Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Are you a business owner? Or are you on the verge of taking that side hustle to the next level? Or curious about the world of entrepreneurship? Join Vivian Kvam, Co-Owner of Tandem Works, each week for a behind-the-scenes at small businesses and what it takes to succeed.
Each episode is full of inspiration, education, tips, and great conversation with people like you, people who are figuring it out. Take your business to the next level with insight from expert guests in business, leadership, and marketing.
Welcome to this episode of Riding Tandem. I'm Vivian, and I am joined today by Matthew O'Brien with Midland Pictures and a YouTube expert. So I'm excited to be chatting with Matthew today. He is a filmmaker, content creator. He's been working in show business for 15 years. I have known him for many years. I'm not going to do the math on that, but I'm just really excited to have him here because there's just so much gold to unpack, and we always have such a great conversation. He has been doing everything from live concert, touring, documentary films. He has a very successful YouTube channel, and we're going to unpack all of that here over the next hour or so. So welcome, Matthew. I'm excited to have you.
Great to be here, Vivian. Always happy to chat with you.
Yeah, it's super fun. I was thinking back in preparation for today, I was thinking back to the first time I remember meeting you and I did it I think it was like an interview because we first met back in what I call my previous life when we had the production company. And I remember getting on the elevator, and you were getting on the elevator at the same time, but we weren't sure if you were Matthew, and I don't think you were sure if I was Vivian, and we kind of went up. But the main thing I remember is your really awesome leather jacket. And I was like, this guy clearly from La.
I still have that leather jacket, too, and I almost wore it the other day with what I was wearing. I'm like, this will work, but it's a little bit more of a spring fall kind of leather jacket. But I'm just glad it still fits.
That is a nice thing, right? I have some friends who just speaking of clothes from before that fit, they actually get into their wedding outfit every year on their anniversary. And they say it's part of how they make sure that they're maintaining a good, healthy weight if they can fit.
That's a great way to check it.
It is pretty fun. Well, okay. So one of the things that I think is really fascinating about your story is, like, you say here you've worked in showbiz for 15 years, and that's such a fascinating thing to so many people. And I'm curious, if you'll just tell us, what has that looked like when you say showbiz, what's that looked like for you.
Well, a lot of it goes back to even as far back as high school. It's not show business when you're in a high school play. But I did a high school play in community college. I was in a play. And then, of course, I went to a four year acting conservatory and studied theater and then was working in Chicago as an actor, had started a theater company there, and then decided to go to grad school for screenwriting, moved to Los Angeles, worked in concert touring, all of that stuff. I guess you could say it's sort of on the fringes of what we think when we think of show business as traditional film and television, but I got a taste of it working in Los Angeles as a content video editor. These different live touring acts would, of course, go out nationally and internationally, and they would need screen content for the backgrounds of their whole stage area. So a good friend of mine from Undergrad was doing that in Los Angeles, and he needed some help because he got in a little over his head with doing two shows at the same time. And I had just graduated from my graduate program at film school and had done a little bit of video editing in our post production workflows for Film there. And so he took me under his wing and taught me Final Cut pro. And I was creating this concert content for the So You Think You Can Dance tour. The So You Think You Can Dance canada tour. We did content for Ariana Grande. We've done stuff for Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani. So you've been I've been in Los Angeles, in different Vancouver, Las Vegas, and stuff like that, creating these big multimillion dollar shows as part of the crew, or creative crew, essentially putting all that together. So it was pretty exciting to sort of be 28 years old, just graduated film school, and all of a sudden you're in a windowless room in Burbank for 14 hours a day editing content for this television show that's, you know, like one of the top ten shows, ratings wise, in the country. And and again, the the live touring version of it, not the actual television show, but I don't know, it's fun and exciting. There's a little bit of over my career sort of that the conflict between the amount of time you put into that stuff and sort of what's expected for show business, working these like, I kind of joked 14 hours days. I worked for, like, five or six weeks straight in this windowless concrete room in Burbank, California, doing 1416 hours days. And that's difficult. I can't imagine doing that now. Being married, having two kids. That would really be incredibly difficult. So it's thrilling to work in show business in that capacity. But then you think about what you sacrifice to be able to do it, and it's a little tough sometimes. So I'm glad to be making my own content now with my own hours.
Yeah, absolutely makes sense. I remember you did also for New Kid on the Block, right?
Yeah, that was actually the show. It was New Kids on the Block. And So You Think You Can Dance was at the same time. And I was editing the content for both shows on a 24 inch Imac in this room in Burbank. I remember we would show the content to Donnie Wahlberg and all the guys in the band, and they would give us feedback, maybe one song they were a little disappointed with, and we really had to bring our agame to make it pop, and other songs. They were really happy with the visual content that we were creating. But I was on the plane with them. I think the tour started off in Midland, Texas, of all places, which has no affiliation with Tandem Works, by the way. And we were on the tour bus with them to San Antonio. And you're like, I'm just hanging out with Donnie Wahlberg and Jordan and Joey and the whole gang here. I wasn't a huge fan of New Kids when I was a kid, but I know all the girls in school were. And it was just kind of this odd, full circle moment that all of a sudden you're, like, hanging with these guys and helping them make a huge multimillion dollar show that was touring all these arenas. It's just really crazy.
I think people always go, okay, so what are they like? I mean, if you're around folks like this, do you get a sense of who these people are in what you were doing? Did you have access to really get to know these folks?
