From Fat and Broke to Youtube Millionaire!!

This video is about how I went from fat, broke, and lost to running the most followed, most viewed travel food show on YouTube.

>> I'm a little bit uh not happy with where I am in my life and uh sometimes I feel like I lack energy and I think I know why.

>> Let's talk about where we are now and then back up to the beginning just so you can understand how unlikely this journey really was. So, right now, Best Ever Food Review Show has about 11.8 8

million subscribers on YouTube. In

total, we published over 800 videos and the channel has gotten over 3 billion views. That's insane. But that's just

views. That's insane. But that's just our main channel because through the years, the Best Ever Food Review Show brand and team has grown so much that it had a baby. A baby called More Best Ever

Food Review Show. Our second channel has 3.59 million subscribers. It's published

460 videos, and those videos have been viewed over 880 million times. together

between both channels. It's at nearly 4 billion views. Something I can quite

billion views. Something I can quite honestly say I did not expect when I started this journey.

To give you the quick version of my life story, I grew up in Minnesota. I

graduated high school. I tried a few different colleges. Failed out of all of

different colleges. Failed out of all of them. I tried radio. Did you know what?

them. I tried radio. Did you know what?

Tonight's my last night on the air.

>> That didn't work out. And then I moved to Korea at the age of 24. In Korea in my 20s, I went through a lot of challenges. I've learned a lot about

challenges. I've learned a lot about myself. And that was the time when I

myself. And that was the time when I became a man, maybe around the age of 28 or 30.

>> Uh, North Korea, it's behind me looking good, looking communist.

>> Where you see me in this video being big, fat, and jolly. This was really like my rock bottom.

>> Hey, have you ever been morbidly obese?

I have.

But now I'm about to be morbidly a beast.

You know what I'm saying? It all starts today.

day. Actually, it start tomorrow. It all

starts tomorrow.

>> Can you be more real? You look like you're joking.

>> I don't know how to be honest. I was

overworked. I was underpaid. I didn't

really know what my future was. Really,

life sucked. And I wish I could have caressed my own cheek and whispered into my ear and said, "Hey, one day life's not going to suck so hard. It'll just

kind of suck hard." And uh here I am now. Now, the reason I'm making this

now. Now, the reason I'm making this video is because 10 years ago, this month, I started this channel. So, this

is the 10-year anniversary of Best Ever Food Review Show, and soon I'm going to show you the very first food video I ever made. But actually, this channel

ever made. But actually, this channel started earlier than that.

I actually joined YouTube with this channel September 23rd, 2010. That's a

long time ago. Some of my earliest videos are unlisted, and I did that because they're no longer related to food or what I do now. I made a lot of hip-hop videos that I was making for

other artists in Korea, comedy videos, stuff that I thought was funny. But I

actually had my first viral video all the way back in 2010. I filmed a video called You Need to Get Off Facebook.

Now, this video at that time got 4 million views. All of this is important

million views. All of this is important because when I actually started to make food videos, I already had somewhat of a base of subscribers. They weren't there for the food, but they were there because at some point they found

something I had published interesting.

>> All right, I'm in South Korea or right over here is the border to North Korea, the DMC line. Let's go.

I'm in South Korea. I'm in North Korea.

I'm in South Korea.

When I first moved to Korea, the way I made money was through teaching. Private

tutoring, teaching kindergarten. I even

taught science. You can pretty much teach a 12-year-old anything if you're smarter than the 12-year-old.

Eventually, while in Korea, I transitioned to making money from teaching to making money from making videos. These videos were being made for

videos. These videos were being made for corporate clients. I made music videos

corporate clients. I made music videos and videos for Red Bull, too. But my

goal was to transition away from making videos for clients and making videos for YouTube.

And so my journey with Best Ever Food Review Show began December 14th, 2015.

The very first video I ever published, well, it now has 277,000 views. But let

me tell you, back then it probably got 200 at most. Even though I already had accumulated somewhat of a small audience, a lot of those people didn't really know what I was doing, what I was posting, or why I was posting food

videos. And it took a long time to get

videos. And it took a long time to get people to understand what I was doing and for them to want to watch the videos that I was making. But it all started with this right here.

>> Today I went to the best restaurant alive, Melting Monkey. Do you like cheese? Do you like bread? Do you like

cheese? Do you like bread? Do you like to melt it between, you know, the bread with the cheese in the middle? It's like

a grilled cheese, but better. Do you

like cheese?

