TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

How ThinkNoodles Stays Relevant After 15 Years

• vidIQ

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 46:14

Send us Fan Mail

Get vidIQ Boost for an exclusive price! https://vidiq.com/podcast

Want a 1 on 1 coach? https://vidiq.ink/theboost1on1

Join our Discord! https://www.vidiq.com/discord

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/_kUOrWhNynw

We sit down with ThinkNoodles to unpack what it really takes to stay relevant as a gaming creator for nearly 15 years, from pivoting formats to building a team that can keep up. We dig into the unsexy truths behind growth, including why the job feels nonstop, why packaging matters, and how Shorts are changing viewer expectations. 
• passion and work ethic as the real longevity engine 
• early creator roots through websites, guides, and problem-solving 
• how the MCN era shaped early gaming monetisation 
• adapting to algorithm shifts by studying peer outliers 
• why in-real-life videos are harder than they look 
• audience fit and aging out as a strategic constraint 
• scripting the first 30 seconds to protect retention 
• titles and thumbnails as make-or-break packaging 
• the biggest myth about big channels and “easy money” 
• team structure behind consistent uploads 
• AdSense versus brand deals and why he turns sponsors down 
• how GTA 6 could reshape the gaming creator landscape 
• why streaming can drain energy and underperform after 
• Shorts rules: original content, fast pacing, and sweet spot length 
• the attention-span shift forcing long-form to speed up 
If you're new here, feel free to hit that subscribe button. 
If you think he should do a think noodles after dark, make sure you go over to his channel and just flood the comment section with Think Noodles after dark. 


Why Creator Work Is Not Easy

SPEAKER_01

It took me almost like three years to get 100,000 subscribers, and I can make one short and get 150,000 subs. That this is the easiest, most lazy thing. We get paid lots of money for doing basically nothing. I've been working, you know, I've worked for uh corporate jobs, Fortune 500 companies. This is the hardest job I have ever had by a factor of like 10. If you finish a video and you're like, I don't know what I'm gonna call this, and I can't even think of a thumbnail, just delete it.

Meet ThinkNoodles And The Mission

SPEAKER_00

Hey, welcome back to the only pass that'll keep you on your feet. I'm Travis, and I'm here with an incredibly special guest today. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is Justin from Think Noodles. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Thank you. Uh thanks for having me. And I gotta say, right as we start, like being today, June 18th, we just had the Knicks parade here. Yeah. And I mean, you've got the Knicks colors going right now with the blue mic sock and the and the orange shirt. So way to represent, man. I love it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. If you're new here, sometimes we do things like this where we talk about a little bit of everything on YouTube. If you're listening to the Audio and Only podcast, there'll be a link in the show notes that'll get you to more information about Justin and Think Noodles because after you hear this podcast, you're gonna want to know more. But for those of you who don't know, Think Noodles is an old channel. It's been around for over 14 years. Some people don't know that. Almost 13 million subscribers with five B B when I say this billion, not million, B with a B, a billion with a B, five billion views. It's a tremendous uh accomplishment in in ways that are mind-bending. I mean, when you hear that back, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01

Like, well, I mean, the the the almost 14 years thing is like, well, actually, is it wait? This is 2026. Yeah, so we're going to yeah, we're going to 15 years. So, like knowing that my channel could actually be in high school right now, just what's what's crazier is though, I've actually spoken to a lot of people that have been on the platform for like 10 years or so now.

SPEAKER_00

But when you look at the actual landscape of YouTube, very few people last that long. They they usually don't last two or three years, right? Let alone over a decade. Um, before we get into like some of the older stuff, I'm just curious because I usually we'll save this for later, but I'm really curious.

Staying Power Through Passion And Discipline

SPEAKER_00

What do you think has kept you kept you going? And and what's that ability? Like, where do you get that from?

SPEAKER_01

It's like a there's two things, right? There's one is is the passion. I really love what I do. Like, and I've taught my wife has talked to me about this, and she's like, you know, we you know, you're pushing 50, dude. Like, which in streaming years is about, I don't know, 1200. A million. Yeah. Um and and she's like, you know, is there a point where you're just gonna be like, okay, like I'm gonna retire? And I was like, well, I might slow down, but there's always gonna be something that I'm gonna be like, dude, I want to play that so bad and I want to entertain with it. Like, I don't think I'm ever gonna give this up, like fully give it up. Um, so there's a passion. Also, my wife is a surgeon. So um, from her like work ethic, like I sort of get that from her, her ambition. Um, uh, we feed off of each other. Um, so she works really hard, and so I do too.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. Let's talk about how where you were in life before you ever pressed upload. What were you doing before the first video uploaded? What was going on in your life?