Yeah, I wouldn't say on a personal level necessarily, but Donnie really was sort of like the lead person that we interacted with. And he would come to Nick studio if we were working from his studio sometimes and watch some of the content we were creating, really try to push us. He was very good at communicating what was at stake. This is a big deal and very encouraging, which you hear horror stories from show business with these artists or producers or directors or whatever being toxic or really abusive, that kind of thing. So it was nice to see you get an understanding of really what's at stake for them and for their careers, not only from a business perspective, but just from them as artists. And you see that they have insecurities or they have concerns or they're having to worry about what they look like. If you think about it, they're on stage. There are all these promotional and press things that they have to do. And I think we're all getting a sense of that now. We're on a podcast that you're producing. We all have this ability to create media for our communities and for our growing communities. And you can better understand, I think, what they dealt with in the more sort of older, traditional show business, and what we as content creators are making video or you with your coursework. Think about when we were filming your course, all the little things you have to think about how the room looks, how your hair looks, the lighting, what your energy is like. I mean, I think about that all the time. Like, what switch does Mario Lopez have to turn on to host Access Hollywood to be engaging and interesting on camera? And that's something that I have found that I have to do when I live stream or record a video. I can't just be, hey, everyone. Welcome to another tutorial for Final Cut pro Today we're going to look at the voice isolation plug in and see what you need to know to make sure it works well for you. You can't do that. They really teach you that being up there in front of an audience, whether it's digital or in person, is this transference of energy. You have to bring this energy, and your audience is going to feed off of that. And you can still do that while being very, very authentic. So I think sometimes when people like, you hear these stories of, like, this young actor or actress walks into a room and the people in the casting are just like, it's not necessarily their look, it's their energy, that person is going to be a star. They just have something that transfers to an audience and creates a connection. And you could really tell that with the guys and New Kids on the Block, even some of the ones that were a little bit quieter. Traditionally, there was just this amazing understanding of the business and being a performer.
Yeah, that's a huge piece. I recognize that for sure. With getting on, like you're saying, any kind of content creating platform. So whether it's the podcast, I have to set myself up to have a certain type of energy for that. Right? You don't want to be, like, bouncing off the walls because that's not me. But it needs to be high energy at the same time. Or I think of that, we facilitate a lot of workshops, and it's very much like a stage. There's a performance piece that comes out, and I love it. And I think some of that background for me comes from I always thought I was going to be a ballet dancer and I danced until I was in my twenty s and there was this piece of performance and how it all comes together in music and backdrops and similar to what you're talking about. But you have to exude a presence from the stage to draw people in. And I like that idea of how that carries over into our workshops. And people will say that all the time. Like, I love that energy that you bring. And sometimes they're surprised because just being kind of an introverted person too, it can be surprising to people.
I honestly think that a lot of people that are in our positions where we gravitate towards show business or live performance, even from a more artistic point of view versus it being a business, I think a lot of them are introverts. But there's something about performing or connecting with an audience or maybe for some people, a little bit of the freedom that running your own business, that's centered around being on a podcast or being on a YouTube channel or being an actor. All of those things combined. Because I feel like I can be quite introverted as well. There's definitely cravings for social interaction, going to the coffee shop, seeing who's there, having lunch with my buddies, stuff like that. So we can just talk and talk and talk. But I think there is a strong element of introversion in a lot of people. I was just reading an article where Jonah Hill, who's a comedic actor, was removing himself from the publicity tour for whatever his latest project was because they give him anxiety attacks. He's an introvert and for his own mental health he either worked into his contract or whatever, that he was not going to be doing these intensive press junkets where you're on the talk shows and you're getting interviewed in hotel rooms and all that stuff. And just like you and me. Vivian, if you were one thing when you're doing this podcast, it's another. If it was huge and you sort of felt like you had to be in a hotel room for 8 hours, being interviewed by all these different people, asking the same questions over and over, you know, that can be a little bit difficult for our personalities. So it's funny how it changes. There's those times where you want to be a little bit more on your own and private, and there's other times where you just want to get out there and transfer that energy.
I'm curious with that too. As you think about the stages of your business, do you feel like that's part of why you have transitioned? You know, you're talking about those 14 hours days being draining, moving into film production, running your own production company, and now you're really shifted quite a bit into your own content, creating your own content. Is that because of an energy shift? Like a desire for a different energy shift or why the morphing into the YouTube and the content creation with your business.
I think whether I've known it or not, I've just always been in search of sort of the goldilocks outcome. This bed is too soft. This bed is too hard. This bed is just right. And I've been taking that route through the last 15 or so years, really asking myself, after I do an individual job, whether it was editing a concert content or working on a shoot or editing corporate video or whatever it was that I was doing and asking myself, what did I love about this experience and what didn't I love about it? If I could design it in the way that I really felt was like, sort of the perfect situation, what would that look like? And so I think I was always doing those post mortems and evaluating it and adapting and adjusting what I did. So working in Los Angeles, I got a taste of, for the first time, what it's like to be an independent contractor. Now, I wasn't like, running a business, but I also wasn't an employee. So I had some freedom to say yes or no or to say, well, I'm not going to work 14 hours. I'll do 10 hours. You could tailor these gigs to fit your needs, and if you really provided value to your client or the person you were working with, you had some leverage, you had some power in that conversation. And that was really exciting to me, going, I can see how to make myself indispensable to this endeavor. And if I can do that the right way, I can generate a little bit of leverage here to make sure that I'm not being taken advantage of. My rate is good. I'm not working ridiculous hours, or people aren't emailing or calling me at all hours of the night or weekend or whatever. So from Los Angeles and then coming to Omaha and working with you and understanding how I like that dynamic. What I liked about basically feeling like I was running my own business within your business, and then going back to Freelancing, but going, this really isn't enough to sort of feel like I need permission to work, like I have to have somebody go, hey, we have this project and we thought of you. How can I cultivate that work myself? So it's not this feast and famine cycle, because that was always really frustrating. You'd have everybody wants you to work on a video in this little three month span. Then all of a sudden, three months later, the phone's not ringing and the emails aren't coming in. So working with you, then I thought, well, why don't I go direct to client? I feel like I understand now a little bit more of the business side of things, how to try to price things for a profit, all that sort of stuff, and then did that, but then found other things weren't as