Ryan Peters: Mastering Niche Content Creation with Social Media’s Viral "Pasta Guy"

In this episode we chat with Ryan Peters (@ryanpeterspgh) a.k.a "Peter's Pasta", a Pittsburgh-based chef and pasta enthusiast whose viral TikTok and Instagram videos have captivated millions. Ryan shares his inspiring story of transitioning from the demanding restaurant world to becoming a full-time content creator and pasta entrepreneur, all fuelled by a 64-day obsession with perfecting his craft. Discover how he blends creativity with tradition to make pasta fun and approachable and the bold steps he took to turn his passion into a thriving career. From working with major brands and professional sports teams to collaborating with internet sensations like Mr. Beast, Ryan reveals the lessons he's learned.

Expect to Learn:

- When to take a leap of faith and leave a stable job to pursue content creation
- The importance of consistency and storytelling to build a strong niche brand
- The challenges of balancing creativity with managing a growing business
- Insights into creating viral content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram
- Tips on recognizing opportunity and capitalizing on moments of momentum

Ryan's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/PetersPasta
Ryan's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@peterspasta
Ryan's Website: https://www.peterspastapgh.com/ryan
Ryan's Podcast: @kneadtoknow

Sponsor:

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Thanks for listening!
Go get shooting, go get editing, and stay focused.

@sethmacey
@mantis_photography

Transcript

INTRO

00:00.66
Seth Macey
Hey, welcome back to another episode of The Photographer Mindset podcast. I'm your co-host Seth Macey.

00:04.29
Aaron
I'm your co-host, Aaron Manis.

00:05.74
Seth Macey
Today we had on Ryan Peters, also known as Peter's pasta, a content creator who specializes in making some very tasty, very aesthetically pleasing pasta videos.

00:17.27
Seth Macey
who had a blew up very quickly on all platforms on social media.

00:17.50
Aaron
but

00:21.85
Seth Macey
He talks about that today. But you and I have been speaking that we wanna get more creators on the show who aren't necessarily photographers, but that are super passionate and super successful in their specific area or niche, whatever that is, because it's applicable.

00:39.30
Seth Macey
It's applicable applicable to us. We're all you know trying to make content in, Certain styles and genres and we can learn a lot from people like Ryan. So which should people listen out for today?

00:49.17
Aaron
Yeah, I think as most of us as content creators or photographers or videographers, we can get stuck with our photos aren't technical enough. Our photos, our videos aren't perfect enough. They're not as visually pleasing.

01:02.76
Aaron
I think the lesson, the big lesson for me in some of these episodes, and this one in particular with Ryan is that it's about the story and the formula and the the narrative that you're sharing, the sort of aspects of the look and the the technicality of which camera you have, that all kind of comes second. And I think it's a good reminder to not get bogged down in the details of like, if I had a better camera, this would happen. Or I need to but this $3,000 lens to make this sort of look. Yeah, that stuff might help, but there's a lot more to it than just that.

01:41.23
Seth Macey
Yeah, absolutely. And you can find links to Ryan socials in the episode description, if you want to check out some of the things we're referencing in this episode. And, uh, as always, if you're liking these episodes, cost-free effective way to support the show. So leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts and Spotify. So we're going to do a quick word from the sponsor and then right into our episode with Ryan Peters.

INTERVIEW: 

01:02.65
Seth Macey
You're known as the pasta guy.

01:04.54
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

01:04.95
Seth Macey
Is that annoying?

01:05.92
Ryan Peters
No, I love it.

01:07.77
Seth Macey
You love it. Why do you love it?

01:09.39
Ryan Peters
I mean, I think that's what I kind of set out to be known as when I started like this journey on social.

01:14.96
Seth Macey
Right.

01:15.00
Ryan Peters
ah um And so if that's what I think most of the internet considers me, I think that's a job well done on my part. you know

01:23.34
Seth Macey
Yeah, let people know a little bit about this this journey to being the internet's past a guy.

01:24.34
Aaron
Yeah.

01:29.34
Ryan Peters
e Yeah, it's been, it's been a journey.

01:30.04
Seth Macey
yeah It's quite a title. It's quite a title to be dubbed the internet's past a guy.

01:33.00
Aaron
That's awesome. Yeah.

01:36.01
Seth Macey
But I would like to know, I mean, you're good friends with Ian Jones, who could show quite a bit.

01:36.12
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

01:40.72
Seth Macey
And he gushes about you.

01:42.46
Ryan Peters
yeah Yeah.

01:43.13
Seth Macey
And he's told me a little bit about kind of your your your backstory. But i want I want to hear it right from the horse's mouth.

01:50.34
Ryan Peters
ah How far back do you want me to go?

01:52.50
Seth Macey
I want you to go a as far back as you like. If you want to make it shorter, I would say when you first set out creating your very unique pasta videos.

02:10.62
Ryan Peters
Cool. I'll give you the kind of blended version of that. Um, so basically I started out from a very young age. All I've ever wanted to do was be a chef. There was nobody in my family that was in the industry, but for some reason, since as early as second grade, that was like, I was drawing pictures of chefs and things and, um, really never had a backup plan. Um, so worked in restaurants in high school, went to um culinary school after high school.

02:37.28
Ryan Peters
And just then just started working all over the country in different restaurants and clubs and resorts and things. um And kind of just trying to figure out where in this industry I i was able to fit. um Because I think that's in the in the culinary world, I think a lot of young chefs struggle with finding what it is they want to do. um Because there's so many options. So I kind of tried out a whole bunch of things and never really felt like i was i mean I was always happy but I wasn't satisfied.

03:09.74
Ryan Peters
that makes sense

03:10.90
Seth Macey
Yep.

03:12.04
Ryan Peters
and so um After working in the restaurants for quite a few years, um I guess it was 2000 18 maybe.

03:23.87
Ryan Peters
um i And mind you, I had made pasta probably thousands of times during my career in restaurants. you know I knew how to make it. I was you know decent at making it, but I never thought anything special of it when I made it. um But maybe you know seven or eight years ago, I i made a pound of pasta at home for my wife and I.

03:43.66
Seth Macey
Yeah.

03:44.27
Ryan Peters
This was like after a long day at work, came home, made made some fresh pasta, made some sauce, and we sat down and ate it. And for whatever reason, that night, it turned out fantastic.

03:53.76
Aaron
Hmm.

03:54.13
Ryan Peters
I was like, man, that was great. And so that started a journey of 64 days in a row, making a pound of pasta every day. So I would come home from you know a 12, 13 hour shift in the restaurant, make a pound of pasta, go to bed, wake up, roll it out, figure out a shape to learn and did that for 64 days until I became obsessed with it. And I was finally like, okay, cool. like I found my lane. I'm going to be a pasta chef. I'll work in Italian restaurants. This is great.