SPEAKER_01

Uh, I had graduated business school. Um and uh I graduated like not in um like traditional June. Like I it was it was you know near Christmas time, and I'm like, I am not going to get a job right now. Like it's the holidays, like I'm not doing that. So uh I stumbled into something where this was pre-iPhone for this is this whole journey started in 06, so 20 years now. Um but uh but yeah, I started um reselling consoles to parents who couldn't get them for their kids for Christmas. Interesting. Uh but um but yeah, it it ended up uh yeah, I wrote a program for it and it was sending me text messages and I'd run to my computer and order them and then resell them uh and had a group of people who were just like, oh, this thing and that thing. And then there was this thing called webkins, which probably nobody knows what it is anymore. But um, but yeah, there was like an online component to it, and I started looking into it and I'm like, I don't understand it. And then I made a website about it and started doing like younger gaming uh and game guides, and then eventually that led to YouTube doing game guides on there, and then yeah, and now I now I just play the games, I don't do guides.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, I mean, things are yeah, way different now. And you gotta remember back um when you first started YouTube, it it was a different platform altogether. Like there was no shorts, there was no live streams, there wasn't any of this stuff. Yeah. Um, so talk to us about what that was like the first first of all, like why you got onto YouTube. Let's start there, yeah, and then what that experience was like as much as you can remember.

SPEAKER_01

Well, yeah, like so I had I had um a few websites by that point, and I was always like typing out guides and taking screenshots, and and I was like, man, there's gotta be a better way to do this. And then just as I was looking into it, YouTube became monetizable for gaming only through MCNs. Uh so if you guys don't know what an MCN is, it's uh it's a company that takes most of your money. Um very true.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, what do they do? They don't answer your emails. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh nowadays the uh they they now that now they get you brand deals and stuff or say they do. Um, but uh it's way different than it used to be because you can monetize through YouTube directly. You couldn't before, you had to have an MCN. And I remember uh it had just become monetizable for gaming, so uh I started working on that uh and said, hey, I can put video guides, embed them in my website, like hey, this new level came out, this is how you beat it, and um and and show them actual gameplay. Um and yeah, uh it just sort of led to that. I I was doing them actually. If you look in my channel, the first few videos, oh no, no, no, the first few videos, first 50 videos probably, there's no voice. Because YouTube was a different place, like you said, like you didn't have to do voice. I think the only gaming creator that was doing like a face cam at the time was PewDiePie. And people are like, Oh, that guy does a face cam. Like, and then you know, and it was just reactions to horror games and stuff, and yeah, it's changed so so much.

SPEAKER_00

So much, and

Before YouTube: Hustles That Led Here

SPEAKER_00

there's the your channel is unique in a couple of ways. Let me explain. Number one, um, you have success with long form and short form, which is not always the case. A lot of people will be super successful in one and not as successful in the other, and I mean like major differences. Um, there are view differences between yours, but I mean yours is good. There are others that are way different, like you'll get millions upon millions of views and shorts and maybe 10,000 views on long form. So there's a lot of channels like that. And then format-wise, it's way different. Like, you don't just stick with just video games with like an AI avatar or VR or tube or anything like that. You have in real life stuff, and then you have like let's not let's play, but like a play along. Like your formats are so different, they're so varied. Uh, and that's usually like danger ground for most people. Like, it usually doesn't work for people. What is it? What's the through line that works for you?

SPEAKER_01

Um, so yeah, I think it's like just following what I see working for other creators. Like uh, you know, like you said, like uh I used to just do like let's play. Like I have like a Minecraft series that I that used to work but doesn't anymore because it just doesn't work. Um but I had a let's play of 300 episodes, right? And it was so successful. Um, but that stopped working. And I started to see, okay, what are my peers doing? What what are they, you know, the ones that haven't burned out, what are they still doing? Or what are they doing that's working and and and gravitating toward that and shifting where you know where the algorithm goes. And people will always find ways, uh, but you have to be on top of it. And you always, always, always have to be willing to make that shift and take the risk because the few first few might not work, uh, but you got to believe in it.

SPEAKER_00

That's that's a good point because uh whenever I talk to creators about uh if they're gonna pivot or make some changes, I I don't tell them that, hey, if this one video doesn't work, it's not gonna work because frequently, even if it does eventually work, the first video doesn't work. There are instances where it does, but frequently it takes a while. Like you got to retrain the audience, you gotta find new audience, the algorithm's gotta understand you better. Yep. Like all these things are true. So it's not just let me try this one time, and if it doesn't work, I need to not do that thing again. Uh, if you've done the research in advance and you kind of know that, oh, this generally works, then putting some time into it can be um the right move. And for but for you, like we're talking vastly different types of content in real life, is not us a streamer sitting down and just playing a game. Like those are two completely different things. How do you the production alone must be wildly uh different and talk to us about like that whole process?

