0:00 What was your guys's like boring job or whatever you had to do to keep your dream alive? >> Mine was being a tutor. >> Same. >> So, I just So, this is 2000 >> Sorry. Sorry. That's not funny. >> Why is that funny? >> Why? You don't think I could be a tutor? You don't think I could be a tutor? You don't think I could be a tutor, dude? >> [laughter] >> Yeah, punch him. Punch him. Punch him. >> You don't think I could be a tutor? >> No, mine was So, the circumstances were I graduated in 2009, right? This is like right when it was like the Great Recession or whatever, the big housing crash of 2008-2009. Jobs sucked ass. No one knows what the hell they're doing. My one of my roommates, um she had 30 resumes sent out. And I think from those 30, and she was already not valedictorian, what's the other one? Magna ████ laude or something? It's the second one. So, it's pretty good, like 3.7, 3.6 type ████ She got like two interviews, and they were like
0:51 bottom-of-the-barrel for her. So, I'm like, okay, if you're a ████ magna or summa, and I'm ████ not nothing, uh then I'm >> Nothing. I have nothing on my gown. I'm a duma. >> Yeah, I'm a Yeah, I'm a duma, dude. Man, what the hell? I'm like, I don't know. What What What >> You're magna or summa, I'm a duma, man. >> And I And [clears throat] my last year of college, I already fell in love with making content and YouTube and doing that with Joe. So, I was already kind of checked out with like the traditional college corporate route. I'm like, ████ what the hell am I going to do, man? Like, I need to do something that still allow that could pay the bills, but allows for time for me to write and shoot and edit and do whatever. And then I was like, you know what? Maybe the best bet is, uh to be a tutor, cuz I knew that tutors get paid a
1:41 pretty good amount. So, I was lucky enough, I found this job in San Marino. Um it was 25 bucks an hour to start. And I was like, okay, if I do 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, that's 500 bucks. 500 * 4, that's 2 Gs. That's like bare minimum could pay the bills. Then the rest of the day um I could work on skits, produce, write, whatever. And it was the scheduling helped out, too, cuz tutoring doesn't start until school ends. So, I had the whole morning to work. So, it worked out really, really well. So, I ended up uh going there. I'd go there from like 3:00 till like 7:00 or 8:00. And um after that, then Joe would come over and we would write from like 8:00 or 9:00 to 11:00 every single day. Monday through Friday, whatever scripts we wrote, we would film Saturday or Sunday, whether we were sick or not.
2:32 And we we did that for like a whole year. And then the YouTube channel was was enough to kind of start subsidizing and paying for the rest. Now, I was able to quit. >> Did you ever think about going back to your Chinese homie who's a bodybuilder who was selling dildos? >> I didn't know what the hell happened with him. >> But like you would you thought about it for a second. >> like, I need that cash, dude. >> dude. >> That sex toy money. >> You're just like focusing all of your energy on like the future >> academics for this like young kid, and you're like, "Man, I wish I was selling a dildo." >> Yeah, cuz I'm like the lowest What's the lowest hours I can commit to make the most money? And I was making a hell of money with that, dude. >> 1,700 a week selling dildos? >> Yeah. >> That's sick. >> At the time, I would have been like, "Why am I in school again? So, I could get a degree and get paid less than a dildo salesman?" >> And come out of school owing for the degree. >> Yeah, that's a big one. >> That's a sucky one. >> But that was good. It helped me brush up
3:23 on like my algebra, geometry, and algebra two skills again. >> When you were cuz by that time that I knew you, you were fully committed, and you're just like, "This is just like a step This is just a placeholder until JK makes it, right?" But like was there ever moments in your mind of doubt and feeling like, "Oh, but [snorts] what if YouTube doesn't work? Am I going to be a tutor forever?" >> For sure, there's crazy doubt. >> You had those feelings? >> Yeah, I was like, "Okay, we're giving ourselves 1 year to make it." and then I was like, but I'm going to give myself double before I give up on myself. >> Mhm. >> So, I'm going to commit as hard as I can for 1 year and if it doesn't if we don't make it, I'm going to still try to now I'm like, maybe I could try to beg my parents for money or whatever, but I was going to give myself double that time. Cuz I feel like when you when you like
4:13 make it so to speak, there's a couple of boxes you're trying to check off. One, it's like, can I uh make my kid proud? You know, your own kid, the inner inner kid, not your like testicles kid, but your inner kid. >> Your inner [snorts] child. >> Your inner child. Can you make your inner child proud? >> Not your testicle child. >> Yeah, that's Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Then then you're like, and then I want to make my inner adult proud. >> Really, bro. >> So, I was like, JK is making my inner child proud but if I commit 1 year and it doesn't work out, I need to ████ the inner child now and I got to be responsible to myself. >> say it like that? >> Why you got to say it like that? >> got to hear it like that? >> [laughter] >> Why you hear it like that? >> WHAT DO YOU MEAN? >> THAT'S hella true, man. Why you got to hear it like that? No, they going to hear it like that. >> WELL, WHY YOU WANT TO ████ YOUR INNER
