0:00 [Music] Welcome back everybody to another thank you for joining us on Patreon episode. Oh yeah. No, it's not Patreon. We can't afford that. This is going on the real tubes. But we're still saying thank you to everybody who subscribes on our Patreon. Thank you so much. And we always appreciate it when you jump in the Discord and submit some questions. This is one by Zamurro. Zamoro and they ask, "If your past self, let's say like 10 years ago or whatever you guys want to fantasize about, could see yourself now, what would they be disappointed and or proud of?" What? He pick the gangster Joe. What if he was looking at you 30 years ago? Yeah. I think he'd be like,
0:51 "Damn, man. You made it, bro." That's pretty real. That's good. Yeah. Thank you. [Applause] He wouldn't be like, "Man, you're a working at a boba shop." Probably. Option number two. Probably. Probably. ████ I think so. That's Joe Mama though. That's Joe Mama. I thought Joe Mama. The one with the Yankee jacket. That one. That one. I think I think I think the part that he I think the part that he'd find lame is I'm not even doing anything like Gus's like fright like I'm not dealing any drugs when I have a great opportunity. I'm not maximizing this. I'm just doing it straight. Oh, I think that you don't have a backdoor business with it. Yeah. It's like that's all you're doing is just selling that. That's it. Like
1:42 you're not doing anything extra. Yeah. Yeah. And I And I think that they I'll be hella judgmental about like you have all this opportunity and you're like wasting it. Yeah, dude. You could be laundering. Yeah, you could be laundering for friends. You could be selling weed out the back or whatever. And I'm just like, yeah, I I don't want to do anything that's stressful. You got no piranha tanks in the back. Feel like 10 years ago, I knew this already, but I would say 15 years ago, me, I would have to explain to him like, "Hey, dude, acting is ████ boring." Oh, wow. Like it's a lot of waiting around and like you don't really get to do it very much either. Like it's very not for us very much. But that's that's you in hindsight. But like if your younger self saw you foresight, would they be like dang like you're not acting anymore? I think so. I think definitely. Yeah. Cuz he just didn't couldn't understand how everything kind of
2:32 changed in that way once you get to do it and then you realize like wow dude this is not what I thought it was. It's not what I wanted it to be. Like that was big. But what about like 10 years ago you were like, "Dang, dude. We're about to get into this crypto thing and then you're like still not a millionaire." You're still not a millionaire. That part that that part is not that's that part's sort of like a sidec car. You know what I mean? A boba shop. I'm speaking from Joel's perspective. I'm speaking from his perspective. Crypto is a side car though. It's like you take a small amount of money and try to turn it into a big amount of money, right? And like that's the fun of it. Like to me it's not like something that you really like you sell your house for or whatever. Like that's not on Wall Street. No way. Like I could never do something like that risky. Like sell your Mini Cooper. But exactly. Like I was selling a 10-year-old car and like I already had to sell it anyway because I'm moving here and like it was just Yeah. I don't
3:22 know. But to me, crypto is about investing in great companies like and for the long haul. It's like the amount of like the amount of time that it takes for like good companies to do what they're going to do will I think does pay off later. But like so some sometimes when it looks bleak is when you should be buying the most. So, I feel I feel good about crypto. So, sounds like a I still love it. Bare market survivor. That's it. You got to go through the the pain to get to the good ████ So, and everyone calls you lucky anyway when when when it all explodes. Yeah. So, I think um 20 to 30 isn't much of a difference between 30 to 40 like Oh, like when you look 10 years back, you mean from now? I think 20s. Really? I feel like 20s you're still like dreamer that but you're dreaming for 10 years. You know what I mean? And then 30 to 40 is like now you're taking
4:13 action but I think it's a rapid life change cuz I think that phase is like you have friends that are either starting families or people that are still living like they're 22 and then it's a huge difference right where like I think the 20's experience it's generally the same. It's like here where like you said like 30s is closer to the 20s and 40s is just kind of off like that. No, like the the 30s to 40 decade. I think there's huge like life changes that are like crazy and then it's more of a diverse experience where at least for me the 20s is like you're still broke for the most of your 20s. You're still around the same type of people. like your world is more here, but then in the 30s your world is more like way
5:04 bigger and then there's different levels of maturity, different stages. So, I don't know. That's that's crazy. I I I understand what you're saying. I see it from a philosophical standpoint the other way around. Really, I feel like in my 20s like uh I was like, "Yo, I'm going to change the world." And then in my 30s, I was like, "Damn, I need to just protect my world." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. So true. Well, that's the other thing, too. We were kind of talking about that before. Like there's a difference between dreaming and applying something. And once you apply it, I think you you can wash out all the things that you're like, "Oh, I didn't want to do that. I do want to do this." You know, you can kind of piece meal together what you want your life to be. Yeah. Yeah. I think the 30s were like the application part and seeing the realities of everything and seeing it play out. Whereas 20s is a lot of
