(gentle music)
(car engine roaring)
- So how did this all get started?
Good morning, everybody and welcome to the vlog.
You know, I wonder how this whole thing kinda got going.
I mean, I started with a snake in my mom's basement
when I was a teenager.
And now I'm sitting in a $40,000 Anaconda cage
inside my own reptile zoo.
I mean, dreams really do come true.
And that's what it's all about
is following your passion and following your dreams
and never letting anyone tell you,
you can't achieve what you want to.
Listen, I know when you're starting out
and you're really passionate about something,
you're thinking like, "How do I get to my end goal?"
And when I was a kid, a teenager,
I knew I wanted to work with reptiles.
I wanted to work with animals,
but I didn't know what that meant.
I didn't know. I mean, what was the option?
You could work at a zoo.
You could maybe work at a vet clinic.
You could do things, I didn't even know.
I just knew that I wanted to work with reptiles.
And really when you're a kid like that,
the thought of having a reptarium like this
it's to a point where you really can't ever really visualize
that happening cause you're starting with nothing.
I didn't have money, I didn't have anyone backing me.
So I had to start with whatever I did.
And I worked at a pet shop because again,
I wanted to be around animals.
And luckily enough, I met a guy
that was actually breeding stuff like corn snakes.
And that's why I've always loved corn snakes,
is that, that was my first kinda animal I bred.
I was keeping Burmese pythons and ball pythons and boas,
but I bred corn snakes for the first time.
And I just thought to myself, maybe this is my end.
The fact that maybe my dream was to eventually work in a zoo
or have a zoo or do what I'm doing now.
But the fact is is that I just wanted to work with animals
and working with reptiles and breeding them
was a great opportunity for me to surround myself
with the animals I love so hard.
So that's where BHB got started,
just when I was 16, 17 years old
and I started breeding corn snakes.
And it was an opportunity for me to say, "Hey,
maybe I can make enough money
to maybe start to open the doors to other things."
You have to remember, back then,
no one was a full time reptile breeder.
There was no such thing as a career as a reptile breeder.
So it wasn't like I was looking for that,
but I thought it was a stepping stone,
not knowing that that stepping stone
was gonna be the better part of 25 years of my life.
And I tell you what guys, over the years,
I have been able to work with such amazing animals,
not just reptiles, but mainly reptiles.
I mean, piebald ball pythons,
I saw them prove out to be genetic.
We were able to see so many amazing things
and the ability for BHB to breed snakes and sell snakes
and do all that stuff really afforded me the opportunity
to not only be around animals all the time,
but to support my family and to travel all over the world
to do things.
I mean, again, that little kid that worked at that pet shop
that met that guy for the first time,
never could have dreamt
that this life would have taken me on such a wild journey.
But the truth is,
even as much as I love breeding reptiles now
and have always, the end goal was always
to have something more like the reptarium,
but even through all of this,
it just didn't seem to fit the plan.
And then guess what along came YouTube.
I've been YouTubing for over 13 years,
made about 3000 videos on the platform,
on all of the channels from snake bites, animal bites,
all the way to my vlog channel.
It's been a wild ride and it's really been life changing
to be honest with you.
I've been able to travel all over the world
to do some pretty crazy adventure stuff.
Met so many amazing people.
And quite honestly just had tremendous support
from each one of you guys.
So why am I telling you this all this anyway?
The truth is, is that I just wanna always inspire you guys
to follow your dreams.
I mean, it's pretty amazing.
You guys know that I wasn't born with a silver spoon
in my mouth by any stretch
and that no one really gave me anything,
that it's all been about hard work, whether it's myself,
my family, my crew, everyone around me has worked so hard
to achieve these goals. But you know what?
I'm just a normal person,
and a normal person that you guys know deals
with some mental health with anxiety.
Yet I've been able to push through those things
and really work with such amazing animals
like Hermes you know here and so many of the animals,
not only at BHB, but also here at the reptarium.
And that was the thing,
that the end goal was always to do something like this.
And YouTube and all the other opportunities life gave me
the chance to do that dream. Don't get me wrong.
I still love breeding snakes.
I still love BHB, still love all of that.
But this was my happy place.