>> Oh, I don't like cheese, but melting monkey cheese is good.

>> Groundbreaking interview. Do you like cheese? Thought-provoking, insightful,

cheese? Thought-provoking, insightful, high impact.

In the beginning, the show didn't have an identity. and identity and values.

an identity. and identity and values.

These are things you build over time.

But my first thought was just why don't I film food that I like in Korea, which happened to be kind of western junk food. And that's what my first eight

food. And that's what my first eight episodes on this channel were. I'll be

honest, I was so ready to die until God brought this octopus taco to my life.

>> How could this creature swimming with the fishes, jump into my taco, and make it so delicious? How could this be?

>> How could it be? How could it be?

>> How could it be?

>> How could it be? How could it be?

>> Nice. As you can see, I was really trying to put a comedic angle into these videos. But the problem is, nobody

videos. But the problem is, nobody watched them because who cares? I was

talking about international or western cuisine in Korea.

>> Today, I ordered the Juicy Lucy. What

that is, it's a very special burger that I never would have thought would come to Korea. They put cheese inside of the

Korea. They put cheese inside of the patty. There was simply no audience for

patty. There was simply no audience for this except for maybe the expat audience in Korea, which is a very small group of people. So from here, I decided to

people. So from here, I decided to pivot.

I even made an update video about pivoting. I'm eight videos in and I'm

pivoting. I'm eight videos in and I'm like, I got to tell my audience of no people about my plans for the future.

I've had a lot of fun producing, shooting, uh, and creating the best ever food review show the last couple months.

So much so in fact that I am reformatting the format.

That's That's right.

>> I'm glad I did it because I think it was really a video for me to declare, hey, I'm going in this new direction. And so

one of the reasons I moved to Korea in the first place was because of a show called Bizarre Foods hosted by Andrew Zimmer. I kind of thought his show is

Zimmer. I kind of thought his show is great. I'll just do what he does and do

great. I'll just do what he does and do the YouTube version of that. From here,

I entered into the next age of best ever food review show. I was going out to different Asian countries seeking out the most bizarre or strange weird foods I could find. And the reason was simple.

I knew that foods that were strange that were bizarre, they had a story already built in. And the story is why are

built in. And the story is why are people eating this? And that's what I set out to understand. And it all started in the Philippines. Here, my

first bizarre food video was eating, a Filipino classic.

>> No joke, that is really good. I'm going

to give you a tip, though. It helps

being already really hungry. You can see immediately the format is completely different. I'm eating a food. The video

different. I'm eating a food. The video

is 3 minutes and 19 seconds long and the title chicken intestines Philippines best ever food review show. So

everything I've learned about YouTube has changed over the years. The old me wishes that I could just do an index style of video. Hey, here's the food name. Here's the country. Now watch it.

name. Here's the country. Now watch it.

But the reality is that won't happen.

Instead, now videos have to be longer.

There has to be a story. And there has to be kind of an element of intrigue.

They have to wonder what's this about?

What am I going to see? Is there going to be a payoff? But in the beginning, no. It just said chicken intestines. And

no. It just said chicken intestines. And

guess what? I ate chicken intestines.

Now, another signature of my earlier videos is I interviewed people with a microphone just randomly on the street to add more content. And also, I kind of didn't have faith in my ability to host

a show. So, I would try to write out

a show. So, I would try to write out comedic lines or beats about the food and then do this thing where I would pop out of random locations and deliver that line. Action. Today on the best ever

line. Action. Today on the best ever food review show, we eat chicken head.

Yes, chicken head. I think that room is used for pissing. It smells That's It smells like piss in there. I'm not I don't want to do it again. This is baby Sunny just figuring it out. We basically

have almost no food shots, no cooking preparation. We barely have close-ups of

preparation. We barely have close-ups of the food itself. This is just the beta beta beta version. I still had a lot of bad habits from back in the day. Bad

diet and drinking. I didn't even put on a clean shirt. I just turned my shirt from the previous day inside out. Gross.

My hair is greasy. I haven't figured out the bandana is obviously the key to my success yet. I had so much to learn at

success yet. I had so much to learn at that point about what it takes to be professional and to be a proper host for a show. Another thing I battled during

a show. Another thing I battled during this trip was just insanely bad, negative, dark selft talk. I don't know.

