Louis Cole - Fun For Louis

Full transcript: Louis Cole on London Real

6:38 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Louis Cole, the British YouTube personality and filmmaker best known for his daily video blog on the channel Fun For Louis, which documents your life and adventures traveling across the globe. You recently filmed your 1000th vlog, and it built an audience of millions of subscribers on YouTube and Instagram, where your video has been watched hundreds of millions of times. You currently have plans to build an eco treehouse community, and in April, you go on the road with a solving project, a world brainstorming tour to find compassionate problem solvers in Lagos, Dubai, New Delhi, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro.

7:24 Louis, welcome to London Real. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s nice to have you here, and I didn’t know exactly how to start this, and so I was thinking about this idea that I think you can help me with. We recently had an astronaut in here, Chris Hadfield, and he spent 166 days in space.

7:43 Guys that are up there have something they call the overview effect, and when they look at the earth so much, they come back with this new perspective on humanity to a certain extent, because they see that we’re all stuck on this rock together. When I look at your life, I see that you go to all these places and you’re constantly in contact with all sorts of bits of humanity, like more so than me or most other people. I was wondering if you could tell us from all the stuff you’ve seen if there’s one theme that keeps coming back to you or something that maybe we should know that you know about, I don’t know, how we should treat each other or just like a realization where you’re like, this is obvious to me and I wish the rest of the world knew this thing.

8:24 Okay, an easy question. I think, for me, the thing I have noticed, especially going to countries where they’re quite different from the UK or America, the thing that’s really struck me is that the simple life, the simplicity that a lot of people are living in, and sometimes it’s not by choice, they’re just a more simple society they’re a part of, seems to bring more happiness and more contentment and more fulfillment, and I just feel sometimes the society I’ve grown up in, we’ve often overcomplicated what life’s really about. So, you see, people that may not have a lot of material wealth but they’ve just got great communities, they really genuinely love each other and their neighbors and not just their families and their own little household, but there’s like a much more of a community spirit and I think that’s something that in the developed world that we often claim to have all the answers and we’re striving society and we’re succeeding in so many ways, I think that’s something I’ve noticed often we fail in and it’s something I’ve wanted to come back to in my own life especially coming back here and planning to potentially stay in the UK for a bit longer this year.

9:43 I want to search that bit more, search for that kind of deeper community that we lose, I think. Yeah, that word community is strange because I think sometimes we throw it around but I had a guest in here named Charles Eisenstein one time and he said, Brian, he said, you can’t have a community unless you need the other person and they need you because he had said he moved to like Chicago and he was like, I’m going to build a community in the suburb and he had football parties and barbecues and he was trying to connect with these people but ultimately they didn’t really need each other so it was hard to like build bonds but I’m guessing some of the places you visited like this community, like they do need each other to like exist. Yeah, I think it’s much more entrenched in their thinking as well from a young age.

10:26 There’s a proverb from Africa saying like it takes a whole village to raise a child but we just don’t operate like that in the UK and if you’re visiting America, often you’re very kind of you might have occasional, you know, even if I think about my parents they’ve got friends that they might see every couple of weeks for a drink or over for dinner but generally it’s just the household, you go off from work and it’s the typical nine to five kind of picture and I think just being able to travel the world and have the privilege of visiting different cultures realizing, huh, there’s totally different ways to live and there’s totally different ways to interact with those around you and that’s something I think we’ve definitely lost and I think even back if you look probably to our society years ago I think that is something that was more common and now we’ve kind of sculpted the society where we’re more independent we have everything we need at our fingertips it’s all about convenience, it’s all about not even to sometimes leaving your house and just get things delivered there, which I’ve got to admit is great if you can just order things at your house but there is something I think missing or there’s something about society that’s steering us towards a more individual life even technology and stuff, it’s not often a shared experience so yeah, I wonder where it’s heading and how to protect that community Yeah, a lot of technology gets us away from people

11:56 Like even the checkout at Sainsbury, it gets you no human contact like you said, the apps to get your food delivered it’s like you don’t have to talk to anybody I always think about the line in Fight Club where the scenario in Fight Club is he has all the money he lives in this nice apartment and now he needs to connect so much that he has to go to these underground places and punch people and so I feel like sometimes we’ve engineered ourself into not needing the community and then we realize something’s missing in our lives we’ve got to go out and grab them and in cities it’s almost worse because you’re kind of taught don’t talk to strangers Yeah, the amount of people I talk to and they have so much, they have so much but it boils down to the fact that they’re lonely and that’s what’s, I think that’s kind of one of the bad things that’s happened from a lot of the other ways that we’ve kind of evolved as a race I think loneliness is the biggest danger and risk that people are facing social media can sometimes make people feel more alone because that whole thing, it’s more of an illusion I mean I use social media every day all day but I think it can be and I don’t think people are taught the dangers of it and the dangers of getting sucked into the mindset that we can get everything we need and affirmation and connections with people just digitally and I think you can in a way, and I love that I can stay in touch with people all over the world

13:26 From all over the world, like different countries wherever I am, but I definitely treasure that real like sit down, deep conversations I struggle to do that online Yeah, it’s almost like a conundrum, a dichotomy same with us too because all our conversations they’re like people that are here, that are real and then we blast them out on YouTube to everyone you, you actually travel to see and touch new real people and experiences but then it gets scaled up on YouTube so it’s kind of a walking, I don’t know, contradiction you know, in that sense you actually kind of live this life where you don’t have the traditional job you don’t have all these traditional roles so a lot of people see your videos and see everywhere you go but in the background you’re kind of challenging us to look at ourselves and think you know, why do we have a traditional job or a traditional house is that something you think about a lot when you do what you do is to try to put that idea sometimes subtly into people’s minds It’s really interesting I probably, probably in my early 20s had this very distinct phase where I started questioning everything I think it started as a kind of what do you call it, it’s one of those effects that just triggers, it starts off as a little it was almost a little question about something and it just triggered this knock on effect of me questioning everything in my life and this construct I’d grown up believing and the things that I’d been taught

14:56 And having by that stage seen a few other places in the world and realised not everyone does life in the same way I just started questioning everything like do I need to have a 9 to 5 job? do I need this amount of money to be satisfied? do I need to live in a house? all of these things and… You went homeless for a while yourself way before YouTube I was really experimenting with different ways to live how to live, I guess, minimalistically not needing, I kind of just almost challenged myself I wonder how much money I can live on and I think at one stage I was surviving on probably probably less than, I don’t know, like 30 pounds a week it was basically food and I was living in my van and then I’d have to, the only costs were like fuel I often got people, friends, if we were driving somewhere we’d like chip in for fuel and then I’d just buy bulk food which probably wasn’t very good for me but it was an interesting experiment and I went homeless for 3 weeks because I’d travelled to Australia and didn’t have any money I think those things taught me a lot and also made me realise you don’t actually need to do things in the traditional conventional ways that you can try to step out it’s scary for people to think some people would never leave their job they’re in if they hate it because they want a backup plan, they need to know what’s next and I’d say sometimes you’ve just got to it’s the leap of faith isn’t it I know I hate what I’m doing

16:25 I think some people get stuck in that for years before they take the step to go and try something new I don’t know, I think, going back to the question I think probably that journey I’ve been on does naturally come out of my videos in the way that I approach things and think about things just because it’s been my way of thinking for so long and you’ve always lived in squats you’ve kind of befriended homeless people and brought them over you love buses and touring buses across the country you’ve always had a different way of thinking about how to live and what’s with the buses? you went across America in a bus? so it started for years so I bought a mini bus for my 21st birthday and that was just like an 8 seater, like a minivan and we did a little 4 day road trip around Europe as a group of friends and that was the start of this annual kind of birthday trip I started doing so I loved the idea of travelling as a group and being in one vehicle and we set up hammocks in there and we stayed in the van we didn’t stay in the hostels or anything we literally slept, you know, just threw over cushions in sleeping bags and it was great, just roughing it and then after a few years of having the mini bus and often going into London, just driving off randomly finding little adventures and picking up people I started spending some time with some young people that used to just hang out on the street and get in trouble and a lot of my kind of late teenage years and early 20s

18:01 Was more seeing my role as like, oh I need to support young people that I see that are kind of having a bit of a tougher life than me because I think I was privileged to have this amazing kind of upbringing and very supportive and I see other people that haven’t got that support in their life and they end up, I think, just missing out a lot and I don’t know, I just saw myself as wanting to support them and in that I just thought, oh, wouldn’t it be great to have a double decker bus? I can’t remember the first time I thought it, but a double decker bus that could have like, it’s like a lounge, people could hang out in it and you could travel places in it and for years I used to print out like, outlines of buses and sketch ideas of, you know, what we’re going to do inside of it eventually, after years of talking about to everyone someone came forward and said they wanted to fund the idea so it was at a time when I had no money, there was no plan of how to get the money No YouTube channel at this point No, I just kept putting it out there, oh, I want to get a bus I wrote a little vision of what I wanted Anyway, finally got it funded and that was the first step in my kind of slight obsession with buses and then I got this double decker bus and converted it and ended up living on it for like two or three years and in doing that I was doing kind of youth work all over London and Surrey and yeah, it was amazing

