MrBeast: Future of YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram | Lex Fridman Podcast #351

- I'm here with MrBeast, the brilliant mastermind behind. some of the most popular videos ever created. Do you think you'll ever make a video. that gets one billion views? - I think maybe one of the videos. we've already made might get a billion views. - Which one do you think? - Probably the Squid Game video, with enough time. I mean, it's only a year old. and it's already on 300 million, or some of the newer ones. we've done have gotten 100 million views in a month. So those, forward projected over 10 years, 'cause YouTube's not going anywhere, probably one of those. - So over time, they don't necessarily plateau?

- What's interesting... We're literally jumping right into it, I love it. It's good. So I'm a firm believer that. it's much easier to hypothetically get 10 million views. on one video than 100,000 on 100. And part of why it's much easier, in my opinion, is if you make a really good video, it's just so evergreen, and it never dies. 'Cause YouTube... When you open up YouTube. and look at the videos, they're just serving you whatever. they think you'll like the best, you know? And so if you just make a great video, and it's constantly just. above every other video, even two years down the road,

then they'll just keep serving it. and never stop, you know? Which is why it's much easier to make one great video. than a bunch of mediocre ones. - What about one billion subscribers? You've passed PewDiePie as. the most subscribed to YouTube channel. When do you think you get a billion? - Let me do some math real quick. So we're on 120. - So you think about this? - No, I don't, honestly, 'Cause one thing you'll find, if you want to gain subscribers, if you want to give views, if you wanna make money, almost any metric in this video creation space,

if you want something, it all comes back to, "Okay, well then, just make great videos.". So instead of like focusing on all. these arbitrary vanity metrics, I just kind of focus on the one thing. that gets me all that, which is make good videos. And I do think we will, one day, hit a billion subscribers. I don't have a plan on going anywhere. Even though we're only on 120 million right now. on the main channel, I think like we're doing around 10 million a month now. and YouTube just... Yeah, I just don't see it going anywhere, and I don't see any reason why. I'd ever get burnt out or quit, so I think with enough time, yes.

- I wanted to ask you those family friendly questions. before I go to the dark questions. So now-- - Oh, we have dark questions! Wait, no, but if you wanted to hook them, you would start off with the dark questions. That's how you get 'em. - Okay, well, let me ask you about the... A Twitter poll you posted, a $10,000 death poll. You tweeted, "If someone offered you $10,000. "but if you take it a random person on earth dies, "would you take the $10,000?". And 45% of people said yes. That's, at least at the time I checked,

850,000 people committing murder. for just $8.5 billion in total. So what do you learn about human nature from that? - That's a good question. Honestly, this was late at night. when I threw that up too. I was just like, "Huh, this will be a funny thing.". I assumed it'd be 90% no, and 10% yes. But there are a lot of serious people... For you guys listening, I just did this random Twitter poll. where I was like, "Would you take 10 grand. "if it meant someone random in the world died?".

And a lot of the replies on the tweet were like, "Hell yeah, why not?". And I was just not expecting that. And so, I don't really know. I mean, I feel like your take would be better than mine. - Was that disturbing to you, surprising to you? - A little bit, yeah. But obviously, a lot of the people were trolling, but I actually... When you read through those replies, I do think like 10% of them were dead serious. - Well, I think sometimes the trolling. and the LOLs reveal a thing. we're too embarrassed to admit. about the darker aspects of our nature. So I dunno if you listen. to Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcast.

He has a episode on "Painfotainment,". which he describes throughout history. how humans have been really attracted. to watching the suffering of others. So public executions, all that kind of stuff. And he believes that's in all of us, that, for example, if something like a YouTube, or a different platform, streamed a public execution. or streamed a torture of another human being, a lot of people would say that's deeply unethical,

but they will still tune in and watch. And that we're attracted to that drama, and especially the most extreme versions. of that drama. And so I think part of the LOLs reveals something. that's actually true in that poll. That like--. - Your answer is so much better than mine. - Do you think about that, maybe even with the Squid Game? Like, so I think... How many... How many views does. the Squid Game currently have, 300 million? Something like this? - [MrBeast] Yeah, somewhere around there.

- So just imagine a thought experiment, how many views that video would get. if it was like real Squid Game? - Assuming YouTube was like, "Oh, we'll turn a blind eye, "we won't take it down.". Yeah, I mean it... Obviously, it'd probably have billions of views. - How do you think you'll die. and do you think it'll be during a video? - Probably doing something dumb, like going to space when I'm older, or trying to go to Mars, or something like that. I know for a fact it won't be on a video. Every video we do, we have safety experts. and stuff like that, so it's not really risk.

But yeah, I could see myself, after a million people go to Mars. or something like that, I'd probably be like, "You know what? "Let's go," and something like that, maybe. - So not in the name of a video, just for the hell of it? - No, heck no. - Are you open to taking risks. when you shoot videos? You just went to Antarctica. I mean, you're putting yourself. on the line a little bit, right? - Of course, but we've had that video. in the works for three years, and then we consult with tons of experts, radar the entire path we're gonna walk beforehand. to see if there's crevasses, so we know there's no crevasses. We do training,

we consult with the experts, and we have survival guides there with us, and monitor the weather and everything. So it's like, any variable. where we could get harmed, we just preplanned for it. Same thing with "Buried Alive.". Like, I had... David Blaine spent a week underground, and so I consulted with him. and consulted with basically anyone. who ever buried themself alive. The coffin we used to bury me, we did so many tests. That coffin was buried 10 times before I was, for way longer than 50 hours. It tested the airflow and everything, to the point where I was safer. in that coffin underground. than I was above ground.

So we just tend to just not leave anything up to chance. - Another strange question then. So you've recorded these videos to yourself, five years, 10 years, from now. Have you recorded a video that's. to be released once you die? - Well, first off, I am just glad. that not every one of your questions have. to do with like views or things like that. It's nice getting different questions. So this is good. No, seriously-- - A little dark. - It's a little dark. - No, no, but it's fine. because a lot of people will just be like,

"How much money do you make?". It's just something I just... Everything's always about money now. for when people talk to me, so it's nice. But for the videos I made... For you guys who probably don't follow me too closely, when I had 8,000 subscribers. and I was a teenager, I filmed a bunch of videos, and scheduled them years in the future, and I said... I filmed one where I was like, "Hi, me in a year,". and the video went up a year later, and it was just like, "Hey, I think you'll have 100,000 subscribers.". And then, I did one where I was like, "Hi me in five years.". And I was like, "Hey, in five years I think you'll have a million.". And then, one that hasn't come out yet.

but comes out in two years was "Hi me in 10 years,". and I try to predict, 10 years later, how many subs I'd have. It's what he's referring to. And yes, there are some that are scheduled. like 20 years in the future, and so, if I don't die, I'll just move 'em up. And I remember... 'Cause I filmed these though like seven years ago, but it was... I remember saying a line like, "If I'm dead, then I'm currently just in a coffin,". and like whatever, blah, blah, because the only way the video would go up is. if I'm not alive. And if I'm not alive, then I won't be able to push back.

the scheduled upload dates. so it'll go public automatically. And so, yeah, I have a couple of those. If I knew I was gonna die of cancer or something, and I had like three months to live, I would vlog every day. I'd film so many videos, and then I would just schedule upload a video a week. for the next five years, so it's like I'm still alive, and I would completely act like. I'm still alive and everything, and I think something like that would be cool. I don't know why but I've fantasized... Not fantasized, but I've dreamt about that a lot. Like, I don't know, if I only had 30 days to live,

what would I do? And for me, I would try to make. a decade's worth of content. and schedule upload it. so they automatically go public in the future, and so it's just like I never died, I'm just there. - Yeah, it's a kind of immortality. but it's also a kind of troll. on the concept of time, that you can die in the physical space. but persist in the digital space. Actually, I recorded a video like that. 'cause I had some concerns, and I just thought it's also a good exercise to do, a video to be released if I die,

and it was actually a really interesting exercise. It's cool, like it shows. what you really care about. I guess it's like writing a will. But when you're younger, you don't think about that kind of stuff. but-- - Exactly, mine was just dumb. I'm bones in a coffin. - Yeah. - Yours is probably so serious. - No, it's fun actually. What you realize it's like there's no point. to be serious at this point. It's a weird thing... I guess you've done this, but it's a weird thing to address the world. when you, the physical you, is no longer there. So you know this would only be released. if you're no longer there.

That's a weird exercise. - You know what's funny? Of all the people listening to this, we're probably the only two people. that have made videos for when we die. It's like such a niche thing. and the fact that we're bonding over it, it's kind of funny. - I think people should think about doing that. It's not just about YouTube, it's also social media, 'cause think about it. There's gonna be a last tweet, and a last, I don't know, Facebook post, and a last Instagram post, and yeah, it's... I feel like there's some aspect. that's meditative to just even considering making.

a post like that. And also, it's a way for your... The people that love you to kinda like celebrate. - Do you think that would help them cope or not? If someone randomly watching this did film a video, for if they accidentally died. in some freak accident, to be given to their family, do you think that would... And it was like a genuine--. - I think it would really help. I mean, it depends, because like--. - Like, how would you even intro that? Like, "Hey mom, if you're seeing this, "it means I'm probably dead. "and you're still alive." - Yeah, exactly. That's how you intro it. That's the opener. - "Oh, I just want you to know.".

Yeah, I guess. - Yeah, and I guess you could say it. in a kind of funny way but... And just talk about the things. that mean a lot to you. because otherwise, you are at the risk. of the last post you have is like... Like, I don't know, talking shit about like--. - McDonald's screwed up my order. - [Lex] Exactly, that's--. - And then, you're dead. That's it, 100 years. - I don't know, it's... I do recommend it. The stoics meditate on death every day. and, in the same way, you kind of meditate in your death. when you make a video like that, 'cause it's actually not just even talking to yourself,

it's talking to the world. And for some reason, at least for me, that made it very concrete. that there's going to be an end, and I'm like, "It's almost... "It's over for me. "If I'm making the video, it's over for me.". It's an interesting thought experiment, I recommend people try it. Okay, are you afraid of death by the way? - Yes. It's hard because, like, what if you just die. and then you just see nothing forever? - [Lex] Yeah, the nothingness.

- It just fades to blackness. and you're just like that for trillions upon trillions, to billion squared years, and it's just... It's scary. But also, before you're born, you don't remember those X amount of years either. so that gives me a little comfort, but no, it's definitely very scary. Something I'd rather not think about. until I'm like 80. I'll deal with that problem then. I don't know if I told you this, but I'm kind of hopeful that someone like Elon, or one of these like freak smart people, will just like be like, "You know what? "Screw it, I'm gonna figure out a way where. "we can slow down aging.

"Get it where we can live to be 2-300 years old,". and just like set their sights on that, and then just kind of save us. So it'd be really nice. It's almost absurd to think that, in our lifetime, they won't figure out a way. to just even slightly slow down aging, where we could live to be like 120 or 130, and then in that extra time. they won't figure out somewhere. where we could live to be 200. Like, obviously not immortal, but I don't see how, in my lifetime, the life expectancy doesn't just expand. - Well, it also could be that. the immortality is achieved in the digital realm.

It could be long be... Long after you're gone, there's a MrBeast run by. a ChatGPT type system. - Exactly. Yeah, that consumes everything I ever said, everything I ever wrote, and... I don't want that, I wanna live. Why don't you smart people out there figure it out? I'll keep you entertained, but I need you to figure out. how to keep me alive. Gimme till 200, that will make me happy. - Well, that's funny. Who owns the identity of MrBeast. once the physical body is gone? Is it illegal to create. another MrBeast that's ChatGPT based? I don't know what the laws are around that.

- Yeah, I mean, once I'm dead, I don't care. But-- - Well, you just said. you did care. I mean, there could be a AI... Like many MrBeasts that are created after you're gone. - Yeah, I mean that would be cool, to be able to like train up a model. and let 'em loose so my content lives on, I guess, yeah. - Yeah, but it somehow feels like it diminishes. the value you contribute. - [MrBeast] Inauthentic, yeah. - Yeah, it's inauthentic but it's also... There's some aspect to the finiteness. of the art being necessary.

for its greatness. - Oh, 100%. The second that thing starts spamming out videos, the videos lose all meaning, and it's pointless, and it's a money grab. - If you ran YouTube for... How long should you run it? For a year, how would you change it? How would you improve it? - It's hard because, obviously, I'm biased. 'cause we're doing really well, but I feel like when I open up YouTube on my television, I get the videos I wanna watch. I don't... I don't know. I don't... I don't ever open it, and wonder, "What are these? "What are these 10 videos on my homepage?".

When I click on a video on (mumbles), I don't ever wonder what these are. Like, I... And maybe it's 'cause I'm very adamant. about the kind of videos I watch, and I try not to watch videos. I don't wanna get recommended more. because I just... That's how I think, but I'm very happy with how it is at the moment. I think one thing though that. I just hate with a passion is. the comment section on YouTube. It's just so bad. But I know that's not something that's gonna 10X. the growth of the platform. But if you think about it, you go to Reddit to read comments, and somehow like the... Usually, the top 20 post on.

a popular Reddit post are not spam, you know what I mean? Have you ever clicked on something. on the front page of Reddit. and then most upvoted reply. to it is like, "go check out my site right here,". and it's trying to scam you out of $1,000? Yeah, I can't even think of one instance. I've ever had that happen. So Reddit, it's so nice to click on posts. and just see what people have to say, and I almost wish you had that same feeling. when you read the comments on a YouTube video. Instead, it's like... It's so many people just copy and pasting. So many bots that just grab.

the top comment from your previous video. and paste it over, so the top comments on every videos are the same. And the things that break through, that are just scammers trying to get you. to give them a $1,000 for a free... A fake ad. - That comment section is one of. the most lively on the internet, so it'll be amazing if YouTube invested. in creating a natural community, where people could do high effort comments. and be rewarded for it, like on Reddit. Like, actually write out a long thing--. - That would make me so happy. because when I upload a video, I usually go to Twitter to see feedback. I read my comments and I'll flip through newest,

but it's just... I feel like Reddit and Twitter. just gimme so much better filtered feedback. Especially now that, with Twitter Blue, because people pay eight dollars a month, I've noticed like any tweets I get. from verified users now, they're usually not just garbage troll takes. These are people paying eight dollars a month, they're usually relatively sensible. And so, it's been pretty nice. After I upload a video, I just go on the verified tab on Twitter. and just see what people have to say. And anyways, I live for the day that YouTube's like that.

- What do you think about Twitter? What do you think about all. the fun activity happening recently. since Elon bought Twitter? - I think he should make me CEO, like I tweeted. - Well, I should say, we had... We just, a couple hours ago, had a conversation with Elon. and you guys had an exchange of. some excellent ideas. So yeah, I legitimately think... Obviously, you're exceptionally busy, but I legitimately think.

it would be awesome if you somehow participate. in the future of Twitter. - [MrBeast] Yeah, it would be fun. - Because there's so much possibility of different ideas. First, in the content, like dissemination, hosting, and all the different recommendations, like the search and discovery, all the things that YouTube does well. - I think the most exciting thing is. he's willing to move fast, and so I think there's gonna be. a lot of interesting things that come out of it. because he's just moving quick, and a lot of these more mature platforms. just take years to do the simplest stuff, and they're very bureaucratic.

