TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

A Sushi Chef Explains How YouTube Changed His Life

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We talk with Taku from Outdoor Chef Life about going from grinding as a San Francisco sushi chef to building a catch-and-cook YouTube business that changes his income, reach, and daily life. We break down what actually drove early growth, what going full time feels like when views dip, and how he protects trust while diversifying revenue. 
• coming up as an omakase sushi chef and the grind behind the skill 
• why he starts posting in 2018 and how the channel concept stays clear 
• early videos gaining traction and collabs accelerating discovery 
• the moment YouTube income passes restaurant income and the leap to full time 
• handling the first big view drop and expanding beyond AdSense 
• sponsorship emails, how he learns to price, and why free products are not payment 
• a cautionary sponsor story about sustainability claims and audience backlash 
• merch, inventory realities, and building a brand people trust 
• writing a cookbook as a long-term revenue stream 
• what he looks for when smaller creators pitch collabs 
• advice for creators in outdoor content and improving through repetition 
We Have Outdoor Chef Life Linked In The Description Below And In The Show Notes On The Audio Podcast 


Five-Figure YouTube Reality Check

SPEAKER_01

That first month I made five figures. Like I don't know how much you can make on YouTube. Like a life-changing amount. Like I wouldn't be here on my property that I have now if I wasn't for YouTube. Right? So it was kind of uh yeah, that was that was like a very much a light bulb moment. Like, whoa, you don't know you can make that much.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast that's willing to go everywhere and anywhere to get you some of the best guests on YouTube. I'm Travis, as always, and today I have a really cool special guest today, Tacu.

SPEAKER_01

What's up, Taco? How you doing, my friend? Hey man, I'm Taku, and I have a YouTube channel called Outdoor Chef Life.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we're gonna learn a lot about that channel and his journey here. If you're new here, we help you grow your YouTube channel through different ways. Sometimes you send us in questions, we'll answer those, and sometimes we interview people like Taco. Super excited about that. And if you're listening to the audio podcast, the show notes will have what you need. If you're on YouTube, you'll see it in the description below. But let's get right into it, Taku. Thank you so much for joining me today. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Uh, where are you coming from? Looks like you're outside. If you're watching YouTube, he's outside's really cool. Uh, tell us about yourself.

Breaking Into High-End Sushi

SPEAKER_01

Right on, man. Yeah, thanks for having me. Uh yeah, um, my name is Taku. I started uh posting on YouTube back in 2018. And yeah, I started a channel called Outdoor Chef Life, where I go out and fish and forage and then cook what I catch. And yeah, it's been a great journey.

SPEAKER_00

So, what were you doing before YouTube? Like what were you doing professionally and and that sort of thing before YouTube?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, before I use uh YouTube, I was a professional sushi chef working in San Francisco.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. So were you at a like a fancy uh uh fancy restaurant or something, or were you just doing it uh uh on the side? What were you doing exactly?

SPEAKER_01

No, it was uh yeah, a couple different restaurants. Uh I was the last one I worked in was a omakase sushi restaurant. Have you ever been to one of those where you sit in a restaurant?

SPEAKER_00

I've been I've been buying them, I've seen them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You don't order anything, you kind of just come in, sit down, set menu, and uh yeah, you just kind of enjoy what the chef gives you. And uh yeah, I was one of those chefs.

SPEAKER_00

That's amazing. So that I assume that was a passion of yours being like a sushi. It's not something you just do do as a job, generally speaking, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, definitely. Uh it's I went to actually college for uh uh physical therapy. I was gonna become a physical therapist, and then I kind of had uh, but I love cooking during during college, you know. I just loved I loved it, I cooked every day, multiple times a day, you know, mainly because I couldn't afford to go out to eat, but I wanted to eat good, you know. So I learned how to cook um from a young age, and I really wanted to take it to the next level and see, I thought I was badass at home, you know, just making little ramen, like a little upscale version of instant ramen. I thought I was super cool. And I was like, all right, let me go into a professional kitchen, see if I can, you know, hang with the hang with the real chefs.

