EP 13: The Story of Swiss001 aka Nick!

Today Nick is sharing his incredible story of becoming an Internet sensation at a young age sharing his passion for planes, flight simulator and traveling!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Swiss001 and Josh Cale show.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Yeah, right, you got your pillow right here. I got my pillow. Is that your pillow?

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Is that your therapy pillow that you have? It's just more comfortable. I see. It's really lovely. I like your good pillow. I'm the pillow monster. I need like four pillows when I sleep. What a start. How are you doing? How was last night? No, I know. Okay, are you ready? Yeah, I am.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Okay. Are you ready? Yeah. Hello and welcome back to the Josh Kahill and Swiss 001 show. How are you doing? I'm very good. How about you? You got your pillow right here. Yes. Your comfort pillow, your therapy pillow. I can rest my arms here and uh I'm the pillow monster. I do have a lot of pillows when I sleep. Okay, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some hotels they have pillow menus. Pillow menus? So you can pick the the What's your most favorite pillow? I don't know. I never um really uh order some pillows. Do you hug pillows sometimes and pretend it's a person? No, no, it doesn't go there. I'm not that lonely. I'm not that lonely. But for someone who spends a hundred and plus nights away from home or in hotels, um I do uh make sure that I have good pillows. I don't bring pillows with me. I have seen people check into hotels um bringing their own pillows. That's insane. That's dedication.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

That's dedication. That's kind of weird too.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

It takes a lot of room as well in your in your in your language. But how have you been? How is life? How is everything? Uh life is life is good.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah, today we're gonna talk about the Swiss Zero One story, which is a story that kind of is as long as your story, really. I mean, we both started YouTube at uh in 2017.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, yeah, like I mean as a hobby, probably my first video that I uploaded was I think in 2014. Oh yeah. But went full time January 2018. Yeah. Oh nice. Oh nice. That's long story, but I've been on this planet twice the time that you have. Yeah. Sweet. But you've got more hair than me. So something's something is odd. That's the it's the shampoo. It's the shampoo, yeah. Yeah, head and shoulders.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, it's the the the high cortisol of YouTube. Yeah, so I mean, I've been doing YouTube since nine, actually, because I mean I I put up my first video in 2013. 2013. Which was a bit I was a bit too young to do YouTube. I remember I opened a coconut in a video I did. I had my iPod touch back then. And I used to play Minecraft on it all the time, and I said I want to be a YouTuber.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Just like everybody that's nine says that's that's what we want to talk about today because we've been now what 10, 11, 12 episodes in this podcast, and people seem to enjoy it. Uh for some reason. Okay, for whatever reason. For some reason, yeah. Um but they also want to know who is Nick Nick, Nick, Swiss01, yeah. Swiss01. Who is this guy that uh has millions of followers? I don't have millions of followers. I'm sure when you combine your social media who has millions of views, yeah. That's right. Yeah, that's um who gets recognized at uh TSA checkpoint in Chicago, even. I remember that. People come up to you, they love you. Yeah, they think your videos are cool. Somehow somehow they have and when the last time when I checked uh our demographics on uh on uh on the YouTube channel, then I realized that a lot of people are your age. Yeah, true. And yesterday we spoke about this. Everyone back in the days wanted to be an uh astronaut or a police officer, but nowadays people want to be YouTubers. So we're gonna talk about the incredible journey of becoming a YouTuber on his way uh to the top, yeah, very top of the table. Too much information. I gladly had a good time last night. Um wherever you went.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

But uh yeah, I was born in 2004, so yeah, I started YouTube uh at nine and I did some I ask the questions, yeah, my friend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Okay, so where did you okay? Let's uh you want to start really at that moment when you uh saw the the light of the sun for the first time. Please, where were you born? When, how so I was there?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

So I was born in 2004, that's where I met my parents. And you met your parents. Uh yeah, here in Frankfurt actually. So I'm like actually German. I'm half Swiss, half German. Uh, which is always interesting because of my YouTube username, Swiss Zero One, which by the way, like the problem is you once choose your username, you kind of cannot change it after the fact. Not really. Like, what would it be? Nick Flies? I remember we had that conversation about how do you change your branding? Yeah. And it's kind of gaming, Swiss01, but it's people just re know me as Swiss or Swiss Zero One. I I don't really want to change that. Yeah, which is iconic.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

I feel it's about you you you were so successful that you turned a shitty username into something that sticks with people, and everyone comes like, are you Swiss?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

I mean, you know, there's I mean, what what about iShow Speed? IShowSpeed. Do you think he sometimes regrets his name?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Um I I people call him Speed now. Yeah, right, yeah, yeah. But I I haven't heard much of him recently. He was a bit more of a sensation the past two or three years.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah, well, he's still doing his streaming stuff where he's just uh traveling around. So yeah, I was I was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and I kind of grew up and I've lived my whole life here. So you know that city really well. Yeah, I know that city pretty well, and uh yeah, it's it's a it's a nice it's a nice town.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Um so you went to primary school, like yes. You were any signs of being uh different in primary school? Was I different?

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Well, um I have I had I always had teachers who are really cool and actually very supporting of me, and I always did you videos, right? I got my first like camera at like nine as well, and then I started doing videos and I started editing them. What did you do and I did some class? Well, it's all the YouTubers. There's a huge YouTube community in Germany, and I've always aspired to be one of those a little bit. What's the first YouTuber that you notice or follow? Of course, German, because back then I didn't speak any English because it's not my native language. So uh do you know Daner, Felix Laden? He's like one of those Minecraft.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Um a couple of months ago. Okay. Moved to Spain. Uh yeah, he did. He moved to Mallorca. Uh, he bought uh own house. He's a millionaire now, drives fancy cars and classic.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, so that uh that I I grew kind of grew up watching that. I mean, we I I'm kind of the last generation who watched Nickelodeon properly and YouTube. So we yeah, we did some I did some YouTube watching and I always wanted to be like I always been really interested in in that and also like the technical stuff of it. Yeah, and like making so I yeah, and in primary school I made like class videos when we went on like a field trip to like a castle. I made like a video. And we yeah, yeah, I was I was that kind of guy, and he we um we all they even we had a pr like a proper movie premiere of that with all the parents invited and and like my video was shown. No, even then back then I used Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro on my MacBook 2012 MacBook. That was a great movie maker still exists? I think it does. Well, you use iMovie, right? Occasionally you can use iMovie. You're still you're kind of basic. But it gives you hope because better than Cap Cut, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

It it gives hope though to the people. You don't have the fancy progress.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

I think this is like the the this thing now. I mean, I switched to iPhone recording now. I used to have a big camera and like try to make the best, but like it's all about the storytelling and all about how you edit it and not with what. You don't need any crazy special effects. It's all about the s the storytelling that you they're gonna do. That's what people like.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Sometimes I get those emails, oh what camera do you use, Josh? How do you do that? I was like, Yeah, right. I said, don't focus on a camera, focus on what you really want a story that you want to tell.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Too many people when they start a YouTube career, they they care just about gear. Yeah right? It's not important at all. It's not about we know you you know the storytelling is number one.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

My first YouTube or my first flight review I filmed on a GoPro 2. And it didn't even had a it didn't even have uh a screen. It didn't have a screen. So you no, and I didn't have a screen, and like you would only see the footage after you had a look, and uh and uh it was pretty um pretty basic, but that's how the journey started. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So yeah, so uh yeah, I did that and we I did I did a lot of uh then I started doing some YouTube videos, those were kind of shit.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

I mean, you know, how when so when you were in primary school, you did those videos already? Were you into aviation at all?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

No, so this is like interesting. I tried several fields of niche. You know, I I did Minecraft videos. How did that go? Um not well. I had a I had a comedy channel with a friend of mine when we were like 11, and we had a we had a friend. Did he make it? Yeah, he's a pile, he's learned to be a pilot at Lufthansa now. Oh, he's a Lufthansa pilot. Yeah, he's he's he's at the European Flight Academy. I'm really proud. Awesome. Um we invented a character which is basically a police officer and uh he was he was a very bad police officer, and that was kind of like a series that we did. So you had a comedy channel. Or deleted? Uh it's sadly not anymore. I maybe uh maybe get for for for for the better. But yeah, I've always been uh I've always done did these kind of s interesting things. I've I've started doing like video jobs for people. I've filmed a wedding at twelve. A proper wedding film. Yeah, no, yeah, that was a really, really cool one, and it's not it's it's it's quite well produced, honestly. Um but the funny thing is I had like I had like crazy gear on me because I uh they they instead of paying me, they bought me stuff, you know, cameras and stuff, and I had like the full body suit suit, right? Where you would have your camera hanging out of the suit, right? Like uh like the stabilization gym gimbal thing. And that was really, really cool. The cutest thing is that I I mean I'm still short, but I was much shorter back then. And so like the whole wedding film is from a perspective of a t of a kid, right? And that's kind of romantic almost to look at it from a kid's perspective. Um that was in that was in Italy back then. That was really cool. So I did like these kind of cool video jobs before I did Swiss Zero One. I made like I made ASMR videos. Have I ever told you? You tried the whole thing, I tried literally everything, not because I I I wanted to be successful and wanted to find anything that could like hang on to anything like find success, but mainly because I've you know I was just super interested in trying out different things and how it works out and how it's uh Yeah, so I had a ASMR channel with like 10,000 subscribers actually, and I did show my face at twelve, yeah. That was funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I did like, you know, these you get issues though on YouTube, like showing your face as a minor?