So it's gonna... I mean, it'll be interesting to see. which way it goes. when you just take a move, quick break things, whatever type approach to social media. I'm actually pretty curious to see. what features he rolls out. - So what would be your first act as Twitter CEO? - I can't spoil it. - [Lex] Okay. - I gotta get hired. - What do you think about video on the platform? - [MrBeast] On Twitter? - Yeah, do you think. that's an interesting... Or is it like messing with the medium, the nature of the platform? - I think Twitter will always be closer.

to TikTok than it is to YouTube, at least in its current form. I don't see 20 minute, one hour, long videos or whatever, even 15 minute videos, being watched over there. I see it more as like the short. and snappy stuff closer to TikTok. - But at the same time, Twitter is a really good comment section. for the internet. - I mean it's almost weird why... Like, why doesn't Twitter allow you. to embed YouTube videos? Why does... You should just ask Elon that. I don't know if that's a YouTube thing,

but when YouTuber posts a video, why do they have to link to YouTube? Why can't they just embed it on Twitter. and you just play it there? I mean, wouldn't that just solve a lot of problems? - Yeah, but then the two companies would have. to agree to integrate each other's content. - I don't know, but it seems like a win-win. I mean, well it's more of a win for Twitter. 'cause then people don't have to leave the platform. I mean, that'd be the easiest thing. - But who gets... Like, when you watch the ads on a YouTube video. that's embedded in a Twitter, who gets the money? - It would still be YouTube, but at least then... Right now, people just post a link. and it takes you off Twitter, and it just kills your session time on Twitter.

- That's really interesting, but the... 'Cause the Twitter... Whatever the dynamics of the comments, especially once the spam bots are taken care of, Twitter just works. It's really... So Reddit is a nice comment section for the internet. It's like slower paced, more deliberate, higher effort. Twitter's like this high-paced, ephemeral kind of stream, but there's the vo... The up-voting and the down-voting works much better. because you can do retweeting, right? Because the social network is much stronger. than it is on YouTube,

like the interconnectivity. - Yeah, on Reddit you're gonna get... The top replies are gonna be the most refined ones, whereas Twitter, stuff flows to the top. that's not super refined. But like you're saying, it's more off the cuff, stream of consciousness, which a lot of people prefer. because it's a little more personal. - How do you think Twitter compares to YouTube. in terms of how you see it's future unroll in 2023? - I mean I think YouTube's gonna be YouTube. and not much is really gonna change, but it's gonna keep growing just because. that's just what it does, and 'cause it's owned by Google.

But Twitter, I don't know, I mean, it's one of those things, you can't predict if a year from now, an economy's gonna be in a recession, or booming, and I think Twitter's kinda the same thing. One thing's for certain, a lot of things are gonna be rolled out, but who knows, honestly? - You responded to Elon saying, "Twitter's unlikely to be able to pay creators. "more money than YouTube.". Why do you think that is? - Well, yeah, 'cause I... I think the tweet responded to is one. where he was saying that the... Users will jump over if Twitter can potentially pay more.

than other platforms, and I was just saying, obviously, 'cause Google has Google AdWords, and I mean that's Google's whole thing. It's putting ads on stuff. They've been doing it better. than anyone else in the world. for a very long time. It's very unlikely, in the next few years, that Twitter's gonna just magically, or any platform, give a creator the ability to make higher CPMs. than on YouTube. It's kind of crazy. Some creators in December, Q4, 'cause ad rates are higher. because of Christmas and everything, some creators literally make. like $30-40 per 1,000 views,

and that's after YouTube's cut. It's almost hard to think about, how high the RPMs get. And even then, once you pull out of finance and cars, the high CPM niches, and you move into just normal stuff, it's still just crazy. The sheer volume of creators. and the fact that all of them get. these multi dollar CPMs at scale, it's pretty beautiful. - So you do... I don't know what you would call them, but integrated ads in your videos, and you do it, I would say, masterfully. It's like part of the video. - Are you talking. about brand deals? - Brand deals? Is that what you would call that? So it's a brand deal,

it's part of the video. It's still really exciting to watch, and yet there's a plug for the brand. - In general, just brand deals, since you brought it up, integrating them well, I think that's something a lot of creators don't do. They'll just do a brand deal out of the blue. They'll just be filming a video. and then, around the three minute mark, just start talking about a random company. And I feel like if you don't want viewers to click away, and you want people to not get pissed off. and call you to sell out, you gotta find a way to integrate it into content. And ideally, use the money.

in the video to make it better. The easiest thing you do. when you do a brand deal is just tell people. how you're using the money from the brand deal. to make your content better. And if you do that, no one cares. Now, they're supporting you for it, and you go from being a sellout to like, "Oh, I'm doing this to make better videos for you guys.". - I don't know if you can share. but with those brands, when you have discussions with them, are they strict about how long. you need to be talking about it? Or is it more about they're leaving control to you. about the artistic element of it? - The problem is the ones. who don't give us the artistic element,

we just don't really work with anymore. because it's just... We get 100 million views of video now. and I can confidently say. I know how to entertain them and convert them. better then these random brands. So yeah, if they don't give us that freedom, I just won't work with them. - So you have that leverage. but for smaller creators-- - It's a lot harder, yeah. And they're gonna just say, "45 seconds, here's what you say. "Take it or leave it.". And it's pretty brutal. because I think, just in general, if brands were more accommodating. to let creators tell their story of the brand.

and talk about the brand in a way. that felt a little more natural, I think it would be... A, it'd be less cringe. People would be less likely to go, and... Tap, tap, tap, skip. And obviously, it would convert better. But they're just so afraid. and they want this standardized thing. "Say these words in 45 seconds right here. "at this three minute mark.". - Yeah, I often think about how to resist that. - You just don't do 'em though, right? - Not on YouTube, right. On the audio, I do ads in the very beginning. and I say you can skip 'em if you want. - Gotcha. I'm sure the brand loves that.

- No, I don't... The point is they... So the funny thing about podcasts, it's different than YouTube videos. Podcast people actually do listen to ads a lot. because it's slower paced, and they like the creator voice talking about the thing. But in general, I just don't believe. you should be talking about a thing. for a minute exactly, and that's going to be effective. I wanna see the data for that. I think what's much more effective is. the way you do ads, which is integrating into the content.

Put a lot of effort into making a part of that, like doing the brand deals, and I just... It's difficult to have that conversation. It's a very strenuous conversation to have. to have with with brands, you have to... Each one at a time. And I just wish there was more of a culture to say. the quality of the ad read matters a lot more. than the the silly parameters, like the timing of it, how long it is, the placement of it, all that kind of stuff. - What percentage of your viewers do you think have seen.

one of my videos before? - What percentage of the viewers on YouTube, right? - [MrBeast] Yeah, of your viewers. - Of the viewers on YouTube though, cause most of people-- - Okay, sure, or all of them. It's just interesting 'cause you're speaking. very specifically about my brand deal process, and so in my head, I'm like, "Hm, I wonder, what percentage of these people. "even have any idea what he's talking about?". - That's interesting. I love the thinking about numbers. - The whole time we were having this conversation, that's all I could think about. It's like, "Oh, goddamn it. "There's probably like 50%. "of these people have no fucking clue. "what he's saying,

"and we're about to torture 'em for five minutes.". - Yeah, yeah, probably. - But that's something I can't turn off in my brain. - Less than 50%. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is that exciting to you, that there's like 50% of people don't... Have not watched a MrBeast video? Isn't that an opportunity to--. - Yeah, I guess it's an opportunity to grow, I don't know. Honestly, I was just kind of excited. to hang out with you. - [Lex] Yeah, yeah, me too. - Today was a lot of fun. - Who cares that there's mics? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's kind of like having a buddy. to go along the journey, as I'm just kind of eating shit. and doing my normal grind. It was fun, and also you just say really wise stuff constantly.

So honestly... No, I never even put any thought. into the demographics or what I could gain. It's just interesting 'cause my retention brain, when you talk about something, I'm instantly like, "Hm, "what value are they gonna get? "How many of them are gonna be interested? "What percentage of people do I think will lose?". And I'm like running all those calculations. in the background, and that whole conversation, like the long... Anyway, it's just something I can't turn off. My bells were like "Error, error, this is bad.". - What are the different strategies for high retention. for your videos and in general? - It's like, "how do you cook good food?".

You know what I mean? That's the same kind of question. - I see, so there's so many different ways that you... So it boils down to... I mean, do you think at the level of a story. or do you think like, literally watching five seconds at a time, "Am I gonna tune out here? "Am I gonna tune out here? "Am I gonna tune out here?" - It's all of it. You need the overarching narrative, and then you also need the micro, where every second needs to be entertaining, and you... Basically, what's interesting is. the longer people watch something, the more likely they are to keep watching.

So you don't have to try as hard in the, hypothetically, back half of a video. as you do in the front. Like even right now, we're so deep into this, where a lot of people listening are probably. just gonna keep listening relatively close to the end, unless we just have a really boring part. of this conversation, 'cause they're just in it, they're immersed. And so, a big... To really boil it down to a simple level, you just want to get people. where they're immersed in the content, and then just kind of hold 'em there. - We had this discussion offline, and by the way I should mention that.

this is late at night. - It is. What time is it? It's nine o'clock. - And I only slept one hour last night. because I'm an idiot, and I flew to the wrong location. - Well, here. We're like, "Hey, let's just book you. "a hotel and a flight.". He's like, "No, I got it.". We're like, "You sure? "We can just do it, we always do this.". He's like, "No, I got it, I got it.". - He's gonna have to rub it in. - I know, and then today, come to find out, he flew to the wrong airport. An airport with the... Or a city with a similar name to ours. - Same name. Same name in a different state. - And I was like, "That's why you should've let us book it.".

And so, he's on one hour of sleep. and he's literally been dying all day. Before this podcast, he downed two things of coffee. We've been going all day hard. - Yeah, I've been... Got to interact with you. I should say that this gave me an opportunity to... I got a ride from a stranger. and it was an incredible person. I got to interact with him. So it's like there's so many kind people around here, just like this southern energy. And then I got to go to a diner. 'cause I could... There's only one hour between me arriving.

and having to fly out, so I went to a diner, there's a really kind waitress. that called me "honey,". so that was a beautiful moment. - I was so confused. You tweeted about that, and Steel's like, "Lex...". My assistant was like, "Lex isn't here yet.". And I saw your tweet, and I was like, "he's here.". Steel's like, "No, he's still flying.". I was like "an hour ago, "he just tweeted about a nice diner.". I didn't realize you flew. to the wrong-- - It was a diner... It was a diner in a different state. - And then, you had to fly over here, so that was... And then I called you, you didn't answer,

I was like, "hmm.". I was like, "Something's not adding up.". - Yeah, I feel like such an idiot. 'cause apparently the world has cities. like Springfield, right? Like, every single state has a Springfield. - Oh, really? - I think so. I think that's... That's like a Simpsons joke, right? That like, it's... The city in The Simpsons is Springfield, and I think every single state, or most of them, have a Springfield. And the same is true for Georgetown, I think the most pop... I forget what the most popular one was,

but there's like a list of the... People get... When they run out of ideas, they just keep using. the same thing over and over. - They're your Achilles heel. - Anyway, I got to meet. a bunch of people from your team, and it's just an incredible human being. So let me just ask on that topic: how do you hire a great team? What have you learned about hiring for everything? For the main channel that you do, for the React, the gaming channel, to MrBeast Burger, to Feastables, all that?

- The big thing is, especially in this content creation, 'cause it's not like anything that's done on Netflix. or different content mediums, I really need people who are coachable, and really see the value in what I care about. because it's a very specific way. of going about things, and it's a thing you... There's no one to plug and play. If Netflix wanted to hire someone to do a documentary, there's probably tens of thousands of people you could hire. that have worked on documentaries before. But if you wanna hire someone. to make super viral YouTube videos,

like we do, there's just no one you can really pull from. Sometimes, I'll hire people from game shows, right? They have all these preconceived notions. about pacing and how a video should be, and you have to spend the first year breaking. all these habits, and they think they're better than you. A lot of people in traditional think they're better. and they think their way is. better than what we do. And so, for me, it's almost easier to hire people. that are just hard workers, that are obsessed, and really coachable, and just train 'em how to be good.

at content creation and production, than to hire someone from like traditional, which is the only way to really do it. 'cause there's not that many YouTube channels. that have scaled up, so it's not like there's a huge talent pool. of people who've worked on YouTube channels. So it's easier just to train someone. than just pull 'em from traditional. 'cause traditional people just... I don't know, they have all these opinions and things, and they just think our way of going. about things is dumb. - Yeah, so you want people who have. the humility to have a beginner's mind, even if they have experience. - And see the value, like actually... You'll still get it, it's so crazy.

Especially some of my other friends. that are scaling up their YouTube channels. There's people that will come on. and you'll ask 'em, "What do you wanna be doing in five years?". And instead of saying, "Oh, I want to be working on this channel,". they'll be like, "Oh, I hope to be working on movies,". or this or that. And they see working on a YouTube channel. as a launchpad to go into traditional, and it's like, "No, you just don't get it.". - [Lex] This is the future. - "This is the end goal. "This is your career.". And so, I'm just so tired of having. those kinds of conversations. I feel like people really should be coming around. - Are there like recurring interview questions that you ask?

Is there ways to get... - Yeah, the biggest thing is like, "What do you wanna be doing in 10 years?". And that their answer isn't "making content on YouTube". or... If their answer is anything like movies. or traditional stuff like that, it's just a hell no. It just won't even remotely work. - Oh, so you really want people. to believe in the vision of YouTube? - Yeah, I mean, ideally. It's like working here, you know what I mean? - So it's less about the medium. and more about just being on a great team. that's doing epic stuff. - Yeah, well, and yeah, the medium as well because those... It's hard to put into words. but it's just two completely different ways.

of going about things. Our videos aren't scripted. and it's a lot more run-and-gun. And when we... If we hypothetically blow up a giant car or whatever, you only have one take, you know what I mean? And it's not scripted, and so you have to over-film, overshoot things, overcompensate for the dumb way of going about it. And a lot of traditional people would be like, "Well, just plan what you're gonna say, "and just plan the angles. "You can cut the cameras in half, "you can save 50 grand here, "you can save $75,000 in editing this and that.".

And it's like, "Yeah, but that's not authentic.". "That's in a bubble.". You get it. It's almost so obvious that it hurts. that I have to constantly have these conversations, but it's the world we live in. - But there's also detail, like, there's a taste. I've watched a bunch of videos with you. and it's clear to you that. you've gotten really good, I don't know what the right word is, style or taste, to be able to know what's good or not. In terms of retention, in terms of just stylistically, visually. - I don't have to think. I can just watch a video, and it just screams in my head,

like, "This is what should change based. "on the million videos I've watched. "and all these viral videos I've consumed, "this is blah, blah, blah, what's optimal,". and things like that. It's almost like your brain's like a... A neural net and if you consume. enough viral videos and enough good content, that you just kind of start. to train your brain to see it, and see these patterns that happen. in all these viral videos. And so, that... Anytime I watch a video, or a movie, or anything, I just can't stop thinking about what is optimal. And so, it's like, it gives me a headache sometimes.

when I watch something too slow. or I don't think it's optimal. Obviously, my taste isn't the end all be all, but that's something that kind of torments me, if that makes any sense. - Oh, you can't enjoy a slow movie. - No, I can't. And that's not to say there--. - The retention on The Godfather is horrible. - No, exactly! I've tried to watch that movie like three times, but... And that's not to say slow movies are bad, there's an audience for it. It's just obviously not what I've trained my brain to like, and in social media and YouTube right now, that's just not the meta. - And in general, like you said, in a neural network,

you're training your brain, in part, on actual data, right? So you're actually... It's data driven, so you're looking at like... In terms of thumbnails, and titles, and different aspects of. the first five, 10 seconds, and then, throughout the video, the retention, all of that, you're looking at all of that. for your own videos. to understand how to do it better. So that's where the neural network is training? - Yeah. Basically, there are ways you can see. the most viewed videos on YouTube every day, and stuff like that, and I just consume those every single day, and I've been doing that for way too many years.

