watch would be on me, but it's like repair. So my Fitbit instead nice. But I've been taking my health a lot more seriously. [00:14:00] Could you talk a little bit about what that issue was, if you don't mind? What made you decide to open up to your audience and to the world at large about it?

Justine Ezarik (14:08):
So I got a blood clot and the actual diagnosis, it happened in my shoulder, and it was something called thoracic outlet syndrome where there's not enough space between your ribs to let either the artery, the vein or the nerve passageway. And so mine happened to be the vein. So that pressure from, unfortunately, a lot of the martial arts [00:14:30] stuff that I was doing, lightsaber and sword training, that rotation kept putting pressure on that. So then that formed the blood clot. And it was weird because it's like all the doctors are like, you're so young, you're so healthy. I'm like, well,

Roberto Blake (14:43):
Yeah, no blood clot. Start thinking like sixties

Justine Ezarik (14:46):
Older people. But what I had found out through my research and posting about it was that it actually happens to a high percentage of women, women who are pregnant, women, not necessarily women, anyone who has the ability [00:15:00] to get pregnant or is on birth control and things like that. It increases the chances. So mine specifically was anatomical, but just having that happen and doing more research, I was then the thrombosis advocate for the past year, which was such a random thing. I never would've thought that that was something that I would've been, but being able to bring awareness and also learning more about other people and what procedures they went through and their experience was super helpful for me as well.

Roberto Blake (15:29):
And you probably learned a lot [00:15:30] about things, just the healthcare system in general and just because as a super healthy active person, there's just probably things you just never had to deal with.

Justine Ezarik (15:39):
I mean, I never went to the hospital. I mean, I would still go to the doctors for regular checkups and things like that, but never had a hospital stay really, I mean ever other than getting my wisdom teeth out, which was going to the dentist, me

Roberto Blake (15:52):
Dentist, car accidents, that's about it.

Justine Ezarik (15:55):
So it was for five days I was in the hospital. Three of those was in the ICU. And it was just, [00:16:00] I mean, I thankfully did have a very positive experience. Everyone was super helpful. But then it's like the medical bills come. I'm grateful that my mother always told me, even if you have no money, you must have health insurance.

Justine (16:14):
That

Justine Ezarik (16:14):
Is something that was just ingrained into and thank God, or I would've owed millions of dollars in medical bills,

Roberto Blake (16:22):
Which

Justine Ezarik (16:22):
Is wild.

Roberto Blake (16:23):
That is wild. And everything like that. I mean, that's why it's very interesting with creators like you sharing your story, things we've seen, like Mr. [00:16:30] Beast, for example, what he did for people with cataract surgery,

Justine (16:32):
You

Roberto Blake (16:33):
Actually paid for my mother's cataract surgery. Thank God for being a creator, being able to financially afford that stuff. But a lot of people, they can't afford these things when they happen to them. And we've worked ourselves into a position to where even in the worst case scenario, we still are human. We will experience, unfortunately, some of these things, we have a way to deal with it, but most people don't have any ideas. So the fact that creators like yourself share things that happen [00:17:00] to them or even other people with what Jimmy's been doing, I think it's just interesting that people don't realize what creators have the opportunity to do with their platform that exists outside of their content.

Justine Ezarik (17:11):
Right. And it's just bringing that awareness too. I mean, I put off going to the hospital for a few days. I had work to do,

Roberto Blake (17:19):
And

Justine Ezarik (17:19):
That's so crazy to think and now, but

Roberto Blake (17:22):
That's also a normal person thing too.

Justine Ezarik (17:24):
Exactly. I'm like, well, maybe it'll go away. Maybe my arm will feel a little bit better. But then once I went to the urgent care, she looked at [00:17:30] it, she was like, you need to get to the emergency room immediately. And I'm like, oh, okay. Well, I guess this is a thing. And never in my wildest just dreams would I've ever thought that I would've been there for five days and it would've been so severe because blood clots, for anyone that doesn't know it can be very detrimental because it could break off, it could go to your lungs, it could go to your heart, and it can go to your

Roberto Blake (17:51):
Brain cause

Justine Ezarik (17:52):
A stroke and you can have a stroke and it's really scary. So it's definitely look up the symptoms and just [00:18:00] become a little bit more familiar with it.

Roberto Blake (18:02):
Yeah. Well, I mean it was super brave of you it to share that. Speaking of issues and dealing with things and everything like that. And I promise we'll get more lighthearted after

Justine Ezarik (18:10):
This. That's okay.

Roberto Blake (18:11):
How do you deal with burnout?

Justine Ezarik (18:13):
I mean, it's hard because now I'm able to kind of spot the signs and I know that I'm going to be burned out. And obviously it's more of those things too is as you're getting older, I don't have the energy that I used to. I have to go to bed early. I've going through that, it's tough. And [00:18:30] thinking about my younger self, I could stay up all night, edit, wake up in the morning, ready to go. I'm like, oh, I got to go to bed. It's 10. It's past my bedtime.

Roberto Blake (18:39):
Me probably could literally go three days without sleep,

Justine Ezarik (18:41):
Right?

Roberto Blake (18:42):
19-year-old me could just three days just power through,

Justine Ezarik (18:46):
Which is still terrible for you, but you terrible could still survive terrible.

Roberto Blake (18:49):
But for me, I think that's just being hyperactive. Being a hyperactive 19-year-old, I was that kind of kid. I was that kind of kid that would literally probably try to stay up for 24 hours just to do it. I

Justine Ezarik (19:00):
[00:19:00] Mean, I guess now I really do try to have weekends and try to, I mean, I try to, there's sometimes it doesn't happen. And then sometimes maybe I'll have a weekend in the middle of the week,

Roberto Blake (19:10):
Little staycation,

Justine Ezarik (19:11):
Right? And then I guess this is such a bad habit, and it's just at this point, I feel like this is who I am as a person. I will just work really hard for either several weeks and then I will do nothing for a week. And then all of the stuff that I should be doing that week just builds up, builds up, builds up, [00:19:30] builds up, and then we just do it all

Roberto Blake (19:31):
Again. I think you'd be surprised how normal that is for a lot of people, a lot of career people. Because the thing about a very traditional entry level job, let's say, there's very clear boundaries. And the thing is, even if, oh, maybe you work a little bit extra over time, there's a very finite limit to how much more work can be done or that they can get out of you. But then when you move into your more career or maybe more white collar stuff or technical or what have [00:20:00] you, there is no really upper limit to what the work can produce. So it's harder to set boundaries or to not try to get ahead

Justine Ezarik (20:08):
Or

Roberto Blake (20:09):
Something like that. So I mean, I would say it's pretty

Justine Ezarik (20:10):
Normal. And when I say do nothing, but it's like I'm still doing emails. I'll still do calls, but it's that main workload. I'm like, we're just going to put that off until I'm back on the grind again.

