Embracing Your Struggle Story: Insights From His YouTube Journey & Life with Benji Travis
We’re welcoming YouTube expert, creator, and good friend, Benji Travis, to Spill the Tea. In this episode, we discuss the humble beginnings of his YouTube journey and the lessons learned throughout the years, including some of the experiences he has shared with Ralph and Arthur. We talk about how he went from simply helping his wife with her video set-up to publishing a book and becoming a YouTube expert and mentor.
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Full Transcript
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Benji:
Thank you. It's so awesome to be here. It's an amazing story what you guys started, and I can't believe I'm at your podcast now, so thanks for having me.
Ralph:
Well, thanks for coming, man. Why don't you let everybody, because I know there's a lot of things that you have done along the way. Why don't you give our audience a little bit for those that may not have heard of you yet, they're about to hear about you, so all right. Give 'em a little something about you.
Benji:
Well, first off, I'm a friend of yours goes way back. I mean, obviously also with Arthur, and grew up here in the Pacific Northwest north of Seattle. Started off just really using YouTube as somebody that was watching videos. I used to work at a YMCA and kids used to watch YouTube videos to learn how to break dance, right? Proper term, bboying. And so the reason I started with that is because the last decade of my life has been consumed by YouTube, but the very beginning I wasn't ever thinking of it as a platform to basically create a lifestyle, right? Run a business. And so those days, I literally used it to promote Bboy Jams events of ours. I was watching an old video of you and I promoting it.
Ralph:
360
Benji:
2005 or something like that. Oh wow. Maybe 2004. My first YouTube video that I uploaded was 2006, just to promote that event. And so when I first started, it was purely just something I used very casually. But my wife who then was my girlfriend, started a beauty channel, and I used to laugh at her, told her she was wasting her time, and I didn't think that it was going to go very far, but she has a last laugh because of what I'm about to tell you. About two years into it, she went full-time on YouTube, convinced me that this was a real thing. We avoided going to makeup stores because she was getting makeup sent to her. Every single day, I realized, okay, there's an opportunity here. Let's milk it for all it's worth. I thought it was going to be like 12 months, 14 years later, she's my boss. I've been a vlogger with her over 10 years now. Started multiple channels. I wrote a book with my friend Sean Cannell called YouTube Secrets. So like you said, I've literally done it all. I've got a food channel. I always wanted to be on the Food network, got to experience that.
Ralph:
Benjamin TV
Benji:
Man raising my family on YouTube, which is a fun experience as well as I got to travel the world. So many amazing people I've met, and so it's hard to really explain what I've done, but in a nutshell, that's what it is. I'm consumed by YouTube. I love social media. I think that it has more good than bad, even though the press these days would convince you otherwise. And so my goal right now is to help other people follow their passion, make it into a profitable business and coach creators who do it full-time.
Ralph:
One thing that I know I admire about you, and I've told Malyn about this too a long time ago. How humble you are because you've really helped with, as far as getting Judy's channel just take off and everything. We've had this discussion and you told me, and this stuck with me. You are the best number two right? You don't try to be the person in the front. You don't try where you best are suited to support the team, and you put yourself in that position to support the team. And that was like, man, that's huge. That rang, that still rings in my head to till this day, that you know where your strength is, and you definitely double down on that, and you're so humble with that.
Benji:
Yeah. I think self-awareness is so important in life. It's not really talked about a lot, so I'm proud to be a number two. Obviously, everybody wants to be number one, or they want to be out in front. Funny story because Arthur being here, he knows exactly what I'm talking about it. This has been my position way before YouTube. I always clinging on to mentors, and I like supporting the leader, whoever is running the show. And so I talked about that. Bboy Animals called 360, and then Arthur started Breaking the Silence. Now, Arthur and I both know that a 360, I mean, I was full-time at the YMCA. That was my job, but I had no problems letting Arthur be the front man. There'd be oftentimes where I would show up at Jams and I'd be promoting the event, and they'd see the flyer and they'd say, oh, this is Arthur's jam, right?
I was like, oh, yeah, totally. I'm with Arthur, right? Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's so important to have a number two, a number three, have a team of people. If everybody's trying to be number one, things won't get done. So I appreciate you highlighting that, and you've always been so good, and I feel like sometimes maybe some people do, I don't know if this is you, because they feel like they want to give me some flowers, give me some credit. I guess that's where I, I'm different from other people. I don't mind that I don't get the credit or people don't praise me. I've met so many YouTubers who after an hour of talking to me, realize, okay, well, Benji's kind of knows what's going on with YouTube. I could learn a thing or two, because previously they thought I was just the YouTube husband, right?
Yeah. I'm the guy just playing with the kids, doing goofy dances, and I've always been behind the scenes. I'm still behind the scenes and I think that for me, that's where I'm comfortable. Don't get me wrong, I've got my own channels where I'm the star of the show. I'm in the limelight, but when it comes to my bigger vision, always connecting with somebody that I think has a true passion and a drive that's completely organic, because I'm a businessman first, right? Yeah. Before I'm a creator, and Judy, it's very obvious because she still edits every single day. She still edits. She's on a vacation right now, and she was editing, so we're talking 12 years. She's uploaded over 4,000 videos..
Ralph:
All by herself?