And then, you just start to notice patterns, like the thumbnails on the most viewed videos, or videos that go super viral, tend to be clear, tend to not have much clutter, tend to be pretty simple. Titles tend to be less than 50 characters, intros tend to be this, stories tend to be this. And you just, kinda like... After you see those thousands, and then tens of thousands at a time, it just starts to click in your head, like, "This is what it looks like," you know? - So how are you able to transfer that taste. that you've developed to the team? So for like... 'Cause you've said broad things,

but I'm sure there's a million detailed things, like what zoom to use on the face. you use in the thumbnail, right? - The answer is whatever makes the best video. because the problem is the more... I have so many friends who are like this. They'll make like checklists. for their editors of like this beat, and this beat, and you need to have a three part arc, and then this, but the problem is that's how you... The more constraints you put on the team, the more repetitive and less innovation you get, and the more... After 10 videos, people are gonna be like, "All right, I've already seen this.".

So to me, and I'm 24, and I'm probably... My mindset will change over the next 10 years, I just haven't been in this industry too long, but the only way to really make innovative content. and keep things fresh is. to not put constraints on, or put as little as possible. And so, that's why I'm very hesitant on all that stuff. because the more I say, the more they're gonna be like, "Oh, then that's what we do.". And then, I'll say one time, "Oh, ideally, there's a cut every three seconds,". and then next thing you know, every video, there's a cut every three seconds or whatever. So it's hard because I try to give.

as little train... Not training, but as little facts as possible, and more just make suggestions, if that makes any sense. - You mean publicly. or to your team? - [MrBeast] To my team, yeah. - So you talked about teaching your voice. or your style, whatever we wanna call it, to other people on the team. so they can be kind of a MrBeast replacement. So what's the process of teaching that? So you don't want to--. - No, I got you.

You're more talking about, what I would call, almost like cloning, right? Like Tyler and other people like that? Yeah, so when we were hanging out today, I was showing him how we have multiple people. in the com... It's almost like... Talking to the camera, it's a habit. - [Lex] Yeah, he turned slowly to the camera. - I know. I was like... Anyways, have it. - Is it weird to you. to not be looking at the camera? - This whole interview, I constantly have been turning towards the camera. when I'm talking to him. It's a habit, 'cause my whole life, I've just been talking to a camera. - Who are you thinking about. when you're looking at the camera? Do you imagine somebody?

- I'm fully thinking about the person. just sitting, watching it. I almost... It's weird... When I'm looking at the camera, I don't see a camera. I'm in a haze, picturing what the viewer is seeing. when they watch it, if that makes sense. And that's where I'll be saying things. or doing something, and then when I'm watching, I'm like, "That's not what I want,". and then I'll freeze up. It's very weird when I'm filming. And then, for people who haven't worked with me too much, they'll think like... I don't know, it's very weird. how I go about it 'cause I'll just be doing whatever, like lighting a firework, "All right, this is $1,000 firework,".

and I'll go to light, I'll be like... And I'll freeze. 'cause in my head, I'm like, "This... "I don't know, I don't like how that flow. "or how that shot looked,". because, it's weird, I can perfectly picture. what I'm filming by just looking at the camera. and then putting myself. through the lens of the camera. while making content. I can do it at the same time. - So you're like real-time editing. the video? - In my head, yeah, yeah. That's something that didn't, at the start, come natural to me, but in the last probably five years, it's happened. And so, I would say it's one. of my greatest strengths, but I don't know how I developed it. But anytime I'm filming anything,

it's almost like the right side of my brain, I can just look at it. and I see exactly what I'm filming, and I can just picture it. - Well, that's probably d... Recording the video, being the talent for the video, and then watching the editing, and analyzing it carefully, and doing that over, and over, and over, and over, you develop-- - Yeah, and you do. that 10,000 times, yeah. - You do the editing more than. the being in front of the camera, so like you... You start to see yourself. from that third person perspective. And then, maybe that actually helps. with the nerves of it too. You see it as creating a video versus performing, right?

- Yeah, yeah, I think so. It's weird, I've never been nervous talking to a camera. It's harder for me to talk to a person. than is to talk to a camera, which I feel like a lot of people say that though, that are... Whatever, make content, right? I've heard that so many times. Or maybe not, maybe I'm just awkward and dumb. - Maybe they're practiced. To me, it's... I mean, both are terrifying. but being in front of the camera. by yourself is most-- - [MrBeast] So much easier. - Really? - Yeah, it's so much easier. I prefer it a million times over.

But that's my whole life, you know? So it's just... That's why it's interesting. You've spent more of your time talking to people, this comes natural, and I talk to a piece of plastic. - Oh yeah, I guess you're talking to a person too, they're just on the other side of the camera. - Yeah, there's just a pixel on a screen. - So cloning, how do you achieve the cloning? - Oh yeah, that's right. This whole rabbit trail. So I was showing him that I have. a lot of people in the company. who are able to think like me, and basically make decisions like I would make. if I was... If you were asked, "Hey, in this video,

"should we climb a mountain. "or should we dig a hole?". Right, and they would pick the same answer. I'd pick 90 plus percent of the times. And so, one example is Tyler, who I was showing you, and he was pitching some content, and you could see it. He was on point. And basically, for just four or five years, we just spent an absurd amount of time together, and worked on every single video together, and we worked side by side. And same thing with my CEO, James, he literally lived with me for a couple years. I'm a big fan of just like finding people.

who are super obsessed, and all in, and A players, that they really just wanna be great, and then just dumping everything I have in them. - And like, you were saying... 'Cause I'd love to find that and develop that. You were saying you're, basically, for a long time just said everything. you were thinking to them? - Exactly. Like James, the guy who's basically. my right hand man right now, for two years, he lived with me, and we probably talked, on average over those two years, seven hours a day. I mean, any time I had a phone call, I'd throw it on speaker, and I'd let him listen.

Anything I was reading, any content I was consuming, really just training his brain to think like me. so that way he could just do things. without my input, without me having to constantly watch over him. or give him advice, and that's where we've gotten. So for the first six months, he didn't do anything, he just studied me, and studied everything I cared about, and how I spoke, and blah blah. And then, the next six months, he started taking on some responsibilities, and now he can just run the company. and I don't ever really have to check in on him. Most of the decisions he makes are. exactly what I would do,

and so I don't... I call that cloning, I don't know what other people would, but it's just finding people. that are really obsessed. and they just really want it, and just being... Giving them an avenue to like get it, if that makes any sense. - Another way to see it is you're converging. towards a common vision. and that makes like brainstorming. much more productive. - Yeah, it just makes it where. I don't have to be so involved in everything. because I just have these people. I know will think like I will, at least relatively close to it. So I can almost be in multiple places at once per se.

And so, these things that... I still approve every idea we film. and everything before we film, and all the creative, I approve it, but I don't have to be in the weeds, and nuances, and do all this minor stuff. I can just let them handle it. I can just do a little more macro things. - I got a chance to sit in to. a lengthy brainstorming session. with Tyler and others. That was really cool. Can you talk about the process of that, of people pitching ideas.

and you pitching alternatives, or shutting down ideas, and just going like plowing through ideas very quickly? - I mean, you just lit... Described exactly what we did, yeah. - I mean, but the ideas are really, really good. It's just tossing out different categories of ideas, and then also fine tuning them to see like, "How do I change...". Thinking about the titles and the thumbnails. - I work so well off of inspiration. It's like that's something... Gimme anywhere, I don't know.

Make it relative. - Space. - Space, yeah, like "I went to space.". "What happens if you beloved a nuke in space?". Or "I went to the moon," "I went to Mars," right? Because you said that one word, it was able to inspire me. to come up with four ideas. And so, that's just... For me, if you... The way to get 100 million views on a video is. you need something original, creative, something people really need to see, ideally never been done before, all these things. And so, you need... If you wanna consistently go super viral, you need just a constant stream of ideas. And the only way I've really found.

that I can consistently come up. with 100 million view videos is. to intake inspiration. and then see what my brain outputs. And so, that's kind of, at its core foundation, what I'm doing there. It's just intaking a lot of random inspiration. to see what spawns in my mind. so I can output it. - But the neural network of your brain is generating. the video, the title, the thumbnail, all jointly. - Exactly, and that only comes because. I spent 10 years of my life. just obsessively studying all that stuff. - Because you... I mean, it seems like you would literally.

potentially shut down a video. just 'cause you can't come up with a good title, or a good thumbnail. - yeah, 100%, or a thumbnail. Yeah, I mean that's what happened. to 70% of those in that pitch session. I was just like... Oh, what was one of 'em? "Genius versus 100 people" or... - Yeah, maybe average intelligence versus genius, something like that. - Yeah, I was like, "What the heck is the thumbnail, "even if the title was good.". Yeah, I mean there's so many, but yeah, people don't click, they don't watch. - That's so interesting. But you developed, over time, the ability to kinda give it what? What makes for a good title? Short? - Not just short,

it's also... I mean, if someone reads it, are they... Do they have to watch it? Is it just so intrinsically interesting. that it's just gonna fuck with them. if they don't click on it, you know what I mean? - So it doesn't have to be short, but it has to be... You almost want to have a retention. to word-by-word reading. - Ideally, it's a title also that... 'Cause the titles don't live in a vacuum, right? So it has to lead into the content. So ideally, the title represents content.

that you would wanna watch for 20 minutes. So if it's a 20 minute video. and the title is, "I stepped on a bug,". it's not gonna... Because it's all of it combined. The click-through rate is gonna be much lower. than if it was like a five second video, people might click it. So you gotta... Even nuances of the length of the video based. against the title will affect. whether people want to click it. 'cause sometimes they just don't add up. I mean, it's that. Yes, ideally you want it below 50 characters. because above 50 characters in certain devices, you run the chance of it going dot, dot, dot. So "I took a light pole. "and I saw how many dollar bills.

"I could stack on top...". And then it would just go dot, dot, dot, because it's too long. and it can't finish it, and that's the worst thing. because then people don't even know. what they're clicking on, and so it's gonna do even worse. Short, simple ideally, and just so freaking interesting, they have to click. And it is a good segue into the content, and it represents the length of the content. - And there's probably stuff you... It's hard to convert into words for you. Like "I stepped on a bug," versus "stepping on a bug,". versus "MrBeast stepped on a bug,". versus "bug-stepping video." - Well, I mean that...

(speaking over each other). So it's like, yes, the more extreme the opinion, typically the higher the click-through rate. If you can pay it off in the content, then it just supercharges it. - So you have a kind of estimate of. the extremeness of the title? - Like, this water, right? If you're like, "Fiji water sucks.". Yeah, that would do fine. But if you said "Fiji water is the worst water bottle". or "the worst water I've ever drank in my life,". way more extreme opinion would do way better. - But you have to deliver. - Yeah, but then. you have to deliver. 'cause the more extreme you are, the more extreme you have to be in the video.

- Yeah, that's almost inspiration for you to step up. - But you can be more extreme in a positive way. A lot of people... It's easier though. Negative clickbait's much easier. than positive clickbait. It just is. It's so much easier to get negative clicks. And so, a lot of people are just, in my opinion, a little bit lazier, and they just take the route, "Oh, well this one gets the same amount of clicks, "and it's easier, less effort.". - The positive one is doing. a large number of numbers of something. Like, "I spent this number of hours doing this.".

- Well, whatever. If you just wanted to help people or... It's just harder to get 10 million views. on a video helping people. than it is to get 10 million views on. a video tearing down a celebrity, you know what I mean? Or whatever negative video you wanna insert there. - Well that said, most of your videos are pretty positive. So what's-- - But not a lot of people do. those kinds of videos 'cause they're hard. - Yeah, they're hard. - Some of that is giving away money, right? What's the secret to that? How do you do that right? - [MrBeast] Give away money or?

- In a video that may... To make it compelling. So there's a number that is better. than another number, right? - The higher number is always better. than the lower number. - [Lex] is it? - Yeah, for the most part. And it's interesting, some videos, we'll give away a million dollars, some videos we'll give away half a million. There's not really... I guess... So I'm retracting what I just said, I was more joking with that. But there's no difference. whether I put 500K or a million. There's probably not even really. a difference between 100K or a million. I haven't really looked into it. Some of our most viewed videos are not. us giving away a million dollars, and sometimes the million dollar videos.

just don't do as well as the other ones. So there is a certain point where. a dollar amount is just a large dollar amount. to an average human. And so, I think that point is 100K. Anything above 100K, the average human's just like, "That's a lot of money.". It doesn't... 100K and a million doesn't really move the needle, if that makes sense. That's a very nuanced piece of information. that applies to very few people, but yeah. - Yeah, well no, I think it applies... It's fascinating. It's fascinating, human... Our relationship with money is fascinating. Why is it so exciting to get...

I mean, I... The times I've found like 20 bucks. on the ground are incredible. I don't know why, right? Why? Why are you so happy? What exactly is so joyful about that? I mean, it depends on where you are in life, what the situation is. Yeah, I don't know. There's also a gamified aspect to it. It's exciting, it's fun. - Yeah, no, I get it, like why people wanna see people win money. It's just interesting that past 100 grand, it doesn't really seem to make a difference. It's the same basically.

- So you found that to be true. with all the money you've given away that--. - Just in click-through rate. Obviously, in terms of someone receiving it, a million dollars changes. their life drastically more. That's the difference. Like oh, if you wanted to, you could really quit your job, as opposed to 100K, it's like not really. - You could probably do a scientific study, like a formula, giving away money to click through rate. - Yeah, I got it. - [Lex] There could be. some kind of diminishing return. - It definitely... The returns level off dramatically after 100K. That's basically the premise of--. - What about 10,000? - No, there's 10...

100,000-- - [Lex] That's a big one? - It's funny 'cause this is such. a small, niche thing, but yeah 100,000 does, from what I see in our videos, get more clicks than 10,000. But the difference between 100,000. and million is just so little. I think big number, big number. to a lot of people past that point. - Yeah, so for 100,000, you can... Given average salary, you can probably live for a year given. what the average salary is in America, so that's like a big... That feels something-- - Yeah, I think it's also. just more when they read the title. It's just like, it's a lot of zeros. It's a one, fuck loads of zeros, "okay, click,".

you know? - Yeah. Oh man, that's fascinating. So on the thumbnails side, again, that's gonna be much harder to say probably, but offline, I got a chance to look at. a bunch of thumbnails, and it's fascinating which ones do well. and which ones don't. Is there something you could say about. what are the elements of. a thumbnail that work well? Or is this also a deeply instinctual thing? - Well, that's where... Yeah, it's the same thing like. "how do you cook good food?". But it's easier if you pull up a thumbnail, and I could be like, "that's why that's good,

"that's why that's bad, that's...". An example would be like. one of my friends, he just uploaded video recently, and I called him, I was like, "What is this?". Because he's a very, very smart guy, and in the thumbnail, he's getting chased by cops, but the cops were wearing yellow vests. so they didn't look like cops. And I was like, "Well, why are the cops. "in your thumbnail wearing yellow vests?". It's like, that makes it so much more boring. And he was carrying a flag, but the pole and the color of the flag were the same color, so I was like, it's a little harder to see the flag. I was like, "Also, you're wearing a shirt.

"with five different colors, "so it's like... "It's hard to tell what even... "What your outline is.". And then, in the background, there are cars, and I was like, "Well, if you have cops chasing you, "why not make the cars cop cars?". And it's like... 'Cause in my head, I'm like, "Dang, "if you just did those like four or five things, "the video probably would've got like seven X of the views.". - How much iteration... 'Cause I also got a chance to see. the number of iterations you do. on a (indistinct) of thumbnails. - It's a problem now. It's an addiction. - Is it? So you kind of...

