- Hey guys, it's Roberto; so I'm still traveling,
you guys probably have seen that from some of the
recent content lately, and I've been promising
you guys that I would just, record more of my day
and my thoughts and things that are going on with me,
and so that's what this video is and there'll be some
more short videos like this in the future.
This is a rant, but not a rant,
and from the title you kind of guess what it's about.
This one is how to know if you're a sellout.
Now there's a lot of reasons I made this video,
I've actually hinted at this for months
because of a topic I brought up about
starving artist versus sellout,
and I've been planning that video,
that one's much more tongue in cheek and theatrical.
This one is just a little bit of a brain dump
of my thoughts, because it came up last week
after I did an interview with a very good
friend of mine, we were talking about some of
the things we're doing in our business,
and I brought up that there are going to be
books and e-books that I will be writing,
some of the e-books will be tactical stuff,
some of it'll be YouTube, some of it'll
be more online business and personal branding
and stuff like that, more of the marketing
side of things that people are struggling with
and there were a lot of feedback comments,
the majority of them, 99%, were like,
overwhelming positive, because some of you
have been asking for some more detailed information
on a lot of these topics, things that I can't always
cover in a video, some of you want the structure
that courses and things provide, and there are also
a lot of you who, you can't come to workshops or speaking
engagements that I do when I travel,
and so I want to do something that really works
for you guys and we've actually talked about it
and some of you are actually in like,
beta programs and in Facebook groups
and Slack channels with me where
we're figuring out what would be the best fit
and what would work; the reason I bring that up
is because the point, like 0.01 percent of people,
are hitting me with this, "Oh, you and so and so,
and so and so, and this other YouTube expert,
you're all sellouts and every time I watch a video
from you guys, you're selling something,
I don't come here from that because YouTube is about
free content, we support you enough by watching,
I skip ads because of stuff like this," blah blah
blah blah blah, and I find that, one.
I'm getting really irritated with the majority
of the YouTube culture, I've actually
stayed out of the YouTube culture,
and it's why I avoid YouTuber-y things
because I see enough, like, stupidity
in the business world let alone the land of
social medial sometimes, and I just like
to ignore those things.
And the reasoning is this; people throw the word
sellout around willy-nilly with no real
understanding or sense of what it actually means.
You know selling stuff and selling stuff
that you believe in or that you worked on
or your art, even in a free platform,
doesn't make you a sellout.
Being successful doesn't make you a sellout.
Making money on things you love doesn't make you
a sellout, so let's identify how you figure out
if you're a sellout, because the thing is,
with the people who do hit me with this,
it made me think about it, I had to ask myself,
I had to do what I usually do, I do this
litmus test, I'm like, oh, do they have a point,
because you know, I do hear, I do listen,
I do consider the possibility that I'm not always right.
The thing is when I do that I then ask myself
some questions, hmm, do I do the things that I believe in?
Yes, am I compromising my values, no.
Am I selling things that I don't believe create
value for other people or don't have any
possibility of creating value for other people?
No I don't, alright, then I guess that means
that I pass this test, I'm not a sellout.
You know what being a sellout actually looks like?
I don't think the far majority of people do,
I don't think the far majority of people know
what being a sellout looks like, but they should.
Because I remember a time when I might've
actually been able to say I was a sellout.
If you're working a job where you don't
agree with what people are doing, but you don't
say anything and you help them execute it anyway,
then you have to consider whether you're
a sellout or not because you're doing that
for expediency; you're doing that
because you have a paycheck on the line.
You're doing things that you don't believe in
you might be selling a product or a service
that you don't believe in via your job,
via your employer, because it's what
your livelihood and your paycheck both depends on.
And I'm not going to knock you for that,
I'm not going to judge you for that,
I'm just saying that before you consider
throwing out whether anybody else is a sellout,
you should probably use the method that I explained
in this video to ask yourself some honest
questions about what you're doing and whether
you in fact could be considered a sellout.
You know, Casey Neistat actually recently
did a video about this where he explained
that a lot of people are hitting him
based on decisions he's made, and things
that he's doing and are calling him a sellout.
But I think that they fundamentally don't understand
the things that Casey wants, or the things
that Casey does believe in, because
Casey's not doing anything he doesn't believe in
in order to make money.
He's doing things he actually believes in
and money is coming in as a consequence.
The problem is that sometimes those things
don't line up with what other people
who support him and follow him
believe in and that's why I think,
personally, in that particular video, people are,
you know, wanting to call him a sellout
is because they don't agree; they don't believe
in something, Casey did something they don't believe in
for money and so that makes him a sellout.