SPEAKER_01

The yeah, I actually like don't like doing in real life stuff because it's so like it's so hard. Like as a gaming creator, when I can just like I can walk into my studio here uh like after having breakfast and just make a video like and you know, using the VTuber thing, I don't even have to like like today, like when I was gonna do this, I'm like, oh my god, I gotta shave. I've got to like, oh man, I need a haircut. Like, I don't need to do any of that, but the in real life stuff you do. And um, and then like you know, the the lighting, the sound, the all of it is stuff I have to think about. And I I I hate it, but I I I I think like I don't know how it works because I I know what you're saying is like it I I I I know someone like um I don't know if you've done anything with uh like Preston Arsene, um TBNR Frags, like Preston has separate channels for not just like gaming and in real life, he has separate channels for like uh and he's very successful, but he uh he has a channel for Roblox, he has a channel for Minecraft, he has a channel for in real life stuff, he has a channel for like uh you know his wife, like everything is separated along this one really narrow niche. Um, so I don't I don't know. I yeah, and I can't keep up with that. I can't keep up with Brianna on recently. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

She was talking a lot about that. Yeah, yeah. We had her on recently. She's um she's super smart too, but she also admits that like Preston really helped her understand a lot of that stuff because he's he's a phenomenal uh creator in so many different ways. So you take inspiration from other creators instead of because like it's not that you have to reinvent the wheel. I feel like too many people are trying to reinvent the wheel when the wheel exists and you can just make the wheel better for you. Yeah. Um how would you do that? Like, give me an example of when the last time you did that was break that process down.

SPEAKER_01

Well, like, so um I had a I had a video one of ten, one of ten, which is like my best video out of 10 uh the last 10 I uploaded. Um I had a video one of 10 yesterday that surprised me. And uh uh and the way I found it is I actually use your plugin. Um yeah, no, I'm dead serious. Uh I have probably about um 30 channels that I just go through uh maybe once a week and just say, okay, what are they doing? What are their outliers? Um and

Old YouTube Rules And MCN Era

SPEAKER_01

would those work for me? Uh most of the channels that I follow and look at uh have what I consider to be similar audiences. Um and uh yeah, I see something, you know, do maybe like a 1.6x, and I'm like, maybe. If I see a 2x, I'm like, okay, let's, you know, that that game would work uh and and try to make it better. Um and if this one uh happened to be out of all the 30 channels I looked at, only one channel had done it. They had a 2x outlier, and toys it was a Toy Story video, uh horror video of this little indie game that nobody really knows much about. And the the creator that did it just did like a walkthrough with no commentary. And I'm like, I can do that better. Um so I did that, and with Toy Story coming out this weekend, like stars align and uh and and one of ten. So yeah, um uh that that's that that's the entire workflow end to end.

SPEAKER_00

Who who is your um your audience? Like who is your audience avatar? What is the the the people you're talking who are the people you're talking to, would you say if you had to describe them?

SPEAKER_01

Um they are younger. Uh I mean, according to YouTube, they're uh according to YouTube, they're uh women age 35 to 44. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

I think that may be the mother.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe, yeah. So so yeah, children of someone who might be in that age bracket. Um uh those are the ones I talk to. Uh primarily, like I would say preteen. Um so like six to twelve, around 13, they start to age out, right? They start to like gravitate toward other creators that might use different types of language and uh and other things because you know swearing is cool.

SPEAKER_00

I I want to get back into this, but before I do, I just because I don't want to forget about this, because it's a very critical thing to YouTube videos. How long do you take on the first 30 seconds of a video? And I mean like the editing, the scripting, the thought process behind it. Talk to us about how you break down that first segment of any video.

SPEAKER_01

That's always the most important. Honestly, like uh if if you mess up the first 30 seconds, the the video uh and no one's gonna stick around, especially new viewers. Um yeah, the video is not gonna do well unless it's something that you know that your subscribers you know, you know, I've got 13 million, so I know like this is gonna hit for them, and then it'll go to the greater audience. If it's something you're not sure about um for your current audience and you want to find new audience with it, um yeah, if that 30 seconds is so important, I spend I spend a lot of time on it. Um sometimes I'll pre-script uh uh and and and I do probably two to three variations, um, and I let my editors decide. Uh I I give them the three uh cuts and say whichever one you think works best for the footage, how you want to like you know, play things together. Um and and sometimes the pre-script doesn't work. And then after I go, okay, well, yeah, that you know, or the or there was something really good that I want to highlight uh in the intro and I'll go back and post script it. Um uh but I almost always do it scripted. I don't that that part. The rest of the videos uh I I uh uh improvise, but uh because it's mostly gameplay and reactions, right? Um but but that that uh that pre-intro, that 30-second hook, always scripted. You really need it to be tight.

SPEAKER_00

I agree. What are if you had like some tips for that, because that can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, like uh keep it tight, okay, okay, but what does that mean? Some people might think that that means, oh, so when I do my intro, I have to quickly make sure I tell you people to subscribe and like and share. I just gotta do that faster. I mean, that's not exactly what we're talking about. Let's be real specific. What are the things you're trying to accomplish in that first 30 seconds?