'Cause a lot of the versions were really good. How do you know when to stop? - I love how you... When we pulled up that... The burger one, and we were flipping through them, you're like, "that's really good". I was like, "Oh, that's version one of 1,000.". - But even the sketch, the idea was good. Like already, even the original idea is strong. - Yeah, so we... One of our coming up videos, we made the world's largest plant-based burger, and the thumbnail we were thinking is. me standing beside the burger, 'cause it's six feet tall, and that's what he's talking about. So like just picture a giant six foot tall burger, super wide, thousands of pounds, and then I'm beside it,

and then, it's like "Eating the world's largest burger.". that's just something you have to click. So you were saying. "how would you describe a good thumbnail?". That, you know what I mean? - But I think you said the one. I noticed first that was good, you were very small in it relative to the... And you didn't like that one, I think. - I needed to come forward a little bit. and also, the photo we took was. just my upper body, so they photo-manipulated. and created my legs on Photoshop. and that's why I said I didn't like it, 'cause my right leg was a little off. It was like bent the wrong way,

'cause they built those legs in Photoshop. - Well, I mean, does the physics. in the thumbnail have to even make sense? I mean, you can just like exaggerate. the head size and all. that kind of stuff, right? - Yeah, 100%. Yeah, things don't have to be relative. You can have a car in the background. and be three times the size. Because in every one of my thumbnails, my face is, in the left side, very big. So brand recognition, so just people know. Oh, especially 'cause now that. a lot of people copy our videos, it's just nice to like... Everyone else might make thumbnails like this, but this is mine. And obviously, we usually over-deliver,

and do bigger stuff. - Would you recommend to other creators. that wanna make it big to... And they see MrBeast, and they look up to you, to copy some elements of you. or to really try to be unique? - Unique, 100% unique. You're not... "The next MrBeast,". feels weird saying that third person but whatever, is not gonna do what I'm doing better, they're gonna just invent their own lane. You're just not gonna do what I do better than me. I have so many... I literally have the best people. in the world working here, and I reinvest everything I make even to this day,

you know what I mean? It's absurd the amount of money I spend on content. And I don't care, I'll just stop sleeping. and I'll just film every other the day. You're just not gonna beat me at my own game. and that's fine, you shouldn't. I didn't get where I am by. just beating someone else at their own game. I just found my own lane, and innovated, and adapted. And so, yeah, there's a lot of people. that do copy me, and it's fine, whatever, do it, but just know you're not gonna get. to where I am doing that, and so I'd advise you don't. - You give away a lot of the secrets, basically everything, about how you operate.

Is there--. - I don't hold anything back. Go for it. - How do you think about that? Because that's pretty rare. - I think, and this is definitely not... Most people in my stance, I don't think would take this... Or my position would take this stance, but I see every other YouTuber. or person on social media even... 'Cause we're also focused super heavily on YouTube, but last year we were also. the most followed TikTok creator in the world as well. Actually, we were most subscribed. to YouTube channel in the world, and the most followed TikTok account in the world. But in general, I just see everyone else. as collaborators, not competitors.

I don't think giving advice. and helping other creators do well. in any way harms me, and I think it only brings more value to my life. - How is it jumping on TikTok. and trying to understand. that platform from scratch? So from being a successful YouTuber. to understand a totally different algorithm, fundamentally different algorithm. - What was that like? - It's interesting. Well, not even just the algorithm, just the content. I'm going from basically 15 minute short films. to sub-one minute vertical content. It's a whole different just ballpark.

And so, the first little while I was doing TikTok, it was just kind of figuring out. "what does MrBeast look like. "in this short form content?". But recently, we've really started to catch our stride, and come up with some original concepts, and figure out how to innovate over there. just like we did on YouTube, because I don't want it... I didn't want it to just be shitty YouTube videos. And so, an example is. we played The Rock for 100K. in Rock, Paper, Scissors, and the loser had to donate 100K to charity. We did... We went to random people on a campus,

and we offered them... So I said, "I'll give you $100. "if you fly to Paris. "and get me a baguette,". and then they said no. And I was like, "I'll give you $300. "if you fly to Paris and get me a baguette.". And I was expecting this person to say no, and it go up to like 10 grand, and he is like, "yes.". And so, he flew to Paris, got a baguette, and brought it back and gave it to me. And that, across everything, got 450 million views, and it... Because it's just really cool. just to see this random guy get on a plane, spend a day in Paris, and we cut it up real nicely and bring it back. And so, we're starting to find. just tons of original content over there.

- But it seems like an epic video. to make for a one minute-- - Exactly. No one on short form's doing it. That's the thing, it's like... It's just so funny. 'cause TikTok has been big for a while now, years, and then as we started to really figure out things. on the YouTube channel and get it cranking, where I have some free time, we set our sights on TikTok, and we're like, "Okay, "what are people not doing? "How do we make it better, "put in more effort, make it good?". And we did the same thing we did at YouTube, just different over on TikTok, and it worked, and now we're the fastest growing,

or most followed, TikTok account in 2022, and it's just funny that no one else did that. - And you're not afraid to do epic stuff, which I... Also, during the brainstorming, some of the ideas, you were like, "That's better as a short,". and that's crazy. - Yeah, can you remember one? Because I remember I said that a bunch, but I can't think of one. - All I remember is that. there were epic videos. Like, "really? "You're going to do that for a one minute video?". That's crazy. So are you posting similar content. to a YouTube short as a TikTok?

- Yeah, those we just double up. It's just hard. You know, what's actually pretty fascinating, and people who do social media listening to this will. probably find this pretty interesting is picture. the content creation meta three years ago versus now, where you can make sub-one minute vertical content. and it go viral on TikTok , and go viral on YouTube Shorts, it go viral on Instagram Reels, it goes viral on Facebook, it goes... Reddit, you swipe through vertical content now, and Twitter, when you click on a video. and you flip through it. So this is actually very weird. This is the first time in the history. of, I guess, Western social media.

that one form of content could actually go super viral. on every single platform. It's never been like that before. - So they're going viral individual... They're not interbreeding. or whatever. - I could post something on... I can post something on TikTok. that'll get 100 million views, and then post it on Shorts. and it'll get 200 million views, and then post it on Instagram. and it get 50 million views, and then... I haven't yet, but you can then turn around, and tweet it and it get tens of millions of views, and you can post it on Reddit. and get tens of millions of views, and Facebook can get tens of millions of views. And that just wasn't a thing. Three years ago, Twitter didn't have... 'Cause a lot of you probably don't even know this,

but when you tap on a video now. and you swipe down, it just turns into TikTok. That wasn't a thing even a year ago. Reddit, that wasn't a thing a year ago. Probably two years ago, that wasn't a thing on Instagram. Three years ago, that wasn't a thing on YouTube, right? With YouTube Shorts. So this is all new and I don't... It's weird, I haven't heard. a single person talk about it, but this is the first time. where content can actually go viral. on very single platform, and you don't have to write. or film a video for Facebook, film a 12 minute video for YouTube,

film a sub-60 second video for TikTok, write a tweet for Twitter, and post this on Reddit. You can just do the same thing on every platform. - And the fact that your content has gone viral. on multiple platforms regularly means. that virality is not accidental. Sometimes it can be, of course, but it can be engineered. - It's just not. So many people say it's luck, and they're like, "You're just lucky,". or this or that, but what are we up to? Probably like 1,000 videos over 10 million views? We don't ever have a dud? You can call it luck, but I think it can be trained.

I counsel YouTubers all the time. and show 'em how to go from getting. a couple million views a month. to 10 million views a month very easily. And even certain ones, like... And just one of my friends, he was just really struggling. and so I just started showing him. basically everything I know, and just doing like once every week, sometimes once every two weeks calls. And he went from $10,000 a month on YouTube. to over 400,000. just doing these little counseling calls. And so, I mean, people can make excuses all they want. and say it's just luck or say... Well, anyways, I don't even want to quote.

all the other stuff, but it's just... It is. It is a teachable skill, it's a learnable skill. You can study your way to consistently make viral videos, no matter how small your channel is. Even if you have zero subscribers, you could, if you actually studied hard enough and like... Basically, if you knew what I knew, and some of these... So I don't sound so arrogant also, some of these other friends that have that. I'd say are the smartest people in the world. when it comes to content creation online, if you had the knowledge that was in our heads, you could do it very easily. I've seen people do it all the time.

And what's even more interesting is. I go on podcasts and I say. everything I know, and these people are also very open, some of them that I know, it's all out there. And a lot of people, instead of just studying that. and trying to absorb and apply it. in their own way, they're just like, "No, it's just luck.". - So you do lay it all out there, but I gotta push back to one interesting thing. I think a crucial component of your success is. the idea stage, the idea generation, the brainstorm that I heard today, but getting really good at generating ideas.

So it's not... It's not just the selection of the thumbnail. and the title, that creative process, it's also just the engine. of generating really good ideas, and getting that. I mean, I would say that is probably. the thing that needs to be trained. the most for most creators, right? They just don't put enough ideas on paper. - Yes, but also a lot of creators. also just don't... Which I didn't either for the longest time, just don't make good enough content. Content that's worthy of getting 10 million views.

- In the idea or the execution of the idea? - Both. I mean think about how many people. just make videos they film in under 20 minutes, and they don't really put any effort into it, and lack... It's like, my first 500 videos didn't deserve. to get a million views. There's a reason they did, they're terrible, you know what I mean? But at the time, I thought they did, right? And I'm in the mindset of a lot of small YouTubers, where I thought those videos deserved a million views, and I thought the algorithm hated me. But I watch them back now. and I could tell you exactly why, the videos were just fucking horrible, you know what I mean? - Well, so what was the breakthrough. for you to start realizing,

to start having a self-awareness, about these videos aren't good enough? You're probably still going through that, you're probably still growing to see. - Yeah, every six months, you should look back and hate your videos, or at least see things you could improve, and be like, "oh I could have done. "this better, that better.". If not, then you're not learning quick enough, in my opinion at least. - Where's the source of that learning even for you now? - It's--. - Just look at metrics-- - I mean, I just got back. from a Ma... No, I mean, I just got back from a Mastermind, where I just got 10 of the smartest people I knew. and we just locked ourselves in a cabin,

and taught each other's stuff. Constantly, every day... Not every day now, probably every other day, I go on a walk and I just call random people. I'll just say, "Yeah, teach me something.". And I mean, it's just... You just have to have a never-ending thirst for learning. That's very imperative, especially if you want... If you wanna get on top and then stay on top. The only way to do it is. just to constantly be learning, or someone who is learning is just gonna have. a leg up on you in the knowledge game. - And what kind of stuff are you... 'Cause you've talked about offline. that you just love learning of all kinds,

it doesn't matter. But in terms of videos, are you studying videos? Are you studying? - Recently, not as much. I'm more... Because to get to the videos I want, I have to build this business, and scale up and hire. So more of my recent time has been... My teenage years were spent studying virality. and studying content creation. Now, I'm studying how to build a content company. so I can actually produce the crazy ideas. I want to produce, if that makes any sense. - So yeah, on that, the business side, we talked about hiring. Do you have trouble firing people? - No, I'm pretty sure almost every person...

Yeah, actually, every person I've ever fired, we just give them severance, and I like to see it more as. it's no ill will. Like if there's... If I fired you, if is there's some other job. you want me to help you get, I'll DM them on Twitter. If you wanna go work for, I don't know, insert whatever, MTV, give me someone to DM, I'll DM 'em. I try to make it more like a transition. and do whatever we can to make it. as easy as possible. - And if something was. just not working for you, 'cause you want people, like you said, super passionate. - Because at the end of the day, if you hold someone that you... Onto someone that you don't see being here in 10 years,

you're just doing 'em a disservice. You're just getting them more ingrained, more in-rooted in where they are. And the sooner you do it. and help them move on to their new life, the better. - Given all the wisdom you have now, if you were to give advice to somebody, or if you were to start over again, you had no money, what would be the first 10 videos you tried. to make on a new channel? I guess that's advice for a new person, and nobody knows you. - Yeah, and nobody knows me. Like, hypothetically I have a mask on.

- And you also, I guess, don't have the wisdom. - Well, if I don't have what I have in my head, then I would say just fail. Like just... A lot of people get analysis paralysis, and they'll just sit there, and they'll plan their first video. for three months, and... Any of you listening, especially if you have zero videos on your channel, your first video is not gonna get views. Period, it's not. Your first 10 are not gonna get views. I can very confidently say that. So stop sitting there, and thinking for months and months on end, and just get to work and start uploading. All you need to do, this applies to people who have not uploaded videos.

but have dreams of being a YouTuber, is make 100 videos and improve something every time. Do that, and then on your 101st video, we'll start talking, maybe you can get some views. But your first 100 are gonna suck. There are very freak cases, like Liza Koshy or Emma Chamberlain, who have really good personalities. and it doesn't take them as many videos, and it's just like people who are 7'5". and making it into the NBA. Like, yes, there are freak cases you can find, but for the average person, like us, who don't have these exceptional personalities. and backgrounds in filmmaking,

just make 100 videos, improve something each time, and then talk to me on your 101st video. - Well, the "improve something each time" is the tricky one. How do you improve something each time? - The second one, just... I don't know, put more effort into the script. The third one, try to learn a new editing trick. The fourth one, try to figure out a way. that you can have better inflections in your voice. The fifth one, try to study. a new thumbnail tip and implement it. The sixth one, try to figure out a new title. There's infinite ways. That's the beauty of content creation online, there's literally infinite ways, from the coloring, to the frame rate,

to the editing, to the filming, to the production, to the jokes, to the pacing, to... Every little thing can be improved, and they can never not be improved. There's no... There's literally no such thing. as a perfect video. - So if you knew everything you know now. but no money... - Step one would... I'd just brainstorm like, "Okay, I don't have money. "What are some viral things?". I mean, the first thing that comes. to my mind is something as simple. as when I counted to 100,000, which is what I did do when I was poor, and that worked. But what's something like that I could do. that would be even more attention gathering?

- Yeah, you were... As part of the brainstorm, you would throw out a lot of ideas, and people throw out a bunch of ideas, and one of the questions is, "Is this even doable?" - Yeah, first off, come up with ideas you think would do well, and then ask yourself later if they're doable. because there's different ways. you can accomplish something. - Don't be cynical about the doability of stuff. - Yeah, because there really are so many different ways. you can accomplish a goal. Like, when we give away an island, like, we gave our 100 millionth subscriber island, you can't find private islands.

that don't look like shit for less than $10 million, so this isn't doable, right? All right, the idea doesn't exist. Not doable, X it off. But then, you dig into it, and you find different alternatives, and you find, "Okay, well what if we just buy. "a $2 million island that sucks, "and then spend a million dollars importing some sand, "let's build a beach, Let's import 300 trees, "let's build a little bit of canal, "let's cut some paths,". Boom, now it's a really nice island, but it's actually affordable. 'cause we don't have $10 million. to spend on video, but we can afford to spend three-and-a-half.

and lose, whatever, a million dollars on that video. So that's an example of like, yeah, if you just went off the gut test, you'd be like, "This isn't doable. "Every island's $10 million, we're screwed. "If we go cheaper, it's just a terrible island, no.". And so, if you... There are so many different ways. you can achieve what you want. You've really gotta push through nos, which not a lot of people do. You have to have like a more of a dominant personality. and just a willingness to, when people tell you it's not possible, just actually go through all the variables. and eliminate them all yourself. - Have a stubbornness.

and a resilience to failure maybe. - For what we do, creators online, it's very imperative that you have... That a no isn't a no to you. You really have to think and just... We take a personality test. and just having a a dominant personality is. a better indicator that when someone tells you, "Oh, there's no way you're gonna build. "a brick wall for under 100 grand,". you'll be like, "okay,". and then still go check the next 10 vendors. and figure it out. - Yeah. What advice would you give to.

an already established channel, like with one, two, three, four million subscribers, how to like 10X it, like increase it? Without losing maybe-- - Yeah, that's where. it's very spec... Like, channel by channel. You can't give general advice. - [Lex] Okay. - Yeah. Because if I do, millions of creators are gonna see this, and then they're gonna do it, and I'm gonna fuck them over. - Oh, I see, I see. So let's say, I had like two million subscribers. on this podcast, how would you 10X that. without sacrificing what it is? - [MrBeast] 10X your stuff-- - Does it matter? So you've talked about with success,

does that-- - It's different for everyone. Is 10X-ing your definition of success? - [Lex] No. - Well, then it's gonna... Right off the bat, it's hard. because if you don't give a shit about 10X-ing, it's even harder to 10X. He does this because he likes helping people, that's one thing I've found throughout this day. Every time I talk data, it's so funny with him, 'cause it's like, "You could do this to get more views,". and he'll just be blank. And I'll feel like that doesn't register anything with him. He just doesn't care, which is... It's really cool. - I'm really nervous about that. I'm really nervous about the numbers affecting... 'Cause it's so fun.

