Here's How I Got Started Reviewing Cars

[00:00] This is Doug DeMuro, and today I'm going

[00:03] to tell you the story of how I got

[00:05] started reviewing cars. I realized I

[00:08] haven't told this story in years on my

[00:10] YouTube channels, uh and the video it's

[00:13] in has long gone. So, I might as well

[00:16] explain how it all began.

[00:22] Before we get started, are you ready for

[00:24] your next cool car? Sell your enthusiast

[00:26] car on Cars & Bids. Trading in your car

[00:29] to dealers means you aren't getting

[00:30] market value for your car, leaving you

[00:32] with less cash for your next fun car.

[00:35] Just look at our recent sales of these

[00:37] cool cars compared to current trade-in

[00:39] value. This is a trade-in offer, and

[00:41] this was the Cars & Bids result. This is

[00:44] a trade-in offer, and this was the Cars

[00:46] & Bids result. This is the trade-in

[00:48] offer, and this is the Cars & Bids

[00:49] result. Get started now on

[00:52] carsandbids.com.

[00:54] Sell on Cars & Bids and join the best

[00:56] community to sell your enthusiast car.

[00:59] Okay, so how I got started reviewing

[01:01] cars. One of the reasons I also want to

[01:03] tell this story is because every time I

[01:05] go on a podcast, someone else's podcast

[01:07] or videos, they always ask me, you know,

[01:09] how did it get started? And I I want to

[01:12] kind of be able to direct people when

[01:13] they ask me this to this video where I

[01:14] say, "Hey, here's what happened."

[01:15] However, I realized that I launched my

[01:18] More Doug DeMuro channel 8 years ago

[01:21] with this video.

[01:22] >> How did I get started reviewing cars,

[01:24] making YouTube videos, writing about

[01:25] cars, whatever? So, today I'm going to

[01:27] tell you.

