The Variety Podcasting Brunch at SXSW featured a live-taping of the podcast Awards Circuit, with Sean Evans, host of “Hot Ones”; Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, the hosts of “Good Mythical Morning“; and Marques Brownlee, host of “Waveform Podcast” in a panel discussion about how they are trailblazing storytelling and fan engagement across popular talk shows and podcasts.
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00:00We just assume that people are watching our show but also listening to the podcast while doing
00:05something else. It's also lovemaking. Yep, that can happen. Let's just say it. Let's just come
00:10out and say it. Well, lovemaking. My name is Clayton Davis. I'm the chief awards editor of
00:28Variety and welcome to this live taping of the Variety Award Circuit Podcast.
00:36It is just like the Arrow store except I don't get two billion dollars. I'm not singing and I won't
00:45bring up my exes. All right, today's episode is a special edition live from South by Southwest
00:49presented by our partners at YouTube. We were excited at the opportunity to interview YouTube's
00:54biggest stars and that is what we are about to do. So let me call them out one at a time
00:59and we can have a chat. The host of Hot Ones and chief creative officer at First We Feast,
01:04ladies and gentlemen, Sean Evans. We have the host of Good Mythical Morning and founders of
01:12Mythical Entertainment, Brett McLaughlin and Link Neal. And the host of Waveform Podcast,
01:20Marques Brownlee. I guess you're wondering why I called this meeting with all of you today.
01:27I'm gonna chat with you. Let's talk about some nice little highlights
01:32that we are we are celebrating. In April, YouTube will turn 20 years old.
01:41I too am 20 years old. This is a big deal for me as well. YouTube has
01:48offered a platform for all of you to let your voices be heard, give your weird ideas that some
01:55people think are weird, but actually they're just fun. I heard a creator once say, we were this
02:02growing up. You guys just all thought it was weird and now we put on online and now you're like,
02:07oh, you're really cool. Like we were cool the whole time. Exactly. Exactly. Can you talk about
02:12this moment in time for you and where you pictured your life at this point initially?
02:18What would you be doing if you weren't making YouTube videos? I personally have no idea. I've
02:24done so many laps around any expectation I ever had for myself and crashed through all of these
02:30ceilings. And I think the highest I ever dreamed was like maybe I'd be a producer for a drive time
02:35radio show doing like 670 the score ESPN 1000 in Chicago. I never dreamed that it would be
02:43on camera and that we'd have this talk show that is somehow broken containment and made it this far
02:48even to the cover of a magazine this time around. So it's really been an amazing thing. And I'm just
02:55constantly blown away by the magic carpet ride of it all. Yeah. Where we come from, the idea of an
03:02entertainer was this guy that came to our middle school dances and he could do magic, but he was
03:06also a DJ. He had a guitar. He had a guitar. Right. Yeah. And he would fake strum it that we were
03:17like, we can do this. Yeah. Right. So we kind of thought we'd be doing that and I'd be the magician
03:23and he'd be the DJ. But we would both have one guitar that we strum. If you're waiting for the
03:28honest answer, that was it. But I will say I also wanted to be a weatherman because, I mean,
03:36I saw him on television every night and when the state fair came to town,
03:41I guess the state fair didn't move. Came to state. When I went to the state fair,
03:47he was a celebrity there. Right. Yeah. Can you describe the weather of today just for us? Just
03:52one time. It's a balmy 77 already. I'm shocked. I went outside for a second and I had to retreat
04:01back in. So wear your spaghetti straps. I love it. Yeah. I'm sorry. I was always into tech. I
04:14went to school for tech. I kind of pictured when I was going to school for tech and business that
04:18I would be the person that actually today is the one who is coordinating with the creators and the
04:25YouTubers who's managing for one company. I thought that's where I would be. But this new thing has
04:31been doing really well. So that's where I'm at. Podcasts used to be frowned upon in this industry.