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, no, not I mean, you know, there's tons of kids doing YouTube, right? There's like Ryan, the the the Ryan kid, right? He's like the most richest YouTuber. He's like nine. I don't know if he's still nine, he's probably twelve by now. I don't have kids, so I don't like that uh no no, but yeah, I heard I heard about this kid, he's like like multimillionaire because of the the videos he does, and like his parents, but but my parents were never involved in any of that. They just said, hey, do whatever the hell you want.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Um and how would you that I think this is an important factor where many people at your age they think like, how do I get the support of my parents, or how do I address this? What would you recommend to like a 15-year-old who wants to start a YouTube career? How would he how should he approach it with his parents? Should he ask for guidance? Should they what what what is your point of view on that?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Or ask for try I mean most parents now they're uh they're they're younger than my parents, for example, right? Because it's uh like a few years uh few years older. But um I think they would be quite supportive. I think it's pretty cool. Just don't just don't post any dumb stuff, I guess. Uh it's not though. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

What would you say? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

You're a YouTuber too.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, but yeah, that's right. I mean, I I don't know. Like I feel like you know, sometimes when I see very, very young individuals and they are kind of forced. There is two kinds, right? Right. You're thinking of the same person.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I I think it's a bit difficult. That's kind of a different thing. It's different because you are kind of being used, maybe not used as made like exploited as well. I don't know, like at one because imagine like at a very early point you have to deal with a lot of hate, probably as well, you know, and I think for mental health it's a bit difficult. And do you want really want to have your face all over the internet, you know? True.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

I mean, there's always been like kids stars, right? Michael Jackson and like all these actors, uh I mean, all of all of which but basically went up to like grew up to be a pretty pr pretty complicated adult, to be honest. Like they had a complicated childhood, and yeah, so they were always like famous kids, but that was almost like like that, but but that wasn't a controlled field. That wasn't a professional field because they had extraordinary talents. Yeah, because they had no, but yeah, but yeah, of course, but like that was when they were properly s dealt with by professionals, you know, who knew kind of what they were doing a little bit more. Now it's just you know, parents that have nothing to do with anything. They did just post their kids, and I think that's that can be a bit dangerous. I I hope all those YouTube kids uh they uh they have a they're well protected from their parents from all the hate. Because like that's true. I mean, once again, when I did the the ASMR channel at twelve, by the way, or at twelve to thirteen, I uh there was like a lot of hate on it as well. Didn't uh didn't really like it kind of gotten me used to uh hate quite early. It was actually kind of nice. Did you have days where you were crying?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

No. No, it wasn't that bad.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

No, because I uh I had friends and stuff that were that thought that were that was pretty cool. Like I had supportive friends and it's like it's like quite normal. Like I I I I used to hate as well on YouTube, you know. I used to have hate comment, I used to do hate comments as well. So I I know like both sides, you know, when I was 12. Right. Um so yeah, I did ASMR YouTube, which is interesting. That channel was deleted, but so yeah, the videos didn't even do that poorly because yeah, even back then I kinda had a little bit of a sense for what works, what do people click on? Because I heard this one advice from one YouTuber that I watched, I think it was PewDiePie or something like that. He just said, Hey, make videos that you would genuinely click yourself and watch yourself. And that's like that's like the very like it's quite trivial, but it's it's very good advice. Um so yeah, that that that I did that uh all the way up in like 2017. And yeah, and then I didn't really do much for a few months, and then I found a phone flight sim. By the way, I wasn't necessarily interested in planes that much at all back then. I it was just like I mean, just like every kid is like, hey, we you look at a plane, you see a plane in the sky, you look at it, and yes, I did have flight radar, and yes, I did check out some of that and some of this. Then a friend of mine showed me this mobile flight simulator called Infinite Flight, you know, that you know, the classic one. Um, and that was before they had the global scenery that was in the day where they just had like California as a map, right? And that was that was really it wasn't even South California, it wasn't even the whole of California. And then I did some flying around, and then I was like, hey, this is this is kind of cool. And then I watched some YouTube channels that did aviation. I was like, hey, this is actually kind of cool, and there's a niche, and people are interested. And then I watched that guy at Air Force Proud 95, I think we talked about him already. Uh he's he's like he's funny, and the interesting thing is like mm back then there wasn't a lot of YouTube channels that did aviation, especially in a funny, funny manner. I mean there was Captain Joe already and like mentor pilot and stuff. Um more educational. Yeah, it's educational and they have their purpose and they're supposed to be professional because they're pilots, right? Um you wouldn't want to have a Lufthansa captain who just jokes around all the time. Um so yeah, uh, but I found like the funny bit very interesting. Back then I noticed like Air Force Proud, he wasn't really uploading a lot at the time. And I was like, hey, let's do something about aviation sometime, and then like a month pass passes, and you know about the hurricane uh Irma back then in Florida, quite destructive hurricane. And uh I basically all I did was I took my iPhone 16 no iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S back then and plugged it into my MacBook Pro 2012, you know, the the thick one where they ha still had USB A ports, uh and I did a screen recording and uh was really funny tr trying to fly a little s uh seven citation private jet through the hurricane and then I did the you know the editing of it which was back in text. I didn't speak in the video. Oh right, it was uh subtitles. It was just captions and somehow these videos worked. I ba the the reason wasn't because I I I I already spoke quite alright English at the time. I used to have like some things where I would, for example, I wouldn't say video, I would say video because I didn't know like a V existed. But yeah, so I did I did those with text and load loads of people actually remember that still. That was really funny. Um and uh the reason I did that was because I didn't I still have my child voice.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

I w And uh that was uploaded under the uh username Swiss001 right from the start. Where did that how did that Swiss air?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