Roberto Blake (20:19):
Yeah, no, I hear you. And everyone's just got to figure that out for

Justine Ezarik (20:23):
Themselves. I know. I think I may try a little experiment and start scheduling things like what is going to happen if I actually work [00:20:30] a set number of hours? We'll see, it's not going to work for me. I already know it,

Roberto Blake (20:33):
But you might get close. But the thing is you might get close, which means it might get incrementally better, just like tech. It's true. So you've said in the past that in your analytics, your main demographic seems to be young women and girls. What do you hope that they take away from watching you?

Justine Ezarik (20:50):
I think it's just being yourself. Just from the very beginning, I've just like, this is it. Some people tell me I'm too excited. I'm like, well, I'm so [00:21:00] sorry.

Roberto Blake (21:01):
Oh God, the

Justine Ezarik (21:02):
Worst. I'm so sorry. The

Roberto Blake (21:03):
Worst thing to say about someone in the world ever.

Justine Ezarik (21:07):
And I think I never really had other females to look up to that were in tech until a little bit later on, which was so great. And there's a woman, Amber Mack, who was a huge fan of back in the day. And so just seeing everything that she has done and kind of paved the way for a lot of women is great. And I just think that I want other girls that want to code, want to play video games or into tech editing, whatever [00:21:30] it is that may predominantly be male dominated. I'd be like, that's

Roberto Blake (21:34):
Funny. Yeah, my sisters were like that growing up and everything like that. I don't have daughters. I don't necessarily believe in role models, but if I had daughters, I'd be perfectly happy with them watching your content. I would definitely hope that they watch your content to become fans of yours, because I would know that they have a good example. I'd know that they have someone that I'm not stressing about what's going to happen or are they going to be a bad example, or are they going to tell them something that contradicts what I believe. I don't have. I wouldn't [00:22:00] to think about that. And so I think it's wonderful that there are so many creators you that people and parents can put their trust in to know that, Hey, my kid is safe with you, and it's not going to go sideways.

Justine Ezarik (22:12):
I've seen some things that is on the YouTube kids app from my niece. She's like three and a half now, and so I don't want to bash other creators, but some of it is like, I'm like, she should not be watching this. It's a lot of mindless nonsense.

Roberto Blake (22:28):
Oh, believe me, I

Justine Ezarik (22:29):
Know. Which [00:22:30] I'm like, I feel like there's so much other content that could be surfaced. There's a place in time for that, but that's just a consistent stream

Roberto Blake (22:36):
I've considered. If I have children literally moving to an island that I would have to conquer eliminating all access to the internet from it entirely and just squatting there until they're 18, and then trying not to burn down the rest of the world.

Justine Ezarik (22:52):
I mean, I just wish that there was something educational in between the nonsense that she's watching, but she loves it. And watching her watch, it kind [00:23:00] of makes me understand what people are doing and what kids are watching

Roberto Blake (23:05):
And how it's going to progress. And so I wish we had more investment in meaningful education content. We grew up on PBS kids and stuff like that, and it was great.

Justine Ezarik (23:18):
Sesame Street and all those types of

Roberto Blake (23:19):
Things, but also stuff even in between that, that didn't talk down to us. Stuff like Wishbone, for example. I missed that show. That was so great. Things like that. Things like the storyteller

Justine (23:28):
That

Roberto Blake (23:28):
Treated young people. [00:23:30] They are just young people, intelligent, thoughtful, curious, excitable, and capable of learning and growing.

Justine Ezarik (23:37):
It's like a lot of this is just people my age running around with fake dolls, yelling and just screaming and doing weird. I'm like, I was like, why is she watching this? There's so much other things that she could be doing, which then made me think, do I need to start a kids channel that is doing some sort of educational stuff focused towards kids? So that was

Roberto Blake (23:56):
Maybe in the future, or maybe that's a partnership, or maybe that's a company that you build [00:24:00] that does that.

Justine Ezarik (24:00):
Yeah, I just feel like there's so much more that you could be teaching kids

Roberto Blake (24:03):
In

Justine Ezarik (24:04):
That same way that they're enjoying it, but I don't know.

Roberto Blake (24:09):
You ever decide to build the next PBS kids and give a boy a call? It's like,

Justine Ezarik (24:15):
Maybe that'll be a retirement plan.

Roberto Blake (24:17):
That's our retirement plan. Maybe that's our retirement next stage of our creator life and everything from the old folks home, the retired YouTubers

Justine Ezarik (24:23):
Home, right? Yep. Yep. Come visit us making content for children.

Roberto Blake (24:26):
Yeah, it's like, yeah, we'll sit on the porch and drink lemonade [00:24:30] and wax poetically about our careers. Right. So recently you actually did a partnership with Condor Blue.

Justine Ezarik (24:36):
Yes.

Roberto Blake (24:37):
And everything like that. We actually see the porch

Justine Ezarik (24:38):
Right over there. There they are.

Roberto Blake (24:39):
And you got to do your own cables and wires, and this is really dope. And you're one of the faces of the brand Now. How does a partnership like that happen?