I felt out of place. I didn't have the confidence I have now. Obviously, cuz

confidence comes from proving to yourself that you can and that you're able to do something and to do it well.

But I had never done this before. It was

something completely new. And so in my head, I just kept hearing like, "Who the [ __ ] are you? What are you doing? No

one's going to watch this. This is a joke." And not in a good way. I'm glad

joke." And not in a good way. I'm glad

that somehow, even though it was very difficult, I didn't succumb to the voices. And I didn't make a video about

voices. And I didn't make a video about mental health.

>> No. No.

Guys, do you get that? This is my job.

My job is to review food. I review food and literally hundreds of people, if not tens of people see my food reviews. And

now that I've reached the pinnacle of cheesiness, I don't know where else to go. It's really hard to say. And I

go. It's really hard to say. And I

regret to inform everybody that this is going to be my last food review.

Guys, if you're at your rock bottom, if you're struggling, if you feel like you're hitting a wall, take pictures.

Once you make it out of wherever you are now, it is going to be so nice to look back at where you were then and to think about how far you've come. Cuz life

moves slowly. It's very easy to get acclimated to how things change over time. Like suddenly I've got this team.

time. Like suddenly I've got this team.

I have this responsibility. I have this nice office. And you kind of just get

nice office. And you kind of just get used to it. But then you look back and you're like, "Oh my god, why did I ever think this would even work?" And you say, "Thank you, past self, foring

putting in the work.

Soon after that, I made a decision that would completely change the trajectory of the rest of my life. At that time, I was living in Korea and I had a friend who was a camera guy who said, "Hey, if you choose a country to go to, I will go

with you. I'll film with you." And so, I

with you. I'll film with you." And so, I looked at kiwi.com for cheap flights and I found a place called Ho Chi Min City.

I'd never been there before. I didn't

know anything about it. To me, it seemed scary and distant and far and I certainly knew it was a less developed country than Korea, but I really didn't know what to expect. But I bought a ticket and I went and in Vietnam that is

where I met Andrew for the first time.

And Andrew worked for a company called Christina, a company that did Airbnb and they also did tours through a company called One Trip. So Andrew worked for their marketing department and he convinced me to move to Vietnam. To be

honest, I lived in Korea for about 8 years. And living there was starting to

years. And living there was starting to give me more and more anxiety because I didn't have a proper visa. I had a tourist visa. So, for every 90 days, I

tourist visa. So, for every 90 days, I went in and out of Korea, hoping that I'd make it in for one more stint. But I

didn't know if at some point they were just going to have enough of me and say, "Hey, you've been going in and out of the country for eight goddamn years. You

got to leave for good." And so, I kind of embraced this new opportunity with open arms. The deal was I was going to work with this company. They would pay me $1,000 a month. They would give me a room and they would give me a camera guy. In exchange, I had to make for them

guy. In exchange, I had to make for them one video a week. And then I would try to make myself one video a week, too.

This is when I went all in on best ever food review show and seeing if I can make a YouTube channel actually work.

Keep in mind, I've not made any money at this point. I've only spent money in

this point. I've only spent money in going to the Philippines and Taiwan and filming in Korea. But I figured Vietnam, it's an affordable country. It has a ton of different food and it's surrounded by other affordable countries. Cambodia,

Thailand, Laos, all these other Southeast Asian countries are fascinating and they're right next door.

Around this time in Vietnam, I was making one video per week. And many of my videos were obviously in Vietnam, but I was trying to diversify my content. I

was trying to make videos in Vietnam, but other countries, too, cuz I didn't want people to think I was just the Vietnam guy or the Philippines guy or the guy who just does one country over and over again. But one of my first

viral videos was a video that I did in the Philippines. It was titled Jollibee

the Philippines. It was titled Jollibee Secret Menu reviewing Jollibee in a jeep meat. Sorry, am I supposed to say

meat. Sorry, am I supposed to say Jollibee? Sorry, Filipinos. I meant

Jollibee? Sorry, Filipinos. I meant

Jollibee. This video was groundbreaking.

The Jeep knee, it's an iconic form of transportation in the Philippines.