04:37People used to use it as like, oh, you only have a podcast. But now they're one of the largest
04:44growing successful platforms that are existing with people also venturing out of just audio into
04:51video podcasts, which is hence you can see us right now as you're watching this. How has that changed
04:57the game for you in terms of the content that you deliver? And obviously your ideas were initially
05:06conceptualized as video. But what do you miss when you don't add video to that aspect of it? Can you
05:13talk about how that just made your. I can speak to that. So I have a channel that does like tech
05:19videos and they're very highly produced. And then I also have a podcast that lives on YouTube. And
05:24the idea behind starting another channel for that was people are so used to this production and it's
05:28edited and it's very curated that they wanted a more casual version of like digesting some of the
05:35same tech stories and topics. And so I actually started an audio only podcast for that and diving
05:41into that world, I quickly learned how terrible discoverability is with audio only podcasts. And so
05:47the natural thing to do is, OK, we're going to do YouTube. We're going to obviously put this on
05:50YouTube. It'll be a video show. And it's gone every bit as great as we expected. People want to see
05:55us talk about tech. And so it's a much more casual chat show type of thing. And it's filled the gap.
06:01It's filled the void of what people were hoping for more of. In addition to the typical very
06:06produced videos that we make. One of the things that podcasting did for culture is it changed the
06:12way people entertain themselves. So you're usually doing something else while being entertained. And
06:19you know, growing up, that really wasn't how you sat down in front of the TV and you watched it.
06:23And now you like vacuum or work out or we look when we're doing GMM, we literally have a guy
06:28that we address. Is it Jerry? Barry. Barry. Barry is always vacuuming. And there's probably a guy
06:35named Barry. We've made so many episodes. We probably have accidentally addressed him while
06:39he was vacuuming at some point and freaked him out. But we just assume that people are watching
06:46our show, but also listening to the podcast while doing something else. Right. And so I think that
06:52it's also love making. Yeah, that can happen. Let's just say it. Let's just come out and say
06:57it. Well, love me. I would say based on those clips that might depend on what you're into.
07:02Two middle aged men just go. Yeah, think about it. So I think that that has the podcasting
07:11world sort of put that pressure on all of us to, you know, when we first started, we were making
07:15we're like, you can't go over three minutes. You don't want to put a video up for more than three
07:19minutes. And now if you're going to take the time to make a video, I would only be three minutes.
07:24You know, it's a completely different world. Well, it was always going to be a visual show just
07:30because, you know, people are eating scorching hot chicken wings, and that's a lot of the fun of
07:34it. But I think what's amazing about YouTube and having the show on YouTube was, you know,
07:39it wasn't a big hit at first, you know, and who knows if we were on network or is more traditional
07:45TV show, like maybe Hot Ones would have been canceled before it got a chance to find itself.
07:49And it's also amazing because this started off as just this, you know, skunk works freak show that
07:54me and Chris were working on. And there was no network notes, you know, we weren't bound by
08:00anything. It could just be our own creativity expressed through the videos that we were making.
08:04So in that way, it's just something that I look back on and I'm thinking like, oh, well,
08:08without this platform and without this moment, without this opportunity, and it all coalescing
08:13with the way that consumer behaviors changed and people started to look to the internet more as a
08:18way to entertain themselves with the shows that they were watching. We were just right place,
08:23right time, right passion, right enthusiasm. And somehow it all worked out.