SPEAKER_00

What was that like going into like a professional uh chef, you know, uh like because I know that in some instances that can be a very difficult job to get into. Some people think, ah, just cooking. But if you go into something that's like kind of fancier or higher end, they expect a lot from you. And a lot of times you start as like a dishwasher for a long time. Like, what was your journey?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it was very intimidating for sure. And just to get my foot in the door, um, luckily I knew I had a a co-worker of mine at the time, his uh partner at the time was a front of house manager for a restaurant. So I, you know, I had a uh a way in, I kind of like begged her to like give me an interview with the chefs. And then once I interviewed got that interview, sat down with the chefs, like four of them. It's a big restaurant, that one. And uh I kind of just told them, you know, I want to become a sushi chef, and you know, I don't have any professional kitchen experience, but I cook a lot at home. I think I have decent knife skills, and you know, I know the ingredients. I'm Japanese, you know, I grew up with Japanese food, I know the flavors and uh all this stuff, right? And then they were like, okay, you can, you know, we'll give you we'll give you a chance. Um, but first month, no pay. You know, just a stodge. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So we'll see if you actually like it, you know, and then if you do, we'll see if you are actually good enough to, you know, for us to consider hiring you. And so yeah, that's how I said, okay, you know, let's do it, let's run it. Because at the time, you know, I just wanted to get my foot in the door, any kind of learning experience I could get.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, I wanted Did you have to work another job at the same time?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I was delivering for like postmates, um, just delivering food, you know, on my on my uh motorcycle too. Just around the city, just running around the city, delivering food, and then I'll go in to to work from like it was be like from three, two or three p.m. to like 11 or midnight on the weekends.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. And then and you and at that point you were still going into the how many days a week were you going into the sushi restaurant while working the other job?

SPEAKER_01

I was going in five days.

SPEAKER_00

At least that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, that's a big bet. Like you're betting on yourself, you're betting on your your passion, hoping that it it at the end of the day that they see what you believe in yourself. What happened after the 30 days?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, oh, they said they actually like ended up firing two people and hired me. Whoa. They're like, no, we want this guy. They were like, We we're gonna we're gonna keep you. They're like, Yeah, so they offered me a position, and then so I got hired. And how long did you mean after two weeks? Oh, now it took me a lot longer for that. Um, because I was you know, the first year was all learning experience, learning how to do, you know, everything from A to Z. Uh, and I started um with like vegetable prep, not even touching any fish pretty much for the whole first year. And uh which is uh just like making rice every day and yeah, prepping veggies and then making sushi rolls, and that was kind of um that was kind of it. I wasn't on the sushi bar yet. And that was grinding, man. That was like we I was working a lot and I was wasn't making much much money at all, and I was still delivering postmates because I, you know, I needed needed more money, you know, trying to live in San Francisco. It's kind of crazy, you know. And um uh so I actually ended up quitting after like a year and a half or so, and I ended up using my degree. I was like, okay, I'm maybe I should go, you know, pursue physical therapy. What I got my degree in, I got my degree in kinesiology, and um so I got a job at a physical therapy clinic and then I worked there for a year, but then I went back to the restaurant after a year. But there was a lot of overlap too for like uh two months of working at the physical therapy clinic and working at the sushi restaurant. And so I'll go in like 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m. to the uh clinic, work until 2, and then go straight to the restaurant, work until 11. And you know, I had those double days, like yeah, all the time.

SPEAKER_00

So no life basically.

SPEAKER_01

Pretty much, yeah. Pretty much just working, just grinding, you know.

SPEAKER_00

So when did you become like an actual sushi chef? Like how long into that process did you become the actual like chef?

SPEAKER_01

So I when I actually came back uh to the restaurant, they offered me a position on at the on the sushi bar. Like you'll be full time you'll be full-time sushi chef. They already knew like what I was capable of and uh already knew like I'm a fast learner, so they wanted to, you know, really promote me to you know, get me on the sushi bar and you know, filling fish every day and more of that the higher higher and you know, kind of kind of work as a chef.

