found myself nodding along to just about everything Shaq had to say, from business deals to money management to staying true to the spirit. much respect to him.
Shaq is maybe the most knowledgeable creator I've heard talk about money. The long term value in producing as little content as possible is immeasurable. Many of these creators pushing videos 2x a week are churning slop. Even if people watch them they can't sell a patreon or merch because their content is so devalued. When someone like Shaq posts an 8 minute, thoughtful video with one ad once a month the value in comparison is so high they seek out patreon, merch, sponsors etc
This 1 hour 20 minute video with 8k views on a channel with less than 100k subscribers might just be one of the most insightful discussions ever posted on UA-cam.
This is one of the most interesting peeks behind the curtain I've ever seen as a UA-camr lover and longtime Shaq fan. I gobbled up every word. Great interview! Such an inspiration for small fries like myself that have a hard time finding advice in this field that isn't so soulless. Thanks for posting. :]
I really enjoyed this. Something I noticed that feels a little odd to me though is that Eric talks about netshaq's refusal to scale both his video production and ceramics business as if it's a decision purely driven by values and talked about in abstract quasi-moral terms like "passion." But I look at that decision as one that is at least partially driven by the fact that you can't scale these things without impacting and compromising the quality of the product itself. The implication that scaling is a neutral thing that just happens in the process of production and doesn't inherently have massive impacts on the product and its viability feels like a bizarre relic of ideology that doesn't hold up. I have a lot of respect for how he runs his channel and business, but I also think the qualities that make shaq successful are qualities that would also make scaling incredibly risky beyond netting a short-lived windfall. Maybe the brand could be cynically leveraged into something that could capture a wide enough audience that it wouldn't matter, but shaq's core audience has historically been fairly small and dedicated, and it's an audience that could easily be alienated by suddenly selling shoddy mass-produced goods or stretching videos out to fit a HelloFresh midroll. Scaling is not value-neutral -- and not "value" as in moral values -- and there do exist markets that are sensitive enough to the qualitative changes in a product that scaling involves that such a move would destroy the whole operation. To leave this out of the framing of some of these questions feels like leaving in an unquestioned assumption that all products are fundamentally interchangeable commodities, which feels ironic here because it's clear that shaq is interested in making things that are beyond commodity-grade.
I think that's a consequence of the fact that the podcast itself is pitching or is oriented towards pitching an analytics service that intrinsically feeds into this idea of min-maxing or using youtube analytics to maximise your profit. I think to move away from the assumption that content and business scaling is not something that would inherently change the actual content and business itself, like you said, is to almost implicitly call the reason for being of their service into question. After all, why use their app to do things like see specifically what is making how much money, or to compare your earnings to others, if they acknowledge that it might change the way you go about making content or feed into the appearance of 'selling out'. They may just have the assumption that scaling and growth-oriented content production really doesn't have to impact the way you make content, and therefore didn't consider it in Shaq's case, which makes sense given the app they're promoting. They also may have decided not to bring it up or to go past it because an acknowledgement of what you describe might turn potential customers off.
Thank you all for doing these interviews. Huge Internet Shaquille fan, as I feel like he's filled a niche in the culinary UA-cam space that I'd been longing for for years.
45:20 The value here imo is UA-cam is starting to feel corporate/soulless. I love Shaq's videos because it's not a 10-minute video that someone's stretching to purposely fit in more ads. Just reading through these comments and you'll see people feel the same way. Hell I'd say that this corporate soullessness bleeds into a lot of aspects in life nowadays. But seeing Shaq's unconventional perspective on running a business is really interesting and encouraging because it feels honest and healthy. I don't even make youtube content, but I found this fascinating to listen to as a way to approach life in general. Thanks for this interview!
can you guys do an interview with optimum tech, he doesn't do sponsorships either doesnt have merch, doesn't have paid reviews and only relys on ad revenue but somehow makes bank
"it's hard for me to present this information in a way that is satisfying for anybody well" I found it extremely satisfying! appreciate the honesty, and giving a detailed breakdown. often these types of conversations are wishy-washy and vague (which is fair enough, not everyone is open about their finances and that's understandable) but for me, this pod was a god send for just seeing whats possible/realistic and whilst still balancing a normal fun-filled life
80 minute runtime and no talk about Internet Shaq's relationship with basketball?! Im just kidding, it was a great watch and very informative! Thank you all for putting this on
great conversation. even the few things i disagree with shaq about were given the room to breathe in a way where i could understand the framework of his thought process & general philosophy. would like it if quinn were a little more involved in the convo
The entire part about being genuine could be a character, but even if it is, i redirect him for not being greedy and instead being happy with the insane wealth he's already accruing doing honestly very little work compared to a normal person
I love me a good Internet Shaquille video, but not gonna lie I had never heard of his ceramic company. I consider this fact a win for Shaq and the authenticity factor.
