Tommy G Explains How He Finds Dangerous Stories And Brings Them To Camera

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We sit down with Tommy G to trace the leap from prank videos to trusted, high-stakes documentary journalism on YouTube, including the Kia Boys story that changed everything. We dig into how he earns access to dangerous worlds, stays ethical in the edit, and builds a business that survives demonetization and platform risk. 
• building a career around curiosity and discomfort tolerance 
• pivoting from pranks to investigative documentaries with the Kia Boys 
• using connections and outreach to unlock bigger stories fast 
• getting criminals to agree to be filmed without paying for access 
• protecting sources through careful editing and pre-release review 
• handling fear on location and weighing which stories are too dangerous 
• choosing when to stay objective and when to advocate for the public 
• getting jail access through sheriffs and production relationships 
• the Dudu Brown controversy and using virality for charity funding 
• avoiding strikes, managing demonetization, and navigating YouTube rules 
• diversifying income with sponsorships, Patreon, Facebook, and compilations 
• investing off YouTube through real estate and hard assets 
• leading a team with trust, freedom, and long-term financial goals 
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Transcript

Hitmen Calls And YouTube Strikes

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Just today, I'm not kidding you. I've been talking to two different hitmen. And these guys are fans of the channel. I was almost deleted permanently from YouTube. I landed from my honeymoon in Mexico. Check my email. Second strike on the channel. And if 90-day period, if I gotten one more strike, then deleted permanently off of YouTube. But in the parking lot of this trip club, I met a guy and he DM'd me after this video and said, I want to work together again. I said, okay, well, here's three ideas I'm chasing down. One of them was the Kia Boy video. Let's meet next Tuesday. And from that moment on, boom, it was kind of a uh a historical moment in my YouTube career.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast that's willing to go anywhere and everywhere to bring you the best guest. I am Travis, like I'm always the same guy every week. You see every single podcast. It's always me. And I'm here with an incredibly special guest, Tommy G, that dude. The guy, you've seen videos of him. I can't believe he's here with me. I'm super excited, Tommy. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Hey, brother. I'm Tommy G. I'm a YouTube journalist. I have about 3 million subscribers, and I'm ready to rock and roll with you today.

What Tommy G Actually Makes

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And we have so much to cover. But if you're new here, we help you grow your YouTube channels in many different ways. Sometimes we'll answer your questions. A lot of times we'll interview people like Tommy and get their journey about YouTube. If you like that, hit that subscribe button. If you're listening to the audio podcast, all the links will be in the show notes. Okay, Tommy, listen, I've I've been binging your content for a while now, especially today, to kind of get ready for this because your content is wildly different. Give a kind of an elevator pitch for people who don't know your content, what you do, because you are insane. I say this with the utmost amount of respect because I can't believe the things you do, but what type of content do you make?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

My channel is kind of like a bucket list or a side quest mission for the wildest things that you can think of, from swap team raids to interviewing right now. I'm doing an edit of a hitman documentary that I'm working on. I cover the diceyest stuff in politics. I do confrontations with Scientology or big churches. So I try and hit it all. I want it to be where each week you can't predict what's going to come next, and we give you something new and something you've never seen before.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

I mean, this is true. You have to go to his channel to check this out. Uh as content creators, I think sometimes we get stuck into thinking that there's only a certain amount of type of videos you can do on YouTube. But you're really doing, you know, when as I watch your videos, I keep thinking this is stuff I would see on TV. This is stuff I would see, you know, uh on any national broadcast channel or streaming service, Hulu, you know, HBO. It really feels like that. But before you got there, let's rewind and let's talk about who Tommy G was before YouTube. Who was Tommy G? What were you doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I have always been someone that is wildly curious about other people, and you could throw me anywhere in the world, and I think there's one superpower, which is it takes a lot for me to feel out of place or uncomfortable. So you can throw me into the middle of the jungle, which I spent two weeks in when I was in college and live with a tribe. I can go to the most Muslim place, the most Jewish place, the most Christian place. Doesn't matter. Um, I'm a guy that I enjoy unique people and stories and groups, and I'm just I can ask people questions all day. So I saw I kind of fell my way into a dream job where I get to do that every week.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

How did you start YouTube? Like what made you make your first video? What were you doing just before that? Were you working like a like a were you working at all? Were you in college? Like what were you doing right before you started uh YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

My first YouTube video ever, I think was a basketball trick shot video in middle school. And I did some prank videos, then I got into rap. That was when I really started taking things seriously. Believe it or not, Travis, I was a rapper. Let's go. But then it came to a point where I thought I was okay, but I never was gonna be the guy that could make a career out of it or sell out an arena. So I I graduated onto juvenile pranks. I dress up as a doctor, I'd do crazy stuff in public, um, just outrageous, kind of bizarro comedy kind of stuff. And then I thought I had by this time, uh, it took me about four, four and a half years to get 80,000 subscribers of posting consistently. And at this point, I was like, I think I'm gonna quit YouTube. I I'm not making any money. In fact, I might be probably losing money. I'm a grown man, I have a corporate job by day, I'm gonna be getting married soon. Like I either this thing has to go or I just have to give it up. And so I wrote a list, ideas that could change my life. And on that list was a documentary about these Kia boys. These are teenage car thieves that Milwaukee claims the title of These Kids Originated from Our City. And I covered these kids and I knew that this was it because within a week I had multiple news channels all around the country reaching out. Uh, it was just like, okay, because the thing that I had hesitated about, Travis, was I was afraid that, hey, 80,000 people know me for prank videos. If I pivot to something totally different, I'm gonna lose them all and have nothing. Um, but it ended up being the best decision, and I felt like it was something I knew I had to try, and I'm glad I took the shot because I was an inch away from quitting YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, we I've talked to a lot of creators that um I think almost any creator who's been around for a while has thought about quitting at one point or another. And the Kia Boys thing is interesting. For people who don't know, I actually remember this story now that I think about it, and I didn't even connect it with you, but I remember the story. This was um, was this in like COVID, like 2020, somewhere around there? Or close to that time, um, where a bunch of uh cars, kias, were being stolen because there was a super easy way to steal the car. How did you learn about this and how did you cover it? Like, how did you get in? Because I mean, you're doing pranks before that. How did you come into like at that point you're doing journalism? Like, what was the how did you do that?

