Thanks a Million: Year End Wrap and Story of The Why Files

[Music]. well the first thing I want to do is. thank you a few days ago somehow the Y. files hit a million subscribers and that. is something that I never expected yeah. I would have lost that bit I know it was. very unlikely oh it sure was I just said. it was Lord think about it you got no. background in any of the stuff you talk. about your middle age so everyone. younger than 30 thinks you're an idiot. journalism training the fact that anyone. watches the show is nothing short of a. miracle gee thanks for the vote of.

confidence what I'm just telling it like. it is yeah but you don't have to be so. condescending about it. foreign. it all started in 2020 we were living in. LA and running a successful studio. called betterbox we had a big audience. popular podcast and a great location on. Sunset Boulevard well hold on what is. this some kind of retrospective this is. the y-files origin story oh this is.

gonna be painful. here we are live better Box Studios kill. Tony the number one. formerly the number one live podcast in. the world. foreign. [Music].

was we weren't making any money podcasts. don't make money yeah well we didn't. know that at the time so we decided we'd. go out and pitch investors so factoring. our huge audience ideal Hollywood. location and Freddie Prince Jr huge. audience ideal Hollywood location and. Freddie Prince Jr we truly believe that. better box is well positioned to be the.

premier comedy production company in the. industry thank you. so I think we're ready to pitch once we. service. guys Ken we actually had some investors. interested a couple of big agencies too. but then we hit a snack a snag wait wait. wait when were you pitching investors. well this video we're watching was shot. in April 2020. oh no yeah something. happened that we didn't see coming. something that nobody saw coming.

you might want to put on the news okay. what channel doesn't matter. the golden state is in shutdown mode. that requires of this moment that we. direct a Statewide order for people to. stay at home how are we supposed to. pitch investors during a pandemic this. is a moment we need to make tough. decisions. [Music].

hey I can't hear him can you hear him no. a little louder. very good oh yeah. hang on a sec with our huge audience and. our celebrities. maybe the deck speaks for itself what. are you saying what do you think maybe. we don't need words. maybe we don't need words what are you. an idiot what it's an idea I think it's. positive I'm positive you're an idiot. songs.

we need words okay. okay Gino next slide. oh dear God. so we tried to make the best of it and. Pitch anyway now at this point it's late. May 2020 and we actually have some. investor meetings but you remember how. meetings were back then the. entertainment industry is built on. intellectual.

gauge seriously. sorry sorry that's my fault. it's fine. where were we oh yeah. this is a joke hello. can you hear me can you change my.

settings no somewhere no that's not what. she was saying La was a ghost town but. we tried to make the best of it from the. prison ah damn it what are you doing I. have an itch no I could do it now I. could just shoot left left. anything.

okay. so yeah it didn't work. even though we had some great meetings. investors told us the same thing they're. interested but before they put money. into something they wanted to wait until. the lockdown was over two weeks to. flatten the curb huh right so Nick how. are people there coping with these these. new ground rules uh transformational. ones. I've got to say Aaron it's strange most. of us have been living under this kind. of stay at home thing all week the.

schools have been closed but I must say. now that there is an order out there now. that we're being told to do it it does. feel different more restricting I just. want to give you a quick. but as we got into the summer the. situation in La somehow got worse. [Music].

so after 20 years in the City of Angels. Jen and I moved to Scottsdale Arizona. [Music]. when I decided I wanted to start a. YouTube channel it would be about. science Mysteries and conspiracies but. we'd keep it lighthearted and fun and. I'd have a wacky co-host yes truly and. that's when nerdy sexy cool was born oh. wait nerdy what nerdy sexy cool my. YouTube channel nerdy sexy cool I'm more. like nerdy cringy cool thank you for.

watching nerdy sexy cool where we talk. about the stuff that you didn't learn in. school if you're digging our Vibe please. click like And subscribe but when. posting in the comments please don't be. a tune.

foreign. I can't take it oh you'd rather have a. ukulele no no. but Science History biology and. conspiracy theories too if you want to. learn in a light-hearted way just click. like And subscribe today we might be. right we might be wrong but you can. still sing along nerdy sexy cool nerdy.

sexy cool loved by everyone from. brainiacs to fools so I had the name of. the channel got all this branding and. was ready to get started but then it. turned out the name nerdy sexy cool was. taken oh you didn't check that first no. I didn't think of that well you touched. a bullet yeah I did and Jen came up with. the name the y-files which was awesome. on several levels so it was time to get. to work.

I'm going to do something that's never. been done before ever in history and you. are going to witness it ready now I knew. this channel was gonna work my thinking. was I've been a professional writer. producer editor and host so how hard. could it be simple basket yeah turned. out it was much harder than I thought I. put up my first video Welcome to the. y-files where smart folks like us get. together to talk nerdy and nobody. watched and today we're talking about. math facts and I have no idea why with.

this high production quality what is. that what is what you look like a. one-man boy band who got old but I stuck. with it and slowly over time and many. many mistakes the videos got better. I eventually found a format that worked. and people started watching just not. very many people on the first. anniversary of the channel we had 5 000. subscribers and these 5 000 people were. the best they supported everything I did.

and if you're one of those subscribers I. can't thank you enough but if the. channel was going to survive 5 000. subscribers a year wasn't gonna work at. this point Jen and I were living off. savings I kept posting videos and it. wasn't working but then we got some luck. people started watching no oh Jen got a. job as Chief Operating Officer of a big. animation company explosive you might. know them as Cyanide and Happiness. yeah I know these but this job was in.