Benji:
All by herself. When you find somebody like that in your life, whether it's your wife, it's a business partner, or just somebody that you believe in, I believe for what I do, I want to get a hundred percent behind that, and so that's no different than when I was at the YMCA working with Arthur working with my mentors before on different programs. Yeah, so that's kind of my perspective of being a number two.
Ralph:
The thing, the biggest thing that people don't really see is all the hard work that goes behind it. And you said your first upload was 2006? Yep. Yep. It's 2023, and it's taking that long to get where you guys are now and you're still growing. Your business is expanding, and we talk off script and everything and off camera and stuff between the two of us, and you're expanding the business and it's taken a long time and it's taken a lot of time, and I think that's something that a lot of people, it's one of those things Instagram, everybody just sees the, what's it everybody, the highlight reel. The highlight, the highlight reels, but I think, I'm glad you're here because we get to talk about some of the hard work that you've actually put into building what I would call your empire, the Travis Empire, which is still growing, which is so fun to see. It's being in Japanese class with you. We sit next to each other, oh, man, and always..
Benji:
This is real personal
Ralph:
And sitting next to you sharing food and stuff to, we still hang out and then randomly going around and people like, oh, can we take a photo? I'm like, this guy.
Benji:
Yeah, that's crazy. No I want to say something. I actually thought about this. So it's not on the fly. Everybody wants to pay attention or pays attention to the success story. When there's a struggle story that's even more important and most people just struggle and that's it, and they quit or they move on to something else. It's those people that don't and just pursue and persist that get to the success story. The struggle story is absolutely part of it, but it's a struggle story to me that actually is important to learn from both as an individual going through it as well as somebody maybe that's aspiring to become whatever it is you want to go after. So we didn't necessarily struggle, but again, I keep talking about that BBoy jam, I remember. That's a good, you want to talk about a fun story of struggle when Arthur and I first put that on, nobody believed in us, right?
Yeah. Everyone thought it was a, so we live in basically what's a farm town of Seattle? Yeah. It's not anymore. It's more like a suburb, but back in the day, there was literally strawberry fields in this. I mean, city, our high school was right by the cow fields. Exactly. So we smelled the cow manure every morning, single day, every morning. And so when we wanted to put on this Bboy jam in the midst of so many amazing events in the northwest, people almost kind of chuckled or laughed it off, and that first event, we had maybe barely over a hundred people, barely. And then by the end of the, what, eight year run when we were really going strong, I would definitely say we're top three in the northwest. At one point we had over a thousand people in one of these events, which is freaking mind blowing, and it no longer was a cheesy little event in the middle of nowhere.
It was like the premier BBoy battle for crews, and so that's why I love sitting here with Arthur in terms of that season, because that was the struggle story, right? Yeah. That video I'm telling, we should either show it or talk about it. We were going to record stores in Seattle. We drove all the way to malls in Vancouver, BC. We went to places, and now I'm thinking about, it's like, why would you even go there? But we were struggling to just get people there. We went to every single BBoy jam, just hit the ground. I mean, you tell me, what else did we do that now you can't even fathom because we have technology makes it so easy.
Arthur:
Hey, I'll just, the amount of paper flyers we passed out was kind of crazy. And we passed them out everywhere. Schools, records, stores, malls..
Benji:
Paper flyers. Yeah. Yeah. My gosh, I'm embarrassed to say we had paper flyers.
Arthur:
Went to all the other YMCAs across the northwest from all the way up in Was that Burlington?
Benji:
We couldn't even afford regular flyers. I remember. So we worked at a YMCA Arthur was a volunteer there so we had a copy machine, and we literally printed on Golden rod paper and we hand cut all these things and handed those out. That is so crazy.
Benji:
Wow. We're innovative. Wow. Hey, shout out to Jennifer. So Jennifer was also the co-founder of that event, and one reason I want to give her credit is because she literally had to hand cut all those circle flyers for us.
Ralph:
I did not know that.
Benji:
Yeah, so those were the struggle stories that made the success story what it is. Everybody wants to kind of skip it. They don't even know they're skipping it. They just want to get right to that. And so everything in life, including YouTube and social media, is just the same.
Ralph:
It's all humble beginnings. Honestly, that's kind of where we all came from. It's just kind of humble beginnings. It's just kind of cool. I still remember our living room was nothing in it except two hand-me-down seats.
Benji:
Struggle story.
Ralph:
And this was back when Blockbuster was actually a thing, and we each got the unlimited rentals and we just walked down the street to Blockbuster.
Benji:
We milked that membership, man, my Lord. We milked it because we couldn't afford, because we didn't have cable tv, and so we went to Blockbuster every day before there was a Netflix, before you could connect it to the internet, and so our TV was Blockbuster. It was literally everything. That was just after we both worked full-time jobs and we were both in martial arts too and doing all kinds of stuff. This is on top of us doing our different activities. So yeah, I do remember those days, and I remember that living room. We had two couches. I wouldn't even call it a couch. No, it was like a wicker basket that was on a stand, right? Yeah. And then you had a proper couch.
Ralph:
Was a little swiveling thing. Yeah. Yeah. It was weird.
Benji:
I'm not kidding you. In addition to that, we had a TV and a lamp that was our whole living room.So just imagine that picture. Now we live in proper homes and the..
Ralph:
Shades and the shades that were cut.
Benji:
Oh my gosh. Yeah. He liked to practice in the living room and cut the blind.
Ralph:
Yeah, I was practicing about that. I was practicing with a sword in the living room.