19:25 At one point the police, well the police ended up renting it from me to do outreach work in one of the bad neighbourhoods in London and I used to, yeah, one time some police came on the bus and they said this is the most effective project we’ve ever seen running because all the kids that would otherwise be just dealing drugs and getting into trouble were just hanging on the bus it was a safe space for them So yeah, that was my, it was me exploring Okay, I don’t need to work traditionally to sustain this lifestyle of renting an apartment or a house and this vicious cycle of trying to sustain that Why didn’t I just build this project that I was very passionate about and it could be somewhere I could live and pour myself into doing good work that I wanted to do So yeah, that was an interesting time And then like you said, I think a few years after that we ended up as one of the annual kind of trips We bought a school bus on eBay near New York and we ended up doing this 9,000 mile three week tour of the States and ended up in Alaska And I’m actually, it’s funny you mention it because I’m trying to track down the school bus that we ended up leaving in Anchorage We sold it to someone who then sold it to someone else who then sold it to someone else and we’re trying to track it down because the big vision at some stage would be to fly back out to Anchorage ship the bus to Russia and see if we can drive it back to London

20:56 So that’s definitely in the pipeline at some stage You have crazy ideas How much does a bus cost? British or American? The double decker bus I bought originally was I think about £12,000 But the school bus I bought in the States was only $2,500 and obviously it was just a standard school bus but when 15 of us flew out there and piled into this bus it was like $2,500 between 15 people was nothing for a vehicle to travel in and stay in And it ran, no problem Yeah, we had a few mechanical problems but again, because we had so many people it was easy to pay for little repairs or things we needed to do on the way because when you travel with that big group it’s easy just to split, throw in 20 bucks each and you’re good to go again Do you think that putting ideas out there gets things manifested?

21:48 Like as you said, you kept talking about this idea of the bus I mean, are you a believer that if you talk about things that sometimes they can happen? Yeah, so… A la the secret Well, yeah, exactly Well, I only discovered the secret and the concept of that You know, way after It was like when I was living on the bus and I was like, huh I’d be doing this And I was like, this is, yeah, this makes sense to me This makes a lot of sense This is what I’ve always done So it just, yeah, it made total sense That putting out speaking what you want to happen can kind of manifest it into reality And I don’t know whether that’s some kind of I don’t know whether that’s…

22:27 I don’t know how that happens Sometimes it might just be that people hear it a lot And I don’t know whether you’re actually willing it to happen Or I don’t know the process All I know is I’ve found it to be true in my life That the more you focus on something that you want to see happen Yeah, it tends to happen Something happens Something gets you there, you know? Yeah, people need a vision A vision is how anything happens You have a deep sense of community It seems like that’s really important to you I know you went to New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina Is that something that your parents taught you? Or is that something that’s just something inside of you That you always were thinking about other people Because when I was in my teens and in my 20s I was just thinking about me I was just trying to do this for me and do that for me I don’t see a lot of younger people That are already thinking about getting people off the streets Yeah, I guess it probably all started from kind of more of a church upbringing And having that community in my life And because of that as well, my parents…

23:28 They did have some close friends And in the town I grew up in, I had some friends of my age That I’m still very close friends with So I think I just had a strong friendship group That I guess initially was from like a church connection But having people that I guess are on a similar wavelength to you In the way you think and what you believe I think that helped a lot I felt a very strong sense of community But then I guess part of me wanting to… I’ve always felt like I’m a bit of a rebel But the word rebel You often think of as rebellion As people rebelling against their parents And going off the rails and just losing it But for me it was like the opposite Because I saw a lot of people doing that Oh, the normal thing to do is like Have a crazy teenage years and just go off and disobey Or just kind of kick against society But I kind of almost saw it switch Society is this thing that’s pulling me to just You know, screw everyone else I’m just going to go out and just pleasure seek And I kind of almost rebelled against that So it’s like switched back around And I was like, oh, I actually want to…

24:50 I don’t want to be that guy I see that and it just doesn’t interest me And I didn’t see many people actually stepping out And being like, I want to do things differently I want to deliberately choose to do things differently And one of those things I guess is trying to put others first a bit more And not try and just, you know, try and be generous And kick against the society I’ve grown up in Which does kind of teach you to be self-focused And succeed for yourself And it’s not a community-driven society, so… The natural rebellion is to kind of get in trouble, start fights, drink too much Yeah, all that And you were kind of like, no, no I’m going to question the whole basis of this whole game And see if I can try to change it up And I hated the idea of being influenced Whether that’s peer pressure or just society conditioning To believe and live a certain way And even if that’s with my parents bringing me up with a certain faith Like, I really questioned a lot of that And found my own journey And I think it goes to that thing I was saying in my early 20s Of questioning everything And yeah, it was just questioning everything I’d be conditioned to believe And I think I was always looking for ways to Oh, yeah, I don’t agree with that I want to try this So let’s push it Yeah, let’s test that For people that don’t know much about you What would be, say, the craziest week of your life in the last year And could you just describe roughly some of the things that might make up a crazy week for you

26:20 Because I think people don’t know the kind of things you do do Or the kind of things that makes up one of your best weeks Oh, let me think I mean, there’s been a number of times in the last year That I’ve found myself in three or four continents in a week Like, from traveling So other than the intensity of traveling, I’ve sometimes found myself in Why travel, by the way? Why? Because you could do crazy things You did a lot of fascinating button-pushing things when you were still in the UK Why travel?

26:57 And why be in so many different places over a short period of time? It’s a good question I think, going back to this story of, throughout my 20s, questioning Doing these trips with friends We’d often think, okay, what’s the next destination? What’s the next challenge? What’s the next traveling thing we’re going to do? So we went from starting to do a few countries in Europe The next year we drove to Morocco and North Africa I mean, that was crazy We didn’t even know what was going to happen when we crossed from Spain into Morocco Like, suddenly there’s people riding around in camels And it’s just insane, this kind of Arab culture The next year, I can’t even remember what we did And then we ended up catching a train from London all the way to Beijing and China And we stopped in Moscow for a few days And stayed on those, I think, six days in a train from Moscow to Beijing With all our friends just piled into these little cabins So it was always trying to search for the next adventure to experience together And I think when I stumbled into this whole YouTube thing And realized, oh, now I’ve got the resources and freedom to do anything and go anywhere I guess I just started thinking, well, let’s start exploring the world more And I think by that point as well, I’ve done quite a bit of travelling And I’ve built up some connections in different places in the world So I had friends in the US, Australia, South Africa

28:30 So I started, you know, they’re often places I go back to And then I also try and explore new places And I guess it becomes a bit of an addiction And I definitely have a question this year Maybe at some point I’m travelling too fast-paced Because you almost don’t have time to process things Because you’re whizzing in and out of places before Your feet have barely touched the ground And you’re like, next place And I think as well because I’m now just getting Undated by opportunities to do things Like constantly, oh, you know, there’s an opportunity to do this This, this, I’m having to pick things carefully now And also in there, really be intentional about, okay, I really want to do this So recently I got back from Kenya And I’ve had that in the calendar for a while As this is my friend’s charity project And I really want to go out and be a part of and document and experience So I could book out my entire year now If I took every opportunity that came in I was invited out to South by Southwest to do a panel in Austin And part of me is like, I’m watching all these things happen there I’m like, oh, I just, you know, I think I have FOMO, the fear of missing out And I’m just, sometimes I’m like, I should have gone, I should have gone to South by Southwest But now I’m just like, I really made this promise to myself, I’m going to stay I mean, I can’t because my passport’s in the Nigerian embassy right now But I’ve made this promise to myself to stay in the UK this month

29:52 I want to stay, I’m going to turn down anything So it is, yeah, it’s interesting It’s a weird problem to have that I’m having too many opportunities I’m having to turn them down Right And not many people can relate to that And travel itself can be a bit of a drug, you think, as in like Because I guess if you’re so busy focused on where’s next, where’s next, new people, new things I guess you don’t have to really look inside yourself But then again, there’s so many great things about traveling So is that something you think about? So, yeah, I think the challenge I’ve been dealing with is With a pace I’ve been keeping up with Am I really giving myself the headspace to dream and to plan and to be more conscious and more present And I think at times I am not, I think at times I am very caught up in where I am How am I going to document this in a beautiful way and share it And then the next morning roll over again, boom, boom, boom And then recently I’m in a new relationship, I’ve got a girlfriend And that’s a whole other thing, quite a new thing to my life I’ve been single for so many years and suddenly Oh, I’ve now got this important person in my life that I care about And I need to give time to her and attention to her And suddenly I’m like, some juggling, exploring new places, traveling at the speed I have Been filming it all, editing every day, spending quality time And then I have found myself not having any headspace

31:20 So that’s my recent journey, the last couple of weeks is like I need to slow down I need to make that an important thing Because otherwise I’m just going to get swept up into this wave And it’s just going to direct me rather than me being intentional And be like, this is what I want to be doing And for people that don’t know, how many different cities would you usually be in in like a year? Like roughly what’s this pace like?