5:03 CHILD? >> WHY YOU GOT TO SAY IT LIKE THAT? >> CUZ HE SAID it like that. >> You heard it like that. >> What do you mean by that? >> Why did you repeat it like that? >> to you got to you got to go, "Hey, go away, inner child." >> Kick him out. >> to kick out the inner child. >> Wait, kick him out? What do you mean? Why you got to kick him out? >> You got to >> But you got to make him proud? >> You got to shush him. >> You shush the inner child? [laughter] >> You beat his ████ ass, dude. >> And then you got to be responsible to your inner adult and I'm like, I got to be responsible now. How am I going to pay the bills and live and all the other dreams I have. I want to get married and have a kid and all that stuff. And so, I gave myself like a max 2 years and then that's when the other stuff started coming into play where like, what if we're nurses or what if we're police off >> I remember that. >> Yeah, like that whole brainstorm. >> I'm so glad we didn't get accepted into any police academy. >> But you went for nurses before police officers?
5:53 >> We were just We were just >> Like uh during school. >> Wait, you can get rejected from the police academy? >> Well, we didn't just We just didn't finish the whole process. >> Oh, I see. I see. I see. >> You made it sound so bad, dude. >> I think we pulled out. >> the the part where they wanted to be nurses. [laughter] >> That No, this We didn't graduate yet, though. >> That's an academic barrier, you know what I mean? >> I'm just I'm just saying we've always known they wanted to be police these rascals doing YouTube. >> Imagine these guys are also like you just ████ up, you show up, and then you watch these guys on YouTube, and then you're nurses. >> Cuz low-key it would they would be a good cop team, I think. You guys would be a good cop team. >> Buddy cop movie? >> Like when you guys started What? How old were you guys when you went to the police academy or your attempt at it? >> Oh, we didn't go to the academy. We just >> If we applied, we would have been 22. >> 22? Yeah, 22-year-old version of you guys. I think you guys would be a good cops, dude. >> No, I would have got kicked out for some training day ████ probably.
6:43 >> Yeah. >> Probably smuggling doing the ████ >> Taking money from the drug box. >> Smoking the police evidence. >> [laughter] >> Yo, yo, it's free here, yo. >> Sorry, honestly, you know where my mind was for a second right when you started going there? If there's like a pile of just ████ drug money, and you two are the only cops on site. >> Dude, you know it's gone. >> it, dude. >> I'm like, "What drug money? You guys are tripping." >> No, we got to be smart about it. We seized $10,000. It was ACTUALLY A MILLION. $10,000. >> That's the play, dude. That's the play. >> So you'd actually put a little bit back in? >> You have to You You have to make it a little bit realistic. >> you have to watch out cuz there might be an inside player, you know >> I said you have to make it a little realistic. This guy went from a million to 10,000. [laughter] >> No, we got to figure it out. >> Okay, what was I doing? Let's see. Um The boring stuff is I was doing the regular uh I was a sushi waiter. I
7:34 picked up a restaurant job because it's just the flexible one. That's the one you can get covered for shifts. >> Yep. >> And tips, cash tips, and you want cash because you're trying to pay less taxes cuz at that point you don't give a ████ what the IRS thinks your income is. You can't buy a house, you don't need the credit and and the bank statements to prove anything like that. You can't afford it. So you're just doing whatever that you can do to minimize your expenses and your taxes. But though though I remember there was one thing that I was randomly proud of that this is and it's just because it felt like such a big deal at the time and I was teaching a weekly class in Culver City at this spot called Your Neighborhood Studio back then and I was teaching for I think maybe $20 a class. >> Dance classes? >> Yeah, for like 1 hour. >> So you would drive there just to do that and drive back? >> Yeah, because the opportunity was also
8:24 like while somebody wants me to teach consistently this is just good for me to be like I teach at a studio, I have students, I'm learning how to be a better teacher, you know, like I'm I'm I'm forced to create a routine a combo every week. So even if I'm it sometimes when people are like how do you be a good choreographer? I don't if I don't know how to teach you be an artist and I'll teach you how to be a repetition artist. If you do the same if you choreograph 100 pieces in a year >> Probably going to get pretty good. >> one of them's going to be better than your first one. >> That makes sense. >> You're just going to keep on trying and keep on so I just was like this is worth it in some way but at the end of the day too I'm still going to have 80 bucks at the end of the month. That's my cell phone bill. It's a dub, right? So I but I still needed to like be practical with it. So I found this one guy he worked at like
