- Brace yourself for impact.
(upbeat EDM music)
- It's 2:06AM!
- Let's go fly!
- What up, it's Damon. - It's Jo.
- [Both] And it's Damon and Jo!
- And we are two travel YouTubers.
- [Jo] And our YouTube channel focuses on young, funny,
Morocco is kinda hot (laughs)
Down to earth, relatable travel experiences.
- Where's my passport?
Where's my passport?
Have you seen my passport?
- [Jo] Because travel is not always so polished,
and we show the good, the bad, the ugly.
- What happens when I have to use the restroom?
(crickets chirping)
- And we do it in multiple languages, so--
- French.
(Speaks in french)
- Spanish.
- Portuguese.
Italian. - German.
- Greek and Arabic.
(Damon speaks in foreign language)
(speaks in foreign language)
- I started learning Russian the other day,
just for some reason, I think it's 'cause I met,
like, a hot guy, so I started learning Russian.
(Excited screams)
(upbeat music)
- So, we were into travel vlogging
before travel vlogging was a career.
We were doing this to document the experiences
that we were having while studying abroad in Paris.
- And remember if it's free,
it's for me, and it's for you too.
- We looked at it and we were like "Wait,
"there's never been a young travel show like this".
Specifically not with two kids
that look completely opposite, who share the same vision
and who both speak multiple languages
when they're traveling, we need to pitch this to TV.
We spent the first two years fighting to get into
these executives offices who'd all say the same thing
"Damon and Jo, you guys are so cute,
"but young travel will never sell".
So then we're like boop, youtube.com,
- [Damon] Created a channel, started uploading videos
once a week, twice a week, three times a week,
in different languages.
- When we first started the channel, we had to spam
everybody on Facebook, we used to message our friends,
"Watch our new video, it's really good", nobody cared!
For travel vloggers, it's not easy to grow
because unless somebody's going to that tiny town
in Thailand, they're not going to google it.
It took us maybe four years to become full time.
- [Damon] We're working tons of odd jobs,
and that was the main reason we weren't taking
it seriously, because we had to pay New York City rent!
- It was like the struggle, you were
just living to survive, not thrive.
We moved to Los Angeles with a carry-on suitcase each,
no family, no friends out there,
maybe $2000 between both of us saved.
We convinced this crappy building to let us share
a two bedroom apartment, we showed them the graphs
were going up in our, like, revenue from AdSense.
We lived together and every single day
we sat at the kitchen table, poorly built
because it was Ikea, and we worked.
- Our channel's turning point happened
when we decided, like, we love learning languages,
we love traveling, but every piece of content
out there that is existing is dusty, rusty and crusty.
- And musty. - And musty!
We wanted to teach languages the way
that we wanted to learn them.
We wanted to know how to flirt with a Brazilian,
we wanted to know how to sound cooler in French.
Warm your mouth like you're about to go in
for the worst kiss of your life.
Ooh, and then push out the ooh, oooh.
Vooh, dooh, cooh, that means ass.
- We infused a relatable spin on something
that's naturally not relatable.
And that's, like, where the channel blew up.
- You know how much money we made that day?
- How much?
- 41 cents.
- D, we was rollin' in the dough!
I just wanna be able to buy one cup of coffee
with our YouTube channel money.
Now at least we can kind of, each have a sip.
- The bulk of our money, as YouTubers,
comes from sponsored gigs.
- So, Damon would basically be like,
"Jo, I wanna do this idea for a video,
"what do you think?"
And I'll be like, "that's awesome, we could
"couple that with these three companies
"and I'm gonna send emails and pitch to them".
Like, if you're not pitching, you're not making money.
- You sound like such a business professor.
Because time is money and if you're not pitching,
then you're not winning!
- We will record a video, or we will write an article,
because in addition to our channel, we also have
a company called Shut Up and Go, where we elevated
the model that you see in our videos on YouTube,
but now we have a base of contributors that are global,
and they're also living the Shut Up and Go lifestyle.
- It's a fully functioning business on it's own,
whether or not you know that we're a part of it or not.
- We looked at all the content
that we'd produced as inventory.
- We used to be those influencers who were like,
"I don't want anybody taking 10% of my money,
"that I worked hard for!", no.
You're actually losing money, because adding a manager
and agent--
- The right ones.
- They're adding a legitimacy factor,
and then they're the ones who are adding those zeros.
- Literally, a zero appeared out of nowhere.
75% of the money comes from brand deals,
5% come from being hired on as talent,
and then 10% comes from passive income,
which is like, AdSense money from our videos
and our site, and then the last 10% comes from,
like, a book deal, or like merchandise that we're selling.
Because we have a team, everybody takes their cut.
- Right, like sometimes we get those emails,
and I'm like "hang on, they're gonna pay us that much?",
and then I'm like, okay, minus for the manager,
minus for the account man, minus for the--
- It's like a scroll of deductions.
I went broke in this country.
Prices are actually absurd.
Other things, like visas.
We had to form a LLC, that costs money.
We had to pay for the trademark for Shut Up and Go.
- [Damon] Paying for rent when we're never there.
- Or storage unit.
And we should have a P.O. box, 'cause who's getting my mail?
(laughs)
We didn't come from money.
- [Damon] This is the first time
that we actually are starting to get it.
- Like, we will be rich, and have broke person mentality,
which will allow us to stay rich.
The called me a Berber, because I bargain really well.
What we make is enough to sustain our lifestyle,
so we're thinking of how to reinvest all the money
that we make into our company.
We're gonna start doing group trips, which is like,
redefining the very like, touristy, like, tour.
And then from there, who knows.
Like, teach in language school,
develop study abroad programs.
- Again, this could keep going and going
because it's a business. - Open hostels.
- Travel vlogging is not the only way
to travel the world, that's just how we make our living.
But you could also be a flight attendant,
you could teach English abroad.
- If you're wanting to do what we do,
know that there are thousands and thousands
of people doing it right now.
- Worst comes to worst, get on Tinder,
find someone abroad, get married.
- [Both] Three, two one!
- Close it out.
(giggles)
- Turn the camera off Joanna.
(laughs)