Justine Ezarik (24:49):
That was super random because I had been working with Armando, who worked a lot with Lucas from Condor Blue, and then they were just like, I was joking around our friend

Roberto Blake (24:56):
Armando,

Justine Ezarik (24:56):
And I was like, man, it'd be so cool if we made pink cables. And they're like, [00:25:00] well, we could do that. And they're like, what color pink do you want? And I kind of sent a color pink. That was my favorite. And then,

Roberto Blake (25:05):
Yeah, it's your hot pink. Your signature hot

Justine Ezarik (25:07):
Pink. Yeah. Do you

Roberto Blake (25:08):
Know the hex value for your

Justine Ezarik (25:10):
Pink? So this used to be my favorite color was FFF one CAE. That used to be my favorite. I'm not sure the hex on this one, but it's probably pretty similar.

Roberto Blake (25:18):
See, that's how you're a graphic

Justine Ezarik (25:19):
Designer. I know. I even bought, I think the domain for it. I was obsessed for a while. But yeah, no, it is been super fun. And it's interesting because everyone, some people were [00:25:30] like, well, can you make another color? I'm like, that's not the point. The point was, we want, well, I mean, I wanted pink cables and there definitely is a niche market for it, but I also liked it because people aren't going to steal your cable unless they have the same one

Roberto Blake (25:45):
Because

Justine Ezarik (25:45):
It's very identifiable. I also love that they're super high quality, and it's been so much fun. I really don't ever have merch, which is

Roberto Blake (25:54):
I've noticed that.

Justine Ezarik (25:54):
I know. I know. It's probably my biggest downfall, but every time I start doing merch samples, [00:26:00] I get a bunch of stuff and I'm like, I don't like any of this. And I'm like, I wouldn't wear this, so I don't want someone else to wear it.

Roberto Blake (26:05):
And you don't want to push anything on your audience that they won't like and they won't enjoy

Justine Ezarik (26:09):
It. I'm sure it'd be perfectly fine, but I think my standard is it was set too high that I just gave up.

Roberto Blake (26:13):
There's nothing wrong with having standards on top of having boundaries. More creators should actually have standards and boundaries in terms of who they work with and what's acceptable to them and what they're willing to put their name and their brand behind and what they're willing to sell.

Justine Ezarik (26:26):
Yeah, definitely.

Announcer (26:27):
This episode is brought to you by awesome [00:26:30] Creator Academy dot ComCom. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur and don't know where to begin, you don't have to go it alone. Get resources, be part of a community, get straightforward answers that will grow your brand and business visit awesome creator academy.com.

Roberto Blake (26:48):
How do you run your creator business? And you can tell us a little tiny bit about your income streams. You don't have to tell us so much that.

Justine Ezarik (26:55):
No, I mean, obviously I think for a lot of us, I feel I treat kind of [00:27:00] AdSense as a salary that's going to be pretty consistent throughout the year of the ups and downs, depending upon CPMs. But I mean, a lot of my stuff comes through brand deals. I also do a lot of consulting. Obviously we have things like the cables now, which is really fun.

Roberto Blake (27:17):
I assume the deal on the cables is a royalty for every cable sold or something

Justine Ezarik (27:21):
Like that. And then there's other things, even my book, I think there's still some small revenue stream from that. The audio portion.

Roberto Blake (27:28):
I loved the audio [00:27:30] book. I love that you write it in your voice and everything like that. I listen to it once a year. It sits proudly on my book. I listen to it once a year, especially whenever I'm feeling burnt out, I listen to it. Well, actually, I don't burn out that often. It's like whenever I start to feel the symptoms, like you said, to where I'm like, I could, maybe I need, it's like it is so nice and refreshing. Hearing from another creator and hearing the journey. It's also one of, you were one of the inspirations for me writing my book.

Justine Ezarik (27:53):
No. Yeah. I was so excited. So thank you so much. I'm so excited to check it out.

Roberto Blake (27:57):
Yeah, I'd love to know when you get a chance, what you think [00:28:00] about it. So I love that you do have some diversity in your revenue streams. You don't really do the merch as much, but you have partnerships on products with Condor Blue. Do you have any other partnerships on products like that? Oh, wait, you have the motion VFX.

Justine Ezarik (28:14):
Oh, yeah. So we did something with Motion VFX, which was really fun. So we did a plugin pack. So small things like that. And then obviously affiliates, random things like that. It's always so hard to really think about it, just kind of like,

Roberto Blake (28:26):
No, me, I'm getting 20 25, 10 99 [00:28:30] forms every year, so I'm losing

Justine Ezarik (28:31):
Track

Roberto Blake (28:31):
Myself. So I understand I'm that guy. I'm that income streams guy.

Justine Ezarik (28:35):
I'm like, yeah, no. Yeah, I love your analytical breakdown. It's always super helpful for me too. Like, oh, yeah, there is more that I could be doing here, here, here. But I mean, I do a lot of brand deals, which I'm super grateful for, but sometimes those take so much energy to create, to script, working with brands back and

Roberto Blake (28:51):
Forth. There's not room for other things.

Justine Ezarik (28:53):
And then sometimes I'm like, oh my gosh, I haven't even done a video for fun. I need to throw something else in here that's not a brand. But I mean, I really love [00:29:00] doing the sponsored stuff, just obviously because you are getting paid for it, but it's fun to have that script in mind where it's like, here's what they want. And I've always liked creating for a purpose too, so it's like, here it is. So now I have to kind of go back and be like, okay, so now I need to be my own brand. Hey, Justine, we need you to create these videos. So talking to myself

Roberto Blake (29:23):
Basically. Yeah, no, that's the thing. Being your own brand, having things you're proud of, that you have ownership of, that's something I think about and talk about a lot. [00:29:30] And no, I think it's really great that you still do a lot of this purely just for

Justine (29:34):
Fun.

Roberto Blake (29:36):
I think that gets really hard for people who are career creators, but it's also so refreshing to hear someone who's almost literally 20 years into this say that they still enjoy it. They still do it for enjoyment. It is a business. You take it seriously, but you still make room for just joy.

Justine Ezarik (29:50):
Well, and I think that's what's super important too, is making that time to just do something for fun. Even the camera cam stuff, it's like we don't, me and my sister aren't getting paid to be here. We're here [00:30:00] because we want to. And the fact that Sony has kind of partnered with us to just bring together a bunch of friends and have a cool experience, that means more to me than you can even put a price tag on.