From Pranks To The Kia Boys

SPEAKER_01 5:30

So, one thread, one red thread to have throughout this episode is that you never know which connection can lead you to the next thing. So, how I got into the Kia Boys, I was doing a story. I had never visited a strip club in my life, and I think I was 25 or 26 at the time, and I asked my fiance at the time, hey, do you mind if I go to a booty club in Milwaukee? I'm gonna document the experience. And she's the best wife ever. She said, Go for it. She had a couple rules that I, you know, I had to stick with, which is understandable. Yeah, but in the parking lot of the strip club, I met a guy and he DM'd me after this video and said, I want to work together again. I said, Okay, well, here's three ideas I'm chasing down. One of them was the Kia Boy video, calls me back on FaceTime three minutes later with the Kia boy from the video, circling his block, doing all this stuff in the car. So I'm like, wow, okay, let's meet next Tuesday. And from that moment on, boom. It was kind of a uh a historical moment in my YouTube career.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah, I mean, but the to do so the thing is, um, if you think in clips, like I think at that time, George was just starting to pop off. You might just think of the, and again, if people don't know this, just Google like Kia Boys, and you'll see exactly what he's talking about. I remember this, this video where you see this person in the Kia just doing like donuts in the smoke. I literally remember that from years ago. It's that's something that has been in burned in my mind because at the time I was checking to make sure my car, I didn't have a Kia, but I had a Honey, which was also on there. I'm like, is my car one of the ones against stolen easy? So I I was doing all this research at the time. Um, but doing I could think of it in clips, but you end up doing more of investigative stuff, which is a different type of storytelling. We're gonna talk about storytelling later because it's super important. But how did you go from something that's more kind of like prankish to more investigative in your content and your mindset? It's I know you said you're you're curious, but to bring that out on video is not easy.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Well, when I was in college, I really thought about applying to vice media. To me, I thought they had the greatest documentaries on the internet, and I would have loved nothing more than them to throw me into the field and be one of their correspondents. But then I looked at the application process. I had no resume. I was going to a D3 school in Wisconsin where I was studying entrepreneurship and I was a wrestler there. I just had nothing that I just I knew in my gut they're gonna look at my resume and just say, Who the hell is this Wisconsin kid? You know? And so I never even applied, but it was always in my heart to go do stuff like that. Like I off-camera in my sophomore year of college, I went and lived with a tribe in the jungle of Ecuador for a couple weeks and drank spit and shot blowguns and lived how they lived as much as I could. And um, so I've always had an appetite for adventure. And so when my back was against the wall, when I was I was about to quit this channel, I was like, okay, here's one last list of ideas that if this doesn't work, it's it. And I just wrote the ideas that spoke to my heart the most, and it just so happened that it worked.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

So after that video pops off, you have um like you said news was news people were kind of like reaching out to you and such?

SPEAKER_01 8:21

All over the country. They were trying to reach out to me to use clips for my videos so they could because they're like, oh, this is a nationwide thing. It's happening in Baltimore, it's happening in Portland. We want to use your clips so we can tell our viewers what's also happening in our city as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

So, how did you from that point? I mean, that's big. That means okay, your thoughts were right. Like you, this is the new direction you should go. What were the next things you did after that video kind of popped off?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Uh a couple of my my guys that are now on my team full time, they all these things fell into place at the right time. Guys were DMing me, hey, I want to shoot a story with you, blah, blah, blah. So then I started, we just hit the road. From that point on, I grabbed my guy Keegan, I grabbed my guy Miguel, and we started hitting the road and going to stories, getting to the wildest stuff we could possibly think of across the country. So that I knew that I had to deliver something after the Kia Boy that was equally, if not more, wild. So I was like, okay, what's the most dangerous city in America? St. Louis. Cool. I'm gonna go there. I'm gonna hang out with guys with 15 guns out in the street, get their story, be on their block, and you know, you're and that was the story that uh I followed up with, I believe. And it just the momentum was just strong where I'm like, okay, this is this is my path, this is what's happening. I've been praying for this moment my whole life, and I'm not gonna let it pass me by. I'm gonna hit the road and get to work.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

I think uh the the thing about this is uh what makes your content kind of quote safe from um competitors because if you feel like if you're on YouTube, there's every niche is a little bit competitive. This is kind of a hard niche to break into because the things that you're doing are highly dangerous. I'm gonna talk more about some of the danger a little later on because I legitimately want to talk about this. It's absolutely fascinating. But you get this thing going. How do you get people, and this even goes to today, that are literally either criminals or people that are engaged in activities that you normally wouldn't want to be filmed? So we're going back to this first video where you're like in St. Louis and stuff. How did you get them to agree to be on camera and what was that process like?

Getting Criminals To Talk On Camera

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Let me tell you, there's a couple different angles. So, one, when if you're talking about rappers, rappers are the easiest to get on camera because they you help promote their business. You link their songs, you play their songs, you interview them. It is free publicity. Someone is coming to their hood to interview them for a few hours. It's a no-brainer for them. But there's a next level up, which is real legitimate criminals. And just today, I'm not kidding you. I've been talking to two different hitmen. One that I worked on a piece for that we're coming out with next week, another guy out in Texas that I want to work with in the future. And these guys are fans of the channel. And the cool thing about the audience growth is it's possible that the staffer of a U.S. senator is a fan of the channel. It's possible that a hitman is the fan of the channel, and everyone in between. And I have a really loyal audience to the fact where I was in Boston, Massachusetts, and I wanted to see how crack cocaine was cooked up. I thought, you know what, with fentanyl coming into the country, I think it's gonna get replaced. So I want to see this before it it's extinct in the drug world. I put it on my story looking for a guy in the Boston area to cook it up in front of me. Within 15 minutes, I had 10 leads through Instagram, and I just started DMing them and seeing who was legit. And within a few hours, I showed up to one of their traps and watched it myself. I'm trying to wrap my head around that.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Uh, the the fact that your audience is is uh is such a mixture of uh unique people, let's just say that. Um, and I I for me that's kind of scary, right? I mean, I I don't know about you, but um some again, and I highly encourage people who haven't seen your channel to go there to see some of the things you've done, some of the places you've put yourself in. Um so you get in contact with some of these people. There's gotta be a moment where you're like, what am I doing? Especially early on. I mean, now you're probably used to it, you probably have a system, but like early on, like I'm looking back at your old channels where you had the the first time going to strip club and stuff like that. Okay, that's fun. Uh that you know, and rapping and stuff, okay, that's fun. But now even the Kia Boys thing, like these people are doing things that are legal. Somehow you you get them to get in front of a camera, but now you're in the presence of a criminal. And I need to understand what type of things besides curiosity allow you to stand there and be like, okay, I'm not in danger, I hope. I mean, there's this is scary stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Well, I think the truth is about all humans is we pretty much all want to share our story, and a lot of people feel like they can go through their entire life without feeling like they are heard. And especially guys that are doing wild stuff in the streets, um, I think a lot of them know they have a short time horizon before death or prison. And so, in a way, I had a Latin king tell me about this because I said, you know, this guy's name was Homicide. I'm like, Homicide, why are these guys coming out for the video? Like, what is in it for them to even show up? And he's like, Tommy, the thing you gotta think about is some of these guys, like this is kind of like uh it lives forever on YouTube. So they're not gonna amount to much. They might be in jail next year, they might not be alive next year, but they will always have this piece where they were the main character of a story, they got to share their perspective and people got to see into their life, and there's value in that. And that's like people do this for free. It's not like I'm paying people absurd amounts of money to do this. Like, this is something that people are interested in, and the value I bring to them is telling their story fairly, but also editing it in a way that there's two secrets I have. One is just I know how to edit, what to look for so that they don't get caught by police. That's something that's extremely.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah, I was gonna ask that next.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

