Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa and Josh!

Soundtrack for this newsletter - Free Bird - Lynryd Skynyrd

Yes, despite how it may look sometimes, we do actually have one. Kinda. Sorta. For sure. Yep.

I thought this would be a fun change of pace from the usual hard hitting journalism we do around here, and talk about how we, as full time YouTubers, think about this platform and the things we make for it.

Plus, this is our 4th anniversary of becoming full time internet-meme-generators, our 4th anniversary of helping people travel the world on a budget, our 4th anniversary of the beginning of the end of having any hope of free time (just kidding, all of this is “free time",” right?)

This is very much a work in progress - we’re not some Moses-like figures delivering YouTube Commandments from atop a mountain direct from an all-enlightened guru - we’re right in the thick of this thing, trying to figure it out alongside every other travel creator…. besides Kara and Nate. They seem to have figured it all out by… (checks youtube) living in a cybertruck? running a marathon? flying only first class? staying at a celebrity island???

There’s 3 main topics to discuss here around our current YouTube strategy, and why we’re choosing the make the movies (they weren’t always movies, but have certainly become movies over time) that we spend all our waking, and sometimes sleeping hours crafting.

We LOVE being able to make things that help you all travel more, and we’re incredibly proud of things like our scholarship that is soon going to give away our first, of hopefully many, $5000 scholarships to help students make their study abroad dreams come true.

But, it is still very much a job. And a business. And as is the same with any business-job-creative-hobby-conglomeration, there needs to be some sort of strategy.

100% of our income is from this YouTube thing - we don’t have other jobs or other sources of money in our lives. This thing has to work.

1. Quality > Quantity

When we first started out, we were just mirroring what we saw other successful content creators doing. And by mirroring, I mean shamefully outright copying. We saw other really successful travel couple YouTubers, you know Babs and Bob, Nick and Nancy, X and X… getting morbillions (this is a word that a video game streamer that I watch uses all the time, and now I’m using it - see how easily influenced I am??) of views, and presumably also $$$, from videos that were 10-12 minutes long, released 3-4 times per week, and were a nice / dangerous parasocial relationship breeding ground of “telling you just enough about ourselves and what we’re doing to keep you watching” alongside a backdrop of watching two affable people travel the world.

So, that’s exactly what we made.

And, I do mean exactly. Looking back, it’s pretty embarrassing.

We thought that this was the only way to make it as a travel content creator. We were super duper wrong, but didn’t know it yet.

I think this style continued for us for about 100 videos, until we reached a breaking point. We had this constant empty feeling that was haunting us with every video we’d put out. We were learning how to make videos, and that was important and necessary, but it just didn’t feel right. We couldn’t put our finger on the reason why, until we made this video that was our first departure from that Kara-and-Nate approved formula, and it felt GREAT.

It was a massive departure from anything else we’d made before, but it felt honest. It felt right. It felt complete. It felt crafted with love for the people watching, not with fear of the faceless algorithm that had been the “inspiration” for our past 100 videos.

So, we decided to slowly work our way out of making that original 10-12 minute style of video, and move closer to the documentary-meets-budget-travel-show-with-heart that we had just made.

How, though?

We hadn’t figured that part out yet, but we had to stop making other people’s videos.

Why did we stop? Because it wasn’t working. Because it felt bad.

Why wasn’t it working? Because it wasn’t honest to who we are. It didn’t represent how we looked at and thought about travel. We were constantly trying to jam more depth into our videos, but it felt impossible for us to do that in an almost-daily-vlog format.

So we slowly started releasing less and less frequently, but working a lot harder on each individual video. This trend really started with our first Camino documentary - it felt absolutely bonkers to make that video. There wasn’t really a market for it. Every single video we saw doing well on YouTube was a 10 minute video in a vlog format about a single very specific thing.

You know what I’m talking about, but here’s a few examples -

And we were expecting, alongside all these tightly edited shorter videos, that a slow-paced, thoughtful documentary about a really, really long walk across Spain, would do well? No way.

Our hopes were high, probably too high - but realistically we fully expected that video to bomb.

It took forever to make too - we had no idea how to make a documentary! Well over a month in post production from start to finish, on top of a full month filming.

We didn’t even know how to record a voiceover! We didn’t understand a 3 act narrative, or proper pacing, or how to juggle a terabyte of footage across 20 different video libraries and turn that into a cohesive concept that other people might actually watch. We had no idea what we were doing.

But, we had a story to tell. And that was enough for us to get started.

I remember the nervous excitement we both had when we hit publish on it - we promised each other that we wouldn’t look at the stats until we landed in Australia on our flight from Thailand, 24 hours after release.

It was too close to our hearts, and our already fragile egos would be demolished if this month long undertaking didn’t do well. So, we waited, and waited, and waited, and then finally looked.

It bombed. Hard. The worst performing video we’d ever made, and yes that includes some of our first ever videos. We both just looked at each other and laughed. We were proud of what we had made, but that hurt.

Then, over time, the video grew and grew. And then, for no real particular reason, kinda exploded.