31:45 I haven’t counted, but I’m probably in a different country every week I think that’s probably, it’s all, yeah, probably every week or every other week And yeah, I haven’t, I think I’ve started now saying, okay, if I’m going to be, I was going to be in Guatemala for like two days And then I said, no, let’s fly in a few days before that just to give, Because sometimes it’s just adjusting to jet lag Because you fly, I flew from South Africa in February, I flew from South Africa to Guatemala And yeah, I needed to adjust, that’s a massive jet lag thing Like, you know, you need to get on the time zone and then you’re capable of operating So I’ve tried to space it out a bit more, but at times it’s very fast And biggest memories from last year, like this happened, this happened, this happened Is it like, you know, paragliding adventures or is it sometimes?

32:45 It’s less of extreme sports because those are very fun in the moment, they’re pleasurable activities But I think it’s more of the experiences where it provokes a bit of a deeper emotion, A connection with someone Oh, let me think, put me on the spot So I think I really enjoyed where to even start I mean, I guess I’ll work back from in the last month I had a very meaningful trip in Kenya Do you mean this year as in the start of 2016 or in the last year? I guess any period you think Okay, well, let’s do this year because I almost forget sometimes I’d struggle to talk you through the year last year I literally would need to pull out my Instagram Oh yeah, I forgot about that one Pull out the YouTube videos So 2016, yeah, started in, had some really quality time with my family in Malaysia And I often don’t get to see my family, so I flew them out for a family holiday over Christmas and New Years And that was really amazing to be able to do that for my parents and sister And my mum actually said that was the best holiday she’s ever had So for me, that was really good family time And then jet over to New Zealand, spent some time with my girlfriend, visited some friends there Again, that was quality time, experienced a lot of beautiful things in the world I’ve even forgotten where we’ve been Again, I think I went back to South Africa Like you said, a lot of my kind of passion isn’t just travelling and experiencing new places, but it’s the community

34:36 So I often choose destinations or trips or projects that involve people that I care about And that I can be working with and collaborating with and doing things with So I spent some time with some friends in South Africa The recent trip that I just got back from was awesome because it was a group of people from London that I’ve known for years One guy that I’ve been working, I was working in a charity for back 10 years ago And they’ve been supporting a local charity in Kenya for 10 years I went out the first time in 2007 So almost 10 years, this has been a project I’ve been going back to rather than just landing in this new environment Which I often like doing, but this was like there was some deeper, longer term investment that means something to me And seeing how this project’s grown, being able to shed light on it with my channel, which is something I’m passionate about So as well as inspiring people to travel and bang, bang, bang, destination, destination, paragliding As well as all that inspiration for getting out there and living the adventure To be able to show something a bit more meaningful and deeper and there’s a bit of a bigger story here And the project’s mainly about this orphanage that was set up And a lot of the kids that end up on the street in this town called Nakuru in Kenya, that’s the main project They get, I guess, brought into this orphanage and then put into school and all of this

36:14 It just opens up this amazing opportunity for them to go from literally living in the gutter to, with their parents So having abandoned them or died, to being able to go to university, potentially, you know, do anything with their lives And they see that, to see that hope in someone and even to get a glimpse of being there for a week Which still isn’t actually a long time to visit a project like that But to see that for me, that’s way more fulfilling to be able to share those stories And inspire people that there’s more going on, there’s a bigger picture It kind of bursts your bubble, I think sometimes in our society we can get very caught up in our own troubles and our own problems And they have that joke like first world problems where you end up getting really angry and frustrated And I find myself doing it and I have to have a reality check and I’m like, I can’t believe I’m allowing this thought to anger me or to frustrate me If I step back and get perspective, so I think it’s trips like that that give me perspective Make me realise how amazing, the amazing opportunities I’ve had in my life and the position I’ve come from, it almost seems unfair But then to be able to be like, okay, I want to use, I feel like I’ve been given this opportunity to do something great And to inspire people to do things great with their lives I don’t know, it’s quite a long-winded answer but I’d say those are the trips that mean the most to me, that impact me the most

37:50 And I enjoy sharing the most with my audience Yeah, no that makes sense Tell me about this thing called YouTube If there was an alien that landed on Earth and they knew nothing about what we do here And you had to explain to them, first of all, what YouTube is and how it changed your life What would you tell them, and I’ll preface this with this because it changed my life And it’s weird because you’re living your life, I’m living my life And yet it’s almost like having this kind of weird megaphone on your life And even if I never meet anyone that watched my stuff, it affects the way I behave Because I know it’s going out there and I feel responsibility to these people And like I said, even if I never meet them, it still changes the way I act And I like to think I act in a better way maybe because of that But again, back to you, how would you explain this thing and then how has it changed your life Okay, so an alien lands I’d explain firstly, I guess, the internet Explain that we’ve got this population around the globe that is scattered geographically And that we’ve built technology to communicate But that’s rapidly accelerated in its advancement over the last even 10 years, 20 years It’s now the stage where we’re sharing content and videos and being able to communicate that way Traditionally, a lot of communication or learnings been done through television Or I guess scheduled broadcasting that’s controlled by big corporations

39:29 YouTube has suddenly changed everything And given anyone with access to the internet a potential to have their own platform To globally communicate with anyone else that’s connected to the internet It’s suddenly taken the power, in my opinion, out of those big corporations and companies and production people So they were choosing the content and choosing the message Suddenly, anyone with any message that people want to hear can be heard And that has changed my life because I guess I wasn’t aware I had this amazing message to share It’s challenged me as the platform’s grown or the audience has grown It’s challenged me to think, okay, well, what do I want to share? And I’ve always had this inner kind of want to change the world in a positive way And do something that’s remembered in history Not necessarily like, oh, wasn’t Louis great? He did great things But more like I just want to be able to, at the end of my life, say I’ve positively impacted the world Whether I was recognised or not, it’s not as important The fact that I can spread something that changes people’s lives positively So yeah, I think the way it’s changed my life is it constantly challenges me to live better To be a more positive example, to know and then act upon the realisation that I am a role model And it just, yeah, I guess it’s this interesting thing where I’m trying to share my life as it’s unfolding And I don’t know often what’s going to happen next or the direction it’s going to happen in

41:23 It’s a constant experiment. How much do I share? How honest do I share these thoughts? If I’m feeling sad, do people care? If I’m feeling angry about something?

41:35 Are they now tuned in because they want a positive message? Do I want to get too heavy? Is this more of a light, fun thing? All of those things It can become all consuming, I think, especially when you’re sharing your life daily So I’m constantly checking myself, trying to stay grounded And it’s good to have friends outside of the YouTube world to keep me grounded as well When did you decide to do a daily vlog? And for people that don’t understand, what is that commitment really like?

42:07 So something we haven’t talked about yet is the initial entry point into YouTube for me It was a very bizarre one that wasn’t planned out It was me eating weird and bizarre things It was a very extreme part of my life It was always silly and fun, but it captured a lot of attention And that was kind of the initial kind of accidental stumble into this world Then I met a lot of other creators doing all sorts of different content And suddenly I was like, oh, I’ve accidentally opened this door into this world Which I now have access to. What do I want to be doing? I remember asking a few people and one girl I knew just said, oh, why don’t you try making videos every day?

42:56 And I just thought, I don’t think I could do that That sounds boring I remember just thinking that would be so boring if I was to film my life every day Before that it was food for Louis, and you were eating all sorts of crazy things And that was a weekly or bi-monthly thing where it’d be like one episode me sitting down and challenging myself to eat something Goldfish, mice milkshakes Got into a bit of trouble But I mean, it was an essential part of where you are now I’m not ashamed of it, I think I definitely wouldn’t go back to that stage But it was an essential part of my stepping stone to where I’m heading So you were doing that, positive and negative reviews Which you probably embraced both at the time You were part of rebellious at first, saying I can do what I want I think it was Some people look at that phase and they think, what on earth were you doing?