04:21.70
Ryan Peters
And so I kind of pursued that for a little while and bounced around some different restaurants and really just became obsessed with the craft of pasta making and trying to learn as much as I could about it. um And that kind of funneled into 2019, the summer of 2019.

04:40.29
Seth Macey
Mm hmm.

04:40.70
Ryan Peters
As I'm sure you guys and everybody remembers, that's kind of when TikTok was really kind of blowing up. And my younger brother was out here visiting my wife and I and this was all he was talking about was TikTok.

04:51.62
Ryan Peters
He was in college and I was like, dude, this is dumb, like, get out of here.

04:54.57
Seth Macey
but

04:56.58
Ryan Peters
But I decided to download it anyway. And, you know, I'd always been really good when I was a chef of documenting everything I did, whether that was journal entries or photos or videos, not realizing that it was content, but just I love to document my work. So I kind of already had a backlog of content that I didn't realize was content. So I posted my first video ever on TikTok. It was, do you guys, have you ever made or had fresh gnocchi before?

05:24.93
Seth Macey
ah probably not to

05:26.15
Ryan Peters
Or you've probably seen it made, like it's made like on a little like gnocchi board to give the ridges and stuff.

05:28.56
Aaron
Yeah. Hmm?

05:31.63
Ryan Peters
So I had like a five or six second clip of me making cavatelli on this gnocchi board and I posted it on TikTok. Zero followers. And that first video got half a million views overnight.

05:42.67
Aaron
Jeez.

05:43.60
Ryan Peters
And I was just like, whoa.

05:45.12
Aaron
Hooked.

05:46.00
Ryan Peters
like At the time, I think I maybe had a couple thousand followers on Instagram and if a picture got like a hundred likes, I was ecstatic.

05:46.05
Aaron
ah

05:47.43
Seth Macey
Uh, probably not.

05:54.60
Ryan Peters
It was fantastic.

05:56.12
Seth Macey
No.

05:56.39
Ryan Peters
so To see that, i was like I was convinced that something went wrong. There was a glitch in the system. like That wasn't real. It doesn't happen. um so I honestly like went away from the app for a couple of weeks just because I didn't think it was real and then I eventually came back and started posting some more things and I started to see that the videos were getting attention and like people were following me for this pasta stuff.

06:22.97
Ryan Peters
um So then it rolled into, I went about a year straight of posting every single day on TikTok. Mind you, I was still working like a full-time job as a chef. So I would work you know in the restaurant, come home and stay up till three, four in the morning, making videos just for the sole purpose of of making this content now.

06:43.21
Ryan Peters
which was very, very new to me. And it's just this different world that I didn't realize existed. um And anyway, to make a long story short, that kind of funneled into November of 2020, when my son was born, I took a month off from the restaurant um to be home and help with the baby and things. And in that month, that's when I realized that this isn't just a side hobby, that this is a business. And there's a potential here for me to really make it something special. And that's when I made the decision to leave the restaurant full time and really pursue this.

07:19.20
Seth Macey
How do you take that leap of faith? How do you know is the right time? This is a common question a lot of people ask and struggle with, especially when leaving something that's safe and secure and is provided for so long. When they have responsibilities like children, like you just mentioned, what were the signs for you that indicated this is a smart move for me, even though I don't necessarily know what's going to work out a hundred percent?

07:47.27
Ryan Peters
i don't think it I don't think I knew that it was a smart move, to be honest. I was scared shitless. Like you said, like I just had a baby. ah Here I am about to leave a very steady job, a steady paycheck, benefits, um for what?

07:59.67
Ryan Peters
like I had no idea if this is sustainable.

08:02.91
Seth Macey
Right.

08:03.05
Ryan Peters
um But I think it was really just recognizing that I had something there, that what I was doing was something special. I was able to um really begin to make a name for myself in this industry. um And so I think to answer that question is really just being able to take a step back and recognize what you're doing is working.

08:28.38
Ryan Peters
and like and it was successful too. like it was like The month before my son was born, ah had my biggest month I've ever had on social media, I went from 300,000 followers to 1.1 million in three weeks. so I was having this crazy, crazy success. so It was kind of like things happened at the best time where That happened, then my son was born, and I was like, all right, I have proof of concept here. like This is working, and it's steamrolling really hard. like If I'm going to do it, now's the time to do it, because who knows how long this is going to last? And we all know how fast the internet and social media is. like If I have a chance to jump in and get my space, like I need to do it now. um And I think I've seen a lot of you know other content creators that come into space, not even just food, but you know any sort of creative where

09:17.28
Ryan Peters
they get this flash in the pan success and they're not able to recognize it and they just kind of let it blow past. And then when they decide, oh, maybe I want to try this, like it's too late, like I don't want to say it's too late, but it's going to be a lot more difficult than if you had recognized it when the real opportunity was there and and really did something with it.

09:36.12
Seth Macey
Yeah, right. the The moment's gone. If you can, Ryan, just back up a little bit from that mic too as we keep going.

09:39.19
Ryan Peters
Yeah. Sure.

09:42.20
Seth Macey
ah It's coming in a bit hot, but it still sounds good to me. My question for you is on this topic is how do you know you're onto something special? Is it as simple as the numbers, how fast you're growing?

09:56.41
Seth Macey
Is that just the indicator in and in and of itself?

10:00.47
Ryan Peters
I mean, I think for social media senses, yeah, I think that's the biggest indicator is, you know, That is the metric that I think that we all use.

10:13.21
Ryan Peters
But then also, like when I was doing this and really starting, yes, there were other people doing pasta on the internet. I was by no means the first and you know in any way, shape, or form.

10:23.61
Ryan Peters
But I think I was doing it in a way that was different. And um again, I was able to recognize that too.

10:28.73
Seth Macey
yet

10:31.08
Seth Macey
what's different ah That's what I'm really curious to know. like There's other people doing what you're doing. You're not the pioneer here. You're not you know breaking ground in this area.

10:39.97
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

10:41.65
Seth Macey
What do you accredit your the level of intrigue that viewers have with your content? and how Because it's it's the attention that you're able to capture.

10:52.01
Seth Macey
It was able to help you grow what you love doing into a business.

10:52.02
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

10:58.65
Seth Macey
So I guess what's different between what you were doing and what maybe other content creators were doing and don't feel embarrassed tuning your own horn here.

11:09.21
Ryan Peters
I mean, I think a couple of things. um One, I would say you know not as specific, but just the consistency in which I did it and the quantity in which I did it. like I think that was very crucial in allowing me to have that early growth. um But I think more specifically to the actual pasta is the way that I've built my brand on social media was I never wanted to take myself too seriously with this stuff like I come from the background of being this like very serious fine dining chef and like I kind of wanted to get past that like I'm still very serious about pasta like don't get me wrong like this is I live and breathe this and I'm very very technical with it but at the same time like I recognize that I'm no longer feeding 200 guests in a fine dining restaurant.