SPEAKER_01

Like you're trying to tell them you, you're you want to tell them what they want or what they're going to see in the video. The the like and subscribe as if you

Adapting Formats By Studying Outliers

SPEAKER_01

hook them in in that first 30 seconds with visuals, audio, uh uh, and draw them in, give them something to stick around for, they'll stay for that like and subscribe if you hit that at 45 seconds, one minute, five minutes in, right? Uh, but if you don't get them to stick for that 30 seconds, they're not gonna subscribe anyway. Um, and and uh and you're gonna push them away uh never to be seen again.

SPEAKER_00

What do you think is the biggest misconception about a channel like yours, the size it is and all that stuff? What do you think people think about your channel that maybe it's not true?

SPEAKER_01

That this is the easiest, most lazy thing, and and like, and we get paid lots of money for doing basically nothing. Like, this is the like I I I'm like I said, I'm almost 50 and I've I've been working, you know, I've worked for uh corporate jobs, Fortune 500 companies. This is the hardest job I have ever had by a factor of like 10. Like it's always, always, always on. It you have to live it, breathe it, love it. Um and it's challenging, man. Um, it's not as easy as people think. Um yeah, it's yeah. So many parents are uh feel that way. And it's funny too, because like some parents are like they feel like it's not we, you know, it's not like we're taking money from them or their kids, but like you're using my kids to earn a living. Like, and uh I I mean we're entertaining, right? That's all we're doing is entertaining, and you know, you get an ad play here and there. Uh, but we work hard and our teams work hard. Uh and that's the other thing. A lot of people think that I do this all myself. I do not. I've I have two full-time editors, a part-time editor, two thumbnail editors, a content uh ideation uh person. So yeah, we've got like seven or eight people uh to make this run. It's expensive to run too, right? Um uh when you get to this level. Um, so uh yeah, it's it's rewarding um uh financially and also um uh like well I don't want to say enthusiastically, but but yeah, emotionally rewarding as well. Um but yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy.

SPEAKER_00

Without your wife's income, could you retire now? Do you have enough money to retire now?

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so you're good.

SPEAKER_01

We're good.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. That's great to hear. Yeah, yeah. So does most of that come from, and this is something a lot of people don't know. Because I think there's uh people who who think that it all comes from AdSense. Uh, would what percentage would you say comes from like AdSense versus anything else that you monitor the way other ways you might monetize?

SPEAKER_01

It depends on the year. Really? Yeah, talk to us about that. Like, I mean, it it it really just depends. Like, I almost feel like brand deals and whatnot are like super cyclical. Uh you'll have good years and bad years. Uh and not because your channel's not doing well, it's just that the ad budgets aren't there or um, you know, the gaming studios aren't going after people uh as as aggressively. Um and also like when things like COVID happened, right? Like so um, you know, my views three or four X'd overnight, which was like, oh my goodness. But ad revenue was flat, like you know, because because CPMs went down. So we looked for other uh opportunities for monetization. Um at that time there weren't any because nobody's spending any money, uh including corporations. Uh, but I would say the percentage of uh AdSense versus brand deals is AdSense 90% minimum every year.

SPEAKER_00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Um way more than brand deals. And also because I turned down a lot of brand deals.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Because you have to match the brand with like what you're doing, with your brand.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, correct. Um, and you know, they'll come to me like, hey, we can play this game, you know, do a dedicated video. Uh, we really want you know, a lot of people to play it. And I'm like, my audience is gonna hate this game. So do I do I upload it and take the money and then worry about a 10 of 10? Uh, because I guarantee it's gonna do that, or do I say, you know what, it's not worth it. Like my channel's riding high right now, and I'm not gonna, you know, uh throw a wrench in the gears and slow down the algorithm.

SPEAKER_00

So today, uniquely, uh, for those listening to and watching this uh later, was the day that uh Rockstar announced GTA 6, which is gonna be one of the largest video games of all time. I know this. I didn't know. I know yeah, they just announced it this morning.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

They announced the, I should say they announced the the pre-sale date, which is the 20th, which is next week. So you can pre-order it next week. Okay. Uh they also showed the front, um, the actual graphics and stuff. They they have some new stuff they're showing. But obviously, this doesn't match with your main channel. However, this game is going to make multiple new YouTubers that don't exist today huge YouTubers in the next couple of years. Absolutely Is there any part of you that's like, maybe

Audience Fit And The 30-Second Hook

SPEAKER_00

I should just have a second channel for this?