[01:30] >> I haven't revisited this topic since

[01:32] then, and that channel is long gone. So,

[01:35] I feel like I should actually explain

[01:37] the story of how I got started reviewing

[01:40] cars at least one more time. So, here is

[01:43] the basic overview of how it all got

[01:46] started. Many years ago, when I was a

[01:48] small boy, actually that is kind of the

[01:50] start of the story. I remember when I

[01:52] was a kid, I would pour a little kid, I

[01:54] would pour over uh at the time it was

[01:57] Consumer Guide, not Consumer Reports,

[01:59] but it was this different thing called

[02:00] Consumer Guide that would give every

[02:02] car's trim levels and exactly what

[02:04] features were in each car and then the

[02:07] the power trains and I would go through

[02:10] all of it and try to figure out exactly

[02:11] which cars had the best value, like the

[02:13] most features, best I even had a

[02:15] formula. If it had like X number of

[02:18] features in each class divided by the

[02:20] power, like you

[02:22] that was that was the car. I remember I

[02:23] was so obsessive and I would make these

[02:26] these big long notebooks full of like

[02:28] exactly all the trim levels and

[02:30] everything and I would handwrite even

[02:32] though no one was reading it except for

[02:34] myself. And I was obsessed, absolutely

[02:36] obsessed. Uh and of course never really

[02:38] thought it would turn into a career, but

[02:40] as the years went on, I kind of never

[02:42] really lost my love of cars. I was into

[02:44] other things and I kind of considered

[02:45] working in other fields, but I never

[02:47] really did. I've always basically every

[02:50] job I've basically ever had has been in

[02:52] the car space. Um starting with you

[02:55] know, my first real summer job, the the

[02:57] first year I was in college, I was a

[02:58] driver for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. When

[03:01] like a car was at the airport, but

[03:02] someone had booked it at a different

[03:03] location, me and another driver go pick

[03:05] it up and drive it that location, then

[03:06] we get a call, now this car is at this

[03:08] one, you got to go to this one and that

[03:10] was my job. I worked as a as a lot

[03:12] porter at a Ferrari dealership, so I

[03:14] would clean the cars and move them

[03:16] around and get gas for the used cars and

[03:19] bring the cars to customers if they're

[03:20] requesting it. I mean

[03:22] I I have always always always spent my

[03:25] world in the car world. In fact, my

[03:27] senior year of college,

[03:29] um I took a job as a salesperson at a

[03:31] Saturn dealership and this would have

[03:33] been like late '08, early '09, right

[03:35] when the recession was taking hold,

[03:37] right when Saturn was being extinguished

[03:39] as a brand. That was an amazing learning

[03:40] experience. People could smell blood in

[03:42] the water, they'd come in asking for

[03:44] crazy deals. That was that was that. I

[03:46] worked for Porsche. Like I the car world

[03:49] was kind of in in blood. And a couple of

[03:52] weeks ago I did a video on this channel

[03:53] about what I did when I worked for

[03:55] Porsche and I kind of ended that video

[03:57] by saying that the pay was relatively

[03:59] low, the work was hard. I I just decided

[04:01] at 24 I didn't want to work in a cubicle

[04:03] anymore and that's how the next this

[04:05] version of my career got started. And so

[04:08] we can kind of pick it up there. I quit

[04:09] my job. I had I had all my life had

[04:12] worked up to

[04:14] you know if you if you go to a certain

[04:15] level of school you're you're in a

[04:17] competitive enough level of high school

[04:19] and college your whole world is like

[04:21] trying to get into the best college,

[04:22] trying to do as many activities as

[04:23] possible in high school so your resume

[04:25] looks the best. That was my whole world

[04:27] and then get into the best college, do

[04:29] the best you can in college so that you

[04:30] can get the best job. That was sort of

[04:32] like my entire world and my parents

[04:34] world and everything back then. And so I

[04:35] get this job, I get hired by Porsche.

[04:37] And all my other my colleagues, my my my

[04:40] fellow classmates when I was in college

[04:42] had done got a lot of them had gotten

[04:44] these really stupid jobs, you know,

[04:46] laughable kind of things that weren't

[04:48] you know, they were 21. I mean it was

[04:49] like you know, not anything real and I

[04:51] was I'd gotten hired full-time by

[04:53] Porsche and it was so cool. And then I

[04:55] quit. And that was a crazy decision. But

[04:57] I truly believed that I had within me

[05:00] the ability to create um

[05:04] to to to do to write about cars as a

[05:07] job. And at the time I didn't quit

[05:09] completely with nothing. At the time I

[05:11] was freelance writing about cars for

[05:13] autotrader.com. And I was actually doing

[05:15] that on the side of my working for

[05:17] Porsche which was definitely not allowed

[05:19] at Porsche. I had a I had another job.

[05:22] So I had my full-time job at Porsche and

[05:23] then at night I would go home. I would I

[05:25] would work from at Porsche from 8:00 to

[05:26] 5:00 every single day. I'd drive home

[05:28] and then I'd sit at my computer and bang

[05:30] out articles, content for autotrader.com

[05:32] like should you buy your lease at the

[05:34] end of the lease or you know, new versus

[05:36] used or or that kind of thing, compiling

[05:38] our long-term test notes for hours. I

[05:40] mean I I there would be days when I'd

[05:41] wake up at 8:00 a.m., work till 5:00,

[05:43] commute home, 6:00 sit down, work until

[05:46] midnight, go to sleep and do it all over

[05:47] again. That happened a lot. There were

[05:49] entire weekends where I would spend

[05:50] working writing. It was a grind, but

[05:52] like when I was when I quit Porsche, it

[05:54] meant that I had an income. I had the

[05:56] writing income was going on. And so I

[05:59] was like, you know what? If I'm doing

[06:00] this part-time already and I'm enjoying

[06:02] it and I'm making good money from it. I

[06:04] was actually making more doing freelance

[06:05] writing than I was working for Porsche.

