(tranquil electronic music)
- There you go, big boy.
You know, Al's always a beautiful way
and I love starting the vlog this way.
The other day, I had a pretty heavy video
talking about just what the future of this vlog is.
And I tell you, you guys had so many comments.
I mean, literally it blew me away.
Thank you so much.
And it really gave me a moment of clarity.
It gave me an opportunity,
not only to get my mind together and really soul search
on what I wanted to do for the future,
but also the fact that what you guys think about the vlog,
and the future of the vlog, and everything.
I can't thank you enough for it
and I'm about to tell you what I really am thinking.
I tell you what,
my girl Salty is getting absolutely ginormous.
I can't wait for the expansion
so we can get her into a 20-foot-long enclosure,
and really see her get six to eight foot.
But the truth is, is that I had mentioned that,
you know, the vlog was slowing down,
our social was slowing down,
numbers were down, and stuff like that,
and I'm going to be totally honest with you.
Prior to that video, and that day,
when I was really kind of, you know,
it kind of hit me, like what is going on?
I really blamed YouTube.
I thought it was the YouTube algorithm.
I thought it was YouTube.
I thought it was a glitch.
I thought that honestly it was gonna come back.
I didn't think that it was anything more than that,
but after doing some real soul searching
and also reading all your comments,
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I think it's mainly us to blame, you know what I mean?
And I want to get into why I think that it's us to blame.
So we all know that last year was a struggle
for so many people, but, you know,
most of you guys know
that I had a really bad time with anxiety.
Now, first off, I'm not blaming my anxiety
for the vlog not being good,
but what I'm saying is that I don't know
if you guys understand how much I struggled.
I mean, most days,
for the better part of 12 months,
maybe even 14 months,
I could barely even get through things.
I mean, to get through a vlog was like, almost impossible.
I mean, there were times
where it would take me 10 minutes
just to film one segment,
because I couldn't keep my mind straight.
My anxiety was so, so bad.
So really, Jay, of course, my camera guy,
that is also one of my best friends on the planet,
he really had to held my hand
and just get through the vlogs,
the best that I possibly could.
Now, with COVID and everything happening,
our vlogs actually did great.
We're getting 120,000, 150,000 views every single video,
and that was basically
because people were just watching YouTube so much.
But to be honest with you, during that time,
we had to simplify everything we did,
because it was such a struggle.
And honestly, I was so glad
that I was able to get through those times with the vlog,
because it gave me something to do.
If I didn't have the vlog,
I don't know how I would have gotten through it.
And now thankfully I am so much better.
Most days, my anxiety is almost nothing,
and I've really come such a long way,
and I'm so grateful for it.
And, again, in no way am I trying to say,
"Oh, my anxiety caused this."
What I was trying to say is that,
as I've gotten better,
and it's a slow progress, right?
It's not like one day you wake up and you just feel better,
you just slowly feel better
as you're working on your issues,
and now it feels like I'm almost normal most of the time.
But the fact is, is that,
I'm gonna be honest with you guys.
I think that we fell into some bad habits.
Prior to my anxiety,
I worked so hard at different camera angles
and different slow-mo shots,
and all kinds of other stuff.
And then we were just trying to get through the day,
because it was so hard to do the bare minimum.
And then, as I was feeling better,
we kind of just kept that same mentality
of like, "Let's just get through it", right?
I love the creative side of this thing.
All of a sudden, it became more like
we were just kind of, just,
"Let's just get through the vlog,
let's get through the next day."
And listen, after 1,700 days in a row,
it gets to be that way, where it's kind of a grind.
But the fact is, is that, you know,
I really do love it,
and it took this experience to make me realize
that maybe I kind of had lost a little bit
of my fire when it came to the vlog,
and now I want that fire back.
And I feel I have that fire back,
'cause as I feel better, my creativity is coming back,
and my ability to talk to you guys,
and my ability to just kind of interact
with things is coming back.
So we want to be better,
and we are going to be better.
Hey guys. How are you?
- Hi, how are you?
- He literally had one direction.
Don't come here.
He came here, and now look, he knows.
