We Can Finally Talk About This

[00:01] [music] after the LA fires last year. And I remember when we first came up here and I walked around my home. There's a lot of things that I felt really [music] sad about losing, like the first guitars I had when I was a kid

[00:14] or the suit that I wore to [music] my wedding. But when I looked at my car, I didn't really feel anything. And that's because the car that I had was very much for utility. There was no real like emotional story behind it. So, a lot of

[00:28] Samir and [music] I have been going through over the past 18 months has to do with this car, the car that we are sitting in right now. So, in this video, this [music] car, as well as some of the lessons we have learned since the fires

[00:43] >> Let me show you where we're sitting right now. So, we're actually sitting uh in in my neighborhood in the Palisades, and you can kind of see there's still a lot of empty lots around here. There's some construction going on, some homes

[00:57] that have been fully rebuilt. But I would say if there's a lesson that I've would say if there's a lesson that I've learned, it's that reinvention takes a long time. And you have to learn to be comfortable in the unknown. We have no

[01:10] idea what this town is actually going to look like or when it will be done. >> And you just have to live in that. And I think that goes for our own transformation. And if you're reinventing, you don't exactly know who

[01:23] you're going to become. And you just got to be okay with that. I didn't know I >> You don't have a mullet. >> Okay, listen. I told my barber, I said, >> Give me an early mullet. Zoom [laughter] in. Punch in.

[01:35] >> Can you see the silhouette? >> I see what you're trying to do for sure, to do that. >> I went I went 15% of the way there. Reinvention doesn't happen overnight. Okay. 10 years from now, it'll be a real

[01:48] we're sitting in, it's a bit of a long the way, and it has to do with something I said on this YouTube channel. So, we do this podcast with Nick De Giovani, and we're talking about acting in it,

[02:02] and I talk about my one and only audition story, which was for a commercial for Lexus. I get DM'd by a director who's like, "Hey, I love your look." And this audition went horribly

[02:14] >> Samir acted out what he was supposed to act out. And then the director Samir, you can start whenever you're ready." And he had already done it. getting the part. >> So our partner manager at YouTube,

[02:26] Andrew, listens to this episode and around the same time gets a message asking if there's any creators who would be a good fit to pitch a commercial to

[02:38] Colin?" >> And so we get invited to pitch something [music] to Lexus. At this time, Samir and I are trying to rebuild our lives. We're also taking a step back and trying to

[02:51] reinvent our company and our business. Also, we had just both had kids. So, our lives were pretty like constrained and restricted for the first time in a really long time. And I remember looking at this opportunity and saying to Samir,

[03:04] why don't we just pitch them something we actually want to do? It might sound weird, but like we just thought about what we wanted to do, and if they didn't like what we needed was just to like get in a car and go somewhere. Like get out

[03:18] in a car and go somewhere. Like get out of this place for a bit, try and do some new things to have some new ideas. It was as simple as that. Here's some places we want to go. Here's some things we want to do. And they said yes. It was

[03:32] amazing. >> So what that means is we made car commercials about this car, the Lexus GX 550. And that's a large part of what we've been doing this past year. We partnered with Lexus to make this

[03:44] fourpart ad campaign about four different adventurers that we've gone on to do new creative things. >> And we decided to split them up where I choose two. The first ad that you're

[03:56] going to see go out on YouTube was Samir's decision. It was his thing that he [music] wanted to do. So this is a voice memo of me playing some chords [music] on guitar. And after the fires, my friend Tom gave me a

[04:11] guitar [music] and it became one of my few possessions. [music] I was faced with this prompt of like, okay, get in a car and do something you want to do, the first place my mind went was rent a recording

[04:24] [music] studio and produce a song. You know those thoughts that you have where you're like, man, once I make it, I'm going to spend my time doing that. For studio. That's all I would think about is like all I want to do is record.

[04:38] >> So, we found this recording studio in Joshua Tree, which is actually a really important place for us because we went on a road trip at a very transformative time on this channel to Joshua Tree. >> Show of hands. How many people have been

[04:52] watching since the Jackcoin Chronicles? >> I can't see anyone's hands. I can't see >> Can you imagine someone's at home with their hand up? my hand down?" >> So, that's what the first ad is about.

[05:04] It's about going from LA to Joshua Tree and making this song. >> And the music that you hear in the ad is the actual song that was made that day which is kind of crazy to me cuz I'm like, Samir, you make music like that?