Benji:
I literally just came home one day and they were cut in half, and I looked at him, he's like, I was practicing with a sword. I really didn't say anything. I just went right into my room, but we were on the second floor. It didn't matter.
Ralph:
That was fun times, man. Even up to that point leading up to that point, I remember I was living was that in the basement? I was renting out a basement that you were going to rent out, and then somebody, the landlord was saying, oh yeah, somebody's going to rent out the room. And the door, the knock came and there's Benji. I'm like, what are you doing here?
Benji:
Yeah, yeah. Well, we were both really young. You were way younger than me because I didn't realize you weren't 18 yet. That's another story. But I remember that's why you and I are close, because it was at a time where we were both a hundred percent independent. I would argue you were even more independent than me but I moved out. I was about 18, and I was going to move into my first place, but then when I met you, we quickly had coffee. I don't think we actually drank coffee, went somewhere else, and we were chatting. We're like, we should just move in together into a proper apartment. And so we went to go apply to that apartment when we had no money. It was, and I think that's assisted living or it was not assisted income, low, low income, income apartments which is crazy to think how much we paid there. It's so little, right? Oh my gosh. But we couldn't move in right away because somebody wasn't 18 yet and didn't tell me that. So we had to wait three months.
Ralph:
Fun. Oh, man. Yeah, it was low income and we were still kind of, I remember I was still struggling.
Benji:
I call it the chicken and rice days because literally that's what I ate. Chicken, chicken and rice, ramen, chicken and ramen and a bulk, of course, rice was much more cheaper back then. I lived across the street from where I worked, so I didn't need that much money, and I didn't have a commute. We both didn't really have a commute, so we didn't need a lot, but I don't know how you felt, but I didn't look at it as a struggle. I was excited. I was like, man, this is, no, it
Ralph:
Wasn't really a struggle. Struggle. Maybe financially, I know I was counting, but as far as our day to day, it was fun. We were doing the things that we enjoyed.
Benji:
I think that's another thing too. When I thought about what we would talk about today, because I know we're talking about what people don't see, what helps us get through those struggle stories or the years that most people don't enjoy is your perspective. We had a good perspective. We were very optimistic. We were really hungry, literally, but also hungry for life and in what we were doing. So we got through those times without the kind of negativity and the pessimism that most people have, and that's never left me even to this day when you could absolutely say, I've had success and I'm comfortable. I'm definitely not eating just chicken and rice. I eat whatever I want. I still have that same perspective, and that's helped me throughout all the struggles.
Ralph:
Nice. Yeah, definitely not having much. I think it's really led to a certain level of appreciation for what you do have. Nothing was, we were definitely not handed anything at that point, but kind of looking at your journey, Benji, it was just kind of interesting because I do remember working at the outlet mall for a while, and I remember Judy working at that. Oh, yeah. Makeup spot down the way, and then all of a sudden she was gone, and next thing I knew, the makeup YouTube thing for her just blew up. I know it wasn't overnight, that I know for sure, but it seemed like overnight because it was like one day she's there, one day she's not, and then one day her makeup YouTube channel is just everywhere. So what was that process like? I mean, I even remember you guys recording in your room at one point in time,
Benji:
And just to maybe give some numbers for context. Judy and I have been legit YouTubers creators for over a decade. We, we've got on one channel over a billion views. Judy's uploaded 4,000 videos on numerous other channels. I've easily uploaded a few hundred videos myself. We've made a living off of YouTube full-time since 2010. Awesome. Judy kind of struggled through making a living since 2008, and so we've gone through the whole evolution, but how it started is makeup. So Judy had a passion for makeup, and she was watching other women who were teaching makeup tips and hair styles on YouTube, and then she thought, you know what? I want to do this just purely because I think I could share something maybe from the perspective of a non-professional. And so she was making videos and she probably didn't even know who's going to watch this.
She just wanted to do it because she saw other women doing it. Yeah, Michelle Phan is one of the OGs, the true makeup group. They don't like using that term, but that's what they were. And so she basically replicated it from her own voice, very authentic, very organic, didn't really think it through, but her first setup, when I used to make fun of her <laugh>, was shoe boxes for her tripod. It was literally three or four shoe boxes to get the camera at the right height. We're talking $60 camera. You remember back in the day, we'd go clubbing. We actually had the camera. I didn't have the camera. I remember women always had that camera. That was the camera she used, right? We're talking two camera, the climbing camera, club camera, and then you go upload it. You go upload it when you get home and then upload it to MySpace, and that's how you got pictures.
Yes. Young people, MySpace we're going, we used have to wait way back to get that picture up online. So that's what she used. And then she had the oldest crappiest laptop and she used a free editing software. That's how she got started, and she really had that set up for a good six months, and I thought, you know what? I should get her tripod. So I thought it was a hero getting her the tripod, and then eventually when this was like, there was just so many boxes everywhere, and she actually had her set up at the corner of our bedroom at the time in front of the window because she got natural light. I thought, I'm going to do her huge favor and let her have half my real estate office. Right? Because back then I was a real estate agent, not realizing that yes, she had half the room.
I got a proper desk, I put up lights, and the production team's going to appreciate this. I didn't understand temperatures and warm and bright lights. So literally she had a mix of light bulbs, so she would go from a nice, perfect, bright skin tone to yellow, and it's a, she's like, honey, I'm showing my makeup. It's changing colors. I'm like, what the hell is going on? Her background was my desk. I wasn't, and this was not conscious. I wasn't trying to be in her videos. I just didn't understand production at all. I didn't understand. I just thought, she just needs a space to be able to do what she does. Literally, I'm on my computer in the background and it's all my post-it notes, my desktop computer, it's a mess. I have my corkboard where I had all my notes and everything. That was how she got started.