I actually I just did uh flying on infinite flight with Swiss Airlines and um it was on a 777 night. I love the 777 300 from Swiss. Uh and I flew that and I had the call sign Swiss001. And I thought, hey, that's kind of catchy. Yeah. You know, hey, that kind of works. Have you ever spoken to anyone at Swiss Airlines? No, I was always kind of afraid that they would sue me a little bit, you know, because I mean uh but like the thing is like it's uh it's no different than me then c calling myself German001. You can't really copyright that, especially because I'm not in the industry of air travel. Do you know about this airline called Air Zero Zero One though? There's an airline called Air Zero Zero One. I think it's in Poland. Air001. Maybe you should fly them. Maybe maybe I should fly them. Never heard of that. I think they came after Swiss01 as well. Um probably inspired by user. Probably maybe, maybe. But yeah, so I I did uh I did that. Um and hey, that's that was the username, and you kind of I never really bothered changing it because it kind of it works. So yeah, I did the Hur Hurricane Irma, and I did some more, you know, uh videos about aviation, more and more, and they were all kind of shit, to be honest. They were really, really bad and they were really hated, but somehow they got a lot of views. I think back then in in the days, like 2018, it was so much easier to have like a viral video, right? Uh at least for me, it was like it was it was like really, really cool stuff. They were all short, two minutes. And one thing I kind of did very quickly, and I d I don't know w how, and I don't know if what that was a good thing, but it was just how the the the how regularly I uploaded, right? Because I uploaded every single day. At 13 years old, I uh it was just two to three minute videos. You were still in school back then as well. Yeah, well 13 of course. Yeah, I think. I was in what I was in sixth, seventh grade, I think. Um so yeah, I did uh monetized daily uploads so yeah, the the timeline goes like this. In September 2017, I upload the first video and I do like some more and some more and some more. And by October, I said, hey, let's do this daily. And by November How many subscribers did you have by October? Yeah, so by November, I don't quite remember, but by November I did my first viral, viral hit, right? Um where I I did a video called Autopilot versus Human, right? And basically I just had the Infinite Flight Autopilot uh go through different types of challenges, and that video has like two million views of tree. Um and that was a it was a really shit video because like there's like I had no idea about how an autopilot works or what it does. I could merely just turn it on. Um so yeah, back then I had 3,000 subscribers then. Um and yeah, once again, like a two, three million uh view video. I think at the end of the year it did hit a million already. Wow. Um, and it was really funny because I was uh in November, once again, like a week after posting that video, it went quite viral. I had like the you know, back then when subscribe when the subscriber count on YouTube was still live. Yeah, yeah. I had the live subscriber count thing, and I had this thing on my laptop. I I was uh I was away on uh on vacation for a week and With my dad, and uh we I had my laptop set up, and every time someone subscribed, it would give up a ding sound, it would say ding, ding, ding, that's cool, ding, ding, and that was like crazy as well. And yeah, November was actually when I was monetized uh on YouTube as well. So uh yeah, I mean I w I was thirteen and um it was it was I mean, once again I had really supportive parents. I mean, of course they would say, Hey, this is kind of cool, I mean you you the content is kind of shit, but it's it's it's nothing that like most of the dads that you meet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like i i hey, nice. Uh good luck. Um and uh so yeah, I think being outside and doing drugs. Well, at 13 you don't really do that yet.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Um but that's a but that's what I find so commendable about you that you in a s I have a nephew who is just your uh was uh he's 14 or whatever, and obviously he has a dream of uh becoming a YouTuber, but they're not willing to do it to put in the work, right? They think they think oh like uh I don't think they have the the the stamina, they don't have the willpower, they might have it in their head, but they can't just put it on paper because it it requires hard work does hard work, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Oh well once again I did playing I played around with making YouTube videos for years before I did Squares 01 and something. Yeah, right. And what I was just I was never really interested that much in getting like views, I didn't really want to become uh uh a YouTuber that much. I always thought, nah, I don't know, maybe you know creativity and you can see it. But I was I was always just interested in making cool stuff. I always did like I wanted to cool I wanted to do cool stuff that I liked, you know, I wanted to create something and uh yeah, so once again, November I got monetized and I was 13 and I think in my uh in the first m month of of being monetized, I made like three grand, which was like so much for a 13-year-old, right? It's crazy. Um and that what did you do with your first paycheck? Well tal hold on, but but once again, that first paycheck was like the thing that really kept me hooked in and kept me in the momentum. Um I don't even know what I remember, I don't really remember what I did with my first money. I think I bought a new phone and then a few months later I bought a new laptop. Did you have a like a business set up already? Right, and that was that we're we'll talk about that in a second. Um but yeah, so uh at the end of the year I had I think 10,000 subscribers at 13, which is crazy. Um, and yes, quickly the problem of hey, um I'm basically surpassing the limit of not having to have a business, which is like 17 grand or something, where you don't have to pay any taxes on it, right? Um even as a child, you have to pay taxes.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Yeah, you treat it like a normal business, like anybody else, like an adult.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah, yeah. So that took a few months actually. I had to register my business at like 13, 14 years old.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

When did you realize that okay, you make money? Oh my god, like this is a business now, I might have to take pay tax and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

I'm really glad I have parents who are not employed at a company but have their own thing because they already knew what what to do. They already knew we have to do it, right? I think some some parents would have just not really known about all this thing. Hey, this is online cash in now. It's online money, but it's real money, right? Uh and it's uh hits your bank account. Yeah, but it's yeah, it's a silly YouTube video thing, but uh oh yeah, he's making money. We need to make we need to open a business, we need to pay taxes, otherwise it's all gonna it's all gonna be gonna go crazy.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

So yeah, I I saw dad at this time from a legal point of uh perspective, he would be responsible for you for actions, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, that's what that's always like a main big problem.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

So your dad didn't want to go to jail.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Yeah and uh yeah, so I I registered my business in April of 2018 uh officially, and that was a bit of a hurdle because yeah, uh there is laws in Germany against child labor. You can't just like you can't even have a normal job at 13. I mean you can maybe carry the newspaper and stuff like that, the class new newspaper boy, or you can't even like stock up just like such interesting information though for people that might consider it. Yeah, so yeah, once again, like you can have a normal job at 13. I used to I used to do walk dog walking before, maybe at twelve, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

But then I I I I I I'm a legal age in Germany to do actual labor.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I th I don't really know about that. I think it's like sixteen or fourteen or something. Fourteen. Fourteen. Yeah, so I had to go up to uh to to some courthouse and have my parents with me, and basically I'd have to prove that this is not child labor, and the main thing was that it was only like a few hours of work a week, which it wasn't, it was like maybe two hours a day, right? So I had to pretend as if it didn't obstruct my school work, which it I mean it didn't, it was fine. Um and uh yeah, so I got approval from them and then I could register a business, uh, and that's what I did. Yeah, so I once again I when I was I was thirteen and I did the YouTube thing and uh 2018 was cool. I did a lot of like videos um that that were funny, and uh yeah, so I grew and I grew all the way up to 50,000 subscribers, I think, by the time of like April or May of 2018. I was still thirteen by then. And uh I remember I did I've always been like I always did some music too, right? I always did music and uh I made this butter song.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

You have a number one hit or something like that. Yeah, no, it's not it's not a number one, but it was a trending uh you have on Spotify uh a uh two million plays or something.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I did the butter song, which was really, really uh fun to do. Um I once again I was 13 though, and it's been a long time.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

I mean it's been like So you've been 13 years old, you're thriving, you were doing well. I remember I think uh the COVID was your prime time then as well.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Well that was before, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

But yeah, so yeah, I did the butter song, and then I ended up hitting How did you deal with the success? Like, let's say, like when did it hit you? When did it start to feel oh, this is work? Did it ever feel like this? Was there a point where you f where you were too much into it where you think, oh my god, I did liver, I didn't post a video, maybe you neglect your friends. Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah, good question. I've uh yeah, this is like the thing that I s I I did I did have, and I was um I'm really lucky nowadays that I had the dedication back then. Right, because you don't really expect that from a kid. Um yeah, so I I once again I did daily videos. So I didn't know. Many hours a day a day did you consume? After school every day. Saturdays and Sundays included. So you you I kind of it did kind of obstruct me having a childhood, but it really wasn't that bad because it was my thing. It wasn't the thing I did. You loved it, right? I loved doing it. Um and it was so so fun, and um especially like seeing like the success was also fun. Something that was really smart, once again though, was that I didn't even show my voice, I didn't show my face, so I was not really like I my purse person.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

You you weren't doing voiceovers for that time? No, because I because I still had a kid's voice. Alright. When did you start with that? Because I only know your videos from X Plane videos.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

That'll come later. Alright, okay. Uh yeah, so 2018 I uh we I switched over to like from I still did mobile flight sims at 50,000 subscribers. I switched over to X Plane Flight Sim on my laptop uh uh back in that in that year, and it was a really, really fun ride back with X Plane 11, the old one. The new Microsoft Flight Sim wasn't even a thing. Um and uh so I did I did that and once again I there was a lot of hate hate, like a lot of hate. Like I saw I had some videos that were like 50% dislikes. Wow like it was really, really bad. Because the videos were bad, they were clickbaity, they were not they were not high quality at all, and somehow it got a lot of views, so a lot of people were pissed at that. Totally understandably. So that make you reconsider your uh approach? No, no. No, you kind of because because because like the Swister Zero One was not tied to me as a human because it was just texts. I nobody knew your face. No, nobody knew me, and so I was anonymously posting, so I was I was very much protected from that. It's like okay, you don't like what I do. It's like when s when you draw something, someone doesn't like your drawing, right? It's like it's not me, right? You know what I mean? Uh so that was like actually like a really good thing that I didn't have my face.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

So that viral video that you had, uh autopilot against manual pilot had no voiceover. No. Yeah, it only had captions.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Only had shit captions.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Alright, okay, cool. And it still went viral.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Somehow it still went viral. Is it still online? Yeah, still online. All the videos are online. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I did a lot of like that. I did a lot of compilations as well, where I pick real life videos. Oh, drone strikes! Oh no, and then I would make a three-minute video out of it, and those did very, really well. And uh yeah, so then I was 14, turned 14 in June of 2018. Uh I did, you know, I did some more more video stuff. I did go to the airport a lot and do some sponsoring as well. I didn't really film that. I was I still have had a lot of a lot of personal interest as well in aviation. And then in 2019, I got my big computer finally where I could finally record videos, and then I actually uh revealed my voice. And at the same time, you were doing your private flying license. No, no, no, no, not yet at all. I mean, I think I did my voice reveal uh in April of 2019 because then uh finally I had a deep voice and I can finally talk without being ashamed of I was actually ashamed of my I used to pretend that I was older. Do you know famous birthdays? No. Famous birthdays is like the Wikipedia for uh for age. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So they reached out because they didn't know how old I was and they were inquiring me about my age, and I said, hey yeah, I was born in 1999. So that that would like that would have made me like what 18, 19, 21, something like that. Uh back then I I lied to them and I told them I was born in 1999 basically because I I was kind of ashamed for my age for some reason. I didn't really want people to look away like to say, oh, he's a kid. I don't I won't watch him anymore because that's uncool. Because like who's cool at 13, you know. Um so yeah, and that's like the problem. I think it still is 1999. Uh which would make me what twenty-seven this year? Something like that. Yeah, it would make me an old man. Yeah, no, it's I'm not that. I I made myself six years younger somehow, and uh yeah, it's kinda like well on Tinder, what do you know like what when people on Tinder are like yeah, um that it says their age is like 22, but they're actually 21 because they s they signed up at 17 and they came out.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

