Transcription
What was the kind of like in retrospect worst financial decision that you made?
>> Oh yeah, that's a big one. This is a big one. Oh boy. And how much did it cost you? [laughter]
>> It cost me uh multiple six figures.
>> Okay.
>> Oh no.
>> Multiple six figures. This one uh it was and a big lesson. Possibly the single biggest lesson I've learned in content creation.
>> I'm still salty about it. [laughter]
>> Okay. All right. Buckle up, people.
>> Yeah. This was a show that I had um put two years of work into and a lot of my personal money into um to make for the channel and um not only did not perform well, it crashed the entire channel by over 80%.
>> Oh my god.
>> Oh my god.
>> So it was it was a disaster. It was an absolute disaster. Um and it was because I didn't know these principles of business at the time, but I feel like I had to go through it to learn it. So I was on a huge run. I was making um Asian dad sketches and they were above 10 mil per long form upload. Yeah.
>> Every single upload.
>> They were killer.
>> Um having that momentum, I had the confidence to go, "Oh, 10 million people going to show up every upload.
>> Um if I if I aim big, make a big project, put my whole heart into it, put my money behind it, it's going to become huge." And so I did. I spent two years of my time and I made a show that on paper to everything I understood at the time would be the biggest thing on the planet. I had nine of the biggest Asian creators. I had sets bigger than I've ever done. I had um all these all these increases in quality what I at the time thought would bring me success. And two years later after all that money and all that work, we uploaded it. Yeah. Tanked the channel. It itself performed maybe 10% of my regular uploads and it also dragged every other upload down to about 20% of what we did at the time.
>> It was not just the loss on the production value. It was
>> it was loss across the company. Yeah. Yeah. It tanked the entire company, not just itself.
>> Why do you think it was?
>> Well, I spent the next 6 months studying. I can tell you why.
>> I can tell you why. Uh yeah, I was uh I was really disappointed that the next six month it was the only thing I could focus on. I was like, "How the hell did this happen? Why didn't it work the way I I thought it would?" Um, and I have the answer now. I think I do. What? That show was not a sketch. It was 12 minutes each. It was a script and narrative. It had different characters. It was of a different genre. It was still comedy, but not a sketch, like a three-minute sketch. Um, I did not have my favorite characters in it. I didn't do my famous punchlines. Um it was a it was a new product, a little too new. After after I saw um the plummet, I asked a lot of people and uh I I looked at I asked YouTubers, I asked the audience, I asked consultants, professionals and I think the greatest perspective that made me understand that performance was the audience subscribed for the three minute Stephen E comedy sketch.
>> Yeah,
>> that's why they were there. that's why they clicked in every day. Um, and I delivered a product that was entirely different expecting the same result. So, the the metaphor here that I came up with that just it makes it instantly clear and it makes me look really stupid is I am Apple. I make gadget. No one buys it. Cool. I make computer. Me, cool. I make iPhone. Boom. 100 million people outside my door. They want iPhone 2. I make iPhone 2. Boom. Love it. iPhone 3, love Five and four. Love it. [snorts] And then one day I open my door to the 100 million people outside my door and go, "Guess what? We sell avocado toast now. Light up, [laughter] boys."
>> And then I turn around and go, "Why was my sales down?"
>> That's the perspective I learned. I I made a completely new product that wasn't tested, that did not go through the optimization process. It did not have a fan base, but I didn't know. I expected it to have the same sales as the iPhone.
>> Um, and that messed me up. Yeah,
>> that messed me up big time.
>> I mean, that's super insightful. I think a lot of creators want to branch out. You know, they're getting maybe burnt out on the same format over and over again.
>> Is there like a formula where if you were looking back and doing that again
>> that you could have tweaked that you thought would have given it a better chance of success? Is it like
>> 100%. Yes. 100%. Yeah. That's essentially what we spent the last couple years doing. Um, would I change anything? No, absolutely not. because because that failure is a large part of what makes me me and I wear those failures proudly across my chest. Um I would not be Stephen he if I didn't go through those moments, you know. Um but going forward is a different question and that's the value you guys are looking for. Going forward, should I do another thing like that? Want to get into a new space? Uh like we were talking about the 30-minute episodics. I would do 10% pivots and this I learned from so many companies from like Microsoft their remember their phone release. Apple's practically realizing, oh my god, nobody buys the avocado toast. Let me keep making iPhones. [laughter]
>> Totally.
>> Uh, so now it's about the 10% pivot. If I want to take another um market, then I have to still be me and deliver the Stephen Heath video. The experience
>> has to feel like Stephen He.
>> Yeah. and then give them uh like a 10% addition of something rather than taking away of something. Um and that'll take many many tries. It'll it might do 10 different directions of 10% pivots. I might add 10% in um runtime. I might add it in cast. I might add it in writing. Uh and none of them's not going to work. But if I'm lucky, one of them will work. And that's why I lean in further. Lean in further. And if you look at it like a path where if you turn 10% each time, you're going to end up at a pretty different product. Mhm.
>> That's the way I look at taking new markets now.