in this video I interviewed Josh and he shares about how as a college dropout he
went full-time on YouTube around his passion and his best tips for getting 1
million subscribers in one year coming up hey what's up guys Sean here with
video influencers help you build your influence income and impact with online
video and today I'm standing here with Josh from exploring with Josh how's it
going man I'm doing great today how are you I'm super good we're here at CVX in
Utah and your channel is incredible you go all over the world and you explore
abandoned places and it's super amazing but let's take it back to really how it
started and what it's all about all right so I was 16 years old and I
was bunking school that day in high school and my friend took me to this
abandoned Asylum and like I said I walked in there I was I was bunking
school my alright this is risky I don't even care let's go in and I started
seeing like old like old abandoned like clothes left it from this abandoned
asylum books that was just forgotten about the whole place was forgotten
about never mind that so for me like I wasn't even like scared I was more like
well this is interesting like is there more like this so I went online and I
saw I ty I started typing in abandoned like back then they there was no
Instagram there was a website it was called like urban explore dot come this is
way back so I try I would there was like a whole section of abandon places so I
was like okay let's try to find any near our town I kept looking and looking I
found some more I bugged my friends that were older that can drive me I was still
16 so we would go check them out I all I had was like a cell phone I was taking
pictures with that by then I'm 20 years old and then I was like okay I can
afford a camera YouTube's out now instagram’s out so let's try to let's try
to make this real let's go big I see a lot of love a lot of vloggers they're
just posting themselves eating food I'm like hardly getting all these views
they're just eating food and then everyone loves them so I was like I'm
gonna show them an adventure I already been doing this for a while this is like
my passion I love going into old abandoned places the history it's like a
time machine man so I'm like okay let's make a film out of this and so I would
show myself go inside these places firsthand like right off the top not
nothing like edited or nothing and then I would also add like an nitch to it so
I'll do a lot of like cinematography show like a lot of cinematic color
great it make it look nice like almost like a real good movie on top of
so I'm making like a real documentary I'll do a lot up before and after shots
man and that took off like crazy and it was the only thing on the Internet at
the time so yeah I was I was doing different stuff that no one has ever
done that's amazing and how big is it today it's at 2.5 million and I made the
channel 2.5 years ago so yes steady super cool Congrats your story super
inspiring and so what are some things that you learn the walk along the way
specifically how'd you learn how to like do the good video production because
your stuff is amazing how did you learn how to use the cameras and like do all
that stuff alright so funny I was like 14 and 15 at
the time in high school and I was really active and I was doing this old this all
I've ever even saw this new YouTube channel before but I was doing this old
dance called see walking it was like it was called it's like called clown
walking it's like a dance you do at your feet and at the time I pirated Sony
Vegas really young and I wanted to edit with it so I learned how to edit I
picked it up over time and by its I'm like I was 16 I was still dancing I
start doing breakdancing so my channel URL is actually they auto reality crew
because I was actually a dance crew before this whole vlogging thing came so
I already knew how to edit so yeah it's really interesting and that's so yeah
that's kind of how I picked it up that's super cool and then with that I mean
it's a couple big takeaways influencers number one you found like a niche or a
niche then really nobody else is doing like you said nobody else is doing on
YouTube you brought excellence to it but along it along the way like obviously
there's other reasons why it grow what are some of the tips that you would say
for youtubers that want to grow that you've learned alright so for one like
like I said abandons the big one and it may look like a clickbait title like
going inside of abandoned school slam door closed or something like that like
that really happened so it's not a clickbait so people were like wow this
youtubers on a clic baiter but it's actually real and people when they would
first see it the way I'm pretty sure this is clickbait but it's not and then
people like well no one's ever doing this before this is just something that
is completely different it's it's it's unbelievable and so like that's what I
was doing that's how I started growing a lot people were sharing it you know lad
did a lot of stuff with me so many more other people have done it but other than
that on tips is like like I said you got to be different you got to be you're
yourself too because you can only fake so much before like it's gonna get old
it's kind of people gonna start to see it so be yourself but for me like I have
a lot of energy and I'm like I don't care if I
if I might be awkward or anything I'll be like hey what's up the best friend is
my camera you know um so that's really about it
it's it's it's really hard cause I I didn't even collab with other youtubers
man like I just did this all myself but yeah you got to really just be different
and be entertained like be an entertainer seriously if you're vlogging
be entertaining no one's gonna want to see yourself hey so today we're eating a
bowl of cereal we're about to hit the movies with my friends it's you gotta
you gotta if you're gonna do that make it really more interesting like for I
don't know like shove the steer in your mouth yeah let's go let's go we'll see
