- Today we wanna talk with you guys about something
that's very important, which is how difficult things
in your personal life can really impact you as a creator,
the quality of your work, what you create,
what you believe about yourself,
and how it impacts your audience.
A lot of really good stuff we're going to talk about
with Luria here today.
Hey, guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer
and welcome to Video Creators.
This channel is all about helping you guys grow a Youtube
audience if you can spread a message that reached people
and changes their lives.
And I know you are really into like reaching people,
impacting them and.
- Yes.
- She has a great thing that she's doing
with Live Streaming.
So I work with her and her team, learning a lot
about Live Streaming myself.
And so anything you wanna learn about
she's the person to go to, but.
- Yeah.
- You're not just a Live Streaming person,
you have a life, too.
(Luria laughs)
Tell us a little about your story as a creator.
- So 2005 Apple was releasing their first video iPod.
- [Tim] Oh, I remember that.
- [Luria] This was before the iPhone existed.
- [Tim] Yeah.
- And I was one of the very first video podcasters,
now called Youtubers.
So, over the last 12 years, I've
And, you know.
Up until like 10 years, I built, like, about 2 million
followers, and had a super successful, from the outside,
you know, business.
And, I was, I had a lot of brand deals, and, you know,
Panasonic, and Samsung, and AT&T, and all of these people.
And lots of sponsorships and a huge audience.
- Yeah.
- A super engaged audience.
- Right.
- And then everything kind of fell apart.
- I intentionally built a business out of it...
- [Tim] Right, yeah.
...but at the same time, you know, behind the scenes,
while everybody was like, "Oh my God!"
"You're like amazing and you're, you know, this...
huge big deal!"
And that was cool, but I didn't feel quite like that
was right.
Like it didn't make sense to me because, behind the scenes
I was, I dealt, yeah, my whole life, from a childhood,
I was in controlling relationships of one kind
from step-father to step-sister to husband
to, you know, business partner and the whole ordeal was like
I don't feel like I have control over my life, you know.
(laughs)
And so at one point, you know, ten years in I started
to actually grow up and, you know, sort of
break free from
that.
What that did was I started not being comfortable
pretending, and so, you know, and then I had
to really face the facts and so at that point it was,
okay this partnership isn't working.
This, you know, the business isn't working.
You know, the business itself wasn't doing as well
as it looked like from the outside, you know?
And I had to face that fact.
And, honestly, I let a lot of people down.
(laughs uncomfortably)
- Do you feel like your work really suffered as a,
like, the creative side was that like, not, maybe like,
squashed a little bit or?
- Yeah, for sure.
- And the audience didn't.
Were they responding to this at all, or not really?
- Yeah, well, I think it kind of blew up in their face
cuz I was hiding, hiding, hiding while everything was
going on.
I don't think that my work suffered until I knew
that I had to make a change, and that change was let
that business go, change my name.
- That's a big change.
- Yeah, like.
It's my baby.
- That's like starting over, like from scratch.
- It's, yeah.
I mean, 10 years worth of building a baby, you know?
Like of creating a baby, right?
Like it's, that, it was hard.
- Yeah.
- It was the most difficult thing I'd done.
- Yeah.
- Changed my name, stopped doing Tech News
and Reviews entirely, and decided I wanted
to, you know, teach what I'd learned how to do.
How to build that community, how to do live video,
and all of that, but really help people connect
on a deeper level with their own communities.
- Yeah.
- Like that teaching bug got me and yeah.
So it didn't really affect my work until that
"Bam!"
"Sorry, everybody!"
"Bye!"
- So were you, when you were going through that, were you
at the point you're like, "I don't even care anymore!"
"Just get this out of my life, I want to start all over."
Or was this like, I have, this is super scary for me
to like let this go and start over.
Or you were like, "I'm so glad."
"I want to start all over."
Or what, what was?
- Yeah, it was months in the making.
I was scared to death.
I was crying every night trying to figure out how
to even go through this process or what it even looked like.
It was the most difficult decision.
I mean, I lived my divorce online, in the public eye.
This change was even harder than that.
You know what I mean, like?
- Wow.
That's probably saying something, like.
- Yeah.
(laughs)
- I'll say so.
So why didn't you just give up creating altogether
and just go hide in a hole?