SPEAKER_01

So interesting. Like, so I've thought about this in the past, and like, like I said, I don't think I could keep up with another channel. It's so hard. Um, I thought about a Think Noodles After Dark channel where like I play games like this, and you know, um, and and it's for maybe uh because I have like it's been almost 15 years, right? Like I have fans who uh who sort of aged out of my content, but they still say subscribe because like oh it's the first person I subscribe to and he's so nice. I don't want to unsub. And I'm kind of like, please do, because you just don't watch my videos and it gives it the algorithm, but it's fine, I understand. Um, but uh, you know, I have these older fans who uh have aged out um and they're in college now or even graduated college at this point, um and they would watch that, right? Yeah. Uh but man, another channel. And and funnily enough, uh since we started talking about all this, uh, because guys, like the the process to get to this interview. We should probably talk about that actually. I wouldn't talk about that. Um, but uh the uh uh my uh my older friends and I, um, so like uh Dan CDM, uh Ibolistic squid and Thanksia, they're all old names in the Minecraft space and pretty much all have kind of given up, uh, had kids and stuff. We started a channel, the the four of us. We play once a week, uh just one video. It's we call it the unks, because we're all like that. So that I love it. I get I I could see uh us playing a video or a few videos in GTA 6 on that channel. Um easily. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So and I don't have to deal with any of the editing or any of that. I just have to record, send the footage, and forget it. So but that's my point.

SPEAKER_00

Like you probably could do that even for yourself. Um and it would be it would be a different work process. So uh one of the things I did years ago was help uh YouTube channels grow and including bigger channels scale. So uh there are channels that and I'm not I'm not gonna name names, but there's a one of the bigger car channels uh on YouTube that has a secondary channel because that was one of the things I pitched to them, and now that channel was outperforming the main channel. Um, and it's because when you have like a really great idea, um, you know, taking it even if your main channel is huge, a smaller channel can outperform it. In your particular case, as any gaming YouTuber knows, this is going to be perhaps one of the biggest games of all time. And the amount of attention, especially early on, is going to be massive. So, worst case scenario, you're gonna have to do something that at least tips the hat to GTA on your main channel with the other games you're playing. Correct. So, why not just have a channel where everything else is automated? The only thing you have, just like Dunk's channel, is just play the game and send it off and let them do everything. Like you could, and I think financially, if you think about it, it's gonna pay for itself very fast. For sure. For sure. Probably within two months, and then you're just be able you're able to serve more people. Does that even sound interesting to you?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it definitely sounds interesting. What was the the so they announced the pre-sale date? When what's the release?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Uh they well, they haven't said the release, it's still gonna be in November. Oh, November. I think it's like November. It's like October, November. So it's later in the year. So the this pre-hype is to get the pre-sales. Now, what that's gonna tell us is because they will inevitably say how many they sold before the game releases. We're gonna know how big it is. We know it's gonna be ridiculous. I mean, it's gonna be massive. That no gaming channel can ignore this. Even if they don't do the direct content, they will have to tip, like I said, they're gonna have to maybe do a nod to GTA in some way. Sure. They have to bend the knee, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You have to like because that the when that comes out, that's where all of the views are gonna go. The algorith the algorithm is gonna uh is gonna favor anything GTA 6, because that's what everybody's looking for. And uh, and like I said, you have to always adapt with the algorithm, which I've done, and that is definitely gonna happen. And I'm either gonna have to like figure out a way on main or like you said, like a secondary channel, maybe.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I know but quality of life is important, especially as you get to the age that we are. Like, who cares about uh you know catching every single trend? But again, like this is one of those things that yeah, as a YouTuber and as someone who has done it as long as you have, it is kind of enticing, right? It's like being the fat kid at camp and there's a Twinkie sitting right there. Yeah, that Twinkie is right there. I could eat it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it it it's hard not to chase those trends um and uh and get the high. Um yeah, uh and and watch it grow. Uh it's actually what like I think with my friends uh in in the Unk's channel, like we said uh they were really hesitant, and one guy one of them was like, We gotta do this, guys. Just one video. I swear, just do one video. Let's see how it goes. If it flops, then who cares? We delete the channel, no big deal, right? And that video did 600k. And they're like, Oh,

Teams, Money Myths, And AdSense Reality

SPEAKER_01

I remember how this feels. I love this. Let's keep going. Um so uh yeah, that that as a YouTuber and even as what I'd call almost former YouTubers, like that, you still have that, man. You still feel that. Uh and yeah, when GTA 6 comes, I've got I gotta read this release now, but um and I'll play it. Don't get me wrong, I'll play it, of course. But um, but yeah, there there might be a different strategy for it.

SPEAKER_00

What do you think um it's funny you're talking about this earlier uh with your wife, um, about can you slow down and and you know, would you ever you said you never really would stop. What would what do you think would be the life-changing thing in whatever what would happen in your life that would make you want to stop YouTube? Is there anything that you can think of that would be like, uh yeah, I'll just we're just gonna go on a beach somewhere and just chill out for the rest of our lives?