That's how the, it's shitty time was born, and so that's the beginning of our YouTube journey. I really got involved outside of the production, which wasn't even that good as her business manager. And so even in the beginning, I was just doing her a favor again, was my spare time to help her with these negotiations. At first, it was just getting free makeup, so there was none. It's just like, Hey, we're going to send it to you. Could you please talk about it? Some people said, yeah, you have to talk about it. And so at one point when they were starting to offer money, she didn't really understand or know what to do. I didn't either, but acted like I did. I felt like I knew. I love that,
But I enjoyed being on the phone. I love negotiation. Like I said, business for me is fun. It's not scary. Even if I don't know what I'm doing, I'll just kind of figure it out along the way. Oh, yeah. And even when I did it, I was just having fun because I didn't take it that seriously. I wasn't looking to create a whole career or business out of it. I was just like, I'm going to help you out. You're making money. That's awesome. You probably should get paid more money. And that was really the beginning of my journey on both YouTube as well as being a creator with her. And so that was 2008, nine and 10. I was helping part-time. 2011, I went, she was already full-time, and then we got married, and then it was The rest is history.
Ralph:
I love that. That is such a fun story.
Malyn:
Yeah. I love, what I love about that story too is that you both of you just started. Yeah. <laugh>, you just started and went and for it, even if it wasn't all perfect, right? Oh, yeah.
Benji:
Even definitely wasn't perfect.
Malyn:
Even with if you guys knew about what the background looked like and all those little details, I feel like that would stop a lot of people from just starting in the first place. So I love that you guys just did it anyways.
Ralph:
And those videos are still up.
Benji:
Yeah, most of 'em are still up. In the beginning, there was a lot of copyright issues with music. There was no rules really. It wasn't really known, so she used some mainstream music, so some of those videos got taken down or she took 'em down, but a lot of the early ones from 2008 and nine are still up there. You can kind of see it if you can find it, because it changed a whole way to look for videos. But yeah, it's really important to consider that if you're going to start anything, you can't worry about what other people are thinking because if Judy worried about what I thought, she would've just stopped. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I'm supposed to be the one person she can trust and I'm just discounting what she was doing. I mean, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened in my life outside of marrying her and having kids.
This is crazy. And if she was derailed by that or, and we grew up, like I said, I say farm town, it legit was a farm town when we moved there, a chicken manure smells strawberry fields, and the only thing that replaced it was just housing. Even to this day, our downtown still looks same, which is sad. And nobody in 2008 back then was thinking, let's start a YouTube channel. Back then, it wasn't even a thing to be an identity, like a personality on YouTube. Used YouTube, use YouTube for promoting something or recording yourself and putting out there, but never thinking, I'm going to get known from this. You were just doing it very, I'd say journalistically, you're just doing it because you thought somebody else might benefit from this. Right? Or it's just fun. And if you worried about, and that's why those early days, the people that were there really in my opinion, were the most organic, most passionate people because nowadays nothing wrong with it.
Some of the motives are, I could make money, I could get famous. This is a necessary part of my business. Those early years, whoever started, I have a lot of respect for and still have relationships with all those people because they did it purely because there was something they loved and they just want to do it. And if you let somebody's opinion stop you just as important, today may be more important because now people really are gunning for you. That would be a shame because everything that Judy's accomplished, my wife and everything that we've experienced would not have happened because I know there's people that didn't think this was cool, including myself, right? Yeah. So yes. Yes. Well,
Ralph:
I think the level of authenticity at that point too was much greater because we were saying right now the, there's ulterior motive sometimes by hopping on a YouTube so you can get business. So I think just purely out of this is fun. I want to do this just because I want to. A lot of people were a lot more authentic, not saying that they aren't now. Yeah. It's just back then when being YouTube a YouTuber wasn't really a business. It was kind of just like, this is great. This is fun.
Malyn:
And I think that's why a lot of people really connected to your channels and Judy's channels because you see that shine through in her videos. You can really see that it was authentic and she was enjoying the process. And I think people can relate to that, and when they can see that and relate to that, it's, it makes it more appealing to watch.
Ralph:
So I kind of want to circle back to, well, you've had all this experience, all this work with YouTube and stuff, and then eventually the culmination of that one, a point of it at least was your book YouTube Secrets. And I got to appreciate say that. I really appreciate the audio book to that because you were the one reading it and Sean was reading it too, right? So it was like, I love it when the authors read their own books. There's just so much that comes out of it, but all that has gotten to a point where you wrote that book, so that can you dive into that journey? What led you into writing that book and deciding what all my experience, because it's an easy book to read, it's very
Benji:
Helpful. It is real easy, and we're proud of that too.
Ralph:
You guys made it really easy for people to just understand where to start, how to start, but can you dive into what led up to that book?