12:02.43
Ryan Peters
I'm now quote unquote feeding millions of people, a lot of home cooks, a lot of children, a lot of just regular everyday people that want to learn how to make fresh pasta and I think there's a lot of times where you know sometimes you'll see you know how to make pasta videos online and they're very intimidating and very stuffy and like there's no way I can do that. but you know For me, it was always from the beginning, making it accessible to people, having fun with it, obviously respecting tradition, but also being non-traditional with it. um And just kind of doing things that people hadn't done or haven't seen done before. like I've made pasta on the Empire State Building. I've been to dozens of different stadiums. like I've made pasta in a Walmart before. like Just doing things that are very

12:49.49
Ryan Peters
um not typical for pasta, you know I guess, per se, but um just kind of breaking down walls and making it not so intimidating, making it fun. like The amount of messages that I've gotten from families and stuff that or you know anybody that says, you know you got me into pasta making or you made me try making pasta, like that's that's why I do this. you know we're not We're not doing anything crazy over here. It's flour and eggs. you know it's It's not rocket science, but I think so many people were so intimidated by it for so long. At the end of the day, like if I can you know introduce it to more people, that's the goal.

13:27.24
Seth Macey
Yeah, well it's very well said.

13:28.04
Aaron
It's really cool. if If you're figuring out the recipe to pasta and then the recipe to TikTok, where's the transition to the recipe to the business? Because I feel like you're spending a whole year essentially.

13:44.95
Aaron
uh, not only, you know, figuring out your craft, but figuring out content, doing it every day, making videos. And then you decide, I need to jump in. Where's the brain go to like, now I need to balance in a third leg to this stool, which is the business aspect.

14:00.93
Aaron
Am I selling pasta?

14:01.15
Ryan Peters
yeah

14:02.29
Aaron
Am I teaching pasta? Like, where does that go? And where were the, what are the choices and the sort of weighing of the choices in which direction you're going to, am I opening in my own restaurant?

14:12.84
Aaron
Like what?

14:13.73
Ryan Peters
Mm hmm.

14:13.82
Aaron
How did you figure out how to jump in and where to jump in and where the the money was so to say.

14:20.92
Ryan Peters
I had absolutely no idea where to start, to be honest. like When I left my job, I felt like I was at ground zero where I was scrambling figuring out like how am I going to make money this month.

14:33.80
Ryan Peters
um And like the low-hanging fruit there was like, okay, I'm a food creator. I'm going to partner with a pot and pan company or an apron company or a knifeware company. you know um And those kinds of things made sense. but And I still entertain those and have done those before, but for me, it was like that doesn't necessarily align. It it aligns with my brand, obviously. but on a deeper level, like, again, I say that, like, I was always trying to not take it too seriously and like kind of blend tradition and non tradition. So, um, you know, as I thought about scaling this business, I thought about it like that too for that side of it. Um, and so, you know, I, I'm trying to think, so the best way to say it, I don't think I,

15:27.42
Ryan Peters
was aggressive with trying to make money in the beginning. Like obviously I knew I had to make money and you know I was making money from all the platforms, Instagram, TikTok and stuff. So there was money coming in, but I was really more focused on building the brand and I guess just kind of keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the brands would see it and reach out. um And I think my first light bulb moment was This was probably like late 2020, early 2021. The NFL reached out to me and that was like, holy shit. Like maybe I don't have to just align with the pot and pan companies and the apron companies. Like if I can work with the NFL, like that makes on paper, that makes no sense for a pasta creator. That is a very, very deep niche to collaborate with the national football league. It didn't make sense. Um, but

16:23.67
Ryan Peters
It made no sense that it made so much sense to me and I kind of doubled down on doing brand partnerships and and building the business that way of just trying to be like this weird dude that does the most odd things, but for some reason it works so well. um And that's kind of carried me on over the past four years.

16:46.12
Seth Macey
Yeah, it's juxtaposing something like against sports as an example in this instance, making pasta. the people are that That in itself is intriguing.

16:55.87
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

16:56.37
Seth Macey
how how How does this align?

16:58.61
Ryan Peters
it It made no sense, but it was funny. So I don't know if you guys watch NFL or anything but um or sports fans, but the Kansas City Chiefs who were playing in the Super Bowl next week, I've done a couple of things with them over the past few years.

17:09.55
Ryan Peters
And um the first time I did a partnership with the Chiefs, I was on the field the day before a game, making pasta on the field with the mascot and the cheerleaders and stuff.

17:21.17
Ryan Peters
And they had a stadium tour going on. um what like in the stadium while I was in there and I'm doing my thing making pasta and here comes the tour of you know 30 40 people and all of a sudden these kids see me they start screaming out Peter's pasta Peter's pasta and I was like holy shit this is working like here I am you know thousands of miles away from home in a football stadium and these kids are recognizing me.

17:46.35
Ryan Peters
So I think ah that was kind of proof of concept that, okay, this model is actually working and I can just kind of you know rinse and repeat and replicate it literally anywhere.

17:50.22
Aaron
and Very cool.

17:58.54
Seth Macey
Yeah, that's ah that's an interesting point. This model is working and I can rinse and repeat anywhere. I think I've asked this question to other guests on the show who have achieved great levels of success as well. How do you find the balance, strike a balance between, I'm going to continue to press the button repeatedly of what's giving me great results and just you know keep hammering away at that.

18:25.13
Seth Macey
versus I'm going to experiment and try something new. Obviously your story is very compressed in that you had rapid success very quickly in, in the you know grand scheme of things. Often people will spend three, two, three decades to get to a level like that. So it's all very fast thanks to the accelerant, the the gas and the fire of social media, which is great for creators like yourself, right? So do you ever,

18:55.23
Seth Macey
think about the, how to find that balance between, I'm gonna just keep doing what's working versus I'm gonna do something entirely new.

19:05.04
Ryan Peters
Uh, it's funny. So I'd say as early as like late 2020, early 21, like a lot of my peers in the space were like, all right, like enough of the pasta, like switch it up, try something new.

19:19.53
Ryan Peters
Like, and I just like, ah everyone told me that there was no way that this would work being so niche down as I am.

19:20.18
Seth Macey
Right.

19:29.39
Ryan Peters
You know, a lot of like the really successful food creators are just that food creators, they do, you know, a list of multitude of different foods and things. And it's hard to be successful when you're very niche down, just because it gets watered down and people don't want to see the same thing. um But what I found is that people do want to see the same thing. um But they also want it like, as long as you're creative with it, I feel like, and you're able to recognize when something has died,

20:02.89
Ryan Peters
like Obviously, I'm always going to do pasta, um but I'm able to do it in different ways, and I'm able to serialize things where you know I can have a series of you know that may run run for 10 to 20 videos, and I'm able to recognize when the steam is letting off that, and then it's okay. like We got to figure out something new. like Let's get back to the drawing board, come up with a new creative idea. um But I think it's just really being able to be smart with your content and like Okay, and it was almost like a challenge for me was like, there's no way you're gonna make it with just being pasta, like, okay, watch, like, I am going to and, and it's worked so far, thankfully, like, I'm like, it, there's no um loss of gratitude on my end, like, it's crazy that I am still going.

