John Ballen
speaker
344 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
John Ballen’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And so I think that the one definite specific thing is I never made that content because I literally believed I'm the special guy and like everybody better look at me as like Mr. Navy SEAL. I was very aware of the fact that I was a junior SEAL relative to the other people that had served. And like my experience was minimal compared to others.
So I think that some people think that I actually somehow believe that I'm like I'm a superhero. And I didn't then and I don't now. I'd say now sort of –
Mr. Ballin side of things there's like a practical thing which is the as the sort of Mr. Ballin thing has grown to where it is now to where it's like a it's a pretty recognizable thing in in the genre of the strange dark and mysterious um it's been really really challenging for me personally to balance my my life with my wife and my three kids who I adore and sort of like you
you know, responsibilities with content. I mean, we have a recording schedule. We have things that I sort of have pledged to do. And as you know, with content creation, there's not really an end. You just sort of keep doing it. I think that by no means am I saying, like, oh, this job is so hard. People better sympathize with me. Hardly. Like, I understand the privilege.
But at the same time, like I started making content and it was like an outpouring of content constantly. I was making five videos a week sometimes that are like 25 minutes each by myself, like shooting it, editing it, everything. It was like it would take me about 26 hours or so per video over seven days. So it's like I really wasn't sleeping. I became like a raging alcoholic.
I became like horribly overweight because it was like everything got pushed aside to make videos. And then as I realized that like doing content at that fervorish rate was really taking a toll on my physical health, my mental health, and definitely my relationship with my wife and kids, I began to sort of make an exchange. It was like I'm going to do less content for more time with my family.
And loads of people got that. It isn't like the masses were like, dude, you're a jerk. But I think what's happened now, and it's sort of a product of success, is we've reached a point, not just me, but we have a team that's pretty sizable. We have an amazing studio. We have publishing division. We have this. We have that.
We've reached a point where I think people view me as this corporate guy out to get money, when in reality, You were talking before the show, you're like, it's weird people say you're so successful when I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm still very much the guy that randomly made a video that went viral on TikTok.
And so one of the harder things for me has been as the audience grows, which I'm happy for, it's like you really have to understand that there are people that...
don't like me anymore like have taken an issue with me and it's always this idea that like i'm somehow like this money-grubbing like corporate guy that is only in it to make money when in reality like as you've probably seen with this interview dude my default is i love telling stories i love this genre always have and like i also i kind of like being my own boss to a degree so it's like it checks a lot of boxes for me do you ever worry that you've got your priorities wrong
You know, I think that I've actually probably reached a point in my life as a content creator where maybe I haven't come to it exactly the way you've just laid it out. But it's. I'm definitely not currently in this for money. If anything, I'm in it for, I get a lot of enjoyment out of literally telling stories.
I mentioned to you pre-show that doing the live tour was so much fun because I got to actually interact with these people that show up as numbers on my YouTube videos, but they're real people. And it's like, it was so much fun, like fulfilling for me. I would have, I literally told Nick, my CEO and my manager that
before the tour started like I would have I would have paid to do the tour and now especially I would have paid money to have that experience to put those shows on but yeah like looking ahead it's like I've sort of reached a point which is like I was never really in this for for fame or money or I definitely was in it for like the idea of being successful no doubt I want to be successful and things come with that that are in in the money and fame and all that but like
I ultimately just, I'm a guy that just like tries new stuff. I've done lots of new things. I sort of reinvented myself several times over. But I do really well when I just sort of have a new goal. And I thrive in that environment. And like for me, like when the Mr. Ballin thing started, it was not how much money can we make or how successful or how big of a business can we make?
It was like, can I make another video that people like? Can I keep doing that? And that became the goal. Can I repeat interest in the videos?
Yes and no, for sure. Because I think that I'm also capable of saying, and now I'm good. I'm going to go do this completely new thing with my family and ride off into the sunset.
I do, actually.
It's about 10. I think we've done the math and we looked at all areas, all platforms, including podcasts. It's probably somewhere around 20 to 25 million.
Yeah.
You know, actually, it's funny you bring this up because I've sort of mentioned the live tour a couple times. If I had to be honest about my... deeply internalized, unchecked box from the time I became an adult. Well, from the time I like joined the military, it was, I always just had this interest in giving a big public talk for no other reason than to simply conquer that moment.
Showing 221–240 of 344 · page 12 of 18
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