SPEAKER_01

That's what we're going to do. But I'll also make I'll also make gaming videos. Yeah, I mean, like that, I mean, that's that's eventually the plan. Like my wife was born and raised here in New York City. Um, uh, but you know, she's 43, and you know, um she the the being uh uh in the profession that she's in and the the stress uh it's it's weighs on her and she wants that life and to be able to just travel and and do beach stuff uh and just hang out and and swim. Um and it sounds amazing, but like I said, like I I really can't see anything. There's one thing that that that that that would make me stop, and that is uh maybe like I don't know, so weird. I have all these weird health problems. Seven, eight years ago, I had like really painful like abscess uh in like my like lower, yeah, this tooth back here. And oh, so bad. And the guy did a root canal, whatever, and he's like, You're gonna come back for a crown, but oh, it was really bad, and I didn't trust him. So I went to another dentist, but I needed emergency dental care. Like it was like I I remember reading something, it was so painful. I remember reading something that someone says, I have I've had a tooth abscess and I have been shot. If I had to choose, I would rather be shot again. Wow. So it's so painful. Uh and I went to another dentist and he's like, Oh man, the guy who uh who did your root canal, he broke the uh the drill off inside your tooth. He's like, That's not that's not coming back out. Oh my god. We're gonna have to pull the tooth, do this thing, and do a like a like an implant. I'm like, cool. I went to a guy, and the guy's like, oh, I am not touching that. Like, what what do you mean? He's like, you need to go see uh like he's like, I'm just the I'm just an oral surgeon. You need an I don't know, F I forgot what it was, something. Because the tooth that they have to take out, there's another tooth laying there, my wisdom tooth, and it's touching my mandibular nerve. And he's like, Oh my so when we remove that, we may nick your mandibular nerve, which would may, which may like cause numbness in your lips and tongue, and it could be permanent. So I was like, dude, you may not talk ever again. He's like, You so you may have have a lisp for the rest of your life, and I'm like, Oh my god, no. So so they're like, and I do have to do this now, and he's like, Well, eventually you're gonna have to do it because it's you know something's gonna happen, but it's been seven or eight years and nothing's happened. So when that happens and I I have a lisp forever, then I'll stop because I'll be embarrassed.

SPEAKER_00

That's fair. Um, talk to us about live streaming. First of all, live streaming is super fun, at least I think it's fun.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um, you don't do it all the time. You do have success when you do do it. Why do you only do it every so often? And what are your what are your experiences like?

SPEAKER_01

I I think it's like you going back to what you said, like I started YouTube when it was a different place, right? There was no streaming, right? I became a a content creator that like do I do editing and whatever, uh cut cut out dead space, but I have been trained that if I'm on camera, it's gotta be always going. And so when I stream, I it's like making a video with no cuts for three hours. I am on, like, and I can't not continue talking. And so by the end of that three hours, like I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Yeah, and I had I've tried, and I I'll I'll like start the stream and I'll be like, okay, you can just not talk, like they're fine with that. Let the gameplay speak for itself, and when something happens, just do something and stay down, dude. And it works for like the first 10 minutes, and then I'm just right back on full volume, let's go, like you know, reading off the super chats and trying to keep up with the chat, and it's just I I I don't know if I'm built for it. Um, so I uh I'll I'll stream um when big things happen, but I tend to stay away from it, and and the other reason too is because I really like uh the way that YouTube treats my videos versus my stream vods. Because after the stream's over, like they don't they don't do particularly well. Um I know you can cut them down and but the YouTube editors but um Yeah, it's a little rough. Uh but but yeah, they don't perform afterward. So um uh my audience being young, I don't get a lot of donations. Um, even though you know I've got 20, 30, sometimes 40k on, and then you know, not getting a lot of donations, and then afterward, not uh much uh not much traffic in the in the in the afterstream VOD. It's kind of like, man, like I could have spent three hours making something that's gonna live forever and people are gonna continue to watch, right? And it yeah, uh that's that's another reason I don't, but yeah, mostly because I'm not built.

SPEAKER_00

Let's go for the opposite end of that, YouTube shorts. You definitely have uh I would, you know, you can definitely say mastered. I mean, there are tons of videos with millions of views on them. What is the strategy behind them? How do you break down what should be a short and what's the story told in a short? Like, how do you make it successful? What is the secret? Because a lot of people don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Well, so when when shorts first hit, I remember YouTube being like, yeah, you know, this is new, well, new, this new thing we stole from TikTok. Um uh and you guys should definitely use it, right? And I noticed like right away, I didn't, I didn't, I was like, I don't even know what this is. And I think that they had that shorts fund, I think, when it first came out, right? Um, but mostly non-monetizable uh at the time. Uh and they were pushing it, but I saw people using it, and I swear I only saw a single channel that that successfully integrated long and short in the beginning. Yeah, I'm I'm sure you guys saw that that you very few. Even now, even now, very few. But back then it was like you