20:39.36
Seth Macey
Right.

20:52.67
Ryan Peters
um But I tell people, like, I feel like I'm honestly still just getting started, you know, like, I, i there's still so much I can do. um I feel like I'm just in the infancy of of getting started on social.

21:06.13
Aaron
question. yeah I mean, this all happened with the birth of your your child at the same time. And that's ah that's a big stressor for any family, right?

21:12.21
Ryan Peters
yeah

21:15.18
Aaron
and And now you're kind of going full speed ahead in a new direction.

21:15.18
Ryan Peters
yeah

21:20.50
Aaron
And I imagine that could cause stress or tension. How was the support in that sort of transition and really pressing for something that you didn't know the outcome of, and I'm sure taking tons of time and the balance of family and all that stuff.

21:33.08
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

21:39.05
Aaron
ah what What obstacles and support ah from your wife and and what have you helped get through that part?

21:47.48
Ryan Peters
Yeah, honestly, like, I'm not gonna like, try to like make up a story like it honestly wasn't that difficult. um I think things happened at such a good time.

22:02.01
Ryan Peters
like I was more scared of being in restaurants when I had my son.

22:06.31
Aaron
Mhm.

22:06.87
Ryan Peters
then i like That scared me more because I worked for too many chefs and and colleagues that have kids and they just never see their family because they're working so much versus I was able to get out when every chef dreams of getting out when they is when they start a family.

22:22.70
Ryan Peters
um But I mean, they were still definitely like stressors and it definitely um It was just a different obstacle course to run through just because it was so brand new. you know like I didn't know how to. It took me, honestly, a couple months to really figure out how to structure working from home now. It was so new to me. like There was definitely like weeks where I just you know was messing around in the basement or whatever. Cause I was like, Oh, this is work, but I wasn't actually getting anything done. And, um, it took me a couple of weeks to figure that out. But, um, like I said, like it it was honestly not that difficult. Like I was able to be really flexible with my time. Now I was able to take off a day. If I wanted to take off a day, it was just, it, it really just opened up doors to allow me to actually have more of a family life than the not.

23:19.41
Seth Macey
I wonder how much the excitement of inbound opportunity, what that does for your energy levels.

23:26.64
Ryan Peters
What do you mean?

23:26.72
Seth Macey
you know Like you have this whole new adventure that you're on and things are working for you and that's exciting. Maybe that provides you a little bit of extra gas just in general, a little bit more extra energy to to to utilize wherever.

23:36.15
Aaron
Yeah.

23:41.96
Seth Macey
I am curious to know, you mentioned, we're going back a few minutes, that when you had left your job, you're at ground zero was the term you used What helped you at that phase?

23:49.92
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

23:51.53
Seth Macey
was it and And the second part of this question is how much ah planning versus just doing things, actually moving forward in direction with doing things as opposed to idealizing and coming up with concepts, did you do?

24:11.59
Ryan Peters
I think it was just that, it was just doing things and letting the content just fuel everything um and not really thinking about things too much and just really kind of like shooting from the hip with everything, whether it be with what video I was going to make that day or thinking of ways to like keep scaling the business.

24:32.93
Ryan Peters
um It was just really kind of like playing rootlet to be honest, like seeing what works and then if it works, do it again. If it doesn't work, scrap it and we got to go figure something else out.

24:44.57
Ryan Peters
um And then just really like being really analytical with watching the content and really just letting the content fuel everything.

24:45.56
Seth Macey
Right.

24:54.62
Seth Macey
Yeah, that makes sense.

24:55.76
Aaron
And what did that content fuel? Like at this point today, we're five years in, right?

25:01.65
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

25:02.20
Aaron
ish ah Is it just you? Do you have a team behind you? Is there a scalable approach? ah these Are you franchised? like ah I mean, what what part has the growth taken you?

25:15.76
Aaron
Like where where has that growth taken you and and where do you see in the next five years?

25:21.31
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

25:21.35
Aaron
which

25:22.61
Ryan Peters
Well, I'm proud to say that, uh, you're looking at the team right here.

25:27.03
Seth Macey
Oh, good for you, man.

25:27.28
Ryan Peters
Um, yeah, I mean, I've definitely like, obviously I've, you know, worked with Ian and stuff on certain projects.

25:28.41
Seth Macey
That's incredible.

25:29.56
Aaron
yeah

25:34.34
Ryan Peters
And, um, my buddy, Josh, who, um, is like my videographer for a lot of my YouTube stuff. But, um, yeah.

25:40.76
Seth Macey
understood

25:44.01
Ryan Peters
But, um, beyond that, I mean, it's just, It's just me. like I still shoot all my TikToks and reels and shorts and stuff, everything. like um Editing all that, doing all that stuff, doing all the admin work, doing all the booking of flights and stuff, doing all the outreach, all the inbound, all the negotiations, all of that stuff.

26:02.29
Ryan Peters
um So on that aspect of it, like there's been no scaling. like But that's been intentional. like not like I've wanted to keep it that way, just because I really want to learn

26:10.85
Aaron
Yeah.

26:13.08
Ryan Peters
everything that there is to to learn in this space. um And then in terms of like where else there's been growth, like I've really just been focused on the content and we're really just getting to a point now where we're thinking about um a dried pasta line that I want to launch here that I've been working on slowly, honestly, for about two years. I just haven't had the time to really give it the attention it deserves. um But I think those are the things that are next is all of these um IRL things, whether it be the pasta line, pasta sauce line, a cookbook, um just doing things like that and letting the the content kind of

26:50.39
Ryan Peters
continue to live in the background.

26:51.89
Aaron
Mm hmm.

26:52.09
Ryan Peters
um But up until this point, it's really just been focusing on the content, figuring out what we can do to make it better, figuring out ways that we can um just succeed on every platform.

27:04.23
Ryan Peters
um Because like we said earlier, like it's it's very rare to still be somewhat relevant five years in on social. um So the fact that I still am, like I think now we're at a place where the content is still doing really great. We can really start just kind of stepping aside a bit, still focusing on the content, but just focusing on these other brands and really building it up outside of just the internet.

27:32.96
Seth Macey
Now, this is a question that, uh, will be your opinion and could also take an entire episode on its own. I understand that, but I'm curious to know in your opinion, the difference amongst the major platforms of the nuances that make pieces of content perform well, for example, in other words, what does well on Tik TOK versus Instagram versus YouTube shorts versus YouTube long format, et cetera.

27:40.22
Ryan Peters
Oh boy.

