- And for those of you guys read the title,
no, it's not clickbait.
It is a conversation.
I felt like there was no better way
than to hang out with my girl Ivy
and start this vlog by talking to you.
So this vlog is going to be a little bit different.
There's not going to be any egg collecting,
no cutting of eggs.
It's going to be me talking to you
about the fact that I've been daily vlogging
for four and a half years every single day, and I love it.
I love waking up in the morning.
I love filming, I love interacting with you guys.
I love your comments, I love every part about it.
But I sometimes wonder, is it time for a change,
or when is it time for change?
You guys know I'm not going to daily vlog forever.
When does the end come?
And I don't know what the answer is,
and that's why I'm coming to you guys.
Just think what four and a half years ago was like
when I started daily vlogging.
There wasn't any Reptarium.
The whole game was different.
YouTube used to actually reward daily content.
Now to be totally honest with you,
YouTube doesn't really reward daily content.
Really, channels that are doing three or four videos a week
are typically performing better.
Some people, even doing once a week is better.
And what you have to understand by that is basically,
if I post a video on Monday, and you don't go on YouTube
for whatever reason that Monday, but you go on Tuesday,
obviously my latest video is Tuesday.
You may not even remember I put a video out Monday,
and you just watch that video.
So basically Tuesday's video steps on Monday's video,
Wednesday's video steps on Tuesday's video.
So on like that.
And so you start to wonder, is it
the right idea to daily vlog?
Again, I love it.
I love telling you guys the story constantly.
I never get sick of this life, I'll be honest with you.
But again, at some point I'm going to have to stop,
and I do have to wonder, is that time coming soon?
And first off, I want to continue to tell you guys
that I'm not making the decision today.
I'm not giving you an announcement today.
I want to start the conversation with you guys,
to be totally honest with you.
To think about, we have seen Perdita
go from a little baby when we unboxed her,
to now this beautiful animal that I've had now
for two and a half, three years, something like that.
And to see her change so much, it's amazing for me too.
I always tell people that the vlog is a little bit
of a daily diary as well, right?
It's like I can look back on my life every single day
and the things that really were significant,
at least on my business side, is documented.
So I love the whole process, right?
I love being part of the daily vlog.
In my world, if I could daily vlog forever, I would.
But the fact is, is that all things
do have to come to an end at some point.
And again, I'm not saying today is the end,
but I do have to wonder what you guys think in the comments.
And again, I don't want to hear what is best for me,
because what's best for me is to continue to daily vlog.
I want to hear you guys.
Take for instance, Perdita here.
Again, we probably have fed her 200 times on the vlog.
So there's times when only so many things happen.
Even though we have a crazy complicated life,
we are repetitive as well, right?
Because when we're feeding, we feed.
And the thing is, is sometimes
we do things a lot over and over.
Take, for instance, we get snake eggs
pretty much every single day, right?
And this happens to be an absolute banger right here.
This is an enchi pinstripe.
It's bred to a super incredible male,
which happens to be this pastel vanilla bamboo woma.
Can you imagine that, mixing that into the pinstripe gene
and the enchi gene?
Oh my goodness!
Even though every single clutch to me is different, right?
Every single clutch we get is something exciting,
something different, some new potential animal
maybe that I haven't produced before.
You never know what's going to hatch.
The truth is, is that other YouTube channels
might get two or three clutches a year.
So when they get a clutch, it's really exciting, right?
But we get clutches every single day,
and I want to take you on that journey because, again,
just like this girl right here,
which I'm going to go ahead and get off her eggs
really quick, which is, oh my gosh,
what a beautiful clutch, too.
It looks like we've got one little slugger in here,
but other than that, looks like it's an amazing clutch.
And we'll go ahead and get these over here.
Again, there's one little slugger in here,
but the rest look absolutely incredible.
And just think of that combination, you know?
All the potential genes in there.
That to me is exciting, but I realized
that some people, maybe pulling clutches of eggs every day
gets boring, and I don't really know what to do about it.
I want to take you guys on the journey.
Certain times of year, it's all Reptarium.
Certain times of year, BHB is really popping up.
And I want to take you guys on the journey of that life.
We've got two, four, six, eight, 10 beautiful eggs here.
But again, if it gets boring to you guys
and you stop watching, because I don't care
about another clutch of eggs.
That's a real dilemma for me, because a lot of my days
take up pulling eggs, and doing things like this.
So I don't really know, again,
down in the comments I need to hear from you guys
and let me know what you think about this.
Is pulling eggs getting boring to you,
and you don't want to see it every single day?
Maybe we do it two or three days a week.