Roberto Blake (30:11):
Oh, facts. And I've enjoyed it. I told you that the last camera camp we did before the Pandemic and Montana literally ranks out of all the days that I've been alive, it ranks in amazing, some of the top 20 days that I've ever lived.

Justine Ezarik (30:23):
Same. No, it was just like there was something so special about that because it was the first one, and we were able to bring in our second wave of creators [00:30:30] that were super new. They maybe just started a channel.

Justine (30:34):
And

Justine Ezarik (30:34):
That was ideally what we had in mind for Camera Camp, was to obviously celebrate established creators, but then kind of bring in people who may have never ever had the opportunity to come here.

Roberto Blake (30:44):
I saw that second wave. We had one more day before we were leaving, and then they were getting their first day and their first taste of it. So yeah, now that was cool. And they were so excited.

Justine Ezarik (30:52):
It was so fun. We had that little crossover where they could still meet some of you guys.

Roberto Blake (30:56):
Exactly.

Justine Ezarik (30:56):
And it was just like, that's the ideal situation.

Roberto Blake (30:59):
Yeah, no, that's [00:31:00] perfect.

Justine Ezarik (31:00):
So I think in the future, I mean, we're still coming off of Covid. This is still, I guess everyone likes to say the pandemic's over, but it's still, well,

Roberto Blake (31:08):
The world reopened. There's a difference. Yeah. I

Justine Ezarik (31:10):
Mean, it's still there. It's still a big part of something that we're going to have to move forward and get through, and I think everyone's figuring that out. So we definitely The new

Roberto Blake (31:18):
Normal. Yeah,

Justine Ezarik (31:19):
Exactly. So it's like we wanted to keep it smaller, and it's nice in San Diego, which is where Sony was headquartered, so it was kind of easier to get everyone together

Roberto Blake (31:26):
A lot more convenient. Yeah, absolutely. And it's beautiful out here, minus the rain.

Justine Ezarik (31:29):
Yeah, [00:31:30] I see some sun out there now, so that's nice.

Roberto Blake (31:31):
Yeah, no, that is nice. What would you like to see more of in the creator space?

Justine Ezarik (31:38):
More of, I mean, I think more positivity, which I feel like I do see, because that's the only stuff that I

Roberto Blake (31:42):
Follow fair.

Justine Ezarik (31:44):
And then I step outside of that and I'm like, oh my goodness, it can be scary. So I think positivity is very

Roberto Blake (31:53):
Important. I've had to curate my feed. I've had to mute a lot of Twitters or just like, okay, I'm out. And there are things that [00:32:00] I learned the three years of being depressed during the pandemic, literally, I talked to you a little bit about that last night. I was just literally in this depression for almost three years. For me being able to turn off almost all of it and just almost to a degree go away and then sit down every morning and write my book for nine months and go through the publishing process, learn new things again, learn this excitement. I found myself finally looking forward to waking up in the morning knowing that I'm going to write my book for an hour.

Justine Ezarik (32:30):
[00:32:30] That's awesome.

Roberto Blake (32:30):
And that I'm going to do this self-publishing journey, and then I'm going to learn new things again. And that I wasn't having my head invaded by all this negativity, like you said. So I had to curate and curate my YouTube feed. So I wasn't seeing negative content or news and stuff like that. As much as I love Phil Franco, I had to, Phil, I need a break, Phil, I need a vacation. I'll see you when I get

Justine Ezarik (32:52):
Back.

Roberto Blake (32:54):
And just stuff like that. And it made a difference. It's like I think that you could [00:33:00] look at so many negative things in platforms and then that could distort your view of the world. And then if you just chose to look at the positive things, people might think that's naive, but it's like you're creating a headspace for yourself that makes you much more functional, much happier, much more easy to cope with the real things in your life that you can't

Justine Ezarik (33:19):
Avoid, definitely

Roberto Blake (33:20):
That you can't avoid. So I say, avoid the negativity you can and then gear yourself up to so that you're stronger and happier when there is negative, you can't turn off [00:33:30] or walk away from.

Justine Ezarik (33:30):
No, that totally makes sense. And I think the pandemic all taught us a lot, and I think it aged all of us, maybe 40 or 50 years in those three years.

Roberto Blake (33:38):
Well, that's where my gray came from. My gray was pandemic,

Justine Ezarik (33:40):
Right? Nope, I get it. At least mine's hidden in the blonde.

Roberto Blake (33:43):
So again, I keep telling you, you could rock your ksi, you could do it. You pull it up. Speaking of pulling things off, what is it? What does it take to get to a million subscribers on YouTube? Everyone's dying to know what does it take to get to a million subscribers on YouTube,

Justine Ezarik (33:54):
Not quitting until you get to a million subscribers.

Roberto Blake (33:56):
That sounds about

Justine Ezarik (33:56):
Right. That's basically it, because even my sister, she's been [00:34:00] doing this forever and still hasn't hit a million. And it's interesting now because it's like subscribers still. It seems like a vanity metric. Just hearing Renee talk about how YouTube is functioning as a whole, yeah, subscribers is important, but it's about that audience retention. It's about that home feed,

Roberto Blake (34:17):
Your response

Justine Ezarik (34:18):
And curating what, I guess, finding that audience of people that would watch that, but are also watching similar content. So it's

Roberto Blake (34:26):
All different. The similar content thing is I've been looking at that. I actually [00:34:30] am very proud of everyone who said that they stopped looking at analytics, even though I'm the analytics guy

Justine Ezarik (34:33):
Last

Roberto Blake (34:34):
Night that we were talking with everybody, and I know why you guys don't look at the analytics as much, and it makes total sense. I did look into something with Jenna's stuff. I genuinely believe she could hit a million with five breakthrough videos.

(34:49):
I figured out that to some degree, I figured out a ratio metric of just human behavior called the 1% rule of, oh, 1% of these people that [00:35:00] view content become subscribers. And it still matters. Even at the million plus mark, it still works out because just human behavior stuff. I figured out that you could ignore YouTube analytics in proportion to the amount of understanding you have of your audience. And then if you understand your audience to the degree to where if you have a couple of breakout videos, most of your audience will come from a handful of videos, is what I've seen.