28:00.32
Seth Macey
In your experience, just small things.

28:03.33
Ryan Peters
So my opinion, people might disagree with this, but this is my opinion is that if it's good content, it's gonna do well everywhere. I just, I do, like I think there's obviously outlier outliers to that and I've seen that where a video crushes everywhere except for YouTube or Snapchat or something and I'm like, wait a second, that doesn't make sense. Why is that not working there? But I think overall, if your content is really good content, it's going to work everywhere. If you've built your your audience properly,

28:33.08
Ryan Peters
Um, you know, I see a lot of people that get frustrated with different things and I'm shadow band and whatever it may be. But like, I think that's the point where you can kind of step back and look at what you're doing and make sure that it actually is one, the best that you can do, but also two, like, is it on brand with what you've been doing and what your audience knows you as?

28:53.88
Ryan Peters
Um, cause I think we've all been there, but I just, I'm a firm believer that if it's good content, the platform's going to reward you

29:00.08
Seth Macey
Right.

29:04.45
Seth Macey
Yeah. Do you feel like good content can exist with minimal plays? In other words, is it the numbers that defines what good content is, the plays, the likes?

29:16.96
Seth Macey
Or do you feel like you've made really cool stuff that hasn't performed very well?

29:21.40
Ryan Peters
oh definitely I think I mean yeah I mean I think but I think everybody like has certain I think that every creative has certain benchmarks on social media for what a successful post is right like I feel like I know I do like when I post a video if it doesn't hurt hit a certain benchmark I'm like shit like that's a flop whatever on to the next one but I just feel like

29:50.86
Ryan Peters
I don't know, like, you know, I don't know.

29:52.94
Seth Macey
yeah Yeah, how much time do you spend dissecting the flops or do you just move on and keep your head down?

30:00.13
Ryan Peters
Uh, now not nearly as much as I used to. I used to get like really in my head about it. Like it would really mess me up if like a video like really severely under underperformed. Um, but nowadays like I just ah just chalk it up as a loss. You know what I mean? It's just like, all right, whatever. That one didn't hit for whatever reason. We're probably going to post another one tomorrow. And honestly, like sometimes too, we found that like over time, like I have a video now on YouTube, on shorts, that it's from like two years ago. And it's still getting 200,000 views a day.

30:39.71
Ryan Peters
today.

30:40.64
Seth Macey
just

30:40.78
Ryan Peters
And like, I was looking at it, looking at it last week, the first three months, I think it got like 40,000 views.

30:41.24
Aaron
What?

30:47.78
Ryan Peters
And then after like the arc is just crazy.

30:48.12
Aaron
Huh.

30:49.42
Ryan Peters
And it's, so it's really, really interesting.

30:54.31
Seth Macey
I imagine you're not short on people trying to offer you unsolicited advice.

30:59.81
Ryan Peters
Yeah, not at all.

31:02.63
Seth Macey
How do you decide what is good advice and what is just noise?

31:09.53
Ryan Peters
uh... there's definitely a lot of noise everybody seems to know what i should be doing it seems like uh... i think for me it's i don't know if this is right or wrong but uh... i just kind of uh... look at who's the person telling me the advice and if there's somebody that i look up to her you know i if I can actually value what they're saying, not saying that I have to look up to you to be able to take your advice, but I think just to kind of look deeper into where their advice is coming from.

31:47.39
Ryan Peters
If it's just some random Instagram DM telling me like, whatever, you know, it's just like, there's probably not much substance there and you just want to give me your opinion, which is great.

31:56.48
Seth Macey
Yeah.

31:58.08
Ryan Peters
Whatever. I'll take it. But, um, I think you guys kind of have to filter through that and and sort through the noise to kind of get to to the value. um And sometimes it's also seeking out that advice myself. I'm no stranger to just you know DMing or texting or calling a buddy and being like, like listen, like watch this video or give me advice on this or whatever. um Because I feel like that's the best way to grow is to really just being able to look at yourself and and take that criticism, good or bad. um Because if not, like we can't just sit here and think that our stuff is always gold because it's not like we have to be able to be flexible in that um to really be able to grow.

32:44.96
Seth Macey
Aaron, you have anything?

32:47.13
Aaron
Yeah, I mean, this is so my own personal question, I think, but I know people are wondering, what is the key to great pasta? the Is it the water, the flour, the ah eggs?

32:59.10
Ryan Peters
and

33:00.30
Aaron
like what Is the freshness?

33:00.47
Ryan Peters
you know like I'm nerd out.

33:02.54
Aaron
like what What's the key?

33:05.88
Ryan Peters
um No, I think so.

33:07.80
Aaron
I can't say that I have.

33:08.62
Ryan Peters
Have either of you guys ever made fresh pasta?

33:11.22
Seth Macey
I haven't gone.

33:12.75
Ryan Peters
Alright, well we gotta switch that up, but no, I think so pasta and I won't go too nerdy on this, but.

33:14.75
Aaron
Yeah, yeah.

33:20.34
Seth Macey
Oh, please be nerdy. We have, we have, ah I think most of this shows listening as our nerds. So let's do it.

33:25.35
Ryan Peters
Alright.

33:25.54
Aaron
Yeah. And we're all getting hungry at this point.

33:28.66
Seth Macey
Not sorry.

33:29.09
Ryan Peters
so So pasta at its core is two ingredients, either pasta or it's our either flour and eggs or flour and water.

33:29.22
Seth Macey
I called you a nerd in your list.

33:36.18
Aaron
Go on.

33:40.44
Ryan Peters
So with that, I think your question was what makes really good pasta is I think using really good ingredients. So like when I make pasta, I use the best flour that I can get and the best eggs that I can get because Versus you know, if you're making like a classic like french braised short rib dish where there's a bunch of red wine and butter and herbs and all these things the dish can hide behind with pasta There's nothing to hide behind like if you have I don't know if I can swear if you have really shitty flour and really shitty eggs Like you're going to have really shitty pasta.

34:12.80
Ryan Peters
Like it's that simple.

34:13.22
Aaron
Yeah.

34:13.76
Ryan Peters
Like it's a very very simple thing um that I think people just kind of overlook and they they just settle with a box of whatever pasta, which is fine. But I think for people when they've never had fresh pasta and they make it for the first time, it's kind of like, holy shit, like this is incredible.

34:31.20
Seth Macey
I love you guys.

34:32.19
Ryan Peters
And I get that all the time from people, which is great, but um it really is so simple. And I feel like I had a culinary school teacher back when I was in school.

34:43.27
Ryan Peters
He had a quote that someone, something along the lines of um simplicity done right is perfection. And like that couldn't be more true for pasta, that it really is just kind of like keeping things simple and having proper technique and whatever that can kind of come with time.

35:02.23
Ryan Peters
But I think just for any at-home cook, if you want to get into pasta making, that's all it is. It's just use good ingredients and it's not like you're baking cookies. You're not going to burn it.