If they're gonna trust me to come into their life, into their trap house, see what they are, you know, see inside their operation, I take that trust seriously and I respect that and edit it properly. The other thing is I send a copy of the video to them before it goes live. Hey, Mr. Hitman, watch through every single second, be extremely detailed, and if there's any timestamps I need to look at, let me know. And that's I guess it's a little bit of my secret sauce, but I also think um I don't think there's if someone wants to get into it, they're gonna get into it. Like this is a to me, this is a thrilling job that I wake up every day and I'm excited to get to work. And so it's hard to beat someone that has the passion and also the audience is lined up. So if someone wants to try and beat me at my game, perfect. We need more people doing raw stuff in the streets of America.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Yeah, I mean, this is investigative journalism uh a hundred percent. And it's not like you had to go to school for this specifically. Um, you are kind of in a way blazing up. I mean, there so again, there was stuff on national television, but I think they probably have a lot more restrictions than you do. You set your own restrictions as far as like how you how deep you want to get.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

I have no HR team, I have no legal team.

unknown 14:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

So I have a friend who's a lawyer that I ask about certain stuff, but like, you know, other if this was a major TV company, they'd go through five lawyers, they'd redline this, they have to edit out that, insurance is too it's not gonna be a good idea if we put this in. I don't have any of that, which right now is a blessing. Um, so it allows me to do a lot more in the gray area. Yeah, and uh are you ever like scared in any of these? Of course I'm scared. Um, it depends on like certain things I've gotten desensitized about over time. Like right now, if I pull up to a really dangerous neighborhood and I'm surrounded by gangsters and they're doing crazy stuff, I'm not that worried about, I'm not worried about them at all. I'm worried about who do they beef with yesterday that wants to come by and do something, but more so now I'm getting nervous about um, you know, I'm I'm putting out a story about Israeli settler violence today, hopefully. And I'm I'm a little bit more worried about those type of government actors or people that uh I don't think I'm important enough to go after, but certainly like if I do a story on Scientology or Kenneth Copeland, am I gonna wonder if a private investigator is gonna be hired to follow me around or mess with me? Or it's possible. We're talking about people with really big pockets or people that don't want certain things coming out. So of course I get scared, but overall, my my feeling is the truth should not be afraid of speak.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

I love that. I've I've watched a lot of uh Scientology document document uh documentaries as well, and it is interesting. I mean, no shade to anybody, that's not what we're here for, but it is very interesting if you watch any of those, and they are very protective. So, I mean, uh the one that I think uh so far, and again, I want to get back into like your timeline, but before we get to that, you said like you're just about to do one about hitmen. It's one thing to cover a gang somewhere that's in another state. You're like, so if you accidentally you know make them upset, they're probably not gonna leave their hood to come get you. A hitman, on the other hand, sounds very dangerous. It's not even something I would even entertain as a human being because even though it might be incredibly interesting, it sounds specifically dangerous. Like it seems like uh maybe is that not a step too far, or like are you just so interested and curious about the story that it anything for content?

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Uh well, one, I guess I I don't people use that word a lot, content. I don't think of myself as oh, this is gonna be good content. Like, I think what is the story here? And is this something that is is really exciting to dive into? And if the answer is yes, and then also I could do this in a safe manner. So I'm talking to these guys on FaceTime, I'm talking to them on Signal, we're talking face to face through video um a lot before we ever meet up. So I get a good feel for them, I know what they're about, and I ask them the kind of qualifying questions along the way. Like, what would hold you back from doing this? What questions do you have from me? Are there any concerns you have that can make this go south? And so I know them decently well. And it's kind of interesting too because like I have a couple guys that are high-level criminals that I know that while while they're in jail right now, they they call their girlfriend, they call their mom, and they call me. And so I I and some of these guys I spend lots of time on the phone with. And so, in some ways, I feel like um I might know them better than probably a lot of their friends do. Probably a lot of guys that they roll around with. And I think because I truly listen to these guys, um, that that also like really helps the relationship where they feel they feel heard and they feel known, and that I'm gonna do a really fair job with their story.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I like the fact that you you seemingly come into all of this, uh, even if you have opinions on it before you go into it, you don't really spread that within your videos. It would be so easy to do that in some of these videos. I'm of course, I haven't watched every single one, and there's definitely some ones that just from the title and the topic alone, people will definitely feel a certain way before they ever click play. But it seems like you are pretty good about um being uh towing the middle line, like okay, this is I'm just showing you what happens. You can draw your own conclusions. Do you have things that are um stop gaps and maybe even guidelines in your edit to make sure that if you maybe accidentally said something you think is maybe too uh too much of your opinion that you take it like what is what is the guiding principles?