43:53 I don’t think that, I just think I was trying to do things differently I was trying to challenge what we see as acceptable And I think it became interesting to me that there’s a lot of people that will eat animal products, meat out there They don’t connect that with the reality of what that means When people saw me, some of the animals were like live spiders that I’d then eat People were up in arms, outraged that I’d eat a live animal But I was like, all with the goldfish for instance And I probably shouldn’t go into this too much because there was a legal case about it But for me, I didn’t understand the difference between So we’re allowed to fish, we’re allowed to stab that fish to death or hit it on the head Then we’re allowed to eat it, but I’m not allowed to pick it out of the water and eat it If I’m killing it quickly And there was this whole thing, and I was like, this doesn’t make sense to me Because I’ve always seen the connection between I chose to eat meat And I understood what that meant, and it was killing an animal, it was taking the life None of those videos of slaughterhouses shocked me Because I’m like, yeah, that is how animals die It’s interesting now because five or six months ago I’ve actually chosen to stop eating meat I’ve actually gone to a vegan diet, which is hilarious for some people that I was known for eating animals And now I’ve just had this extreme change in life choice

45:24 But yeah, I think part of me liked that, challenging people and saying Well, some people would be like, why can’t you just eat normal food like a Big Mac at McDonald’s And I’m like, do you understand the process to make a Big Mac? Those cows aren’t just, you know, it’s not just this magically transport And people would go into a supermarket and store and happily buy packaged meat But they didn’t want to connect it with, I’ve spoken to so many people that eat meat that would never kill an animal And that’s what I had an issue with in a way I was like, I believe that if you eat meat you should be able to kill an animal And maybe you should take part of the process Yeah, like try it, I think, and I’ve got this video footage I’ve never put online But I went out to Kenya in 2010 and I killed a goat It was a part of a ceremony, my friend was getting married and the village wanted to kill this goat And none of the British people with me wanted to do it So I opted and it was a harrowing experience I mean, I was willing to do it because I was like, I eat meat, I had eaten the goat before But yeah, it was bizarre and will always stick with me How graphic and weird it was to take an animal’s life It was cathartic in some way I hear people that go and hunt deers when they shoot the animal They almost have this like spiritual connection And when they dress the animal and then later eat it They almost have respect for it more

46:47 And respect for everything more around them after they do that I know that sounds strange, but I’ve heard that a few times Yeah, well, the experience, I’m trying to figure out how much to share here But I slit the animal’s throat I literally saw the life drain out of it It was staring me in the eye And I had my hand over its mouth So I could feel the breath just go, go and then gone And it was weird having this killing of another being And seeing the life drain out of it And it was like a very intense experience that will always stay with me And I don’t think I’d do that again And maybe that would start the process of thinking, okay, I didn’t enjoy that And I can’t see how someone would enjoy that process It does make you, it is the respect thing You’re like, whoa, like, you know, this is intense And it is weird seeing, I guess, kind of production farming And how kind of like blasé it is If I was to eat me, I would be of the opinion that there is something almost spiritual about it And traditionally, yeah, like you said, the way that animals have been hunted It’s a bit more respectful than I guess what we’ve turned it into But anyway, I don’t want to go on a long train about that, but it is interesting The goldfish thing is fascinating Because I saw all the goldfish when I was at university I did it, so they can come after me But, you know, it is funny because it’s like, well, you can kill it here Or someone else can kill it

48:19 Or you can kill it in your mouth It’s like, it is a little… So I just remember literally having to pull out laws And it went to court, like it was an issue that… And it was, yeah So anyway, that was the whole phase that got me into YouTube I forget what the original question was How did I get into daily vlogging? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly So there was that whole journey It was really interesting I think partly there was a motive of wanting to challenge people But then I realized, is this the message I want to communicate?

48:47 I’ve got hundreds of thousands at that point of people watching me, listening Millions of views on these videos that went viral People recognizing me in the street Ah, you’re the guy that ate the spider, whatever I’m like, hmm And I remember someone said, you’ve ruined your life You are forever now going to be that guy You’ve branded yourself as that guy And you’re never going to escape it And then I was like, no, I was like, I am I’m going to rebrand myself So that’s what I wanted to do So I’m going to rebrand myself And I remember the moment that my Fun For Louis channel overtook the subscribers on my Food For Louis channel And it’s this real moment of like, I’ve successfully built a bigger audience Sharing my day-to-day life and thoughts And a bit of a deeper, like, showing my life in a deeper way Than this people just think I’m a literal psychopath And so Fun For Louis was born Daily vlogging, you made a commitment, what, three years ago?

49:48 Three and a quarter years ago Yeah, about that And you’re like, I’m going to do this at the time Not a lot of people doing daily vlogs Smaller community Yeah, there’s a handful of people Probably not many travelers at all doing that No And to be fair, the other interesting thing is I hadn’t watched anyone’s daily videos I didn’t base my format or way of doing it on the fact that At the time, I hadn’t really watched much YouTube I hadn’t got into the community I wasn’t like an avid viewer A lot of people get into it because, you know, the amount of people say Oh, I’ve been inspired to start daily videos from watching yours But that wasn’t the case for me I just, someone suggested it I thought, oh, that’s interesting I didn’t really do much research I just thought, well, let’s start You know, I’ve done a couple of travel videos before for fun with friends I was like, let’s just start, you know, filming and see what happens And the rest was history How were the first, you know, 100 episodes?

50:40 I actually watched some the other day I looked back and they’re very fast They were like four minutes long Yeah, because now you’ve got 10 minutes Yeah, they were like me I’d say a sentence And then it would cut to the next scene I’d be like, oh, we’ve arrived here Cut, blah, blah, blah, do that It would be like short montage, 20 seconds And I was just like, whoa, bam It’s like too fast for me I watched it back now I was like, what was I thinking like this? And for some people, maybe they want that But I’ve realized extending the time And not putting the pressure to do a choppy video You probably felt that way Because you didn’t know if your life was interesting enough Yeah, I know Now you know what it is You’re like, we can just be a little more normal And also, when you only film a few short clips It’s quite a bit faster to edit Now I’ve got, you know, last night I must have filmed half an hour of poetry Which I’ve tried to cut down to I think now to like a minute I don’t often do that I just thought it was worth filming Or in case there’s some cool bits But now I take a lot more time over the edit And I might want to talk a bit of monologue to camera For two minutes, three minutes about something I’ve been thinking about Or what I’m doing And I think people enjoy seeing that part of my life So it’s not this high-energy montage all the time What does it take to do a daily vlog?

51:57 I mean, you know, I’ve done some editing in my time And some filming And that’s an arduous process Let alone doing it on a 24-hour cycle You know, for anyone who wants to do this What do you tell them? Stay away from this? I would say Just be aware I think a lot of people watch my videos And they’re like, you’ve got the easiest life And I’m like Easy’s not the word There’s amazing opportunities It’s very fun It’s an amazing life that I’m very grateful to have And sometimes I get to go to beautiful places And relax places But I do There’s almost a behind-the-scenes of a vlog Where I am sitting at a laptop every night I’ve often fell asleep editing Last night it was probably 4am And I decided, I’m going to stop editing I’m not going to finish the video I’m going to work on that Tomorrow I’m going to try and get enough sleep Fighting to get enough sleep’s been a very hard part of my life For the last three years And I’ve realised it’s actually important to protect that Because you can burn out very quickly When you sleep’s the last thing on your priority list

53:17 It’s just a constant juggling Wanting to create the best content you can But being realistic about it I can only do something that’s going to take me two, three hours to edit When I do elaborate days with multiple cameras And I do something fun with GoPros And I’ve got a friend filming something I want to use clips from that It can just drag onto a five hour edit And I have to then find time to sleep And then start filming the next day So I would just say, just get ready for your life to change radically Unless you’ve got someone to help you edit And I’ve seen a few daily vloggers and they’re a couple So they can take it in terms of editing And help each other out Because I’m kind of doing it solo It’s been very demanding But the editing is a huge part of the creative process I bet you can tell if someone didn’t edit their video And you can definitely tell if someone did edit their own video Because it rings more true I see your videos and a few others It’s just like, there’s that passion in there It’s like, I’m going to get the best shot I’m going to get that production value That I know it took you an hour to get that shot or something And you can tell the guys that are obsessed and the girls With producing quality content Yeah, it’s an interesting journey as well Because I feel like there’s more and more quality content going on YouTube There’s a lot more creators on there now There’s almost this…