[06:08] I was like, if I'm doing this enough

[06:09] already, maybe I can quit my day job at

[06:11] Porsche and become a writer about cars.

[06:13] And it was insane. I mean, it was a

[06:15] totally insane decision because I had

[06:16] worked so hard to get through college

[06:18] and get a job just like the one I was

[06:20] quitting. But I just decided, you know

[06:22] what? I'm writing, I'm making good

[06:23] money, I'm doing this, there is a career

[06:25] here. And one of the things I learned as

[06:27] a freelance writer early on when I was

[06:29] freelancing for Autotrader was that if

[06:31] you're a good freelance writer, you

[06:33] could actually be pretty successful in

[06:35] the car space and in a lot of spaces.

[06:36] Now, in the world of AI and in the world

[06:38] where a lot of writing has switched to

[06:40] video, I don't know that that's true

[06:41] anymore. But back in 2009, '10, '11,

[06:44] that was pretty true. It was very hard

[06:46] to find writers who would meet

[06:47] deadlines. It was hard to find writers

[06:48] who would output the level of content

[06:50] that I could. I could write five, six

[06:53] articles every single day, three, four,

[06:55] 500 words and have them be really

[06:57] high-quality content in addition to my

[07:00] day job. I was just a machine back then

[07:02] of of just effort, effort, effort,

[07:04] focused work.

[07:06] And so I quit my job and I started

[07:08] really looking for writing gigs. And it

[07:10] was pretty easy to find them back then.

[07:12] There were a lot of places that wanted

[07:13] writers. And not a lot of them paid all

[07:16] that well, but because I had Autotrader

[07:17] as like my big paying client, I was able

[07:20] to take some writing gigs for some

[07:21] companies, some blogs that had big

[07:24] reaches but didn't necessarily pay well.

[07:26] And so I started with this website

[07:27] called The Truth About Cars, which was a

[07:29] blog. I don't even know if it still

[07:31] exists, but back then it was like a sort

[07:32] of a secondary car blog. And they said,

[07:34] "Look, I sent them a couple samples and

[07:37] they said, 'Look, you're a funny writer,

[07:38] you're great. We can't pay you, but if

[07:39] you If you to write, we'll take your

[07:41] stuff.'" And so I would write two or

[07:42] three articles a week there, columns.

[07:44] And after a few months, I finally got up

[07:46] the nerve to send my stuff to Jalopnik.

[07:48] Now, Jalopnik was, at the time, no

[07:50] longer, but at the time it was the car

[07:52] blog. And regardless of what anybody

[07:55] said about the fact that it was a bunch

[07:57] of teenagers blogging about cars, there

[07:58] was no doubt that it was the number one

[08:01] most read, most respected car blog on

[08:04] the planet. So, I got up the courage to

[08:06] send my stuff to Matt Hardigree, who was

[08:08] the editor at the time of of Jalopnik.

[08:11] And he had already read a couple of my

[08:12] pieces from The Truth About Cars, and I

[08:14] sent him some stuff, and he said, "Hey,

[08:16] we'd love to publish your stuff." And at

[08:17] the time, Jalopnik and all of the Gawker

[08:20] Media properties had this cool thing

[08:21] where it was called Kinja, where you

[08:23] could write your own posts. And if they

[08:25] liked them enough, they would share your

[08:27] own Kinja posts live on the actual blog.

[08:30] It was a brilliant idea. It was a way to

[08:32] turn their audience, who often wanted to

[08:34] write their own posts, into writers, and

[08:36] to get some of that content themselves

[08:38] without paying for it.