I think one year is okay, but it's it's bad when it when it says they're like they're like 31, but in fact they were 52 or something like that. Have I ever been catfished? Maybe, but that's fun thing for now.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

That's a different different story.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Uh so yeah, I I when I was nine at in 2019 I did my uh voice reveal and then very quickly I did my face reveal. Uh I think that's when I reached out to you. I was 15, I reached out, hey you're in Frankfurt, let's go ahead and have a McDonald's or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

I think you were 16 or something at that time and you messaged I knew you were like and I was aware of your videos, and I think that was just before the pandemic started as well. Right, it was and you messaged me and you said, Hey, I'm a young aspi aspiring YouTuber, and I wanna I I saw that you're in town, let's meet uh up, and I was like, Yeah, sure, why not? So I think we met at McDonald's at Terminal 2. Terminal 2, frankly. I remember that. And you were you were a you were like a like a teenager. Baby, yeah. Yeah, I remember you were like chubby, you were like uh you were like round, your face was like you saw big like chubby cheeks. Yeah, but you were like re uh one thing I noticed about you, you were really smart, you know what you're talking about, you're very mature for your age as well. And I was like, oh, this is a cool, like cool, and if that means something for him to meet like a bigger YouTuber from the aviation scene, and maybe inspires him, that's how inspired him from the boys. I was like, yeah, let's have a let's have a McDonald's, and then uh we kind of stayed in touch ever ever since, no? And now you're an adult. Look at you, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

I'm a grown man now. That's crazy. Different girls' friends every night in the show. Um so yeah, um then I did my first ever real life flight in the Cesnet 172. So how was it received?

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Like, let's be real quick. So you did the first, you did the voice reveal, you did the face reveal in one video, or was it no, it was vo I suddenly started speaking.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Yeah. And then I suddenly started posting my face doing stuff like stuff on Instagram and stuff. And did it change anything?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

No, people were people like You kind of knew that you weren't like a like a weirdo already.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

No, yeah. I mean some interesting face reveals from like like people that d like YouTubers that don't show their face sometimes goes wrong. You know, like this dream guy, the dream YouTuber guy. He was like so because he was peop people expected him to be, I guess, more handsome than he actually was. And that's like, oh my god, that's like horrible. But somehow I didn't really have that. No one really called me like uh that ugly. It was fine. So yeah, I did, I did, I finally switched to voice where the videos finally went were okay, like quality wise, they actually started to improve a little bit. By the time I already had like 300,000 subscribers though. Yeah, yeah, I remember. Uh I remember I made I did my first voice video at like 200,000 or 300,000 subscribers, which is crazy. You had more subscribers than me, most of your I think so. Yeah, I think so. And uh yeah, so I did my first flying lesson in September 2019. And uh yeah, I remember uh yeah, I that's what I did, and uh I I didn't really post about that. I kind of wanted to to to have that and because I I didn't once again I didn't really show my face yet that much. And then I remember 2020. What where were you when COVID hit?

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Bali. Bali? Bali. I was in Bali, Indonesia this time with my girlfriend, and uh yeah, she left for for Singapore, I think, and I didn't. I wanted to come uh uh I wanted to follow her like a week later because I still had friends in Bali, and then the whole world shut and Bali shut Singapore like the whole world was just shutting down, there was no flights and stuff, and I was stuck in Bali for like six months, and people said, Oh, you were stuck in paradise, and it was terrible because they closed the beaches as well. Oh no, um, everybody left, only the Russian state. Oh, and uh yeah, and uh they're interesting. People have quite a reputation in Bali, and it was it was a different and you gyms were closed. I I gained like 10 kilograms during I got really fat. Yeah, I remember that.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Yeah, I was in art class, an art class. You were in Germany, right? I was in I was in school, I was just in school.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Did school close in Germany?

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Yeah, so uh art class, uh I remember what was it, the 13th of March or 15th of March, I think was. I I think it was the 13th of March when they were like, okay, guys, I think the teacher made an announcement. It was kind of like uh our generation's 9-11, where everybody kind of remembers the moment because it was it was a big thing. Um, and uh the teacher announced, hey, um, you might have heard about this new virus thing. Um so I just got the message that school is gonna close in like two days. It was homeschooling? Uh and then we did homeschooling. I spent my uh my days at home online class via Zoom. Jesus. Which was alright. I mean, I did a lot of like GTA gaming, people were sitting at home, people were watching the YouTube videos. Like I was in a perfect position because my for my videos I don't need to travel. I just can stay at home and do you do simulator stuff. For you, you have the problem you didn't really you couldn't really what to post about, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Like, was I was lucky, I just went on a big trip just before COVID, so I had a lot of videos in the pipeline, but then I did like worst 10 top 10s and all that kind of stuff. You know how everyone is like trying to be uh creative, but I do remember everybody started to consume everybody uh found like their favorite YouTuber at that time, and I remember watching your stuff on X-Plane flight sim, yeah. And it was good, it was funny, it was hilarious. I think this were this is when you were on your peak. That was when everyone was watching you. Your videos, they went into the millions, yeah, and they were incredible. Quite a lot, and I think what was funny is that you had a good mix between humor and cool uh cool uh simulations of landing a 747 at Lukla Airport or all these kind of things, but wasn't really done that much, but people kind of loved it. Yeah, people, because I used to watch Air Force Proud. Yeah, I think he was hilarious. And uh you were you were you were you were really really good. It was like entertaining, actually, you know. And I think that is when you became a name as well, much more of a name in the industry in the aviation uh flight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I yeah, I did that. Did you have any competitors at the time? Like it was just you and Air Force Proud, pretty much. There's some people.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

There's some people that did copy a little bit of the things that I was doing. Uh and uh yeah, there was that, but uh I I always tried to when when they did that, I tried to like find my own way of being unique, right? You have a USP a little bit in my videos, especially the humor, right? Because like you can copy video ideas, you can copy the idea of landing a 747 at Cool Chevelle, but you cannot really copy like good humor.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

People should see us off camera, yeah. Yeah, you're we would be canceled but like you're a funny guy, I give you that.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Yeah, thanks. No, about it so um so yeah, we I I did that and uh yeah, online schooling that was a really, really what did you do in COVID?

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Did you do and did you I just I got fat, I was eating all day, I was um editing at times as well, but there's nothing. It was depressing, it was really, really depressing. I was just posting the videos that I had, but people were like really weird at this time because they thought, oh, why are you traveling during a pandemic? And I always had to put disclaimers there and saying, Oh, this was recorded.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

The craziest thing, I see this a lot on like old TV stuff that was from that time from 2020, or or old videos, like those disclaimers. Hey, I'm not wearing a mask because the recording is six months old is crazy. Dude, and like in hindsight, it's like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Why did we and even we were like even in the even in the beginning, the uh World Health Organization, think of them whatever you want, but they strongly recommended not to wear masks. In the beginning, we're like, don't wear masks, they don't help you, they don't protect, and essential workers need them, so don't use them, right? And then you would follow their advice, and then obviously it changed heavily. Then you even had to wear a mask when you go uh scuba diving and uh be outside. It was ridiculous, like all those rules. But in the beginning, the rule changed all the time, and said it wasn't you shouldn't wear a mask and don't, and then you do a video, um, and you had to put a disclaimer because people were like some people were going really aggressive, right? Yeah, traveling. I was like, no, this is an old video I was doing before it's uh pandemic.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

It was crazy, and yeah, I think it kind of changed it, it definitely changed the world, and we still see it now.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

So many people got yeah, from sitting at home and like there's there's kids, especially kids were really affected because they couldn't see their friends.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Yeah, I'm that's what I was gonna that's what I was gonna talk about. I was in a very, very fortunate position where I had things to do, right? I I had my YouTube channel thing, I could do that. That was funny, that was interesting.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

And you can say it made you rich as well because you would your people would consume your content heavily during COVID, right? You would make money.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