35:12.85
Ryan Peters
Like you can't burn pasta.

35:12.89
Aaron
Yeah. Yeah.

35:15.03
Seth Macey
This begs the question, what's a good egg?

35:15.26
Aaron
Give me, give me a starter kit of, of what I need. and be Give me a starter kit of what I need besides the the ingredients, but what do I need to get me going with making pasta?

35:18.93
Ryan Peters
What's that?

35:26.86
Ryan Peters
That's it.

35:27.82
Aaron
That's it.

35:28.77
Ryan Peters
That's it. that's like this is It's that simple.

35:30.56
Aaron
We just, we just slice it.

35:30.71
Seth Macey
You looked right.

35:32.51
Aaron
We just cut it.

35:33.64
Ryan Peters
Yeah, you can. You can have like big fancy machines and stuff, but like you don't need that.

35:34.56
Aaron
Yeah.

35:37.72
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

35:38.77
Ryan Peters
um

35:39.86
Seth Macey
Do you have a big fancy machine in your basement there? right beside

35:42.43
Ryan Peters
It's right next to me, yeah. like I'm very like grateful. I have like all this big commercial industrial equipment, but...

35:47.97
Seth Macey
be able to take your phone on YouTube and just show it and then put it back.

35:51.44
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

35:51.87
Seth Macey
but school

35:53.97
Ryan Peters
So that's right there. um

35:56.48
Seth Macey
I'm excited to see it now because we didn't get to see it, but that's okay.

35:59.16
Ryan Peters
But like a lot of people at home will have like a little like hand crank machine or they'll have like an attachment for their KitchenAid, which is great.

36:02.30
Aaron
Yeah.

36:04.28
Ryan Peters
But even like some people will use that as an excuse where they don't have that and they're like, I can't do it. I'm like, bullshit, you can. Do you have a rolling pin? Do you have a bottle of wine? Do you have anything that can just roll this pasta thin?

36:16.06
Ryan Peters
um So that's it. you literally eat It's the flour and eggs. You mix it until it's dough. then you the it's the As long as you follow the process, right however it is that you get there,

36:27.34
Ryan Peters
You're fine. So you just roll it thin and then you cut it into whatever shape it is. Then that's it. It's really that simple.

36:33.39
Aaron
Cool.

36:33.90
Seth Macey
I'm starving.

36:34.81
Aaron
um This is gonna happen. Sounds fun.

36:38.26
Ryan Peters
I can't wait. I hope to see it.

36:39.85
Seth Macey
this begs the question though and we'll move back on to content creation questions what you said it's just good ingredients well this basic question what's what's a great egg what's a great bag of flour

36:50.10
Ryan Peters
Yeah, well.

36:53.08
Ryan Peters
Uh, I have thankfully been working with a certain egg company for the past couple of years. They're happy egg, um, here in the States.

37:02.21
Seth Macey
Was this the beast thing with we led with that?

37:02.46
Ryan Peters
Um, yeah. Yep. So that was actually the, that was our first, that was the kickoff kickoff of our partnership was them donating 10,000 eggs for that video, which we can get into all that stuff.

37:14.38
Seth Macey
Yeah, we will.

37:15.31
Ryan Peters
Um, yeah, so they're in my opinion, the best eggs that you can get readily available here in the States. Um, a lot of eggs that you see are just like a pale yellow color and they're gross but like these ones are so like they're such a deep dark orange amber color that they're really really beautiful and they taste fantastic. And then flour like I use like a really high quality double zero flour from Italy um that you know Double zero flower is, it's getting a lot easier to find to be honest. um For a while it was hard to find, but now it's you can know order it online. like it's Most grocery stores sell it, so it's easy stuff to find.

37:55.08
Seth Macey
Good stuff. We're going to make some post iron.

37:57.63
Aaron
Yeah, I think, uh, there'll be some good content.

38:00.52
Ryan Peters
Love it.

38:00.72
Aaron
The photographer mindset. Yeah.

38:04.15
Seth Macey
What did you ah tell us about the the campaign with ah Mr. Beast and you don't need to go super in detail just as much as you like and maybe some things you learned about hanging around, I think the greatest content creator of all time.

38:15.17
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

38:22.94
Ryan Peters
Yeah. So to give some backstory on that, so January of 2023, I was sitting here in my studio and I have a fridge in here in the studio here that's solely just for eggs. I just stock it with eggs because I go through so many. And January of 2023, I only had one dozen eggs in there, which is very uncommon for me. like Right now, there's probably 30 dozen in there. So I only had one dozen. and I was like, all right, I want to make a video. What can I do tonight? And so I had the idea to make a batch of pasta with one egg yolk. And I was going to spin the voiceover as I'm going to double the eggs every time, whatever, not really thinking how fast that that would compound. And I had no idea what I was in so in store for. So I posted the first video. That went crazy. A couple, I think 10 or 15 million views.

39:10.42
Ryan Peters
And so I just kept on with it. One, two, four, whatever, we keep going. And when we got to 512 eggs, at that point I was like, all right, if I'm going to keep this going, like I've got to figure out a way to donate this pasta. Cause at that point I was just giving it away to friends, family, neighbors, me and my family were eating it, but 512 egg pasta is a lot of pasta. So I was able to link up with an organization here in Pittsburgh to donate the pasta. So I was like, all right, cool. Like now we've got that part covered.

39:41.17
Ryan Peters
So I can do 512. I did that. I did 1,000. Mind you, after 500, I told everybody, like, no more. We're done. I did 1,000. But it was hard to it was hard to stop.

39:52.64
Ryan Peters
Because one, we were feeding hundreds of people with the food.

39:55.84
Seth Macey
Sure.

39:55.98
Ryan Peters
And two, the videos were annihilating. Like, I'm talking at least 20 to 30 million views every video on every platform.

40:04.19
Aaron
well

40:04.36
Ryan Peters
So it was hard to stop.

40:07.20
Aaron
Yeah.

40:08.01
Ryan Peters
um We did a thousand, then we did two thousand, then we did four thousand. And after four thousand, I told everybody, I told everybody that, all right, listen, we're done. The only way I'll continue is if Mr. Beast reaches out. Two days later, Mr. Beast reached out and I was like, you got to be kidding me. um So I got on a call with with their team and they're like, hey, we We've been following the series. And I was like, what the hell? You couldn't have joined in for like 2,000? What do you mean you've been following it? So they're like, we want to um we want to talk about doing the next one with you. But we want to round up from 8,000 just to an even 10,000. And honestly, like I didn't know if it was even possible to do. I mean, I've never seen someone make fresh pasta with 10,000 eggs. like That's an insane.

41:02.80
Ryan Peters
um just, you know, adventure to go on, but we were able to figure out the logistics of it.

41:05.58
Aaron
Yeah.