It's so fun to focus on the numbers. and I'm really worried about that. But at the same time, you should be cognizant of that. because you've created not. just some of the most watched videos, but some of the most amazing videos ever, so there's a strong correlation there. It's not like you're selling your soul. to make a highly viewed video. It's actually, if you look at the metrics, it helps you understand what is compelling and not. And so, I feel like I am... I feel like there's some value.

to investigate what work... When people tune on and when not, to be more data driven even on podcasts. But I'm really afraid of-- - But on the flip side, I think part of the appeal is that. you don't care about that kind of stuff. - But there could be stuff. that doesn't have have to do anything with that. and has to do with stylistic choices, of lighting and cameras, or maybe with, for example, topics. - [MrBeast] Yeah. - You know, like-- - Even what you've asked me. here is like different than. what most people ask me.

- Yeah, so it could be... I mean, and it'd be nice to understand that, but yeah, again, I'm worried. about polluting the creative process. - At the end of the day, this is a true case of it's your own intuition. You know your viewers better than anyone else, it's whatever-- - See, I'd like to push. back on that, I really don't. - You do. - I don't. - Who else? Name one person who knows your viewers better than you. - Somebody that looks at numbers of podcasts? - No, you know your viewers, you know... You're the only... How many episodes have you done? - 350. - Exactly! But I'm not paying attention--. - You're the only one who's watched every second. of all 350 of them, probably. - Okay, that's just not...

No, I haven't. But the, okay--- - Well, 'cause you did it. so you do know what's in all of them. If your content is you, people... I'm telling you, you do, and this is just one of those moments. where you're an intelligent guy. and you just have to trust your instincts. Just think, "What is the typical Lex viewer. "and what do they want?". - I don't think like that. My t-- - But that's all. you would have to do. and whatever your gut tells you, that would be the best guess. - But you don't know what the typical viewer is though. I don't... I don't 'cause it I... To investigate that would be very, very difficult,

and then you have to start looking at the numbers, you have to start to like consider demographics. The only way I know that. anybody even watches it is. 'cause I'll sometimes run into people, like when I run along the river, and they'd be like, "I love you, Lex.". It's like, "Okay, well, that's a data point,". and they're like cool people, but I don't know any... I don't have any other... It's difficult man. It's difficult to know... It's difficult to know who listens to boxes. It's difficult to... Do you have a sense of who's... I mean, like, you're so huge that everybody watches.

- Yeah. But no, I still do. I'd say if you were to just put a gun to my head. and you were like, "All right, "we're gonna pick a random person. "that watched your last video, "and you have to like roughly guess what they are. "and if you're not close, "we'll kill you.". I would say probably like. a teenager that plays video games. Like that would be probably the typical one. And then, there are people that are maybe. a little bit younger, a lot of people that are older as well. But in a random sample size, yeah, it's probably like a male boy. that plays video games. That's the best way I would describe it. But I don't try to pertain to him,

I just make whatever I think is interesting. and good content. And this is what we were talking about before, even though, hypothetically, 35 to 40% of my audience is women, which is less than a majority. If we get 100 million views a video, that's still 30 to 40 million females. that watch every video, which is probably the largest views per video. for women on the whole platform, which you wouldn't think that. I can't think of a single other creator. that gets more women to watch their videos than that. And so, it's just...

Anything, even people above the age of 30, even if it's only like three or four percent, that's still three to four percent. of 100 million views is a lot. of people that age. So we hit a large group of every demographic, if that makes any sense. - So what if we look at other maybe. more challenging kinds of channels, or not, but if we look at educational for example, like lectures, or if we look... Yeah, educational. It could be short videos. How would you 10X that? Something on robotics, on biology,

on science, on engineering, on all of that. that's more educational focused. - We would honestly just have to pull the... Because it's the same way. If you went to Gordon Ramsay and you said, "How would a new cook cook better?". It's like--. - So even then, that's not even specific enough. You have to go channel by channel. - You really do. or I'm giving horrible advice. because if there was these just golden rules, everyone do it, you know what I mean? Like, if there's these magical little principles. - How quickly, when you look at a channel, can you kind of give advice? - It's surface level at the start,

and then the more... If we watch 10 videos, I feel like I'd have a good profile. and I could tell you, in my opinion, especially once I look at the analytics. and I get more ingrained in like, "Okay, the typical viewer's this, "they're from here, "here's how they're feeling.". 'Cause there are people who make videos for rednecks, and like the redneck taste of content is. just so much different than, obviously, women watching makeup videos, which are so much different. than teenage boys watching a Minecraft video. They're just all different, so the biggest thing you have to do is put your head... Your head in the head space of the viewer.

and see the content how they would, because if you just try to only give your taste, which is what a lot of people do, and things from your perspective, it's very biased. and it's just not gonna work for everyone. And that's actually how you do more harm than good, which is something I'm very careful of. - Yeah, but at the same time, just generating a lot of ideas. I think the first time I've talked to you was. on Clubhouse, actually, and I mentioned something about robots. and, almost immediately, you went to generating a bunch of ideas around robots. It's just-- - 100 robots vs 100 humans. How far can a robot throw a potato? - I think your idea...

The first idea was... 'Cause you just said so many ideas I never even thought of, but it shows the value of basically brainstorming. with people that think differently. - But at the end of the day, my ideas are probably... Might lean towards some people. a little bit younger than your audience, some of the stuff I-- - Could be. But there's still the ideas... I think the first one you said, 'cause we're talking about quadrupeds, like robot dogs, you said to replace a biological dog. with a robot dog, and see if the owner notices something. You were just quickly brainstorming. different ideas of like how--.

- This is years ago, I remember it though. - Which is just... I mean it's like, "Oh yeah, "I never really thought about that kind of...". It is the basic... The tension between what does it take. for a robot and a AI system. to replace the biological systems that we... The biological creatures that we love in our lives, yeah. But that was like... The pace of idea generation was. the thing that struck me, today and in general. It's like that's how you get at good videos,

is you keep thinking. - It's much easier to make. a video around a good idea, obviously, than a bad one. You're just setting yourself up for success. - Okay, so that's for 10X-ing. an already popular channel. What's the hardest number? You said the numbers that matters, click-through rate, average view duration, and surveys. What's the hardest number to optimize for? - Probably surveys. - Do you have an insight into the surveys at all? - No, not really. But if you just click on a bunch. of random videos online, you'll eventually get a survey.

"Was this video transformative, heartwarming, inspiring?". What people rate does make a difference and it's... You can get people to click a video, you can get 'em to watch it, but you can't really fake. whether or not they're satisfied. like they don't lie, the surveys. Maybe one person here or there might troll. but once you aggregate enough, it's a pretty clear telltale of the video. So either you're making a great video or you're not. - What is it? Minimizing the non-regrettability. - Yeah, I think Elon tweeted.

that that's what he is tried. to do on Twitter. - For Twitter. And that's interesting. That's basically the survey metric, how happy you are that you've been using the platform. - Elon tweeted, "We wanna limit. "the amount of regrettable minutes people spend on Twitter.". And the first thing I thought is like. "that's something YouTube already has on lock, "their whole survey system and feedback loop.". - How tough is it to take on YouTube, you think? - [MrBeast] For Twitter? - Yeah, for Twitter or for anybody else. - I mean, it's gonna be basically impossible. I mean, YouTube's not going anywhere, and I mean...

I don't know, I don't think anyone's gonna do. what YouTube does better than them, at least not in the next 10 years. - You asked on Twitter, "Would you rather have $10 million. "or 10 million subscribers on YouTube?". What would your own answer be. at various stages in your career? - If I had nothing, I would say $10 million. Because with $10 million, you can hire some people, and pump out content, and, with a million or two, get 10 million subscribers. and then keep the other 8 million.

- So that's if you believe. in your ability to grow a channel? If you-- - Well, if you... Yeah, if you don't believe in your ability. to grow a channel, then you shouldn't take the 10 million subscribers. 'cause you're just gonna kill the channel. So the 10 million is definitely... A better question would be, "Would you rather have a million dollars. "or 10 million subscribers?". That's where it gets a little tricky. because now, it's like, "Hmm, a million dollars, life-changing amount of money,". but if you semi-knew what you're doing, you probably make a million dollars off. a 10 million subscriber channel, but it is a little bit of a risk.

- So a million dollars might not be enough. to build a strong team. 'cause you don't know how to do it, so you might waste all of that money. - Or they just keep it and retire, yeah. - Okay, that's true. - Yeah, 'cause 10 million is just so high, it's like just never work again, who cares? For the average human, that's so much money. - It's interesting to me also. to the value of the subscriber versus. the value of the dollar. I suppose, how valuable is the subscriber for... What percentage of the videos... How active are the subscribers. in watching the video for you?

- That's hard, I don't know. - I was actually thinking more about. the subscriber to dollar. Like if someone has 10 million subscribers, have they made $10 million? I dunno why that kind of popped in my head. It's an interesting thought. - Do you ever... When you analyze videos, do you ever analyze videos like, we've talked about offline, of other videos across the YouTube in general. just to understand trends, to understand the social behavior? - All your... Not all but a lot of the questions are analytics based. It's so funny. - 'Cause I love it. I mean it's just a giant social experiment, right?

What people like to watch, what people share. It's a fascinating look-- - So I hate to... So like I said before, what percentage your audience do you think care. about this kind of stuff, like this deeply about YouTube analytics? - I think a large amount care about curiosity. and exploration of interesting ideas. So in that sense, yeah, this would fit it. I love it. - This is funny. And this isn't me trying to make... I love you and I actually...

I loved your Magnus one, and even your Hikaru one was really good, and a bunch of other ones. But I think we're getting to the point now. where only analytics junkies would want. to keep hearing more analytics talk, and the normie is probably like. they've had their dose of YouTube talk. for the next three years. Maybe I'm wrong. Hey, comment if I'm wrong, I could be. I don't know your audience. See this is where you would tell me, "Shut up. I know my audience, you dumbass.". - And I don't at all. I actually... I just follow the thread of curiosity, and I think there's just a lot.

of curious humans in the world. And to me, it's like... So the question about analytics is. the question of basically stepping away, stepping outside of yourself, and thinking, "Why the hell do I like TikTok so much? "Why do I like Twitter so much? "Why do I like YouTube so much?". And getting... Even if you're not a creator, getting an insight into that is really interesting. It's like what... 'Cause all these platforms are fundamentally changing. the nature of content. People are reading books less,

they're probably going to be watching movies less and less, they're probably going to be watching Netflix less and less. Do you ever think about. the darker side of YouTube, with shadow banning and censorship. and all the kind of topics? Especially if you see it in other platforms. like Twitter, that... Elon recently highlighted. the shadow banning that was happening. and, in general, the censorship. that was happening on those platforms. Do you think about the role of centralized control.

of which information is or isn't made available. through search and discovery? - I'll be honest, I never really think about it. - You just try to make fun videos that--. - Yeah, I'm more... I'm kind of more in my own lane, but it's not like that I don't. just specifically think about that. Just a lot of stuff in general, I'm just kind of in my own lane, thinking about my own stuff. But now that you asked, I'm curious, what are your thoughts on YouTube. and that kind of stuff? - Well, I'm generally against centralized censorship.

or shadow banning. Shadow banning is the worst one because not that. the goal of creating a healthy platform. where you're having great conversations. and videos that are not spreading misinformation, that sounds like an admirable goal, but that's too difficult of a job. for a centralized entity. That's too big of an--. - Yeah, and then there's the misinformation stuff, and then there's also just like the videos. where they do something that causes... What happened back then... Where... Adpocalypse, and a lot of creators revenue plummets.

because people are doing videos. that advertisers don't deem acceptable, and then now all these big advertisers are pulling, and the little guys are getting hit. because ad-rates dropped by 30%, and the person who just quit his job. to go full-time content creation. now can't sustain it. So it's also... It's like a lot of different variables as well. that makes it so complicated. - Well, I think the big thing is transparency, especially around shadow banning. for people who-- - I agree, on shadow banning, you should be transparent. You should let people know, it... Obviously, there has to be some type of controls,

people can't just post whatever. And so, if you're pulling those levers, they should at least know. - Yeah, so they know how to improve their content, they can understand it, they can-- - Exactly. - If it's a wrong shadow banning, as a society that we should not shadow ban. this kind of content, that means You should be publicly discussing it. and having that-- - Because if not, and if it's not known, then it's just kind of like, well, then who's pulling the strings? And how do we know they're not just manipulating things. to get whatever message they want out there. and silence other ones?

- Yeah, and there could be, in the background, government influence, which is where actual freedom of speech comes into play. That the government should not have any control. or be able to put pressure. on censorship of speech. And it gets weird if none of that is being... There's no transparency around it. That's a... But to be fair, that's a huge responsibility. The amount of content that YouTube... Is uploaded on YouTube, that is shared by YouTube, viewed by YouTube-- - But even more of a reason. why it would probably make sense. to be transparent, you know?

Because then people can help fact check it. - That's right, but that requires building. a platform that makes that easy, right? To make fact checking easy, to make the... Like what Twitter now has, being able to share context and all that kind of stuff. Crowdsource it. Crowdsource it the way Wikipedia crowdsources it. I mean, there's... - And then you open on a random Wikipedia article. - But like, people criticize Wikipedia. because there is a political lean.

to the editors of Wikipedia, and then they get... There's some articles that definitely have a bias to them. and all that kind of stuff. It's a difficult problem, It's a difficult problem to solve, that ultimately, as much as possible, it would be nice for the viewer. to have control of that. versus the entity that's hosting it. So for the viewer to decide-- - I'll let you figure. that stuff out. I'm just gonna make fun-- - Cool videos, yeah, yeah. - You know, let's go to Antarctica again. - How was that? How was going to... You just came back from Antarctica. That was... I watched the video. That was fun.

That was a really fun video. - Thank you. - I mean, there's a lot of things I can comment about that. but what was that... What was the hardest part of making that video? - The hardest part was just getting out there. It's just so remote, and you land the plane on just this ice runway, and it's so sketchy. And then, once the plane takes off, you're just there, and you're the most remote place in the planet, and it's just... It's very breathtaking. I don't... If you have the chance to ever go to Antarctica,

I would recommend it. It was probably like the... In the video, we climbed a mountain that wasn't named. so we can name it, and standing on top of that mountain. and just seeing nothing. Because once you get outside the outskirts. and you get deep in Antarctica, there's no penguins, nothing lives there at all. And so, there's just nothing in every direction. It's just snow, and these crazy beautiful mountains, and some of them stick into the clouds, and it was... And if you go during summertime, the sun never goes down. So the sun's up 24/7. and it's just like spinning in circles.

at the top of the planet or whatever. It looks like the top. - Yeah, you guys commented several times. how beautiful it was. - Yeah, and so it's just... Yeah, it was just very beautiful. - What about shooting itself, the technical aspects of shooting it? - Oh, I mean... Well, so for the... Somehow, we lucked out. and one of the days was like the warmest day in forever. that's been in Antarctica. It was positive degrees. but at certain parts, it was also negative 20, negative 30 , and that's where the cameras, you constantly have to be switching out. the batteries and heating 'em up, and like putting 'em basically in your pants.

or they'll just get way too cold. And we were prepared for much worse, but it ended up being much better than we thought. - So for that video, but in general, maybe some other challenging videos, how do you go from the idea stage. to the actual execution to the final video? Can you take me through a full process of... We're talking to about some crazy wild ideas today, how do you go from that to a final video. where you click "publish"? - Well, I mean, obviously, first things first, you gotta figure out the idea, and then it just depends. I mean, pick any video you can think of on my channel, I can take you through it.

