The Art and Business of Automotive YouTube

The guys that donate are incredibly talented and they deserve the positions that they're in. The hosts are amazing, with Justin being particularly awesome. Nolan's also incredible, and I love those guys. It is human nature to want to move on to different things; it's human nature to do things for yourself that make you feel more fulfilled.

Because people come and go from companies all the time, and they want to do their own thing especially if they have a Creator or entrepreneurial spirit. It's not uncommon now when it comes to Automotive YouTube that creators are constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve their content. However, I don't think there's ever going to be a peak; expectations are just so high, and people have become numb to everything.

I remember when I started my 2J project in my S13. Everybody was like "whoa that's crazy", now it's just kind of like a normal day at the office. The struggle of building cars isn't shown as much as it used to be; people think you can just do an engine swap, or transmission swap, or wiring, fuel pump, axles, transmission... and bada bing bada boom, it's done.

People don't realize how difficult it is to build cars, and how expensive it is. Imagine if I was a gaming YouTuber, but all I had to do is buy a nice PC and then put in hours to get good at a game. That's your investment when it comes to Automotive YouTube; you're spending tens of thousands of dollars just to be in the race.

When people ask me "how come you don't have an editor" or "how come you don't have a staff", I just can't. I have to do everything on my own, which has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, I get to do anything I want; on the other hand, I have to stretch myself thin in order to make it happen.

That's the advantage of having a team, though - you bring in people, then you have to bring in sponsors, okay? Now you've brought in sponsors, now you've been offered an investment to essentially expand your team. That takes some weight off one person, but it also means you need more money to pay for this extra staff member.

It's a delicate balance; YouTube is a business at the end of the day. It's a fun creative business, but there's really no such thing as time off in this business. You're always thinking, always creating, always innovating. Whether it's with a massive team or just an individual, that's the reality.

The peaking of Automotive YouTube is at an all-time high; everybody has a big shop, everybody has a headquarters. I'm guilty of this too - I could easily work from home, but I have a warehouse and an office space mostly just to separate work from home.

My builds don't do as well as just my reviews or even me just talking in this office; why would I spend the tens of thousands of dollars to do builds that just don't hit? Nearly bankrupting myself like my Hellcat Magnum did. So, then it put me in a situation going "do I even do car builds anymore?" That's what the creative process is like on YouTube - you have to find what works and then lean into it for at least a little while, and then escape.