satisfying. I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder and I'd go I feel like I'm being looked at as more of an order taker from this client. And they just want me to press record on a camera and hand them a video file or push the edit button and have all of a sudden a finished video. But they're not looking at my expertise or what I can bring to the table as a filmmaker and storyteller to help them move their business forward. So that shifted into different ways of pricing and marketing my business in a different way and then the pandemic hit and my client work was put on hold or it was canceled. And I had been making YouTube videos for about two years but they were mostly just kind of Vlog style documentation of what my life was like as a production company owner and I went to Vegas to work on Gwen Stefani show and kind of logged about that but I wasn't getting a lot of traction. So then I really said to myself, well, what do you need to do to start creating revenue from your YouTube channel so it can be a source, multiple sources of revenue streams to kind of shore up that feast and famine cycle of client work. So I started creating educational content around Final Cut Pro and was essentially thinking about what we did at your company, where I was the post production supervisor, and you guys would bring in somebody that was really talented but had never touched video editing software or post production at all. And I had to teach them how to do that. So I literally went, what would all of that look like in the form of videos? And I started producing them and generating revenue, got into the YouTube partner program and have really turned that into another business to the point where I'm not really doing very much client work anymore because the profitability with YouTube is much higher, I'm much more personally fulfilled and it's much less a feast and famine cycle. Although right now after the new year because the holiday shopping season is over and that's a whole other conversation why YouTube is so so intimately connected with like Christmas shopping. But you know, there's a little bit of a lull right now in my primary source of revenue as a YouTuber, which is sponsorships from different brands and businesses. So as someone who's 43 years old and has been working in show business at a higher professional level for 15 years, but much more even beyond that, that process to kind of bring this full circle of evaluating every engagement. Every thing that I did and trying to design my career to be both personally fulfilling that I get a lot out of connecting with my community and my audience and creating the videos that I create. Being thrilled to wake up every morning and go what am I going to edit today? What video idea am I going to write? What article am I going to write for Medium? Am I going to live stream today? Apple just dropped new products on Tuesday and I went live right here in my studio to talk to my community about what the new products were, but then also that it's financially viable, that not only is their revenue coming in, but the margins are much better and it's much more profitable. So the excitement of building the business element of it is a real thrill as well. So just to wrap up that very long answer, but all of that evaluation of all those past engagements is really starting to come together to say that I'm watching the show. Vivian, I don't know if you have HBO Max, but I'm watching this show about Julia Child. She wrote The Art of French Cooking and she had her public television cooking show that really revolutionized TV personalities that cook things. And she had gone to acting school and all this stuff that this comes out in the show and she says some of the effect of I was never good at playing other people. I was best at being myself. And I just watched this last night and I went to acting school. I'm trying to figure out these different ways into being in connection with an audience and expressing myself through the stuff that I create. And I'm like, that was a full circle moment for me. I really just want to be myself in front of people, teaching and having conversations and all that. And that is what has made this YouTube content creation such a powerful thing for me and just incredibly fulfilling and satisfying.
You've mentioned before about being yourself and being able to design your business around that.
Yeah.
And you had mentioned previous to us popping on here and some back and forth about knowing your superpowers.
Yes.
Talk to me about that. What do you mean by that, knowing your superpowers? I think people say that like, oh, know your superpowers and trust yourself and things like that. But how has that played out for you?
I think the same thing as evaluating all these engagements in sort of what I like to do for my living. Also going in all aspects of life, whether it's running a business and this YouTube channel or in my household, thinking about for me, like, what are my strengths as a parent or as a husband, and how do we split up, what we do to contribute to the household based on what our strengths are? I think about that in terms of business proposals and working with different clients, really deploying self awareness and going, what am I best at? Where is the value that I can really contribute to something, whether it's client work or my own channel? And knowing that too, you can chase trends or if you're focused on the metrics of your YouTube channel. For example, somebody might say, well you need to do these types of YouTube shorts or you need to live stream more, you need to do this or do that. You really need to ask yourself well is that my strength? The other people that I talk to who create YouTube content around similar subject matter, they don't live stream as much. I really love livestreaming. It doesn't necessarily get huge results on my channel metrics wise, but I just love doing it. But if I sat there and told everybody else, well you really need to live stream, they might be like well that's not something that I really feel a pull toward. I get it on some kind of intellectual level that it might be helpful to my channel or connect me with my audience. But I don't look forward to going live and talking to different people. Same thing in business. If somebody comes with you, comes at you, whether it's coaching or consulting or to film something, a project, whatever, asking yourself first of all, why are they interested in working with me? What superpower do they see in me that makes them think that I can be helpful in this situation? And then what do I just know about myself if I were to participate in this engagement that I want to focus on that being my strength versus this. It's a difficult thing to because I'm still in that journey but it's a difficult thing to just sort of nail down the formula for that or sort of like just think of these three things and you'll be able to understand your superpowers as well. But I think it's an important conversation and it really centers around self awareness and all of us really deploying self awareness to go what was good and what was bad about this. And that doesn't mean that you try to create this frictionless career that you never have to do anything you don't want to do or that is tedious to you or is this is hard work. I don't really want to do this, I just want to do the fun part of the work. But I think that there is room in some situations to go, look, maybe I don't need the money for this or my schedule is already tight and this doesn't really move the needle a ton for my business or my business pursuits. So if I am going to do it, the way that I get excited about it is to focus on doing this aspect of it and other people can do this part. So I think that's helpful too and I think that just wrapping up understanding your superpowers as well is helpful in really understanding whether or not an opportunity is an opportunity. Is it an opportunity or is it an obstacle? And we can't just say to ourselves well they're going to pay me so my goal is to make money so I just have to say yes to everything where somebody wants to pay me for something. I've really tried to make my pursuits much more specific than that. And money is good, but if that's the sole thing that's making you say this, like, how could I turn down this opportunity to earn this money and do this work if it's not a good fit or it doesn't play to your superpowers? To me, it's a hard pass.
Yeah, that makes sense what you're saying. And I've definitely been on both sides of that coin or that decision and have certainly taken work that didn't really play into my superpowers. Or in some cases, I think you have to think, if you have a team, does this play into my team superpowers? Because there's always that consideration as well.
Sure.