Justine Ezarik (35:25):
Yeah, yeah. It's very interesting too. And even now it's like I haven't [00:35:30] been able to post as consistently as I want to. So it's now knowing that when I'm going to have free time again to create, it's like I've got a plan and I know the things that they, I haven't been able to create that type of content. And it's also hard because I know that they really love Apple content. They also really love gaming stuff too, but they also like cooking videos, which is so weird because it's such a, I

Roberto Blake (35:53):
Love your cooking videos. Well, again, we're excited to see you. And it's also, we all love food.

Justine Ezarik (35:59):
So [00:36:00] I'm going to kind of start doing a food tech that's geared around kitchen, could see that, oh, a

Roberto Blake (36:04):
Smart kitchen. I would love to watch. I bought a house in 2021. I'd watch a smart kitchen

Justine Ezarik (36:11):
Right

Roberto Blake (36:11):
Now, my bank account, thank

Justine Ezarik (36:13):
Me. No, exactly. But this is also like, okay, is this worth it? That kind of thing. Yeah, fair. So I'm definitely excited to do that and just kind of start scheduling out some content that is not as timely. And I think that's the problem is I'm so stuck right now in, there's an embargo for this. You spend two weeks doing two videos for an embargo, [00:36:30] and then I'm like, well, now I have no content because I

Roberto Blake (36:31):
Miss the evergreen stuff when that happens.

Justine Ezarik (36:34):
So that's where I think the next month we're going to focus on banking, that type of content for times where we don't,

Roberto Blake (36:43):
Yeah, no, the evergreen content in between that carries you through. And the thing is thing with your personality, even the non-tech videos, here's why I think the non-tech videos that show lifestyle and personality stuff from you and are fun, are timeless. And so they can keep getting views and people can watch them whenever [00:37:00] they're missing you or they discover you from the first time and those timeless videos still, and they probably still get a lot of views and bring in a lot of new subscribers.

Justine Ezarik (37:09):
Yeah, it's also so weird. I mean, I briefly look at analytics just to know, okay, someone's still watching. Oh, we're losing subscribers this month. Oh, got to do something different. But I don't ever do a deep dive,

Roberto Blake (37:20):
But

Justine Ezarik (37:21):
I do feel like even though I'm anti analytics, that I think it is good to go in there because

Roberto Blake (37:26):
As long as you make it healthy,

Justine Ezarik (37:27):
You have to make it healthy. But I had an unhealthy relationship [00:37:30] with it at the beginning, and I knew I'm one of those people that I have a super addictive personality, which is like, it's very

Roberto Blake (37:36):
Dangerous. Noticed that,

Justine Ezarik (37:37):
Very dangerous. And I know that. So it's like I stopped drinking, I stopped drinking caffeine, and I won't

Roberto Blake (37:42):
Touch it. I did the same thing.

Justine Ezarik (37:43):
Yeah,

Roberto Blake (37:44):
I still do a little bit of Starbucks, but yeah, I had to suffer through the pandemic sober.

Justine Ezarik (37:48):
Yeah. No, I stopped actually. Was I drinking? I'm trying to think. No, I was sober during the pandemic. But it is just wild because it's [00:38:00] just a shift. It's like instead of telling people, no, I don't want to drink. It's like I don't drink. And that's the bottom line.

Roberto Blake (38:07):
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. No, and that's the thing. The other cool thing is if you have an addictive personality, but it's in the right direction. That's what makes successful YouTubers. If you want to know how to a million subscribers, it's usually addiction and obsession, which

Justine Ezarik (38:19):
Is not healthy.

Roberto Blake (38:20):
No. That's why being a successful YouTuber largely is the burnout, overworking, exhaustion, hospitalization, and is unhealthy. You realize how many of our friends have had either physical [00:38:30] or mental breakdowns or both.

Justine Ezarik (38:31):
They all have. And especially daily vloggers. That is, I mean, it's so sad. I've seen so many people just, I've seen the rise in the fall, and it happens every single time. And if they're able to do that and not make yourself ill, that's incredible.

Roberto Blake (38:47):
Yeah, it's incredible. It's also super rare. Speaking of super rare, your sister Jenna is just like a joy. She's the best. She is the best and everything. My favorite Sunset photographer as well. But you both [00:39:00] started a podcast a while back. Same

Justine Ezarik (39:02):
Brain. Yep.

Roberto Blake (39:02):
I love that so much. And it's like this great dynamic and what's it like? Why did you guys start the podcast and what's it like working with your sister? So

Justine Ezarik (39:10):
I started, oh my goodness, that lens is ridiculous.

Roberto Blake (39:13):
That's the 600 right?

Justine Ezarik (39:14):
There. It is.

Roberto Blake (39:15):
Is that the 600 millimeter?

Justine Ezarik (39:18):
So during the pandemic, actually, this was for my iPad review in the Apple commercials, they said, if you have an iPad, you can start a podcast. And I was like, but [00:39:30] so I had this microphone from Apogee that you just plugged in, and it was super high quality. So I got another one, got a second iPad, had Jenna recorded into the other iPad. I recorded into one, and we started our podcast basically just because I wanted to see if we could do it. And then we came up with the name, and then we had a logo, and then it just became a whole thing. And then we just started doing it. And we still don't technically have a sponsor, mostly because I never want to give up rights, and I didn't want to join a network. And that's kind of what you have to do. So you're smart

Roberto Blake (39:59):
For doing that. You're so smart. [00:40:00] You own almost all your ip.

Justine Ezarik (40:01):
Well, yeah. Well, we're not making any money. So then there's that.

Roberto Blake (40:06):
Well, you still have the ad sense.

Justine Ezarik (40:07):
We still make ad sense. Yeah.

Roberto Blake (40:08):
And then there's new stuff with YouTube podcasts coming where you're going to

Justine Ezarik (40:11):
That also and video on Spotify, which has been pretty awesome. So I mean, we're definitely making money, but we run a pretty expensive podcast.