54:49 I mean, people are just subscribing to hundreds of channels So you’re constantly almost battling for your own audience But that’s an interesting arena Because then it’s like, I don’t want to fall too much into the trap Of just creating the most watchable, entertaining content I’d go back to Food for Louis if I wanted to get the most views Because all of those videos got over a million views If I was just doing shocking, clickable content That’s what I do But you want to get the balance between sharing a reality Sharing something meaningful Hopefully something interesting But still being true to yourself Still communicating a message that you want to communicate Even if it’s not the most exciting, the most clickable video And it’s a challenge sometimes Because I’m going to be honest, it’s upset me sometimes When I know I’ve put a lot of effort into a day It’s an amazing message And it just gets half the views of another video of me The videos that do the best, and I don’t get why Is me flying places And I’m like, guys, I’m literally just sitting on a plane There’s no message There’s a few boring shots out the window And that’s it And people love those videos It baffles me sometimes Even three years in, I don’t understand the psychology Of why people watch certain things And why they don’t watch other things All of my videos in Africa, even though it’s the most meaningful content I enjoyed making the most and communicating the most

56:22 Did the worst And I don’t know why Maybe it’s because people don’t want to be challenged every day Maybe they just want to see something light and fun And they don’t want to hear a deep story about someone’s troubles It’s a shame It’s tricky and YouTube’s changing We’ll do the same thing here I’ll have this deep, crazy, heavy, important discussion That we’ll change humanity and no one will watch it And I’ll just be like, I think that’s part of the challenge Of doing daily vlogging or weekly episodes And it just pushes you So you have to double down on that And you have to be in it for the right reasons You have to be in it because you believe what you’re doing makes a difference And it’s an expression of who you are And I think it’s kind of like a sucker test And the people that are just waiting for the views will go do something else I think sometimes How do you think YouTube’s changed in three years?

57:07 You alluded to it a little bit As in, you know, it’s a common YouTuber thing To complain that their subscribers aren’t seeing their videos And so that’s true, but it definitely has changed It definitely has changed I think it’s changed in positive ways and in negative ways I’ve got a lot of friends in the YouTube space And I’ve had in-depth conversations with them I’m trying to think I think, unfortunately, and it’s probably the case with a lot of things That start a bit smaller and more authentic I think a lot of people have built businesses and empires From something that started a bit more authentically It was a bit more just about sharing fun and stories in their own lives And it’s a constant challenge for me It’s like, you know, when I started, I never referred to it as my job I never thought of it as a business I always thought, oh, you know, I’m literally just having fun Living my life and filming it and sharing that It’s just as simple as that But when you start succeeding a bit more, the channel grows You start getting a lot of business offers Like people wanting to work with you You’re earning enough money to think, well, I need to actually Probably start a company just to deal with the finances And all of that And, you know, I now employ an accountant All of that stuff It just suddenly starts changing your mindset And I’ve seen it potentially damage the community a bit Because instead of it being friends, doing something fun together

58:57 And all filming and suddenly everyone’s running their own mini company And maybe that’s just inevitable And maybe that’s not necessarily a negative thing And maybe it can be done in a brilliant way But I think for a lot of people coming into YouTube now as well Maybe they see that potential success And I can be a successful YouTuber And I can earn an income making YouTube videos And I just think it’s a dangerous territory to go into With an outlook of like, oh, it’s about earning the money for me And I’ve given a lot of people advice Don’t start YouTube to try and be a job If it turns out that way, then brilliant But I still like the idea of the platform being what I said originally Was this just amazing place to share, communicate messages That can be seen globally And you’re in control of what you communicate I think if you go in trying to make money from it Then almost by definition you won’t be successful Because you won’t stick through it People won’t fill your message And so I think it’ll probably weed out the people that are just doing that But it does change things Maybe it’s just a necessary evolution And I think it is interesting When I first started YouTube, you needed to apply for a partnership To monetize your videos I didn’t know you could earn money from videos when I first uploaded I wonder how it changes people going into it now If the end goal is I want to earn an income off it And now that it’s so competitive

1:00:39 And there’s so many creators out there Because YouTube essentially went from having a partner program To saying to the whole world Anyone can now monetize their videos It’s a great thing for them because they take a split They take a share of that money But I think they’re also steering away from the negatives I think they’ve also, YouTube have done well in trying to maintain Some level of connection and community And they’ve built these spaces around the world That are these creator spaces And even my whole family have YouTube channels And even my little sister was in there the other day Helping someone film a music video for my other sister And there is this idea and community spirit Of we still want people to be collaborating And helping each other make videos And encouraging creativity So I do like that as well I think it’s down to people though to identify and be like And protect that Going back to what we started talking about This community I think The loss of community and society Is something I also see in YouTube And in that society And I wonder whether maybe that’s just the goggles I’m looking through Because I’ve identified community as being so important And being something I crave And then realizing and seeing Being very sensitive to when it’s starting to get lost Right now between YouTube and corporate sponsors Your travels are funded, your life is funded And that’s something that works for you Because of the size of your channel

1:02:19 But for someone starting that wouldn’t be practical But you can do that now Yeah, amazingly I’m in that position But like I said I need to constantly kind of Question my motives and question Do I want to just keep on having a free ride And just, I remember when my mentality was If I get offered all these free places to go I’ll just accept them all and I’ll just go everywhere And I can travel the world for the rest of my life For free kind of thing And I think I realized Maybe that’s not actually what I want to be doing Maybe I shouldn’t just be taking opportunities for the sake of it I do feel like I got swept up into this wave And now I’m starting to realize I’ve got a rudder And I can steer myself I don’t just have to be swept around from place to place And something that’s been a new part of my journey Coming back to the UK And some of the things we can talk about now But some of the ideas I’ve got around community And wanting to take what I’ve learned over this last three years Of almost continual travel Meeting amazing people Experiencing incredible stuff, being able to share stuff It’s come back now and think Okay, well, some of the things I want to do is Being able to help other people learn how to live adventurously in their lives How can I help other people travel And have adventures traveling Also, this Solve project How can I be traveling with a purpose So over the next month we’re going to be in April

1:03:54 Traveling with a very clear purpose of connecting with people That, like you said in the intro, are compassionate problem solvers That we can have these jam sessions with Brainstorming ideas of how to change the world in a great way And that should make your travel feel differently As you go into these places to engage kind of for a purpose Exactly, and also I think the amazing thing is We’ll be landing in cities Meeting with people that would have never met each other We’re going to be hosting these little panels These, like, free discussions And the hope is that they will then connect And we’ll leave, even though we’ll be there for one day Maybe then we’ll connect a small community of people That are then, right there in Lagos or Dubai or whatever All wanting to do something positive and change the world There’s something exciting to me Even more exciting than me being able to travel the world next month Is leaving or being a catalyst to spark off these small communities That potentially could then band together and do incredible things So for me, again, it ties in with this whole vision That we need to be way less focused on self-preservation And our own individual success But seeing a broader thing here and being like There’s a world out there that’s full of problems that we need to solve And let’s do that together, let’s collaborate together, let’s find things together And then finally, the other thing that’s on my heart right now

1:05:26 And I’m wanting to come back and I’ve been doing this month Is trying to build this idea around this eco-community An actual physical location, which I haven’t found yet Where is this? So we’ve narrowed it down So I’ve got two of the friends, Dave Erasmus and my other friend Andy Who we’ve grown up together and we’ve always thought outside the box They’re two of the guys I’ve travelled with the most over the years And we’re now finding ourselves in a position where we’ve got a bit of finance And I guess, and we’ve also done projects We’ve done housing stuff together before Where we’ve stayed in the same house and we’ve rented properties together And the idea now for me is, I would love to And I’ve been talking about it for years, is buy some land and start from scratch And think about sustainability, potentially being off the grid entirely And my big thing, I don’t know exactly why But I’d love just to look at how to design and build tree houses And have some tree house retreat It might not be a village It might not be this idea of being this hippy village But the idea of it being a retreat where I can stay a lot of the time when I’m not travelling That can be this beautiful place where we explore By growing our own food or just cutting back some of the technology that we rely on so much I mean, I’m still keen to have internet there and stuff But I wonder whether going a rustic and being in touch with nature

1:07:04 And tuned with nature a bit more, and living a bit more simply Could be very therapeutic, I think And it could be in a great place for people to come to for the weekend If I’ve got friends or family that… It’s an evolving idea but the truth is it’s all quite new And I’ve never bought land before and I don’t know how to do it And we’ve been phoning people all for the last two weeks I’ve been on the phone and searching the internet looking for woodland or forest Within kind of an hour’s drive of London Of London? I was thinking Costa Rica Well no, so the idea long term I would have thought is there’ll be a few bases around the world Because I do see myself as not just being a British citizen but a global citizen And we were even looking at land last year in California But it was very remote And I realised I don’t know anyone near Santa Cruz to come and visit So we found this plot of land me and Dave and it was like I think 12 acres of beautiful forest with redwood trees And there was already cabins on there and there was a platform high up on one of these trees And it was beautiful, it was amazing views But it was an hour’s drive to get to the track And then a half an hour bumpy track ride into the forest It was like the most remote place I’ve ever seen Maybe that’s a good thing Possibly, but we were like no one’s going to come and visit So the idea now is let’s start in the UK I’ve got more resources here, I’ve got more friends that want to get involved