In a time where people lose their jobs, you were making good money.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Yeah, that was like a different thing, yeah. Of course, but like from a perspective of a kid, like it's something that's more important is like to socialize. We're I mean, we're social beings, we're not meant to be alone. Kids are not meant to be spending their time alone as kids, and that wasn't the fortunate position where I still had uh friends. I mean, I I live a little bit more I'm not I don't live in the city directly, so we met up on uh uh on the with our bikes, right? On the uh in the fields, right? And we could be kids still. And I had my friends who were on Discord all the time and playing GTA, we we were playing Minecraft like video games, and it was alright to socialize. Um, but like I I I I I don't want to imagine how it must have been for other kids that maybe um weren't didn't really have that big of a friends group and dependent the were dependent on their socialize on school, right? Because most kids I mean school is a big part of social lives. Same thing with adults be uh with the with the with the office being uh the the social life right like I think this is like the the thing as well the loneliness epidemic right I mean when you have um uh when you when you when you basically just have office friends right what do you do when the office is not there anymore right you what do you do um so I was in a fortunate position also I was in a fortunate position where I had my own room I had my own I think a fire just started breaking out did you see this in the parking garage well welcome back I've seen it I've seen that all day I've seen uh smoke I think you're burning probably some tires okay in the middle of Frankfurt welcome uh sorry but um I for those that can't uh don't know like for those that only listen we are sitting in a hotel we're sitting in a um overlooking the mine river in Frankfurt and we can see uh the other bank and there's very very black smoke rising yeah so I I mean I had my own room and I had my laptop and I had ways to spend my time but imagine having a shared room and you don't really have your own computer how do you how do you even make that work uh with homeschooling I think it really really hurt our current uh generation where we're uh you know we're all like s like you personally know people that uh have not that that have that have changed since COVID? Like you have to Well we all I mean I was certain I mean we I was I was in the midst of puberty back then so we all changed in a bit but I think uh we live we live in a time where uh you know the guy clavicular no you know the looks maxing community at all what is that looks maxing community no what is I don't even know basically the the idea of men as uh uh noticing that it's only looks that matter or how uh how looks is prioritized now and that's like like the these super like like it's just kind of weird kids a lot and I think that's like a big thing with like that COVID did as well with like the people have become weird like kids have become really weird and socially awkward. Like that's what I notice all the time especially like those kids that were in elementary school where you form your character where you get into fights with kids in real life. Kids fight right kids throw snow kids bully kids get bullied kids and then it's the same thing like seeing like dogs like little little little puppies right playing but then also biting and then you know correcting and hey this is wrong don't do this to me if fellow puppy right and uh we kids didn't have that for like two years. And uh you kind of realize that people have people have become socially awkward. And uh what was baseb what was what were we talking about?

SPEAKER_00 46:49

We were talking about COVID and how it how obviously affected you and how it was 9-11 on the I was I was in a I was in a fortunate position I was I I I was I was just fine.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

I I did some flying around that was cool I uh I lost a lot of weight as well that's when I become became less chubby and uh I did flying uh because flight schools were able to somehow operate so that was really cool and yeah I turned what I turned 16 in 2020 so uh I mean I I even I I managed to do some sort of a birthday party that was cool.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Do you retro perspectively do you think those measures that were put in place were a bit too much um I'm giving politics the benefit of the doubt a little bit because no one really knew what to do.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Right? I don't really want to judge it that much but in in hindsight it was definitely too much and like we see way too much damage with young especially young people that were in the years of forming character um and we c I think in hindsight it was it turned out to be really really bad for society. But who could have known I mean there's a new virus now now.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

The Hunter virus thing which is funny that I was on the same ship you were on the same yeah the same ship where it shipped the same route two two years ago I'm not the super spreader. I just wanted to have that on record. It's not me.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

I have nothing to do with this your case zero button did you eat a do you have a relationship with a rat or anything where you know you know what I think is like because there's a lot of old people on those cruises like especially that one and they were all like into birds you know birders bird watching and stuff and they usually do like tours before and they were he was probably like the guy taking photos of some rodents somewhere and he was probably lying down in the grass and maybe got uh infected by whatever droppings from a from a rat or whatever and then it kind of spread um but yeah like when I see the news like people are that that's what the one good thing is that people are they don't take shit anymore right they say like okay hunter virus we're not gonna fall for this or we mean that we're obviously people died and I'm I'm really feeling feel sorry for those but I feel like people it takes it would need to take a lot more for people to ever go back to lockdown true I think that's what I noticed as well like with like Gen Z humor like when you're scrolling on like Instagram reels like this is like an like a thing of a norm now when you have like really crazy and it's like kind of like even racist stuff on the app right uh that people generally find like like the the the zeitgeist generally finds funny it's like I think that's what we we we we become extremely desensitized to literally anything and we don't really care and we over consume a little stuff.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

Yeah that's true as well don't go out and uh it's like people are very confined to their to their social devices like their their their phones and stuff and it's um like it's mainly you need to go to certain place or certain scenarios in order to experience certain things you know and we are very heavily TikTok educated and stuff you know and we I feel like people tend to jump on any conspiracy theory as well like they over but because it gives you views it gives you content and stuff like that. So people jump on these kind of things um as well like I mean I take it all back if we one day maybe find out that we haven't been to the moon you know it could be that the day comes and there's oh we were all we could this is how I look at uh at COVID there was a couple of people who were right you know where we we dec we declare declared them like clinical insane and then they were like oh there was some truth to it as well you know um but I think this is the good and this is the strength of probably our societies that you have the ultra cautious ones and you have the ones that don't take any of this who rather go on the street and defend our like rights for freedom and not being confined and uh lockdown and stuff like that. I think that uh uh told a lot about uh the societies but do you think we will ever have a lockdown again? Um well I agree well I agree with you that it was new for the government as well and they didn't know how to act and people were dying that's a fact I knew I personally know people who died of that and so people weren't dying and I think and nobody really knew what was going on and maybe at some point it was probably also too much I at one point I think oh let just nature do their thing you know and that's there has been pandemics before and when you have compared when you look at Sweden and stuff they didn't have any lockdowns and the numbers weren't much different right so much sometimes I feel like okay let's uh let it spread let it let it uh let it build immunity the way God was uh thinking of how it is supposed to work and then at the same time I do I don't think because it been it's been so highly political uh politicalized the whole topic that people won't lock unless you have like something you know Ebola like that crazy virus or whatever like where you have a very very slim chance of surviving yeah if you have an actual disease that is much more aggressive and that has a a survival rate of maybe 50% then people will probably reconsider it but nobody was gonna go out there and locks down because of a a a virus that has an what was I think it was a 98% survival rate. Yeah yeah yeah I think I had COVID as well I think everybody did yeah I had like I'd never heard COVID like during the whole travel had it like years later yeah no then I had it like at the end like it wasn't it was never even considered a pandemic anymore I met a friend and uh like a pilot friend and she gave me a a hug and I think uh that that's how it got COVID but like I didn't I didn't feel anything it was like any other flu yeah uh not even a flu I just had a bit of a sniffles but um no I think people uh people probably look at it differently and I don't think because it has killed so many industries as well true um it has killed the 747 like this is this an aviation podcast it's an aviation podcast so it killed the 747 pretty much uh Qantas early retirement British Airways and all this and uh probably even the 380 would have not survived but uh luckily uh some airlines decided to bring it back it killed hospitality industry like yeah when I travel um for example I lived in in Sri Lanka during the or like by the end of the uh pandemic and I know Sri Lanka uh was one of the greatest countries in terms of hospitality and service yeah so you had the greatest waiters we had really good service personnel and what then changed those people uh during COVID started their own businesses or uh seeked other opportunities right and then you would could really tell how going to a restaurant was just shit because you had people there's no more people working no more people and those that were left they just stayed because they probably couldn't find another job or something like that. So it has changed it had created more damage and there's people and industry still struggling today because of the lockdowns and all that happened.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

So many people uh lost their businesses and I think if you just have wouldn't have had a lockdown um of course it maybe had a couple more people that die or maybe not I'm not uh I'm not a doctor but like in the end of the day or just keep on going and the world would have been also okay right but yeah I'm not an expert and um but I feel like that we've overreacted quite a lot but because we didn't know we would say after the fact yes of course afterwards we always yeah yeah yeah I I don't know I think the interesting thing is like uh I uh I was at the aerial air show right where there's like a lot of charter companies that do like private jet charters and they have like this thing business jets are not necessarily used anymore prop uh properly because like most meetings now can happen online you know back then when you had the Concord you would fly to New York attend a meeting and then fly back you know and and you don't need to do that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

Yeah but I think that is not people humans as you say we we thrive on uh like on human contact and stuff like that and I feel like but charter companies are going bust yeah of course I mean uh they had a high time during COVID as well but this is like how do don't build a business on or on on extraordinary events right yeah people probably knew that and then they said oh like let me buy a secondhand uh um global jet or whatever and uh I gonna ride that wave but then it's gone at one point as well so this is all like um you gotta build a business based on uh on uh on proper calculations and predictions and um I don't even feel sorry um about this and like benefiting on a global pandemic right people need to decide that for themselves whether that's a good thing to do or not but no and they of course that's that's the that's the world we live in yeah so yeah 2020 COVID and I I did videos still without a face yeah and it took all the way up till 21 until I actually showed my face in all my videos uh then I introduced the face cam quite quickly and people were like okay let's we're doing that now like it wasn't really that it was quite nice it was no problem seamlessly seamless change uh 21 it's turned what 17 I had my did my first ever flight oh that was actually in 2020 already I did my first ever solo flight in November.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Did you film that as well? I filmed that it was a big video cool video cool funny video and yeah 20 So that's when you kind of changed the content a little bit like vlogging.