GTA 6 Strategy And Second Channels

SPEAKER_01

upload a short and you tank your long form even, it would ruin your channel. Uh and I was like, no, I'm like staying away, I'm not touching that. Um and then so I probably waited over a year, maybe longer, before I touched a short. Um, and then I I started experimenting. There's there's a few like uh there's some companies out there that will like say, hey, we'll take your long form, we'll clip it down and like manage everything for you. I'm like, oh awesome. That's that sounds great. Like, you know, obviously you pay them. Um but uh I found this didn't do very well. And you can look back on mine, uh, anything that's a cut down. My my audience is like, yes, uh swipe, right? Like they have no appetite for any cutdowns. Um, I know it works for other channels, does not work for mine. Um, so any short that I do, it has to be OC. Uh original content. It has to be. Um interesting. Uh uh typically, like, um, and I mean, I don't really do that much gameplay-wise on them. Most of the time it's reactions, quick, fast-paced. Uh like uh I also find that like trying I know shorts can go over three minutes. Don't. Um, I think the sweet spots around 40 seconds, uh, just just in my experience. Um, but uh yeah, it's you have to be extremely quick and on, and like even when it's a reaction, I'll have to sometimes I'll do like six or seven takes to like really hit it as fast as I need to. Um uh because yeah, you everything is so compressed. Um and yeah, and then I have I have a I have a sh an editor just for shorts. He he does only shorts. Um he's he's good at it. Uh, but uh my long form editors, I don't think, could edit a short. It's yeah, it's different. It's different. It's that different. It's a different beast. Yeah, it really is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

How much uh from a perspective of uh I don't know if you even know this, uh, revenue and views does this contribute to your channel? Like what percentage? Is it mostly like are most of the views short and most of the revenue shorts, or is it a mix? How does it work? You know?

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah, oh it's mostly long form, like 98% probably. Like the shorts, the the views, yeah, like views-wise, shorts are shorts. Do well, hold on. Let me just hold on a second screen. Let me just pull this up.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, when I look, you had a 1.4 million uh short view four days ago.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01

Hold on, let me look at my analytics here. So if I go to the content breakdown, so I had oh gosh, come on, load YouTube. Okay, so YouTube Studio. So my uh my long form uh last 28 is uh 28 million.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um with an AVD of 12 minutes and 28 seconds.

SPEAKER_00

Let's go. That's crazy good.

SPEAKER_01

Uh and then my shorts are 12.1. So uh and I would say uh it doesn't say yeah, I and I got 16k subs off the shorts. It doesn't say for long form, but so yeah, I mean it's not insignificant, it's not insignificant, absolutely. Um and I and I I like some of my older shorts that were we we really leaned hard in on those, like I was uh paying a company to do animations, custom animations, and they were really expensive, and they will never pay for themselves, ever. Like but like I have shorts that I've gotten 150,000 subscribers off of a single short. Wow. Yeah. Um because you know, you you use that like you know, press like or uh to do this and press subscribe to do that, and and it just I I don't I thought it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00

So I can be fine.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, okay, I don't know if anymore. This was probably like break it down.

SPEAKER_00

Tell us exactly what it was because some people don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Two or three years ago. Like, so we what we did is like um like I I uh I don't know if you remember the grimace shake trend. Yeah, so that was one of the ones we did where we had a we said like you know, um count the grimaces in the video that you see, right? And then so people would watch it multiple times before they comment. And then I think we did like a like if you think it's more than 10 or subscribe if you think it's less than 10 or something like that. Um and it crazy, crazy number of subscribers. Crazy. Um I and I always thought about it, I was like, it took me like it took me almost like three years to get 100,000 subscribers, and I can make one short and get 150,000 subs. That's just the the reach is unparalleled. Um, and I don't I think you probably know, but back to streaming, you can stream vertical now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. You can do it simultaneously, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and I I think before they made it simultaneous, it worked better. But it's a really good way to reach because your stream is going into the shorts feed. Um and so I know I know someone who uses it very effectively, and he would say, like, okay, off of like off of the the stream that I did, uh uh while my like concurrent on long the the the the the horizontal was like I don't know 10k and the stream one said it was 2k, right? But I got maybe 5,000 subscribers over the three hour period on the horizontal. I got 40k off of the off of this short zone because they're they're flipping through, but they're watching for a few seconds. Okay, cool. Like and click click and then they keep swiping through. So the concurrent and the watch the watch time was like infinitesimal. It was like uh infinitesimal. Um it was so so so small, like less than I don't know, 30 seconds was the AVD on on on the the the vertical, but the subs reach uh and new viewership was unbelievable. Um and I think it still works really well, not as well as it used to.