1:08:33 It’s a good starting point and it is going to be tricky with planning permission England’s very tough to like, I’ve been learning those last couple of weeks how to do it all But for me it’s a new challenge, it’s an exciting challenge And I’m excited that I’ve got friends that want to do it with me I think I’ve realised I operate better in a collaboration situation Rather than just like going lone ranger on something And you’ve always kind of questioned your living environment Like in squats and obviously moving around the world Sleeping on buses with people, I mean this is in your core being So this project seems like it resonates with you And if you’re feeling the elevation there must be something to have I mean being in a treehouse, I think this is just my thought I’ll just throw this out there for you But it feels like you have to rely on your community more Because you’re suspended up in the air with these people And it’s almost like you can’t get away from them And you need them even more up in the trees So I’ll just throw that out there Maybe that’s why you’re drawn to it I think a big part as well is there’s something I love about this Connection with a child-like perspective on the world And it’s a very magical thing It’s like, you know, even living on a bus for me It was kind of a magical dream you imagine I never actually watched the movie But there’s this whole like the summer holiday movie Where there’s like Cliff Richard was living in a

1:09:49 Or travelling the UK in a double decker bus And this whole idea of like there’s this kind of quirky Unusual thing that’s like something you’d love to do as a kid But then as you get more and more conditioned and you grow up You’re like, oh, you know, be realistic You’re not going to do that, you know You’re going to settle down And I’ve always pushed against that And people still say to me like, oh, why do you want to Why haven’t you bought a house yet or an apartment And why aren’t you doing it in the normal way? And I’m like, oh, it just doesn’t interest me The idea of building a treehouse project is super exciting I’d love to be able to come back to the UK And go and stay in my treehouse The only problem is it’s going to be very cold I’m going to have to look at ways of heating the treehouse Yeah, that’s tricky here But maybe Costa Rica Yeah, that would be phase two and three Phase two, please I think a five year plan is Yeah, maybe in the US, California Maybe you could do something in Costa Rica It’d be great if you had them around the world Like there’s the hotel chain, the Amman hotel chain There’s like these kind of cool hotels And they have one in Morocco and one here and one there And you could have like the treehouse community With a cool name I got a few questions I have to ask you People want to know a few things First of all, how do you make a great vlog?

1:11:00 That’s a constant challenge, a constant question I started off vlogging just saying I’m just going to document my day to day Sometimes that isn’t very interesting Sometimes the things I think are the least interesting It’s just me at home, you know, doing nothing People seem to love that And I think people like feeling something There’s something relatable So I think there’s something about being relatable People can see themselves in that situation Or they project like, oh, I’d love to try that, experience that But sometimes it’s like, oh, I relate to that I feel like connected So there’s an authentic connection There’s something about just being as real as possible Being able to share Obviously, there’s a disconnect Because you’re holding a camera up And you’re talking to it Even now, three years in I sometimes feel like I can’t be as authentic as It’s easier talking to you than a camera Although I still can’t figure out what I imagine When I talk to the camera I think I imagine I’m talking to a smaller group of people Maybe like five people Whereas in reality, it’s potentially hundreds of thousands of people So I think now I’ve wanted to explore sharing Maybe each day, sharing a specific story And that’s something I’m still trying to do Today, the story is I’ve come here And I’ve met up with my friend Dave But maybe part of it is sharing a message And the more that I clear my headspace I can process what I’m thinking

1:12:32 And be able to communicate a bit of that So it’s a mixture of, I guess, sharing what’s around me Sharing my thoughts And trying to package that as a nice little story That’s visually entertaining and, again, authentic I think that’s probably how it’s summarized And it needs to be visually entertaining And it ultimately is edited And so it’s not a real version of your life It’s not real, real But it also, it can’t be real Otherwise no one would want to watch 24 hours of your life So it’s like, it’s not real But it’s not supposed to be real But then people need to know it’s not real It’s a weird conundrum Do you ever have points where you’re like I don’t want this day of my life to be on camera Or as it’s trained in relationships When people are like, I don’t want this to be on camera And you’re like, well, this is kind of what I do And I have this commitment to myself and to my channel That I do record everything Yeah, so I’ve had to get that balance right I think I’ve now accepted that I don’t necessarily need to vlog every single day I know there’s daily vloggers out there That have got, like, unbroken records of, like, five, six years You know, they never miss a day I’m not going to put that pressure on myself I think I now feel quite comfortable taking, like, a day off a week I’ll sometimes coincide that day to go and visit friends I know aren’t a bigger fan of being filmed Some people feel like there’s a lack of authenticity when I meet them

1:13:53 And I’m filming them as well And then there’s a slight feeling of a conversation staged Or, you know, I’ll do What’s funny is sometimes I’ll say goodbye to someone And then I’ll be like, oh, I didn’t film us saying goodbye So then I’ll say goodbye to them again just for the video And that, it is staged, but it also makes, the vlog makes sense Because otherwise it cuts to me without them And they’re like, oh, where do they go, like But the other day, like, I took two days off It was the last two days I was spending with my girlfriend before she’s gone off to visit a friend And so I didn’t film me saying goodbye to her So it literally went from one vlog where she was there And then two days later, it cuts to me on my own And I had to explain the video Oh, by the way, the reason why Ry is not here anymore Is because I took two days off to have quality time with her So I’ve been trying to balance that over the last three years And I think I’ve realized now is I do need to take time away from the camera That makes sense What do you think of Casey Neistat?

1:14:54 Oh, I love Casey We’re good friends I’ve seen, I was following him a few years ago And seeing the success of him making great content And then making this bold step to go daily And that’s when his channel just blew up And now he’s like, you know, I’d say he’s the number one channel on YouTube He’s not the most subscribed But I think he’s the hottest thing on YouTube right now I think I’m interested to see what happens I’m surprised by his stamina I think his work ethic is way more intense than mine And I think our personality differences are that he’s I think he does work a lot harder And he’s very disciplined And he’ll get up early and go for a five mile run And then work hard I can’t do that Maybe that’s just a slight difference I don’t know whether I’m lazy Or I just enjoy staying up really late at night And then sleeping in in the mornings But I’m really impressed with his dedication to it all But you both still make beautiful daily vlogs You’re both putting in the works Yeah, it’s amazing I feel really excited for him That it’s exploded to the level it has And that he’s getting now the most insane opportunities And yeah, I haven’t caught up with him for a while But I’d love to hear what his plans are now Because I’m guessing stuff’s changed for him a bit Suddenly getting the amount of exposure he has And the influence he’s having And I think his daily videos are getting Like a million views a day now at least

1:16:35 And for me that’s like 10 times bigger interaction Than I’m getting And I guess, and I’ve even said this to him It is hard sometimes You struggle because you’re like There is a comparison thing And it’s not just him I think often with any creators you’re like Oh, I wonder what’s so intriguing and exciting And not just Casey but other creators That get much bigger exposure on their content And it does leave me questioning like Firstly, you’ve got to fight that feeling of jealousy Which I think I’ve managed to do I feel like I’m not a jealous person in general But then even the feeling of needing to compare yourself to others Or needing to measure success by How many views you’re getting on your videos And all of this has been a journey I’ve been through And I’ve talked to a bit about with Casey And he’s like No one knows how this is happening I think he’s very strategic in the way he does things as well But also, like I said before I’m as baffled now as why things do as well as they do And some things don’t do as well as they do And I think he’s definitely hit an amazing streak of making great stuff now And I’m really excited to see what he does next And yeah, I’m just so happy for him Did you inspire him to do daily vlogs?