He says he pays himself from the business "2500 2x a month with taxes taken out". If he's getting 60k post-tax income, even if that's just a 25% effective tax rate (I don't remember which state he said he lives in), then it's minimum 80k per year. And that's just what he pays himself from the business, the business is likely accruing additional income that he can pay himself with down the line if he scales back. So his effective income seems quite high.
I'm surprised that he's "only" making $1-2k/month from UA-cam ads, since he's got ~750k subs and ~120M total views. My hope for starting a channel was to maybe eventually get to $200/month once I got better at it and more regular, but if Shaq with his big channel and decent-length/high-quality/mass-appeal videos is only on $1k, my labour-intensive/short/niche-interest videos have no chance lol. I'll just stick to trying to make people laugh and have that as its own reward.
At one point Shaquille talks about someone who is the complete opposite from Gary Vee, I can't find the timestamp anyone remember who he was referring to?
This is the longest UA-cam video I've ever watched in a single sitting. All three of you are insanely bright and quick thinkers. I am curious about your childhoods and parents and friend circles when you were a kid that allowed you to grow into who you are today. Big fan of Internet Shaq. I didn't know his real first name until now, and i wish it was Shaq lol
I know many creators are scared to shift their shtick because they are afraid they would lose their audience and they don’t gave savings or financial security. To be authentic you can’t be afraid for your very survival.
Power hour editor here. Good call Bree. You stay away Shaq. We've sustained so many injuries at these meetups (mainly foot-related) and we'd have sued your ass so fast for all of those on god
I thought to myself, "I'm not watching a 1:20:00 video" and just skipped to the Meetup chapter-- And now it's 20 minutes later because I was entranced by the banter. Saving to watch the whole thing later.
Ok I would love to be interviewed!! I have scaled to multiple six figures on UA-cam all while having a FT corporate job and 2 kids. First time seeing your channel. Love what you’re doing 😊 Edit: that is an INSANELY low RPM. Omg what?!
Internet Shaq knowing that card rewards are a regressive tax on certain groups makes me love him even more. Maybe he’ll have a future career in fintech ;)
sumbled upon this channel and creator and so glad i did! I appreciate the authenticity from shaq. There are very few creators that speak so candidly about money let alone dismiss opportunities to secure more bags! Instant follow for the channel and Shaq lfg!
Shaq, if you’re reading this, your feet pics are worth at least 3-4x more than $100/month.
found myself nodding along to just about everything Shaq had to say, from business deals to money management to staying true to the spirit. much respect to him.
Insane seeing the two best video essayists in the same room
what is this, a crossover episode?
Rhystic Study? On a NetShaq video?? Wowzers!
Cooking x Magic youtube crossover?
Goated crossover in the future
Shaq is maybe the most knowledgeable creator I've heard talk about money. The long term value in producing as little content as possible is immeasurable. Many of these creators pushing videos 2x a week are churning slop. Even if people watch them they can't sell a patreon or merch because their content is so devalued. When someone like Shaq posts an 8 minute, thoughtful video with one ad once a month the value in comparison is so high they seek out patreon, merch, sponsors etc
This 1 hour 20 minute video with 8k views on a channel with less than 100k subscribers might just be one of the most insightful discussions ever posted on UA-cam.
This is one of the most interesting peeks behind the curtain I've ever seen as a UA-camr lover and longtime Shaq fan. I gobbled up every word. Great interview! Such an inspiration for small fries like myself that have a hard time finding advice in this field that isn't so soulless. Thanks for posting. :]
Aww thank you!!