Jollibee, it's a fast food that's iconic in the Philippines. What I did in this video is I combined them both. Filipinos

absolutely loved it. For me, I will have one chicken, >> one piece, >> double spicy. And this is when I learned the most important growth hack that you'll hear in this video. Going to the

Philippines. Yes, I'm not the first

Philippines. Yes, I'm not the first person to pander to Filipinos. In fact,

if you have a travel channel, I highly recommend it. Go to the Philippines.

recommend it. Go to the Philippines.

Talk about how beautiful it is, how nice it is. Even say you love the food and

it is. Even say you love the food and they will love you for it. Now, here's

the difference. When I say it, I mean it.

>> Jollibee, please pay me to be your um I don't know, do something. Pay me. Give

me a hamburger. Give me a hot dog. So

good. So, this video really hits for me on Facebook. It gets about 4 million

on Facebook. It gets about 4 million views. And then it got around a million

views. And then it got around a million on YouTube. But it really started to

on YouTube. But it really started to create some awareness for who I was and for my channel in general. And by this time, I figured out I should just wear the bandanna. And trust me, I felt like

the bandanna. And trust me, I felt like a douchebag. sometimes still do, but

a douchebag. sometimes still do, but it's all about branding. You see,

without the bandanna, I'm just another white guy. But with the bandanna, I'm a

white guy. But with the bandanna, I'm a white guy with a bandana, and that's different enough. To be clear, before

different enough. To be clear, before this Jollibee video, I wasn't really making any money. At most, I was breaking even. But it took me years to

breaking even. But it took me years to make any profit whatsoever. In fact, I didn't even turn on monetization until over a year into making videos because my focus wasn't on the money. It was on

how can I make the best videos possible.

And that was my mantra that I would repeat over and over. The audience, the attention, and eventually the financial aspect that will come later. It was

around this time about two years into my journey that the team started to grow. I

had a camera guy, I had a producer, and the third person I hired was an editor.

Actually, an editor that I still work with today. 10 years of filming around

with today. 10 years of filming around the world means long days, late nights, and no time to think about dinner.

Sometimes you just need something quick and delicious without thinking about it.

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back to the show.

I want to show you a point at which I feel like the style of the channel started to change and like I started to kind of get it. And it was the first time that I went to the Meong Delta.

This was one of the first videos where we actually really explored storytelling. First of all, it starts

storytelling. First of all, it starts with a moment of high emotion.

>> Oh, the big one. I saw a big one.

>> This was like the Logan Paul vlog style of starting a video. Take a moment of high emotion from somewhere in the video, put it in the beginning, then start the video and hope people will be curious about that moment enough to keep

watching to when it actually happens organically in the story. In this video, we went on a boat. We went on a vehicle.

We are actually traveling through the country and sharing the journey and foods along the way culminating in a big meal, but really actually telling a full story rather than just showing one food

being made. From here, I went to

being made. From here, I went to Guangdong, China. I went to Malaysia,

Guangdong, China. I went to Malaysia, and I explored even more of Vietnam. Oh

my god.

Wo.

>> Is this okay? I'm touching your worms. Is it cool? We cool.

>> All right. Thank you. Then, of course, another trip to the Philippines. this

time to Seeu and Palawa. And then I found the second best country for growth hacking your channel, India.

India and the Philippines have a lot in common. A lot of people who speak

common. A lot of people who speak English, people who are very nationalistic, and people who are very proud of their food. That's great for a food show. Wo! WHAT IS HAPPENING OVER

food show. Wo! WHAT IS HAPPENING OVER HERE? OH, that's for me.

HERE? OH, that's for me.

>> Wo! He's making this gigantic one for us. Record-breaking jelly bean. From

us. Record-breaking jelly bean. From

this point, the channel is actually starting to make some money and that's profit I can put back into the channel.

I got an office and the team started to get built out even more editors, people who could help with producing. And

perhaps the most obvious change in production value for the audience was hiring another camera guy. So this

completely changed the look and the quality of the show. It went from feeling more like a low rent vlog to something that had a little bit more production value. This is something you

production value. This is something you can see as we went once again to the Philippines. This time to Davao. The

Philippines. This time to Davao. The

first time that I traveled with two camera guys. One of my favorite videos

camera guys. One of my favorite videos from this trip was when we shot a crocodile lechon. Peel the skin off just

crocodile lechon. Peel the skin off just like that. Now listen, I would feel so

like that. Now listen, I would feel so selfish to eat this alone. I got a piece for you. Yeah, that's not right.

for you. Yeah, that's not right.