Benji:
Yeah, for sure. I got to flex a little bit here. This is one thing I'm really proud of. It is an easy book to read, right? And that's why it's the number one book for YouTube. No one can even touch that book. I mean, go to Amazon, even if you try to buy another YouTube book, this gets suggested by Amazon. Hey, that's awesome. Often people buy this book too, and so it's just crazy what's happened. But it's a good point that a lot of people don't understand. It's easy to read, easy to listen to. We do have the second edition, which is longer, but back in the day, you could have really had a long weekend and finished the book. Now it's going to be maybe two weekends, but still it, it's great. How the book idea started was 2014, my friend Sean Kennel who at the time lived, I believe in Las Vegas, I met him here in the Seattle area was flying back, and he had listened to a podcast or something about somebody who had a business called Book in the Box, and they were just talking about importance of having a book.
And at the same time, Sean, who is a co-author of the book, him and I geeked out on YouTube. So we were really early in thinking about YouTube as this proper platform because we saw how positive it was on our life at the time. He was using it for his job in the church that he was working at to market their services, and he was working for other entrepreneurs. For me, it was more as a creator, Judy being the creator. I was a vlogger at the time, and we were understanding things that now is common knowledge. You kind of have to have a YouTube channel if you're a brand and you want to create content that's going to reach a global audience, but back then it still was in its beginning stages, and we thought, there's not really a book about this. And he had this idea, I think I need to get a book and we got to do this together.
I don't know how it worked if I snuck my way into the book or if he said, you want to read? We don't know. We just we're so, we were so passionate and we were so close as friends and we didn't have anybody to talk about. We thought, let's just do this nice and well, let's sign up with this company. Back then they were called Book in the Box because we had never written a book before, had no experience. I like to write and enjoy it. Sean, he also is a great writer, but he also just smart in general how to put things together. And so we decided, hey, let's partner. In fact, there's a video end of 2014. This is also on YouTube in my backyard. This is when I was daily vlogging, so I had a camera. I was like, bro, let's start a YouTube channel for the book too, right?
He's, it makes sense. Let's prove what we're going to put in the book. And so also just to give some context, the book is how to start a YouTube channel, how to understand the Platform and basically become a full-time creator or use it for your business. And we thought, Hey, we're going to apply the principles. We didn't really think it through this. It's just, it makes sense. Let's start a YouTube channel to promote the book. So I filmed it right there on the spot. Yeah. It's funny because this is probably the only time I've ever seen Sean nervous on camera before <laugh>, because I have been vlogging. He's a natural, yeah, he's in a natural now after literally thousands of videos. But I knew the importance of starting this YouTube channel say, Hey, this going to be a first video. Let's tell people about it. That was 2014.
We thought it was going to take six months. Another struggle story here, <laugh> four years, four years of just life and running the business and opportunity and stresses and this and that. We never quit. And the original price for a book in the box was 10,000 and will honor it, but then they changed their business name to Scribe. So shout out to Scribe and by the end of our four years, the fee was like 30 grand. So we felt super lucky. Whoa. But 10 grand back then, even though I was doing pretty good, he had a full-time job, was a lot of money to spend on something. We didn't know what would happen with it. And we're not like we're first time authors. The whole point of Scribe is to help you write the book, right? Yeah. They're like the ghost writers behind the scenes. You are the author, proper author, but they're just putting everything together because they're, and we self-published, so we didn't get a publisher or anything like that.
So we published it, self-published in 2018. And that book has helped so many creators, so many people, kids and grown people entrepreneurs and people that want to be a creator. So I'm really proud of that book. And now it's in its second edition because we're writing a book for YouTube. The question is, and Gary Vaynerchuk, I was on his podcast and he asked me, because he was promoting the book for us. He's like, you write a book, Benji <laugh>, why didn't you just make videos? Which we did, right? Yeah. That channel, by the way, it's called Video Influencers, hundreds of videos, hundreds of interviews. We've had all kinds of YouTubers and creators half a million subscribers, and that's just like we called it the Side Hustle Channel, right? But it's a legit channel. But when Gary asked me that, why'd you write the book? And it was so easy.
It was like, because there's still a lot of people that don't know the opportunity of YouTube and are reading books. The second reason though is because in this day and age, it's not as common to have an artifact, something. So a book is your business card. It's the ultimate business card. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's everything that you've learned. It's decades put into that little pamphlet. And so that was the other reason. And we want people to have something and a reference point, but the actually the most important reason is because we want to help other people experience what we experience and get that success. We tell people about the struggles right up front. We don't sugarcoat it. That's great. And in fact, we share the stories so that that, Hey, we went through it too. We know what you're going through. And at the end of this is a ton of opportunity.
And I can't tell you how many YouTubers creators even people that aren't YouTubers, but just use YouTube and maybe they're on Instagram, come up to me all the time saying, thank you so much for writing that book. That was kind of the beginning, or I was going through some hard times and that really motivated me. I'm really proud of this. Sorry, I'm just ranting on this. I love it. My number, the, the first comment on the Amazon listing for YouTube Secrets was from a YouTuber that had a million subscribers. Whoa. And it was a big deal because the book was really written more for beginners, but we knew it would help anybody including full-time creators. And he said, I read this book. I'm already a full-time YouTuber, but I can tell you not only is everything that they talk about the truth, it's important for me to read this and be reminded of what it takes to be successful on this platform.