That's why I've been able to have a career in this for over a decade; I've never been the top YouTuber or Automotive YouTuber, but I've found a formula that works. And that's really scary - when you have mouths to feed, what do you guys think about all this? Put it down in the comment section below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi hello David here I did a live stream last night and the most common question that I got was what do you think about everything going on with the major channels of people leaving and also going to different companies or starting their own new thing I guess I'm sort of qualified to talk about this because I've literally been on YouTube since 2006 however I have seen Empires rise and fall on this website and I think it's just an interesting thing to just quickly talk about so there's already a few videos that broke this down already very well and probably shorter than what I'm about to do but here's my two cents about it I'm going to break it down in two ways an automotive YouTuber who's an individual or a small team aka me I do everything right I film it I edit it I travel I answer the emails I do everything versus say a big big big Automotive YouTube channel such as like hoonigan the major difference with these sort of things is the investment eventually these companies get offered an investment from a big company say like wheelpros and they say hey we'd like to buy your IP we love what it represents and we love to give you more investment right by doing that that means you can expand your business but you might have a change in leadership but this usually is not the creative's fault almost ever and I'm actually going to use an example outside of the automotive community and that is Rooster Teeth if you did not know who Rooster Teeth was it's one of my favorite YouTube channels back when I was young they made a series called red versus blue it was really fun it used Halo I was super into Halo when I was young and it was really funny it's just a really funny series but eventually they got offered to get bought out by Warner media AK Warner Brothers and the ship just went like this like as soon as that happened just straight to the ground they changed a whole bunch of stuff they changed their logo to an atrocious logo The Branding was wrong a bunch of the hosts left you might be seeing a pattern here the reason I bring this up is because red versus blue that series that I talked about earlier was made by like Five Guys in a bedroom with four Xboxes that was the beginning of their entire Corporation eventually they had an entire hanger in Austin now do I think that's what's going to happen with the companies you guys are thinking about today not really not really no they still do a ton of work behind the scenes too I think that's another thing that a lot of people don't realize is there's a lot of work that goes into like a donut media video there is so much work reason a ton of big YouTube channels end up getting external investment is when they end up growing so when you end up hiring staff and hiring editors and hiring all this kind of stuff it's not like me where if I have a video that bombs yeah it sucks I'm still probably going to be okay because I can say all right take a step back back we'll get it next time now imagine that situation where you have a video do really badly but you have a ton of staff and a rent of an office or a garage space or anything like that yeah that's really bad so you're going to have to make videos that do well pretty much every time and if you have videos that a certain YouTube channel does and gets big views and you don't like it unfortunately they're just doing what it takes to pay for the employees right they're doing what it takes to keep everybody around when you're a smaller Channel or a startup Channel you don't have to worry about that as much you're just focusing on growing yourself rather than like a team if that makes sense now if you don't know on YouTube basically to make a video successful you have three things you have your clickthrough rate and then you have watch time and then total watch time so you need clicks then you need the watch time then you need total watch time for a video to be a success and get put in the recommended tab I always have really great watch time but I have a really hard time getting people to click on my videos I shouldn't be admitting this but that's why you see my channel does this right because not everybody is going to be into my experimental car videos right it's not going to happen I'll throw out a documentary I'll throw out a review here I'll throw out something else here but I just like to experim it but it does come at a cost now imagine you have a video series that basically goes Bonkers every single time like 1 million two million plus views and you know it works you know you get those three requirements then you also have a staff and a corporation and everybody to please you're going to keep doing that video man it's a double-edged sword sometimes you get trapped in a box right some people could argue that this versus that has trapped hoonigan in a box right because it's like okay it works it gets everything done we get the views we need and that's it that could be viewed as a box I think that big time is more of a Grassroots YouTube channel with a little bit higher quality I think what they're looking for is the Bro hangout in your home garage right that is something I think a lot of people are seeking out nowadays rather than these massive shops massive headquarters I understand that I totally get that they want to feel like they're more related to the builds that they're doing now I want to be absolutely clear I think all the guys that donate are incredibly talented and they deserve the positions that they're in the hosts are amazing Justin's awesome Nolan's awesome I love those guys it is human nature to want to move on to different things it's human nature to do things for yourself that make you feel more fulfilled because people come and go from companies all the time people want to do their own thing especially if you have a Creator or entrepreneurial spirit it's not uncommon now when it comes to I think Automotive YouTube has Pete I don't really think there's ever going to be a peak per se but I do think that the expectations are the highest they've ever been I think that people are so numb to everything that no matter what you do it just doesn't really impress people anymore cuz I remember when I started my 2J project in my s13 everybody was like whoa that's crazy now like everybody's done a Jay-Z s13 or 240 right just kind of like a normal day at the office and Al the struggle of building cars I don't think