Texas so we packed up again. [Music]. over the next few months the channel. continued to grow not quickly but. steadily by April 2022 we were at about. 15 000 subscribers and videos were. getting about 5 000 views in total we. weren't blowing the doors off but I felt. like the channel had real potential by. May 2022 my brother Gino had been. nagging me for months to upload short. videos to tick tock I always thought.

Tick Tock was a stupid idea unless. you're the Chinese government right but. the channel was still growing so slowly. that I needed to try something I created. a couple of short videos about. coincidences and uploaded them to tick. tock within a few days I had 50 000. subscribers and 2 million views on Tick. Tock well I know I was excited and. annoyed I didn't want to create short. videos but people were coming over from. Tick Tock to find the main Channel and. we started picking up a few hundred. subscribers a day rather than a few.

dozen which is what we were averaging. for two years and then Tick Tock Shadow. Banned Me so the subscribers stopped but. now I had a bunch of short videos and. YouTube shorts was just spinning up I. had nothing to lose so I uploaded them. to YouTube and and nothing ah for a. couple of weeks then something happened. the YouTube algorithm picked up the. short video about the coincidences. between JFK and Abraham Lincoln yeah. that is a good one yeah I like it too we.

got a few thousand subscribers in a day. then the algorithm started pushing our. other shorts about coincidences we. started May with 25 000 subscribers and. ended May with a hundred and sixty. thousand. yeah it was amazing problem was nobody. was watching the main videos all the new. subscribers were teenagers not teenagers. I know they don't watch anything longer. than 60 seconds and the comments they. leave they're just awful so I had a nice. base of subscribers but the views were.

still low and here's some inside. baseball about YouTube it doesn't matter. how many subscribers you have that's a. vanity number what matters to the. algorithm and the sponsors is views and. I wasn't getting any views it was. frustrating. then a viewer left a comment on one of. my videos and I wish I could remember. his name and if I find it I need to give. him a shout out he recommended that I. Live premiere videos since I was posting. at the same time every week he said it. would be a fun way to engage with the. audience so in preparation for our first.

Live premiere I produced a video that I. thought would appeal to everyone to the. science nerds the conspiracy crowd and. the Mystery fans simulation Theory and. to this day it's one of my favorite. episodes Mueller's experiment showed is. that even though the electrons started. as waves but behaves like particles. after being observed at the moment the. decision to observe them was made the. electrons recorded themselves as having. passed through the slits as particles. the electrons change their state by.

going back in time back in time. folks this is this is just staggering. stuff. again I become obsessed with this idea. by the way that's the Y files uh that. was a YouTube video uh it's really. amazing it got about 5 000 views the. first day and that was a lot for the. channel now keep in mind when simulation. Theory came out we had 250 000. subscribers yet 5 000 views was a good. day so all those subscribers they. weren't watching but there were 150.

people in the Live premiere I couldn't. believe it so simulation Theory kept. performing well and I followed it up. with the whole to Hell video which also. did well in the meanwhile I kept pumping. Out YouTube shorts I hated doing them I. still do but I kept at it Circleville. letters was next it didn't perform that. well but it was still well written and. well produced and it brought in True. Crime fans then we premiered operation. high jump the story about the UFOs in. Antarctica that got 50 000 views in the.

first day that was bananas and that was. July we got 150 000 subscribers that. month and YouTube finally started. pushing the long form videos so our. graph went from this to this now we. still had some clunky episodes and we. still do but eventually we built a solid. viewer base now videos get a few hundred. thousand views within the first week and. the good ones hit a million in a month. but what I'm most proud of is the. community the people in the comments who.

are so encouraging the fans who buy. Wi-Fi's merchandise which is still. bizarre to me not to me look at his. handsome face that only a mother could. love they leave my mother out of this. she was a saint she'd have to be. wouldn't she at Fair Point that's the. biggest strength of the channel it's not. the writing it's not the production it's. it's Heckle fish no it's not it it's the. audience it's you and I literally mean. you watching this right now because I. know that this video is going to be one. of the lowest performing videos of the.

year it doesn't have a click bait title. No catchy thumbnail no fancy production. no mysterious Story the only people. who'll get this far and this video are. the people I've been talking about the. members of our community this past year. was incredible if the next year is only. half as good we're on to something. special and it's because of you that all. this was possible me I'm just along for. the ride. [Music]. so that's a wrap on the year we'll be. back next week with a new story for you. again I can't thank you enough for all.

the support this year and special thanks. to everyone who's supporting the white. files on patreon you guys are the ones. who make this channel work original gym. deserves the credit for giving me the. push I needed to launch patreon and the. Discord server and speaking of Discord. thanks to the moderators who made the. community work Victoria Daniel zanithos. lillykins Jacob and Johnny Be Good you. guys are the heart of the channel um. would now be a good time to plug heck of. fish t-shirt it would not yeah I figured. I'd ask now if I time this right I'll be. streaming live later so please come.

check it out if not please have a safe. and happy New Year and we'll see you. next week. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. I.

happy New Year everybody. [Music].