>> I mean, I'm ripping off this other piece of skin here from the hand. And let's

just jump into it. Cheers.

That's really tasty.

I did not expect that.

>> One really unique thing that happened early on in the first couple years of the channel was the opportunity to shoot a TV pilot for Food Network and Travel Channel. Now, somehow even though my

Channel. Now, somehow even though my YouTube channel had fewer than 20,000 subscribers, a production company in the USA found me and they found me in an interesting way. They went to a blog

interesting way. They went to a blog talking about the best food content creators and I was not mentioned, not even close to it. But somebody had commented, "Hey, you got to check out this guy's channel. It's called Best

Ever Food Review Show. It's a great food channel. So, somebody from the

channel. So, somebody from the production company actually read that comment and checked out my channel. By

the way, do you know who wrote that comment? It was me.

comment? It was me.

They found me and they said, "Wow, this guy, what a talent." Kind of. I wear a shirt in the pool because I'm confident.

But at least they thought enough of me to do a sizzle reel and see if they could get me a pilot. And they did. TV

moves very slowly. And maybe 6 to 9 months later, I went out with this production company, High Noon Entertainment, and we shot two different pilots. One in Florida and one in the

pilots. One in Florida and one in the Bahamas.

>> Then right here, that's what you call the K piston, but we call it the I don't know if I can say it. We call it the Bohemian Viagra. That's what we call it.

Bohemian Viagra. That's what we call it.

The Bohemian >> Bohemian Viagra.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> This is like the the male reproductive organ of the conchk.

>> You need to try it.

>> What happens after I eat this?

>> It give you extra boost like a table.

>> Okay. More boost in my roost.

>> Yeah, you got it. or strut in my butt.

>> Those inevitably both ended up airing on Travel Channel and neither one got picked up. And honestly, it's the best

picked up. And honestly, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. When you

sign up for these food shows, you kind of sign your life away. You agree to some kind of low amount of money and the terms are long. It's usually 5 to 7 years. If the show gets picked up, they

years. If the show gets picked up, they can pay you this small amount of money.

I'll just tell you it was like $5,000 per episode. But how long does it take

per episode. But how long does it take to film an episode? A week? two weeks.

It's not good long term, but getting to do this pilot changed everything for me.

And that's because I finally got to see how a professional TV crew does it. I

asked the camera guys, the director, and the producers a million questions. Hey,

what are you thinking if you shoot some B-roll right now? And I told myself after walking away from that experience, one year from now, my team's going to operate just like this. And the reality

is a year later that happened.

When making a channel like this, it takes so long to figure out how to even be competent at what you're doing in the first place. It's hard to even have a

first place. It's hard to even have a mission. We were starting to figure

mission. We were starting to figure things out. How to shoot, how to color,

things out. How to shoot, how to color, how to edit, how to tell compelling stories, and how to make thumbnails. And

from here I was able to build a little bit more of a mission or a vision for the channel. One of my initial visions

the channel. One of my initial visions was going to the countries that people have heard of but know nothing about.

And my first and best example would be Madagascar. People had heard of the

Madagascar. People had heard of the movie, they heard the word, but nobody really knew about the country of Madagascar and they definitely didn't know about what those people were eating. And they were eating some unique

eating. And they were eating some unique stuff. Bam. There it is. You can see

stuff. Bam. There it is. You can see that little bit of rice flour on the edges actually expanded from the moisture inside when they cooked it. And

then you see it just gets darker towards the inside. That looks incredible. From

the inside. That looks incredible. From

Madagascar, we went to India again. And

we made another foray into Africa. Going

to Kenya. We went to Oman. We finally

did our first series in the USA where we went from New Orleans all the way to Miami. Keep in mind at this time we were

Miami. Keep in mind at this time we were publishing two videos a week. We went to West Papua where we got our first taste of shooting tribal life, something that we still love doing now today.

>> Okay. He's pretending to kill me. Yeah.

>> W hug.

>> We hug now. Oh, you know what? Sometimes

we >> brothers fight, but we got to Yeah. W

Are we okay?

>> We smoked an entire freaking ostrich.

And I'm proud to say we were, I believe, the first food YouTubers to go to Iran.

Have you seen a camel like that before?