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Overall, I think, especially for the early years of the channel, I have been really good at being objective and just letting the story play out and not having a horse in the race. In the last few months, I have taken on more and more stories that I believe fight for the common man in America. So insider trading with politicians, data centers springing up all around the country, Israeli influence in our politics. And to me, if I have the if I feel like I have a good pulse of the people, like well, one, I personally believe it. I'm not just gonna go along with what I think other people think. I want to fight for these things that I feel like um when it feels like our country is slipping away a little bit, I feel like those are times to jump off the sidelines and have a little bit of a uh a seat at the table. Now, I'm still gonna be fair with the certain people I interview that might be on the opposing side, if it's a data center owner, if it's an IDF soldier, I'm still gonna, I'm not gonna chop up their words in an unfair manner. They're gonna be represented the right way. But I'm also just not gonna say like I give this guy a pass or that I agree with what they're doing when it seems so blatantly wrong in some of these cases.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Let's talk about uh some of these videos, especially the ones that I watch. So I I'm a big fan of um a lot of jail documentaries, especially um, I get enough of those. I they're just amazing. 60 Days In and stuff like that. Uh uh just some of the really great uh document. And I I I understand how like they get into jails, but you've recently been into uh a couple jails, and specifically the one in like uh Atlanta, right? Um how first of all, how do you get into a jail? Because I think most jails don't want to be filmed. How do you get into the this super crazy jail where things are just wild? And probably most importantly, I've watched a lot of jail documentaries when something goes down, they don't typically let the cameras go in and film it right away. Like they have cameras that are like on the like in the walls and stuff you can see. But I watched a video just today where there was a fight going on and they let you like go into the jail area and film it close up. That was crazy. How did you convince a jail to do this?

SPEAKER_01 20:57

My secret sauces, you actually said them earlier, uh, 60 days in. So I built a relationship with Greg from that. He he runs an um a production company that does 60 Days In. Oh um, they do the Marine documentary that came out on Netflix, they do some extremely high-level pieces, and we're we're beginning to collaborate together, and he is the guy that got me into these gates. He's the guy that had the key. And the other thing is the sheriff, it it the easiest way to get into jails in America is to go through a sheriff that runs the county jail. That's the the least paperwork, bureaucracy layered way to get in. And it just so happens that this sheriff, Levon Allen, he has a story, which is hey, I want more funding, I need more funding, and instead of hiding it, I want to show everyone how crazy it is because I can't believe that I'm not getting my budget increased to have more guards, have more facility space. And so that's why he brings people like me in. And you would think, why are you letting me see some of the worst stuff going on? But I also think that transparency is really refreshing and that we need more. That especially when it's our taxpayer dollars funding this institution. I don't care if it's at a local level or national level. I feel like they should be very transparent organizations to film with.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

I agree. I absolutely agree. And what's interesting about this is these videos specifically have done really well for your channel. And what's I mean, obviously, because people are really curious what happens in a jail, and especially when it's like more unfiltered and not like really edited in a way that makes you feel like you're not seeing everything. I mean, there's definitely things you're seeing in here that are nuts. And one of those things is sometimes you accidentally make someone kind of famous. And that uh brings me to Dudu Brown. Um, a guy who, for those who don't know, and you have to watch these videos because it's kind of insane. This guy is uh they call him Dudu Brown because he'll throw doo doo at the police officers when they have when he's not uh he's not happy with them. So I guess uh uh tell us a little bit about that. Like how did that first get started? He was in like the first video, and then you kind of follow up in the second video. Just give us a little bit of uh who this guy is.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah, so we were in Clayton County Jail in Georgia, and we went past uh, I think it was their mental help unit where they kept everyone that was a little bit nuts behind the glass. And I spoke to Dudu Brown behind the glass door, and he just he set his off his his his old stick, which is I'm doo doo brown, I'll throw the crap at the officers, I'll bust you real quick. And when we visited again, I'm like, we have to talk to this guy. If he is down to be interviewed, I want to learn more about this person. Is he even a guy that belongs in a jail? Is he mentally ill? Is he like what makes this guy tick? And so he had heard about himself going viral and he agreed to an interview, and he also agreed to a t-shirt being made about him. And I this is something that is a little controversial, I would say. And now that I'm looking at it from both perspectives, um, we made a t-shirt where 100% of the proceeds went to a good cause. Uh, 100% would have gone to this uh organization in Atlanta project restart, but I thought a little bit should go to Dudu Brown if his face is gonna be on the shirt. So 10% went to him. I didn't make a dime off this. And some people said, hey, uh, if I was a corrections officer and a guy got a shirt made about him through throwing poop at us, I'm kind of upset about that. I'm like, you know what? Fair enough, man. Like, I see where you're coming from. I didn't mean to glorify this guy, but I thought this was a very creative way to have five figures worth of charity go towards a group that's doing something truly good in this world. And so the net, the net result of this I thought was a positive. So I went for it.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Yeah. And that is that is interesting. Like you learn as you go about it, because again, no one's doing this sort of this sort of thing. I mean, no one's accidentally making you know a prisoner famous. And do you feel a certain way about making this guy who went into jail, who who's, you know, according to society, a bad guy, um, quote, famous and then make him money? Like there's a bunch of moral uh moral standards on this, and there's a lot of things. What have you learned in this experience moving forward if things like this happen again?

SPEAKER_01 24:56

You know, these things happen by mistake, they happen organically. I don't go in there with an agenda like I'm gonna try and make a bad person famous or you know, stir up the pot. It just so happened that what he said and how wild it was, people couldn't help but say, who the heck is this guy?

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

And I guess going back to like I feel like it could have been argued either way. If I cut him out completely and use his face to generate profits for uh for a not or for a nonprofit to use for their funding, people would say, Oh, then now you're exploiting this guy. But then if I give him a little bit of money, now you're encouraging it. So it was kind of uh I felt like I made the best decision given what the situation was.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

And in the future, like would you what would would you do the same thing or like would you just not even bother? Or what would you do? Like if you had another uh situation.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

You know, if it was really highlight a guy's story, I mean, I guess maybe it was a little far to make a t-shirt, but um, when everything's said and done, I think it's gonna be close. It'll be around, I have to see what the margins on the shirt are, how much it costs per shirt for production, but it should be around between seven and ten thousand dollars that go to this uh organization. So it's like, I don't know. I feel like that's a net net positive. I do the shirt again. And I want to wear the shirt. I I want to wear the shirt.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

The shirt looks pretty cool. What is the project restart exactly that you were uh putting money towards?