[08:40] And so, they said, "All right,

[08:41] why don't you start doing this Kinja

[08:43] thing?" And so, I started, and they

[08:44] would share the the Kinja posts on the

[08:46] main page of Jalopnik, and they would

[08:47] blow up. And before too long, I had

[08:49] gotten a following. And I have to say,

[08:52] one of my earliest followers,

[08:54] and one of the biggest uh supporters

[08:55] early on, was Matt Farah of The Smoking

[08:57] Tire, who I remember, in my Truth About

[09:00] Cars days, commented on one of my Truth

[09:03] About Cars articles and wrote, "This is

[09:04] incredibly funny. This is awesome. You

[09:07] You know, I love this piece. It's great.

[09:08] It's well written."

[09:10] >> [sighs]

[09:10] >> And I remember, like,

[09:12] you know, when you're a little guy, and

[09:14] a big guy says something like that to

[09:16] you,

[09:17] and I should do this more. And now that

[09:19] I'm thinking about it, as a big guy now,

[09:21] that's like the coolest thing that you

[09:22] can possibly hear. Like, I was just

[09:25] like, "Oh my god. Like, Matt Farah says

[09:26] it's good enough." I would post my stuff

[09:28] on Jalopnik, and the audience is saying,

[09:30] "This is good stuff. More, more, more."

[09:32] And I would I had this kind of thing

[09:33] where I because Jalopnik wasn't paying

[09:34] me, I I doing like boring news articles

[09:36] for a day. I was doing all that for

[09:38] Autotrader. I was instead doing like

[09:40] these like long-form humor columns that

[09:42] actually I thought were pretty funny.

[09:43] And and the audience seemed to as well.

[09:45] In fact, I still think that I'm a better

[09:46] writer than I am a video person, but the

[09:49] world moved on to video. So, I had been

[09:50] writing for Jalopnik for uh probably 18

[09:53] months. At some point they finally hired

[09:55] me, but on a on a freelance basis. Like

[09:57] I was getting paid per article and not

[09:59] all that much. And after about a year

[10:01] and a half, um

[10:03] I got an email

[10:05] from a viewer. And the viewer said in

[10:08] his email, "Hey Doug, love your video.

[10:10] Love your articles on Jalopnik. Think

[10:12] you're funny. Have you ever thought

[10:14] about video?"

[10:16] And I hadn't.

[10:18] It's crazy to imagine now, but back then

[10:20] it was it was kind of 50/50 whether

[10:23] video was going to be the big medium or

[10:25] blogging was going to Blogging had

[10:27] already been a disruptive medium

[10:29] compared to print journalism at that

[10:31] time. And back then print journalism was

[10:33] still hanging on pretty well, and

[10:35] blogging was just starting to gain

[10:37] excitement and credibility. Blogging was

[10:39] the new space. And of course, now video

[10:41] has come and kind of disrupted blogging.

[10:43] And now short-form has come and

[10:44] disrupted video. But regardless,

[10:46] blogging, writing about cars, seemed

[10:49] like the thing to be doing. And and this

[10:50] guy suggested video. And honestly, I had

[10:53] not considered doing video until he made

[10:55] the suggestion. And so, I get this email

[10:57] and he makes the suggestion. I think to

[10:59] myself, "Huh, videos. I should try

[11:02] videos."

[11:05] And that was the summer of '13.

[11:07] Uh and I was 25 and

[11:11] I had nothing to do. I'm a 25-year-old.

[11:13] I just quit my job. I had ended my job

[11:15] in January of '13. So, I guess it had

[11:17] been like a year. Maybe it was like the

[11:19] end of '13. I had been employed with

[11:20] Jalopnik.

[11:22] And this guy suggests video, so I make a

[11:23] video. My very first video was my famous

[11:26] Cadillac CTS-V

[11:28] review. I didn't know what video could

[11:30] become.

[11:32] But what I did know is that I could put

[11:34] videos at the end of my articles. And

[11:37] so, people could read my articles and

[11:39] then there could be a video as like a

[11:41] companion piece that would go there. And

[11:43] credit to Jalopnik because they weren't

[11:45] really paying me all that well, they

[11:46] gave me a wide birth as to what I could

[11:49] do. There was never any dictation like,

[11:51] "You should do this. You should do this.