1:17:58 I think partly I think he would say there’s me and another guy, Ben Brown Who I helped kind of launch his channel And I think he saw how we were creating content And wanting to make beautiful little short films of our days And I think he’s taken a bit of inspiration And then I guess just taking it to the next level But again, I’ve got to remember we’re very different people He’s in Manhattan He’s just a kind of constant go, go, go kind of guy And yeah, it’s great to see where he’s at And see what he’s doing It’s fascinating to see him make that choice Because he started Beam He’s the CEO of that They have VC funding So it’s not like it’s a small operation And they’ve got things to do And then he was like, okay, maybe I can use my YouTube channel to promote Beam But he stopped making a lot of videos And then he realized at some point, wait a second I’m going to do these daily vlogs And by doing that, there’s so much more exposure And therefore more exposure for Beam Of course, you would think it gives him less time to be the CEO of a company I don’t know how he packs it all in He claims to not sleep very much Which he seems to be able to do But I don’t know if you can do that for a year Yeah, I’ve heard criticism that Is this a great example to set Or is he just going to crash and burn at some point And I see occasional times where he’s just like drained And I relate to that I’m like, bro, I feel you Like this daily content stuff’s difficult and tiring

1:19:24 Especially when you do big things in between as well I think he’s, is he done a year yet? He’s probably done a year He’s coming up on it Coming up to a year And I think, I’m just interested to see where he’s at in three years’ time I’m wondering whether he’ll stick at it He probably will Like for me, I know I’ve needed to start putting things in place to stop myself burning out And I’ve realised that there can be an unhealthy level And it can become an obsession And I think Casey’s wise enough not to let that happen too much And I don’t know how he’s even juggling having a kid and his wife And like looking at, you know, spending quality time with them like baffles me That’s content, that’s how he does it Yeah, yeah, yeah That’s it But yeah, no, I think you’re realising you have to say no to some things And also you can get addicted to the publish schedule, the this, the views, and it can all become crazy I mean, sometimes it’s a little crazy here Just doing the next and then the next and then the next And sometimes you’ve got to wonder, well, why are we doing this again?

1:20:25 And take a step back and try to figure it out I guess you’re spending some time now in the UK And you’re planning your year accordingly Yeah So around the Solvy project And then, like you said, choosing what you want to do It’s so easy to get tunnel visioned It’s so easy to, like, I love stats I just love stats It’s so easy to get a bit too distracted by, you know, I’ll check, like, my growth of my channel And the views I’m getting on videos And, you know, if it’s dropping I start thinking, like, why? And, you know, oh no, like And I think I just lose perspective sometimes And I think that’s something I’ve constantly got to fight And that would be my advice to anyone creating on YouTube Is don’t get too caught up in just being motivated or directed by the wrong things And I’ve come to the realisation And it’s something I still struggle with But I don’t want to find my identity and feeling of success In, you know, is my YouTube channel doing as well, numbers-wise, as it was last month or the month before I think I’ve got quite good at not comparing myself too much with other people’s stats But even my own measure of success, looking back a year and seeing, like, oh, you know, I like the graphs And seeing, you know, I guess if you’re seeing growth in something And I’ve realised now that isn’t the only thing I’m building I’m not just trying to build numbers and audience Is there something a bit deeper I’m trying to build?

1:22:02 Is there a quality and a message that I’m trying to convey that isn’t necessarily, like I said before, the most clickable, watchable videos And I think being back now and slowing down a bit and getting some headspace I think the next phase that I’m moving into is one of building more deliberately and intentionally building other things Like building community, literally building treehouses And building on projects and stuff, rather than just building a big collection of videos and memories and travel experiences Which have all been great, but now thinking, OK, what can I do with those? And how can I build something for other people as well? Like, how can I support people doing more things?

1:22:53 YouTube is great on metrics, they got views, now they’re pushing, you know, minutes watched, durations But like, there’s no metric for connection, there’s no metric for affecting other people’s lives And like, yeah, I just I tried to only look at those things like once a week or once every two weeks Because like, especially for us, we put out long-form content So I remember I was at YouTube and someone said long-form content And I raised my hand and said, what’s long-form content? At the time, we had been making 90-minute videos, hour-long videos And they were like, anything over six minutes And I was just like, OK, so we’re playing a completely different game And yet we had a big summit meeting on the weekend We had 200 people come from around the world and be in the same room And they had watched all these shows and all these meaningful conversations And they changed people’s lives, someone said And it’s hard to measure that, though, when you’re on the YouTube dashboard And you’re like, oh, I don’t have as many subs this month as last month So it’s important not to get too obsessed Oh, it really is Yeah, I’d say it can be dangerous I think it can really damage your perspective And I’d say that’s why it’s important And I try and have those people in my life that can pull me out of those You know, just snap out of it Look, this is the reality of the situation Don’t get too drawn in to like, oh no, my numbers are down this month

1:24:14 But yeah, it’s kind of refreshing when you do get that kind of realization And it goes back to that whole first world problem thing I was explaining it, I met her up with a friend this morning And she’s not involved with YouTube at all And I was like, genuinely, something that’s bothered me And a problem that I’d say I have is when I’m like, You know, last month I got 8 million views This month I only got 5 million views She’s like, found it hilarious And then when I see myself saying it, I’m like, oh yeah, that is hilarious How can that be a problem? It’s just a funny situation And it’s all relative, I think But I think the important thing, whatever situation you find yourself in If you just step back and see a broader perspective of what’s going on in your life And in the world, I think it suddenly kind of snaps you out of getting too focused in on issues or feelings What do you tell people when they ask you about your carbon footprint Because you do a lot of travel So what is your take on that?

1:25:18 It’s a great question I think this is the journey now of firstly changing my diet And that was very conscious thing about, okay, I want to be having a positive effect on the world around me I watched this documentary, Cowspiracy Which literally overnight I went from eating meat every meal To just being clean cut up, I’m going to stop Partly because I know I’m running up the big carbon footprint with the amount of flying Maybe part of me feels this like having this realisation my whole life I’ve been living lavishly with no real concern about the effects I’m having on the world and the bigger picture Realising now I have hundreds of thousands of people’s eyes on what I’m doing And setting an example And then I thought, well, the diet is something I can change And realising I think the meat industry from what I hear is actually a bigger problem than the transport industry If I could look at alternative ways of travelling, I would But I just don’t think they exist, I think you’ve got to fly places There’s options to offset my carbon footprint and pay towards planting trees I know there’s a few schemes out there, that’s something I’ve looked into But yeah, I think it’s a very valid question I think I do get criticised occasionally Sometimes people think I’m a hypocrite because you’re like, oh, you want to stop eating meat to save the environment But you’re flying every week Yeah, that’s valid, but at least I’m trying to counterbalance it a little bit

1:26:59 But I’d love more if there’s people that could give advice on that I’d love to hear ways to tackle that I think the answer isn’t for me to stay put and stop travelling places Although that is partly what I want to start doing anyway, it’s like travelling less But yeah, I don’t know what the options are How has the veganism been going and the reaction from people, and is this something you’re going to stick with? I’m sticking with it for the moment I’ve realised a few things The vegan community, as well as being very accepting and loving when I first made the announcement I think like any community of people, there’s some extremists in it I’ve had a bit of hate and felt attacked when I maybe make choices that aren’t fully vegan And also I think there’s a danger to it Not just being a lifestyle choice, but it can be seen as a bit of a cult I’d say it feels like I’ve almost stumbled into this religion and I’ve met people that And it makes sense, people really connect over this stuff and it’s a real deep thing It isn’t just a diet choice, it’s a much deeper thing than that And people choose that for different reasons as well And I think for me it was initially an environmental thing I do think I’d stick with it I sometimes hesitate to label myself a vegan because it comes along with In the same way if you label yourself a Christian or something, it comes with a lot of connotations Like all bad experiences with people

1:28:44 I’ve had friends, I’ve got a friend who’s a bodybuilder And actually a competitive eater on YouTube Makes videos, openly will eat animal based food And then unfortunately he got cancer And he got a tremendous amount of hate and horrible comments from vegans Saying he deserved to get cancer because he ate animals and all this kind of stuff And I instantly wanted to say I do not want to attach myself to this For me it got to come out of love and compassion and wanting to help people make positive choices And I do think society as a whole will slowly transition away from eating meat and dairy I do believe that I think in 50 years from now a lot less people will be eating meat But I don’t think you can make that decision for people It’s been a very personal choice and I’m surrounded by people all day every day that haven’t made that choice And I don’t want to push my decisions on other people Not yet, I’ll give you six more months But yeah, I just don’t want to become a preachy vegan That’s why I’m slightly apprehensive of labeling myself vegan You mentioned religion there, you are a Christian And are you getting more religious as you get older?

