The Evolution of a YouTube Personality: Balancing Passion and Responsibility

At some point, I realized that investing in whatever I was interested in at the time would often result in something not gaining much traction with my small group of people who were following along. But then, something changed. Other people developed similar passions, and we began to connect in strange ways through this camera lens. This two-way communication enabled by YouTube allowed me to speak freely without needing gatekeepers or red tape.

I remember telling traditional media executives about my idea - unboxing a tech product on camera with no one expecting it to work out. They just couldn't get past the fact that I was a kid trying to talk about this stuff and didn't sound like anyone they knew. But YouTube circumvented all of that, allowing me to start speaking from the heart without needing approval or a traditional media outlet.

As the channel grew, so did my responsibilities. People started reaching out to me with requests for sponsorships and collaborations. Suddenly, I had to navigate this new world where brands were interested in partnering with me. It was both exciting and overwhelming, especially since I was still just a kid who wanted to get his hands on this stuff. But as the years went by, I realized that I owed it to my audience to be honest about what I thought - even if it meant being different.

Recently, I've been trying to do better at bringing realness to the camera lens. No more pretending to have all the answers when, in reality, I was still figuring things out as I went along. With a larger following comes greater responsibility, and I felt like I needed to take that on head-on. But it's not always easy. Balancing my passion for creating content with the need to be responsible and accountable has become a constant challenge.

The recent milestone of reaching 10 million subscribers marked an important turning point in this journey. It brought us all together, and I felt like it was time to give my audience a deeper look at what goes on behind the scenes. There's never been a roadmap for YouTube creators like me - it's something that had to be carved out over time. And even now, as I sit here with this massive following, I know that there's still so much to figure out.