I've told people a million times
that if you asked me 10 years ago,
where would you wanna be in life if it was perfect?
This is it. I'm at my spot where I've always wanted to be.
And you guys know I've been working through some anxiety,
some mental health issues. I'm getting better.
And I wanna continue to inspire you guys
that might be dealing with similar issues
or maybe no issues at all,
that you can go after your dreams and do amazing things.
Cause trust me, as I'm getting better
and feeling more of myself,
I'm feeling more grateful than ever
to be able to have these animals
and to look around and be able to share the experience
of this amazing place.
And I know you guys can too, whether it's animals
or whatever you're really passionate about,
always go after your dream because when you get there,
it is so worth it.
And I want to continue to tell you guys, you can do it.
I believe in you. I know you can.
Every now and then I wanna drop a vlog like this.
Just talking to you guys,
because this is a big part of my life
is trying to inspire people.
And it doesn't mean that life is easy
when you try to go after your dreams.
There's always a lot of resistance that happens.
There's ups, there's downs.
I think one of my favorite charts I've ever seen was that,
what people think success is and what success really is.
There's two steps forward. One step back constantly.
I mean, think about it,
we open up the addition for the reptarium
and literally three days later,
we were shut down because of the virus for three months.
And now we're operating on a completely different level
than we ever have, but we've made it work.
We've made everything work, and that's what it's all about.
When you're following your dreams
and you're pursuing those things,
even when road bumps come, it can be tough.
And you guys know that I suffered through it.
I mean, this one was the hardest one
that I've been hit with in 15 or 18 years,
but you know what? I'm coming out of it now.
And I wanna share that experience with you guys soon,
I'm going to do a separate video on that.
It won't be a vlog, but it will be an extra video
on this channel of what my process has been
to get to that point.
But through even the hardest time
I still was pushing forward.
You guys know I didn't take a day off.
You guys know I was still pushing forward
and I know you guys can too.
It doesn't mean it's gonna be easy.
As a matter of fact, it may be harder
than going the easy route.
But the fact is is that the reward is so worth it.
So listen, if this message resonates with you right now,
and you're struggling to get off your butt
and go follow your dreams, today's the day,
you know what I mean?
Get off into it. Listen,
it may take you years to finally get to where you wanna be.
It took me a lot of years to get to where I'm now happy
with at least this part of my life.
So it's an ongoing thing, but you have to start now,
what is it they say? How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Well, today's the day.
Do me a favor. Seriously just starts thinking
about what you wanna do.
Start making actions, take out a notebook,
start writing down ideas, start taking action.
Remember a vision without action is just a dream
and you don't wanna be a dreamer, you wanna be a doer.
So I just felt like you needed to hear this today.
I needed to tell you this today.
And I hope that this really has resonated
with someone out there
and you decide you wanna change the world
because listen, you can do it.
If I can do it, I know you can.
Okay. That's enough of my inner Gary V for you there.
Let's go ahead and get back to some snakes.
I think I've got some babies hatching.
So what do you say we take a look at those?
Guess what hatched out?
Some more Mexican black kingsnakes.
It seems like it's been a minute
since we hatched some Mexican black kingsnakes.
They're just one of the most popular Colubrid snakes,
you guys know that.
We hatched a bunch earlier this year,
and then there was the last like three, four weeks
we haven't had any at all.
So it's nice to get some more Mexican black kingsnakes,
not a big clutch here, but nevertheless,
really beautiful babies looking really good.
Once these guys shed it out,
they have that black sheen to them.
Oh doggy, these things are amazing.
I'm always excited when I see these baby snakes.
This is actually an Abbott's scaleless Okeetee bred
to a bread to a Abbott's Het scaleless,
and look at all of the scaleless Abbott's.
I mean, we hit the lottery on this one right here.
There's a bunch of normal Abbot's that are heifer scaleless
and then a bunch of the Abbott's scaleless in here.
Oh, doggy, I tell you what? These things are great.
And I've mentioned before that I personally like
the Abbott's scaleless is probably better
than any of the other scaleless stuff.
So I'm super excited that we hit a whole bunch of them
in this clutch. I mean, how awesome is that?
Another clutch of little albino Nelson's milksnakes.
Unbelievably beautiful one.