See that smile? See the smile?
He knows he's appealed.
- And the truth is, is that,
you guys leave a ton of comments on me,
and I read them all.
And to be honest with you, obviously,
a lot of you guys are like,
"You just do everything great, you know, stuff like that."
And I appreciate the ones that really believe that.
But the fact is there was a lot of constructive criticism,
and I'm here to tell you that the vast majority
of that constructive criticism was right.
You are a hundred percent, right.
It was getting boring.
I agree with you.
You know, we were pulling AC.
To me, I don't think of it that way,
because I pull eggs and I get excited about it.
But I realized, for you guys,
a clutch is a clutch is a clutch,
and if every day,
there's three or four minutes of the vlog,
that's the exact same three, four minutes,
every day, just a different animal,
it's really not that exciting.
I've often said if I watch my favorite YouTuber,
and he had a 12 minute video,
and four minutes of that 12 minute video,
every day was the same thing,
I'd probably be bored too.
So I wasn't thinking that way.
And I apologize about that.
So I really did read your comments,
I took them to heart,
and I totally agree with you guys.
And I am definitely re-energized and I'm super excited.
And again, sorry about a, kind of,
a heart-to-heart vlog again,
but I want you guys to know
exactly what the plans are for the future,
and the fact that this was really good for me.
I needed this.
So thank you very much.
And like I mentioned, you know,
I'm feeling so much better now,
and I appreciate everyone
for all your kind thoughts and prayers,
and all that type of stuff
when I was feeling bad,
because I was feeling pretty bad.
I'm not going to lie.
But you know, I needed this.
I needed kind of a kick in the ass, right?
You know, because, again,
for the longest time, I was like,
"Oh, it's just an algorithmic thing.
It's YouTube.
Things are going to come back."
The truth is maybe they would.
But I also know that it's about hard work, right?
And it's about doing things better than we were doing,
of getting back to some of the things
that we used to do, making more variety.
We have so many amazing animals here,
yet we hardly show so many of them, right?
Because we get kind of trapped in things,
and we kind of just, you know,
fell into some bad habits,
and that's completely my fault.
And I apologize.
Listen, I appreciate your support.
I appreciate your views.
I don't deserve your support or views.
I need to earn your support and your views.
And I'm telling you,
I'm willing to work hard and earn them back.
And hopefully you guys will enjoy that journey.
But you know, I do need balance in life.
I mean, the fact that we put out a video every day,
for the last four and a half years, is absolutely insane.
Anyone that produces anything
for four and a half years, without a day off,
is absolutely incredible.
The fact is we're going to put more energy into the vlog.
We're going to put more energy
into trying to produce content
that is more engaging for you guys,
because that's what it's all about.
And I want to get into more educational things as well.
I want to talk about chameleons
and their zygodactylous feet,
or their guanine crystals
that changes the color in them.
I want to talk to you about things
that I always think about, all the time,
and this little guy, which is Fruit Loop,
is a little angry little monkey right now,
but he is absolutely gorgeous.
I mean, take a look at that.
And the fact is, is that,
I just want to make sure
that you guys continue to be educated, entertained,
and we have that fire back
that I've always had during this vlog,
minus the last, maybe six months.
Okay. So now for the bad news.
Well, really, I don't consider it bad news.
I actually consider it exciting news.
I think we're going to go ahead
and down to six days on the vlog,
instead of seven days,
and actually take a day off.
Right now, I'm thinking maybe no vlog on Tuesday,
but we'll have six other vlogs.
And then on Tuesday we'll actually release a short video,
you know, just a 30 to 60 second video,
something on that line.
So you guys still will have content every day,
but I'm kind of thinking that,
maybe that one day will kind of also give us
that rejuvenation we need,
that day off that we need.
You know, so that we have the fire
and the energy to really do good on the vlog, right?
And it's exciting for me.
I know one day a week, I won't see your smiley faces,
and the comments that I love to read so bad,
but I'll still be there.
And when I release a short,
you guys can still comment on that,
and we can still go back and forth.