SPEAKER_01 26:14

So this lady, Tiffany, she runs a group in Atlanta that helps with recidivism. So it's all sorts of workshops from getting people in touch with jobs that might be up their alley, blue collar jobs, manufacturing jobs. They also have workshop workshops on drug rehab or anger management. Basically, a one-stop shop when you get out behind bars. Maybe you've been away for five years, ten years, you need to reconnect with the world and make a positive start, like having the right clothes for a job interview, making a resume. Her operation helps with that. And um, I talked to her, she's fighting an uphill battle. She does not get a lot of funding, and it's a tough job. I mean, you're working with people that are difficult to work with, and not a lot of people want to donate to that. Um, so I I applaud what she's doing. I think she's pushing against a river that's flowing in a really rough direction. She's doing her best to push against it.

Monetization Risks And Revenue Mix

SPEAKER_00 27:06

I love that. That's great. Um, let's talk about money. So we'll come back to the content here in a minute, but uh, this is definitely a part where I'm really interested in how you make your money because I have to assume, and this is where I'm actually personally interested. I know content creators are going to be interested in like how you make money on the channel. But before we talk about things off platform, let's talk about on platform. Um, how many of your videos get demonetized for the this type of stuff that you do?

SPEAKER_01 27:30

When I first started, a lot of them, a lot of them. Um, in the last year, maybe between one and three, I've gotten a lot better at knowing what to blur, how to navigate the community guidelines, what words to cut out or bleep. Um, so we've gotten a lot better at that. Because I was almost deleted permanently from YouTube. I landed from my honeymoon in Mexico, landed, checked my email, second strike on the channel. And if a 90-day period, if I got one more strike, then deleted permanently off of YouTube. And to me, it was just like holding my breath. I'm like, because it was a video that got caught months after the fact. So I'm like, what else is just uh out there as a ticking time bomb that I have to be aware of? Um, so that was a very uncomfortable, tension-building experience in my life, was making it through those 90 days without getting deleted.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

What were the strikes for?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Okay, so one was uh a YouTube short, which is I don't do shorts at all ever. Um, I did a short from the Kia Boy episode, and they viewed that as instructional theft. So that was one of them. Another one, I don't know if it was uh on a prostitution episode or was gun related. I really don't remember what the second strike was for, but I know that uh being it's been a huge blessing that I've found a way to work with in the system because that was a if I had most of my stuff demonetized, that'd be a lot of money on the table that I wouldn't be able to help grow the team. And you know, we have uh four full-time people. My wife is on the team, I got a two different thumbnail guys across the globe, um, a guy that runs the merch operation. I have an accountant that is connected to the business. So, and I'm probably forgetting a couple other people, but a lot of people have this as their full-time gig or at least part. And um, if I I didn't have ad revenue to back that up, it'd be very difficult.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

What percentage of your your revenue comes from AdSense from the actual YouTube channel without anything else?

SPEAKER_01 29:20

I would say it used to be 80 or 90 percent, now it's about 40 or 50 percent.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Okay, yeah, that sounds healthy. So, where do what is the the other kind of larger um places you're getting revenue from?

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Let's say another 40% on uh the sponsorships, which that has really been a fast growing part of our business. And my guy Brett from Night Media is a crusher. That guy gets me deals and uh gets the job done. Um Patreon's a chunk, let's call it maybe 10%, Facebook's a chunk. Uh merch is a merch is the smallest chunk of the whole operation. Um and then I do my stuff off of YouTube, that's where I'm uh quickly growing as well as I I don't think YouTube is gonna last forever. I hope it lasts a long time. I think I make stuff that is really evergreen and I have a big love for it. So hopefully it goes for another five years, ten years, but I don't want to be arrogant and assume that people wanna are gonna care. And and you know, it could be in two years no one wants to watch anymore. I don't know. So I'm I'm I want to make it so that I never have to work a corporate job ever again. I worked uh two different corporate jobs for six years. I hated it, it was depressing. I did not enjoy my life, and so I'm never gonna go back to that.

Real Estate And Staying Financially Free

SPEAKER_00 30:36

What do you do off YouTube then?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

That that's uh so a heavily diversified portfolio, um a good chunk in mutual funds, a little chunk in crypto. But what's quickly growing is that we went, me and my wife went through a little spree of um picking up houses in Milwaukee. And so what what our play was for a while was to pick up city-owned properties, properties that had been abandoned, some of the worst zip codes in the country, 53206. Um how and then the the math in Milwaukee was at the time was this. It's it's gone up since then. But we could get a house for$30,000 and then we put another 30 into it and make it the nicest house on the block. Like people see the pictures on Zillow and they think we're scamming them because they're like, there's no way this house is in this hood because I've seen the like Milwaukee is a big slum lord problem. Uh, there's houses that are just terrible, and so we make the best house on the block with the intention that someone, once they get in there, they're not gonna want to leave. Um, so I had at the height of it, we had a four-unit building and I think eight single families. I've sold the four-unit in at least one or two of the single families. Um, and by the way, I just want to say this about single families. I would not buy a single family in any neighborhood that uh it wasn't abandoned by the city. Like these are houses that have been abandoned for three or four years. I'm not buying a house that ordinarily a family would have bought and moved into. These are houses that were empty and vacant. Um, but now um I'm we're trying to up the game. I just put an offer on yesterday, a house in my old neighborhood that um also has been sitting empty for a couple of years, that is gonna be uh considerable more investment. But I also am looking at industrial buildings with my friends. So um I want hard assets right now. I see where the world is going. Is the AI stock bubble? Is that gonna hit? Is that right? I mean, how low is the mutual funds gonna go if it's propped up by the AI? Um, crypto, I think, is very uncertain and went from kind of like, oh, this is gonna be the future um, you know, liquor digital gold, you know, the the the placeholder for the dollar, but now it's getting all weird with the Trump administration making all their plays off. And I don't know if it's where that's going. Um we we also would like to invest into more startups. So we have a little, we we have a little, little chunk of a startup out in Arizona that should launch in May. Um so I want to be diversified and I want to do things that I think are exciting, things that can make a difference, and things that can make a lot of money.