[11:53] You shouldn't write about this." It was

[11:55] like, "We're barely paying this guy.

[11:56] We're lucky he's contributing, so let

[11:58] him do whatever he wants." And I did.

[11:59] And boy did I. Um I did that Cadillac

[12:02] CTS-V video and then I just kind of went

[12:05] off to the races. And

[12:08] throughout all of I guess it was 2013 to

[12:11] 2014, I started making content with this

[12:14] Ferrari that I had bought. Um and that

[12:17] was really kind of an important moment

[12:19] buying the Ferrari. In early 2014, I

[12:22] debuted this Ferrari 360 that I had

[12:26] bought.

[12:27] And it was undoubtedly the scariest

[12:30] thing that I had ever done. I had quit

[12:32] my job to write about cars in this

[12:34] uncertain environment where I'm not

[12:36] getting paid all that well and I decided

[12:37] to go buy a Ferrari 360. And it was very

[12:41] difficult to do that. I couldn't find

[12:42] anybody to insure me.

[12:44] I didn't have enough money to buy the

[12:45] car outright. And so, what I had to do

[12:47] was I took out a loan and I begged my

[12:49] parents to co-sign on this loan, which

[12:51] they did. Now, I've mentioned this in

[12:53] other videos and people are like, "Oh,

[12:54] your rich parents helped you." My

[12:56] parents put up no money. A lot of people

[12:57] don't know what co-signing means. But

[12:59] basically what it meant was my parents

[13:01] would be on the hook for if I defaulted

[13:03] on the loan. But the reason my parents

[13:05] were But they didn't pay anything. I put

[13:07] the

[13:08] Literally all of my life savings went

[13:10] down on this loan as the down payment.

[13:12] It was an $80,000 car. I got a $40,000

[13:15] loan, a little less, and I put down 40

[13:17] grand, which was at the time all of the

[13:19] money that I had.

[13:21] Basically. And um bought this Ferrari

[13:24] and my parents co-signed. And I think

[13:25] the reason they're were to co-sign is

[13:26] because had such a down payment that it

[13:28] was hard to imagine that a default would

[13:31] end up in a situation where they would

[13:32] be on the hook for anything. My parents

[13:33] are very traditional.

[13:35] Um they did they would never have like

[13:36] really supported this career trajectory.

[13:39] I am shocked that they co-signed on that

[13:40] loan. They were always very skeptical of

[13:42] this career

[13:44] that I have. Um and but they did do it

[13:47] and it was it was a blessing um because

[13:49] I couldn't have take gotten a loan

[13:51] otherwise. Again, it was all my money

[13:53] but without someone's help who had a

[13:55] credit I had never financed anything

[13:56] before. I was 24, 25. I'd never bought

[13:59] anything with credit. Um and so I

[14:01] couldn't I couldn't get financed without

[14:03] them. And so that that happened and then

[14:05] after I bought the car I couldn't get it

[14:06] insured. Um and I I remember spending

[14:08] days on the phone in my apartment in

[14:10] Atlanta with insurance companies trying

[14:11] to find someone who would insure it and

[14:13] I finally found insurance through a

[14:14] company called American Motor.