Roberto Blake (40:20):
Oh, yeah. No, the production is pretty sick. No. So it's like, is it profitable?

Justine Ezarik (40:26):
No, definitely not. It's

Roberto Blake (40:26):
A loss.

Justine Ezarik (40:27):
Not at this point, because paying for an editor, paying sometimes [00:40:30] for someone for their day rate of helping us film, depending upon that, at that point, it is more of a passion project. And obviously, I mean, I know it'll be something, or maybe it won't just, we do it for fun. And then also though, we can still post some of those clips

Justine (40:45):
On

Justine Ezarik (40:46):
Twitter, which I can still monetize there. So there's definitely ways,

Roberto Blake (40:49):
And

Justine Ezarik (40:49):
It's fine. I mean, maybe one day it'll be profitable.

Roberto Blake (40:52):
I think it'd be great for plugging stuff where you get a royalty, like the Condor Blue stuff and more sales [00:41:00] of your book and the audio book, especially with the Amazon bounties From that, I think because people are listening to you, a lot of them, I bet you the majority of the podcast listeners don't know you have a book, and that's an audio book.

Justine Ezarik (41:10):
No, that makes sense. I definitely do need to do an update to the book because so much has happened in between there, and

Roberto Blake (41:15):
It's a memoir, so it's like, yeah, I think,

Justine Ezarik (41:18):
Yeah, it's like, oh gosh, where do we leave off? It would be so fun.

Roberto Blake (41:22):
Yeah. Speaking of fun, I've had fun watching you interview people. You've interviewed some huge names and everything like that. You've interviewed Sandra, [00:41:30] I think Neil Mohan recently, the New Honcho of YouTube. So you've interviewed the CEO, EO of Google and the CEO E of YouTube. What's it like to do those interviews and how does that happen?

Justine Ezarik (41:41):
I mean, a lot of times it's just the brands will reach out and say, Hey, will you interview so-and-So or Will you interview our ceo EO? I'm like, yeah, of course. Hold on a second. Let's sync up on schedules. And it's fun too, because I don't ever take them as I'm interviewing a CEO. I'm just interviewing a person and it's just like, you're chilling. [00:42:00] You're just hanging out

Roberto Blake (42:01):
Like this.

Justine Ezarik (42:01):
Yeah, it's like we're just sitting in some beach chairs. And I think that's kind of the bottom line is that they are a person, but they're also in charge of a huge company,

Roberto Blake (42:10):
Have this responsibility and stuff like that.

Justine Ezarik (42:12):
So it's just really fun to experience that. And I know a lot of times when I am working with people, they want to see a list of questions upfront. So it's like you do have to kind of prepare for it and then obviously do a ton of research, make sure you're covering all the bases and things like that.

Roberto Blake (42:25):
Things that make them feel comfortable, things that might get them excited

Justine Ezarik (42:28):
And

Roberto Blake (42:29):
Stuff like that.

Justine Ezarik (42:29):
And definitely [00:42:30] check the news before you talk to them in case some sort of crazy news has break that you need to cover

Roberto Blake (42:34):
Or something you need to avoid.

Justine Ezarik (42:36):
Avoid.

Roberto Blake (42:36):
Yes. Yeah. Speaking of which, and people being people, what do you wish more people knew about you outside your content?

Justine Ezarik (42:43):
Wow. I don't know. I think now, I mean now I'm getting too many hobbies, which is also a problem, but that keeps me sane. It's like, I know we've talked about how much juujitsu was a big part of my life, and it's like being able to just go on the mat and [00:43:00] basically fighting for your life a couple hours of the day makes the rest of the day seems so much easier.

Roberto Blake (43:06):
Actually, there's a place up the street from me. I'm on a fitness journey now. I'm prepping my body to actually go back to martial arts.

Justine Ezarik (43:12):
Oh, yeah, you definitely should. Have you trained before?

Roberto Blake (43:14):
Yes.

Justine Ezarik (43:14):
Oh, cool.

Roberto Blake (43:15):
Yeah, American karate. And then I also did TaeKwonDo. I was much younger, much younger. Roberto.

Justine Ezarik (43:20):
Well, it's nice now because there's a bunch of older people at the gym too. So it's like you can kind of gauge. And then even rolling with a bunch of younger girls, I'm like, oh my gosh, [00:43:30] I just want you to know I'm your elder. Please be gentle. But it's fun too, because I'm not going here to compete. I'm just going to learn and letting people know, Hey, I'm just drilling today, or I have an injured knee from snowboarding last week, and things like that. It's just being able to go drill and learn something new is so much fun. You

Roberto Blake (43:49):
Like being a learner, don't you?

Justine Ezarik (43:50):
I do. Which is crazy because I was terrible at school. Terrible test taker. I hated learning. It was stuff that I didn't,

Roberto Blake (43:58):
It was stuff. So you weren't interested?

Justine Ezarik (43:59):
It was [00:44:00] not interested.

Roberto Blake (44:01):
I could only do it if I had a teacher that I really also liked and wanted to also impress to some degree. So I very much have some degree of a people pleaser personality, which a lot of people don't notice

Justine Ezarik (44:13):
That.

Roberto Blake (44:15):
And so I wanted to impress those teachers. I liked them. I like having conversations with them. And then they would challenge me and it would make me smarter, make me more excited about things. So if I enjoyed the teacher, I could come passionate about the subject matter. Or if I was naturally passionate about it and a teacher didn't discourage me, I could do well.

Justine Ezarik (44:30):
[00:44:30] And I think it's also learning on your own terms.

Roberto Blake (44:32):
That was it. That was it.

Justine Ezarik (44:33):
I would go back and learn all of that stuff if I could do it in a different way. And I think now schools and teachers and people understand that people learn differently and they really cannot help it. Where a lot of the kids, even thinking back to school, they were acting out, myself included, because we could not function or bored or we already knew this, or we just weren't able to be in this setting. And I think now people are kind of [00:45:00] changing ways of learning,

Roberto Blake (45:01):
I think. I think people have seen it enough and have come to understand it and tried to accommodate those things more and a little late for us, but good for everybody else.