08:28I have a question for you individually here, Sean. There's a saying when ideas,
08:33big successful ideas happen, keep it simple, stupid, right? Like such a simple concept
08:39of eating chicken wings and talking. And a lot of us, I'm sure had this feeling of like,
08:44I could have thought of that, right? Like, it seems like such a simple idea,
08:48but you made it work and you make it work because of you. How, explain how that,
08:53how did you end up finding the rhythm in that? And are you grossed out by chicken wings outside
08:59of the show? I try not to say anything rude about chicken wings because chicken wings have been very
09:04good to me. But I don't think that, you know, if I'm at a Super Bowl party, it's not exactly
09:09something that I'm reaching for. But Chris had this idea, you know, like, well, what if we
09:14interviewed celebrities by having them eat increasingly spicy chicken wings? It was just
09:18such a Cupid's arrow into my brain. I immediately recognized the potential of it all. But also too,
09:24there was all these unintended consequences and things that worked out as a result. So originally
09:28we were just trying to disrupt the PR driven flight pattern that a guest walks into the studio
09:32with when they're on a press tour. And we just thought hot sauce would be a good disruptive
09:36element to introduce into a situation like that. But I also think that there's this shared
09:41experience of having a meal with someone. I think when you're fighting off the hot sauce, it's not
09:46only that you're like surviving, but you also forget the formality of being in an interview
09:51setting. You know, you forget about the idea that there are all these cameras pointed at you. So I
09:55think it just allows for a more honest side of the person and definitely takes them out of whatever
10:00mindset might have been inhibiting them if they were to, say, be on the Today Show that morning
10:05or doing some other show. So I think all of those things work together to create this, you know,
10:10like, what's it like to have a beer with this person talk show that people have been trying
10:14to invent forever? And I think we just kind of accidentally cracked the code on it.
10:18Rhett and Link, what I love about Good Mythical Morning is that you
10:23tell celebrities, which PR people tend to hate this, but it's okay to be silly. Can you talk
10:29about, like, getting celebrities to come into your space and be able to not be so serious about
10:35a project they're working on and just, like, kind of let loose for a little while?
10:39It's been quite an evolution, right? I mean, we've done 12 years of the show, over 2600
10:47episodes at this point. And so we're always trying to learn. And when it comes to the
10:54celebrity guest component, that's been really interesting for us. For one, we went on this
10:59journey of, like, what draws an audience in? What's the best thing to go into thumbnail? Do
11:03we need the celebrity in the thumbnail? You know, it's like, there's so many dynamics going on here.
11:08But then the way that we interact with them, I think, as we have learned from our audience that
11:16our sincere relationship, friendship being on display behind that desk, is something that
11:23we're now including our audience in. It's a, I don't want to say intimate relationship,
11:29because that would make it weird. And I don't do that. I don't make things weird.
11:32Right.
11:33But you see where I'm going with this?
11:35Yeah, I'm not gonna pick it up. I'm just gonna make another point.
11:40My point is that we learn to invite celebrities into that environment where we're legitimately
11:47giving each other shit or connecting with each other and sharing it with that one mythical
11:53beast on the other side of the lens. And I think that's what they're tapping into.
11:57Well, and I think it helps. You know, you can tell when someone has watched the show,
12:04obviously, if they are already a fan, it makes a huge difference. And then the fans really pick
12:09up on that. I mean, some of the best, you know, Post Malone has been on twice. And the first time
12:15he showed up, you know, we had heard that he was a fan. But you always hear that, because there are
12:20people say that they're a fan. That's just so you're just like, well, I'll take that with a
12:23grain of salt. But when he showed up, and he was calling out people behind the scenes producers
12:28by name who may be been on the show a few times really, oh, actually, he is a fan. He was like,
12:32yeah, I watch it before I go to bed every night. And so then it was just like, it was like three
12:39friends hanging out. And so those are the those are the best interactions when it's somebody who
12:43really understands the ethos of the show and our friendship. But then you find we turn down
12:49Bill Murray or Lady Gaga. No, we wouldn't. Well, we had. So we had a complete opposite
12:55end of the spectrum. We had Ted Danson on this year. And so, you know, Ted's not watching us
12:59before he goes to bed. And that's fine. And but you could tell he had watched like one episode.