One thing is certain: without my audience, there would be no channel like this today. They're the ones who have supported me from day one, and it's only right that they get to see the mechanics of all this - both the successes and the challenges. I'm doing my best with what I have, and I hope that by sharing more about the process, I can help you guys understand where we come from and what it takes to keep going. It may not always be easy, but for now, I'll keep pushing forward and do my best to bring you realness on the camera lens.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso you might have noticed that recently the channel a hit kind of like this crazy figure this crazy subscriber count' 10 million subscribers 10 million of you guys to be honest I I just felt it necessary to sit down you know and and kind of address it and and just talk about it and address you guys like directly cuz I know a lot of you have been around for a while in the past I've done giveaways and things like that to to commemorate those moments and I'm not saying I won't do that that's probably coming up very soon I don't know give away some phones or something like that to celebrate but I also just wanted to sit down and kind of have a little bit of dialogue as well now before I get into that I know a lot of people like blue you told us that Jack is gonna be revealed when you hit 10 million subscribers and that hasn't changed this thing is in development it's progressing there will be something very shortly so don't go anywhere you're gonna meet Jack but there's a little bit more to it so I just wanted to I guess half the purpose of this video is to let you guys know that we're working on it and we have something coming up but to be honest the reason that I wanted to sit down is more than that I wanted to sit here and just maybe speak to you guys in a slightly different manner than I normally would when I got a product here and I'm talking about something and you've got the antics and so on I've been passionate about technology and gadgets forever basically since I was a kid since as long as I can remember and I think somewhere subconsciously I always wanted to turn that interest into something professional something they you know because sustained me could could be my life and so on but I don't know that I ever had any kind of direct plan for that so I published a few videos online on a different channel before this one and and they actually picked up some steam people were interested surprisingly enough oh my goodness like but people wanted to watch this and I guess it made sense because I wanted to watch it some of the early inspiration you guys have to remember this thing hasn't existed forever I mean not just YouTube but like this segment within it has not always existed so I was watching people like soldier knows best I was watching John Rhett injure back then the channel used to be called John for Lakers these were some of the earliest unboxing analysis videos that were out there and it was compared to now it was a small thing you know it was a tight-knit group of people that were interested in this at all it never at that time felt like something that would generate so much interest from from this number of people from you guys but I guess you kind of just invest in whatever it is that you're interested in or happened to be passionate about and sometimes at least in this case other people develop a similar passion and then you end up connecting in this strange way I mean that's ultimately what YouTube enabled it enabled this kind of two-way thing through this camera lens I've said it before and I'll say it again if I went to some traditional media company to some executive at a television station I said listen here's what it is it's me it's tech there's a box I'm unboxing it no one's gonna go for it man they're not gonna put me on prime-time alright it wasn't gonna happen that way and that's why this platform is so powerful because it circumvented all that all the red tape it allowed for me to just start speaking for me to start making videos to not need some gatekeeper to you know unlock the door let me through and then keep me on a tight leash control what I wanted to say or what I wanted to do and over the years I got to be honest man it's been there have been difficult these difficulties in figuring out how to navigate this kind of strange environment going from somebody and I know this kid this year could probably sound obnoxious like who does this guy think he is he's on what's he doing he's on YouTube big deal or whatever just with an interest in this stuff to somebody that's getting emails now from the biggest brands in the world being like hey man are you gonna be at our event can we sponsor a video li these are all things that are difficult to manage especially when you were once a kid who just wanted to get your hands on this stuff now you have all these opportunities in the world and you're trying to navigate it in a responsible way turns out that's kind of difficult and so especially in the last little while I've been really considering some of the things some of the steps some of the ways that I can stay out in front of it some of the responsibilities that now exist because of the position and so recently I've been trying to do a better job of just being real of just bringing the realness to the camera lens whatever that means whatever my feelings are to just dig a little deeper and be like you know what I really have to let these people know I have to tell them in plain terms what my thoughts are and I don't think I felt the same sense of responsibility along the way I think when the channel was smaller it was easier to just be like well I don't know yet and then that transitioned along with the responsibility to the point where I was like no you have this huge following of people that are making decisions based on what you say you have to think you have to you know push yourself a little farther a little push yourself a little harder to come to some sort of conclusion that can be helpful to people and so that's been a bit of a push recently and I'm not even there and it's it's gonna continue to be difficult to kind of balance that tightrope of like how to operate and sustain this business and everything else but still bring the realness on the lens this is kind of a weird thing to be talking about just because of the 10 million subscriber milestone but I just feel like a lot of you guys have been along for the ride and so it makes sense to give you a little bit more background at this point about sort of what I'm trying to do or what's important to me or the things that I consider before I say words we do have a good time here it's a fun time but there's a lot of analysis that goes on behind the scenes that you guys aren't necessarily exposed to and now that we're sitting here at 10 million and you're a part of it I feel like hey why not bring you in a little bit more after all without you guys there is no this without your viewership your continued support there is no this so in a way you kind of deserve to know the mechanics of all of it and what the challenges are going forward there's never been a road map for this you could probably find some people they're like no I knew it was gonna happen exactly like it did they're probably lying though it kind of had to be carved out and it continues