I was like, whoa, my gosh. I couldn't believe it. We were waiting for the first comment and it came pretty quick. Who knows? He might have been trying to get exposure to, but yeah, it had nothing to do with our niche. And still, that was my favorite comment ever because it really was why wrote the book? Because I'd say the last thing I want to say in relation to that is you can learn all these skills. I told you I didn't know how to light. I definitely don't use lamps to light my wife's setup. I have proper equipment now. The algorithm editing understanding how to tag and all that stuff, anybody can figure that out. There's not just books. There's a ton of videos. Everything's out there. Even if you have to pay for stuff, there's going to be courses that will teach you at least step by step everything to do.
The number one most important aspect of succeeding on YouTube and social media is never quitting, is persistence. And that's what I hope that book and anything I do, including this podcast, will do for somebody, because that's why I led with the struggle story. If you just get through those struggles, there's success on the other side. You might not even know for sure that's true, what it is you're learning or what it is you're gaining. But it is, and I feel like you guys should talk because you guys have your success story. This is one reason I'm so proud of what you guys created, because I remember at the beginning, right, Pochi Bubble Tea was, it wasn't what it is today even.
Benji:
I was like, Hey, are you sure you want to do a bubble tea shop? I mean, it's like you guys never ran a bubble tea shop, and I've been there. It's not the best place or anything like that.
Ralph:
Tell you what, Arthur has some balls because I was like, Hey, can I borrow a ton of money to do this? Cause I'm broke? In fact, I'm not even broke. I'm like, negative. So this guy has some major coones just to let me borrow some money from him and get the business started.
Malyn:
And none of us have worked in food or beverage at all. So we had no business running a bubble,
Ralph:
No sales.
Malyn:
Going back to kind of your point earlier though, it's like there's so many people don't realize how close they are to success. They're in the heat of the moment and they're struggling and they're struggling and they feel like it's so hard, but they don't realize that they're literally on the cusp of success. If they just went at it one more day, one more day, one more week, whatever it is, one more hour they would've gotten there to where they want it to be at or to be successful, their own version of success, they're so close. So I love that you brought that up that story too, because people just see kind of the end result, but they can be there too.
Ralph:
I love that with you. Having chatted with Gary and stuff, meeting him, that changed the way I managed the team. So that was, it's kind of funny too, because he says about 70% of the people that meet me for the first time, don't him. I was part of that 70% because the person that introduced me to Gary, I was like, why the fuck is this guy cussing so much? Yeah, well, I'm cussing so much too. And it was kind of funny. I do it a lot, but when I first came across Gary, I was like, I don't know. I don't, after a while listening to him and stuff, he was, I mean, the guy spit some bars, and when I actually got to talk to him and meet him in person in Canada, it was kind of cool because it was the person that you see is a person that is there. And so that really helped me change the way I manage and worked with the team. And then to something that he says too, is you got to really enjoy the journey. When you're talking about the struggle, part of the struggle is what gets you there and just enjoying the process, just enjoying your way there. Sometimes it's not about the success sometimes actually. It's not about the success. It's not about the end. It's how you get there. And that's more important than anything.
Benji:
Can I disagree with you?
Ralph:
Yeah, go for it, man. Absolutely.
Benji:
Because you're my friend. I can disagree
Ralph:
With you. Yeah, hell yeah.
Benji:
So easily. But I feel like you and I probably have a similar perspective. I thought about this today too. I was working out at the gym and I was using the row machine, right? And I don't think anybody really, really truly enjoys the struggle. We have a perspective where we kind of see, we have gratitude and we're positive minded, but when shit sucks, it just is horrible. Yeah, okay. And I always tell people, embrace it, but I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. I was like, it's going to be crappy, and you're not going to want to be here again. In fact, it's going to drive you to never return to that place again. Yeah. Even Gary, right, who's super successful. He talks about his struggle days when he had to work at his parents' liquor shop every single day while all his friends were out doing stuff.
And he claimed all these years that, oh, you know what? I knew what I was doing and whatever. And now hindsight, he says, no, I wish I had maybe spent more time with some friends or enjoyed life, or whatever. Interesting how perspectives change. But the point I'm trying to make is maybe not falling in love or enjoying that, the struggle, but falling in love with what gets you through that. And so talking about the RO machine, so I rode today for 55 minutes. Anybody that's worked out, especially if you're working out for the first time, it's mind numbing, doing the same thing over and over and over. You and I both know, I mean, Arthur, you too, right? But Marsha Arts, you have to do one punch a thousand times, maybe a hundred thousand times. It is mind numbing, fall in love with the rep though, with every time you pull.
And what I mean is, even though it's mind numbing to do it, and you get bored, most people just quit. They can't go an hour because it's just, they need, they're, they're addicted to their phones. They need to be listening to something. They want to be doing something. That thing is beneficial. They don't see the good in it. But if you fall in love with the rep, or you at least enjoy it, know that every single time you pull that machine, this row machine that's adding, or that's getting you one step closer to that success story, it's hard when things are really bad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So just be super focused. And so I was thinking about this as I'm rowing the machine, and this is my secret. This is where when I say disagree, you know, and I are on the same place with this.
I get micro focused on this rep, and I just got to pull it. I just got to pull it. I just got to pull it. Same thing with YouTube videos. I just got a post. I just got a post. The last C in the seven Cs of success for YouTube is consistency. And we don't dive into enough because we have a whole book to write. But if there's one thing I could add or one thing I could leave anybody with in terms of getting to that light, just focus on that rep. And the rep could for you. It does. I don't know it. What's your business for you guys is the bubble tea, right? Mm-hmm. Make that bubble tea. Make that bubble tea. Make every bubble tea a little bit better. Not even 1%, half a percent, but you do that a thousand times, 10,000 times, the bubble tea 20,000 later is going to be way better than first one.