Justine Ezarik (45:10):
But now we can just learn in our own leisure. It's like my next hobby is I want, well, not necessarily a hobby, but my next project, I want to get scuba certified, and I'm a bad swimmer, so now I need to start

Roberto Blake (45:20):
Going. I'm working on that as well. I'm not the strongest. I can survive if for a

Justine Ezarik (45:25):
While,

Roberto Blake (45:26):
But, and a friend of mine really wants to go scuba diving. I'm [00:45:30] like, okay, I have to become a strong swimmer first. Yeah,

Justine Ezarik (45:31):
You don't have to be that strong. You do have flippers

Roberto Blake (45:34):
Butt. Well, I want to, because paranoid, my anxiety can't take

Justine Ezarik (45:36):
It for sure. No, I mean, you definitely need to be able to tread water and do certain things. So I'm checking things off that list to get prepped.

Roberto Blake (45:43):
Same, same. We're wrapping up here. I would love if you could give three pieces of advice to new creators starting out in the space.

Justine Ezarik (45:52):
Yeah. I mean, I think really when you're starting out, don't think too much about it. Even though I feel like that kind of contradicts my, oh, I want to have a good aesthetic, a good brand. But yet [00:46:00] when you do kind of overthink it, you're never going to start. And even now, I myself scrolling TikTok for inspiration, I'm like, oh, this has been done. This is,

Roberto Blake (46:08):
And then the whole day is gone

Justine Ezarik (46:08):
And then my day is gone. Exactly. So I think just don't overthink it. Just create. And if you do see something that inspires you, you can use that as inspiration and kind of create something that is sort of in that vein, which is why I love TikTok, because you can kind of riff off of other pieces of content and that's acceptable. So it's so fun.

Roberto Blake (46:27):
Well, it's like back in the olden days, if you remember, remember [00:46:30] this, of course, YouTube video replies and

Justine Ezarik (46:32):
Everything,

Roberto Blake (46:32):
Which is coming to shorts, if

Justine Ezarik (46:33):
Not mistake. I'm very excited about it. I think it might already be out, I believe.

Roberto Blake (46:36):
I don't know if it rolled out to everyone yet,

Justine Ezarik (46:39):
Which is so cool

Roberto Blake (46:39):
That maybe that's one of those, again, news updates where I'm like, oh, am I sure about that? So no analysis paralysis. That's a good one. Two more.

Justine Ezarik (46:47):
I think just being consistent, whether that's weekly, monthly, just not quitting. That for me is my consistent showing up. I'm not going to quit. I'm going to be there, and honestly, finding something [00:47:00] that you keep offline to yourself is so important, which I found that out too late, but now that I know, it's been really

Roberto Blake (47:07):
Fun. Yeah. No, that's great. I mean, that makes total sense. You've been doing this so long, and again, from my perspective, you've been mad consistent as far as I'm concerned. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Justine Ezarik (47:19):
Oh my God, I don't even know what I'm doing in two minutes.

Roberto Blake (47:23):
Where would you like to see yourself in 10 years?

Justine Ezarik (47:25):
I don't know. I mean, even we were talking about possibly doing a kids channel. I think me personally, I don't [00:47:30] want children, but I feel like I have so many of them.

Roberto Blake (47:33):
And you have your nieces.

Justine Ezarik (47:34):
Yeah. Yeah, so it's really cool. I mean, I think creating some type of something for them or pushing someone else to do that would be really cool. But also, I mean, I love consulting. I'm also super into the crypto scene. I also obsessed with ai, but it's funny because I don't really talk much about AI or crypto or Web3, but it's like these are things that I'm researching and just kind of always in, well,

Roberto Blake (47:57):
You and I, we're obsessed with tech. We're literally obsessed with tech. So [00:48:00] even if we don't talk about there's reasons why or so-and-so and then we all want overload people, and then there's like, we don't necessarily want to influence people, even though we're creator slash influence. We don't want to influence people on things that are new and evolving so fast,

Justine Ezarik (48:14):
And I didn't want to become an AI creator or get pulled into that, which I feel like all of these AI creators just kind of popped up. They're now AI experts. I'm

Roberto Blake (48:22):
Trying to get people to realize that it's an assistant and it's a tool. I mean, the AI tech that we see in the Sony ZVE one is just, [00:48:30] for me, that's like, this is what AI is really for. It's like it's to assist you in eliminating maybe a physical or logistical limitation that your creativity would benefit from if you could just get over this thing that is very inconvenient for a human.

Justine Ezarik (48:45):
Right. No, I mean, it all makes sense, but yeah, it's, again, it's just ai. Even the Web3 landscape I feel like is, there's a lot of stuff there. There's a lot of stuff happening, and I just feel like it's only a matter of time before those things become the norm.

Roberto Blake (48:59):
In 10 years, if the [00:49:00] robots haven't literally killed us or taken over or whatever. My hope is then in 10 years, I'm still doing a lot of what I'm doing now, just maybe more of it or some version of it. Definitely really am loving the writing. In 10 years, I hope that I'm either the world's greatest dad and if that doesn't work out, emperor of the Galaxy. Sounds good.

Justine Ezarik (49:17):
There you go. No, that's awesome.

Roberto Blake (49:19):
Yeah, it's like, so yeah, we'll get Darth. Roberto, finally.

Justine Ezarik (49:21):
There you go.

Roberto Blake (49:23):
If you could wave a magic wand and have any YouTube feature appear out of thin air tomorrow, what does it look like?

Justine Ezarik (49:30):
[00:49:30] Wow. Make a thumbnail for me.

Roberto Blake (49:34):
We're pretty much there with the AI stuff. Mid journey. That'll do it.

Justine Ezarik (49:38):
No, I've actually used AI a bunch to just create graphics for me, or just simple. I like to add little lens flares in the backgrounds of things, but the ones that I would find on Google or iStock photo or whatever are not exactly what I need. So now it's like I can create that in mid journey and then just integrate it into

Roberto Blake (49:56):
I You experimented with giving it real photos of yourself and using [00:50:00] four photos of you as the sample for the prompt that you want to generate.