is shown as much as it used to be so I think a lot of people think you can just do an engine swap do a transmission swap do the wiring do the fuel pump do the axles do the transmission do all this stuff and bada bing bada boom it's done I think a lot of people don't realize how difficult it is to build cars and how expensive it is to build cars imagine if I was a gaming YouTuber but all I had to do is buy a nice PC and then put in hours to get good at a game right that's your investment when it comes automotic YouTube you're spending tens of thousands of dollars just to be in the race right just to be in the realm of possibility so when people ask me like how come you don't have an editor and how come you don't have a staff and everything cuz I just can't I just have to do everything on my own which has a double-edged sword it has one I get to do anything I want but I also have to really stretch myself thin in order to make it happen but that's the advantage of having a team right you bring in people then you have to bring in sponsors okay now you've brought in sponsors okay now you've been offered an investment to essentially expand your team okay well that takes some weight off of one of the other guys right CU now you have another staff member okay but now we have to get more money to pay for this extra staff member and then it just kind of keeps going right depends on the channel depends on the situation it depends on any business really YouTube is a business at the end of the day it's a fun creative business but there's really no such thing as time off in this business you're always thinking you're always creating you're always innovating that could be with a massive team or just an individual also will say when it comes to the peaking we are at an all-time high of like just everything at full blast right everybody has a big shop everybody has a headquarters everybody has whatever right and I'm guilty of this too I'm sitting in my office I could easily work from home but I have a warehouse and I have an office space mostly just to separate work from home I think the main question we should all ask is how many cars does an automotive YouTuber have to go through to survive my builds don't do as well as just my reviews or even me just talking in this office so why would I spend the tens of thousands of dollars to do builds that just don't hit my coyote swap s13 series was the worst performing video series ever and this isn't me complaining it's just the value proposition why should you build these cars for all this money nearly bankrupting yourself like my Hellcat Magnum I did that almost bankrupted me so then it put me in a situation going do I even do car builds anymore that's what the creative process is like on YouTube you have to find what works and then you lean into it for at least a little while and then you escape I think that's the best course of action you lean into what works you do it for a while and then you find that next thing that's what's kept me around for over a decade I've never been the top YouTuber or Automotive YouTuber but I've at least been able to have a career in this due to that formula and a lot of big corporations can't do that formula and that's really scary right when you have mouths to feed what do you guys think about all this just curious put it down in the comment section below and on that note thanks so much for watching this quick little video I appreciate every single one of you and see you this week I'll be uploading a lot more this week I promise keep byehi hello David here I did a live stream last night and the most common question that I got was what do you think about everything going on with the major channels of people leaving and also going to different companies or starting their own new thing I guess I'm sort of qualified to talk about this because I've literally been on YouTube since 2006 however I have seen Empires rise and fall on this website and I think it's just an interesting thing to just quickly talk about so there's already a few videos that broke this down already very well and probably shorter than what I'm about to do but here's my two cents about it I'm going to break it down in two ways an automotive YouTuber who's an individual or a small team aka me I do everything right I film it I edit it I travel I answer the emails I do everything versus say a big big big Automotive YouTube channel such as like hoonigan the major difference with these sort of things is the investment eventually these companies get offered an investment from a big company say like wheelpros and they say hey we'd like to buy your IP we love what it represents and we love to give you more investment right by doing that that means you can expand your business but you might have a change in leadership but this usually is not the creative's fault almost ever and I'm actually going to use an example outside of the automotive community and that is Rooster Teeth if you did not know who Rooster Teeth was it's one of my favorite YouTube channels back when I was young they made a series called red versus blue it was really fun it used Halo I was super into Halo when I was young and it was really funny it's just a really funny series but eventually they got offered to get bought out by Warner media AK Warner Brothers and the ship just went like this like as soon as that happened just straight to the ground they changed a whole bunch of stuff they changed their logo to an atrocious logo The Branding was wrong a bunch of the hosts left you might be seeing a pattern here the reason I bring this up is because red versus blue that series that I talked about earlier was made by like Five Guys in a bedroom with four Xboxes that was the beginning of their entire Corporation eventually they had an entire hanger in Austin now do I think that's what's going to happen with the companies you guys are thinking about today not really not really no they still do a ton of work behind the scenes too I think that's another thing that a lot of people don't realize is there's a lot of work that goes into like a donut media video there is so much work reason a ton of big YouTube channels end up getting external investment is when they end up growing so when you end up hiring staff and hiring editors and hiring all this kind of stuff it's not like me where if I have a video that bombs yeah it sucks I'm still probably going to be okay because I can say all right take a step back back we'll get it next time now imagine that situation where you have a video do really badly but you have a ton of staff and a rent of an office or a garage space or anything like that yeah that's really bad so you're going to have to make videos that do well pretty much