5:56 hypotheticals and then you're um also just testing things and trying things and then you're around other dreamers. But like yeah, I think 20s is pretty exciting cuz it's like new and then you are you are experiencing traveling for the first time and whatever. Yeah. But I think 30s is like now you see all of the actions you made mature and going into different ways. Yeah. And then you have friends that are like popping out multiple kids and then starting families and being like that. And then you have, you know, friends that are just still living and and and living as if like they're immortal and they're 22 still. Mhm. And I'm like seeing that you kind of see like the life choices that people made and where they're going and then like the friend groups changing. And I think in their 20s like everyone's generally the same and it's easy to make
6:46 friends cuz everyone's just has free time to hang out and do drugs together, right? Do you think the 10 years ago you would see yourself now like that differently? Cuz you know like 10 years ago from the age we are now doesn't seem as drastic. What What are you now? 37 38 28. 28 looking at 38. You probably would have thought you had kids by now or some ████ right? That's the biggest thing. Me too. It has nothing to do with career as much because in your 20 in my 28 that I mean that's still like a pretty full adult type of like mentality and I'm still doing the craft that I was doing. What were you doing exactly at 28? What was your exact life? 10 years ago was ABC ABDC. That's when we were doing that. Oh wow. Wow. Yeah. So like for me I was like I had already been dancing for like 20 years or 10 years so so to speak, but that's when like Kinjas like got like when it was like okay. So like
7:37 that was the beginning of a rocket ship of an experience. You think like that 10 years ago person would look at you now and be like, "Holy ████ that went really ████ far." It would be like that went really really ████ far and it's like you clearly made some sort of mistakes clearly but I mean nobody was anticipating a global pandemic type ████ but to see it like in the if you didn't have any context and you just looked in the future you would on the one hand be like dang that went that something went really far but at the same time like what happened with these things how well were you able to visualize the complex at 28 a giant studio Yeah. The fact that you would end up with a Google campus of insane impossible dream. Like if if I still had that today in my 10 year ago self looked at I'd be like you
8:29 are king. You are the man. That's crazy dude cuz like that that was so impossible. I remember the first time even touring Maker. It blew my ████ brains to see like cuz you know coming up with YouTube, you you meet other like creators and everyone's doing things out of their bedroom and stuff and you know some people start having their own studios and then um like a huge inspiration to our downtown office at the time was because we tooured different places and you would be like holy ████ the ceiling is way further than what I thought. It's like an airplane hanger in there. Yeah. And like people know how to like like dream of things, execute on them. It was so ████ mind-blowing. And I think during the 20s is probably like the best time to capitalize on those things cuz you could have that single focus. Like you could have that one passion and you just
9:19 dive 100% deep. You can place a pretty big bet on yourself. You don't have too much real life coming at you versus I feel like in your 30s you start having like life coming at you, reality checks, and then you're just like, "Oh, is this important? Is that important? And it's more like less like how do I have the sickest sand castle versus like how do I just have a sand castle that doesn't get washed away by waves? That's a good Yeah, that's a really good analy. That's true. Cuz in your 20s, you have hell of time to just do your craft every day and all your friends have all your friends to do, too. And everyone around your same age, they're just like down. And then that's when you can really experiment without worrying about bills. Mhm. Like you got some, but it's different. Like when you start having a family, you got bills to pay, you got a home to pay for, you got kids. Your your
10:11 your life is still your own versus even just having a partner. And then it's like, oh, that's true. That's huge. Did you like did you accomplish anything within the last 10 years that the 10 years ago you couldn't have imagined? like the um fitness competition, you got the won the swords, like anything like that that would have seemed kind of almost comedically unpredictable. I think um most of it Yeah, cuz most of it it was like I was just coming out of like oh college good Asian boy study, you know? So like even the fact that me and Joe had a career doing ████ just stupid videos online that was mind-blowing. But 10 but 10 years ago is 30 for you though. Yeah. 10 years ago. Oh, I was comparing like 20 30 40. Oh, okay. Is that what you're talking about or no?