And Mikayla and I think consider that at times where I go, if it was just me, I probably wouldn't take this type of project. But it's not just me. I have Mikayla, and she would take that kind of project. So maybe there's room in here. So just being self aware, also being aware of the people, the key people that you've surrounded yourself with in your business, if you have a team, is also important and that you're both on the same page of understanding. We brought this in, but you're really going to head it up, because I would just die thinking about having to do that. Right. And the same for her. So that's interesting. But there was a second piece that you said with this before about so know precisely what your superpowers are and own them. But then the second part was, make sure everyone else knows.
Yes.
And that, I think, is huge. Like, how often do we get stuck in knowing ourselves, but then we forget to tell everyone else what we've discovered and they're five, six steps behind because they're not in our heads. I think a good example of that would be how Mikayla and I've business has transformed over the years. Originally, when we worked together, we shot weddings. We had a huge photography presence. We shot weddings and senior photos. And that where we are today. We don't do those things. We don't book those, we don't shoot. But we have to be careful that we're putting that out to everybody because they still think sometimes of us for those types of services. So making sure everyone else knows, I think that is huge. Whether that's updating your website or just talking about yourself in a different way or saying no so that people start to understand the direction that you're going. How have you made sure that everyone else knows? Because you've had some pretty big transitions. I know. I've even reached out to you and said, I'm not sure, do you still do this? Do you still want to do this? How do you do that?
I think especially in shifting from really trying to market a. Production company creative storytelling firm as someone who wants to work with clients, creating documentary style content that strengthens emotional connections between them and their community, all that stuff, which I love the idea of doing that and enjoyed doing it when we did have those engagements where I felt like I was a collaborator with the client versus an order taker. But then again, as I transitioned into YouTube and really got fulfillment from that, I had that experience several times where, hey, I know that you're doing this YouTube thing. Are you still producing videos? And I've got a client that needs some stuff done. Are you interested in that? With my content creation, I really do want people to know that this is what I'm doing. And I have been very outspoken about it, not only because I'm very proud of what I've done, but I want more opportunities that are related to it. So I made my own website and put myself out there as an individual, a personal brand, if you will, versus my company. I joined other communities, whether it's Facebook Groups or on Discord, in the areas where my channel is connected. So apple Technology filmmaking final cut pro. And I just had the other day, somebody in a filmmaking group here on Facebook in Omaha said something about needing help with Final Cut Pro, and they're willing to pay for getting tutored or whatever in it. And literally, like, five people in the comments were like, Matthew O'Brien. Matthew O'Brien, because they've watched my career sort of transition into this content creation and being passionate about video editing and storytelling with Final Cut Pro. So I think putting yourself out there and creating these communities and joining these communities is a great way to do that. Building your own communities, of course, and inviting people in. I'm really curious, as part of as my way of connecting with the local community here, what ways can I connect through local press, if you will, whether it's an article in a newspaper or getting on podcasts like yours, what opportunities are there to build a brand for myself and to let people know that in this community? I have expertise in these areas. So you really have to think about marketing yourself if you want to try to translate your passion and your expertise into revenue for a business. And I certainly want to do that. I think something that also fuels that is being very mission driven. We talked about whether you take a job because, hey, they want to pay me. It's money. Like, I should do this whether it feels like a good fit or not, because my goal is to make money. Well, for me, there's a mission behind all of this. I'm very passionate about filmmaking and post production workflows and Final Cut Pro and Apple technology, and what it can do to empower people to tell stories or to create podcasts or their own YouTube content. And I have expertise in how to do all these things, from managing your data, to organizing your Final Cut Pro project, to setting up a live stream, whatever. And I really want to help people obtain some of the skills that I have. I get a lot of satisfaction and fulfillment from seeing someone go from I have no idea how to use the software to I am functional in it and I don't need to be an expert, but I can now do this thing that I couldn't do before, and that thing for me, is fulfilling. It's meaningful, it's powerful. So all of that is what's exciting about this, that feeling that you're mission driven and you know that revenue will result from that versus being so focused on just making money that you're doing all these things to just keep cash flow coming through the door.
I love that you said how you like to see people go from maybe not knowing a whole lot and then kind of see them blossom. That makes me feel so good because I was thinking back to when you first came into the video production company we had, and we did kind of just toss people at you. We're like, Matthew is pretty good at this. He could probably show people how and you were just so patient and good at teaching things, breaking it down step by step, having processes and systems, which I love. And I mean, we did we would bring in folks, and I remember very specifically, we love to bring in folks, guys and gals both who had a music background. If they had that kind of talent, they seemed to be able to transfer over to being good video editors and not exclusively, but that seemed to happen. And so we would we'd be like, you, you're a musician, you're looking for something. We'd bring them in and then we're like, Matthew O'Brien. Gabe that does make me just giggle a little bit. And I'm so glad that has morphed into even more of a passion because that was a lot to ask of somebody. And I don't know that we had any real specific conversations I can't remember, but you're fabulous at it, so that's really cool.
Yeah. And my dad was a teacher, high school teacher for 30 plus years. My sister is a teacher down in Arizona. And I think it's just part of my DNA is to patiently show people how to do things, especially when they demonstrate that they really want to learn, when it's not like, I'm not forcing somebody to do something. Like they genuinely are connected with the medium and want to learn. Now, they may not be perfect with their file organization or back up their stuff like I think they should, that's fine. But embracing those core concepts and those principles is really something that's really fun. And it's just fun to see someone unlock these worlds that they have access to now because of it and to see what DJ has gone on, to be able to do what Tommy's been able to do. Becky, all the people that I'm still in connection with, gabe, literally, I contacted Gabe just a few weeks ago to work on something with Bruce, so and for the people listening, these are all names of people that Vivian and I have worked with very closely through her business previously. So that's exciting. And here's the next layer, too, is you demonstrate this expertise in Final Cut Pro and creating these videos and all that, and then your channel gets successful, and then people are interested in, well, how do I do what you're doing for your channel but for my business? And then you start having expertise in what was your strategy? What was your approach to creating a channel that has earned revenue and gotten into YouTube Partner program? You know, getting close to 24,000 subscribers and all that stuff and growing. And then people want to hire you to sort of fast track them or get them a shortcut and learn from the mistakes that I've made and the things that I did that were risky but paid off. And that's a whole other level of excitement.
