(trippy atmospheric music)
- From a really young age I knew that I was
gonna be an entrepreneur.
I was always trying to find ways to scale things
and make more money, and that was just something
that I was really passionate about.
I love watching progress, watching growth.
After high school, I was accepted into UBC
in the Sauder School of Business.
I started working my butt off,
making sure I got good grades,
so that I could get that good job,
just like we were taught in university.
I ended up getting a job with one of the top four
accounting firms downtown and I was super stoked.
One of the greatest things about that job
was it actually gave me the entire summer off
before starting work.
And so, with that, I went traveling.
My girlfriend and I, we traveled to 10 countries
across Southeast Asia in a span of eight months.
I kind of learned how much I really loved
being on the road.
And I loved that every single day was different.
It was interesting, because I remember
everyone would tell me that, oh,
you've traveled eight months,
you must have that out of your system,
you must be ready to start working full time,
working the nine to five.
And I thought that as well when I first started.
I thought that it'd be a lot easier
to accept the fact that I was now going to be
in an office from sunrise to sunset.
And that couldn't be further from the truth.
I got into the office and within about two weeks,
I was like, what am I doing here?
How am I going to survive this?
Because this isn't a one year thing,
this is the rest of my life.
I just knew I had to get out of that environment,
of being in an office.
I just wasn't doing well.
I had been working on this Youtube thing.
I put out a few videos.
They were shaky, they're horrible to watch now.
But the interesting thing was,
people enjoyed the raw travel experiences
that we shared.
And so, despite not being necessarily pretty videos,
people began to hit the subscribe button.
They began to follow the trip.
When I started realizing I couldn't work
in the corporate world,
I looked at my Youtube,
which continued to grow, 50 subscribers every day.
It made me ask myself, what happens if
I quit my job to do this full time?
What happens if I teach myself to edit
and invest in equipment so that I can make this
a more enjoyable experience to watch?
It was the hardest thing,
because I had to tell my friends, my family,
everyone that knew that I worked so hard in school
to get this job, that, hey,
I'm walking away from what seemed like
financial success and security.
And I just couldn't get myself to do it,
and I very quickly learned that money
was not gonna be the thing that made me happy.
I told my parents.
They were at first very hesitant,
because try to tell your parents that you're gonna
make videos online for an audience
that isn't there at the time and make money off that.
It's scary for them, because they've invested
so much in me, so that I could get to where I was.
It meant telling my boss that had only recently hired me
that unfortunately I wouldn't be around.
But it was the best decision I ever made.
(uptempo electronic music)
If I'd stayed at that job,
I would have not been happy.
I wouldn't have been satisfied with what I was doing
in my life, and so I think,
staying there would've been the biggest risk of all,
because I might not have gotten another chance in life
to do the thing that really got me excited.
So, I think it was the thought process that,
I wasn't really risking anything when I quit my job,
I was just kind of giving my greatest dreams a chance.
I was finding the ways to decrease my burn out rate,
so how can I decrease expenses?
And the best way was to door knock
on every single hostel and hotel and say,
hey, can I stay here for free tonight
in return for social media exposure.
I'd be sweating because I'd have my massive backpack on,
but that's what it took to decrease my costs,
and expenses were very low.
And I was able to share with my audience
the scary but exciting adventure
of pursuing uncertainty.
I was really just taken away by the initial support
and continued support.
I mean it's incredible how supportive
of an audience has been built around this channel.
And they are the reason that this channel continues
to grow at such a rapid rate.
When I quit, I had about 15,000 on Instagram
and then on Youtube, I had probably a modest 2,000 or 3,000.
When I traveled to the Phillippines,
I saw a very substantial spike.
I started getting 50,000 views a video
and it was blowing my mind,
and I was gaining subscribers every day.
I think what's really important is to find out
what need are you satisfying for that audience?
So every audience has a different need,
and that's the reason they come back to your channel.
Figure out who your audience is,
and make sure that's an audience you want
to cater to for a long time.
Now I would never want someone not to start
immediately just because they haven't decided
what they want to do.
I think its better to get your hands wet,
start with anything.
What's gonna make you stand out from the other hundred,
is gonna be your ability to stick with it.
There's so much that is required of a successful influencer.
You're going to be looking at 80 hour work weeks.
And that has to be, again, something that you love doing,
because otherwise you're gonna burn out.
There's no regrets as far as I'm concerned.
When I put out that first GoPro video,
my only intention was to share it with friends and family,
and to be able to look back at these videos
when I was was old.
If you had told me at that point,
that I would be doing this as a full time job,
I would not have believed you.
I find it shocking that there's so much ability
to make an income through this medium.
If you're looking to escape the nine to five,
I would say that you need to make sure
you're not escaping it just for the sake
of escaping it,
because people can find things they're passionate about
in the corporate world.
And to those people I say, great, that's fantastic
for you, because that is a lot more of a secure lifestyle.
But if that's not your personality type,
if you're someone like me who just didn't do well
in the nine to five, then I would say,
make sure that you find the thing
that you are passionate about,
because once you leave the nine to five,
you're gonna be working twice as much,
twice as hard, and for no guaranteed return.
That's the scary thing about it.
Is that you do not know what is going to come out
of your hard efforts.
But, the potential pay out is so much greater
than someone who stays with the nine to five.
I don't think someone who works a nine to five
working as an employee will ever be able to be
as free as somebody who's able to work for themselves.
The focus of my channel has always been about passion.
I found my passion for travel, for social media
and sharing the world with other people.
When you find the thing you're truly passionate about,
you will work so much harder than you could have
in any other field.
Find that passion and dedicate yourself to it.