9:15 at the LAX and he would like throw bags on and stuff like that, you know, but he like liked to take classes and stuff and he always would show up to my ████ because he was just into my style this black kid who was like super into my ████ And then he wanted like tutor training he had class he had cash and he wanted just me to train him. So then I was like all right, well Culver City is hella far so this is what I'll do. I'll train you 1 hour before the class, right? And we used to smoke together, too. I used to just show up with some weed. I'd smoke him out and stuff like that. And then, what I would do in that 1 hour is I would train him cuz he wanted to learn how to choreograph. So, I would let him watch me choreograph the routine that I was about to teach him again an hour later. Woah. And so, I I needed to figure out this whole like system, but he was he was paying me like 40 bucks. >> Yeah. >> to give him this private. So, now I just 3x'd my investment on what I had to do
10:07 without upping anything in terms of extra effort cuz I had to choreograph that routine anyway on my own time. I was already part of the $20 for that week. And I was like, "Oh, ████ Now, with that same one drive, I optimize my time and I made 60 bucks for this 2-hour window. And when you're only getting off of $20 for a class and now you got paid $60, you feel incredible. >> Yeah. Especially when you're starting up. $10 an hour-ish was like a little bit over minimum wage. >> bro. Yeah. >> So, like if that's like 6 hours of work >> Yeah. >> that you did it in two. >> And for you, it's like, "Bro, this is what I love. So, this is like I >> Yeah. So, like four times a week, 60 that's like 280 bucks a month. That changed the entire outcome of my experience. And that like those little wins are actually the biggest things that actually keep you cuz you have
10:57 nothing at that >> Yeah. It made you believe you could do it, right? >> 80 bucks a month to 280 bucks a month and like somebody's also like hype on your ████ And your product's getting better cuz you have a body that is there and the pressure that pushes you faster, I feel [snorts] like I grew in that small little window so much more than like "Oh, you trained at this big camp or you went to this You know, sometimes when you're already like fairly decent, your room for improvement is like you're you're scratching, you know, hoping for something. You're You're You're trying your best to like adopt some version of new lessons going to break the mold of what you've already been doing. But when you're at nothing, ████ any little like little ████ and the balloon's back in the air again, you know? And it's like that that time I I remember feeling so like limitless yet so limited, right? >> your first taste of professional like
11:48 I'm getting paid for my passion. >> Kind of, yeah. That was like that was just me. >> So were when you were serving sushi, were you like, "Man, I'd rather be dancing." >> Oh, 1,000%. >> Damn. >> 1,000%. That was my That was my my mental rule for myself was that any dancing that comes up, I'm going to I do even if it's free. Like go train this dance team in a parking structure, take the opportunity. If you're going to run with this, run with it. The food thing can like that you could do that if you jump on any opportunity. >> Yeah, for real. What kept you going when you had doubt? >> Honestly, I think just my peers, man. I think like I said, I was lucky. Like I I also have like a Mike Song in my corner. When you're watching your actual homie doing the thing, it's so much more graspable and realistic. >> You mean getting paid for what they do?
12:38 >> I'm watching him pack his bag and go to like Slovenia and then come back and I'm watching the class videos and I'm like, I I like I like that. I would like to do that. >> Yeah, that's sick. >> So like let me go make some more YouTube videos like you and you want to be in my video you know like it's so graspable and that's what I feel there's no way I would ever be able to take credit for like personal success because you are so a product of your environment, your circumstances, the generation, the era, the technology afforded to you. Period. If you chose to take advantage of it, cool. Like that's that's all it is, but like we're a product of everything that we're we have available. That's it. >> That's so cool. Don't give up on your dreams, guys. Tell us in the comments below what the hell you working on. What is your grind right now? >> But if you don't have a Mike Song, then just give up, man. Just get a good good money, man.
13:28 >> Call Mike Song. >> I believe in you. Join our Patreon. I'll talk to you. >> Put Mike Song's number right here.
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