It's got five hands.

>> Oh my god. That's not normal. Is that I don't know. Can we ask him? He knows.

don't know. Can we ask him? He knows.

>> I don't Who is this guy? You're going to Okay, you can ask him. Yeah.

>> Oh, he asked me not to disturb him.

>> It's just just >> So, by this point in the best ever food review show journey, I feel like we're finally putting all the pieces together.

We have a team of roughly 10 people and we're telling stories that people haven't heard before and we're showing footage and foods that people have never seen. And going to Iran was part of that

seen. And going to Iran was part of that journey and telling stories that really matter. And it wasn't about going there

matter. And it wasn't about going there and talking about politics, but simply showing people in the USA what normal everyday folks are like in Iran. And by

doing that, we were able to create some real impact. Do people from Iran like

real impact. Do people from Iran like Americans? I mean, so far in this trip,

Americans? I mean, so far in this trip, people have been very kind to me.

They're curious about what we're doing when they ask where I'm from, but no one's been negative about it.

>> We love guests from everywhere. It

doesn't matter from which country. We

are welcome for all of them. Really,

>> at this point in the channel, things are going pretty good. The team is growing.

We're filming more and more videos.

We're making more profit. It's great. We

went to Japan again and we did a series from north to south. I went to Hong Kong, Bangladesh. I even went to Cuba

Kong, Bangladesh. I even went to Cuba and did a series with my friend Oro. So,

right here you can see the bud. Would

you call this a bud?

>> Yeah, it's like a bud. Cool. From there,

we took on some more challenging videos in Africa. We went to Namibia and from

in Africa. We went to Namibia and from there we went to Nigeria. While we were in Nigeria, something happened.

Both my camera guys at that time were Vietnamese, and we were starting to hear whispers and comments from people in Nigeria who aren't shy about their feelings, talking about COVID, and pointing at my camera guys, calling them

Chinese. People were becoming more and

Chinese. People were becoming more and more aware of the virus. And this was the beginning of something that would affect not only our channel, but the world for years to come. After Nigeria,

we went back to Vietnam. And our timing is perfect because soon after arriving the borders to Vietnam closed and the next chapter of Best Ever Food Review Show began. The COVID chronicles. This

Show began. The COVID chronicles. This

was a time that was very challenging for creators around the world. But I'm

really proud of how I and our team dealt with it. We controlled what we could

with it. We controlled what we could control. We kept shooting videos and if

control. We kept shooting videos and if we couldn't go out then we would shoot videos inside and people would work from home but they would keep working. And

actually the first couple of years of co we grew probably more than any other time in the channel's history because while people were staying at home and virtue signaling about how awesome they were for wearing three masks, we were

going out and doing stuff. Over the

coming years, we shot over a 100 videos just in Vietnam. We shot every different type of series you could imagine. We

shot street food. We shot bizarre animals like these chickens with their big nasty feet.

>> It looks like a disease. I mean, look here. It looks like 10 fingernails.

here. It looks like 10 fingernails.

>> Yeah. Oh my god.

>> I shot a motorbike series going through central Vietnam with my good friend Andrew. We shot a body part series where

Andrew. We shot a body part series where we ate animal testicles for 24 hours and then animal heads for 24 hours and then animal livers for 24 hours. We talked to factories in Vietnam and learned how

factories are mass-roducing things like instant noodles, hot sauce, and sausages. We did a series about food

sausages. We did a series about food origins. We saw where oysters come from

origins. We saw where oysters come from in Vietnam, where caviar comes from.

Andrew and I did a tour of northern Vietnam where we took a former US military jeep and we drove around discovering different Vietnamese ethnic groups and learned about their traditions. Oh, it's kicking. Don't

traditions. Oh, it's kicking. Don't

move.

>> Don't think about it. Just give it one firm bite to kill it.

Is it swimming in your mouth?

Just try to enjoy it a little bit.

Andrew, don't be rude.

The COVID chapter sucked, but we made the most out of it. And we were lucky, too. Vietnam, compared to other

too. Vietnam, compared to other countries, had managed to keep the virus out for over a year. While other

countries were locking people down and forcing masks and vaccine passports, Vietnam was open until it wasn't.