1:30:16 How come religious people get such a bad rap? So I grew up very involved with church When I was 14, I made a very conscious decision that yes, I think this is the truth Or the thing that I want to live by, this is a very real thing Rather than just following a set of rules or a belief system It was a very real experience for me Coming into YouTube and realizing And seeing very preachy Christians And seeing a lot of people that would label themselves a Christian Doing very bad things Very unloving things For me, I guess I’ve been on this, my own inner journey of What do I believe about who God is and who Jesus is And for me it’s boiled down to I have shied away from publicly speaking about it a lot Because I don’t want people to feel like I’ve got this ulterior motive And that I want to convert everyone to this thing I believe But when asked, I do speak about it For me, it boils down to love though And I think the message for me is I want to find a place where I can be loving people in the best way I can Loving the world around me and promoting that as a thing we need to be doing for each other People talk about God being love, like God is love And that is like the principle and the basis of my faith And understanding and having felt I’ve experienced God And that’s the message for me, is love And I think a lot of people get caught up on this A lot of messages of fear and condemnation and hate And you’re not living right and judgment

1:32:18 And that’s not who I am That’s not why I sometimes hear people say I’m a Christian and I believe this And they’re wrong and segregation and walls and barriers And because they don’t believe the same as me, I’m going to love them less And I think part of the challenge and something I questioned When I was going through this whole phase of questioning stuff is Am I loving someone with the end goal of them also becoming a Christian And making this similar choice, or am I loving them unconditionally And that’s the challenge for me And that’s what I would love to hope and believe that I want to be doing There’s not an ulterior motive here to convert people to anything It’s just that’s what’s inwardly driving me to want to love people unconditionally And yeah, I’ll share my own experiences and the journey I’ve been on But I don’t want to pretend that that’s going to be the same for everyone I don’t want to say that ultimately people have to believe this exact path that I’ve found to be the truth But it is this, you know, I do shy away from the online debates about it Because it’s an everlasting conversation It’s just a rabbit hole, isn’t it?

1:33:38 Yeah, it’s a rabbit hole you can fall into And so that’s why for me it boils down to love I just want to promote loving people And to be fair, I’d even say it sometimes angers me that people will use the excuse of religion or God or Christianity To divide and bring hatred towards people and condemn them and judge them It just angers me because for me that’s not what it’s about Can I ask you a couple questions about your own personal secrets of your own success? Is there something you figured out years ago where you’re like, If Louis gets asleep and doesn’t wake up before noon that I’m more productive Or if I meditate or I know you stopped drinking when you were 17 Just some things that were just like, man, I’m really glad I figured that out And they make me the person I am today or I’m able to do the things I do These success secrets are only available on the London Real Academy Become a member and get access to live shows, exclusive courses, my webinars, bonus content, meetups, live events, an amazing community, and much, much more Now back to the rest of the show Louis, I always ask everybody that comes here a question at the end I’m going to hit you with it If you could make a call to the 20-year-old, Louis, and give that young man a bit of advice And just really get him on the phone and say, by the way, I’m your future self This one thing I would suggest you do, what would you tell him?

1:35:14 Honestly, I think in this whole journey for me, I may have lost a few things that I had when I was 20 I think I was a little bit more in touch with a deeper compassion and connection with people I think community for me was better back then I think being swept up in this life I’m currently in, I have lost a bit more of that depth of conversation I used to have, on a daily basis, I’d have these kind of conversations like deep, life-changing, chatting about real issues And, you know, there’d be multiple times a week I’d be with people that might be in tears or really getting gritty And I’d feel like things I was doing, it might have been on a micro level But really impacting people’s lives, and it may have just been a couple of friends I was trying to mentor or support And do life together with And I think the advice I’d give myself now would be don’t lose the micro mentality of those That interconnection of close, personal, deep friendships is really important And I think now, for so many years, my head’s been in this macro space of like, I can impact the world, I can change millions of people’s lives But I think I’ve lost, especially in the pace at which I’ve been travelling, I’ve lost the daily, deeper connections with people And I think that’s something that I’m trying to get back to And yeah, I’d just urge myself now, don’t lose that entirely Because that’s the way we evolved as humans, by having these face-to-face, deep interactions with our tribes and stuff like that

1:37:07 And then by doing what you’re doing, it’s hard to, because you’re doing things that scale, you know On that same note, best advice you’ve ever received? There’s various advice, I already talked about the what do you want thing But something I always found funny is I spoke to my mum about this the other day Because we did a video on my channel, like a little chatty Q&A About religion, right? Yeah, but one of the questions was, what’s the best advice my mum has ever given me?

1:37:35 And one of the advice was, don’t bother saving money Now, she remembers it slightly differently, but I always remember that And thinking, yeah, why should I be super careful about, you know I’m not saying people shouldn’t save money, but I think as a teenager and into my 20s, that was very freeing for me And I thought, well, I want to be generous, I want to do things now And I just blew all my money, my first job I had I’m not saying that’s a good approach for the whole life But there’s definitely this freedom in it that I wasn’t trying to protect and hoard this financial security Now, maybe part of that approach, and I never knew then that now I’d be in a much better financial situation Where I am saving money and I’ve still been able to be generous and spend money on things Back then it was either save money or spend money, it wasn’t like I could do both And I remember just blowing most of my paycheck every month on renting this big house That I then could then do things I wanted to, like invite all my friends over And toast meals, and even like, you know, kids in the neighborhood would all just come and like hang out at my house It sounds strange, I was friends with their parents as well But it was this community thing, and I think back then spending that money on building community Was way more important to me than at the end of the two years of having this traditional job where I had a paycheck

1:39:13 Being able to be like, I’m so happy I saved up, you know, 10,000 pounds or whatever No, I just spent it on doing life and I think some people can save money without even knowing why they’re saving it If you’re saving money for a reason, great, but yeah, I’d say that was the best advice Louis says spend all your money Spend all your money on good things, things you want to do, things that you believe in Last part of that question is, you know, to the 20 year old that’s out there watching us Who wants to go to YouTube and start vlogging, you know, who wants to do what you do What advice do you give them? It’s really tough, I think it’s an ever-changing industry I struggle to keep up with what’s happening with it I’d say just check your motives, like we said before Don’t go into a YouTube vlogging career It’s not necessarily going to be a career Don’t start something with the expectation that you’re going to start earning loads of money from it Who knows, it may work out But I think if you’re more interested in it being a platform to make change, to spread an amazing message that you have To share something passionately Or maybe it’s simply to entertain people Maybe you just love putting a smile on people’s faces A lot of my friends don’t make deep thought-provoking content They just want to put a smile on people’s faces That’s great as well Those are great motives I think just check your motives I think you can go into trying to make money

1:40:55 But I don’t think, like you said before, I don’t think you’re going to last long and enjoy it If it’s just this rightless strategize and make it straight away business I think the more exciting thing about YouTube is that you can communicate something meaningful And change people’s lives I’d say go into that expectation that you could be someone that changes people’s lives And maybe it’s not going to be millions, but it could just be one person that watches a video and you meet them And then they’re like, oh, you know, that triggered this whole series of events that changed my life And sometimes it’s just the fact that you’re broadcasting something helps you clean up your own act That was true with me You know, when I pledged to do this show every week, like four years ago, it just, it mean I had to get it together And then I had to do this and I had to find the guests and I had to make it better And at the time, very few people were watching, but it made me do things Yeah, it’s a great outlet for creativity and I think it’s much broader as well I’d say be authentic, be trying to do something different that other people aren’t doing Like I like the idea that there’s such a broad platform, there’s no rules People have started trying to find formulas There’s all these hype things you see pop up and down on YouTube like trends But I think there’s naturally no rules You can kind of, I mean, there’s a couple of rules

1:42:22 There are a couple of rules But in terms of how creative you can be I’d just say it’s exciting I’d just say get creative and use it as that creative outlet for yourself I think, like you said, that it can be therapeutic in creation, in creating something And getting feedback and sharing that It is an art form, I would say video creation and putting stuff on YouTube is definitely an art It can be an art Yeah, and I always look at YouTube as just this amazing distribution platform That just gets the message out there, gets the feedback back And then just think of it as just as that And then someday that might turn into a business and it might not But what it does for that is beautiful And, you know, our show wouldn’t even exist unless it was the way it is I mean, you know, YouTube is kind of fascinating that way Because it’s owned by Google and they’re all kind of like, let’s push everything free out there And, like, if it was any other crafted platform, they might have charged me originally if I put an hour video up And it might have made me put out less content And, funny enough, it would have changed the evolution of London Real But the fact that it was all just broadcast away It just let us just blast everything out there and kind of learn along the way So it’s shaping lives, which is weird, shaping your message, too So it’s fascinating to watch you grow I can’t wait to watch you for the next couple of years

1:43:42 And see what goes next, where the treehouse is, the village Very curious to see what happens with the Solvie project And to see the ideas that you get and see if you’re able to manifest Or if you create these little micro communities and to see what they do Yeah, maybe it turns into something that we didn’t imagine That’s always the best part, you know, when you don’t know So I think that’ll be great and interesting to see what happens with you when you take some time and get some space Because you obviously have a lot of passion So wherever it goes, I feel like there’s been a lot of trends in your life, you know Helping the community, questioning lifestyles, questioning living conditions, what you’re doing So thanks for the messages I think the one thing we’ll leave people with is what do you want, right?