Proudest Films And Taking A Stand

SPEAKER_00 32:58

I love that. Uh, and it's smart to diversify. I talk about that on on uh these podcasts all the time, uh mostly from the content content perspective, but even in my own life, like I'm really looking at a whole bunch of different things because I agree with you, like uh from the uh content economy and the general economy, like you got to really start looking at things strategically now. Let's talk a little bit more about content um strategy from the perspective of like where you want to go in the future. Um, if someone were to come to you and say, hey, what's the and I'm gonna talk about this first, what's what's the video you're most proud of, even if it doesn't have the most views, but you want the you this is your one chance to go, I'm Tommy. If you want to know who I am and who my heart is and what my content is, this is the one video you need to watch today.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

I'm gonna give two answers because it's hard to pick one. Okay, on the street side, um, inside Dallas's underground economy. Uh we talked, I don't know, I don't know how much gets bleeped on this, so I don't know if there's give it a show. Let's let's see what happens. Okay, we talked to a gun dealer, we talked to a hitman, we talked to uh a pimp. That was fascinating to go in the field with him. I just watched like the combination of those uh jobs and the way we shot it, it felt very um cinematic. I just that was a great piece. So from the street side, I would say that's one of our favorites. Um, but from the political side, I'm very proud of the Israeli influence piece that we put out. And the reason why is this for a long time, every content creator I talked to, the one subject we were afraid to talk about was anything connected to Israel. And then after Charlie Kirk got killed, a dam broke in this country. Yeah, I think we were one of the first channels like people were talking about. I'm not the pioneer of talking about Israel by any means, but that was at a time where we were still scary to talk about them. And we still put it out. I didn't know what could happen to the channel, I didn't know what could happen to sponsorships, but I said I was sitting in my shower one night and I was just like, what is the point of having a huge channel and a huge voice if I'm gonna be afraid to use it when it matters most? There are people suffering, there are people working living in apartheid conditions. It is horrible what is happening in that part of the world and horrible the level of influence they have in our country. I want to fight for my country, and I want to fight for these people in Palestine and the West Bank. And so, regardless of the consequences, it felt very important to put it out. And it's been one of the best received videos we've ever done. And it was like as far as like a cultural moment, it was a small part of the avalanche that proceeded of we're talking about this and we're not gonna be silenced anymore. We're sick of that.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

You know what's interesting? I literally just talked to another content creator about this very thing. Um, and it was um Jerry Reg everything, he's a big tech uh YouTuber, and he uses he now uses his platform to do a couple things. I mean, he definitely speaks out politically. Um but um one of the things he also does is uh his wife is uh is in a wheelchair and he started a wheelchair company that he basically funds from his YouTube channel because it's a passion thing. And when I asked him about like speaking out about some of the things he speaks out about and risking a lot of things, he said that one of his videos he lost$200,000 worth of sponsorships in, but it was played in in Congress, in front of Congress. So like the the it was the juice was worth the squeeze. But that's a scary thing. I mean, like you said, you have a team, and if you feel a passion project about something, uh and you're like, I really want to talk about this because it's important to me, you got people that are working for you, like, bro, this is my job. Like, can we not do this? What do you have discussions with your team where you just go, look, we're doing this thing, we're we're gonna try our best, let the cards fall where they may.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Yeah, I would say for the most part, the team is pretty gung-ho. Like, if we feel like, hey, this is something that we gotta do for the people, like just yesterday, we, and this is why I pushed back our interview day, we got a call from a farmer in Beaverdam, Wisconsin, that their well has run dry, and that it's they've been there for decades, their family lived there, and a data center moved in, and now all of a sudden everyone's water is going uh funky. So it's like we we we want to cover these stories that represent the people, the people that are striving and the people that are struggling. And um so, as far as like to me, there's a lot of ways to make money, and the money is gonna come, but there has to be a greater purpose than that. And the purpose right now, I think, is we are in a very crucial time in this country where it feels like we have to fight for it. We with whether we're talking about this war that no one wants to be in, whether we're talking about the elite class of billionaires that are doing God knows what on islands that I won't get too deep into. Um, we're paying taxes right now, and this is still happening. There's insider trader happen, insider trading happening blatantly. There's like this is the most corrupt time I feel like we've ever had in my lifetime uh in our government. So I feel like there's a responsibility. If you have the pulse of the people and you have a big audience and you feel a certain way about something, I think you have to man up and speak about it. Otherwise, like what are you doing?

Hardest Topics And YouTube Restrictions

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah, that's that's I'm gonna call it brave. Um, regardless of what side of this, you know, the content you're talking about, people fall on. The to put your job at uh online for for your beliefs really shows that you believe in what you say. Is there a a story or or a topic that you want to cover but you can't? And I don't mean like because you're afraid to, but maybe there's like a technical reason or some type of reason. Is there something that you wish you could do right now that you cannot do?

SPEAKER_01 38:14

I'll give it this answer in two ways. Okay. One is, and it does go to fear, is extremely high-level criminal stuff. So like I'll cover an individual hitman or an individual car thief, but I'm not talking about the Russian mafia, the Jewish mafia, like high-level multi-million, if not billion dollar, uh criminal organizations, uh, the cartels. Um those are people that it's like, okay, once you start talking or exposing stuff within their realms, like these are you go missing. So like there is probably a level of to what level of crime I want to cover. Um, but the second part of it is anything that has happened in the past. My team and I were very good at covering active things happening. We're not so much a channel that, hey, OJ Simpson in the 80s did X, Y, and Z. Do you want to interview the people that were in that? We're not really good at the sit-down archival footage. Just it's I don't think it's our best lane to operate it in. So I think it is important. Like, you can't boil the whole ocean, you can't take everything on. Let's stay in our area of expertise and what we really excel on. And I think it's those things that are actively unfolding right now that we can bring people inside the action.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

What was the hardest video you did? For whatever reason I mean, it could be something that you just struggled with, it could be a technical reason, it could be like the people you dealt with, but what was like the one you were like, this one's just rough?

SPEAKER_01 39:32

I mean, arguably it could be the one that we're trying to release today about the Israeli settler terrorism. So we interviewed an American father whose son was beaten to death by a mob of Israeli settlers, and it was horrific. And so, I mean, YouTube has a community guidelines around terrorism, but I think you can get around it if it's shown in an educational or documentary standpoint. There's so much footage that we wanted to include that we couldn't of the violence to really illustrate our point, so we had to more suggest the violence than show the violence. So I think as far as finessing it, and also um, you know, it had a good amount of research with the voiceovers, how the Christian Zionists are funding things, and how um breaking everything down factually and accurately uh took more research than the average piece. But um I guess I would say that. I think um because it's about a 50-minute piece, it's a bear of a piece. We have a lot of different perspectives in it, and so um it looks like I just gotta um see what how things look for this afternoon, but I think we'll be able to put it out without an issue, and that would be uh huge.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

So do you like upload it and just sit and wait and see what the animated the automated system does? Is that typically how you work?