[05:17] Like, since when? [music] Meanwhile, I'm playing the tambourine. I'm I'm singing. too." No, that's I really >> I think the interesting thing is when you build a business on YouTube, you get

[05:29] conditioned to be so fixated on the outcome of your creativity. Like what's it? Are they going to watch it for a long time? Are they going to comment? Are they going to subscribe? Like we are very outcome oriented as YouTube

[05:44] creators. And music for me is on the other side of that spectrum. It's like fully about exploring a feeling, not [music] working towards an outcome. >> Because I don't play music at all, I didn't really have any reflections about

[05:57] [laughter] the music side of the experience. [music] But the guy who owns the studio, his name is CT, and he is incredible character and we spent so much [music] time that day just talking to him and he gave us some advice that

[06:10] was incredible [music] because he has been a lifelong musician who's been us this advice. >> I heard this one quote from Alice Cooper stuck with me. He said, "If you don't like roller coasters, get out of the

[06:24] business and that is the truth. I've been in a band, my [music] singer died, you pivot, you start again." You know what I mean? You get back on the horse. would say that's why I've probably survived in the business this long is I

[06:37] horse, get back to work. [music] >> The reality is I actually hate roller coasters. When I think back to my youth, like I never wanted to go on roller coasters, but I I've gotten a little bit more comfortable now living in this

[06:50] reality that it just is going to be a roller [music] coaster. And I think Samir and I both now have so much uh respect for the people who come on this respect for the people who come on this ride with us cuz it's our roller

[07:03] our roller coaster and it is >> it is there are a lot of ups and downs >> So this is Jesse. You've probably seen him in some of our videos, but he's been helping us make videos for the past seven years. He's actually monitoring

[07:18] this audio right [laughter] now, making sure that we don't mess this up. So, we go to pick up our cars and we tell Jesse that we need to film this experience of us picking up the cars. And what he doesn't know is in the lot

[07:32] there is a car there that we bought for him. And as we're framing up this shot, we throw him the keys to his car. You want to check out yours? >> Wait, what do you mean? Like, are you for reals? You're Wait, wait,

[07:47] >> Turn around. >> There's like a prank? >> Unlock the car. >> I don't know if you're messing with me right now.

[08:03] threw you the keys to the car? >> I thought you were just joking, man. I going to go on for?" Like, "This is funny, but it's going to be funny for >> I think what's funny is there's so many videos on YouTube of like people gifting

[08:17] such a YouTube thing and their reactions ARE ALWAYS LIKE, "WO!" the bit cuz when you actually do it to someone real in real life, Or >> even off camera, it took us so long to

[08:31] thing that was happening. >> This is crazy. Like is this like >> I still have to do the >> insurance. >> So you just got me something I have to pay. [laughter]

[08:44] >> Love you, dude. >> How do you like it? Is it is it cool, [laughter] I forget if I can cuss or not, but like vacation and I was taking so many pictures of the car when we were coming

[08:59] sick. That looks so sick." And I'm like, I don't know why I'm taking pictures of Yeah, [laughter] >> So, back to my burned down car. When we

[09:12] video that we wanted to make to talk about this moment, something I said to Colin was, I did not care about that car. It did not matter to me. And now when I look at the car that I drive, I feel so excited about it. And it's

[09:27] because of the stories that this car carries. Now, >> this car allowed us to go on all these adventures. It allowed us to gift Jesse a new car. It created all these memories, these moments, and like this

[09:41] >> to just do new things. >> Just do new things. And that's powerful. >> I think one of the lessons for me coming out of this situation was that people are the antidote to bad luck. Like what happened to us, what happened to

[09:55] everyone here in this community is bad luck. It's bad timing. It's a bad situation. But you know, for us, we had so many people who are a part of our community who were able to connect us and create opportunities for us to work

[10:09] and do different things like this Lexus commercial. And everyone here has a different version of an opportunity that came to them post this terrible event >> So Andrew, who's our partner manager at YouTube, without him, this opportunity

[10:24] doesn't come up. So, it's been about a year since we had that conversation with Lexus. We've produced all the ads and they're starting to roll out now. >> So, we're really excited about this and these ads that we've made. You're going

[10:36] our own videos. You may be watching someone else's video and then all of a >> There's Colin and Smeir. >> I heard about this ad." >> So, by the way, an ask for you. If you do see one of our ads, don't skip it.

[10:48] Just watch, click, poke around. >> Well, even skipping it means that you >> fine. Don't skip it. I'm not going to be >> Colin always wants to not tell you what to do, but I'm just I'm just asking. I

[11:00] be nice if you just watch it. All right. We put a website in the description campaign. If you want to click through, see some of the ads, learn more about there is something you've been putting off, something you want to do, a place

[11:14] you want to go, put it in the comments. We're going to sift through them. We'll it happen for you. >> What if they say they want to go to space? Then we're probably not going to pick that one [laughter]

[11:26] >> Borderline dangerous. >> Pick a reasonable one. Like go make >> Pick something reasonable. >> Have a reasonable dream. Okay. >> All right. >> No, dream big.

[11:39] >> Yeah. [laughter] >> All right. Put it in the comments. Uh we are incredibly grateful to have had this experience through everything that we experience like this with Lexus to do things we want to do largely because of

[11:53] over the years uh has been truly incredible and thanks for watching us things. It's been really great to have you guys along for the journey and I you guys along for the journey and I know it's been uh it see you

[12:07] know it's been uh it see you >> [laughter]