- Well, what about the "in a circle"? You have to stay in a circle for 100 days. - Yeah, so for that one, step one--. - One of the most popular. - Yeah, that video did really well. So we... Problem is we have to... This is where you get really. into the nuances of the company, 'cause we have a lot of videos going out. You can't just, in a vacuum, be like, "All right, we're not doing anything for 100 days. "and we're only filming this.". So step one is we had to build. an independent crew that could actually do that.

for 100 days, that way everyone else could keep working. on the normal videos, and not just screw everything up. So step one, you build that team. Okay, we got the team. Now, what do we need? Well, to do this, we need probably 10 cameras, at least, rolling at all times, so we're probably gonna need to get a trailer. and hook up a bunch of storage and stuff. to just carry the sheer volume of footage. we're gonna have. And so, get a trailer, set up the cameras, go out in the field, paint a circle. Now, we need a house. Go buy a house, bring it out there. And then, it's like, "Oh wait,

"I think it'd be funny if I brought. "the house in on the intro. "Find a crane that can lift up a house. "so I can drive it in and drop it in the intro.". - And that's an iterative process. where you're like, "okay, this would be funnier"? So this is not all upfront. that it's written, it's like you're const--. - Ideally, it would be, but as you kind of see things, you get inspired, and then you think of more and more. And then-- - "This would be better. "with a crane.". - Yeah, it'd be better if I dropped out of the house. - Drop it, yeah. That was crazy, that you decided to do that. So fearless in the kind of crazy stuff. you're willing to do. - Exactly. I'm a broken record,

but whatever makes the best video possible. That's all you focus on. - Okay, so what about the delegation of. who gets to... What are the cameramen... Like, the people operating in the cameras, who's responsible for different things? Is it like a distributed process. or like how d-- - Well, that's where. whoever the lead cam would be. on that video would just decide it. That one, 'cause we shot over 100 days, we didn't... A lot of it was just Sean. and the guy who was in the circle just vlogging. We just gave him a camera. and he figured out. And then, we'd have, for him, just set hours each day.

that a cameraman would come. So if he had any content, he needed extra hands. Instead of just having someone on standby 24/7, it made more sense to do set hours. And yeah, it was... It was hard, but it's funny, in hindsight, it sounds so simple, you know? - And I guess like the more... 'Cause that one is relatively simple, I guess, because it's a low number of people--. - Yeah, the hard part about just the time. I checked in on him so many different days. And it's like an hour here, two hours there, three hours there. over 100 days adds up to be a ton of time.

And even then, if you have a 10 person crew, paying them daily rates for 100 days, just all of it adds up. - What about the 100 versus 100? 100 adults versus 100 kids? What was the... What was... Bringing that to life, that seems like exceptionally challenging. - Yeah, basically, the thought process was. we did 100 kids verse... Or sorry, 100 boys versus 100 girls, people loved it. Honestly, I didn't think they'd like it. as much as they did, video did really, really well. So the second I saw that video was crushing,

I was like, "All right, we're doing it again.". But last time we did it, we did it in our studio. So we built a giant room, put 100 girls in it, sounds bad when I explained it like this, and then a giant room, put 100 boys. And we're like, after 100 hours, whichever room has the most people, we'll give 'em half a million dollars. So did well. So we're like, "All right, we're gonna do it again.". So we threw out all these different ideas. It was like "100 football players versus 100 cheerleaders,". 100 this, 100 that. "100 prisoners versus 100 cops,". just craziest ideas. And we settled on 100 kids versus 100 adults. And then the next step was like,

"How do we make it better?". The kids versus adults.. Or sorry, the boys versus girls, the first one we did was inside, and the problem was every time it was night. when we did these long time lapses, you couldn't see the sun go up and down. So we're like, "okay, this time I wanna do it outside,". that's why the cubes are outside. And instead of doing circles, we wanted to make 'em cubes. And then, it was figuring out, "Do we want the...". Yeah, just there's-- - Those videos came up, at least today, as ones that are like really complicated. in terms of the audio, in terms of how it is to film it. - Yeah, that's the problem.

We had a lot of audio issues 'cause. in the first one, we didn't have a roof on it. In the second one, there was a roof. so there's a lot of reverb, which then, in editing, made it brutal. Half the shots weren't usable. and it really screwed us over. So we had to do a lot of Frankensteining. in the editing to make up for, basically, my ignorance. - So you mentioned that you were surprised. how well that one did. A lot of creators talk about getting depressed. when their videos don't do as well. as they kind of expected. There's a kind of feeling, you can get really worn out by that.

Do... Do you yourself feel that? And also, do you have advice for others that feel this? - Yeah, it's weird 'cause I am a numbers guy, but also it... It used to. It used to very much, especially when I was like betting. everything I had on a video, when it did bad, that was devastating man. I'd cry and I'd be depressed for days, and it really would have a severe impact on my mood. But I don't know, now it doesn't really matter. It's... If a video does bad, I just look at it,

I'm like, "Oh, why did this video too bad? "Probably, oh, there's a little retention dip there. "I don't think people like the thumbnail, "maybe we should switch it.". And I just look at it objectively, unemotional, and then just move on. And I feel like that's a much healthier way. of going about it. So if a creator is listening, like that is the ideal way to respond. to a video that's doing bad, just remove emotion from the equation. and just look at it and figure out. how you can approach the next one. - Is there tricks to being able. to detach yourself from that? Because in your case...

I mean, that's true for creators, but in your case, there's like a lot of money on the line. Those videos cost a lot of-- - And months of my life, and so much time. But no, I mean, you just... I mean, I don't know. The only real answer is. it's just a conscious effort. You just have to unemotionally look at the video, determine the problems, and then move on. There is no secret, you know what I mean? It's just... It's that. And if you really can't bring yourself to do it, then you're just screwed. Honestly, maybe you're not meant for this game. - Okay, so that's part of the development as a creator, is like you're being able to be... Detach yourself-- - For longevity?

Yeah, you have to unemotionally be able to look. at videos that flop and figure it out. 'Cause if not, just getting... And not every video can be a one outta 10, and so when a video does bad, that just stress and depression is. just gonna eventually get to you in the long run. - So you said you've failed in a bunch of videos, sort of taken them to completion, so what are some of the biggest fails? - Yeah, weirdly enough, as we've matured and we've done this more, we don't have that problem as much. Especially now, that we're getting. into the multimillion dollar budgets per video,

it's like failure's not really an option anymore. so I'm a little more particular about what I do. But back in the day, yeah, we would do a video where we spent 24 hours. on a deserted island, and we filmed it, did it all, and I didn't like it after the edit, so I just grabbed the boys, and we went back to the deserted island, and spent another 24 hours there, and refilmed it. Or-- - Could that have been caught. and prevented at the idea stage? Like, where-- - No, it's a good idea, it was just poor execution. To be honest, when we were out there, it was hot.

We were... We were just like... We all, at one point, just kinda wanted to die. It was just miserable. - So how do you avoid that these days? - Well, I just went when it was. a little cooler to be honest. And then, we had... Literally, the amount of fun we had. in the video was like 10 times higher. - Oh, interesting. So there's some practical details that you just learned, (mumbles) what it takes to--. - Videos that... Where it's very hot, or it's on water 'cause I get super seasick... There's kinda like 10 things that. if they have these variables, I'm down to do it. but my fun meter is not as high as normal.

We tried to sp... Anytime we do anything on a boat, when we spent 24 hours in the Bermuda Triangle, or when I tried to spend like... Which it didn't get up upload, but I tried to spend like 100 hours at sea or whatever, just on a raft, it just like I... It makes me wanna throw up, and I get so seasick, I can't even see straight. But there are just some videos. that require me to be on a boat, so I just suck it up. - So when you spend months in creating a video, I know this is probably stressful to some creators,

like how much stress... How do you feel when you have. to click "publish" on the video? - Now, not much. - So you're able to detach yourself even then? - Again, and old me, tons. I'd be scratching and nervous, and my hands will be sweating. to the point where I'm almost about to puke, I'm like, "Ah, I really hope people like this.". But I don't know, I think that's just part of maturing it. There's different... And as a content creator, there's different phases. And you just, like... Once you get over the fear. that you're just gonna wake up one day.

and be irrelevant, and you just accept that. You believe in yourself, and you believe in your content, and that you can continue to be irrelevant, then you don't... I don't know, you kind of are... it's a little bit easier. to detach yourself, I guess, and that's... It's a much healthier place to be. You can't do this for 10 years. if every little thing just causes. these huge emotional reactions. It's like, that's why a lot of creators go. a little mentally insane. You have to get out of that game. because it really messes with you. - We've talked about this a little bit,

but how do you define. and how do you suggest others define success. on YouTube? - It's so subjective. Some people, success is retiring their mom, literally. For you, success is inspiring people, and educating them, and whatever, piquing their curiosity. For other people, it's just quitting their job. - So you have to self-reflect on. what your definition of success is? 'Cause I think a lot of creators don't. really think, don't introspect.

They kind of wanna keep getting. more and more subscribers, kind of thing. - Yeah, but subscribers is just a vanity metric, you know? It doesn't... subscribers don't correlate to views. - Sure, or views-- - Yeah, I know. But that's more... That wasn't directed to you, that was more directed to people listening. 'cause a lot of people do really care about subscribers, or even followers, like on TikTok. But if you look, your view... On YouTube, very, very few percent, if even a percent, of your views come from the sub-feed, right? They're almost all home feed or suggested.

When's the last time you clicked. on your sub-feed to watch a video? - Oh, almost never, yeah. - Yeah, maybe five years ago, it used to be a thing. It's not anymore, no one does. And it's getting harder and harder to find something. - I subscribed to way too many channels, I think. - Yeah, and that's what everyone does. And you subscribe to 10 channels, they're great, but two years later, your taste evolves, and it's a mess. And so, subscribers don't really matter, followers on TikTok don't really matter. So anyways, it really... They really are the definition of a vanity metric. - But what about views? - They do, obviously,

because if people are showing up time and time again, that's what matters. - Okay, so that... That's a good thing to define a success. I just feel like. that too can be a problem 'cause. I would say, if I wanted to be successful, as a young creator, I might start copying MrBeast. or something like that, right? You start trying to take shortcuts. as opposed to find your own unique voice, right? So chasing views is a problem too,

it feels like, or no? As long as you detach yourself from them. - I mean, if you're... Sounds bad, but if you're lazy, yeah, and you just wanna copy someone else, and not experiment and find your own way. But, I mean, you can't make that excuse for them. If someone just isn't coming up with original stuff. and putting in the effort, you can't just say, "Oh, it's 'cause they're chasing views. "We need some different metric from them to chase.". No, they just need to find their own way. - Well, it just feels like unique type. of content will often lead to sacrifice.

in the number of views in the short term. - And by the long term, you win. - Okay, so-- - Or if you do win, you win more, I guess, would be a better way of putting it. - Do you think you'll IPO MrBeast Burger. or Feastables in the next five, 10 years? - Beast Burger or Feastables? No, I kind of think they're... - [Lex] Something-- - So actually, you know what? I just realized this is. our first time talking about those, we're like an hour and a half in, that's so funny. - We started talking about what... - My retention brain kicked in.

- I wonder if you have retention brain. for like life itself. - Oh, I do. Every time I'm talking to someone, I can... I'm like, "okay..". I'm wondering-- - What about loved ones? Spending time with loved ones, thinking "we could be doing something. "much better right now.". - Yes, no, that is a serious problem with... Well, so we'll pause the Beast Burger question. Yes, but that's why my current girlfriend, which I was telling you before. when we were talking about this, is she has a genuine love for learning,

and that's something I have. I always feel like I need to be learning something. to justify the time I'm spending. And so, that's why it's such a nice trait. because I feel like that time is being used optimally. because whether we're watching a documentary. or we're going and taking IQ tests, or reading about whatever, just "why modern art is a thing," I don't know, whatever weird thing we decide to do, I'm always learning and improving, so it justifies the time. - So to maximize retention. in your relationship , you wanna spend that time learning. as much as possible? - Yeah, which,

conveniently, I don't have to force, right? Or I wanna be recharging so when I do work, I can hit the ground harder. And luckily, we're into a lot of the same things, which having to be learning, and sometimes it's not learning, maybe watching an anime or something like that. But I'm a big believer and you're either... if you... Well, if your goal is to be. a super successful entrepreneur, you need to either be working. or you need to be doing something. that decompresses and recharges you. so you can work again, if your goal is to be a really kickass entrepreneur.

And obviously, we're boiling this down. to a very basic thing. And so, the things you're doing in your downtime. when you're not working, if it doesn't recharge you, you're screwed. You're just a ticking time bomb, waiting to implode. And so, you gotta heavily recharge, and like... So watching, for me, anime or whatever it is, playing a board game, that is actually kind of crucial to my success, which takes a lot of maturing. to come to that conclusion. because I used to be the kind of guy.

that wanted to work every hour of the day, and I would try to train myself. to not need that stuff. And I almost resented that. I have to do these kinds of things, and it would piss me off 'cause it's not optimal, and I just really wanna make content. and entertain people. But yeah, as someone who's gone down that road, and you just work every day. for two, three months straight, every hour of the day, and then you're just a bomb waiting to explode. and lose your mind. And the only real sustainable thing is. to just give yourself time.

to recharge in between working. - So there's a kind of balance. you have to find? - You have to! And I hate it more than anyone else. because I... - [Lex] You hate not working. - Yeah, because it's just not optimal for time. It's... As a human, I do need to occasionally watch. a mindless show and play a board game, and it took me a very long time. to come to peace with that, and not... I would have like borderline panic attacks. when I would do it. 'cause I'd be like, "I just... "What am I doing right now?

"Why am I doing this? "I should be... "What if one day I have to lay off an employee. "because we're not doing so well? "How could I justify watching this show. "or whatever I'm doing right now?". It's like there's a lot of things like that. that go on in your head, but it's necessary. - Before we return to MrBeast Burger, what is like a... Since we're on the topic, what is a perfect day in the life, perfectly productive day in the life, of MrBeast look like? - [MrBeast] Oh boy, well, I mean--. - Or like a standard-- - I mean, the perfectly productive day is.

we film a main channel video. because those get 100 million a pop. I mean, it doesn't really get any better than that. - What about the average day. when you're not on the set? And you're like... 'Cause you're running a lot of things right? - Yeah, so right now, we have our snack brand, Feastables, we have a restaurant chain, Beast Burger, and then we, basically, which... We haven't even really launched any products yet, but we have the data company. that I was showing you, where we're gonna roll out some tools for creators, and then we have the Reacts channel, the gaming channel, the main channel, and then we have my charity, which also has a channel.

And so, how I've structured my life right now is. whenever I have free time, we just kind of go, "Hey guys, Jimmy's got an hour. "from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM,". and everyone's just like, "I need this, I need this,". and this channel's like, "I need this thing filmed" or whatever, the guy who runs my TikTok is like, "I need this TikTok filmed,". or Beast Burger's like "I need this menu item approved". or "We need to talk about this marketing thing.". And then, we just look at what everyone needs. and we're like, "That one looks like the most important, "we'll do that.".

And then, so it's just kind of like... If I just did that for every company in a day, then that's optimal. If I just... Like an optimal day for me would be going down. the eight companies and just whatever. their like two to three biggest pain points. or things they need from me, and just doing those. - Yeah, based on priority, and then trying to keep it as short as possible. to just the things that you needed on. - It doesn't get more optimal than that. If I clear the bottlenecks, or some bottlenecks for all my companies, then it's... Yeah, that's a perfect day. - Yeah, I mean, even just me, 'cause you're like...