Eventually, just like with every country, the virus made its way into Vietnam, too. And from there, I made a

Vietnam, too. And from there, I made a tough decision to leave the country in order to save the channel. If I stayed in Vietnam when everything closed down, we wouldn't be able to produce any videos. And so my wife quit her job and

videos. And so my wife quit her job and we moved to the USA not knowing when we would be able to come back to Vietnam.

Now she is Vietnamese. She could have come back at any time, but for me I had to wait for Vietnam to open its borders and they had already been closed for over a year. This was the next most difficult chapter for best ever food

review show. The challenge here was I

review show. The challenge here was I couldn't bring my camera guys who I'd worked with for years. I had to go to Minnesota and hire a new camera team. In

some ways I had to start over. It was

challenging. It sucked. But we did it.

From here, we shot a series in Minnesota. We went to Texas to shoot cuz

Minnesota. We went to Texas to shoot cuz they're very lenient with their co policies. We went to Mexico. I'm very

policies. We went to Mexico. I'm very

hungry and I need to eat muchos tacos.

>> Yeah, that means a lot of tacos.

>> From Mexico, we went to the Bahamas.

Then we went to Jamaica. And finally,

after many, many months, I was able to reunite with my camera team back in Africa for a monster production. During

this production, we went to Zimbabwe, Egypt, and finally to Tanzania where we

shot five, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. 17 videos. It was a lot.

One thing that was special about CO is that since I was out and since I was traveling, the shoot would end and I was still in whatever country I was in, whether it was Mexico, Bahamas, or somewhere in Africa. So, my wife and I

came up with the style that now is our second channel. We had a second channel

second channel. We had a second channel before, but it was like studio videos, react videos, stuff that never performed very well. But, we learned to shoot

very well. But, we learned to shoot second channel on an iPhone and with a simple cheap microphone. Nowadays, the

second channel has blown up into something that I can't even believe because we put so much time, money, and resources into our main channel, and that does well. And then with our second channel, there's one guy that shoots it

with me with an iPhone. And that usually does equally well. That's what's crazy.

Back in the day, the second channel was kind of an afterthought. We would finish a country and then maybe shoot a couple more simple videos on the second channel. You know what I like about the

channel. You know what I like about the second channel? I don't have to try that

second channel? I don't have to try that hard. These days we go to places like

hard. These days we go to places like Dubai or Shanghai focusing just on making videos for the second channel.

Meanwhile, our more serious videos, our more high production quality videos and more cultural videos, those are done on the main channel.

From there, after traveling for roughly 10 to 11 months straight, the borders opened for Vietnam. And finally, I was able to come back to where our home base was. Finally, the team was back

was. Finally, the team was back together, and honestly, I felt like we were stronger than ever. the world was opening back up and we were able to take on more and more daring trips. Trips

that we weren't able to do in the past because of all the insane limitations that we faced during CO. We went to Mongolia, we went to Sri Lanka, South Africa, the Pharaoh Islands, and we went

to Nepal. These hives are like nothing

to Nepal. These hives are like nothing I've ever seen before. They look alive.

You can see the bees completely covering the hive, moving like doing the wave in a stadium at a football game. Now, for

me, something really exciting happened into Paul, and that is I reached out to Joe Rogan. I talked to him about Mad

Joe Rogan. I talked to him about Mad Honey, and he invited me onto his podcast. Now, this for me was kind of a

podcast. Now, this for me was kind of a bucket list item, and honestly, it's one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do because of this channel. Um, why

not try a little bit?

>> Okay, let's try a little bit.

It tastes like honey, too.

>> Do a whole spoon.

>> No, I'm going to do a half spoon.

>> Okay. You got plans tonight?

>> Yeah. I got a show I got to do. I can't

have fake legs. My legs aren't moving.

From here, as we traveled more, as we told more complex stories, the team started to grow even more. These days,

we have about 20 to 22 people. For the

main channel, which posts once a week, we have seven people involved in our post-production team. Among our

post-production team. Among our producers, we have five to six people.

For our second channel, well, mainly just two people. We have a guy who just does thumbnails. Finally, a thumbnail

does thumbnails. Finally, a thumbnail guy. We have two shooters. Who do you

guy. We have two shooters. Who do you think's filming this right now? But

along the way, we have faced challenges.