Yeah. And that's perfect. I have so many questions about that because I was I did look a little bit prior to this. And, I mean, clearly YouTube is a hot place to be, and it's not a bad it has been around, it's well established. It's a search engine. So much content. And I looked this up. As of today, there are 15 million active content creators. So there are other content creators who are, like, not active. 500 videos uploaded per minute. And then I was reading that, I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, my brain can't even comprehend that's, like, theoretical math stuff at that point in my head.
Yeah, right.
But then that most content creators are doing at least one piece of content a week. And I was like my cycle. How are you doing that? And I guess maybe to I think my first question really here is why does this make sense for people to get into? And I think there's so many maybe misconceptions around, oh, I'll just make some videos, pop them up overnight. Sensation. I'm going to make I think you mentioned 50K over the last year. It's really built up to that. I'm just going to do that in a year. I mean, that was your story, right? Like, you filmed everything, you popped your videos up, and a month later, you were like, raking in cash. Right?
Yeah. I mean, I had the two years where I wasn't really the video content that I was creating was more thinking of how can I demonstrate me and my personality and my life as a filmmaker, production company owner. So that if clients were to come across it or people were to come across it and they liked me and they saw what I was doing, for my clients, it would be a funnel towards developing a relationship with them to create videos. And then, yeah, I reached this moment, especially with the Pandemic. It was actually before the Pandemic set in where I said, I really want to try to build this into another stream of revenue for my business so I have a steady flow of income to bridge those gaps between client work. I was like, what? Videos have other creators that I follow created that got the most return for them? And I started creating the final Cut Pro Tutorial content. Because of that. It was definitely motivated from a business perspective. And then also just knowing my superpower. We talked about that earlier going when I was working for Vivian. I was really good at teaching people complex, difficult things to do, data management, all that stuff, and getting them to understand it conceptually so that they could do it on their own. And I just said, that is something that has value. I thought about my File Tree template, the file organization template that my buddy Nick and I, he had created it and then we had customized it for our workflow and then I brought it to bear on what we were doing. I started selling that as a digital product last year through my YouTube channel. And I think it generated close to $4,000 in sales at, you know, between ten and $25. And this is just a set of empty folders that are in Finder that you can use to organize your media. So you mentioned the gross revenue. I think last year I made something like $47,000 in revenue from twelve revenue streams associated with my YouTube channel. And I just sit there and go, how many people are out there who are passionate about something? Knitting, the Smurf cartoons from the 80s, final Cut Pro, watercolor painting, whatever it is. And they are an employee somewhere, and they don't love their work. They're not necessarily fulfilled. Maybe they're making $40 to $50,000 a year. They could be doing something that they love, building community, making connections with people, and running their own business as a content creator in what's being called the content creator middle class. And you could make 50 plus thousand dollars a year making Internet videos. I mean, I I sit there, like, astounded sometimes I'm like, I make, I make Internet videos in my basement and I made $47,000 doing this. It's like, it's just, it's unbelievable to me. And that's part of, you know, you mentioned the one video a week, the power of that, where you can sit there and go, I can make a video, and it just makes money. And you know that it's not like, you know, if I make a Final Cut Pro Tutorial, it's going to be thousands of dollars from this one single video. I have over 200 videos on my channel and it's all of them that are working to help that revenue come in. But I'll sit there and go, I can do a Black Friday sale on my digital products and literally watch my email inbox, get little hits every couple of hours. You made a sale, you made a sale, you made a sale. And I'm just sitting with my family in Chicago over Thanksgiving. It's a really, I don't know, kind of magical, special thing to feel like you're earning revenue. They call this the whole passive income craze. There's an element of it being passive after you've done all the hard work to create all of the stuff that generates that revenue. But when you're sitting there going, all of my content is generating revenue right now, it's I don't know, it's just to me, I just can't wrap my head around how amazing it feels to be able to do that.
How have you managed to stay the course? You mentioned 200 videos. 200 videos does not happen overnight, even at one per week. I mean, that takes time. And clearly, as you said, you're not making instant revenue. Certainly not enough to maybe support what goals you have. So what sustains you through that two year ish period of not having the money coming in. It's a long time.
Yeah. Because last year I have videos on my channel at the end of every year where I say how much YouTube paid me in 2021 with 6000 or 14,000 subscribers, and I break down all my revenue streams and how much I made last year. At the end of the year, I made $7,751. And this year I've made just under $47,000. So that's not like I'm so amazing and look at what I've done. It is when you can focus on something and have this brings kind of our conversation full circle. All of that self awareness being deployed after every engagement with a client or with my friend Nick, editing concert content, working with you as an employee, all of that stuff. You are picking the stuff that worked and the stuff that you didn't love. And that doesn't mean it was bad or bad experience. It's just if I had my way, I wouldn't have this type of work or whatever dynamic, this kind of vibe, whatever it is. As you zero in on the design for your life and your career, the thing that you want to do that gets you excited to wake up every morning. For me, it's all culminated in this. I literally said to myself, as someone who tried pursuing screenwriting, I'm going to be a Hollywood screenwriter, pursued acting, all these different ways to try to get into show business or creating something. I've always written in journals and written stories. I had a VHS tape that I digitized, and I was on there with this camcorder on my shoulder, filming myself, talking in the mirror like I was Vlogging. And it just dawned on me like this is what you are supposed to be doing. This is what all of this acting school screenwriting, all of this has culminated in what I did with you post production, learning from Nick. It's culminated in this. And so that's what has allowed me to stay the course. Because when I sat down and started creating videos, taking all the skills that I have in front of a camera, acting school screenwriting, the technical skills of video, post production, all of that, and then just how I felt. I know this is a long and rambling answer, but I had terrible stage fright in acting school and afterward, just debilitating stage fright. I mean, I would get nerves, Vivian, so bad my face would contort because the nerves in my face were freaking out because my body was saying, Get out of here. You're terrified of screwing up or forgetting your lines or whatever. And of course, I would get through it and do my lines, and I would come off stage and just have this euphoria from having pushed through the fear. But with my content creation, especially a live stream, whatever, I