[14:17] Um which I got so lucky with. But

[14:19] anyway,

[14:20] I had to register in Montana. Like I was

[14:22] grasping at the thinnest of straws. But

[14:24] the thing that that video that car did

[14:26] was it allowed me to create a YouTube

[14:28] series that people really wanted to

[14:30] watch. These days on YouTube everybody

[14:33] has Bugattis and Koenigseggs and it's

[14:34] not unusual to have YouTubers who have

[14:37] Pagani's and other crazy cars. But in

[14:38] 2014 there was no one on YouTube who had

[14:41] access to an exotic car like a Ferrari

[14:43] 360. YouTube was a medium for teenagers

[14:46] and nobody had a car like that. And so

[14:48] the fact that I was there, some regular

[14:50] guy was doing video series on his

[14:52] Ferrari 360 and the ownership costs and

[14:55] the maintenance experience and you know,

[14:57] potholes and living with it and parking

[14:59] and and how practical it was, that was a

[15:01] huge deal on YouTube back then. It is

[15:03] hard now to really explain to young

[15:06] people how just a Ferrari 360 could have

[15:09] been a huge deal. But on YouTube at that

[15:11] time, aside from Salomondrin who had a

[15:13] crazy car collection and was on YouTube,

[15:15] no one else on YouTube had cars like

[15:17] this. I was like the guy who was

[15:19] teaching like a young dad that yeah,

[15:21] maybe it was possible that you could buy

[15:23] a sports car, a Ferrari. I did those

[15:25] videos for a while, eventually sold the

[15:27] Ferrari and bought an R32 Nissan Skyline

[15:30] and a Hummer, and I had kind of the same

[15:31] sort of content play with those cars.

[15:34] And I still remember to this day, it was

[15:36] 2015, like mid-late 2015, and I remember

[15:39] I was obsessive about tracking the

[15:41] metrics for my articles because I

[15:43] thought that being a writer was in my

[15:44] future.