13:08Somebody had prepped him to watch one episode. And he kind of but he got it. And he immediately
13:12understood that, like, I'm supposed to be kind of chill. I'm supposed to kind of be like this is
13:16I'm not supposed to look like I'm trying too hard. And you see in the comments, people respond to
13:21that, like Ted Danson is so cool. He's not trying too hard. That's the gift that we give to Ted
13:28Danson. Right. So it's made for Marquez. What YouTube has done brilliantly for 20 years,
13:35it's removed the guardrails for anyone to kind of step into the space without pitching yourself
13:40to everyone in Hollywood and say, I have some really good ideas about a tech show and it could
13:44be cool. And then say, no, no one wants to hear about tech. But then YouTube allows to show that
13:51a lot of people love tech and they want to hear people talk about it. You talk about getting that
13:55chance to build your audience and be in this space without having to go through the traditional
14:02roads of becoming famous. Yeah, well, the first thing is, this wasn't a real job. When I started,
14:09when all of us started, this wasn't actually a thing that people aspired to do. It was kind of
14:13just like, oh, it's a hobby. I'm going to make videos and share my passion for tech and maybe
14:17review the laptop I already bought or something like that. So the community that was drawn to
14:22what I was making organically was sort of an accidental byproduct of that. And because of
14:27the discoverability of it, people continued to snowball towards it and then it became what it is.
14:33But the other thing I've noticed about all of our stories is there's that human element of,
14:37it just humanizes, whether it's celebrity guests or creator making a video, it's just another
14:44person. So whether it's like the celebrity goes on to Hot Ones and you're like, I haven't really
14:49seen this person in any environment other than being a tennis player or whatever it is. And now
14:53I get to learn the person a little bit. It's very humanizing. The same thing going on Good Mythical
14:57Morning, like I'm introduced to a new part of this person. And that's true if it's just no celebrity
15:04yet. If it's just a person, you get recommended a video, you watch the video, you're like, damn,
15:09I actually agree with a lot of what this person's saying. This is cool. I'm going to follow this one
15:13person who I've never heard of before. And so it kind of brings everyone to the same level of,
15:16these are all humans. These are all people with interests and ideas and thoughts and takes,
15:21and they can share them on YouTube and they can decide to jump on someone else's show and we can
15:26all chop it up together and share these ideas. But I think that's the thing that I've noticed
15:30that we kind of all have in common with this. I mean, the creator energy certainly comes through.
15:35I think that really translates to an audience that they can tell that there's somebody behind
15:40this. There's some passion behind this. And there's an added layer of connection that
15:47YouTube has always implied. I always wanted to know, this is maybe a silly question. Are there
15:53like creator turf wars or they're like, you know, you took my user that was always on my
15:57channel all the time. Are you guys aware of like users that you share? Is there your favorite
16:02commenter on any of your channels that you think are, you know, bots or of the other guy?
16:08I do. I think, no, I think the rising tide lifts all ships thing is true. I, back in the early,
16:14early days of YouTube, I've told this before, but like it was enough to stand out to be the
16:20tech channel. And there were like three or four of them in 2008. And so being the tech channel
16:24was like, Oh, I know what that channel is. And then a few years later, when there were a 50 or
16:28a hundred, it was like, all right, I am the computer software tech channel because there's
16:33so many tech channels I want to stand out in my own little way. And so we sort of niche down
16:37and now it's 2025 and there are endless channels. There are, there are the
16:42negative Mac book unboxing channel. Like that's a person who does just that. It's not necessarily
16:48stealing a viewer from someone, but it's sort of organically finding someone who hasn't been
16:53spoken to yet and speaking to them and bringing them on YouTube and creating an audience that
16:57gravitates towards that thing. So everyone can do that. And then everyone comes to YouTube and
17:02then everything grows and people, you know, they're on everybody's channels at this point.
17:06So it's kind of, everybody wins. Yeah. And I kind of embrace the competition of it all too.
