(upbeat music)
- Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the vlog.
Today's vlog is gonna be a vlog of chance, let's say.
So, what it is, I am gonna spin my new spinny wheel here
and whatever it is, we have things like
"What animal would I never wanna work with?
"Worst animal encounter, what do I fear most?
"Most excited about, next animal, next animal adventure."
Regardless, I'm just gonna go ahead and spin,
whatever topic it comes on,
that's what today's vlog's gonna be about.
So what do you say we just give it a shot?
Well I guess I'm getting in with Lucy.
So what do I fear most?
It's really an interesting topic, right?
Because fear is an interesting thing in the sense that,
in a lot of cases, fear is the opposite of knowledge.
So the more you know, the less you fear.
Do I fear Lucy?
Is she a little bit fierce animal?
(dramatic music)
Ooh!
Is she unpredictable?
Lucy is, whoa!
Is she huge?
Take a look at how long that snake is right there.
Literally it goes from one side of The Reptarium
all the way to the other side.
Could she inflict some damage?
Yeah!
She could do all of those things.
But the truth is, I don't fear her at all.
Because she is absolutely incredible and, you know,
all those years of experience that I've had
working with big snakes and animals like Lucy here
have kind of got me to the point where
I really don't fear them.
But there certainly is a lot of other things I fear in life,
have no doubt about it, but Lucy is not one of them.
Tarantulas, there is no doubt that this goes back to the
fear and knowledge thing, right?
It's cause I was terrified of tarantulas.
I've completely feel comfortable with her now.
Really, all spiders, the majority of my life.
To the point where I would literally freak out
if a little spider was in my house.
I mean I couldn't even sleep if I saw one on the ceiling
or something like that.
And now, the more knowledge
that I've gotten about tarantulas,
The more I absolutely love them, you know Zombie is amazing
and I think that they're all really cool.
So, as I learned about things,
I actually became less fearful.
And I think in most cases that is the case.
But still, there's plenty of fear to go around,
I'm not gonna lie.
(upbeat music)
When it comes to reptiles I think people fear them
because they don't really understand them.
And a lot of people definitely fear bites, you know?
They fear to get bit by a snake and, you know,
my attitude is, do I really fear bites?
I've been bitten so many times.
When it comes to Lucky, Lucky's always happy to bite
there's no doubt about it and the truth is.
You can see it's not that really big of a deal.
Yeah, do I wanna get bit by Lucy, probably not.
Have I been bit by Lucy before?
Yes I certainly have.
Do I fear bites?
Not really,
I mean as long as you know what you're doing
and you're safe about it, the truth is
bites aren't that big of a deal.
RJ, what are you doin buddy?
I tell you what, there is no doubt that RJ
has been acting a little bit bullish lately.
(dramatic music)
(alligator hissing)
He's not his normal kinda cheery self when it comes to me,
that is 100% sure, but do I fear an animal like this?
I gotta tell you something guys, when it comes to RJ,
there is no doubt that if you don't have
a respect for an animal like that, that could hurt you.
If I get in the water and don't use
all of the experience that I have to actually work with him
and not get hurt, if he bit you,
you literally would be in big trouble.
I mean yeah, he could just bite and let go
and it probably wouldn't be that bad, but if he bit
and actually curls or something like that,
he could break your arm, probably even rip a hand off.
Something like that, like.
He's at that size where
you definitely have to be very concerned about things.
But, that being said, do I fear him?
Absolutely not.
You know, I think it's a mistake
to fear an animal like that.
Sure he's being cheeky lately,
but that doesn't mean too much.
Again, I've told you guys a lot of times
that I will get him broke of this.
This happened about four years ago,
where I went through a couple months where
he was a little cheeky, kinda, you know, that stand off,
trying to get dominant on me,
and I was able to kinda bring him back.
So RJ, although he's being a little bit weird right now,
I don't fear him at all, you know.
Because again, I think that when you start to fear it
that's when the problem comes in.
Okay, he's gonna turn he's going to come over,
he's exerting his dominance on me
and he's coming right over, watch.
He'll come right up to me and he'll even snap,
like he's gonna try to.
See that, he's like don't mess with me dad.
I'm not gonna play around.
But the truth is, again,
because I know exactly what he's thinking
and kinda his actions, I don't fear him because I know,
again, the lack of fear is knowledge.
The more knowledge I know, the more I understand RJ,
the more I'm not concerned about him, right buddy?
Aw, that's okay he's just being cheeky.
He's gonna be completely fine.
He's still a wonderful animal.
Honestly, working with animals,
some of which are even venomous,
even though mangroves aren't terribly bad,
I certainly have worked with cobras, mambas, you know,
taipans, have worked with lions and tigers, rhinos,
sure those are animals that could potentially hurt you,
just like this cheeky monkey
is trying to get on me right now, but, the truth is,
is that I think the worst thing you could ever do
when you're working with an animal is to fear that animal.
You always have to respect the animal,
but if you start to fear it,
that's when you could potentially get hurt.
So, again, with an animal like a mangrove snake here,
of course I have a tremendous amount of respect
for this animal, but do I actually fear it?