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Yeah yeah I did some more vlogging especially when I turned 18 and that was that was really funny your I remember your Lufthansa 747 flight to Mallorca so like in that's when Lufthansa bashing I didn't really do a lot of in in real life videos at all.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

Until Amtrak recently until I until I was 18 I and I mean I I couldn't really travel so I I turned 18 when and I got I bought my first car and then I uh I drove to the museums and I drove there I drove like to full motion flight sims oh those are great times 2022 was a great time dude do you well 2022 was a really cool year for me I really love 2022 yeah was yeah was one of my most successful ones as well I did some videos that really broke the internet for for me as well but like it's also like fun wise I was still in school I was still uh I I still had I still had a lot of fun it was tw 2022 was really cool and I I did that I went to skiatos the island with the crazy airport I went to that was the first time I did like proper proper vlogs and uh then I did uh the Caribbean vlog you know the the Seba Air smallest one in the world that that was a funny one. You did global but that was later that was a lot later.

SPEAKER_00 58:21

I really started yeah yeah that was a lot later I uh really started traveling and um that's basically ever since then not really much has changed that much with my content I just I mean uh the the the last big change was basically when the Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 came out back in COVID by the way great great time back then the flight sim community cr grew to up to like 10 12 million players just on Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 alone so like a lot more people interested in that niche a lot more people in the city would you say you like look I depend on not not as much anymore but aircraft deliveries new planes new cabins or stuff like that do you depend on new releases of games that affect you like let's say oh Microsoft Flight Simulator and everyone lost their mind about it right and uh I think GTA 6 is something that you're looking forward to because right now would you notice that there is a bit of a dip in interest is there a bit of like a uh reduced views because as everything it wears off or what are what are the challenges that you see in 2025 26 for your channel for flight simulators I think it's definitely that the flight sim industry has scaled down quite a lot.

SPEAKER_01 59:49

There's just it's just a thing now you know it just just exists and people are not there's no novelty to it. And it's been a bit hard to find videos that will attract a lot of people which is why I've tried starting new things live streaming you to Amtrak yeah well that was a live streaming that was years ago though I did Amtrak doing a train and more flight reviews I was there and more good videos check it out more real life videos and stuff interestingly enough no one really cared about the real life videos and then so global was a massive success right yeah well it only had like a hundred thousand views as well way more way more than I don't know but like the the the the some some flights and videos still do well like it's not it's it's nothing it's it's not a dead corpse it's just that it's a bit harder now to like you don't like the baseline interest of that every video gets is a lot lower. You can still achieve millions of views you still I still do and I still have I still have some videos that do well but I do have like a lot like the the the the it's not guaranteed. You know that's like a thing that I've noticed.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

But yeah does it affect you does it like you should let's say you put a lot of effort into something perform and you'd be like oh of course like a performance of a video will always be something that will uh that will affect how you feel about the video because to me you look invincible honestly like maybe it's your age maybe you're very naive or whatever but you seem not to be bothered you say I had two shitty months well whatever let's get a beer or like you're like the thing is that I've always had shitty months. What what is the I even had shitty months in 2021 in your head when you have like let's say you have two months of poor performing videos do you wake up in the morning think oh shit now I don't really want to produce a video I my motivation is low I like let people have a look into your head how do you deal with this kind of stuff because we all have to deal with this eventually I stopped looking at my analytics a lot you know um I don't I don't really care the what the only thing that I care about is the things that I have in control a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

So for example my my um my contentness overall is kind of wired to my productivity but not my success uh in the way of what I care about is will I make a video today? Will I make a live stream today? No matter how it goes will I make a cool video that I like to to make and like after all these years 2500 videos uploaded every every single day I try to upload sometimes I just can't for example yesterday I didn't um so uh it yeah it it's it's it's something I really I'm just looking forward to is like or what what I'm looking for in a video when I cre and I think of a video idea is is that's interesting even still for me who's done all the videos you know I mean um and that's like the only thing I care about like is is this cool will I make a video uh will I make a live stream will I have fun and and that's like the only thing I care about like the thing is though on the other hand though the yesterday I felt like shit because I didn't really make a video I didn't really I was so hungover and I was just tired I just wanted to go to bed. But we did a great podcast we did a great podcast and that's that made me feel better. Maybe that's like something that is necess not necessarily healthy. I'm I noticed that like after five days of hiatus I got after five days of vacation I start going crazy. When I don't have a when I didn't do a video for five days I start going like genuinely insane. It's like this is like a thing I'm I'm a little bit addicted to or maybe it's just a habit, I don't know, as uh of doing like the daily uploads and if I don't do a daily upload I feel like shit. Do you have this sometimes as well when you don't do upload a week you don't you feel like shit?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

I to be honest like the past two months I just uploaded every second week just because I was very busy traveling and then you you come uh you come and visit the family and there's always the other things that you have in mind. Like I'm not too worried about these kind of things anymore I'd say sometimes I'm like oh if I don't post today then I'll post and I only post once a week. True so but then there's a time where I like post every week and like especially toward the end of the year you know when the when the views are high when the the revenue is higher when people spend a lot more time on you YouTube. This is when I like try to post all the bangers as well you know the the good ones and stuff and I do realize why people have summer breaks or TV shows back in the days you know we had popular TV shows and they would say okay now we go on for our summer break for like three months and I think this is probably the time where they start just producing stuff for the end of the year. And the end of the year is always my high time this is really when I want to give people the greatest content that I could possibly produce. But yeah of course it's like sometimes you know sometimes you you post stuff for and for two months they don't perform I've been true just just as much right you think like oh you know what is it you start questioning yourself but for me it's mostly like there's a time where I post all the leftovers the videos that I don't feel like it's priority or good quality but you think like oh I still plan to do them or still paid to do them and I still want to at least uh break even you know you want to get your revenue and that you want to put it out there but you know that they don't perform well I can tell you like with 90% certainty whether a video is going to perform well or not you know and you just have it in your in your in your blood you know and uh this is just I feel like as more time as you use to produce them like the more uh the more you get back. But sometimes you have like things that you not in your control and something happens on a flight and uh and people uh get out there or like you have something like global. I remember when you posted your global airline video I think this put us as a doo on the map as well. And people started like uh asking me who's this guy you know he's hilarious and everyone was talking about Nick and Nick started into he had a very different approach. Do you Turned it into comedy and very successfully so. Uh so yeah, like every every like this YouTube journey, like and you were uh mentioning uh Daner in the beginning, like a German YouTuber, and I would like I used to watch his gate uh GTA videos 10 years ago. Yeah, we were 10 years ago, 12 years ago. Yeah, 12 years ago, and I saw an out video of him and they uh they asked him, or do you ever want to stop uh when do you retire from YouTube? And I think this is also a thing in our head that we set ourselves like a retirement to it because you think it's just something temporarily. But he said, No, I don't think I'll ever retire, I might do this for the rest of my life, you know. And where I think of it, maybe that's also not a bad approach because I always have that that ghost in my head that is flying around there and say at one point you have to retire. It feels like a footballer career, you know, you have a peak for like 10-15 years.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:50

Why uh honestly, why though? Yeah, because I honestly why because I mean uh I mean we we were gonna we're just gonna uh visually age, but we're gonna be more wise, we're gonna be better. That like there's no age limit to how how like if you can store a YouTube, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:05

Yeah, yeah, but like maybe you have a uh I think everything has an expiry date at some point where maybe your creativity isn't as great as it is anymore, or your hunger to travel. For me, it's different than it was for you. You can do you all you need is uh a laptop, a camera, a microphone, and a room where you can do the stuff that you do, right? I I have to travel to Yemen, Afghanistan, or Somalia to uh or in order to produce another banger, right? So I think this is maybe the thing of the transition of um doing something else and how many uh how many YouTubers have disappeared because they transitioned into something very, very differently. Yeah, very different.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:44