Why He Started Uploading

SPEAKER_00

So you're you're kind of a successful sushi stuff at one point. When did YouTube come to be part of your life? What uh what made you decide to upload anything at all? And I'm not just talking about like kind of where you are now, I'm talking about like what was the thing that pushed you over the edge to go. I'm gonna start uploading stuff on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01

I've I was I've been watching YouTube myself for a long time too. You know, I didn't have TV when in college, so I just watched a lot of YouTube videos, so I love watching YouTube. And then I would watch um this one guy in in Wales, uh Coastal Forge with Craig Evans, and I would be like comment on his stuff and be like, oh, and I'd be like, I'm thinking about starting a YouTube channel over here doing kind of coastal foraging stuff and cooking. And he kind of like inspired me to start it, start it up, and like kind of like, oh, I would love to see what's over there, you know, it's a whole different coastline, and it'd be awesome to see on YouTube, you know, what you can get over there. And then I was like, all right, I'm gonna just start uploading videos. There was there was definitely other, you know, influences too, but I think that was a big one at that moment. Um I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do it. It was just kind of this, yeah, it influence from another YouTuber, right? And just kind of he had been uploading quite a bit at that time, and so I just figured, all right, let me let me just go for it.

SPEAKER_00

Was any of the part of the sushi stuff that you were doing uh influencing this? Because when I look at like your early, early, early views from like seven years ago, um technically, in a way it's kind of sushi-ish, but you're actually going out and getting the food. So there's a difference between having the raw food brought brought to you and then you uh you know set it up, lay it, all that stuff. This is you're actually going out and getting it. That's a different step. What made you want to go from being in the kitchen to going out and getting it and then doing it?

SPEAKER_01

I I grew up like I grew up fishing. There was a good period where I didn't fish, but I loved fishing as a kid, and then you know, after college I did a lot of fishing, and then I love I picked up some foraging books too uh during that time, and I started doing a lot of coastal foraging and um just the ability for you know as a chef to be able to get these fresh ingredients on your own. Uh that was to me, that was kind of like a big, you know, light bulb moment kind of where yeah, this there's fresh ingredients available right here in our backyard that uh a lot of people are kind of just walking right by.

SPEAKER_00

But it looks like when I when I look at your video, your first video, which was uh the camping and coastal forging, um it's not like everyone's first video, it looks a little bit more professional. The thumbnail is actually pretty good. Like there's a lot of things going on here that almost imply like you've done this before. Um, how why is it that you think your first video, uh at least it's on your channel? Sometimes we unlist chip videos, but we're talking about the first one that's published on your channel. Um, looks kind of like you knew what you were doing.

SPEAKER_01

No, not at all.

unknown

Not at all.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah, no, I think if you watch that video, I think you're the it's the one with the uni, right? I'm holding like two sea urchin or or maybe one sea urchin. Um it's the sea sea urchin one. Yeah, we did some camping and then yeah, on the coast and yeah, got some sea urchin, but then I didn't have like you know, uh the fire, my uh little butane stove, the the gas ran out on that one, so I couldn't even cook any rice because I was gonna make rice and then make like hand rolls. So I just had like the sea urchin wrapped in um piece of seaweed, you know. And no, I didn't, it was yeah, it was just uh no, we just went for it. We just did it.

SPEAKER_00

Well, but what's interesting about it is um like it very first opens up in first person. Like that's something that a lot of people don't do, but it's so um, it's so interesting and so cool because it brings the viewer into that moment. Like you're literally in first person. What made you think to even do that? Because most people on the first video, they're just thinking, oh, put the camera on me, let me do whatever cool thing I'm gonna do. You were literally like, this is what you would see if you were me right now.

SPEAKER_01

I think uh why I did that my from my perspective is because a chess cam is hands off, you know, you just press record and you can do everything in your in front of you and it's recording automatically, right? You don't really have to think about it. There's no, you know, you can just forget about it and it'll just uh get everything that you're seeing. So um I think that was more the case than than you know anything deeper than that. It was kind of just like, oh, I just press record and it just goes.

SPEAKER_00

But I mean it's such uh the storytelling and it's really good too. I think uh the reason I point this out is because a lot of times the first couple videos of a YouTube channel are just like, yeah, they're bad because it's your first couple videos. But three of your first four videos have well over 200,000 views, which is really unusual. Of course, they didn't probably get them right off the bat. Do you remember what it was like when you first upload those videos and like what the views looked like at first?

Early Videos That Took Off

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. No, that that third video on my channel, that's the one that really like it like that's that was the first one that really blew up. Um, and then back back then it was like so in it within the month, it got like 10,000 views, I think in the first month or so. And yeah, that that was uh that was a big one, just that my third video ever. And uh and yeah, that was it was great. And I was like, oh, we got some here. And it gained traction really, really quickly after that.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's because you're doing something so unusual. So what were were you still um the sushi chef at the time that you started this channel?