And so you just focus on that one thing. Too many people, just like the mind numbing reps, it just gets to them. Versus for me, every time a pool, that's easy to do. You know what I'm saying? And don't worry about where you're at, what people think I told you, don't let people's opinions or what they say bother you. Just focus on that rep and you just do that. Do that. It's kind of like you were talking about some people get so close to the gold. Mm-hmm. Right? The gold mine and they stop. Yeah. I literally just keep chipping away until I'm dead. That's kind of how it
Ralph:
Looked like. <laugh>. See This's, what I love about this guy right here. So
Benji:
You don't have to die. No, no. You'll get to the
Ralph:
Gold. And here's the thing is, I love that you say this, that we disagree on some stuff and we're friends, and it's still not really, I think what I talk about as regarding the subject is not necessarily I think our idea of approach is different, but our execution is very similar because the way I look at this too is I totally see what you're saying there. And the way I look at it is a little bit different. And I think that's why we disagree on it. But I think our approach is so similar.
Benji:
We talked about martial artists too. Yeah.
Ralph:
That's thing. When you say martial arts, so I relate this to dopamine, right? Because when somebody looks at the success, that's the dopamine right there at the end. The more you train yourself, and this is why having a nine to five,
Benji:
There's no dopamine in the shit. The suck.
Ralph:
Oh, you know what I disagree with that.
Benji:
Oh, okay. For you. I
Ralph:
Disagrees. So here's like to punish itself. Yeah. I'm not punishing myself. I love it when it hurts. And that's just me, one person's perspective. That's just me. Okay, so here's the thing. This is why I don't think I can ever work a nine to five Monday to Friday, because it's like you always look forward to the weekend. There's that dopamine hit at the very end, which makes Monday to Friday really long. The nine to five sucks for me, one person's opinion because you're looking for that dopamine at the end of the day. This is why I enjoy the process. I enjoy the pain because let's talk about the punching. That pun that 1000 times the punches when you punch a hundred times, and when you do it properly, it sucks because it takes your whole body. That punch isn't just the punch. It's your whole body into it.
And if I focus on, okay, if I do this a thousand times my last punch at the thousandth, the thousandth punch is going to be just on point. Well, that's my dopamine hit at the end, and I don't want to get there because that 999 punches is going to really suck. So I focus on every single punch, the process, the pole that you're talking about. And even though maybe the 552nd punch really sucks and it hurts, it's like, Ooh, I pivoted my hip just right. Yes. 553, oh, you know what? My shoulder pivoted. Just my shoulder just went right into that. That was good. Every single one has a kind of win for me. So no matter how much the struggle is, every step of the journey, no matter how much it sucks, no matter how much it's absolute shit, I love it. Because there's always a micro win in every single thing. Again, that's one person's perspective.
Benji:
This is me and Ralph sparring right now.
Malyn:
But you're listening to both of your guys' approach at it. It's, it is kind of similar though. It's like you guys find your own joy or passion or optimism in some part of that rep of struggle, sort of the journey. Yeah. And I think because both of you guys are able to do that, that's what keeps you going. So your approach are very similar, but you guys find just something a little different in,
Ralph:
We think of it differently, I think. Yeah.
Benji:
And also Asian too. So <laugh> pain is part of the process. Part of the process,
Ralph:
Yep.
Malyn:
No, avoiding it.
Benji:
Again, I talk about Arthur because he's here. He's one of the greatest I personally know that I've ever seen. Oh, yeah, right. Atrix. Look it up person. Appreciate that, man. And I, I don't even know. It's like, what are the chances to look in all these bboy battles that we threw the 360? And there was so many times, I remember because we worked together, and he would practice at the Y M C A, I mean, one practice and another practice didn't look that different. And so we want to talk about mind numbing reps, and I could see, I saw the stress in his eyes sometimes, right? Like, I'm not getting this, or whatever. Another fun story, the last significant 360 in this sense that I was part of that I planned Arthur and his crew won. And that was arguably the biggest prize too, because there was a prize for it. And I was watching that video when you guys won that pretty epic, because the best bee boy crews in the northwest were coming to our jam, and they were winning it, right? Yeah. Massive monkeys, Dan Brooms. There was a few others,
Arthur:
And sometimes even from out of state, from California
Benji:
And from Canada for sure, for, and so Arthur's crew at the time when they won wasn't just all people from that town we'd grew up in. It was a mix, but there was a few from our area. So that's a good example. And I knew Arthur when he first started, and getting a windmill, which is the most basic thing, was a big deal. It
Arthur:
Was right. Also very mind numbing, just over and over again until you get it.
Benji:
And you remember winning that last battle. How good did that feel? That was a big price.
Arthur:
That's good. Yeah. Yeah, it was good.
Benji:
And it makes all those, I mean, is there anything you want to speak to? Because I think that especially with bee boying, it doesn't lead to a business or a career for most people. Just yeah, it's not a huge industry. So it's even more mind numbing because it's like you're just doing this purely for the love of dance.