And uh yeah. I mean overall uh YouTube has really taught me that life is all about ups and downs, right? I mean, good times don't last forever and and so don't the la the bad times, right? Um and that's that's like totally normal in literally every aspect of pretend and try to do everything for the good times to last as long as yeah, and so like a lot of people like they did they depend their or they're try to find their happiness in their success and how good their life is going uh overall. Um and I think that's that's very unwise like I've I've learned not to do exactly that. So this is why I don't I'm I'm not really affected by how how the videos perform. What I what I what I only care about is like how do I fulfill my purpose? Right? What's your purpose? Uh create creating stuff, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

Who for? What for? Why do you do it?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:41

Uh yeah, I don't want to I don't want to become I wanna be I don't want to be too lofty about the YouTube thing, but like the the coolest thing is like because I've been doing YouTube for so long, uh there's like kids that used to watch my channel, you know, and they're my age, and it's sort of watching it like 15, uh like eight years ago. And now they're in the mid-20s and they've just finished their piloting career and they say, Hey dude, I've uh I learned I I wanted to be a pilot because of your videos, because I found those videos funny, and then I got into flights and then I got to flight school and then I got gone to airlines. Um and that's like really, really cool to to to give perspective. I think I said this before though. I think that's like that that's like the coolest thing, and I think that's that's how I find uh that's that's like a big gift that I have like purpose like that, you know, to reach I think reaching people is like a a bit of a purpose and making cool stuff that other people find cool too. You know, like what is your purpose?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:35

Oh my purpose, like it I don't wanna I think I mentioned that a couple of times. Yeah, for me it was just like yeah, just as I said always in my videos, holding airlines accountable for these kind of things, create just be like tell stories as they are, you know, just be real and have an impact and and um yeah, get like uh challenge the bigger guys, right? I feel like always like a bit like Robin Hood, you know, you take it from the from the big airlines and you make them reconsider a couple of choices. And I said, like, for example, because of a video I did on Indigo, for example, and many others, like for Indigo now, everyone gets cup noodles in business class because I was pointing it out. So, but um getting back to you, um uh what I find, and that's why I wanted to to make this episode about you, because um when I see my nephews and I see a lot of people on your age, I feel like the world is your oyster, you have the possibilities that nobody had. Um when I was when I was young, there was no internet, right? There was no such there was no such thing. Well, there was, but only for the window, yeah, but it looked very different. Um so it no, this is the thing that everyone we live in times where you can just create yourself, right? You uh I always find this when people say oh go out there, find yourself. No, go out there, create yourself, right? And and you have all these possibilities, and you guys have good advice. You you if but I feel like everyone is so so so so lazy, and like the power of doing nothing like what you do right now, every 13-year-old in the world can do. Yeah, if they want to, of course, if they want to, and this is how sometimes how simple it is because not everyone is born for this purpose, but like so many people, so many young people I talk to, and they say, Oh, you're Joe Grosh, Josh, you're a YouTuber. This is so cool, I want to be one too. Yeah, nothing stops you, and I think the difference between uh you and others is that you at one point you had that determination, you picked it up and you tried. I tried, and you tried, and you kept on going, and you know that maybe your first five videos weren't a success or it took forever, but now you were in uh uh a flight simulator, uh flight simulator, a YouTube sensation that made it you make a living out of this kind of stuff where people think this is so stupid or dumb, you know, but it's actually no, it's amazing, it's incredible, it's inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

I think I think, especially nowadays with AI, you know, knowledge is so accessible and the like ability is so accessible, right? You don't need to know a lot of stuff to make stuff, you know. Um dangerous as well, though. Which is which is dangerous, which I mean it eventually it will lead to an absolute oversaturation of literally everything. That's like my scare. Because the thing is, I I I you know my app, right, that I made, including the website of the thing. It's all it's I'm not a developer, I have a little bit of C knowledge, but I'm I have no idea about Swift like the iPhone programming thing. But with AI, I was able to generally create like a genuinely working app, and I'm like, okay, this is cool, but on the other hand, it's only cool when I only have access to it because everyone does, right? Which is cool, but we're gonna have so many shit new apps coming out, we're gonna have so many new TikTokers, we're gonna have so many new YouTubers, it's gonna all gonna be extremely oversaturated in literally every aspect of life. Honestly, if I didn't have my YouTube thing, if I didn't start, if I didn't do this, I would do an apprenticeship uh to um to do like handyman stuff. So I would generally I want I would I would I would be a carpenter, not the singer, but the the the like generally working hands like this is like this this thing like creating stuff that's cool is is cool, but I think now that everyone has the ability, everyone's gonna do it and try to do it, and uh it's gonna be really really hard to stand out. So this is like my honest my honest honest like stream of thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:48

You know, yeah, no, yeah, but the thing is like yeah, access now like there's there's different kind of content, and I think the hardest to master is probably the long sh uh long forward uh long format that with a because you have to keep people's attention for uh a long time. Yeah, attention is something that most people don't have, but sometimes when I look uh at a 20-minute video that I do and it has an average watch time of like 12 minutes, I feel like wow, I was able to keep them there for like 12 minutes out of uh out of 20. How incredible is that? But um yeah, like then there's different content on on TikTok or such. Uh the the um and as you said, everyone can do it. Like the thing is um uh what is important to people else is monetization because people want to uh key like turn their hobby into a job. Whether we like like I know that no none of us does anything for money, right? And we're not the stingy kind of uh people and we are like very uh very down to earth, but people do want to have a bit of a reward by the end of the day, right? And uh yeah, I see a lot of people pull out and because oh I don't make this, I don't make enough money or rough life life is rough, life is life is rough, and that's we see this a lot in like I think in curr in creative industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:07

I mean like like yeah, I see this in in like music industry as well. No one really like we all well uh everybody's kind of broke, and we we all we need to make money, you know. There is no new like band, right, that tries a new thing um without the guarantee of it being successful. So music will all be the same now as well, you know. But I mean back then you could just work at McDonald's and have your apartment and have your little guitar and try to try some new things out, and then maybe you'll be discovered, right? Now that just won't work unless your parents give you money, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:42

Like you know, it it's funny to say it back in the days. Um I was thinking about this as well. Now it's very easy to get discovered, right? Look at Sean Mendes, Justin Bieber, which are great examples for this. Um, but for example, back in the days, uh Michael Jackson, uh I don't know, uh those big artists from back in the days, or the moderators that you have on on in TV or whatever, they had to go through a lot of screening, they had to go through a lot of stuff in order to reach like I'm gonna say so you reach it when you have an absolute super super talent. Nowadays, you you just have to do something really dumb, and you also get to that, right? So at one point back in the days, okay, let me just finish my thought, is that there was a lot of eyes, a lot of uh you had to do a lot to get to the top, right? You had to convince a lot of people, you had to be really good, and nowadays it's very easy to rise to fame because of all those we like which is a good thing as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:44

Nobody I would nobody would watch it, like I would not exist if it wasn't for but it's a but it's a different but it's a different kind of challenge neither would you it's a different kind of challenge. Of course, once again, because of this over saturation. If you're a cute girl and you can play guitar and you can sing and you can write a song, yeah, you can post about it, but there's literally millions of others who do do the same thing. How do you stand out? The challenge is the same, and just in a different way.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:09

Um I agree, I agree. Like talent, like there's so many talented people, and uh it is different to be seen like back in the days of stories where you played at the at the pup. Yeah, right? Yeah, so you play at a pop and somebody uh sees you, it's like, oh I discovered this, you know what I would do discover. And nowadays you just put it on the on the internet, and of obviously there is a lot of great people with amazing voice. Yeah, yeah. And uh that is uh obviously something that has just has changed over over. Good it's good and bad, right? As I said, like we wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for the internet because we wouldn't have made our way, and we would have as I said, I would probably work at a hotel reception somewhere at a mere uh airport hotel in uh in uh Dubai or whatever, and you would be uh probably a handyman and carpenter who eats 12 cheeseburgers a day. So right, because nothing against that nobody on a t on a TV on a t television would watch you land planes in Luklaw on a flight simulator, or do you disagree with me?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:19

I think content is not necessarily reliant on its platform. I think it always works. Like I I think uh someone asked me this. What do you do if YouTube were just gone? What do you do? I would say I I would do probably the same thing, but in a on a different platform. I would I I mean, you know, you you you have this thing, like TikTok videos, your TikTok videos were can work well as well. I've posted TikToks that works really well too. I'm just a little bit too lazy to post uh on TikTok, right? Um so I think it's what was your question?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:56

My question was whether you would succeed on uh television.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:00