This one almost has what they call bull's eyes on it,
which is just more circles than the triads
that go all the way around.
This was a het albino bred to an albino.
So about half the babies are coming out normal
and this little monkey is getting away right here,
half of them come out normal like this Nelson's milksnakes
that are het for albino
and then the other half come out albino.
I tell you what, I'm gonna have to put my camera down
or I'm gonna be in trouble.
Come on little monkeys, come on.
Always make sure there's no heads caught,
you know what I mean, but nevertheless, really cool clutch.
We still have a bunch of baby Colubrids to hatch,
but it's been an amazing year seeing
all these incredible babies.
Argy, wants some food bud?
Want some food? Whoa, calm down. There you go.
Tell you what, that is a awesome pet animal right there.
So what is the future? I talk about it every now and then.
Honestly, the future is exciting. It really is.
I mean, number one, I'm super excited
about the podcast moving forward.
I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm excited to feel normal
and to get past this anxiety for good.
And I'm excited for happiness and success down the road.
I feel like I'm just getting started.
I mean, after all, it's only been a couple of years
that I've been living this dream
that I've always dreamt about.
And I hope that the next couple years
I'll live that dream without the anxiety
and the issues that I've been dealing with.
And this very basement that we're standing in right now
might be the future of the reptarium expansion,
downstairs and upstairs. I'm excited about that.
I hope it happens, but first I have to always remember
that no matter what I'm doing,
I'm keeping my mental health in mind
and my happiness in mind, not to expand,
to succeed just to succeed, but to expand and exceed,
because it's gonna make me happy.
And that's what you need to figure out too.
Don't try to go for something success-wise
that's gonna make you miserable.
Only go for the things that are going to make you happy.
My new model is that,
what is this gonna do five years now for me?
In five years, will I be happy?
If I am, then I'm gonna go for it.
If five years from now, it's gonna cost me more work,
headache, hassle.
I'm not interested in doing it
no matter how much money is behind it.
So I'm excited about the future.
I think you guys should be excited about the future.
And I appreciate that you guys have come along to this stage
and I cannot wait to bring you along
on the rest of this journey.
Finally, Noah's in the house
and we're making some progress on the podcast room.
So you're excited to see it?
- I'm excited, I haven't seen anything.
You told me not to look (indistinct)
So far this is the same?
- Yeah, this is the same.
- (laughs) New electrical?
- New electrical.
- Look at that. We have framing.
- I know there's framing.
- Oh my God. Okay. So what do we do?
We walk in. What is it it?
- So this is the control room camera room.
- Okay.
- So this is where you can be editing
and you, Jay and Anthony will be in here.
This will all be a countertop
that goes all the way across here,
all the way to this side here.
Then of course, Jay will sitting here,
the window into the podcast room.
Second person can sit and watch over here if they want.
So now you gotta walk over here.
- Yeah, I like that actually.
I was thinking that we'd have to walk
through the control room, but this is better I think.
- Absolutely, and then this is the podcast much better, huh?
- Oh yeah dude.
- Yeah. It's gonna be much better.
Oh man. This is so awesome.
- I know.
- This is how I imagined it two and a half years ago.
- I know, when we were just talk about it.
- Yeah, exactly. It's like what it's becoming now.
So it's crazy how long time flew by,
or how fast it flew by I should say,
I don't even know.
This is it's just unbelievable.
We've been on that plastic table for so long.
- (laughs) I know, it's gonna be so (indistinct).
- We're really getting an upgrade.
- Oh my gosh, yeah.
Couple of weeks, this place is gonna be done.
It'll be awesome.
- That is awesome.
- Cool. I hope that you guys enjoyed it.
I hope you're not upset with me
for motivating you guys today.
Sometimes I just need to get that out of my system
because I'm really passionate about trying
to inspire you guys. So for that, I appreciate it.
If you guys enjoyed the video here,
actually the playlist about building the reptarium,
my dream come true for sure.
Up in this corner right here,
you can subscribe to my podcast channel called Checking In.
I think you guys are gonna like it.
A lot of cool things coming up in the future.
On this side,
you could actually subscribe to this vlog channel,
turn your post notifications on,
have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember be kind to someone
and I promise, I'll see it tomorrow.