hey matt from cj offroad hey matt from cj offroad
my first video five years later i'm still doing this a lot has changed let's get into it today
i gotta be honest with you guys i've never really even talked about this story on cj offroad i kind
of just popped up the one day and to be quite honest with you it was a little bit at random
and it was also a little bit kind of not allowed at that point the way it worked i started at cjs
while i was in college one day i saw an ad listing pop-up for off-road jeep enthusiast and i was like
you know what i'm on indeed and that seems like it was just screaming at me this is my dream job i'd
been working on my jeeps throughout my entire high school college career going wheeling and
having fun i did a bunch of interviews and i ended up starting there so i worked in sales i worked in
a little bit of purchasing and one day one of the members of our video team kind of came over to me
and he's like hey matt you ought to uh go to try out and do a jeep video the next day or that same
day i went over during lunch i wasn't even really supposed to be over there doing it it actually
caused a little bit of turbulence in between the departments but i went over and shot my first
video literally the guy behind the camera now is probably the guy that did it back then and we shot
that first video and it kind of just clicked it was like the light bulb went off in my head i
think a lot of the same team members thought hey this is the guy to start doing this content and to
be quite honest with you full transparency when i first went behind camera i didn't know how i
would look you're always fearful looking into this little glass lens thing how you're going to sound
how you're going to look on camera and honestly it was something i didn't really want to do but
it was all on accident or a little bit of a happy coincidence that that started it was a few weeks
after where they said hey we're going to move you over to the video team and we're going to start
having you do this jeep thing full time installing parts doing off-road videos and really just
showing off my expertise a lot of my time spent at cj offroad was it was fun it was fun i would
say initially when i started there it was kind of the end of 2017 into 2018 so it was the beginning
of the jl and the end of the jk what that meant for me on camera was that we were doing a metric
ton of installation videos now when i say a lot of install videos we were wrenching pretty much every
day now the main difference and the behind the scenes cut from wrenching in your garage with your
buddies while drinking a beer is that you just get to tighten every bolt you get to work around
as quick as you can doing it on camera basically take the time it took to install that part and
multiply it by two imagine trying to install a lower control arm bolt while holding the wrench
holding the socket and everything ready to go and then ryan behind the camera says hang on i gotta
readjust the light before you tighten that down while you're holding it above your head and trying
to tighten it up it took a ton of time a five or ten minute installation video could have taken us
two or three days before we filmed it and then had to edit it on the back end to make it look perfect
with all the lighting and everything correct i will tell you that that was it was a fun part
of my job but there was towards the end it got to be a little bit tedious because i enjoy installing
new parts but there is something much different about installing a part on camera and having to
stop every few seconds to wait to tighten up some bolts the cool thing with that was we got
to work with the jl though and do a lot of brand new videos i remember some of our initial videos
that blew up were like the mopar 2 inch lift kit install or the auxiliary harness and that was
because these were the how-to videos that weren't out yet the jk had been around for a long time but
going into that jeep they just weren't there and making that possible and giving the content out
before anyone else could that was something that was pretty cool for me because it was although it
was a cj video it was me acting as a resource for those of you at home that just picked up
this brand new vehicle and could actually install these parts while following along and seeing it
step by step as much as it pain to be as much as the bloody knuckles and having to stop each time
it was worth it in the end because of all the comments that i got to read from you guys sitting
at home what that led into was the social videos as we called it the social videos those were the
fun ones those are the ones that i really enjoyed can the jl handle the mud can the jl handle the
snow offroading 101. we got to do videos that showed lifestyle as well as kind of the promotion
of parts too so that was a new thing it was a new genre and i gotta say around that time a lot of
other youtubers were starting to also realize the same thing is that you don't necessarily need to
hold the product up look at how shiny look at how nice it is let's just go wheeling in one of these
and we'll show how the product works and that's gonna bring people in so that's what we really
love to do i gotta say i enjoyed the social videos i enjoyed the wheeling and the camaraderie out on