41:09.32
Ryan Peters
And yeah, we flew down to North Carolina to their, to their headquarters for about a week or so. And yeah, it was a, it was a whirlwind that I just, I still can't believe we pulled it off to be honest.

41:24.89
Ryan Peters
um But at the end of the day, like we got it done, we fed, thousands of people.

41:30.51
Seth Macey
Yeah.

41:30.57
Ryan Peters
Um, and the video just went crazy. So, so for that one we had about, so in North Carolina where he's located, um, the only thing in that town is like Mr.

41:35.35
Aaron
Who's cracking those eggs?

41:45.74
Ryan Peters
Beast and then East Carolina university. Uh, so we had like 25 college kid volunteers that came and, um, cracked and helped separate all the eggs.

41:55.80
Ryan Peters
So we got it done pretty fast.

41:57.69
Aaron
Wow. That's amazing.

41:59.20
Seth Macey
Yeah, that's...

42:00.54
Aaron
How much pasta and poundage did that create 10,000 eggs?

42:05.84
Ryan Peters
I don't know. I'll have to check. um I know it was a lot. I know we fed the one night at the soup kitchen down there. I think we fed like three or 400 people and then the rest of the pasta, because we couldn't stay down there for weeks just doing it every night.

42:20.59
Ryan Peters
So the rest of the pasta we gave to them um to put in their freezer and just use as needed.

42:23.61
Aaron
That's awesome.

42:25.10
Ryan Peters
But I don't even know the pound of junk. It was a ton. like It was so much.

42:30.05
Aaron
yeah That's cool.

42:32.19
Seth Macey
Would you ever want to be a creator of that size and that scale?

42:36.76
Ryan Peters
ah

42:41.00
Ryan Peters
That's a great question. um

42:47.38
Ryan Peters
I mean, I think the short answer is, yeah, I feel like that's what we all kind of are aiming for, that level of success. With that said, um I don't know.

43:01.42
Ryan Peters
I'm not sure.

43:02.81
Seth Macey
That's right.

43:03.20
Ryan Peters
I don't think anybody's ever asked me that before. ah

43:06.38
Seth Macey
You don't need to answer if you want to.

43:06.59
Ryan Peters
It's a tough one.

43:07.36
Seth Macey
You can think about it.

43:08.33
Ryan Peters
Yeah, it's a tough one. I'll get back to you on that.

43:09.61
Aaron
I really, I really like that you started from the beginning. And again, ah we we point this out all the time. There's no there's no gifts, really. Like you had this process of um I'm gonna make pasta for 64 days straight a pound every night even after work.

43:24.85
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

43:25.42
Aaron
Like that's, you know, that's the same as coming home exhausted and being like, I need to work out. Like I need to need two months in a row, like whatever it is.

43:30.37
Ryan Peters
yeah

43:33.33
Aaron
Stuck with that. Then it was, I'm going to make a video every single day for a year essentially, and see where that goes and and figuring out the the secret sauce.

43:43.55
Aaron
Again, the recipe. pun intended, but you know you you just keep going with it and you keep working at it and figuring it out. there is no like There's no me outs.

43:55.96
Aaron
And I think that's important that you don't just get like, Mr.

43:56.32
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

43:59.16
Aaron
Beast doesn't just call you randomly and have an idea. like it It all came from the sort of hard work, figuring out the formula to the videos, figuring out the formula to your your food and your company.

44:13.89
Aaron
it's It's a lot of work. Like what you're describing sounds difficult and it should.

44:19.69
Ryan Peters
Yeah, I mean, and I feel like to a lot of creatives, they when they get into this, they look for that instant gratification. that it's just Honestly, it's just usually not there.

44:31.54
Aaron
Yeah.

44:31.71
Ryan Peters
um I mean, like I said earlier, when I started on TikTok, my first video got half a million views. I wonder what would have happened if I would have started posting every single day for a year then. like But I left for a couple of weeks because I didn't believe that that instant gratification could even be real.

44:47.32
Ryan Peters
um But yeah, I mean, I think that this being able to just kind of put in the work. um One, I credit it to just like my time as a chef, like um it's a really, really hard job that takes a lot of strong work ethic. um But then also now just like being able, I've been doing this now long enough that I've been able to recognize what happens when you do put in that work and are able to kind of trust the process and things um that the payoff can just be massive.

45:22.45
Seth Macey
I'm interested to know if you think you would be in the exact same spot and position you are currently if that first video didn't do 500,000 plays and instead it did 500.

45:34.62
Ryan Peters
Yeah, I think so. I think so. I mean, i think I think that I was in the back of my mind looking for a way to get out of restaurants anyway um long before I even did. ah And so I think that it was only really a matter of time had that first one not hit anyway, that I would have just been right back to it. Like I said, I'd i'd always been really good at documenting everything I did. So I was going to keep taking videos and photos anyway. So yeah, I mean, I think and think it was only a matter of time.

46:15.12
Seth Macey
For sure. And how are you documenting, like what are you considering when you're documenting your videos to make sure that they they have that aesthetically pleasing viral component to them?

46:25.71
Ryan Peters
What do you mean exactly?

46:27.56
Seth Macey
Just in terms of creative direction, how you're setting up shots, length, how are you deciding what's, how are you creating your video in the, in the sense of setting cameras up, et cetera?

46:42.78
Aaron
Yeah, is there a formula?

46:44.60
Ryan Peters
I'm still figuring it out to this day. like i When I first started on social media, I did everything on my phone until maybe two, two and a half years ago is when I switched to just a very, very basic camera. And I still don't know even know how to use that thing. like I'm always texting Ian or Josh all the time, like, yeah what do how do I do this?

47:06.68
Ryan Peters
um

47:07.14
Seth Macey
Ian, you are not very tech savvy.

47:07.32
Ryan Peters
i

47:09.73
Seth Macey
I'm gonna out.

47:09.79
Ryan Peters
no No, I have no idea how to figure out any of this stuff this lighting any of it so I'm really just kind of like figuring it out as I go and I feel like it's just been a theme but of this whole conversation, but like Recognizing when something works so like when a certain angle works or when I like do the lights a certain way when it works I'm like, oh shit that looks fantastic.

47:25.34
Seth Macey
yeah

47:33.04
Ryan Peters
I'm gonna remember that um and At this point now like I feel like I've kind of gotten down to my own shooting style, um which I think is important for any creative that's trying to do anything on social media is like having your own style that can kind of set you apart from the millions of other people trying to make a living doing this. um you know But yeah, i just I'm still kind of faking it over here.

48:02.84
Seth Macey
I think that speaks a lot. You just essentially said, hey, I suck at lighting. I am not very good at setting up a shot.

48:09.45
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

48:10.60
Seth Macey
people People spend so much time trying to get this perfect in creating videos.