11:01 Oh, I just meant like 10 years ago straight up. Was just 30. 30. What is that? 2015. Was Ludicrous popping? Not really. In movies. Fast. Damn. I definitely didn't think my pops would pass. That's for sure. Oh, I think that's one of the things where it's like, you know, when you're in 20s, you just think everything is status quo forever. You're like, "Oh, yeah, my grandpa passed when he was 90. All family members are going to pass away when they're 90." But then like Gio's brother passed and you're just like, "Oh ████ mortality is like a way serious and much more real thing." And so now you just consider like so much more. Um, in terms of the stuff that I accomplished, I feel like most of my biggest achievements were before 35. Pretty much pretty much
11:52 before Tao was born cuz I think the minute Tao was born, it almost like he shot up on the priority list and nothing else mattered as much or is worth chasing. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, kids kill your dreams. Yeah, kids your dreams. No doubt. What about like 10 years ago? You're looking at like JK News like engagement and numbers, bro. That was like golden era. 10 years ago, I think is it it actually might be when we first made like a million dollars on YouTube. Wow. That might have been the time where I'm like, dude, how does the money stop? Yeah, we never said it out loud. I know. I think at that time it was probably like I think also that's why we didn't really even save that much probably both as a company and personally cuz it just seemed like the water faucet cash cow
12:43 going like like I remember at a time like our personal vlog channels so outside of JK income was like 30 G's a month. Oh wow. So we were just like why even pay ourselves from JK cuz there's just too much ████ It's just more taxes to do you know and it was just you just never think anything's ever going to run out. Wow. And it's just like And then now I think our family vlog channel made like $300 last month. I'm like, "Oh ████ that's way came out of nowhere." I think it's the reverse. I think the 30year-old would look at it and go, "Wait, what? That can happen?" Oh, okay. Well, cuz like Tik Tok wasn't around. I think Vine kind of was, but it wasn't monetizing. So, you would never
13:34 think that short form can get shorter than what we were doing cuz short form used to be 3 minutes. We didn't think attention spans would get this bad. Yeah, cuz Yeah. Remember like long content back in the day was like 30 minutes and above. Yeah. And then short was like 3 to 5 minutes. And then anything lower than that, like Yeah. People tested with Vine, but no one really thought about and I think Vine just disappeared anyway. But that format lived like obviously like Instagram reels and all that ████ happened quickly after that. But it skyrocketed during pandemic. Yeah. Tik Tok just Yeah. I think that that stuff is like I didn't think it would happen so quickly because I mean we were a part of the whole era where people stopped watching TV as much and then they started going on YouTube.
14:25 But then that transition took a long time. It is interesting though too because like at the same time we're saying that like one of the most popular show in the world I think still is Joe Rogan. Three hours. Yeah. I think long form video essays still kill it. Like Steph Sue like her videos are long and them things kill. Oh, really? Yeah. Every there's still I think there's both. But then the problem is there's so much stuff. Yeah. There's a lot of content now. Like I think that's a thing that was probably unpredictable that everybody would be you. Like when you're like these YouTubers like guess what now? That's a default for everybody. Like that's crazy. Even like all the celebrities say go to my YouTube channel, subscribe. It's crazy. Yeah. It's kind of like how having a camera on your phone made everyone a photographer now. Like it doesn't really even if they're not meaning to be like everybody has that skill now. But every Yeah. But and it's also a lot of good skill coming
15:15 out. Like now it's so much more accessible for people to learn and then like be a part of it. Mhm. Yep. I am still surprised I don't have a kid right now. Really? How come? Just you know when you're younger when you're younger you think holy ████ Yeah. Remember when you're like ████ 11 and you look at like a 16-year-old and you're like you're old right? Like my like 25year-old self looking at my 38-year-old self. I'd be like, "You ████ up." I mean, would I mean mental at that age? I did think I was going to have a kid. Yeah. By like 30 or something. Yeah. Me and Nikki both thought that. Even when we got married, we thought for sure we'd have like a family by now. We've been married for like 8 years. Oh, so you weren't against having kids at the time that you got married? No, we were all in on it. And we should save this topic for another video, though, cuz like it's really
16:06 good. Hey, video sweat shop. That's the only time double news worked for them. I like that. I completely agree. But now we have nothing to talk about. It's awkward. Well, the 10 years ago thing, you know what I think is interesting is that for for me, like a 10 years ago self, I always wanted to do music at like a higher like level. And I think like the 10 years ago me would be like, "Hey, that's really cool that you're doing that, but you play way ████ less now." You know what I mean? Like I used to have fun practicing so much just alone and like because you know like with everything you start doing it for work and then you just want to do as much as you need to and then do some other ████ but then like I think the 10 years ago me would be like damn bro that's backwards like you'd be like why don't you don't you want to do more of it now that you passion becomes a job and then now you need a new passion.