SPEAKER_00

You you've been around for a long time, you've done a lot of things for a new YouTuber in 2026. What are some of the the most important things they should concentrate on uh as a creator? And I don't want to overwhelm

Longevity, Health Fears, And New Attention Spans

SPEAKER_00

people, so give them like two or three. Because in the last you know, if you're listening to this podcast or anything, you can get a crap ton of things and you're like, I don't know where to start. What would you say are the two or three most important things to concentrate on as a creator in 2026?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I mean, of course, like of course the underlying content itself, it needs to be high quality. Um, you know, uh microphone is more important than video. Uh I think that audio quality uh as a YouTuber is is the most important thing. Um if someone's listening to something that that is fuzzy or there's fans in the background or too much echo, they're there it just is so unpleasant. It doesn't matter. Um so I I think I think the the underlying quality is really important. Uh and then titles and thumbnails. Like and I'm sure you guys push this all the time, but that is I I mean I look at it always as uh titles get you impressions, right? Um so uh using keywords, um not too much, but trying to hit that, you know, you know, uh uh yeah, what would it be like? Um, you know, this game is just like GTA 6, right? But it's not GTA 6, but you got GTA 6 in there, and now you're gonna get the impressions of GTA 6. Um and then you need that thumbnail to to actually get the click. Um titles and thumbnails, if you don't have if you finish a video and you're like, I don't know what I'm gonna call this, and I can't even think of a thumbnail, just delete it. Like yeah, like if you don't by the end have any idea like of that title and thumbnail, then you wasted your time. Uh because I've I've done that myself and be like, no, no, no, I can make this work, I can make this work, let me try this, and it just doesn't. And I was like, that was so stupid. Um, yeah, titles and thumbnails are so so important. Um and then I I guess also if you're starting, also, um, because this is a long time ago for me to remember, but um connecting with your with your audience, like after you upload, when people show up, show up for them. Like I was really, really big on building that community in the early days. It's impossible now for me to uh respond to every comment. And you don't have to respond to every comment, but like respond to comments, heart comments. There's a reason that YouTube offers those things. Uh, and sometimes people just want that, they just want that heart, they just want uh to be noticed and uh and and listen to the audience when you connect with them, listen to them, take their suggestions. Uh, because yeah, in the beginning, you're building something and you need that back and forth.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I 100% agree. And and also it's fun. That is fun, yeah. Yeah, this is the coolest part of the whole thing is that people that love to watch your content. Um, I guess finally, um I I guess I'm really curious as to what you feel as you know, as YouTube content creators, we can call ourselves artists or content creators, whatever you want to call yourself. I feel like you are more of a long-form guy than shorts or live streaming. Would you agree with that? Yes, 100%. Okay. There are people who have very strong opinions about shorts and what it's done to the viewership, what it's done to society, all these things. What is your hottest take about shorts? My hottest take about shorts.

SPEAKER_01

Well, so I'm not just gonna say shorts. We can go outside of YouTube and we can go reels. We can go reels, we can go TikTok. Man, it's so addicting. Like the the the this algorithm, these algorithms from all of these social media companies, like like like I said, my my wife is a surgeon, and my goodness, she watches a lot of Instagram reels. Like, it's it's crazy. I'm like, and and and me being a long form creator and having been in this space for so long, I don't really watch shorts that much or or any of that. Like when I go to look for something, I don't want to like this is a lot of work, man. Like I just want to sit there and enjoy something, right? Um, but uh yeah, the the shortened attention span and and it's actually why we've had to, well, amongst other reasons, but why we've had to adapt our long form because people expect that 30 seconds that you were talking about before is because of shorts. If they don't get what they're looking for in the 30 seconds, they're out. And it didn't used to be like that. We used to be able to be like, hey guys, uh, we're playing Minecraft today. How are you doing? You guys got yeah, all right, cool. So here's what we're gonna do. Like, nah, that is not gonna work anymore. It's gotta be this, you know, in today's video, da da da da da da da da da da da da da right. And uh because they expect that uh speed and they they or else they're they're not entertained. Um, and you um yeah, I I I'm glad you went shorts and not like, do you think Mr. Beast has ruined YouTube?

SPEAKER_00

I think the hottest take I've gotten from that was from um I interview I just did uh with Mr. Beat, uh, who did collab with Mr. Beast. And uh I said, Well, what's the one thing you have for the takeaway from that? He goes, Well, that it didn't really help my channel at all, it just helped that video, which is very true, which which I thought was great. I was that's a great that's a great comment. But uh yeah. Um anyway, Justin, yes from Think Noodles, if you're new here and you want to see more about Think Noodles, like I said, you listen to audio only podcast, there'll be a link in the show notes to get to the YouTube channel and from the YouTube channel be the link in the description or whatever we do. Uh, I can't thank you enough for all of that you've shared. Again, you have to remember when you've done over 7,000 videos and been doing it for like almost 15 years, you kind of know some stuff, even if you pretend you don't. It's great to hear from someone who literally knows how to make a successful YouTube channel. And if you think he should do a think noodles after dark, make sure you go over to his channel and just flood the comment section with Think Noodles after dark. Maybe we can push it through. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00

Anyway, uh, if you're new here, feel free to hit that subscribe button. And I have another interview for you right here, and we'll see y'all in the next one.