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah, for the first year and a half or so. Yeah, I was still a sushi chef.

SPEAKER_00

So when you when you started doing this, was this something you were trying to do like on weekends or like because obviously you were busy with work, like how often were you able to make these videos?

SPEAKER_01

I was doing maybe two to three videos a month.

SPEAKER_00

That seems doable, but that's that's not a lot. And to get two 10,000 views on a video in the first month and the first three videos is crazy. Like you must have been surprised by that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, I was definitely surprised. It kind of caught the attention of all the kind of local Bay Area, uh, the other YouTubers that were, you know, were making YouTube videos back then. Um, and then they started inviting me out too. So they, you know, they kind of found out who I was, and so I did collabs with uh all these kind of established YouTubers around me, and that I've been watching too. You know, I I know all these guys because I've been watching them for a couple years already, and then they're like, oh, come do a video with me. They're inviting me out to do collabs, and and then so their audience sees me, and then my videos get more traction, and my channel was just growing quite rapidly at that at that time.

SPEAKER_00

Do you remember how long it was before you had like um like a thousand or ten thousand subscribers? Like, how long did it take? Because it seems like you you had a pretty fast rise.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would say it was um it was fast for sure. Uh I think I say in one of the um one of my early videos, maybe it's like the fourth or fifth video. Maybe I I would have to look, I would have to double check that maybe it's a little bit later. But um I think I remember you know kind of um celebrating a thousand subscribers or something along those lines uh within the you know, I I think it was inside the first 10 videos basically that I ever posted. I think I if I recall correctly, uh yeah, you might have to, you know, double check me on that, but um but it was it was fast, and I know within within uh year and a half, less than yeah, within a year and a half, I was up to like 150,000 subscribers.

SPEAKER_00

That's intense. That's just something that you don't see um from any kind of channel, but I think it's maybe because the type of channel you're doing is unusual in a lot of ways. There's not a lot of competition. I mean, there is, of course, some, right? But when you compare that to like a gaming channel or something where there's like millions of gaming channels, there's probably not a million outdoor life uh chef types, you know, you've you've made a niche, you have a niche now that is super specific. There's not a lot of competition, but there is an audience, which is really interesting. So at what point um were you making content where you started making money that was I'm gonna say significant, but what I mean by that is it was about half of what you were making at your job, or you're like, oh, wait a minute, this is actually becoming something. Do you remember when that was and what that was like and what you were thinking?

SPEAKER_01

Um, I think it honestly, it wasn't that like I said, like we we I grew fast, so it wasn't a gradual incline, it was more like I wasn't really making anything to bam, I'm making like more than I make at work, you know. So I within I think it was so after I hit a hundred thousand subscribers, I was like making yeah, more than uh I was making at the restaurant. And you know, when I first started at the restaurant, I told my boss I was like uh 200,000 subscribers and I'm out of here, man. And then he was like, Yeah, sure, buddy, good good luck, you know, good luck to you. I was like, all right. And then no, sure enough, man, like it after yeah, I hit 100k, I was definitely making way more on YouTube than I was just uh you know working in a in a sushi restaurant in San Francisco too. So and then and I stayed another uh six months or so just working because you know they it was only three chefs, just three of us, so it's kind of um, you know, if I left, they kind of be in be in a hairy situation, you know, they need to find somebody quick, and so I just gave them a lot of time to find somebody else to replace me basically. And then but um yeah, I stayed there for quite a while, just still working. So I would have um subscribers come and uh visit me at the restaurant and come eat and I make you know sushi for them. And yeah, I had a lot of people visiting pretty much every day after I yeah, after like a year there. I every day I would have somebody that would request to sit with me and uh, you know, serve them because they watch my YouTube videos and all this.

SPEAKER_00

Your boss must have loved that. It's like, oh, we got we got free advertisement just by you having a YouTube channel, right?