Arthur:
Yeah, purely for the love of it. I mean, I've been out of the scene for a while now, so definitely things have changed. Obviously now a lot of the dancers nowadays when it comes to breaking, now breaking is in the Olympics, and you have Team USA preparing for that and a whole bunch of other teams. That was actually one of my dreams back then to try to go and do that. But yeah, nowadays there's just so much more opportunity, at least compared to when I was doing it. Maybe like you said, if I just kept doing it, kept going, I maybe I could have been part Team usa, who knows? But I know my body doesn't feel like it would agree with that. But as far as breaking goes or even just dance in general, as you know, you're a dancer as well, going along with being consistent, the consistency and how you said hyper focus on that rep.
Same thing with dancing is we, you hyperfocus on, at least for us, it'd be focus on the details of each individual movement. And sometimes we do that movement over and over again until the details are exactly how we want it and we execute the way we want to. And who knows how long that could take. Sometimes it could take a day, sometimes week, sometimes months. Sometimes it took me years to get one single move that I wanted. So yeah, it is just, it's got to, to whether you enjoy the pain like Ralph or it just have to push through it and know that you will come out on the other side regardless.
Malyn:
And with the practice and putting in those reps, right? It's not just going through the motions either. Right. Because just putting in and going through the motions and just doing it. Yeah. Also doesn't make sense. It doesn't produce any results in the long run. Right. It's actually the intention behind it too. So part of bringing in that enjoyment and bringing in the techniques and making sure you're doing things like correctly or how you want it, and making sure you do something a little different each time is part of bringing that intention into each wrap so that you can improve or that you do see progress too. Exactly. So you can't just be like mindlessly going through it or else you don't get Yeah, that's true. That's
Benji:
Really, that's true. That's why I was saying improvement. 1% improvement every single time. I'm looking at a whole bunch of people behind the camera breaking the third wall here, and I can just tell you, I'm not a camera guy. No production enough to just do my own thing. But kudos to the professionals, including in this room. Any one of these guys in here that's filming us right now mm-hmm. Will tell you, doesn't matter how much school you go to, what course you take, you know what video you watch, what you read. It's time behind the lens that's going to give you the experience. Right. And I'm telling you from personal experience, the best photographers, the best videographers, best people are literally the people that have pressed that shutter the most times with a little bit of improvement every single time. Right. And one thing to speak to your whole pain thing, because it's funny, I got a high threshold for pain too, but the pain dissipates over time.
That's true. Going back to cameras, my Lord, I wanted to throw that camera so many times because I didn't know how to do white balance and all this stuff. It was so stressful. But you know what? Over time it dissipates because you start getting used to it. You start learning, your body gets stronger, your mind has a stronger will. And so that's one more thing I would say. Going back to how do you succeed on YouTube? Social media, really in life, getting through the struggles, the pain will go away. <affirmative> funny how our bodies and our spirits can over time start handling more than you could ever know. And again, people run from pain. They literally take pills to kill the pain. And I'm not hugging the pain. I'm not like Ralph, we're like, I love this. I embrace, I'm like, okay, this sucks so bad.
How do I fix it? Yeah. And so the only way you do it by improving little by little, by little, having patience again. But that's another thing. Nobody likes to be patient. Let's be fris. Okay. Nobody likes waiting in line, but guess what? Eventually you get to the front. Yeah. And so the pain will go away. Because I know a lot of people right now especially, are experiencing pain or some kind of struggle, legit real stuff. Not like, oh man, my YouTube video's not getting views kind of stuff like legit health concerns and mm-hmm. Finances and just what's going on in the world. That too will go away. And I know this from personal experience, the chicken and rice days, that wasn't forever. That was probably, I don't know, a year or two.
Ralph:
I think we were there for a couple years too,
Benji:
Right? Two. But going back to improvement, if we didn't have, not just the perspective, but the work ethic to get to the next stage, we might still be living together in a part, which would be very scary.
Ralph:
I love you and everything. Can't do that anymore.
Benji:
Those are fun times though.
Ralph:
Yes, it was. Well, before we close this out, do you have any last words for our audience? Any last words of wisdom? I know you spilled a lot of mm-hmm. Yeah. A lot of gems today. If you guys were listening carefully, there was a lot to be heard. But any last words of wisdom that you would want to share with everyone?
Benji:
I didn't plan this out but thinking about the name of this podcast spilled the T, right? Everybody wants to know what day went through, what's the real thing or what's the secret. Realize your own secrets and your own story is what's most important. And add to that, build to that. And rather than waiting for the answer from somebody else, you already have the answers. You just have to have the will to utilize it and to get to the next place. For me personally, coaching creators, my goal is to make you better, to help you succeed at a higher level. And I'll tell people my stories. I use other people's examples, but I always, the number one way, I get anybody motivated, this is my secret. I just make you feel like a badass <laugh>. Because you have a story too, right? Yeah. Everybody's got an amazing story, and so be proud of what you're going through and realize that struggle will be a success story one day.
Ralph:
I love that. That is powerful. Yeah. Wow. Thank you. Well, Benji, thank you
Benji:
So much. Thanks for having me on the show. This was
Ralph:
Really cool. This is really fun. Oh my gosh. What an episode. Well thank you guys for tuning in and make sure you hang out for our next episode. Benji, what are you drinking today, by the way?
Benji:
Oh, so my favorite bubble tea flavor this'll be a new tradition for the show, is Oolong zero sugar and just boba, because boba has sugar in it too. It does. I mean, literally, I cannot tell that this is 0% sugar, so I'm trying to help you stay healthy as well.
Ralph:
There you go. All right, guys. Until the next episode. See ya.
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