No.
I don't fear it at all.
The fact is is I just respect its potential,
and if you're respecting its potential,
that's how you actually can stay safe.
Again, when you fear something,
that's when you kinda make mistakes, right?
You always wanna be level headed.
When you're fearful of something,
typically you're not making the most rash decisions, right?
You're gonna react out of fear
instead of out of knowledge and, kind of, experience.
So I think that it's really important
to never have that come into your mind.
You know, don't get me wrong, again,
you need to respect things.
When I've worked with cobras or
I've worked with taipans or mambas,
or any animal that could potentially even kill you,
obviously, I'm gonna respect those animals tremendously.
And I'll be the totally honest with you,
there's times when I work with stuff,
like when I was shooting with Discovery Channel
for Venom Hunters and I'm literally
catching taipans in the wild and brown snakes,
you know, animals that could literally drop you dead
and you would be in big trouble,
when I'm done I actually go back and I think
wow, that was a little bit scary.
But when I'm in the moment, I'm never fearful,
as a matter of fact I'm almost feeling like
I'm more alive than ever because I'm in the moment,
because every decision I make has my life in hand.
Now, that's not the case when I'm working
with something like Perdida,
but the fact is is even trying to habituate these animals
and get them to be really great ambassadors
means that I have to not fear them
but I have to continue to respect them, right?
And if I start to fear animals,
that's when I could potentially get hurt.
And when you stop respecting animals,
that's when you make mistakes and eventually get hurt.
When I was in Africa, I had a pretty close encounter
with some rhinos, again, through that whole experience,
could I have gotten killed?
Absolutely.
But the fact was is that I was calm, I was collected,
it never got into a panic situation,
so it's really important to not fear things,
even though a lot of people ask me,
"Brian, what do you fear when it comes to animals?"
I really always say there's no animal that I actually fear,
but I always respect all of them.
But that doesn't mean that I'm not a fearful person,
as a matter of fact, what do I actually fear?
So what do I actually fear?
I'm not gonna lie to you, I fear not trying.
That's right, I fear the fact that,
if I don't try to achieve the things that I want to achieve,
then I don't know what might have been.
Take for instance, Ben & Jerry,
we all know that two headed snakes have been
kind of a little bit of an issue with me, right?
I was willing to swing for the fence because
I wanted to have a two headed snake, like Ben & Jerry,
here at The Reptarium, but we all know
that it started out with Laverne & Shirley,
and that didn't work out too well.
And although we all know how Laverne & Shirley turned out --
And I open up her cage,
and I find her just laying there, lifeless.
The two headed snake now presides in my office
in a jug of alcohol.
And listen, Cookies 'n Creme didn't work out well either.
I'm devastated that Cookies 'n Creme didn't make it
because we put so much energy into that particular animal.
The fact was it wasn't the problem of the animals
not making it, it was the fact that
what happened if I didn't try, you know?
If I wouldn't have bought Laverne & Shirley
and then they would've lived for 20 years,
I would've thought "What if I would've bought them?"
Right, it sucks that they died,
it sucks that I lost Cookies 'n Creme as well,
but I knew the chance I was taking,
the fact that two headed snakes oftentimes don't survive
but I wasn't willing to not at least try.
And as much as it sucked losing Laverne & Shirley
and then giving it a go with Cookies n Creme
and that not working out,
it didn't stop me from trying again.
So when I had the opportunity to get Ben & Jerry,
I took a swing at it again.
The third time, in this case actually was the charm.
Ben & Jerry have been doing absolutely amazing.
And the vision I had from the beginning,
of having a two headed snake that would draw people in
and actually get them curious about reptiles
was what it was all about.
And now I've actually been able to see it happen
with Ben & Jerry, when people come to The Reptarium
like "Oh my God, I came here to see the two headed snake,"
or they come in, they see the two headed snake,
and then they're just completely blown away
and start asking a ton of questions,
which opens up the opportunity
for me to teach them about reptiles.
(upbeat music)
So I've never been afraid to take risks.
I've never really been afraid of failing,
I've been afraid of not trying.
As a matter of fact, there's a lot of amazing failures
that I've had over the years.
In 2003, I took a swing for the fences
with a snake called the viper ball python.
I paid $50,000 dollars for it.
Here's a photo right up here.
It's not a very great photo,
but it's the only photo I have of the animal.
It was an expensive snake out of Africa
and I thought for sure it was gonna be
recessive or codominant cause it looked
so absolutely amazing.
I spent seven years working on the project
to just find out that it wasn't recessive,
it wasn't codominant,
it just a crazy cool looking ball python.
To the best of my knowledge, it's the only ball python
that I've ever seen that was so radically different,
color and pattern-wise,
that didn't prove out to be genetic.
But the fact was is that, yeah, I lost $50,000
and seven years of trying, but I at least tried, right?
I never look back and thought that that was a huge mistake.
I thought the bigger mistake was the fact that
I may not have bought it and maybe someone else bought it
and proved it out and it would have been a huge project.
So, again, I'm not afraid of failing,
I'm really just afraid of not trying.