SPEAKER_01

For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Do you remember the first time that you were recognized either in the restaurant or out and about and what that was like?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think the first time was when I was out and about and in the parking lot. This young guy um that was going out fishing, and I had just I was coming back to the car, and right around the parking lot, he c recognized me. He was like, Oh, I watch your videos, and I was like, Oh, that's pretty cool. You know, and he was gonna go out to do some fishing too, and and yeah, I think that was the first one I can recall. And uh yeah, after that, I in the Bay Area I get recognized quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you're kinda used to it now, huh?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, now now I'm now it's like, yeah, I'm I'm used to it now. I get yeah, I get asked to take pictures, you know, here and there. And it depends uh where I am, but um like if I'm in a fishing location, then people are gonna kind of know who I am. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Is that something that you you like or does it bother you now, or are you just kind of used to it?

SPEAKER_01

No, no, it doesn't bother me. I like it. It's fun getting talked to getting, you know, being able to talk to the viewers and you know, the people behind the views, right? It's kind of cool to meet them, and everybody that I've met has been super cool and like very we're all like-minded, you know. We all love the outdoors and love good food. So good people.

Going Full Time On YouTube

SPEAKER_00

So let's talk a little bit about when you were okay. So you're you're in the restaurant, you have a successful YouTube channel, you're still working there, your channel is now paying more than pretty much your job. There's a moment there where you're like, okay, this is the moment where I step away from the job and really go full time on a YouTube, which is a scary moment for a lot of creators because with a job, you kind of know what to expect. And YouTube is very, I mean, it could be up and down, you might make a lot of money this month, you might not make any money the next month. Talk us through your your mindset there. If you had any preparations, did you like save up money from the YouTube channel before you did? Like, what did you do? What was your process, or did you just go YOLO and just go for it?

SPEAKER_01

I saved up a little bit, uh maybe maybe like 10K or something. And then maybe who knows? Yeah, when I was when I wasn't making YouTube money, I was just pretty much paycheck to paycheck, you know, just grinding. But uh yeah, I saved up a I guess uh I saved up a little bit before I went full time, but I I knew that you know, if I wasn't working at the restaurant, I could make more videos, and therefore I can make more money too. So that was uh a huge part of it. Like I like I said, I was only making two or three videos a month. And if I could, you know, up the multiply that by two, then I can even make, you know, make way way more. So I was kind of uh I was ready and I felt like the channel was at a good place and it was um steady enough that I can make the leap to go from you know part-time making YouTube videos to just full time all in.

SPEAKER_00

When you when you went full time, was there ever a moment um where you second guess your decision? Like was uh or did everything just kind of work uh you know, as you said, like you just put out more content, you got more views, and everything worked, or was there a moment where something happened and you're like, oh my gosh, maybe I made a mistake, or what am I doing? Am I losing my mind by doing betting all in on myself?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, there was definitely a moment of like after maybe three, four months of going full time, um, there was definitely a moment like where the views drop off, you know, from that initial initial spike, and then you it kind of like take uh drops off and kind of tapers off, right? And uh then there's a moment like, oh, like now I'm not making as much as I was, you know, a couple months ago, and I can either yeah, keep going or you know, we can figure out other ways too. And good thing about YouTube is it's not there's So many ways to make money. Uh, it's not just the AdSense, you know. That's what I was just living off of, just Google AdSense, and that was purely that was it. And then I started picking up like some sponsorships, and you know, that's great money too, and selling merch as well. And then so I just kind of went different ways with it. So the ways of um, you know, making more revenue.

Sponsorship Pricing And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_00

So let's talk about that because we do spend a lot of time on the channel talking about other ways of making revenue outside of YouTube AdSense because AdSense can go all over the place. Um, talk about um your sponsorships and like how that typically comes. I assume they email you. What is your process? Like, how do you negotiate um all the tips that like a content creator who may just be getting these and and make like a company goes, hey, we want you to do this, and they don't know what to say next. Like they honestly don't know what to say next. Tell us, take us through your experience and uh kind of the tips you've learned.