Oh yeah, and that's the same thing as well. I think I could maybe, maybe with the things that I've done, and this is maybe something that I want to do sometime, because I want to make something bigger than YouTube. I kinda wanna we need all need to ascend. But I I I I I want to maybe have a TV show at some point because I know I have kind of maybe what it takes a little bit. I mean I'm not a journalist, but I I uh I I'm uh think big. Entertain Yeah, I I I I w I wanna have a TV show where I where where I do things properly with like proper budget, you know? I'm like, hey, I've been doing like digital crazy plain stuff for years, but now it's time for real plain crazy stuff. Um and I think uh I uh I I would have what it what it takes to do that. I think it would would work on TV. Obviously I would it wouldn't be Microsoft Flight Sim gameplay, right? There's Nickelodeon, by the way, now Nickelodeon, uh you know the the TV station? Uh they actually have like let's play uh things they actually put like on TV they air Minecraft let's play which is crazy. I think that's a successful yeah, but no, so uh I I think I the I I I could do something similar to what I do on YouTube on TV as well, just and and and a far better quality probably even. Oh 100%, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:24

Yeah, do you do you do you think travel vlogs travel vlogs would work well? Back in back in the days it was called uh Lonely Planet. There was a channel where you have all these kind of things, and I would love I still like the only thing that I consume on TV is like documentaries because I'm really into history and traveling as well, but like then yeah, like nowadays it's very different. Um but if I ever had uh I mean I was asked to be a a host for a travel show once on the TV. But I would love I like late night shows. You would love to have like a talking show the the Josh Cahill show or something like that. Okay, minus the Swiss minus the thing. I love having a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:04

I think that you can't have a T you can't have a late night showing.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:08

I would love to do interviews like with uh politicians, with uh individuals, something like that. I think that would be something that I'd be very interested in um as well. But now still doing YouTube, still have a lot of kind of things planned, but like so if you so for all the the minors that are listening to the podcast, what are your is your advice or your words of motivation to start like let's say you're 13 year old, you sit uh right now in your bed and you watch this podcast and you uh have the idea to start your own YouTube channel. What advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:48

Um trust no trust yourself and your ability more is something I would say first. Is like uh I mean I was like five years ago, I was like, oh god, where will I be in five years? Will I make it what what what will it look like? Like I will be a total loser, probably. I had this thing like five years ago, and now uh I I look back and I would have said, Hey no, you're all all all went well, all turned out okay. That's basically the first thing that I would say. And then uh I mean yeah, try and don't listen to your parents in some cases. Do yeah, no, do listen. No, try try things out, um learn stuff, be curious. I've always been curious, I've always wanted to learn about like new things and people, and I I I I I whatever I meet new people, I want to know as much as possible about w how another person thinks, you know. Um so that's something I would say be curious about literally anything. Like just tr try to you know what I mean? Like on and and learn skills. Learn to edit a video.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:57

And everything is available online.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:59

Learn learn to play an instrument.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:02

Learn learn learn how to cook, learn how like learn, be curious. That's like a thing that I think is a little bit in that's that's something you should use AI in a smart way for, because AI is super helpful for learning stuff. It's taught me a lot. Loads of people use it though for the very opposite, which is not learning how to do things and just having AI do stuff for them. Uh but let AI train you, let AI um explain things to do to you. Do you know what I mean? Uh so yeah, d do that. Be curious, learn. What have you learned this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:37

What have I learned this year? Um good question. I learn every day. Honestly, like for me, I consume so much, and I love um to hear that I'm wrong sometimes. I love to be wrong, you know. I love that's uh I mean we talked about this uh last uh last episode. Sometimes it's great to get uh different, like sometimes you need to have a bit of a an opinion to have others come into your life and say, hey, there's a different um angle and opinion to a couple of matters. Nobody's ever right. Nobody's ever right. Nobody's ever right, and no opinion is ever correct. You know, you can um have this is what I this is how I learn. I learn a lot of things from I I'm very I I observe a lot and I try to I try to learn um how do I I also grow as a person. I learn a lot about myself every day still as well, you know. And I think this is the only way, like even when you I've turned 40 this year, and yeah, uh 30. I said 30. Um and uh no, and you think you have it all figured out, but I still learn that you haven't it figured out, you know, and that things are changing, um uh stuff is changing, you you uh like physically you're changing as well, you know, like uh you get older and stuff, and um there's so many little things that I still and I think some people some at one point they they become resilient to other opinions and other things, and when you stop when you stop learning, when you stop accepting, um then uh it is uh then you uh hit a wall in life. Um but exactly um to come back to you, and like I think people should just go and try, you know, and just don't be lazy, you know. Yeah, give yourself a try. Life is short, you know, life is short, and and uh it's the regrets that you have of the things that you haven't done when you were young, and it is because you it you have a pr very privileged life or great life because you created that for yourself, and you could have said you I mean you come from an alright family, you do you you would have done well, like whatever, but you decided no, you know, I want to earn my own money with 13 years. I got my first paycheck of like three thousand dollars or whatever, and this is um what I really admire, and you didn't have to do this because you weren't starving, you weren't underprivileged, you still probably could go uh ask mom and get new new shoes if you wanted to. But you did that, and people say, Oh, you know, like uh maybe you were born with a golden spoon. Like, I mean I'm the opposite, I didn't had that that that privilege. And for a long time I tried to think I tried things out that didn't work, and and uh it's never too late. That's also like 22 years, yeah. I was in a very different part of my life. 13 I was uh I wasn't anywhere near that you were bang then, but everybody has their own journey and go uh the the pace is different, you know. And if you feel like oh okay. And not every 13-year-old need to turn into YouTube sessions. No, no, absolutely sometimes it's not for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:49

I think it's I think it's trivial. I think like my my way of of of living life is I don't really do things that feel good, but I do things that are good. You know what I mean? I think that's like that's like very general, but you can apply to literally every aspect of life. Yeah, yeah, of course. You know, it's it doesn't feel good to you know if you if you uh some some days I'm like I really don't want to do a live stream. But uh I know that's I don't want to live by what feels good, but I want to feel I wanna I want to live by what is actually good and then I do the I do the video. I d or I do the live stream anyway, you know. Um so that's like that's like it's something something we should do.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:30

Should we go to spotting now? I think we should. We should. Uh and I think we should uh end this episode here, and I feel like I hope um you learned something.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:40

I like I like how we're slowly starting to transition from airplanes to general topics. I like that the past two podcasts haven't really been much about aviation.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:48

Yeah, but there's just only so much like look, yeah, that's like a shout out to uh Dan and Alex who are very knowledgeable on the field of aviation. Yeah, we're knowledgeable. And they can talk about that kind of stuff every they can give you analysis, but we can give you we can give you experience and we can give you we can give you a different side, and like you probably is it interesting to listen to one hour podcast by uh uh about uh uh Spirit Airlines bankruptcy. Probably not. Like, so there is something that is uh just two guys in a different age as well that doing the same things, doing kind of the same thing, and but we have a different way of how we got there, and like we're just here sharing our experience. I think this is a podcast. Uh a podcast is where you can have the it's the opposite of a YouTube video, right? You you either in for it because you want to learn something and you listen, you go through those uh one and a half hours and you learn something, or you watch a short YouTube video where it's all about keeping the attention span, you know, right? No, and a podcast gives you the idea like really like to put out six, seven, eight, nine sentences to make sense of things. And I think this is why we started it. And it's not like when we started it, what did we learn that you can't post every week, you know? You can't sometimes you can't force it, you know. And we wanna we wanna upload something when we have to share something, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:14

Some some sometimes some weeks we just don't have anything to share. Also, I don't really want to do the offline thing. I like this with the camera a lot more. It's not absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:22

And next time uh you will come uh uh it's my birthday soon, and we have a couple of we're gonna have like there's a lot of cool couple cool people coming to my podcast. It's my birthday, and then we can have a couple of uh podcasts with Rowan, for example. I want to have Rowan, he was a tour guide in North Korea, cool so we're gonna talk about North Korean aviation and all that kind of stuff. Have you done any uh flight simulator at Choreo stuff? Oh, 100%. I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:44

I'm sure you have done loads of stuff. I mean, you can walk around in Pyongyang in the Microsoft 24. That's cool, yeah. Yeah, and it's like it's got the whole thing modeled too, which is funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:53

It's amazing. Yeah, there's so many cool things coming. Yeah, and uh but thanks for sharing your story. I find it was really inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:00

Thanks for your interest in it. Uh thank you guys so so much for watching this uh podcast, and I'll see you guys in the next one or hear you guys in the next one.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:08

And as always, yeah, yeah. Good night. Yeah, good night, and uh thanks for being part of this journey and giving us uh good reviews. I love it. Hit that subscribe button. All right, stop begging, stop begging, and stop begging and uh and uh have a good day.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:22

Stop begging, be kind, be kind, be kind, be curious.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:28

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:28

Bye bye, everybody. Good night.