16:57 Mhm. Yeah. Like the more like refined it gets, the more you're like this is my work time and this is my dude, we built a whole show together and that was when we were most I was saying most passionate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And now and that was all for free for a nonprofit organization. That's true. Yeah. And now if I had to do that again, I'd like ████ no. Oh yeah. That was a lot of work, right? That was months of work. The thing that we collabed on like how was that 10 years ago? That was like 11. like 201 12 or something or 13. Yeah. That's like so much work for free. But it was so fun. Yeah. Why do we all take ourselves so seriously in like the 20s like in that way? You know what I mean? Where like I remember just being very serious about comedy and ████ like that and like ████ that I would make fun of myself now for identity. It's identity. I think you feel like you
17:48 needed to think that way to like succeed though cuz I felt like for me I thought like that because I felt like it was necessary for me to be good at whatever I was trying to do. Like I had to do like the textbook fundamental way like I needed to be like really anal about that ████ like do it for love and a passion. Only crazy people are capable of doing crazy things. Yeah. Like you if you don't like obsess over something like there's no way you're going to be better than the average. I'm not crazy enough. I think we're just naturally obsessed about ████ I think I was fighting for my p my comedic perspective that maybe I didn't have solidified yet. Like defending it from all those other things while it formed but like you just go too hard to paint sometimes. Did you feel like you had an oppo like I guess I don't know maybe it's a dumb question but like you had an opposing style of comedy to all the your other people. No, it's just it was still forming and so I was just trying to
18:39 protect it from like I didn't want to borrow from people or or have them think I was but then you're just trying to you're trying to set your establish yourself. Sh your own ass. Exactly. And and you really I just eye roll so hard about all things. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you become hard to work with and you don't know that you're being a ████ pretentious little dick, you know? I like that for sure. But I do think it's it's a part of the development of finding out what your voice is. go really hard and then start pulling like I got to chill. I think the self-aware people, usually people like you guys that I like, they can look back and see that, but the people who who who can't do that don't grow. No. And that's always a yikes. And they're annoying. But but it's it's kind of like um you have to have that like contrarian like edge, right, to go I can do it better. M
19:29 and then you're trying to make a mark in the space with your own style and then you prove to yourself if your ideas were correct or not. But some people they don't actually do the work but it's just ego talking. Don't test their theories. They never test it. They never get humbled and then they're just pretentious for no reason and they don't do anything. Yeah. I think that's the difference is that like I've met a lot of people who are just so obsessed with music and they get so good and it's like they're their own bestkept secret. It's like, dude, you're like a savant and you're not even putting yourself out. And then there's people that they care more about being known as a musician than being a musician. They care more about the reputation and they just want to do the bare minimum of like ████ learn chopsticks and then upload it. It's like, you know what I mean? Versus people that really care. But I do think in your 20s you care more about the craft sometimes.
20:20 Uh, well, the people that do care more about the craft is cuz they don't got bills to pay. Yeah. I think you think you care more about the craft and you're trying to like project that sort of that's sort of how you wish you were. You know what I mean? You're like reaching for that but that's not really you know inside that's ████ Yeah. And I think that's that's like the inner voice for sure ████ It's all about the money. I wish I actually wish I accepted that earlier. Really my craft. Mhm. Yeah. I never had any experience with money at all in the beginning. And that's why it sold out to
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