SPEAKER_01

I well now I have somebody that deals with all that for me. But back then I was doing it myself and my partner Jocelyn, and we were kind of um emailing them. But yeah, it is a little bit overwhelming, like they kind of come at you and they're like, Oh, we want to do a collaboration with you. Uh, how much do you charge? And you like have no idea how much to charge, right? And then so um my partner Jocelyn, she did um a bit of research into it, so she kind of like studied up on you know how much people charge, if you're getting how many views, this many views, and you should be charging this much, and then we started just throwing out numbers to be honest, and then see see what bites, right? And then because we would I was getting emails constantly, almost you know, every day at one point, uh asking to you know uh do a sponsored video and try this merch. And there's a lot of companies that you know just want to send you stuff. Um, there's there was a lot of that, and I would, you know, I used to just be like, oh, you want to send me free stuff, go for it. But uh I try to be a little bit more selective now because I just started you know collecting a bunch of random stuff that I don't need. Um uh yeah, but I think one thing is um now that I I I try not to do stuff for for free, you know, because it's it is a business after all. So um but some you know some brands that I really like, then I'll like yeah, I still kind of show their stuff or you know, something along those lines. But if it requires any kind of work, like act, you know, actual, you know, setting up a camera or something, um, then I you definitely want to charge for it. Don't do stuff for free. I think that was that's uh one thing. This product's not gonna pay for your bills, you know, whatever they send you. It's not it doesn't uh yeah, it's not gonna, it's not gonna pay the bills. So you gotta at least charge a little little something, even if you're a small creator, not not getting too many views.

SPEAKER_00

Do you remember a time where you maybe made a mistake with a sponsor? You're like, oh man, either I should have charged more, or I this was like and you don't have to name the actual company if you don't want to, or when I was like, I wish I hadn't worked with them. Uh, can you tell us about either one of those experiences if you either made a mistake, maybe didn't charge enough, or you had a really difficult uh sponsor that you've dealt with?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, I did have one uh one occasion where kind of regretted working with uh with the brand. And it was more like uh I feel like I was more misled about the brand than anything. Um because it they were they came at me with like, oh yeah, like the brand is a very sustainable fishery and all this, blah blah blah, sustainable, blah, blah, blah. And then I was like, oh yeah, that's great. You know, I and I agreed to it kind of right away because they just all they wanted was like a reel, and they were gonna pay like more than I had ever made on a single reel, right? And uh, or they were gonna do like three reels. And I was like, that's a you know, sounds like a great deal to me, but um yeah, and uh like ended up the brand actually like ended up being like a actually like a not not a very sustainable, you know, sustainably practiced, you know, fishery that um that then you know they kind of um that I had to promote. And then there was a a bit of backlash from uh the people that knew about this company. That you know, they were they knew that people the people knew that this company wasn't like a sustainable practice. And so then I did a little bit more research and then like, yeah, sure enough, you know, it's not a um it wasn't what they made me think it was. Yeah, so I was on a contract with them, so I signed the contract for three uh three reels, right? So I kind of have to finish the finish the contract, but um yeah, and I kinda I brought it up to them and how after I think the first one or two and uh I brought it up to them and and how you know there's been a lot uh a bit of backlash uh about this um of the practices that they use. And um and they were they kind of was just like, no, well, you still gotta do it, you know, because you're under contract, and then so I can really do do much about it, and as I just, you know, got it over with and then just you know, then yeah, basically, yeah, uh they asked me to do more stuff after that, and I kind of was like, nah, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I can imagine that that made you really want to pay attention closer to the people and the companies you work with, huh?

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Especially when it comes to like sustainable fisheries and stuff, and you know, they're just these uh, you know, some of these um brands just throwing in at throwing the words out there, you know, it's sustainable, blah blah blah. But then it's complete sometimes, yeah.

Merch, Brand Trust, And Cookbook

SPEAKER_00

So when did you start doing like merch and stuff? And when did you feel like that was a good avenue to make some extra money? And how's that been for you so far?

SPEAKER_01

I think I started making merch like I uh maybe after two years or so. Um and yeah, it's great. I was uh we're having fun, and but for the past two years I haven't done much, uh mainly because we had been I had been traveling a lot and it was kind of hard to manage uh manage all that while I was away, and then but I'm still doing a little bit here, and I'm actually gonna plan on picking it up a little bit more uh here in the next this year. And yeah, no, it was great. It was a great way to um make a little extra revenue. You do have to, you know, it's I think the hardest part, like if you get a bunch of shirts and hoodies and stuff that's like bulky, you gotta have the space, you know. You gotta have the space where where to put it because it's you get like five different sizes and it's just boxes on boxes. And um, I think that's the hardest part, just keeping that inventory and uh having that having the space for it.