You're showing me around. and you're being a great and gracious host, but on top of that, you were just doing all these meetings. You basically-- - I felt bad at some points. I was like, "Oh, I just tricked him. "into going to meetings with me. "He's like my little meeting buddy.". - Yeah, I mean it was fun. It was fun to see... It was fun to see how effectively you've delegated, you basically trust the team to do. a really good job on the various things, and there's just a strong team. that's able to carry the flag. on all the different tasks, from the brainstorming on the main channel.

to the Reacts and so on. Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, it's really interesting. what it takes to build a team like that. 'cause you very quickly build a very large team. that's able to scale. - Which is very scary. because it's my first... I'm 24, and I think I was telling you this earlier, it's funny 'cause six years ago. I had to raise my hand to go use the bathroom, and now I'm in charge of hundreds of people. and entertain hundreds of millions of people. And so, it is crazy just how quick it comes up. And I wish I was a little bit older.

so I could have ran a couple companies, and failed a few companies in the past, and learn from those and apply those here. 'Cause I know for a fact, when I'm 34... I'm 24 now, when I'm 34, I'll know so much more about running a business, and scaling, and hiring, and how to lead people, and better effectively communicate, and all these different skill sets. that will make me a better leader. That's the only thing that sucks is. I just don't have those. 'cause I just haven't been through the lessons, and I just have such a lucrative thing. on my plate right now, and it just sucks that I have to learn the lessons.

with the lucrative thing, you know what I mean? - Yeah. - Because you already have so much influence, so much impact, but you have effectively scaled, what lessons do you draw from that? How to effectively scale. as a 24 year old. Like you. - Yeah, that's something. I feel like I actually could give. a lot of value to, to young people. who are doing it. Older people who've built five companies. or whatever they do, I probably couldn't... They'd probably be like, "Oh, this is so obvious.". But for younger, first time business owners, you just experiment to be honest.

For us, it's just a new space. No one had really ever scaled up a 100 person team. to make content on YouTube, so there wasn't... I spent all this time, I hired one person from Disney, at one point, to come in and help, and obviously that was a dumb idea looking back on it, but I thought, "Oh, "they make great stuff people wanna watch, "and they come over here. "and help me build a team.". and they build it more the traditional way, and not how it should be online. And so, then it's like, "Okay...". And now, I'm not trying to trash people.

They all tried their best, but then I hired this one person. who does this different type of media. and runs a 100 person team, and then you come in here. and they try to build it that way, and they don't really listen to you, or value your... Or see the difference. And I tried basically building this company. with four or five different people. who worked in different veins of media, and every single time, I'd just be like, "They just don't get it, "they don't understand my world.". And the eventual solution was just like draw up my sleeves.

and do it myself, with James, my right hand man, and just like... No one's ever done this, and no one's gonna just give us a golden carrot. and tell us how to build this company. We gotta figure the fuck out ourselves. - And you have to build up people from scratch then? - Yeah, exactly, all the stuff I was talking about earlier, and all the lessons I learned along the way. And so, for me, that was a big part of... Stop trying to have someone build this company for me. and just do it myself because it's scary. I spent my whole life studying YouTube videos of virality, not business building, but fuck it, I was like,

"I guess we just gotta do it ourselves.". and that's where things really started to click, and we got the exponential growth, and we started getting the right people. and training 'em the right way, and just throwing conventional stuff out the door. and focusing on what's actually practical for YouTube, which is just completely different. than traditional media. - So you train people, and then those people train people, and then, and so on? - Yeah, I mean it's just even like. how you do the lighting on sets, or how you do the audio, or not writing scripts,

so we're just not as efficient with our filming. Sometimes, I have to have 30 cameras running, why? Because it's not scripted. I don't know what Chris is gonna do. when we start filming. He might run over there, but guess what? We gotta have it planned. 'cause there's only one shot. I can't tell him not to do that. - Yeah, that's the shooting, but then there's also the editing. - Yeah, and then the editing as well, and not having guardrails, and kind of... At the end of the day, it's whatever I want. The video... Their job is to make a video. that they think I'll like. because it's my channel, but you can achieve that however.

And so, it's just, everything's just different, It's much more, I guess, like a startup as opposed to... - Are you often surprised with the result? You think a certain... We watched the video today that was really nice, that was different than you would've potentially edited it. Are you sometimes surprised by. a decision an editor makes, that's like, "Okay, that's not the way I would've done it. "but it's actually this is a cool idea"? - Yeah, of course. The thing... My biggest fear is I don't ever want. to get trapped in a bubble of...

'Cause we are getting 100 million views a video. on the main channel. But I don't want to get in this feedback loop of just. "my ideas are great," or... Not feedback loop, but stop learning and improving. 'Cause it is easy sometimes to be like, "What we're doing is working, "we need to just keep doing it.". I want to keep learning and trying new things. And I guess one way I'd put it is like, you don't... When you're on a come up. where you're growing, you don't want to test new things. once you start to plateau.

or have a down trend, because if you're like... You're skyrocketing, right? You're up, up, up, and then you level off, and you start to go down, and you're like, "Oh, this isn't working anymore. "Let's start experimenting.". Well, if you have a bad experiment, now you're in a tailspin, you're nosediving, and you have one more bad experiment, you're screwed, kind of. I'm oversimplifying. You wanna test things while you're still growing. to keep the growing from happening. Because once you have, again, very oversimplifying, that kind of level off, you do a couple tests that go wrong,

in my opinion you're screwed, you know what I mean? You're already out the door, and now you're just confirming that you're out the door. in online entertainment. So that's kind of how I see it, so I think it's very imperative. that you're constantly always experimenting. and trying things, even if you're getting crazy, unheard of growth. - And so that, outside of the thing. that brought you to the dance, you just dived right into MrBeast Burger and Feastables, this is a whole 'nother industry. What was that like? - Well, so Beast Burger, we kind of... It was supposed to be just a popup.

We just partnered with someone who had 300 restaurants. and we were just like, "Let's just sell Beast Burgers for a day or two. "Let's see what happens.". We didn't really think it would be. as big as it was. But those first... That first day, we do six figures in sales, and they all sell out, and they're running to local Walmarts, they can't keep up with the demand. And it's like, "Okay, well, "maybe let's just leave it open a week, whatever,". and we're just doing crazy revenue. And it's like, "Okay, well, "let's add some more restaurants,

"and let's just leave 'em open for a month.". And we're just still doing six figures a day. And it kind of just went from this thing that was... I don't know, it wasn't really... I didn't really plan on running. a restaurant chain, but here I am. - But didn't that, in some sense, also open your mind to something like Feastables? - Feastables is something I've always wanted to do. because I think, just in general, American snacks are just full of. so much horrible ingredients, to be honest, and they're not... I don't know. I feel like there also just hasn't been. any innovation in American snacks in quite a while,

and so that's just something. I've always been pretty passionate about. We built that from scratch, so we hired a CEO and built a team around them, and we spent probably over two and a half years. before we even launched. just building the right team, figuring things out, and making sure it was actually ran. the way I wanted, which... Feastables has just been crushing. It's very interesting. This is something I've never talked about publicly, but having products in retail, it's like, before Feastables, everything I had done was online.

So if you wanted anything from the "Beast brand,". you'd have to buy it online. and ship it to you. But Feastables, now that... 'Cause our first product chocolate bars, we started putting that in retail locations. So like for example, Walmart, it's crazy. It doesn't make sense how if you're... Which I guess it does for... 'Cause we get 100 million views a video, so a lot of people know us. If I go stand in Walmart, those people recognize me. and ask for photos. If I stood there long enough, I could take 150 photos today in Walmart,

or 200, whatever it is. So obviously, it makes sense. for those people go buy Feastables, but then you just multiply that. by every Walmart in America. and it just gets so crazy. And I didn't think we'd be doing. the kind of revenue we are, and we're about to launch in some other... I don't know if I'm allowed to say it, so whatever, but other big retail locations. and convenience stores, and by the end of next year. we could be in like 40-50,000 locations, and the numbers just don't make sense, you know what I mean? - What are some interesting challenges. about scaling there that surprised you?

- The biggest problem, which I didn't think would be, was just keeping the shelves. in Walmart stocked, to be honest. Like, it--- - [Lex] So that supply... The supply chain? - It was brutal. Well, even then, sometimes you get them the stuff. and they're like... It takes 'em like a day or two to put it out. in that specific location. And I had to stop promoting it. because every time I'd mention it, 40% of people would just be like, "It's not there, it's not in Walmart,". or "I can't buy it.". And so, there's like a three-ish month period.

where I just didn't promote Feastables. 'cause I was scared that someone would go buy it. and it's just not there. And so, it took us a very long time. to catch up to the demand. And also, it's not like we have unlimited money, so I... But now, we're relatively caught up. and keeping up, but it's gonna be interesting. 'cause now, this year, in 2023, we're gonna basically 10X. the amount of locations we're in, and we're gonna try to launch new products. So we're in for an interesting ride. But yeah, I just hate...

I hate when I tell people, "Hey, go try this product.". And then they go in their local Walmart, and eventually other places, and it's not there. It's just so brutal, you know? That they made that whole journey out there. and they couldn't get it. And so, that was really it. Besides that, no, it's been doing way better. than I ever thought to be honest. - You've talked in a couple places. about maybe doing mobile games. or computer games in the future. Is that something you're still considering? - Yes, because... Do you normally talk with people.

as much as we talked beforehand? Is that-- - No, no. That was the pro... We spent all day today, talking about-- - It just clicked in my head, everything you asked me is stuff. we already talked about. - [Lex] Not really, it's different angles. - Well no, no, not everything. I take it back, but sorry. The last two questions, yes, and so, it's just funny. 'cause-- - What? No, I try... So okay, there's a different style. of asking those questions. 'cause I on purpose didn't dig further with you--. - [MrBeast] I could tell. I could tell you-- - There's a w... Okay, this is...

By the way, okay, all right. Well, this is the first time I've ever talked to somebody. as much as I did with you beforehand. - [MrBeast] Yeah, whoops. - On the same day. - [MrBeast] I Know. Not even same day. - We spent all day together. And I only slept one hour. - We were talking. like three hours ago. Literally, it's funny. - This is a hilarious. and awesome social experiment. - I picked him up. from his hotel and I just harassed him all day. to hang out with me. And then, here we are now. - I love it.

I was secretly recording the whole time, just so you know. I'm just kidding. Anyway, so what was the question? The mobile games? - Uh, mobile games. Yeah, yeah, so the interesting thing is. with Beast Burger and Feastables, that there's physical goods. as opposed to like making mobile games or a PC game, whichever one we end up doing, which is software, and I actually have a giant international audience. Most of my audience is obviously outside of America. And so, the problem we're running into is. it just takes time to build up the supply chain. and get Feastables in Southeast Asia,

get Feastables in India, get Feastables in Brazil and Mexico, and all these other places. where we have giant pockets of our audience. And same thing with Beast Burger. It's just... It's gonna take probably years, unless we partner with someone. who already has a distribution, which we're figuring out. But the beauty of software is. I can make a hypothetical game, or whatever we end up doing, and all my fans can use it tomorrow, the day I mention it. And so, if I promote something in a video. to 100 million people and it's basically like a game,

they can all download it, so they're... But if I promote a Feastables bar, right now it's only in America. 'cause we're struggling just to keep up. with the American demand, and we haven't even gotten the chance. to go outside America. So I alienate a majority of my audience, and it feels so shitty to just prom... Mention something that most of 'em can't buy. But on the flip side, you can't just spawn. this crazy infrastructure. and just have tens of millions of bars, and all your products in every single store. across the world before you promote it, so you can't put the egg before the chicken.

And so, it's like that... That's what I'm excited about. I want to get into less physical stuff. and more stuff that everyone. in my audience can actually use. That's the thought process. - Well, especially if there's. a social element to the gaming too, 'cause it's not... Unlike Feastables, that's a product you consume. - You missed it. When you were setting up for this, we were doing some... Basically just laying out everything. that we're planning for. So we're at the phase where we wanna start hiring. the team to build it, and we're kind of just laying out the game. And I was actually really curious. to get your thoughts, but I can't say it because whatever I say,

someone's just gonna take it. and run with it, but I have a pretty good idea. - About the kind of games. you're thinking about? - Yeah. I mean, I can imagine, we also talked a little bit about it. It's super awesome. - There's so much good ones. So much good talks. Right when the juicy talks have happen, he's like, "I gotta go set up.". - Well, I already heard a lot of awesome stuff. I mean, but that is a different kind of team. you would need to hire. Is that a little nerve-wracking, going into a new field. and trying to-- - A little bit, but then I remind myself Steve Jobs didn't know how to code,

and he just knew what a good product was. And I feel like as someone who wasted. so much of his life playing video games, I have a good sense of it. And that might be ignorance--. - Well, that's really important, right? It's not about coding, it's about what makes for a good game. - Exactly. And again, that might genuinely be ignorance, and maybe I end up getting bit in the butt. because of what I'm saying now. But I think, just like with YouTube, I just wanna obsess over making a great product. and things that I think my audience will love. And I think as long as I keep that. as my North star, it'll do well. - What does the path to being worth 100 billion look like?

- What does the path to being worth 1000 billion look like? I don't know--- - Because... Okay, let me just like pause. You're 24 and there's so much awesome scaling, so many great ideas. Do you think about different trajectories? What those possible trajectories might look like? - Yeah, I mean, if the goal was. to just be worth a $100 billion, yes. I mean, my goal, I'm a broken record, is to make the best video possible. 'cause I know whatever else I want will come, obviously, blah blah,

you've heard that. - So the video's. the foundation. - Yeah, exactly. So the path to $100 billion is. just keep getting 100 million views a video, you know what I mean? But-- - [Lex] Or more. - Well, yeah, or more, exactly, if we can keep growing. But if we can keep Feastables growing, right? And we eventually span international, and one day we're in 100,000 retail locations, and we're selling the same amount of SKUs per... Or units per SKUs like we're currently doing, I mean, that would crush. And then, obviously, ideally, one day we open up hundreds of Beast Burgers, we get it where we churn out...

Super sell a couple hit games. I don't wanna make dozens or hundreds of games. I just wanna make games that are just great, and we rarely drop 'em. but when we do, they're bangers. And just whatever other stuff we end up doing, all that combined. I mean, it's just interesting. because what's a show that's pulled 100 million views. per episode, basically, like we're doing? You know what I mean? The Super Bowl gets praised. 'cause they get 100 million viewers, but I can't think of a show. Maybe in reruns or something--. - But it's also a show that has...

Has a singular kind of figure. that you can now use as a--. - I don't have a network tell me what to do, I don't have anyone. I can do whatever I want. So it's a very interesting position. 'cause I put out content. and 100 million people show up. And then, I also have a gaming channel, and I put out content, and 15 million people show up. And the Reaction channel, I put out content and 10 million people show up. And I have a TikTok. and I put out content, and on average 20 million people show up. And I... So as long as I can keep that going. and then we build these businesses, it's honestly pretty scary to see.

what will happen over the years, because Feastables launched last year, 2022, so it's a relatively new thing. And Beast Burger, we just started scaling up. the physical side, and we haven't... Obviously, we haven't launched any mobile games yet. So I think I'm at the antithesis of it. I don't see a world where my YouTube channels are irrelevant. in the next couple of years. This is what I live for. And so, if I can keep that going, and then really start to expand. these businesses that leverage off of it, then yeah, I mean, hopefully, there's a day one. where I can give away a billion dollars. in a video, honestly.