get euphoria when I'm done because of how it felt to just connect with an audience. And I imagine comedians feel this way, musicians feel this way, people that have that transfer of energy from their audience. So that's what helps me stay the course. It is waking up every day excited to sit at the computer or take a meeting, do a podcast, write an article for Medium.com and see how the community and an audience reacts, to see if that video gets swept up in the YouTube algorithm and brings more people into the channel or into the community that we're building. I've sometimes compared it to a drug and the good sense of it something that can hijack you and make you put other things aside, work late hours, become obsessed. But if you can temper that and like I do, I just focus on it from like, 730 to 05:00 every day. You think about it afterwards, you're working on it on the weekends, but I'm not actually doing the work. I don't know. It all comes together. And having the goals, the focus on the goals that I have, like the design for my life, both professionally and personally, it makes it easy for me to deploy self discipline, sit my butt in the chair and get the work done. Because there are days where it's a struggle, no doubt about it. But fortunately, more often than not, I'm happy to be doing it. I've got a video that I'm finishing to release tomorrow, and I'm in the part you know how this goes as a creative you're in that part where you're doing the fun editing, the fun photo editing versus, like, the calling and all of this and the initial pass and all the stuff that you have experience with. And I can't wait to release it. It'll be like my 202nd video tomorrow again. It's just amazing that I was able to take my entire experiences from all my life and focus it in on being the content creator.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. And as you're talking, I'm thinking about it's almost a level of gratefulness, I think, that comes out, that I notice that will help me through those aspects of running a business that are less glamorous or maybe it's not that they aren't glamorous. I'm not good at it. I don't enjoy it or it's tedious and it has to be done. And that's something that consistency needed of. There are aspects of running a business, whether you're a content creator or you are a filmmaker or you're a coach, you know, it doesn't matter what it is. Even if you're like, this lights me up and I love it. There are always aspects of I'm just thinking and talking about this another episode. I just hate filling out the dang mileage sheet. I just don't want to I don't want to pull it up. And the bookkeeper is who happens to also be in this case my mom. She does a great job with our books and she's pinging me with message, could you get that mileage in? I'd really like to pay you. That's the ridiculous part of it too, is here she is going, I'd really like to pay you for that mileage because we reimburse ourselves for the mileage, but we have to have a record of it and all those things, right? I will go for three to five months. I'm going to throw Mike under the bus too. She will do the same. She, I think, keeps up a little bit better than I do and I'm like, I won't even put the stink and mileage in to get a check. And I think that actually is a great picture of what you've been talking about as well, of if you're taking a job just to make money and your heart's not in it at all. And again, sometimes you are going to take that job or you are waiting for your YouTube channel to really get monetized. So you are still taking some of these other types of projects that maybe don't fill your cup yet all the way. But man, if it just is a total drain, you can feel the difference in your body, you can see the difference in your work and I would argue your client can feel the impact of that difference too, and you're not serving them well. It may sound a little extreme, but I'm like, you just stole their money. In a sense. You probably gave them something pretty good, but maybe someone else could have given them something better and I don't know, start to think about that a little bit crazy.
It's a bit of a selfish act. I mean, you're putting your own self interest above the interests of the people that are hoping you'll serve them that you'll help them solve a problem or figure out what it is that they need to figure out, accomplish a video or whatever it is. And yeah, I think you're hitting on some keywords. Their gratitude. Something that's big with me is selflessness and selfishness in the positive sense, self centeredness or self focus, because you know what your superpowers are. You know what your goals are. You know when something is an opportunity or an obstacle because you can see how it relates to your goals and what you're trying to pursue. But definitely there's always going to be a tedious component to whatever it is you're doing, even if what you're doing, big picture, is something that you love to do. And for me, what helps me get through all of that is deploying gratitude. Like, hey, dude, you're making videos in your basement and you're making money like you're not. And I've had some really difficult jobs. I worked in a factory building cell phones when I was in high school. And I have those experiences where I can go that's noble work. For some people, that is a paycheck. It's health insurance for their family. They can do that knowing they're going to retire and have a life traveling the country in an RV, whatever it is that they're passionate about, I can't do that. And in those instances where I have to do the first cut of a video or, oh God, Vivian, go through the expenses you've got Molly as your bookkeeper. I'm not at a level where I have someone that I can do some of my bookkeeping. So every day over coffee, I have to say import your expenses and organize them so that when it comes tax time, you're not kicking the can down the road because getting all of your business expenses organized and together is going to be this monumental undertaking. And I have that discipline in those moments because my goal is one of my goals at the end of the year is to make putting my tax documents for my accountant as easy as possible. Export the expenses, double check them, fix any errors, send it off to him, whatever other documents I need to send him for all of that. It takes like half a day versus if you can on all that stuff, it's going to take you days and days and days to sort through it, and then your business suffers as a result because you're not focusing on creating that next video, doing that next client thing, and it just creates bad energy and negativity. But the thing that's most important to me in all this is that goal setting. I, every year will write down in extreme detail what I want the design of my life to look like at the end of the year, both personally and professionally. And I have to tell myself, don't just say I want 100,000 subscribers. That's an outcome that you might want a result that you might want, but you can't control whether or not you're going to have 100,000 subscribers. What you can control is I'm going to make one video per week, or I'm going to make one video and a short and a live stream per week. And these weeks I'm going to have off because of this or that or whatever, but I will in very much detail what vacation I would want to go on, what kind of money do I want to have in the bank at the end of the year? What do I want to be feeling like when I'm having conversations with my accountant? Are we talking about retirement stuff, or are we talking about having to cut payroll because I don't have enough money to cover paying myself a salary? So I really try to get into the minutiae of all that, because then throughout the year, when something comes up, a shoot, a consulting gig, something I can do with my channel, I don't feel like I'm making a decision. I just immediately know this is an opportunity. This is an obstacle. Yes to the opportunity. No to the obstacle. Because I have that design of my life completely figured out.