I'm not so sure, because again, every single day we get eggs
and every day I'm super excited about it.
I don't think you guys understand how much it means to me,
your support on everything going over these last four years.
You guys following me, supporting Reptile Army,
everything we've done, the Reptarium.
Listen, you guys were with me
when I walked into this building when it was empty.
It was a tobacco shop, and I walked in here
and I talked about Reptarium 1.0,
and you guys were here for that day.
And then through the entire process
of building the Reptarium down in Texas at Universal Rock,
to installing it opening day.
That was an amazing thing, and I can look back on that
just like you guys can,
and that, to me, is an incredible thing.
Not to mention the old 2.0.
Remember when I got the keys to this?
Used to be a tattoo shop.
And I walked in here and it was completely different.
A bunch of rooms are in here,
different flooring, the whole shop.
And I talked about what I wanted to do, you know>
The idea, the vision, and being able to share
every single day of that with you
and ultimately going down to Universal Rocks.
Remember where we built Ivy's enclosure?
Remember that day?
Or the days where we're putting doors on this cage here,
and all this stuff?
Those are amazing experiences for me, and I love it.
And that's the only thing that's kind of making me think,
do I stay daily vlogging for another year or so?
Because we're about to do a major expansion with 3.0,
and then ultimately upstairs with 4.0.
I would love to document that.
But the truth is, is that I don't know if it's good.
Honestly we put videos out a year ago,
and every single video would get a hundred thousand views,
sometimes 150, and every now and then a million plus views.
Nowadays, we're lucky to do 50 or 60,000 views.
Now I'm not complaining, that's still a whole lot.
And I appreciate you people beyond belief.
So don't make it like, I'm somehow like, oh, poor me.
But I do sometimes wonder, is that the signal saying,
Brian, change it up, right?
Because again, I always think
you have to reinvent yourself often.
And I've been kind of doing a vlog now
for four and a half years.
And one of the new iterations for myself,
and kind of reinventing myself,
was of course launching the podcast channel
that we launched last year.
Of course checking it, if you guys haven't seen it.
We actually do three different podcasts a week,
and one is actually the family,
one is actually Noah with choices in his life with comedy.
And then on Saturday nights, I always do
kind of a snake talkie type thing
where we're usually talking about reptiles.
And the through story, at least on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
is always reptiles or we talk about it,
because that's our life.
Even when I'm with my family,
we're still talking about reptiles.
And I really love podcasting,
but I'd like to know from you guys, again,
if you haven't watched the podcast channel, why?
Tell me why.
You just don't like them, you don't like podcasts?
If you have watched it and either continue to watch
or don't watch, tell me what you like and you don't like.
And that's what this is all about, a conversation.
I know I typically do vlogs where it's just,
hey, what's going on here at BHB,
or Reptarium, or something like that.
But today I want it to be a conversation,
because it's something I need to get off my chest, right?
And listen, I appreciate each one of you guy's support,
and I am so blessed with all the support
that you guys give me, but I want this to be
a great community for you, you know?
The podcast to me was kind of a reinvention of myself.
Has it blown up like I'd like it to?
I'm going to be honest with you, no it hasn't.
Are we doing well?
Yeah, we are.
We're still very happy with what we have,
but I want to know how I can make a podcast,
and what you guys want to listen to
that maybe you do want to listen to an hour
or two hours a week, or three times a week
or whatever the case may be.
Everything I want to do, I want to do exemplary, right?
And that's one of the reasons why we put
as much money and effort into the podcasting room
and all that type of stuff, is because I really believe
in it much like I believe in the vlog,
and all the other things that I do.
But again, I can only do things if it's good for you guys,
and if I'm not doing it right, or if I'm not
doing it as good as you want me to, I need to know.
So I want an honest conversation with you guys about that.
What is it that you like about what we do,
and what is it that you don't like about what we do?
Maybe you're someone that used to watch,
and you're just watching one day
because you saw the title,
like oh, Brian's going to stop vlogging?
And you stop watching.
Well, tell me why you stop watching.
Tell me what I can do to get you back
and to keep you engaged, because
that's what it's about for me, it's always just about
educating people, getting people excited.
Not only about animals, but life and business and family
and all the other things like that.
So again, podcasting was kind of an iteration of the future.
And it's one that I really had hoped
would take off more than it did,
but I also am very dedicated to it.
I'm not going to stop, because I really do like podcasting.
And I hope that you guys will maybe join the podcast family
and start watching, checking in,
because I think it's pretty amazing.
Nevertheless, again, this conversation
is an open conversation, and I really truly need your advice
down in the comments.
Take a look guys, Ben and Jerry actually shed out.