the trails and meeting people a lot more than i did the installs the installs are great for
technical and how-to videos but i like to try and throw my own spin on the social ones and make them
a ton of fun i will tell you that throughout the career at cjs the biggest hit for us was the kova
19 pandemic you know i will tell you that that put a pretty big halt on what we were doing as far as
video production just because we were staying safe and we were trying to kind of space out everything
during the beginning of that we didn't know how it was going to go we didn't know how it was going to
look i will say that being home being remote and then going in i think coming back to work it put
a lot of things into perspective for me and it made me want to dare i say change up my career
path a little bit it's been about a year since i've been at cj a lot of the time you'll get to
say a proper goodbye you'll get to walk around your teammates give them a handshake tell them
how how much you enjoyed working with them and i can tell you that i got to do that to a lot of the
staff a lot of the people that i spent blood sweat and tears with to make the channel what it is but
i didn't get to do it with you guys and when you're doing it with an audience and an entire
youtube channel that you've built up for years it makes it a little bit tricky so i will say that
that wasn't my goodbye a year ago it was a see you later and now we're on the later so let's get into
it so where i'm at now that's the big question that's the uh that's the thing that everyone
wants to know and i can tell you if you guys have seen some jeep news and rumors videos you've seen
some bronco videos maybe some maverick videos i do work for the team over at susquehanna automotive
and i'll be honest with you if you filter through some of the older cj videos i had done a lot of
content there before so we had filmed some jeep reviews we had filmed some one of our first
biggest builds the first mopar jl build we did right there on a firecracker red 2018. we did a
lot of comparison videos with them and overall the team at susquehanna they're just awesome i
got away from selling all the parts and doing all the installation videos to actually being able to
sell and help promote the sale of jeep wranglers gladiators broncos because we own a ford store too
and i will tell you that's been fun for me you know it was a good change of pace from selling
parts the neat thing for me is that i've owned so many different vehicles diesel jls hemi swapped
wranglers big old gladiators i've owned all those and wrenched on them so when i tell you that a
certain engine or a certain trim might be a little bit better for you it's because i've owned it and
now i get to sell it i've had so many you guys reach out to me that you've seen me from cjs that
you've seen me on other videos and now you want to come all the way this way to purchase a brand
new jeep for me and i got to say i'm extremely humbled by it i will tell you that that might have
catapulted me into this channel a little bit more i've debated creating a channel like this for some
time now it was something that i decided to do and you know ryan we talked about it and just decided
it was time to start giving all my experience that i've had and doing some things that don't
necessarily fit into the mold of the corporate youtube side or the the business of the youtube
side i want to give my experiences and give them kind of free range how i feel about a certain
part what vendors i like to work with what jeeps i would buy what jeeps i own and how i modify them
it's going to be a good opportunity for me to culminate all that into one channel called dirt
road cred i i'm extremely excited to share this side of me with you the side of a young family a
young young group here trying to off-road trying to live this trying to navigate the the lifestyle
while still not breaking the bank while still being able to enjoy this so if you're looking
for maybe some dirt on why i left cjs you know maybe follow along to the channel maybe you'll
hear some tidbits throughout that but overall it was it was a pretty clean exit i just wanted to
tell you where i'm at now probably a small book full of content at this point that we're planning
on doing some things that i want to do to my jeep you guys are going to be right there with me so a
lot of these products i'm going to be installing on this i'm paying out of my own personal bank
account i'm putting them on and i'm going to give you my full review on them and i'm also
going to show you all the hacks all the tricks and everything you need to do to really enjoy the
best out of your off-road vehicle so if you guys would not mind definitely follow along with this
channel i really appreciate every single person that likes this video that gives it a thumbs
up and when you drop a comment i'm not like other youtubers i'm reading that comment and i'm writing
back to you that's the biggest thing i want to tell you guys is that everything that you guys
say to me i'm going to read i'm going to check it out and i'm going to comment back this is a lot
of fun it's a great community and i can't wait to share everything in store on dirt road cred
you