every time and if you have videos that a certain YouTube channel does and gets big views and you don't like it unfortunately they're just doing what it takes to pay for the employees right they're doing what it takes to keep everybody around when you're a smaller Channel or a startup Channel you don't have to worry about that as much you're just focusing on growing yourself rather than like a team if that makes sense now if you don't know on YouTube basically to make a video successful you have three things you have your clickthrough rate and then you have watch time and then total watch time so you need clicks then you need the watch time then you need total watch time for a video to be a success and get put in the recommended tab I always have really great watch time but I have a really hard time getting people to click on my videos I shouldn't be admitting this but that's why you see my channel does this right because not everybody is going to be into my experimental car videos right it's not going to happen I'll throw out a documentary I'll throw out a review here I'll throw out something else here but I just like to experim it but it does come at a cost now imagine you have a video series that basically goes Bonkers every single time like 1 million two million plus views and you know it works you know you get those three requirements then you also have a staff and a corporation and everybody to please you're going to keep doing that video man it's a double-edged sword sometimes you get trapped in a box right some people could argue that this versus that has trapped hoonigan in a box right because it's like okay it works it gets everything done we get the views we need and that's it that could be viewed as a box I think that big time is more of a Grassroots YouTube channel with a little bit higher quality I think what they're looking for is the Bro hangout in your home garage right that is something I think a lot of people are seeking out nowadays rather than these massive shops massive headquarters I understand that I totally get that they want to feel like they're more related to the builds that they're doing now I want to be absolutely clear I think all the guys that donate are incredibly talented and they deserve the positions that they're in the hosts are amazing Justin's awesome Nolan's awesome I love those guys it is human nature to want to move on to different things it's human nature to do things for yourself that make you feel more fulfilled because people come and go from companies all the time people want to do their own thing especially if you have a Creator or entrepreneurial spirit it's not uncommon now when it comes to I think Automotive YouTube has Pete I don't really think there's ever going to be a peak per se but I do think that the expectations are the highest they've ever been I think that people are so numb to everything that no matter what you do it just doesn't really impress people anymore cuz I remember when I started my 2J project in my s13 everybody was like whoa that's crazy now like everybody's done a Jay-Z s13 or 240 right just kind of like a normal day at the office and Al the struggle of building cars I don't think is shown as much as it used to be so I think a lot of people think you can just do an engine swap do a transmission swap do the wiring do the fuel pump do the axles do the transmission do all this stuff and bada bing bada boom it's done I think a lot of people don't realize how difficult it is to build cars and how expensive it is to build cars imagine if I was a gaming YouTuber but all I had to do is buy a nice PC and then put in hours to get good at a game right that's your investment when it comes automotic YouTube you're spending tens of thousands of dollars just to be in the race right just to be in the realm of possibility so when people ask me like how come you don't have an editor and how come you don't have a staff and everything cuz I just can't I just have to do everything on my own which has a double-edged sword it has one I get to do anything I want but I also have to really stretch myself thin in order to make it happen but that's the advantage of having a team right you bring in people then you have to bring in sponsors okay now you've brought in sponsors okay now you've been offered an investment to essentially expand your team okay well that takes some weight off of one of the other guys right CU now you have another staff member okay but now we have to get more money to pay for this extra staff member and then it just kind of keeps going right depends on the channel depends on the situation it depends on any business really YouTube is a business at the end of the day it's a fun creative business but there's really no such thing as time off in this business you're always thinking you're always creating you're always innovating that could be with a massive team or just an individual also will say when it comes to the peaking we are at an all-time high of like just everything at full blast right everybody has a big shop everybody has a headquarters everybody has whatever right and I'm guilty of this too I'm sitting in my office I could easily work from home but I have a warehouse and I have an office space mostly just to separate work from home I think the main question we should all ask is how many cars does an automotive YouTuber have to go through to survive my builds don't do as well as just my reviews or even me just talking in this office so why would I spend the tens of thousands of dollars to do builds that just don't hit my coyote swap s13 series was the worst performing video series ever and this isn't me complaining it's just the value proposition why should you build these cars for all this money nearly bankrupting yourself like my Hellcat Magnum I did that almost bankrupted me so then it put me in a situation going do I even do car builds anymore that's what the creative process is like on YouTube you have to find what works and then you lean into it for at least a little while and then you escape I think that's the best course of action you lean into what works you do it for a while and then you find that next thing that's what's kept me around for over a decade I've never been the top YouTuber or Automotive YouTuber but I've at least been able to have a career in this due to that formula and a lot of big corporations can't do that formula and that's really scary right when you have mouths to feed what do you guys think about all this just curious put it down in the comment section below and on that note thanks so much for watching this quick little video I appreciate every single one of you and see you this week I'll be uploading a lot more this week I promise keep bye\n"