Now I will say that I have to actually start
putting some ointment on them,
because they keep getting a little bit of a sore
right in between when they shed out.
It's like when they rub, they actually get
a little bit of a sore, but beautiful.
Look at how cool it is.
Two actual heads.
And that's kind of the whole idea, right?
Is like I get to share all these cool things with you
every single day.
And listen, again, like I mentioned,
I appreciate you guys beyond belief,
and I read your comments every day,
and I know a lot of you wake up every day
and start your day with us.
And hopefully our positivity and our upbeat,
and our kind of inspiration and stuff like that.
And I take that very seriously.
I take that responsibility more serious
than you possibly could imagine.
And part of the reason why I continue to daily vlog
is because of you guys as well.
I don't want to take that away, you know?
I love the fact that we're a family here,
and I think it's amazing.
But going back to what I said,
when is it time to actually stop?
I can't do this the rest of my life.
I don't know, I'm not ready yet.
I'm not ready, but I don't want to stop.
But I want to hear from you guys what that is,
and, listen, if we do stop daily vlogging,
or I should say when, because it's going to happen
at some point, we're still going to post
maybe four videos a week.
We'll probably even still film seven days a week.
And we'll just put the best of those four days
in those videos.
So it's not like we're going away or anything like that,
and again, it's not like I'm stopping today.
This has been heavy on my heart,
and I wanted to ask you guys what your opinion is
so that I have an idea of what to do in the future.
But like I said, today isn't that day,
but I definitely, I need your advice, guys.
I'm here for you guys all the time.
Now, today, I'm asking you to be there for me.
I've been YouTubing for a long time.
Like I mentioned, four and a half years daily
on this channel, but I started in 2008
over on the Animal Bites, or Snake Bites TV channel.
So it's been a long time, and I've seen a lot
of ups and downs over those times
where the channel has been blowing up,
and where it's been really slow.
And I got to be honest with you,
when things are going really well, it's easy.
You wake up in the morning, you're full of energy.
You can't wait to do it, because you know
it's going to actually crush it.
But when things start slowing down,
it mentally gets to you a little bit.
I'm not going to lie to you,
and it's not like I'm doing this just for views
and all that other stuff.
But at the same time, when you work harder than ever
and you're getting, say, 40% less views,
it does mentally get you.
I'm not going to lie.
What, am I going to sit here and lie to you guys?
I want to be honest with you guys.
And it is a little bit hard.
I think to myself, is that a sign
that maybe it's time to actually change
and do something different?
If I did four days a week, would it be as good
as if I did seven days a week, maybe better?
I don't know, and again, it's so conflicting
because I don't want to, I don't want to stop.
I want to keep going.
I love the daily grind, and I love you guys
for supporting me through the entire daily grind.
But at the same time, I have to start thinking about it.
And in end, like I mentioned,
I want it to be a conversation between you guys and me
so that we can decide together
when the timing is right for it.
Maybe through all of this,
daily vlogging will still work,
especially if I start the expansion
and you guys want to see every day
all the changes that are happening.
Maybe it isn't the right time to stop now.
Maybe the right time to stop is a year from now.
I'm not a hundred percent sure.
I just knew this was something
that was heavy on my heart, and I needed to come clean
and really talk to you guys and have a heart to heart.
Sorry that we didn't have a normal vlog today,
but it still was something that's really important to me.
And I hope that you guys can appreciate that
and help me through this struggle, right?
Because you've been there for a long time with me,
and you've seen me struggle on some things.
And without you guys, I don't know how
I've made it as far as I have.
So together we can help kind of decide
what the future holds for me as well.
So let me know in the comments what you guys are thinking.
And I realize today is kind of a heavy talk.
And listen, I'm doing good.
As a matter of fact, I want to eventually talk about
the fact that I'm doing better mentally
than I have in a long, long time.
I've worked really hard on it.
So I'm doing good.
But at the same time, this is something that I needed
to get off my chest, because the one thing I've learned
through this kind of whole journey
of getting mentally healthy is to not keep things inside.
So I appreciate you guys letting me do this,
and don't take this as a downer at all.
It's a good thing.
No matter what happens,
it's going to be absolutely incredible
and we're still going to be a family.
We're going to be the Reptile Army no matter what,
but again, I needed to get this off my chest.
I needed to find out from you guys
what you guys actually thought about it.
I appreciate you beyond belief,
and I really truly love each and every one of you guys.
If you enjoyed this video, here's over here a playlist.
On this side, subscribe to the channel.
And listen, guys, be kind to somebody, enjoy your day.
And as for now, I do promise you I will see you tomorrow.