SPEAKER_00

When you when you think about like your your brand and stuff, because I feel like content creators don't think about their brand enough, and they they think about it just as a YouTube channel. But to be honest, like everything you do ends up being a sort of brand, which is essentially what you stand for, what people can expect when they come to you. How would you describe your brand and how what do you do to protect it currently?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, um I see it as how being able to get out into nature to connect with your food and to be able to make something that's still restaurant quality, you know, in the outdoors. Um, so I kind of kind of pride myself on being able to uh catch my own meals, basically.

SPEAKER_00

What have you learned over the last couple of years that maybe in the first two years you didn't know about content creation, being on YouTube, um uh, you know, juggling everything, uh, whatever it is. Like, what are the biggest things you've learned as you've been doing YouTube?

SPEAKER_01

Well, well, one thing I didn't know how much, like I didn't know how much you can make on YouTube. And honestly, like you can you can make quite a bit of change, you know, and uh like a lot like a life-changing amount, yeah, you know, and that's exactly what what happened to me. It was like complete uh like I wouldn't be here on my property that I have now if I wasn't for YouTube, right? So it was kind of uh yeah, that was that was like a very much a light bulb moment like that first month I made you know five five figures, you know, in a month, and it's like whoa, like oh, you don't know you can make that much, yeah. Um, so that that was really cool, and yeah, it'd be just uh the outreach that you have, and it really shows when I have events and stuff that are coming up, and I'll just announce all even when I just casually announce it on a Instagram story. You still have like a hundred people show up, you know. I had like a book signing a couple months ago, and um, yeah, I I just shared a little story on my on my um page on Instagram, and yeah, people showed up and and yeah, they wanted to you know come and get their uh cookbook signed. That I wrote a cookbook too, so that was like another um another stream of revenue.

SPEAKER_00

I want to talk about that. How did that come up? Was it something that you'd always wanted to do, or did someone pitch it to you, or what?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I always said like eventually I'll write a cookbook, and uh yes, somebody they reached out, publisher reached out, and they were like, Yeah, uh you should write a cookbook, and I was like, Yeah, I'll do it eventually. They're like, Well, if you start it now, it'll be finished eventually. I was like, all right, I was like, all right, fair enough, fair enough. And then yeah, it took about two years, and uh I got it done. It was a it was a painful process to be honest. It was it was uh writing is takes a long time, and there were so many days that were that was nice outside, and I had to you know be stuck inside doing stuff uh for the cookbook, and yeah, the I missed a lot of fishing days.

How To Pitch Collabs Well

SPEAKER_00

Um let's talk a little bit about collabs. Um, do you how what do you think about collabs? Like what has your experience been? Do you think they're important for content creators? Do you enjoy them? Uh all that, all that. Give me everything.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. Uh yeah, I love doing collabs. I do. I I'm I'm you know, like I mentioned, I built my channel in the beginning from collabs. You know, that really helped my channel grow a lot. And yeah, I'm thankful, thankful for all the other creators that I got to collab with in those beginning stages. And um, and now that you know I have a bigger channel and I'll try to give back to these the smaller channels, they want to collab. I'm like, let's go, let's go do stuff, and um I'll I'll collab, I'll collab with them. And as long as you know we're our our um contents sort of aligned, and yeah, if we can yeah, seems like um they they like to have a good time, then I'm all for it, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I actually want to talk about this. This is good. First of all, YouTube has a new content collab uh collaboration feature, which is amazing, works really well. I've been talking about it on the podcast for many weeks now, it's super powerful. Uh, as a larger channel, if someone uh who's a smaller channel wanted, because I I talk about like you should try to collab with people whenever you can. And uh people of your own size is one thing, but a lot of smaller creators are like, I would love to collab with my favorite channel who's bigger, you know, our content are similar. How do I pitch to them? So from your side of it, what do you like to see from a content creator pitching to you that they want to collab with you? What are the things that you have to see to be like, okay, this is worth my time? Because I'm sure you get emails all the time, like, hey, I'd like to collab with you. And you're like, okay, now what? And they're like, I don't know. What would you like to do? That just never works. What are the things you need to see in order for you to go, yes, I will collab with you?