But that's not accurate, that's not the definition
of a sellout, compromising your morals,
your opinion, your beliefs, even if you did
something horrible but you believed in it
and you made money but you didn't believe it was horrible,
you are not a sellout, like Lord, like
anyone following Lord Voldemort and the
Death Eaters that actually believes in their cause
is a zealot, is a horrible person,
but if you actually believe in the cause
of the Death Eaters, you're not a sellout.
You know, you're just not.
So in other words I think that when you sit there
and you're going to throw out something like
calling someone a sellout, or you're going to say
that somebody is egotistical or any number
of words that get abused in the English language,
probably look up Merriam-Webster's Dictionary first
instead of using it in the context that everyday
people are using it because those everyday
people could be wrong; being a sellout comes down to
doing things you don't believe in,
selling things you don't believe in,
advocating for causes you don't believe in
because of either financial gain, political
expedience or some other value that you want
to siphon off of it, i.e. in YouTube land
if you are doing stuff just to get views
that you don't believe in, that's you being a sellout.
If you were doing something or doing a sponsorship
for money and you don't believe in the product,
that's you being a sellout.
When I review products and I work with brands
here on the channel, I do it because
it's either something that I do use
or it's something that I would use if I was in
the budget situation of someone in the audience.
There are things that I use that are just
going to be priced out of certain people's range,
that their wallet is just not going to support right now,
and I believe in advocating for some of these
small solutions; there are smaller companies
that do a great job, that sometimes cannot compete
with bigger companies, and so sometimes
I want to work with them and do an influencer deal
to give them more reach and more exposure
because they can't get it, it's just like how
a lot of small YouTubers so desperately want
shout-outs and will do anything to get a shout-out
because if only they could get more exposure,
their content's so good, right, well I believe
that there are companies out there that are trying to
help creative people with technology
solutions or services that are missing out
on an opportunity to help a lot of people
because nobody knows about them,
so sometimes I'll work with those companies,
even if it's not something I would need to use
because I can afford the big stuff.
When I have friends that interview,
get interviews here on the channel and some of them
might've written a book or they're releasing
a course or a product, I'm letting them do that
because it's something that someone,
even one person in this community,
might actually benefit from, and so
I want to make sure that they are in
a position to get that value; there are a lot
of you who don't know about some of the creative
people that I know or met or some of the people
from the business world that I know or met,
and they're people that might be able to help you
or that you might want to work with in the future
in some capacity, but you don't know who they are,
and so by not having them in a channel
in a situation where it's a win for them,
it's a win for the audience, it's a win for me,
then if I don't do those things because
I'm worried about the 0.01% of people
who call me a sellout or a shill
or want to talk trash, then by not doing that
and by being scared, I'd rob you guys of value.
So what I will do and what I will continue to do
is to be unashamedly aggressive about fighting
for anything that I think is worth putting out there
to give creatives the shot at being successful
that I think that they deserve,
and I will do that in the way that I see fit,
I will try to take feedback from you guys,
those of you that are capable of constructive
criticism, I'll take it wherever I get it.
Anda the rest of you who have no idea what you're talking
about, that's what a delete button's for.
Anyway you guys, thank you so much
for hanging out with me for this rant, not rant.
What I would love for you guys to do is
in the comment section, I would like to hear
stories about situations where you've
had to compromise or things that made you
uncomfortable or made you feel like a sellout.
I know in my corporate career, those things
came up week after week, over and over again,
and it was so uncomfortable, and in building
a business I wanted to build something
where I would never have to do that.
But also where other people who might be
in my employ later would never have to feel
that kind of discomfort and would have
a place where they feel they can be honest and open
about the direction that things are going,
and that they could, if something's legitimate,
that they would have the opportunity to hit me on it.
And I just feel like more employers could do that
and should do that, I think that people who don't,
I'm just going to say it, I think
that they're soft but that's my opinion,
that's my criticism, my judgment.
But I just feel that if you can do something
you love and not feel that you're having
to compromise, that you can create something
awesome and share it with the world,
that you can do work that you believe in,
that you're proud to sign your name to,
I think that that matters and I think
that more people would be happy if they found
themselves in that situation, but I think
that there are a lot of people out there
that are jealous of other success,
or people that they see doing that,
and that it's easier to attack them
and throw words like sellout in their face
rather than accept the truth,
which might be, you need to just keep
working to get yours and not worry
about what other people are doing.
Success and greatness is going to be
predicated on your actions, not worrying about
what other people are doing or you know, investing
a huge amount of your emotions
in their success or how they got it.
Anyway, like this video if you like it,
don't forget to subscribe, check out the other
awesome non-ranty stuff on the channel you guys,
as always thank you so much for watching and don't
forget, create something awesome today.
And realize that when you do,
some people are going to call you a sellout.