17:10You know, it's not like I'm entitled for an audience to watch the show. It's just like,
17:15you have to just scratch the itch that they're looking for. And if somebody else does it better,
17:20that's kind of just entertainment. You know, it's just a competitive landscape,
17:23especially these days where people can do whatever they want with their eyes and ears
17:27in a really cost-effective way. So I think it's just never taking this audience for granted,
17:32even if you've built up this massive subscriber base, that's never really built in. I think that
17:37you always have to be sharpening the tools in order to satisfy this audience that depends on
17:42you to, for whatever reason, you know, the escapism that they get from it. They watch the episodes
17:48with their wife or their husband or their family. They eat wings along like all of these things.
17:52Like if you just stop delivering to them, then you don't deserve that view anyway. So I think
17:57that the competition is good and will just help you work to whatever form you're trying to get to
18:04anyway. You know, I think if I look back, you know, like five years or like when we first started and
18:08the growth, not only in the show and in the channel, but also in myself as a broadcaster,
18:13that's all been important, but the audience has always motivated that. And it's the fear of losing
18:17them that motivates that. They're in burnout. That's the flip side of it that we all deal with
18:22too, because this is the world that we live in. And I like your mentality, you know, and I think
18:27that's it. It's a hard game to play for a long time. I think that's one of the things that I'm
18:32most proud of. And it's not just proud of us, but our team, because they've been a key to
18:38us creating everything, including the sustainability on a platform that has become
18:44so competitive. And I think it's just that not letting up and trusting the right people and
18:49hiring people like Stevie and Jacob and Brian in the room today. And, you know, so I'll leave it
18:54at that. Shout out again to Stevie, man. Stevie, star of this podcast today, because you're on the
18:59Award Circuit Podcast, I have to ask you. Emmys are coming up and YouTube has been in this very
19:06interesting middle ground of the Emmy space. And Emmys, the last few years, have tried to evolve
19:12with the times. Everyone's consuming content differently. We know this. But it was only like
19:17just last year we got Sean submitted onto the talk series, in the talk series category, to even
19:24be considered. Right? And Link, you went into short form. What is something you want to see
19:32in that space of awards and recognition? I know you guys don't do this for awards,
19:36but it'd be nice to get a statue once in a while. Any thoughts on that?
19:41Yeah. I mean, I just think at this point, and Link, I've heard you talk about this before,
19:47and Red, I've heard you talk about this before, but the production side of things has flattened
19:51so much that you can't really tell the difference between, you know, like what's on ABC and what's
19:57on YouTube. And then I think outside of that, when you look at the guests that we book, when you look
20:03at the size of the audience that we've built, when you look at the show's place in culture,
20:08it's absolutely worthy of comparison with all these shows that do get nominated in that category. So
20:13if it doesn't happen this year, it doesn't happen next year, it will happen eventually.
20:18So I think at this point, it's just about putting out the best possible show that you can make,
20:22having confidence that you do belong in the category with those people. And then just seeing
20:29if the award shows kind of catch up with the times and the ways that audiences have changed and
20:34evolved over just the last 10 years that we've been doing the show. So it would be awesome. My
20:40number one priority will always just be to deliver the best possible show that we can make and
20:44satisfy this audience that's been so loyal to us for so long. But yeah, it'd be nice to get
20:50nominated. Yeah, we have a wall filled with streamies and webbies and shorties. There's just
20:59there's more room there. There's something that happens at parties in Los Angeles when you go to
21:04someone's home and you find the shelf. That's right. Oh, there's the shelf with the Emmy on it.
21:12So what he's saying is we are only doing it for the Emmy. We would have retired two years ago,
21:18I think, if it wasn't for the Emmy. I've always liked trophies, but that's not really what this
21:21is about. I think our shows are in the midst of the cultural conversation in the same way
21:26that shows that are winning Emmys are. So we think that we should be recognized. But really,
21:31the motivation for that is that in many ways, the industry is still very behind in recognizing that
21:37we are in the middle of that cultural conversation. So, you know, not to make it about money, but if
21:42you look at where brands are putting their money in the way that they value a set of eyeballs
21:47watching The Tonight Show versus watching Good Mythical Morning, they're just still not it still
21:52doesn't make any sense. And I think one of the reasons that doesn't make sense for people is that
21:56brands and just the culture in general looks to the academy to know what they think is cool.