I guess I think that's what I would have done.
(Luria laughs enthusiastically)
I would have been like, "Screw this!"
"I'm going to go hide and never come out."
- I'm not.
When I decide to do something. I go all in.
- I see that.
(laughs)
Yeah.
Apparently.
- So I don't think that was ever an option for me.
I feel a constant need to
do more
and be more
only for the reason that I know I can help people
from a deeper perspective and so.
- [Tim] Yeah.
- That's what drives me.
- I see that's like consistent with like the creators
who make it, who overcome conflict, who overcome big
obstacles and adversities.
Everyone hits those, I mean.
- Yeah.
- I certainly have.
They look different for different people, but the people
who push through it do it not because they're just trying
to feel more popular, not getting more views, more
subscribers or.
- Yeah.
- Trying to get more money.
It's like they have this bigger thing.
- You know, for 10 years people had asked me, number one
question was, "How do I do what you do?"
And so I thought.
- That's how I got started.
- Yeah,
(laughs)
- Actually, now that I think about it.
It's kind of a nutshell.
- I had started teaching video and then I realized as live,
as like Facebook embraced live video, I realized.
Because it was actually, I had started with video
and then I morphed into video and live video,
and then Facebook went all in
and I was like, "That's the thing."
Cuz that's where I stand out, because I've been
doing live video.
Like people don't know that live video's existed for.
- It's very.
- As long as it has.
- I know.
Well, YouTube's had it for years.
- And I think that that's where it was,
that realization of, "Oh!"
Like that's what stands out about me.
You know, corporations, huge corporations have hired me
to be there live video person so, it's like.
Okay, you gotta find those things that set you
apart a little bit in terms of your experience.
- Yeah.
- Your knowledge.
- So what did you start doing then when you start going
to the next business?
What?
I'm assuming you did it differently the next time.
Like the second of like, how.
What were the steps that you took to go forward from there?
- I just did whatever the hell
I could think to do.
(enthusiastic laughter)
- That's very legit.
Yup.
- So, I, first of all, I, you know, set up,
or David set up the new website and setup all the
backend stuff.
- So it sounds like you partnered with somebody.
- Yes.
- Like that's probably a good step.
- Partnered with somebody, yes.
- Like find somebody who can, you surround yourself with
who can help you reach those goals and things.
- Right.
I started learning about marketing and I started learning.
Cuz, previously, my business was all sponsorship,
brand-deal based, and I knew that I wanted to get away
from the sponsorship model because it was just
such a volatile world.
- Yes.
- We started actually doing Geeks University,
cuz that's what made sense.
- [Tim] Yeah.
- To me at the time.
And then I had a mentor say,
"So what is Geeks University exactly?"
"Like what's in that name?"
I was like, "Oh, the name matters..."
The name matters.
So we switched to Live Streaming Pros and our business
entirely changed.
- [Tim] Oh, yeah.
- The thing I've learned through all of my mistakes,
and all of my transitions is that transition is actually
where the success happens.
Like I used to feel such tremendous guilt and
sense of I'm doing it wrong.
Every time I made a mistake, every time I transitioned,
like that felt so heavy and wrong to me.
And I think a lot of people feel that.
I've become aware of how many people transition
in there business, like.
- Yeah
It is the only thing that gets you to the next thing.
- Yes, right.
Yeah.
- And so every mistake that I've made in the last,
well, twelve years was necessary
to get me to where I am.
And, you know, that, I have learned to embrace failure.
I've learned to embrace those mistakes.
- I read a good book recently by Donald Miller called
"A Million Miles in a Thousand Years"
and his principle is like the elements that make
for a good story are also the same elements
that make a life worth living.
And most people try to avoid conflict.
- Yes.
- They try to avoid the pain, the suffering, anything
that's uncomfortable, but your story is like exactly what
that is.
Like you have to go through the pressure cooker
for the character to be
transformed and that's what we love about stories,
you know?
- Yeah.
It has made me who I am today.
- Yeah.
- And I actually like who I am today.
- And you wouldn't have the success of Live Streaming Pros
without having gone through all that...
- Exactly.
- That whole, that soul story.
- The way of the future is to really solidify
a relationship first and get engagement first
over thinking about numbers, and live video allows that
to happen.
- Yeah.