Justine Ezarik (50:04):
It hasn't worked well for me.

Roberto Blake (50:06):
They're in version five now. Try it.

Justine Ezarik (50:07):
Yeah, I should try now, because I tried, maybe it was a while ago and I was like, oh, this is,

Roberto Blake (50:11):
Oh, version four was really good if you tried it a while ago, and version five now is,

Justine Ezarik (50:14):
Yeah, no, I should definitely try it again because the first time I'm like, it's also interesting. I feel like it works way better with men as opposed to women.

Roberto Blake (50:22):
To some degree. I've noticed that, but I've also noticed to some degree, it also is predicated on [00:50:30] how well the original thing was shot, and sometimes too good is too good, and there's some weird variance there. That's what I've noticed. For me, it's also, I pay attention to it for darker complexions as well, and I've just found some interesting tweaks that I was able to make with that. A lot of times, I can't get my facial structure just

Justine Ezarik (50:52):
Right.

Roberto Blake (50:53):
That seems to be the hardest thing for me is for it to get my facial structure, but I also think it's also the abundance of material [00:51:00] it has had to train off of, so I think it could get better over time. That's my hope

Justine Ezarik (51:04):
Anyway. Even if I search I Justine, it'll be a similar looking blonde female. So it's close, but not quite.

Roberto Blake (51:13):
Yeah, no, I hear you. Same thing. I literally told it to make a cartoon character of me. It's like, if I do it a hundred times, eight of them will actually look like me. Great.

Justine Ezarik (51:21):
It takes a while.

Roberto Blake (51:22):
Yeah. Last thing, what do you think? I could be doing more to help other content creators?

Justine Ezarik (51:28):
I think you're doing an awesome job, actually, [00:51:30] and I feel like I always see you on my Twitter timeline, always helping people and just giving a lot of great examples, and even from learning from yourself, you giving that breakdown of revenue and showing people there's these other revenue streams, because I think that's super helpful, even for bigger creators. Like,

Justine (51:45):
Oh,

Justine Ezarik (51:46):
We didn't actually realize that we could be doing all of this, focusing on just brand

Roberto Blake (51:51):
Deals. That's the thing I'm noticing, and that's the thing I'm noticing, and that's the thing I'm trying to do is I'm trying to figure out how, because I know that I've given so much for beginner creators, which is really important, that always [00:52:00] need to be that. And there'll always being more new creators, but I want to do more for intermediate and advanced creators, even established creators. I feel that sometimes they specialize in so many areas that they're leaving money on the table. They might have workflow inefficiencies, mental health struggles that are not acknowledged or that they haven't realized are normal, not, oh, you're not a freak. This isn't something only happening to you. This is people of your level and they don't talk about it. Creating space for that. There's these things where I just feel [00:52:30] like, what do you think there could be more of even to help more established creators.

Justine Ezarik (52:34):
I mean, I feel like events like this, like Hammer Camp, just getting people together and then actually opening up and discussing these things openly, because sometimes you can't talk about it on Twitter. There's really not a place to do it,

Justine (52:45):
Because

Justine Ezarik (52:46):
Even though the things that we're complaining about are top creator problems, they're still issues, and they affect us in specific ways,

Roberto Blake (52:54):
And they affect our families and the people around us and our team. If we have a team, it all rolls down and then it rolls down [00:53:00] to

Justine Ezarik (53:01):
The content you're creating, the

Roberto Blake (53:01):
Content that we're creating and our ability to keep creating and keep serving those people who we have to show up for. So I agree. Yeah.

Justine Ezarik (53:09):
I just feel like it's no matter what level or wherever you're at in life, there's going to be a problem, and it's like that stage of life problem, but there's always

Roberto Blake (53:17):
Issues. Oh, you mean it's literally, it's almost as if life is this video game and that the levels of difficulty keep increasing. Oh, you don't say,

Justine Ezarik (53:24):
It's like, oh, if I only had more money, so now to keep making that money, then I need to hire a bunch of people, and then [00:53:30] I need to create more content, and now I'm exhausted and burnt out. And then you have a team of people, and then you have to keep supplying for them. So it's just like, it's a never ending

Roberto Blake (53:38):
Kind of step stool. And so now to do this thing and to slay this dragon and to get the gold, I have to go and I have to slay these goblins and these monsters, it's like, oh, well, that's really hard.

Justine Ezarik (53:46):
Right? Yeah. So I mean, it's exciting to have these problems, but it's also like how do we tackle that and

Roberto Blake (53:52):
Maintain, and I think as you progress, there's less information, like we said, less information, less resources, sometimes less support as you get higher, [00:54:00] less people to relate to it.

Justine Ezarik (54:01):
Yeah.

Roberto Blake (54:02):
No, less people who have done it too. Less of a path blazed.

Justine Ezarik (54:05):
Right. Yeah, no, it all very much makes sense.

Roberto Blake (54:07):
Yeah. No. Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you and making sense out of the chaos of creativity with you here. Justine, is there anything you want to plug? Shout out, anything. The podcast?

Justine Ezarik (54:17):
Yeah, you can check out. Me and my sister, we have a podcast called Same Brain. Sometimes we post, sometimes we don't, no sponsor. So we just do what we want to do, which is actually kind of, I think that's why we've still been able to do it as much. We just have the leisure to do what [00:54:30] we want, and it's for fun.

Roberto Blake (54:31):
No pressure.

Justine Ezarik (54:31):
And then, yeah, like my YouTube channel I just seen Everywhere Online.

Roberto Blake (54:34):
Oh, by her book. You'll love it, especially the audio book. You can get mine as well. And no thanks. Thank you so much, and thank you to Sony and to Camera Camp, and it's been a pleasure.

Justine Ezarik (54:44):
Thank you so much. Yes, and thank you for the incredible interview. You're always so awesome, and I've been such a huge fan of your work, and thanks for helping all the creators out there.

Roberto Blake (54:51):
Yeah, no problem. My pleasure. Same.

Justine Ezarik (54:53):
Thank you.

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