22:03It's like, should I like this? Can I like this yet? But if you look at the numbers,
22:07yeah, I mean, let's talk live plus seven day views, you know, when you start, okay, let's
22:13speak the same language and say, okay, if you look at the numbers, we're exceeding those of late night
22:19shows. And in the 18 to 34 demo, we are exceeding them all combined. It's not even close. So,
22:27I mean, it's just, you know, I don't like to seem like we're bragging, but I do think for creators
22:33in general, we started, we started to get, you know, it's like, the late night shows,
22:39we're in a category now, we're honored to be in the category, but it's the category where they're
22:43just like, we're also making digital content. So like, there's this little additional thing that
22:49the jimmies will do. And I love those guys. If that's the only category I can be in is to have
22:56our show be the thing that competes with their after show, I'll take it. But it, you know,
23:02there's a lot to figure out, but it is an inevitability. We just got to get there. So I think
23:07talking about it and talking with each other and the Emmys has been something that's been
23:13fruitful so far. Because you want to add anything? Yeah, it's, it's, it's always an
23:17interesting conversation. I do see a lot of, I look a lot at the Venn diagram between traditional
23:25and YouTube a lot. I do think it is a kind of a case of the award shows catching up with the
23:31times. Cause if it is just cultural impact or whatever it is, we're there, right? So a lot of
23:36the questions I have are just what does the Emmy, for example, actually mean? What is that? What is
23:43the definition of what deserves to be awarded with an Emmy? I love to see that written down somewhere
23:48because I, like you've mentioned, whether you look at the numbers or you just look at the
23:52connection that people have or how into it people get or whatever you want to measure it by there,
23:58they're in the same category, even though the Venn diagram isn't quite overlapped. I think all the
24:01stuff that we're making and all the stuff that the Academy recognizes are very much in the same
24:07category. But the, the challenging thing is like, how do we, how do we get there? You know, it's
24:12like, I think we, we all have to work together to figure it out. Cause it's intimidating, I think,
24:16from the Emmy side to look and see, well, it's just an endless sea of content over there. And so I
24:23think what we're saying is that, well, you can, we can come up with a process where you can filter
24:30a little bit and this can start to make sense, but it's getting over this initial hump and it is
24:35happening where it's, it's not as intimidating. It's not, it's not a big sea. A past time of
24:42award circuit that we end all our podcasts with some rapid fire questions. I preface this with
24:48everyone. These are the first answers that come to their head may not be the actual answer, but we
24:52talk about movies and TV and we want to know what movies and TV things you like that are possibly
24:57related to your show. Sean Evans. I'm ready. Favorite comedy of all time. Favorite theatrical
25:03comedy of all time is Kingpin favorite, just pure funniest movie ever made. Windy city heat.
25:08Right. And link, uh, the posters that would be the poster of someone that would be hanging on
25:13your bedroom wall when you were kids, the Pepsi poster, man, I'm a sellout. I mean,
25:17but Cindy Crawford was also in it. I'm 46 years old. I'm 47.
25:25It was Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Dale Murphy. Who was the really, uh, also the really
25:30short mugsy boats. I had a mugsy, no spud web. I had a spud web poster as well. Yeah. I remember
25:36that it was kind of on your ceiling. It's kinky. Yeah. Don't. Well, the, the roof hit the, uh,
25:42my room and made my room have a wreck. Couldn't walk into his closet without going like this.
25:47Marquez is my, this is most important question of all the movie that accurately depicts where
25:54we're headed for in the future. Tech wise. I know the answer. I want to know if you say that same
25:59answer. Let's just go blade runner, just aesthetics wise. I don't want to get too.