For me personally, I found my limit. I

struggled with the B- word, but diarrhea. No. Uh, burnout. I'm not going

diarrhea. No. Uh, burnout. I'm not going to make a video about burnout and be like, I was sad. But, you know, I grew up very poor and in my whole 20s, I just ate [ __ ] and I couldn't figure out how to make money. And then finally, you find this thing where if you just keep

doing more of the thing, you make more money. And so, it's tempting to just do

money. And so, it's tempting to just do more and more of that thing until you freaking break. And I broke. I think

freaking break. And I broke. I think

within one year, we posted about 150 videos. That's wild. But at this point,

videos. That's wild. But at this point, I realized I had to pull back. It was a difficult decision, but I went from two videos a week on my main channel to one.

And we basically kept that cadence until now. One video on the main channel, one

now. One video on the main channel, one video on the second channel, plus some compilations. And here and there, we

compilations. And here and there, we don't post a video just to reduce my output. But sometimes when you have free

output. But sometimes when you have free time and when you're me and when you're inside my brain, you get new ideas. A

couple years ago, I had the idea to do five channels. We already have Best Ever

five channels. We already have Best Ever Food Review Show and more Best Ever Food Review Show. But then I wanted to create

Review Show. But then I wanted to create best ever food India, best ever food trucks and best ever hotel review. Now

we did do best ever food India. We were

doing all the research, shooting, editing, scripting. We're trying to make

editing, scripting. We're trying to make them as interesting as possible. I was

doing the voice over but I couldn't be in the videos and people let it be known that they didn't like that. And so sadly people didn't realize the option was have Indian videos with me not in them

or have nothing. And so in the end they got their license and we killed the channel. We started filming the best

channel. We started filming the best ever food trucks channel, but we had to stop. We started planning for best ever

stop. We started planning for best ever hotel reviews, but we had to stop because I realized again that I was doing the thing that got me in trouble in the first place, which was pushing myself to my absolute limit cuz why? And

that's the hard part of doing this channel is that we have a world-class production team and we could easily make a worldclass channel about hotel reviews or food trucks or Indian food. And I

would love to do all those things, but instead what I'm choosing is to do a couple things really, really well.

So, what is the goal for the future? To

me, the goal for the future is to do something that is sustainable because if you guys keep watching these videos, I would like to keep making these videos.

And I could see myself doing that well into the future. It's crazy to think, you know, I'm 41 now, and Anthony Bourdain didn't even get started on TV until he was about 42. and he had a

nearly a 20-year career. So, the goal for me is to not be in such a rush, to create an environment where people can flourish, where they can push themselves, where they can do hard things, where they can keep it up over long periods of time. And instead of

making the most videos possible, I want us to make the best videos possible. And

for me, the goal for the future is to set the benchmark for travel food, whether it's on YouTube or any other platform. But I can't do it alone, and I

platform. But I can't do it alone, and I wouldn't want to. For me, one of the most satisfying feelings of working with a team over these years is seeing people become better than me at their craft.

Seeing editors who started with very little experience build up into worldclass storytellers. Seeing

worldclass storytellers. Seeing producers find stories that we've not heard anyone else tell anywhere on any other channel. And seeing camera guys

other channel. And seeing camera guys who can mostly keep the shot in focus.

Don't make it out of focus on purpose now. I hate you. So, for me, I want to

now. I hate you. So, for me, I want to say a huge thank you to my team and everybody who's contributed to Best Ever Food Review Show. Whether you're a local producer in a different country, a co-host, or a vital part of this team

who ensures that the show is going out week after week at a high level of quality. A hello, baby. You look so

quality. A hello, baby. You look so cute. Can you say hi to the camera?

cute. Can you say hi to the camera?

For the future, we intend to keep pushing the envelope. This last year, I was very proud that we went to an extremely difficult country, Afghanistan.

Yeah, that was a bad move, huh? She's

like, you went where? I didn't know about this. four guys with big guns and

about this. four guys with big guns and multiple huge barriers just to get into the hotel. So, in the future, I plan to

the hotel. So, in the future, I plan to do more of the same, looking for countries and looking for stories that other people haven't documented and telling those stories in a way that you guys will appreciate watching again and

again. So, that is 10 years of best ever

again. So, that is 10 years of best ever food review show. Guys, thank you so much for everything. My heart is full and I can't wait to see what the future brings. Do you want to say a piece? A

brings. Do you want to say a piece? A

piece.

She can't talk. She's one.