SPEAKER_01

Uh that you're actually, you know, posting, right? It's not like you can't just be like, have no channel and just be thinking about doing uh thinking about making a YouTube channel. You want to collab for my first video? And like, yeah, do it on the first video. Like, I want to see, you know, at least some kind of um some kind of you know backlog that you have, right? So I can see what what kind of person you are, what kind of things you would like to do. And so definitely having a backlog is very important to showcase you know what you know how to do, what you're good at, and what your yeah, what your expertise is. And I think that's what uh comes down to. You it's really important to have some sort of thing that you're really good at, right? You're you don't have to be the best at it, but if you're better than the average, I think that that makes a huge difference. Like me, like I'm not the best sushi chef, but I'm definitely better than the average sushi chef. So then, well, probably um not anymore, not anymore. I've been out of the game too long back then. Um so yeah, just uh something that tells you to that tells me that you're you're you're good at what you do.

Advice For Outdoor Creators

SPEAKER_00

Uh I'm gonna ask a very niche-specific question. I don't normally do this because I like to ask questions that help people across all niches, but I know there are some people that do outdoor stuff listening to the channel now. So what are some things from a content creator perspective, someone who's in your, you know, your your success level, what would you tell smaller or lar or kind of coming up creators in this in this niche? What are the things they need to do to make sure that their content is good and hopefully we'll get more views? Like what are some of the things I'm obviously thumbnails are important, but like what about shooting and like the type of topics, like what are those things that you've learned?

If He Restarted From Zero

SPEAKER_01

I think the most important thing is to just start it, right? I mean, if you haven't started already, it's kind of just getting the content, just filming it, posting it, filming it, posting it, and then you learn through that process. You really like your first video doesn't have to be perfect, and the first 10, first hundred doesn't even per have to be perfect as long as I think you're progressively getting better and better and better with each video. Um, I think that's the thing. I tried to, I think I said early on too in one of my videos, and somebody just um mentioned it on a recent video. Like they were like, Oh, I just watched a video of yours from like seven years ago, and you talked about how you wanted to keep making the videos better and better, and here we are, you know, and then this you put out this beautiful video that I've ever, you know, the most wonderful video, and then I was kind of you know, it's it's it's a progression and not immediate to oh full on, you know, you don't have to be perfect, uh right, right when you start. It's kind of I think it's impossible. You gotta kind of learn, learn your style, you know, and just uh keep putting it out and you'll you'll figure it out. You'll figure out what people people like to watch, the put moments that people like, so you kind of focus in on those moments and try to make you know make those the highlights of the video.

SPEAKER_00

All right, we got the challenge. This will kind of wrap us up. I asked us of all content creators if you had to start a brand new channel today, but it's not in your niche. Uh, you can have the knowledge that you have now from everything you've done in your YouTube journey, but you can't use any of your resources. What would that channel be about? And give me like an idea of the first video or two, how you would strategically put it together. Again, not in your niche, something that you would make a channel about. Uh what would how would you make it? What would it be?

SPEAKER_01

That's a good question. Because we I have a second channel too that I run with my partner that we kind of do all kinds of stuff. Um more recently, like DIY kind of stuff. And I would I would love to do that, but um we're already doing it, so I guess that disqualifies DIY content. Um what would I so yeah, it can't be cooking, so it can't be right, can't be can't be anything outdoors, then that's uh yeah, it could be, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I mean uh you don't own the outdoors just because you do something outdoors, but sure it could be outdoors, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um maybe like a uh uh a channel channel like raising fish. How about that? Like wow, okay. Like actually, like maybe having a pond, maybe a tiny pond, maybe you know, okay, something along those lines where um um still kind of have a fish involved, I guess. But more strategically, what would the first video be?

SPEAKER_00

Because you want people to watch it. What would you how would you what would you make it? What would it be?

SPEAKER_01

Um I'll say just uh saying what my plans are and okay, not necessarily you know, first video, you know, showing uh what I'm well maybe just like uh just this initial, I'm thinking like a pot building a pond, right? Okay, and like maybe like initial, like just digging out a space for a pond and see what's gonna happen with this little um pet fish fish farm or something.

SPEAKER_00

Kind of like the origin story of a fish farm. That's so cool. So cool. Well, Taco, we greatly appreciate you joining us here today. If you're interested in learning more about how to cook some stuff outside and grab your own uh fishing line, go out there, maybe get some cool stuff and make your own cool food. We have Outdoor Chef Life linked in the description below and in the show notes on the audio podcast. Uh, we actually have a bunch of other chefs and stuff we've had on the channel recently, and I think one of those should be right here. And we'll see y'all in the next one.