But I think just having that one day of like,
creativity, to not have to think about it,
'cause you gotta remember,
when every day you've got to think about content,
you gotta think about, you know,
putting out a vlog, it can be unbelievably exhausting.
And after four and a half years, it's ridiculous.
I mean, most people never can make four and a half years
of doing a vlog.
So, I think we did good. I really do.
And you guys were such a big part of it,
and it's not like we're going away.
We're just going to take a day off a week, you know,
where we don't have to do it.
And I can just work with the animals,
set the cameras down,
and just kind of decompress.
And I hope that you guys don't mind that.
And I really do need your guys' opinion
on what you want to see beyond that, too.
So in the comments, continue to hit me.
You guys are so important to the future,
and I want to make sure that we are together,
the reptile army, right?
The army that's out there educating people,
and to be able to do that,
I have to have the energy of the leader of that army.
And trust me, I am telling you right now,
I will have that energy.
I'm so excited about the future, guys.
I haven't been this excited, to be honest with you.
Sometimes you need to kind of reset
to get yourself excited again.
And it's not like I wasn't excited about the vlog,
and I wasn't excited about a production,
and all the things that were going on.
But right now it's like, you know,
I get to work with all these amazing animals, all around us.
And honestly, a lot of times,
I'm not even showing a lot of them,
what we're doing with them, and stuff like that.
So that's part of the vlog
I definitely want to bring back.
That's the variety that I think
we're going to be able to bring back
where we can mix in some egg production, some egg cutting,
but also all the behavior stuff the--
you know, there's just a million things to do.
So it's really cool that I get this opportunity.
It almost feels like a second lease on life.
And I hope that you guys will join me on this journey,
because it's what I'm here for.
I love this so much and I want to entertain you.
I want to educate you.
I want to be part of your daily routine,
minus one day a week, of course,
but listen, it's going to be great guys.
And I just appreciate all the people that commented
honestly to me,
because your honesty helped me a lot
kind of get clarity, on the future of what I wanted to do.
Even when it comes to clutches of eggs
like this yellow belly (indistinct) albino
that's bred to an albino,
you know, we get 150 or 160 clutches a year.
And in the past we actually filmed all of them.
And then we get a couple hundred coluber clutches,
and look at mama.
She is not happy at all with me right now.
I'll go ahead and shut her,
'cause we're not going to pull any eggs today.
That's right, no egg pulling today.
My point is, is that in the past,
it seemed like it worked, right?
We shared every single clutch and it was great.
Now, even last year, we started to see a dip
when we started to pull too many clutches,
and even egg cutting that's so popular,
after so long people started to tune out of
the egg cutting last year, too.
So, I think the fact is, is that now,
instead of showing 150 clutches,
maybe we'll just pick the clutches
we're the most excited about,
maybe we'll still show you 50 or 60 clutches a year,
and maybe we'll cut all 150 or 160
but we'll only share the ones
that really have amazing content to it.
Something that's really cool.
Let me know what you think about that in the comments.
Would you like that?
Just us showing the coolest stuff,
and maybe the more normal stuff
we'll just kind of set aside.
We'll still film it just in case something cool happens,
but if it doesn't look good, we just don't use it.
And that's kind of the idea,
is now we're hoping that we won't put out vlogs
that we're not a hundred percent happy with.
We're going to try to make each vlog
as good as we possibly can.
So in the end guys,
I think that it's going to be amazing
to have a day off to kind of decompress.
It's going to be great for me.
I think our creativity is going to be better.
Our energy is going to be better.
And I think this wake-up call is going to be really good.
So let me know in the comments, what you guys think.
I cannot thank you enough for your support.
The people that stuck with me through it all.
I love you guys.
I love you guys so much.
I can't even express it.
If you enjoyed this video, do me a favor.
I'm going to hit you with a playlist,
right over here,
that you can watch more videos and support me
even more on this side.
Do me a favor, hit that subscription button,
'cause I'm telling you what,
the future is going to be a banger.
And I appreciate every one of you guys.
Have an amazing day, reptile army.
Remember, be kind to somebody,
and I promise I will see you tomorrow.