I really enjoyed this. Something I noticed that feels a little odd to me though is that Eric talks about netshaq's refusal to scale both his video production and ceramics business as if it's a decision purely driven by values and talked about in abstract quasi-moral terms like "passion." But I look at that decision as one that is at least partially driven by the fact that you can't scale these things without impacting and compromising the quality of the product itself. The implication that scaling is a neutral thing that just happens in the process of production and doesn't inherently have massive impacts on the product and its viability feels like a bizarre relic of ideology that doesn't hold up. I have a lot of respect for how he runs his channel and business, but I also think the qualities that make shaq successful are qualities that would also make scaling incredibly risky beyond netting a short-lived windfall. Maybe the brand could be cynically leveraged into something that could capture a wide enough audience that it wouldn't matter, but shaq's core audience has historically been fairly small and dedicated, and it's an audience that could easily be alienated by suddenly selling shoddy mass-produced goods or stretching videos out to fit a HelloFresh midroll. Scaling is not value-neutral -- and not "value" as in moral values -- and there do exist markets that are sensitive enough to the qualitative changes in a product that scaling involves that such a move would destroy the whole operation. To leave this out of the framing of some of these questions feels like leaving in an unquestioned assumption that all products are fundamentally interchangeable commodities, which feels ironic here because it's clear that shaq is interested in making things that are beyond commodity-grade.
I think that's a consequence of the fact that the podcast itself is pitching or is oriented towards pitching an analytics service that intrinsically feeds into this idea of min-maxing or using youtube analytics to maximise your profit. I think to move away from the assumption that content and business scaling is not something that would inherently change the actual content and business itself, like you said, is to almost implicitly call the reason for being of their service into question. After all, why use their app to do things like see specifically what is making how much money, or to compare your earnings to others, if they acknowledge that it might change the way you go about making content or feed into the appearance of 'selling out'.
They may just have the assumption that scaling and growth-oriented content production really doesn't have to impact the way you make content, and therefore didn't consider it in Shaq's case, which makes sense given the app they're promoting. They also may have decided not to bring it up or to go past it because an acknowledgement of what you describe might turn potential customers off.
Thank you all for doing these interviews. Huge Internet Shaquille fan, as I feel like he's filled a niche in the culinary UA-cam space that I'd been longing for for years.
Awww- thank you for watching! And yes I really wanted to showcase what he’s doing as a creator and human being
45:20 The value here imo is UA-cam is starting to feel corporate/soulless. I love Shaq's videos because it's not a 10-minute video that someone's stretching to purposely fit in more ads. Just reading through these comments and you'll see people feel the same way.
Hell I'd say that this corporate soullessness bleeds into a lot of aspects in life nowadays. But seeing Shaq's unconventional perspective on running a business is really interesting and encouraging because it feels honest and healthy. I don't even make youtube content, but I found this fascinating to listen to as a way to approach life in general.
Thanks for this interview!
This is the weirdest episode of iced coffee hour I've ever seen but love the new format
can you guys do an interview with optimum tech, he doesn't do sponsorships either doesnt have merch, doesn't have paid reviews and only relys on ad revenue but somehow makes bank
Internet Shaquille’s videos are always a breath of fresh air and I always feels inspired to THINK and try new things.
Patreon is monthly but parasociality is forever
"it's hard for me to present this information in a way that is satisfying for anybody well" I found it extremely satisfying! appreciate the honesty, and giving a detailed breakdown. often these types of conversations are wishy-washy and vague (which is fair enough, not everyone is open about their finances and that's understandable) but for me, this pod was a god send for just seeing whats possible/realistic and whilst still balancing a normal fun-filled life
i love hearing shaq talk
80 minute runtime and no talk about Internet Shaq's relationship with basketball?! Im just kidding, it was a great watch and very informative! Thank you all for putting this on
great conversation. even the few things i disagree with shaq about were given the room to breathe in a way where i could understand the framework of his thought process & general philosophy. would like it if quinn were a little more involved in the convo
Fwiw That momentum concept stuck perfectly for me. So regardless of the technical accuracy, the clarity was 🎯
He's the best food tuber NO CONTEST
i feel like this video could have been twice as long, great job :) hope we get another round of this sometime
This is so granular and nerdy. I love it
Really insightful stuff! I love how measured and balanced Shaq is about everything
The episode we have all been waiting for! ❤
Damn there's so much game in this single episode I can barely stand it. Thanks for doing this, guys
The entire part about being genuine could be a character, but even if it is, i redirect him for not being greedy and instead being happy with the insane wealth he's already accruing doing honestly very little work compared to a normal person
I love me a good Internet Shaquille video, but not gonna lie I had never heard of his ceramic company. I consider this fact a win for Shaq and the authenticity factor.
shoutout casey
I'm too deep in the shaq rabbit hole now. Someone help me get out.