- That would be one hell of a video. Let me ask you the ridiculous question. Since you went from being broke to being rich, although you keep spending all your money, but does money buy happiness? How has money changed your contentment, your happiness in life? - Does money buy happiness? No, not... I mean, to a point, yes. Once you can take care of your health,

you can take care of any immediate dangers, and you can take care of your family, relatively, no, it doesn't, but those things do. When I first came into money, one of the first things I did was retire my mom. and that brought me tons of happiness, you know what I mean? And if my brother had a medical emergency. and we couldn't afford it, and I made money to afford it, that'd bring tons of happiness, you know? So once you take care of those basic necessities, so we'll say make over, hypothetically, a million dollars, no, it really doesn't. Adding an extra zero, going from 10 million to 100 million, or whatever it is, makes no difference.

- So you're, given that, are just fearless in spending the money? - Yeah, well, let me reframe. I guess it could for some people. If you really... I don't know, you spent your. whole life obsessing over cars, it probably would bring you a little bit of joy. to buy a nice Lamborghini. I'm coming more from the frame. of mind of an entrepreneur, someone who's really obsessed with business building. For me, and a lot of my friends. and the people I hang around, what brings us happiness is winning. and building companies, and changing the world. That is fun. It's a complex problem. You can wake up every day.

and it gives you something to obsess over. and devote your life to, whereas just having money doesn't, you know? - Well, one interesting question. I have for you, psychologically, so because you have become wealthy. and because you give... Part of your work is giving away a lot of money, do you find it hard to find people you can trust? - [MrBeast] That's good question. - Do people see you basically as a source of money. as opposed to another human being? - It's weird because you would think yes, but I feel like I also know the right places to look.

But yeah, if I just walked into Target. and tried to make friends. with 10 random people, of course. So you gotta... - [Lex] So you can sense who has the right thing. in their heart? - So quickly, right? Yeah, it's so obvious. I don't even want to go into descriptions, but honestly, a lot of my friends, like Chandler, I played little league with him, and Tyler, the guy, I mean, I went to school with him. Chris, he was my first subscriber.

Carl was here after we got big, but whatever, he's friends with the boys, and it is... A lot of my closer friends, even my YouTube friends, I knew before I was big. So maybe there is some merit to that, maybe it is... I don't know, I've never really put. too much thought into it, but maybe there's a reason I hang around. with a lot of these people I knew. before I got big because it's much easier. - And they help you keep your radar sharp. of who can and can't be trusted. 'cause you know you can trust them? And it's difficult,

when you become richer, and richer, and more powerful. - Well, one thing you'll also find. when you get richer... Not even richer, but more fam... One thing I thought is, as I climbed this like ladder of YouTube. and got bigger, I thought there would be tons of people like me. People that take the kamikaze approach. to building a business. You just throw all your money in it, you throw all your time, you throw all your energy, you throw everything. And you're just like, "Fuck it, "it's this or I'm dead.". And I thought there would be hundreds of mes. - [Lex] And there isn't. - There isn't. I mean, there's maybe one or two, and I talk to those motherfuckers every single day.

I'm sick and tired of talking to 'em, but I love them. But it's just so interesting. 'cause every level I got up, like I'd get a million subscribers, I'd be like, "All right, where's all these guys. "and the million subscribers that are fucking psychopaths?". And then, you don't... They're like--. - Yeah, people become conservative. as they get... Like they get more--. - Especially as they get bigger, yeah. And 20 million subscribers, 30, it's like... Every step of the way, it's like, I just got more and more lonely to be honest. So you know, it sounds cliche, and you hear that kind of in movies,

and you're like, "Oh, that's not how it works," but it is. There's just not many people. that just want to give up everything, go all in and obsess over making. the greatest goddamn videos. every single day of their life. They're really hard to find. - And be able to sacrifice everything for that video. Basically, put all the money right back in. - Yeah, or the people doing it, they're on just a small scale. And if I talk to 'em, it's just 99.9% of the time. I'm teaching them things, and it's like... - So it's lonely because there's not too many people, especially in the creative space,

that are as crazy as you. - Yeah, it is, 100%. It's so... It's not what I was expecting. I was expecting there to be a lot of people like me, but... - Well, I guess the guy we talked to, Elon Musk, is a bit like you in that sense. in a different domain. - [MrBeast] Yeah, exactly. - Just willingness to put it all back in, right back in. - And that's why. I've found right now, a lot of the people I relate to don't. even make YouTube videos. They're just like... I'm veering more and more away. from fellow content creators, and more to just... I'm just looking for those other people.

who just share a little bit of it. so I don't feel so fucking crazy all the time. Like, you know what I mean? And people I feel normal around. And they tend to just be doing the randomest things, but loving it. - Well, I think that's really inspiring, it's... It's like the Bukowski line, "Find what you love and let it kill you.". It's really put everything... Put everything into the thing you love, and that's like the way to really create special stuff. but it's also the way to live out. your life most fully. - But the thing is. you have to be careful giving this advice. because there are like...

There are bodybuilders who'll be like, "Just go to the gym, be disciplined. "I'm disciplined, go to gym.". But I would argue, for those people, it's not even discipline. They just enjoy weightlifting, right? Because there are people who are jacked. but they don't make much money or run a business. If they were that disciplined, they would be hitting every area of their life. They just really like business. And there's people like me, who just, to an extreme level, love building companies, right? It's not even discipline for me, it's just in my blood. It's what I wake up...

I don't think about it, I don't push myself, I don't need to watch a motivational video to go work. I just do it. It's programmed in me at this point, and I couldn't imagine a world where I don't wake up. and do it every day. But I think that a little bit of it is genetics, and just how you're hardwired. Not that it can't be trained, or taught, and not that... And obviously, the friend group. you're in influences these things, and over time I think can change it. But someone's just not gonna be able to flip a switch. and then just start doing a kamikaze approach. to building a business,

just like a lot of people try. to flip a switch and start body building, and then quit majority of the time. It's just not innate to 'em. - Well, I think a lot of us have. the capacity to do that in some domain. - Yeah, I think if you went about it strategically, if you surrounded yourself with fellow like-minded people. and slowly over time switched it. But if you just try to like hardcore do it, you're just gonna lose your mind. - Do you ever worry about your mental health? Did you take step to protect it? For the long run, to make sure you have the mental strength to go on?

- Yes, weirdly enough, the best thing for my mental health was giving. into my innate nature to work. And the most depressed I get is. when I try to restrict it. And like, "I don't work weekends,". or "I don't work this day.". What's best for me is just to work. when I feel like working, and then just not work when I don't, and just have no constraints. 'Cause there are just some nights. where I don't wanna sleep, and for whatever reason, I feel compelled to go all night. Whatever, like, just do it. "Do whatever you want" is what I tell my working brain,

and I just give into it, and I feel... That's where I feel the happiest. And then, it's typically... And when I'm really in the grind mode, it'll be seven or eight days. just nonstop going, going, and then it's like... I'll realize, like, "Oh, I need some recharge time, and then go fucking binge a season of anime. Yeah, but-- - [Lex] And listen to you--. - But that's the thing, people will tell you, "Don't work weekends" or "don't do this,". or "don't work past this," or blah blah, give you all these constraints. But for me, and it's unconventional, I just give into it.

- I think there's something really to be said for that. I try to surround myself with people that. when I don't... When I pull an all nighter, they don't go like, "You should get more sleep.". There's a reason I pulled that all nighter. If I'm really passionate about something, they say... They basically encourage it. 'cause I have no problem getting sleep. and getting rest. What I need in my life is people. that encourage you to keep going, keep going with the stuff you're passionate about. - Normal people, they don't want that life, and they probably shouldn't. It's not good for you.

But yeah, it's... If you hang around people... Just whatever, different people, you're gonna feel crazy. and it's gonna wear on you. Whereas if you're around similar people, it's so much easier. If you... I've started weightlifting more. and one thing that's helped is. just having jacked people around me, 'cause they naturally just eat healthier. They do! They naturally just have freaking grilled chicken, and all this shit, and high protein meals, and it's just like easier for me. to just piggyback and be like, "Oh, can you just order me whatever you're getting?".

And they're like, "Oh, I gotta go to the gym.". And I'll be like, "Oh shit, I'll just join you," you know? And it's just cheat codes, you know what I mean? Just surround yourself with people. that you want to be, and it makes it like 70% easier. in my opinion. It's like, that is the cheat code to life. And I wish... Obviously, your audience is. definitely a lot older, but to the older people listening, if you are in a place of mentorship for someone younger. or have influence over younger people, you should really try to drill that in their heads. The people they're around 100% dictates the outcome.

I would not be on 120 million subscribers. if I didn't find... When I was around a million, I had a couple friends that were. just also psychopaths. I outgrew them, but at the time, it was great, and I wouldn't be where I am today. if it wasn't for them. And just all along the way, the friends that I hung out with had. such a dramatic impact on where I am. I'd probably have 80 million less subscribers, if I wasn't so strategic about hanging out. with people that I add value to. and they also add value to me. - So the advice for young people would be.

to be very selective about the people. you surround yourself with. - Oh, be so selective. It's crazy. Chris, he's... He's really funny, and that's why he's great for the videos. And part of why he's so funny is he consumes. copious amounts of cartoons, and just funny content. And so, I'll find, when I spend more time with Chris, I'll start just quoting these weird cartoons or shows... Like, my speech will literally change. just after a week of spending more time with him. It has like... It's like that quick of an effect, you know?

Now, picture that over the course of years. I mean, yeah, it has such a huge influence. Pluck one of their friends out. and hypothetically put me in there, and there's no doubt if they're trying. to become a content creator, their are odds of success just 10X'd, right? Obviously, you can't do that, but you gotta find your closest version of it. - And you should be selective, yeah. But this also applies not just to the younger, to older people too. - Agreed, but they... It's even more... When I was a teenager, I couldn't relate to many people. and I just thought I was a freak of nature.

because no one was obsessed with building businesses. or any of this kind of stuff. And so, back then, that advice would've been helpful. Maybe not that, particularly, but just knowing that there are... It's not that you're a freak of nature, you just haven't found people. that have the same interest. - So the task is not to feel sorry for yourself. or somehow change yourself. It's more to find the people-- - Find people you fit in with. Yeah, I mean, assuming which, you're not getting compliment... Assume it's not something bad, right? If your hobby is shooting things,

or shooting things you shouldn't be shooting, you know? Don't find people that encourage that. - But outside of that for sure. Actually, as an answer to. "what is the best advice someone ever gave you?". You said "you're crazy until you're successful, "then you're a genius." - 100%. All along the way, people who gave me so much advice. on why I shouldn't be doing that, why I'm crazy. Every step of the way, people wanted to tell me. why I shouldn't be doing this. and should get a life, should stop being too obsessed. Everything, everything under the book.

And then, once I'm successful, those same people are like, "Dang, you're a genius. "Wow, you pulled that off.". - Those are probably the same people. that will give you advice now, "You're the most successful video creator of all time, "stick to that,". anytime you wanna do something new, right? They'll pressure you not to do Feastables, or mobile gaming, or whatever lays beyond. It's funny how people don't.

- Well, honestly, they're the type of people. I just don't talk to anymore. I don't even know what they have to say now. - So most people on the team are like, "Yes, and?". They're like, whatever the idea you got, they're with it. - No, I mean that... It's weird, we actually have a... My team pushes back on me pretty hardcore, which I want. I don't want yes men. And they're like... They're... James, the CEO who helped me build all this, he's very adamant, "we're not yes men.". And he trains people to really think for themselves. And even when I give them orders,

to really think, "is this optimal? "Is there context or information Jimmy could be missing. "that I could provide to help him make. "a more updated decision?". Like, I'm not God, you know what I mean? I'm human and I make errors, and so don't take what I say as the Bible. - So even like in the brainstorming and so on, they can push back. - Yeah, you can see it. Like Tyler, anytime I said something, he would gimme feedback and push back, which is what I want. I don't want him just to be like, "Yes, you're a fucking genius. "Good job, Jimmy.". I don't need that, I need negatives. - You talked about being in a relationship.

What role, Jimmy, does love play. in the human condition? - I think... What role does... Well, the big thing is it's love can be scary. 'cause this is the human you're gonna spend. the most amount of time with in your life. And so, forward project that over 50 years, they can be a liability or an asset. - Love the metrics. I love the metrics. - No, but seriously, it's gotta be someone that makes you better. For me, I can't truly love someone. that doesn't make me better. because-- - In the long run across, across the years-- - Because if not, then it's a negative.

to everything I've spent in my life building. But luckily, I'm very happy with. the partner I have. and, like we were talking about before, I do think she makes me better. There's a lot of, actually, positives I've noticed. Even things as simple as like. I struggle to turn off my brain at night. 'cause I'm just thinking about all the businesses. and how we could do better, or whatever weird thing I have on my mind. But just chatting with her. and hanging out with her helps me. basically just shut my brain off. and mellow out. And even like... There's just a ton of little things like that, that I've noticed are positives,

especially when you really look for 'em, that are easy to gloss over if you're not. And so, for me, yeah, I have someone who I think is very beautiful, very intelligent, makes me better, is constantly pushing me, okay with me working hard, makes me smarter and just all these different things. that I think, for me, love just makes me a better person, you know what I mean? Which makes me love her even more, does that make sense? - Absolutely. What advice would you give. on finding somebody like that? - Just really don't give up until you find someone that...

There's so many people on the planet. I mean, there really is. There's billions of--. - [Lex] The odds are in your favor. - Yeah, just don't settle. and find someone that makes you happy. - Yeah, just like you said, surround yourself with people. that make you a better person. In this same case, surround yourself. with that one special person. that really makes you a better person. - And for... And maybe that's just an entrepreneurial brain, looking at it. Not everyone wants to hyper-optimize their life like me.

But for me, to truly love someone, they have to make me a better person. - [Lex] In every way, yeah? - Yeah. - Well, what do you hope... You're 24... We started talking about death, let's finish talking about death. What do you hope your legacy? When we look 100 years from now. and the AI has completely taken over, and the aliens visit and discuss with the AI. what this last of special humans. that existed on earth was like. What do you hope they say about you?

- It's a deep one. Probably just that... Because it's hard, right? Like I said before, Elon is over double my age. I could live every second. I've lived up to this point in my life. and still not even be Elon's age, so I have so much time. I just hope whatever it is, that it's a net positive on the world. and it impacts billions of people.

in a positive way. that makes lasting change. - So you admire people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. for having reached for that goal as well? - [MrBeast] Yeah, of course. - To help millions. - I mean, the iPhone's. the most successful product ever invented. It's hard not to admire what he created, you know what I mean? - And the same with sort of, as Jony Ive talks about, the passion, the effort they put. into the designing the iPhone, that like little bit of love is transferred.

to the whole world. They get to experience the joy of that. from the designer. - What a beautiful thing to do, you know what I mean? I couldn't think of anything better. To create something that, even after you're dead for decades, just has such a profound impact. on basically half the human population. It's wild. - Brings joy to people. Well I hope you do just that, man. You've already done it for millions, and millions, and millions, and millions of people, and I hope you keep doing it. I can't... It's so exciting to see what happens.

this year and next year. - [MrBeast] I'm excited too. - The sky is the limit. I can't, I mean... The videos, but all the other businesses you're in, and you, as a human being, as you grow, I can tell, I know, as everyone knows, you have a kind heart, and the fact that you're really damn good. at actually using that kind of heart. to help a lot of people, it's awesome to see, man. - Thank you. I appreciate it. More importantly, before we go, are we gonna play Dune tonight? Some board games? - I'm not gonna play Dune. I have to... (speaking over each other). - You don't wanna play board games with me?

- I wanna, I'll play... (speaking over each other). - If only I wasn't an idiot. and actually flew to the right airport--. - If you don't board games with me, they're gonna dislike the video. - Thanks for listening to this conversation with MrBeast. To support this podcast, please check out our sponsors in the description. And now, let me leave you with some words. from the poet and philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore, "Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you.".

Thank you for listening and hope to see you next time.