this movie together make it random I don't know that's good yeah that's good
power - but that's like energy - yeah be energetic I also love that like instead
of doing clickbait like do what seems like clickbait but then actually do it
yeah yeah yeah seriously yeah yeah cool now one of the stories well your most
viewed video is an abandoned Mexican drug dealers house right yeah what
happened there you mentioned like how do you get into these places and what would
you say about like the courage and the tenacity and even figuring out how to go
on these adventures okay so I don't like tours I was even when I was younger I
wanted a true adventure I'd watch all these movies and I was like I wanted I
was so inspired by the movie something I want to live my life like a movie and so
all right so the drug dealers mansion I found a video on Vice I was like I want
to go there and I know how Mexico is and it's it's insane it's crazy I love it I
love Mexico they have tons of abandoned stuff there though so for me I love
abandon you know Mexico is really great so I went down there and we took a risk
we asked we asked if we can go inside they said no I said all right well what
if we bribe you know give you some money and it worked and it happened multiple
times in Mexico we got inside some of the most craziest unique places that no
one has ever seen because you know we went out of our comfort zone that's a
big thing you got to do and yeah we just went like forget the law and let's just
try to do this another way and it worked out really good so always like just you
know make it happen just do it whatever it takes I love that where are you ready
for the lightning round so what lightning round I'm born ready
for the light born ready so what is lightning look like
lightning around 3 2 1 favorite TV show um
Dragon Ball Z that's an anime but TV show yes first celebrity crush Oh
Lindsay Lohan cat or dog cat for sure you have a cat
I had three but not anymore favorite social network besides YouTube Instagram
coffee or tea coffee what is a book that every influencer watching
should read Harry Potter what is your favorite documentary or movie honestly
my favorite movies transformers one yeah dope
what is one of your hidden talents I can breakdance we're just doing this wanna see it if you show that ground I can do something on it alright
okay here we go with breakdancer hey that was crazy dude do you have like a no miss morning ritual um
explain that like something you do every morning um get my coffee
check me emails if you could give a TED talk what would it be about pushing
towards your dreams I was always young and I just really
wanted to just be free and travel and I was thinking of hundreds of ways I can
do that whether it was like being on a cruise ship for work as an entertainer
as a dancer all the way towards being like a like a they call that a tour
guide a tour guide so I was looking at everything but YouTube is really what I
wanted I felt like there was more and I feel like I could really do it had this
abandoned niche going on this all this was going on through my head and I was
like I was like oh let's do it and I put all my heart and effort into it as long
with the break bands and break dance and also my passion too so yeah I love that
how has how has like failure or setbacks or any like discouraging situations set
you up for future success later in your life like failures that yeah like yeah
accepting that you could've gave up but you learn from it you kept going
well I mean I I was in college I dropped out with A’s and because I was
unhappy I feel like it wasn't for me but when I dropped I was like okay I really
have to give YouTube everything I got and I mean one of the reasons like if I
didn't drop out maybe I wouldn't have put all my effort into YouTube I don't
know if that's a good one but yeah that's that's awesome what advice would
you give your now for your 14 year old self live it like it's your last live it
like your last what is your favorite place in the world and why and you've
been to a lot of places alright so my favorite place is Japan
and the reason why is because the people are so nice so humble I mean I stepped
on this girl's shoe by mistake and she said sorry to me that yeah the right
there tells you I love anime I love video games and yeah Japan's good for
that so boom I love it lightning round lightning round lightning round
alright so finally where is all of your stuff out online of course we're gonna
put links in the description below but tell everybody where to find you and
your favorite platforms yes so Instagram Twitter and YouTube is all exploring
with Josh perfect and what's coming up next like what do you have on the
calendar I so in the end of September I'm gonna be in Buffalo and I get a
video for it and it's gonna be me going to four different abandoned places now
like what I usually do it's gonna be more of like a documentary more of an
artistic film but after that November more abandoned places but I'm pushing
past what I usually do I mean we already done Chernobyl Fukushima document she's
there we're gonna go to this island that no one has ever filmed on across Japan
like the super super secret island okay I don't to give anything out but it's
gonna be on my page eventually soon super super cool now finally for the
influencers watching you know there's their video creators or people that want
to you know make a difference get their message out there grow their influence
what's your final word of just encouragement for them to just keep
going and to do it like I said I started from rock bottom so I just worked hard
every single day and I pushed I mean honestly anyone can do it now I
mean it understand it's getting a lot harder everyone wants to do this and I
understand seriously just get out there in collab with everyone find a cool
group of friends with the same mindset of you push each other and work together
and hope you guys can achieve something great appreciated so much thank you man
in this video in okay