That single Camino video got more traction, views, and made more money for our channel than literally all our other videos up to that point combined. By a large factor. Just check this out.

Not only did we get to put out something we were proud of, but we were helping people at the same time. It was our first glimpse of the promised land.

It also seemed, based on the comments, that this story was resonating with a lot of people out there.

The bonus on top? Being financially rewarded for sharing it. It all felt… right.

We had made about $3000, total, in 2 years, for every single video we put out before this, combined. Granted we weren’t expecting to turn this thing into a business or make any reasonable amount of money when we first started, but I can’t describe how good it felt to make actual money for the first time since starting this YouTube channel.

This is where we learned a very important lesson - we can’t rush quality, and quality is something we care deeply about. It’s just the two of us making every single one of these 370-something videos we’ve put out, and we have to understand that we can’t make videos that are of a quality that we can be proud of, in a hurry.

After that, there was a massive shift in our strategy. Quality > Quantity.

We went down to 1 video per week.

Our views doubled, as did our revenue.

Then, one video every 2 weeks. Views doubled again, same with our revenue.

And where we are now? About 1 video per month(ish).

And for the first time in the last 4 years, we can stop dipping into all of our savings, we can stop watching the balance of our bank accounts dive like the Hindenberg. We can finally afford an apartment, and, maybe someday, US health insurance.

The true YouTuber dream—health insurance. I get excited just thinking about it.

We’re nervous to share this, but I figure it might be useful to someone out there who’s thinking of becoming a YouTuber.

Plus, you haven’t seen how much it costs to make these videos. It ain’t cheap, let me tell ya.

Being able to really focus on crafting each individual video has changed everything about our channel, and our business. It’s allowed us to make the things that we love making - travel documentaries with a soul, crafted with love and care. A complete story in movie form, crammed full of as much value as we can find a way to jam in there without sacrificing the main story.

We were finally able to say that these videos were entirely unique to us - we were making things that only we could make. We felt really proud of every single video we put out - no more rushing half-baked concepts out to meet some arbitrary schedule set by Kara and Nate in 2016 as a model for success on the platform.

We were doing our own thing, and putting everything we had into each and every video we made.

We had to turn off all the noise of what’s working on the platform right now, and figure out what we could uniquely provide.

Quality > Quantity. That’s the first pillar of our YouTube strategy these days. It only took 3-ish years to learn.

2. A complete package

So much of YouTube is spent unlearning the bad habits formed when you start (which I realize, as I’m typing with slumped over shoulders in the dark, is a lot like life). We thought that the way to success was through stringing an audience along with just enough information and entertainment to keep them coming back week after week to see what’s going to happen next. We thought that you should never give away a full story when you can, instead, give away 20 bite sized chunks with no real definitive end.

That always felt weird to us - if we wanted to plan a trip to, say, Vietnam, we didn’t want to have to wade through tens or hundreds of videos to find the good stuff. We wanted one or two really good, complete videos that would give us everything we needed to know so that we could go off and enjoy our vacation.

But also, importantly, we weren’t really interested in live streaming our lives or making this thing about us.

We wanted to make something valuable. Something useful. Something that would help people travel the world.

In a perfect world, you’d watch our videos on a topic you’re interested in, then go on that adventure and totally forget we exist.

And then, when you’re back at home and ready for another adventure, you find another one of our videos and go and do that.

Rinse, repeat.

We love and value our connection with all of you - we just don’t want what we’re doing with our lives to become a distraction from you living yours.

We want to make things that help you go out and do incredible things in your own lives.

So, we set out trying to figure out how to make exactly that, and 3 years into this thing, we stumbled across our perfect format in which to do so in our first “3 Days in X” movie. It was a hair brained idea that came out of a wine-fueled brainstorming session we had one night before heading to Japan to film in late 2022.

Most of our best ideas come to us this way.

The question that brought us to it was “What if we just made one single awesome video that showed all our favorite things to do in a place, in the way normal people travel, and at a reasonable budget?”

It seems such an obvious outlook to us now, but I suppose everything looks obvious in hindsight.

Everything just clicked into place after that.

We’d been fortunate enough to visit Tokyo so many times by then that we immediately outlined the entire 3 day trip with all our favorite things to do and best tips in an afternoon - “oh they have to eat at this epic ramen shop, gotta do teamlabs, make sure to do the fish market on day 2, gotta put $100 on their suica cards, train is the best way to get into town from Narita, shoulder season is best” - everything we knew and loved about Tokyo crammed into one complete travel-guide-slash-vlog with a countdown of every single yen spent along the way.

We’d do all the stuff that most people would do on their first trip to Tokyo, and throw in a few of our personal favorites that we loved from our trips there.

We made a bunch of other concepts while we were in Japan, and most them did really well, but this “3 Days in Tokyo on a Budget” did well and felt really, really good to make.

It took forever to film - it still takes us 7-10 days to film one of these “3 Days in X” videos, and up to a month to film a “3 Weeks in X” video - and even longer to edit. (It’s usually a 2 week process from start to finish once we get in the editing booth.)