(upbeat music)
So if the fear of failure kinda held me back,
it would stop so many decisions that I've made.
Take Mario and Luigi,
the two headed snapping turtle, for instance.
If I was afraid of the fact
that all of the things that could potentially go wrong,
cause trust me, lots of things could go wrong,
like I've mentioned before,
they can flip upside down and die, they might just not eat,
they might not do well, they might not grow,
all these things, I wouldn't have gotten them.
And again, I don't know what the future holds,
but hopefully, one day, they'll be nice,
big snapping turtles with two heads,
and they'll create a lot of curiosity,
just like Ben & Jerry.
I don't let the fear of failure ever really hold me back.
But I am always afraid, again, of not trying,
it's nothing wrong with failing as long as you've tried
and you've done the best.
Now I'm not telling you guys to go out and do stupid things
and waste your money and do crazy things.
Make responsible choices,
but the fact is is if you go and do it,
even if you fail, that's okay, cause you learned from it.
Will Smith once said "Fail forward."
You know, always make sure you're failing forward.
And the thing that you guys may not know about me is that
I am actually terrified of all kinds of things, you know.
I may not be terrified of a lot of the things
that you guys would think I'd be terrified,
like animals and potentially getting killed by things,
but I am terrified of silly things.
Like I'm terrified of silos, grain silos, or bridges,
or deep water, I guess that's a more common one,
but there's a ton of things, windmills for instance,
I'm terrified of, I don't know why,
I'm always working on those things
but I'm a person that's kinda laden with bizarre fears
but then again, animals have always brought me back.
It's the one thing that always made me
feel the most comfortable, when I'm around animals.
When I'm around animals, I'm always happy
and I'm not fearful at all.
Take for instance The Reptarium,
I mean it was probably one of the biggest risks
that I've taken in a long time,
it cost a ton of money, I didn't know if it was gonna work,
I just was like "Heck with it."
As a matter of fact, most people were telling me
it was the dumbest thing that I've ever done.
But I wanted to do it for me
and I wanted to make sure that I knew if it was gonna work.
I couldn't live with the fact that if I didn't do it,
what would potentially have happened.
And I'll be honest with you,
it's probably the most fulfilling thing that I've ever done.
It's not only been successful
when it comes to the amount of people
and the business that we do here,
but it's also been amazingly successful for me personally.
Probably my favorite thing I've ever done in my entire life,
business wise, was The Reptarium,
cause I get to meet so many people, I get to educate,
cause that's what I'm really passionate about,
and if I were to have taken everyone's advice,
I wouldn't have invested the money, the time, the energy,
into something like this, and I would have deprived myself
of such an amazing experience.
Again, one of the most fulfilling things
that I've ever done.
So again, I was willing to take the risk
because I knew I wanted to do it
and I was willing to understand that
there was a chance that it could've been a failure
and that all the time, money, and energy,
that I put into it would've been a complete waste.
My point is, you have to accept the fact that
something you do may fail in order to
potentially have things succeed.
You guys know me, I'm always doing something,
I'm always trying to create something new,
so I have some pretty massive initiatives
that are coming up at the end of 2019 going into 2020.
And you know, I'm gonna bring you guys on the journey,
whether it's good or bad.
A lot of the projects I'm talking about
I'll be sharing with you as time goes on,
can't quite tell you yet.
But they're coming soon.
But there's a couple things that are pretty crazy,
that I don't know what's gonna happen,
I've talked to you guys about AnimalBytesTV
and the potential of, like,
this big travel-adventure high-end production.
That's in the works and I hope that
it's actually gonna come to fruition,
but it's a huge initiative.
I think, again, much like The Reptarium,
it could be one of the biggest things
I've ever done in my entire life, if it works out.
But there's gonna be a lot of energy that's put behind it.
And, again, I'll bring you guys along on the journey.
Another thing that I will mention
that's in the early stages,
and I'm not sure if I'm even gonna do it,
but we have talked about potentially
opening up a Reptarium in China, of all places.
That's right.
I'm not sure if we're gonna do it.
But there's some real potential there,
and we've been talking with the company over there
that wants to kind of do it with us,
which means we're gonna be going to China a bunch next year
if we decide to do it.
Again, there's some pretty scary things happening
that I'm excited about but I'm also really terrified,
because they're crazy initiatives.
But you know what I'm more terrified about
is not trying to do those things and wondering
what if I had and what would have potentially worked out.
So, for me, I'm just gonna go for it enjoy the ride.
So in the end, what do I fear most?
I fear not trying.
I don't fear failing.
I don't fear any of that stuff.
I just fear the fact that if I don't try it,
what would've been.
So don't let fear hold you back,
cause you never know when that leap of faith
is gonna eventually change your life,
much like so many of my leaps of faiths has.
None more than what happened at The Reptarium here.
So let me know in the comments, guys,
what you think about this whole thing,
and what you guys fear too.
I'd like to hear about that
and how you're gonna try to overcome that fear.
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Remember to have a wonderful day and be kind to someone.
I promise, I'll see you guys tomorrow.