26:05That's the hopeful. I don't want to get to. Yeah. I was going to say mine is
26:08so many or two judgment day. Just saying, uh, we know how this ends, guys. We know how this ends.
26:14Just saying, uh, we know how this ends guys. Skynet becomes aware and he does everything.
26:21Um, Sean, uh, dream guest. Oh, well, you know, we've had so many of them over the years, but,
26:29um, I'll say dream guests right now that hasn't done it yet or is unavailable. Sometimes
26:3650 cent, 50, huh? Let's talk after, uh, rent link. Uh, if you could bring someone back from
26:45the dead to come do your show, who would you Jesus? Come on now. Yeah. Wholesome content.
26:52I'm not kidding. What would you ask him completely? Have you heard the Casey
26:57Musgraves song? The architect? I think that sums it up. That's my, that's my rec for today.
27:02Merle Haggard. We have Merle Haggard on the wall in our studio. And, uh, right when we,
27:09we got, we met his son, we got some passes so that we could go onto his tour bus. He's a country
27:16singer for the, for the 90% of you that don't know what I'm talking about. Um, we, we got, uh,
27:22passes to be able to go onto his tour bus at any time. And then like he died a week later.
27:26It wasn't our fault. I connect those two things. So he was like, I want to avoid those boys.
27:34Marquez favorite TV show from your childhood. I'm just going to go way back. Uh,
27:38dragon tails. Oh, nice. All right. And the final question, your message for one of people that
27:47want to be creators. What would you say to people who want to be creators? I'm going to go with
27:54people that want to be creators and want to get into the space and be you one day with good shirts
28:01and good pants and great glasses. I would just say only do it. If you have a pathological pull
28:08or drive to do it. Um, if it's just something that you would do on your own anyway, I think
28:13that's something that we all share in common is, uh, this is what we love to do. We just started
28:18doing it as a hobby and it turned into a thing. And if you don't go into it for those reasons,
28:23if you're, you know, I'm trying to enterprise, trying to make money, trying to be famous,
28:27whatever, you will get so burned out by it. Not to say that it's like the hardest job
28:31in the world or anything, cause it's not their actual hard jobs out there, but,
28:34um, it does require, uh, an insane commitment and it's in a day in and day out kind of way.
28:41And you will absolutely be burned out and miserable if you don't go into it,
28:45uh, for those reasons. So that's what I would say. The fact that now content creator is the
28:50number one thing that kids want to be like, I don't necessarily think that's a good sign
28:56for our culture. Like we need creators, like we need people building bridges and
28:59things, not just making more content. So I would say do anything else.
29:08I would say, uh, work the algorithm. Don't let the algorithm work you.
29:14I like analogies. So I kind of stick with that. Like once you're there,
29:18it's kind of like being on a treadmill and burnout is when you turn the treadmill up too high and you
29:23can't keep pace and you just have to get off. And it's a balancing act of finding how high
29:29you want to turn the treadmill where you're not falling behind, but you're not falling off.
29:34And that's not always the same pace. It's going to go up. Sometimes it's going to go down
29:36sometimes, but staying on the treadmill is the thing that matters, uh, in this general
29:42job. So I think, uh, it is a balancing act, but you do have to want to be on the treadmill.
29:48I enjoyed our time together and I hope you did properly to take us out. Usually I just sign off,
29:53but, uh, give us a weather forecast for tomorrow. All right, guys. Um, just, uh, get out your
29:58spaghetti strips again tomorrow because, um, if it passes the sniff test, it passes
30:05weatherman links test. So get on out there and eat some barbecue and enjoy yourself. It's South by
30:11baby. It was perfect. Thank you to YouTube. Uh, thank you to South by Southwest. My first time
30:22in South by Southwest. The first time in Austin, my first timer. Uh, and I enjoyed our time
30:27together. Once again, Rhett link, Sean Evans, Marquez, everyone here one more time for them.
30:32And thank you all for watching at home. Have a good one.