But it felt like such a perfect representation of everything we care about and stand for. Attainable travel with a massive focus on the place (instead of on us), the ups and downs, successes and failures of traveling, and hopefully valuable information strewn throughout to help the viewer make their own trip to Tokyo seamless, fun, and adventurous.

After that video came out, and we saw the response to it, we knew what we had to do.

3 Days in (Everywhere) on a Budget became the format, and we’re still making exclusively that.

We were finally providing a complete package.

3. Working with brands on our terms only

You might have noticed that we haven’t worked with any brands for a long time. I think our last video integration (that’s what we call it in the biz - it’s that 30 second ad spot that [insert brand name that suspiciously only YouTubers use here] buys from the creator in the middle of their video) was for Squarespace well over a year ago.

We’re not knocking brand deals, because to be transparent, doing these types of brand deals is necessary revenue for the creator to keep building their channel - it certainly was for us.

The S.S. Lisa and Josh would have sunk a long time ago without a bit of money from ole Uncle Skillshare and Squarespace, that’s for sure.

But some of these brand deal requests that come in never sit quite right with us, and we couldn’t figure out why. I think our movie-like format doesn’t lend itself easily to brand deals - I mean, it’s like going to watch a heist movie, and then right in the middle of an important part of the story George Clooney looks at the camera and breaks the fourth wall to tell you all about the shiny Rolex he’s wearing.

Similarly, no matter how hard I try I can’t think of a good way to advertise this battery operated heated vest while kayaking through the blue waters of the Philippines. All it would do is confuse and piss off the audience, and make us feel bad.

We struggled at times doing brand deals, but we also wanted to keep this thing going.

Now that we’ve grown a bit, and have the support of Patreon and (currently) enough revenue from existing ads on YouTube to support our business and our lives - except the great white whale of health insurance - we don’t HAVE to take these brand deals, and that breathing room has changed our entire viewpoint on video integrations.

We still want to work with brands, but it’s gotta be a win-win-win. A win for you as the viewer, a win for us as the creator, and a win for the brand. If it’s not that, we’re not doing it.

So, the next brand deal you see on our channel will hopefully be as unintrusive as possible, and also come along with a giveaway of 2 roundtrip tickets to wherever that video is about. That’s our terms - it has to be a win for our community too, or else it just doesn’t make sense to do.

Everything we do has to help people travel the world on a budget.

A 45 second ad for [insert VPN company here] might not do that. BUT - a 45 second ad that gives a few people a free trip to Paris, and helps us keep making these videos, and maybe even one day give us the ability to see a doctor? That makes sense.

The Wrap Up

So there it is - our current YouTube strategy. Now that I’m reading this back, I think it’s more an all-encompassing strategy for life and business, and YouTube just happens to be the main mechanism that we use to make it happen.

It’s important to reiterate here - WE DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING, WE’RE JUST FIGURING THIS THING OUT AS WE GO ALONG, AND IT COULD ALL GO AWAY AT ANY MOMENT. Ok? Ok. This is just what we’ve learned so far.

Four years in, we still stand by our statement that this is the best job we’ve ever had and we feel incredibly lucky and grateful that we even have a shot at it.

Hope you enjoyed this read, and THANK YOU all so much for being along with us every step of the way. Literally none of this would be possible without you.

I just hope we’ve provided you enough value through our videos, podcast, newsletters, meme-filled-youtube-shorts, and everything else we make to help you get a bit closer to making your travel dreams come true.

Ok, back to our usual hard-hitting journalism. If you have any questions or comments about this, email us back or comment on the Patreon post about this same topic.

Scholarship Update

So much to say here! We’ve gotten 24 applicants so far, and more are rolling in every day! We’ve got some really amazing students who’ve applied, and it makes us so excited to be able to help out one of them this year.

And, with any luck, somewhere between 2 and 10 more students next year!

We’re just over 1/5th of the way to being able to give away another scholarship to another amazing college student.

If you’re feeling generous you can donate here, or just sign up for our Patreon and 10% of all revenue we get from there goes directly into the scholarship fund, and we match that 10% out of our own pockets.

This whole thing is just incredible, and we’re just so damn proud of this community for stepping up and helping college students make their study abroad dreams come true.

What else are we up to?

Editing and writing more videos! That’s literally it! That’s our whole lives! We need hobbies.

Today

Writing this thing, and being terrified of what it will do to our reputation when we put it out into the world. YouTube is weird. We’re weird. It’s all weird.

Editing our next video, booking a bajillion flights for Season 3.

The (Near) Future

Disney. A big documentary that’s kinda close to this topic. And planning out Season 3. :)

Our Latest Videos

Yeah, we were surprised too.

This video is everything to us. Give it a look :)

This is a documentary about our Camino that we walked last year. It’s an entirely different story from the individual videos we put out about it last year, made from a lot of the same footage. You’ll see 🙂 

See you next week…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs 4 years ago, you’ll likely be interested in our Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles course on our Patreon. It’s included with any level. Check it out here.

https://patreon.com/lisaandjosh

Also, here’s a cute cat :)