good morning John I'm having a lovely
time hanging out with our parents at
their house in very damp North Carolina
it's lovely it's just very wet signa
step back for me is important and very
nice especially right after VidCon where
I'm always like hanging out with people
who are doing really cool things and I
start to think that they're doing cool
things to mean maybe they're smarter
than me making good decisions that I'm
not making taking opportunities that I'm
not seeing and I bet a lot of people can
relate to this feeling that you look
around other people and think oh my god
they actually they actually know what
they're doing which I had that thought
all the time which is ridiculous this is
the biggest secret of online video of
course no one has any idea what they're
doing I'm standing in the rain with my
computer basically I'm saying if the
person who started the conference that
you're at can feel this way then any
person can in any circumstance it's just
a human nature thing I guess and one
thing that I need to remember is that
over time my drive has changed shadings
that I once wanted to do I don't want to
do as much anymore and then I look back
and I think I missed the opportunity to
do that thing but intentionally because
I didn't want to who was just talking
with our dad while standing on a bridge
watching my son throw rocks into a creek
it was nice and I told him an idea I had
for a business and he said to me you're
not gonna do that are you and I said of
course not no just because a business
opportunity exists doesn't mean that I'm
going to go and do it but there was a
point in my life when that actually was
how I felt I felt like if I wasn't
creating all the economic value I could
then in a sense I was I was failing
society I still feel obligations to
society of course I just don't feel that
particular one anymore
I run a bunch of different businesses
one of the less glamorous ones is one of
the ones that I like the most it's a
shipping company we create great
products for content creators that they
can sell to their communities I started
it with my friend Alan in 2008 and now
I'm running with my friend Dave it
sounds a little boring it's not an app
but it's found a niche it's doing its
thing makes people happy and it helps
creators grow their businesses or go
full-time and the success of that
business relied on me realizing
accepting and actually being excited
about the fact that I didn't want it to
make billions of dollars and get sold to
Amazon or some terrible thing and so I
have two pieces of dftba.com related
news one
John you and I as great as we aren't
lots of things have too much stuff on
the shelves in the dftba warehouse and
nobody ever comes to me and tells me
this because i'm the CEO of the company
so we're doing a thing for 1799 and this
includes shipping anywhere in the world
we will send you a big old bag of
vlogbrothers stuff up to ten items and
that includes shirts and hats and
posters and decals and pin this is gonna
last two weeks unless we run out of
stuff and also other things are on sale
for example the bobbleheads which we
made too many of let's just be honest
and we're selling those for $2 now
they're $2 everybody you also have to
pay for shipping on those obvious
reasons why I wearing dftba socks right
now I am wearing dftba socks right now
they're so comfy can I show you my socks
without falling off a mountain I kicked
leaf onto my head the other piece of
dftba news we decided that since we have
like pretty big goals for what we would
like to do with regard to maternal
health in Liberia with Partners in
Health that we're going to take the vast
majority of the after-tax profit of
dftba.com and give it to Partners in
Health to work on that project which we
will have more information on soon this
is dftba z' money the money that it
makes doing its business whether that
money comes from Kurt's Quezada or
Lindsey Ellis or the McElroy brothers
our life's library and we'll still be
doing the rest of our business exactly
the same we'll pay our employees the
same will bonus them the same we're just
gonna take the profit and start giving
it to something that mattered more
because that those are the obligations
that I feel now it's just about people
coming together to solve problems and
make things that people like and also to
get some space in our warehouse Canaan
is mad he wants us to make some space so
big sale that's what's happening John
I'll see you on Tuesday it's so pretty
out here enjoy everyone I should always
vlog in the middle of the woods it's
beautiful I thought I didn't start
raining harder lucky