to have to be carved out but it's okay I'm not complaining the process is exciting now obviously I can't do this forever but I'm doing it right now so I might as well do it my best and for that opportunity I owe you you guys are the one that put me in this place so it's the least I could doso you might have noticed that recently the channel a hit kind of like this crazy figure this crazy subscriber count' 10 million subscribers 10 million of you guys to be honest I I just felt it necessary to sit down you know and and kind of address it and and just talk about it and address you guys like directly cuz I know a lot of you have been around for a while in the past I've done giveaways and things like that to to commemorate those moments and I'm not saying I won't do that that's probably coming up very soon I don't know give away some phones or something like that to celebrate but I also just wanted to sit down and kind of have a little bit of dialogue as well now before I get into that I know a lot of people like blue you told us that Jack is gonna be revealed when you hit 10 million subscribers and that hasn't changed this thing is in development it's progressing there will be something very shortly so don't go anywhere you're gonna meet Jack but there's a little bit more to it so I just wanted to I guess half the purpose of this video is to let you guys know that we're working on it and we have something coming up but to be honest the reason that I wanted to sit down is more than that I wanted to sit here and just maybe speak to you guys in a slightly different manner than I normally would when I got a product here and I'm talking about something and you've got the antics and so on I've been passionate about technology and gadgets forever basically since I was a kid since as long as I can remember and I think somewhere subconsciously I always wanted to turn that interest into something professional something they you know because sustained me could could be my life and so on but I don't know that I ever had any kind of direct plan for that so I published a few videos online on a different channel before this one and and they actually picked up some steam people were interested surprisingly enough oh my goodness like but people wanted to watch this and I guess it made sense because I wanted to watch it some of the early inspiration you guys have to remember this thing hasn't existed forever I mean not just YouTube but like this segment within it has not always existed so I was watching people like soldier knows best I was watching John Rhett injure back then the channel used to be called John for Lakers these were some of the earliest unboxing analysis videos that were out there and it was compared to now it was a small thing you know it was a tight-knit group of people that were interested in this at all it never at that time felt like something that would generate so much interest from from this number of people from you guys but I guess you kind of just invest in whatever it is that you're interested in or happened to be passionate about and sometimes at least in this case other people develop a similar passion and then you end up connecting in this strange way I mean that's ultimately what YouTube enabled it enabled this kind of two-way thing through this camera lens I've said it before and I'll say it again if I went to some traditional media company to some executive at a television station I said listen here's what it is it's me it's tech there's a box I'm unboxing it no one's gonna go for it man they're not gonna put me on prime-time alright it wasn't gonna happen that way and that's why this platform is so powerful because it circumvented all that all the red tape it allowed for me to just start speaking for me to start making videos to not need some gatekeeper to you know unlock the door let me through and then keep me on a tight leash control what I wanted to say or what I wanted to do and over the years I got to be honest man it's been there have been difficult these difficulties in figuring out how to navigate this kind of strange environment going from somebody and I know this kid this year could probably sound obnoxious like who does this guy think he is he's on what's he doing he's on YouTube big deal or whatever just with an interest in this stuff to somebody that's getting emails now from the biggest brands in the world being like hey man are you gonna be at our event can we sponsor a video li these are all things that are difficult to manage especially when you were once a kid who just wanted to get your hands on this stuff now you have all these opportunities in the world and you're trying to navigate it in a responsible way turns out that's kind of difficult and so especially in the last little while I've been really considering some of the things some of the steps some of the ways that I can stay out in front of it some of the responsibilities that now exist because of the position and so recently I've been trying to do a better job of just being real of just bringing the realness to the camera lens whatever that means whatever my feelings are to just dig a little deeper and be like you know what I really have to let these people know I have to tell them in plain terms what my thoughts are and I don't think I felt the same sense of responsibility along the way I think when the channel was smaller it was easier to just be like well I don't know yet and then that transitioned along with the responsibility to the point where I was like no you have this huge following of people that are making decisions based on what you say you have to think you have to you know push yourself a little farther a little push yourself a little harder to come to some sort of conclusion that can be helpful to people and so that's been a bit of a push recently and I'm not even there and it's it's gonna continue to be difficult to kind of balance that tightrope of like how to operate and sustain this business and everything else but still bring the realness on the lens this is kind of a weird thing to be talking about just because of the 10 million subscriber milestone but I just feel like a lot of you guys have been along for the ride and so it makes sense to give you a little bit more background at this point about sort of what I'm trying to do or what's important to me or the things that I consider before I say words we do have a good time here it's a fun time but there's a lot of analysis that goes on behind the scenes that you guys aren't necessarily exposed to and now that we're sitting here at 10 million and you're a part of it I feel like hey why not bring you in a little bit more after all without you guys there is no this without your viewership your continued support there is no this so in a way you kind of deserve to know the mechanics of all of it and what the challenges are going forward there's never been a road map for this you could probably find some people they're like no I knew it was gonna happen exactly like it did they're probably lying though it kind of had to be carved out and it continues to have to be carved out but it's okay I'm not complaining the process is exciting now obviously I can't do this forever but I'm doing it right now so I might as well do it my best and for that opportunity I owe you you guys are the one that put me in this place so it's the least I could do\n"