[15:46] And [snorts] then,

[15:47] one day,

[15:49] uh I got a plaque, a YouTube 100,000

[15:52] subscriber plaque in the mail. And I had

[15:55] paid almost no attention to what was

[15:57] happening for me on YouTube because I

[15:59] was so focused on writing. And then, the

[16:02] plaque came and I started making a

[16:04] little bit of money in '15 and in '16,

[16:06] and I it hit me at some point in

[16:09] mid-to-late '16, wait a minute, maybe

[16:12] the video thing might do better than the

[16:15] writing thing. The end of '16, I

[16:17] remember there was one month at the end

[16:19] of '16 where I made like 20 grand in a

[16:21] month. And it was December, which was

[16:24] always the biggest month. I didn't know

[16:25] that at the time. I didn't know about ad

[16:27] spends going up at the holidays and at

[16:29] the end of the quarter and all that

[16:30] stuff. I just happened to put up some

[16:32] popular content in December of '16 that

[16:34] blew up and I made like $20,000, and I

[16:37] was like, oh my god. Like, this could be

[16:40] something. And I also remember in

[16:42] January I put up also good content, and

[16:44] I only made like $6,000, and I remember

[16:46] thinking, okay, well, maybe it maybe

[16:47] it's not. And I I've since learned that

[16:50] January is the worst revenue month on

[16:52] YouTube, and I should have not put up

[16:53] good content then. But I didn't know any

[16:55] of that stuff. Throughout '17, then

[16:57] things kind of started to grow. And um

[17:00] uh I initially throughout '15 and '16 I

[17:03] was doing content on my own cars. In

[17:05] '15, again, it was that Hummer and the

[17:06] Nissan Skyline. In '16, it became an

[17:08] Aston Martin V8 Vantage. There was a

[17:10] Dodge Viper that was mixed in there,

[17:12] too. I did a lot of content on those

[17:13] cars, but at some point in '17, I

[17:15] started to realize that doing content on

[17:19] other cars actually was better because I

[17:22] didn't have to buy the car, I didn't

[17:24] have to maintain the car and take that

[17:26] big risk, and most importantly, uh I

[17:28] could do varied content. And so like I

[17:31] could do a Honda Civic Type R one week

[17:32] and a Land Rover Defender the next week

[17:34] and this and that. And it started to hit

[17:36] me in the middle of 17, early middle of

[17:38] 17, that it was better to do content on

[17:41] car review content on a different car

[17:43] each week. And by like mid-late 17,

[17:46] early to mid-18, I had pretty much

[17:48] stopped doing videos on my cars at all

[17:50] and had pivoted almost completely to the

[17:52] car reviews and specifically the quirks

[17:54] and features format, which kind of

[17:56] became what I was most known for. And

[17:58] then beyond that, when the rest of it is

[18:00] is sort of more modern history, but I I

[18:02] was never really satisfied with YouTube

[18:04] being my only means of income. Um it was

[18:06] never clear to me that that was a

[18:07] long-term strategy because I was always

[18:09] concerned that something bad was going

[18:11] to happen with YouTube that I would, you

[18:13] know, that they would change the

[18:14] algorithm or that they would send views

[18:16] to new creators and get rid of me and uh

[18:18] I was never really convinced that it was

[18:20] the right way to go. So even though with

[18:21] my 17, my 18, my 19 were massive years,

[18:24] was making a ton of money, I was always

[18:26] searching for like a better way to do

[18:28] this that wasn't so beholden on YouTube

[18:30] and eventually that's I launched Cars

[18:32] and Bids in the spring of 20

[18:34] um and now the rest is like really

[18:36] modern history. Obviously took a big

[18:37] investment in Cars and Bids in '22

[18:40] uh and and kind of I'm at this point

[18:42] now. But

[18:43] that's that's how it went down. Um I I

[18:46] still remember uh to this day

[18:49] uh

[18:50] it was December 8th, 2012, was the day

[18:53] that I decided to quit my my Porsche

[18:56] office job that I had worked so hard to

[18:58] get uh after like 3 years, I decided to

[19:00] quit and go and write about cars. And I

[19:03] remember it was one of the scariest days

[19:05] of my life, one of the scariest feelings

[19:07] of my life

[19:08] uh doing that. And also the biggest bet

[19:11] of my life, right? On myself and on the

[19:12] ability that I could go do this and and

[19:14] I did and it and it worked out. Um I

[19:16] don't necessarily suggest that everyone

[19:17] try it. It worked for me. I was young. I

[19:19] was 24. I had no mortgage. I had no

[19:21] kids. I had nothing to answer for. And

[19:23] it turned out I was sort of entering

[19:24] some burgeoning spaces. The the the

[19:26] blogging space, the video space,

[19:28] obviously the car the online car auction

[19:30] sales space. Those things were sort of

[19:32] growing up with me and I got lucky at

[19:34] that. Um but there were some tough days.

[19:37] I remember some, you know, there was

[19:39] crying. There was

[19:40] screaming. There was There was sadness.

[19:43] There was depression. There were There

[19:44] some of my early comments, um people

[19:46] stuff people would say to me almost made

[19:48] me stop.

[19:50] Um

[19:51] There were tough days.

[19:53] And it's amazing looking back on it now

[19:55] thinking about just how tenuous it was

[19:57] and just how that string of things like,

[20:00] you know, Autotrader to Truth About Cars

[20:02] to Jalopnik to, you know, making videos

[20:05] to

[20:06] my own cars to car reviews to Cars and

[20:08] Bids, like that string could have been

[20:11] broken or easily. If If one of those

[20:12] things hadn't worked, if one of those

[20:14] things the timing had been wrong,

[20:15] there's a lot of luck involved, if I'm

[20:17] honest. And it was a lot of effort.

[20:19] Um but it worked and I'm so happy now.

[20:21] And it and and it worked out great. And

[20:23] and um but that's how it started. Uh it

[20:25] it was a huge risk. It was crazy. The

[20:27] decisions that I made looking back on it

[20:29] 15 years ago were crazy. Leaving my

[20:31] cushy job at this company I worked so

[20:33] hard to get at, trying to trying to

[20:35] create a job that basically didn't

[20:36] exist, like humor writing about cars and

[20:39] and um and then just sort of lucking

[20:41] into video content. It was all hard. Um

[20:44] and but that it that's that's the origin

[20:47] story. That's really how it all started,

[20:49] how it all began, and how it got to

[20:51] where it is.

[20:52] Uh and if you've ever wondered, now you

[20:54] know.

[21:13] >> Mhm.