Shaq is a smart guy. I like how deeply he thinks about things.
He makes HOW MUCH not selling out? Wow, I look down on the sellouts even more lol!!
The 200k he mentions is before UA-cam's cut. He's mentions in the video his yearly pay is about 60-80k, which is how much I make doing my office job.
He says he pays himself from the business "2500 2x a month with taxes taken out". If he's getting 60k post-tax income, even if that's just a 25% effective tax rate (I don't remember which state he said he lives in), then it's minimum 80k per year. And that's just what he pays himself from the business, the business is likely accruing additional income that he can pay himself with down the line if he scales back. So his effective income seems quite high.
Thanks for the great interview. Really well done :)
I'm surprised that he's "only" making $1-2k/month from UA-cam ads, since he's got ~750k subs and ~120M total views. My hope for starting a channel was to maybe eventually get to $200/month once I got better at it and more regular, but if Shaq with his big channel and decent-length/high-quality/mass-appeal videos is only on $1k, my labour-intensive/short/niche-interest videos have no chance lol.
I'll just stick to trying to make people laugh and have that as its own reward.
Great Podcast!
This confirms how I think most of his fanbase sees him
At one point Shaquille talks about someone who is the complete opposite from Gary Vee, I can't find the timestamp anyone remember who he was referring to?
30:53
This is the longest UA-cam video I've ever watched in a single sitting. All three of you are insanely bright and quick thinkers. I am curious about your childhoods and parents and friend circles when you were a kid that allowed you to grow into who you are today. Big fan of Internet Shaq. I didn't know his real first name until now, and i wish it was Shaq lol
I know many creators are scared to shift their shtick because they are afraid they would lose their audience and they don’t gave savings or financial security.
To be authentic you can’t be afraid for your very survival.
Papa Shaq thank you for the wisdom
Very good interview.
yo who is the guy in black shirt? he laughs so funny! i like him
Very curious if Casey is Dekar
Such a typical thing for a hater to do 😂
💯💯💯
Wow, such a typical thing for a hater to do! ;)
huge respect for resisting the urge to scale
Power hour editor here. Good call Bree. You stay away Shaq. We've sustained so many injuries at these meetups (mainly foot-related) and we'd have sued your ass so fast for all of those on god
How do I get to go to one of these conventions?
I thought to myself, "I'm not watching a 1:20:00 video" and just skipped to the Meetup chapter--
And now it's 20 minutes later because I was entranced by the banter.
Saving to watch the whole thing later.
Ok I would love to be interviewed!! I have scaled to multiple six figures on UA-cam all while having a FT corporate job and 2 kids. First time seeing your channel.
Love what you’re doing 😊
Edit: that is an INSANELY low RPM. Omg what?!
I disagree about brand rates with a management company. I have earned way more per deal while having the power of a management company behind me.
Ooh we’re planning more case study style formats so could be great! What’s your email?
I’d love to see an interview with Jen! I’ve been watching her channel for a while now, she has great videos on budgeting and is really positive!
I fucking love Shaq. Been following him for years, and all his videos are fantastic.
Internet Shaq knowing that card rewards are a regressive tax on certain groups makes me love him even more. Maybe he’ll have a future career in fintech ;)
bro is living the dream life
Bro made it
Always wondered if Shaquille was his real name. Was a bit confused when y'all were referring to him as Victor. Neat!
Can someone explain the ethernet iverson joke please?
His name is internet Shaquille- so Ethernet matches w internet and iverson matches w Shaquille since both basketball players!
smh such a hater thing to do
extranet iverson would have been so hard 😭😭
What the hosts don’t know is that ASU is the Harvard of the Southwest. #1 in innovation
If you know, you know.
This is really usefull
sumbled upon this channel and creator and so glad i did! I appreciate the authenticity from shaq. There are very few creators that speak so candidly about money let alone dismiss opportunities to secure more bags! Instant follow for the channel and Shaq lfg!
first time watching this channel, great graham stephan impression
What the heck I thought I was listening to graham Stephen. You have the same voice
Haha I get that a lot!
Great talk, like the mention of his AI video. Genuinely one of the best takes and videos on the topic I have seen.