SPEAKER_01 40:42

Yeah, I would say something like that. You see if the L the icon is yellow or green, and for those back home, a green icon is game game on, you're gonna make money. Yellow icon, like the Dallas piece we put out, was at the yellow icon, and you're making, I don't know if it's a 10th, a 20th, a 50th of what you should make. Um, so it's definitely it hurts you to put things out, but then there's a certain level of I know this isn't gonna clear to green. I want to put the piece out, it's worth putting out. I'll take the hit for the week because over the course of my lifetime, I'm not gonna look back when I'm an old man on a gurney, I'm not gonna look back and be like, well, week seven of quarter one in 2026, I didn't make as much as I wanted to. Like, hey, I put out a piece that I really felt strongly about that I was really proud of, and that's what matters.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

And and for the most part, are videos uh per video profitable, or is there do you look at them that way, or do you look at like the month, or how do you because you have it's a business, like we have to look at it from a business perspective.

Building A Team Without Micromanaging

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Yeah, I would say every video is profitable, every month is profitable. Um, I don't measure, you know, I don't factor in okay, I'm gonna average the travel travel cost in Texas across the three videos that we filmed. I don't do so much of that. Um, and I my videos don't, besides the salaries of my guys, my videos don't cost a whole lot beyond the travel and the Airbnb. It's not like I am renting production crews or doing anything, you know, wild. So we we're very bare bones. Um and so I would say every video is profitable.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

And then are you still looking to expand your team in some way? Or I noticed that you have another channel, which is really smart. I think I took a look at it earlier. I had I wasn't even aware of it until just recently. Um, and it makes a lot of sense. Like it's uh it's essentially it sounds like you're putting in a bunch of your content into one big long video, and those do very well on YouTube. I'm actually I'm happy that you're doing that mainly because it's a smart strategy to take some of your other content that's done well and kind of put them together. But like, what was the thought of that? How did that come to be and and what's that been like so far?

SPEAKER_01 42:38

So that's a hands-off stream, just like my Facebook is also ran by another team. This YouTube compilation channel is run by uh DA Man Studios. There's a guy named Tony that runs point on that. They do a fantastic job. They basically find big channels, and if they put the videos together, I think also the CPM is much better when the when the videos are longer. That's one that YouTube is incentivizing. And so they they knock it out of the park, and it's it was exciting to check it the other day and say, wow, that thing is is doing very well.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

It's basically just it's almost free money in a way, in that you already have the content shot. It's already performed well. You just have another company going in and kind of throwing things together, putting on a channel and just waiting for the money to come in.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Yes. And you had a question am I looking to expand the team? So right now I have four guys that can shoot and three guys that can edit. And that's been a good workload because initially it was just uh Keegan who shoots and does a lot of production and wears a lot of hats, and then Miguel, who was the head shooter and also the head editor. Miguel was running through a stage for maybe a couple of years ago where he was like working 70, 80 hours a week to get things out the door. And I'm like, okay, we gotta bring some more people on. So we brought on Jack, then we brought on my guy Dre. And we want flexibility for the team. Um, and I want them like they're a lot of my guys are younger, but almost all of them now have girlfriends or they're gonna have fiance soon and they're gonna have kids soon. I want it to be an environment where they can, you know, there's a time when you're young where you can hustle. can go i mean i work seven days a week but it's i want it to be a flexible job for other people where if they're doing 40 50 60 that it's you know that's what they want to do if we need to bring another guy on we will um we're actually having our team meeting uh on i'm gonna have everyone over at the house cook for them have a round table um that's one of the i think the really cool things about the channel is we kind of function as a mini family when we're on the road we get Airbnb so we can cook together we work out together we're always talking about ideas together and so um I want I want these guys to be successful in their own right like I've helped some of the guys on my team with real estate deals um I want this to be something that we have so much long-term staying power because people like being here they're paid well they're working on topics that interest them and they feel like they're part of this tribe this family I love that what's what's your um what is like your guiding principle overall as a as a business owner as a YouTube owner not I mean I already see kind of understand what your you as a YouTube content creator what your is you've kind of talked about a little bit that you know you want the truth and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

I can respect that. But as a as a business owner and as a boss like what is your guiding principle for that? You just kind of talked about family which I love but there's got to be other parts of it too. Like what all are you taking into consideration as you do different things?

SPEAKER_01 45:16

Oh one thing is I I really don't like to be a micromanager at all. I hated being micromanager so I want to just empower my guys to run with the ball um they know what they got to do we know what the schedule is they get it done and they do a fantastic job at it. So I want a high degree of freedom and also I think one of my guiding principles is I want to be financially free. I think I I don't care if I have ever Lamborghini I don't need to have a jet and a place in the Swiss Alps but I want to have it so that I can only I wake up and I just do things that I'm passionate about. That's the type of freedom and money I want and so I want to help my guys with that. And so um my head guy Miguel he bought his first property a few months ago I helped him with that loan the down payment um I should say he he did the down payment I helped him with the carry the loan without having to use hard money uh he's flipped it I helped him with some of the contractors and now he has his tenants moving in and it's gonna cash flow really well and if he wants to do another one we're gonna talk about that. And so I want to empower these guys as well that one day they can be totally free. And free is different for every person. Some people you know need a few thousand bucks a month and they just want to be able to travel and do this or that. So whatever that is um I'm very interested to know what their goals are and to help them along the way.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Amazing. That's I I love that I I think that that's uh something we need more of um from any industry that um I know that like at the at the end of the day the business has to make money but I feel like your workers are human beings and to treat them like that is something that will always pay you back as an owner because they're gonna want to work harder for you.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

Like well also I'm not in the position I am without my team like they're the they're a massive massive part of my success is I mean the editing is unbelievable. The guys what my guys are capable of is I think top notch on YouTube. And so um I'm not much without my guys. So of course like I got to treat them the right way and make sure that they're uh happy and doing well because if you look at my stuff from four years ago when I was editing it myself to now it's night and day difference. And um but because my guys do an awful lot. Like one of my guys Keegan is a lot of the outreach and like if we're trying to talk to U.S. senators he's the guy that emails every single one of them talks to their staffers talks to their team I really handle the street contacts but if it's someone beyond that I like him to go after and do that. So like just after this call I'm gonna call him we have a guy that builds bunkers for the rich out in Dallas and we want to do a profile piece on bunkers especially with World War III potentially hanging in the clouds we want to know more about bunkers and Keegan got that lined up and each of my guys has a skill set where um that I don't have and I think that's part of being a really strong uh leader and also being building a strong channel is having areas of expertise outside of your own. I think to make this possible um you got to have these guys and even my my brand guy Brett the amount of revenue he's bringing to the table that I wouldn't have had on my own is life changing. And so um shout out to Brett.