Yeah, that's neat. I have done similar exercises, and it's very clarifying and freeing, and it helps narrow down. You only have so much energy to apply, or you may only want to apply a certain percentage of your energy. That's a reality as well. You may want to divvy up your energy, among other pursuits and dreams that you have. Troy and I love to travel. That takes a certain amount of energy. And so just think about that. People who have children, they want to exert a certain amount of energy. They want to go to their families and kids. And so when you look at that, then go, and so I have this percentage of energy left to give to my business. Or maybe you're giving it to your business first, just depending on how your life is set up. Yeah. You got to look at that and go, okay, and now what am I going to do with that? That builds one block at a time. One block at a time. And I like that idea of not shifting so much perspective on the outcomes. I feel like that's a good challenge that I'm going to kind of mull over myself of. I think I automatically start thinking of all the steps. My brain kind of does that, but I like the idea of writing them down, because when I say I want this outcome, my brain automatically goes, okay, in order to do that, you need to do X-Y-Z. But I like the idea of actually jotting that down as well.
Yes.
Thanks for that.
Cool. Yeah. And I like to certainly know what results I want to achieve, but I want to think about those results and then reverse engineer them to go, okay, so what are the inputs that have to happen to make that happen? And are you really being honest with yourself that these inputs are doable? Are you stretching yourself too thin? Are you going to really rake yourself over the colds if you get sick or your kids are sick and homesick and you're going to get frustrated because you're not able to put those inputs in to get the outcome. And I think that's important too, sometimes. Letting go of whatever vision you had for your day or your week when there's other people involved, or even your own personal health, how are you assessing your own health physically and mentally? To possibly adjust too? For me to get these outcomes, these results, these are the inputs that I'm doing. But I didn't realize at the beginning of the year that it would affect me in these ways negatively. How can I adjust what these inputs are? Or maybe the results I'm hoping to get are too lofty because I was told I have to shoot for the stars and it can't be a little bit more practical with what the results are going to be. I mean, I had this last year that I was going to get to 50,000 subscribers from 14,000 subscribers. And I'm like, that's not crazy. But you're sort of like banking on viral videos and lottery winning situations to achieve that, whereas instead of 50,000, I ended up with 23,000. And I was a little disappointed with that because I thought if I can get at least 10,000 subscribers added, I'll feel good about what I did inputs wise in seeing that sort of failure to achieve that goal going, was it unreasonable? And then grade yourself, like, were your video ideas good even in serving your mission versus chasing metrics? Because that's the other thing you don't want to do. You don't want, like, well, I want 50,000 subscribers. So I'm going to go off my bread and butter here of making Final Cut Pro tutorials. And I'm going to do, like, extreme video editing, editing a video in a snowstorm. And I set up a desk out in the field. And I'm like editing that might get a lot of views and clicks and be funny and entertaining, but now you've got to do videos like that for the rest of your life. Because that's the thing that got you a large audience. So I go, that's not what I want to do, though. So people have to be careful too. Just last little thing on content creation that you're not chasing. The YouTube studio giving you fireworks when your videos are one out of ten because it can make you sort of betray your truth, because you care more about those outcomes and these vanity metrics than you do about actually delivering value and focusing on your mission within the context of your own truth, like what your superpowers are and what you actually want to do for years. And years to come. And so that's been important to me as well. And part of that is going, well, maybe you're just going to be a slow growth channel. You're going to be part of the creator middle class, and that's fine. You're going to hit 100,000 subscribers, but it might take you five years. It's not going to happen overnight. It's okay.
Yeah. Giving yourself that permission, I think, is huge. There's a lot of pressure just in the world in general to arrive and to arrive quickly. I just look at my own perspective as a 20 something. And when we started our business, and I did, I was like and we'll be at X number of dollars by the time I'm 23. And then by the time I'm 24, it's going to click this. And I'm going to be one of those under 30 millionaire successful front of the magazine. I really thought that in my head. And it's not that you can't pursue that or that that can't happen. I don't want to limit people ever. But when I look back at what I was doing to try to get there, I compromised myself. I compromised my health. I compromised my relationships. I compromised business. I compromised relationships within the business. We'll have to have another episode sometime. Little teaser here. But I was not always kind. It compromised in an effort to pursue this version of success that had been painted for me, and some of that was painted by culture, some was painted by myself, and some was painted by the business partner I was aligned with. There's so much out there, and I think especially in this area of YouTube and content creation and Instagram reels and TikTok, there is a high amount, there's a large amount of pressure put on, especially young people to arrive overnight. And I just think that is BS, that whole idea. Can it happen? Sure. But is it healthy when it happens? I mean, time will tell. But I will say overnight young child sensations and teens have very often historically burnt out and led some pretty rough lives.
Absolutely.
There's a lot of pressure under that. And so that slow growth, middle class content creator, I think you're saying to me, looking back, I go, if you want the overnight success, by all means, go for it. But there's a lot of wisdom in not growing too fast and being able to shape, to be able to stop, pause, be self aware, think about where you're going. Shift a little bit. When you do that overnight, you're committed in, like you said with the snowstorm, you did that thing once, and now you're married to it forever because that's what delivered you as a success. That could be a little dangerous.
Exactly right.
A little dangerous, yeah.
And you've seen people get swept up and they created something that went crazy, went viral, and they're now that person, and maybe they don't want to be and I think whether it's overnight success or toxic hustle culture where people who have had significant success financially, fame wise, whatever, they worked their butts off. They did 20 hours days, seven days a week, all of that stuff that certainly can get you those kinds of results. But if your focus is wrapped up in being rich or being famous or being rich and famous, even if it's not in a celebrity kind of view, celebrities are everywhere now. It's not just acting, it's entrepreneurs, it's CEOs, all of that stuff. But that's where I go back to being more mission driven and understanding what my values are and what I value. If some fame or being rich was the result of me pursuing my mission and me pursuing the things that I value and having relationships that have value and I'm giving to people without expecting anything in return, that just all feels better to me than the opposite. So there's no doubt that I want to be financially successful. There is no doubt that I want to deal with the problems that people deal with when they're managing wealth versus trying to pay off debt. Am I going to be able to pay for that new garage door? All the struggles that I've had to not be able to invest in my business because I just can't afford it. I can see that this could be helpful to buy this thing or finance this thing or whatever, but if I get into too much debt, it's going to then start compromising my decision making skills and make me go. I'm saying yes to this project because of this debt that I have, not because it's an opportunity to help move me forward and achieve the goals and get me the future that I've designed for myself. So that's a whole other thing too.