48:15.97
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

48:17.94
Seth Macey
And I bring this up because it speaks volumes to another theme of this that has been, if the content is good, it's good. You can have you can afford to have sacrifices in very minor sacrifices in quality.

48:26.15
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

48:31.98
Seth Macey
I'm not saying that that's your videos aren't up to par. I'm just saying.

48:35.03
Ryan Peters
no

48:35.81
Seth Macey
that your focus is on the essentially the story of the video and what's happening.

48:42.26
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

48:43.86
Seth Macey
And I don't need to be a wizard at lighting and knowing my camera settings to make this work.

48:49.63
Ryan Peters
Yeah, like even to this day, like when I am because I travel still a lot for this with doing different partnerships and things. And if I know that I'm going somewhere that's gonna have shitty lighting, I don't even bring my camera.

49:01.38
Ryan Peters
I'm just I'm like, I'm gonna use my phone because I don't know how to figure out the settings on my camera. And I'd rather just be able to like get the best quality that I can with my phone versus trying to figure out whatever I have to do on my camera to to figure that out.

49:14.29
Ryan Peters
So yeah, I mean, I think it's just kind of like finding what works best for you.

49:14.87
Aaron
Yeah.

49:19.25
Ryan Peters
And I mean, I'm not I'll be the first to admit that I do not have the best quality content out there by any means, but what I do have is a very consistent style of quality um and a consistent style that's proven to work time and time again.

49:35.71
Seth Macey
Yeah, no doubt. Um, I do want to ask, how do you avoid making videos for the sake of just making them because you feel obligated to put something out versus, Hey, I'm really excited to make this. Are you excited about every single video you make? Or are there oftentimes where you're like, man, I just, I gotta come up with something.

49:55.38
Ryan Peters
I used to be in that headspace where I felt like I had to post a video and that was not a fun time um in this creator journey because I felt like I was just making content just to make content and I think the results kind of showed pretty transparently in that that it just I Had no passion in the game at that point with that particular video um versus now like Of course, I get the the urge or the the feeling that I need to post a video, you know, certain days and things. But um at this point, like, I'm really only creating content when I want, I want to, and to when there's like a true creative idea that I have. um And then beyond that, it's just like, if there's nothing there in my brain to make that day, then just not going to post a video and be okay with that, which is like very, very free.

50:54.74
Seth Macey
Yeah, not forcing it, right?

50:56.27
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

50:57.96
Aaron
As a, I mean, you mentioned that you love pasta. yeah It's your niche.

51:01.28
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

51:02.00
Aaron
You want to kind of prove ah prove the people wrong. That's why you can't do it with just pasta. But as a chef, is there a creative need or itch to... yeah I could do the same formula with cannolis or ah whatever else.

51:18.32
Aaron
You know, lack of a better example. I just i think I want cannolis, but...

51:20.25
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

51:22.55
Aaron
ah But do you see what I'm saying? Like you have the formula, you can do, you could do pretty much any way in any direction. Is there, is there growth there that's in your mind at some point or is this pasta for life and it's eggs and flour for life?

51:42.06
Ryan Peters
Every now and then, I like step outside of just the pasta a little bit. but And I do toy with sometimes the idea of really stepping outside of it. But I keep coming back to the pasta.

51:54.49
Ryan Peters
like it just It really is.

51:56.41
Aaron
Yeah.

51:57.71
Ryan Peters
Because it's honestly a lot deeper. like there's There's different levels that I can keep progressing the content to and still being with pasta that, at this point, I feel like it's too early, to be honest, to even flex out of it.

52:13.00
Aaron
I hear you. So you feel like there's more room. where Where is there more room for you to grow in your content creation or your pasta expertise?

52:22.98
Ryan Peters
Well, I mean, I think, to be honest, like the first two years of making content, like if anybody's listening, go back and look at my TikTok, the first two years, the content was, ah it was TikTok content. It was very, very short videos. A lot of times it was just me pouring the eggs into the flour or me mixing the eggs. Like there was not, but those videos were crushing it at that time.

52:50.74
Ryan Peters
um But I'm saying that to say that for the first two years of making content, pretty much all I did was make pasta dough. I wasn't even making shapes. right So then I've gotten into different shapes and things.

53:03.12
Ryan Peters
And like there's still so much room I can do with different sauces and different you know italian the classic Italian dishes or Italian-American dishes and really getting into full-on recipe stuff.

53:13.29
Ryan Peters
that um And then when we get into different long-form videos and like really being able to explain things further that um I feel like

53:14.11
Aaron
Right.

53:23.99
Ryan Peters
I don't know, like I feel like I'm just getting started that the pasta making is just kind of the the catalyst to um almost e evolve into the rest of you know Italian, Italian-American cuisine.

53:40.25
Aaron
That's, I think it's really cool. I think it's cool. You found something that you absolutely love. I think it's cool. You see in the future, a lot of different avenues that you can attack this still and are excited to.

53:49.57
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

53:50.75
Aaron
Uh, I'm curious going back again, you know, five years or so, if you could give yourself any advice or dodge any mistakes or Tell your younger self, Hey, I've been through this. Do this. Is there anything that you would do differently or change from the the process that you've already gone through?

54:19.46
Ryan Peters
That's a good question. um

54:26.58
Ryan Peters
I'd probably not name my channel Peter's Pasta because everybody on the internet thinks my name is Peter. but

54:32.49
Seth Macey
I think I actually called you Peter once on an episode with me and I was like, oh, you're my friend Peter.

54:36.56
Ryan Peters
Yeah, literally everybody does.

54:38.50
Aaron
ah

54:38.59
Seth Macey
I mean, it's Ryan in all capital letters.

54:41.58
Ryan Peters
Yeah.

54:41.81
Seth Macey
I'm just kidding.

54:41.93
Aaron
yeah

54:42.49
Seth Macey
I don't, but.

54:43.93
Ryan Peters
Yeah. um No, I mean, I don't think so. I think that the journey I've been on with this, it's all kind of worked out in a way. Like obviously there's been um things that haven't gone right or or whatever, but um I think I've kind of went into this whole journey with such an open mind because it was so brand new to me and I didn't know what I was getting myself into that um I was able to ah versus when I began my career as just like a regular chef back then I would tell myself like go harder earlier like be more aggressive early in your career

55:02.39
Aaron
That's funny.

55:26.18
Ryan Peters
versus starting this stage of my career. I felt like I did that very well where I was very aggressive early on and i I recognized what I was doing and what I wanted to happen. And even though I didn't know how to get there, I was able to kind of just let the bullets fly and really kind of give it everything I had. um So yeah, I mean, I think that everything's kind of, it's cliche, but like it's happened for a reason and yeah, I really wouldn't change anything.

55:56.54
Seth Macey
Ryan Peters, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for your time today, man. We're going to go make some pasta soon.

56:00.61
Ryan Peters
Love it, appreciate you guys having me.

56:00.67
Aaron
Yeah.