Future Vision And Starting From Zero

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Two more questions um one is uh a challenge that I always give to every creator but before we hit that where do you see this channel in the next couple of years? I mean you're I I think it's a no-brainer to say you're gonna continue to grow um you know especially if you keep doing the type of content you're doing what type of is there gonna be the same mix of content that you think are going to happen for the next year or two? Do you are you looking to do more passion projects? I mean all these are a passion project but I I mean there's obviously some things you feel very strongly about. But like what is the type of content mix you think you're gonna see for the next year, two and a year, three years I think it's a buffet it's a mixture.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

We're gonna bring him to me what I my goal is to be the most trusted documentary channel on the internet. So whether hey Justin Beaver wants to come forward and say what happened when he did that weekend with Diddy what what did he see what did he experience I want him to think Tommy G is a guy that's gonna tell my story fairly. If there's a jail that's going through issues in Louisiana I want the sheriff to think you know what if Tommy G contacts me I'm gonna do that. A U.S. senator maybe a guy that runs for president I'm gonna do a you know I could do a sit-down podcast or a day in the life with the top candidate I want him to think this guy's gonna do a fair job telling my story. So across whether it's the criminal political I want to be a brand that people say I'm gonna talk to this guy because not only will I get my message heard and by many many millions of people but also that I feel like it's gonna be done in the right way. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

All right here's the challenge question uh every creator gets this uh finds this to be a little bit difficult. So the question is this you're starting a new YouTube channel today. You cannot use the resources you have now and you can't you you can't do the same content you're doing right now. You can have like a phone and stuff but you have all the knowledge you had over the last couple of years of building a YouTube channel. What is your channel about? And what are the first couple of videos and how do you go about it? And this is meant to be a stream of consciousness thing so creators can learn. You know you're a successful YouTuber and people want to be successful. So what would your mindset be in this exact situation?

SPEAKER_01 50:18

I would sit down and I would brainstorm and I would write a list of ideas that I am extremely passionate about. And then I would also think of those ideas, what do I also think other people will be interested in as well and I because you can't be too niche. Because I I I try to think of ideas that what are a million people or more going to be interested on um then I would part of it is is pitching the dream to a friend say look man I got this dream I got this vision uh you know I can pay you a little bit but I think this is something that can really grow. And I know at the beginning creators really have to bootstrap. You don't have budgets it's not like you can bring on a full-time videographer you're probably hiring a friend with a camera and the other thing is I would learn all the necessary skills that I wouldn't have any bottlenecks in my business. So what happened when when COVID hit I ordered a MacBook I learned how to edit and that was a huge roadblock in the prank uh channel early on that I overcame by editing myself and so at essentially you have to be kind of a one man show at the beginning and you really have to work on your ideas. I think the thing that pisses me off the most when I see like lazy creators are guys that some of these guys out there they've blown up they've been on the coattails of other people and they haven't had one original idea their entire time on YouTube and it's almost like it's disrespectful. It's like dude like you don't understand how lucky you are to be in the shoes that you are how about you think of some original stuff and because your ideas are extremely powerful having the ideas is big but also executing acting on those ideas is massive and if if you can put those two together and start getting skilled at the editing or start bringing people on and say hey look I might not be here now but as my revenue climbs this is how you're gonna climb with me I think it's a job that a lot of people would want to have so anyone can do it.

What He Watches And Final Wrap

SPEAKER_00 52:01

There's nothing there's no barriers there's no gatekeepers it's your ideas your work ethic your execution I love that um what are some channels you like to watch like is there anyone out there that inspires you or channels you just enjoy watching on YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 52:15

I'll definitely say old Vice and still I mean Vice still comes out I think they they they they uh course correct it a little bit and they they still make fantastic stuff yeah um I don't watch a ton of YouTube stuff in my field I watch a lot of sit-down interviews I I watch um lately I've been getting to this guy Glenn Deeson he interviews a lot of uh political guys about what is going on in Iran I love Theo Von clips that guy makes me laugh a lot he's a beautiful person and someone that is a national treasure um there's I think like cinematically uh there's a guy taboo room Aaron he's a from the UK he does very similar gangster stuff to what we do but he shoots it beautifully um there are a lot of guys out there that I think are doing a great job and my dear friend Brennan Buckingham uh he's been ill but very ill for a long time but when he comes back on a YouTube I know he has some stuff in the chamber that is going to blow people's uh socks off I know he has a Kia boy piece that is much more dangerous and much more crazy than the one I have that he's sitting on and when that comes out I will be the first to watch but um the the cool thing is there's so many people out there that are hustling in their own way and uh they each have their own flavor. Like there's uh in my space there's guys like Tyler Oliveira Andrew Callahan each have their own political view each have their own perspective and you can learn a little from each guy and so um yeah I uh I guess as far as what I would want to watch let me just say I want to say a good answer. You know a documentary that I think is an all-time classic is my octopus teacher if you're familiar with oh yeah I am a guy that he lives in South Africa and he goes diving in the ocean for like a hundred days on end and makes friends with the octopus that to me is like okay this guy pulled off something that I could never in a million years have the cojones or the patience to do so um kudos to him and uh we'll see who the next person is that can do something like that.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Tommy G, that dude uh he took a dream he took a risk and it's been very successful. If you want to know more about him there'll be links in the description and in the show notes. I highly recommend watching some of his pieces they're really they're so good that like I have three tabs open this is the truth uh in my on my browser right now that are three different episodes I have to watch after this. I'm literally in the middle of watching three things at the same time and they're just fascinating. So Tommy G thank you so much for joining us if you want to know more there'll be links in the description in the show notes and I have another video for you right here we'll see y'all in the next one.