I love it. This has been good. I appreciate you sharing it. We always have good conversations and chats and I enjoy that. And it's been really fun just to talk through just the mindset needed as well as some of the practicalities of creating content and showing up, being consistent with it.
I think a lot of what this shines a light on, they said mindset that I found is a lot of what we're going through as we pursue starting a business or being a content creator or whatever it is. It can really shine a light on, I don't want to say mental health, it can shine a light on any psychological issues that you have or roadblocks that you're trying to get through. We talked about introversion. Some people have what's called imposter syndrome or they lack the confidence to actually defend what is profitable for them in a business deal because talking about money is uncomfortable. So when they say that they have 1500 for this thing, you know that isn't the best deal for you. But you just want the conversation about money to be over. So you're like, okay, that'll work, no problem. And then by the end you're like, I wouldn't do that again because I wasn't really that profitable in doing it. And we don't necessarily need to go down that rabbit hole. But something that I have found in the communities that I'm building on discord with fellow YouTubers, with some people in my audience, and of course, myself, is how do we work on our own outlook on the business relationships that we have? How do we work on our own self awareness and the things that there are with us? A lack of confidence, self esteem issues, imposter syndrome, all of that and start figuring out how to chip away at those to improve them so that you have a greater likelihood of running a profitable business.
Yeah, running a business, I will say it forever. Running a business is a paid self improvement plan is really what it is.
100% is there's so much that goes.
Into it and you get paid to figure out how to improve yourself. And then as a byproduct, my hope is that business owners out there are then contributing back to the world to make it a better place. That it doesn't just stop with a self improvement and abundance and all those things which are good, but that then there's such an opportunity when you have arrived at those places and you're healthy that then you turn that back and give back to the world. Which brings me to my last question for today, actually. I'm just curious, when you think about being a business owner, what goes through your mind as far as what you want to bring to the world to make it a better place or how would you challenge another business owner to think about what they can bring to the world to make it a better place?
The first word that popped into my head when you asked this question was community. And I really think that we need to be thinking as business owners, especially business owners that are putting themselves out there on social media, we need to be thinking about community building. And for me, the way that I felt like I've been able to give back the most isn't necessarily by just teaching what I do through one on one coaching or these tutorials. It's been participating in various communities, whether it's on Reddit, Facebook groups, on Discord, especially for me on Discord, I have a Discord server with other YouTubers that talk about filmmaking Final Cut Pro and a few that use Final Cut Pro but talk about completely different things. And I started this Discord server because I felt like I was alone in trying to navigate the business side of being a YouTuber. And I said, well why don't we all band together in this Discord server so we can talk very openly and honestly about our journeys as creators from both the business side to the psychological side? There's a channel in my Discord server. That's what I'm struggling with, where if somebody's really having a hard time with something, they can go in there and post about it and share about it. And you know, what I found is for the 1015 or so creators that are in there, they will post sometimes how thankful they are for that group, that community, the the openness to communicate, the honesty, but the the safety that they feel, and people being constructive and not destructive, supporting one another. The rising tide raises all ships. And I think that's really, for me, the most exciting way to contribute my experiences, my expertise, and my desire for connection, for meaningful friendship and meaningful relationships. And these Discord servers that I run have done that. A viewer of mine who's in one of my Discord servers for my subscribers, mailed me a package from the UK with this really wonderful card that talked about how he landed this new full time job. He had been doing freelance stuff and kind of cobbling stuff together, but he called out that through the videos I make, the live streams that I do, the Discord server comments, all of that stuff, it overhauled his confidence and gave him a feeling of validation that what he does in his talent and his abilities are notable. And he was like, I don't know that I would have had the confidence to not only apply for that job, but to then perform well in the interview, having not been a part of this community. So I think we do owe it to ourselves as we have these journeys of like we've talked about with our businesses and all that self discovery, self awareness, learning how to work with people, to build communities where we can share our experiences with each other and help everyone else achieve their goals. Not to get them to do it our way, but to go, what are your superpowers? What are you trying to accomplish? And how can I be selfless in giving you whatever help I can? Whether it's an encouraging word, a one on one conversation, or tips on how to do this or that, that to me, is my way of doing that.
That's awesome. You're doing good work and we love just watching. Mikael and I both love watching work. We don't do really anything of Final Cut, but every once in a while I watch part of a video or check something out or look, you know, I'm not in the Final Cut world, but it's just fun to watch your journey and what you're doing. And so I appreciate that so much and thanks for being awesome.
Yeah, same same to both of you. It's been exciting watching your journey grow with Tandem Works Works works and everything that you're doing as both content creators and working with businesses to help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. And I'm excited for what the future holds for both you and mikayla and Tandem Works Works works as well.
Thanks. So if people do want to check out your YouTube channel, we'll put a link down here. Is that the best way for them to engage with you is through your YouTube? As far as, like, if they want to reach out or get a hold, is that the best platform for them to reach out?
Yeah. Unfortunately, YouTube isn't really good for sending a direct message or connecting, like traditional social media. But probably the best way if you were to want to try to reach out would be through Twitter or Instagram. You'll put the connection down below, but I'm just at Matthew T O'Brien on Twitter and on Instagram. It's a little bit easier to get message through Instagram, but I'm actually on Instagram the least, so sometimes it can be a week or two before I see some of the messages that come through, where it's a message request versus a DM from somebody I'm actually connected to. I do have a contact page on my website, Matthew O'Brien, co there is a contact page, so that will shoot me an email. So you can certainly reach out there if you have any questions or are curious to know more about content creation, YouTube running a business, all that stuff.
Perfect. Well, thank you. Thank you, Matthew O'Brien, for popping on today and just for continuing to be awesome.
Thanks, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.