MrBeast is a legendary YouTube creator. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - House of Macadamias: https://houseofmacadamias.com/lex and use code LEX to get 20% off your first order - Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off EPISODE LINKS: MrBeast Main Channel: https://youtube.com/@MrBeast MrBeast Reacts: https://youtube.com/@BeastReacts MrBeast Gaming: https://youtube.com/@MrBeastGaming MrBeast Philanthropy: https://youtube.com/@BeastPhilanthropy MrBeast's TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mrbeast MrBeast's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrBeast MrBeast's Instagram: https://instagram.com/mrbeast Feastable's Website: https://feastables.com MrBeast Burger's Website: https://mrbeastburger.com MrBeast's Merch: https://shopmrbeast.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (06:55) - 1 billion views and 1 billion subscribers (12:41) - Mortality (20:04) - Improving YouTube (22:26) - Twitter (27:14) - Brand deals (30:24) - Audience retention (35:03) - Hiring (42:41) - Talking to the camera (47:42) - Brainstorming (1:00:03) - TikTok (1:09:07) - Advice for beginners (1:13:23) - How to grow on YouTube (1:21:07) - Elon Musk and Twitter (1:22:32) - 10 million dollars vs 10 million subscribers (1:29:50) - Going to Antarctica (1:31:35) - Process of making a video (1:36:11) - Overcoming depression (1:47:15) - Building a business (1:55:10) - MrBeast Burger and Feastables (1:59:15) - Creating video games (2:03:24) - Making billions of dollars (2:05:58) - Money vs Happiness (2:12:46) - Mental health (2:19:24) - Love (2:21:32) - Legacy
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
The following is a conversation with Mr. Beast, the mastermind behind some of the most epic and popular videos ever made. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got House of Macadamias for a satiating and delicious snack. Eight Sleep for, you guessed it, naps. And BetterHelp for mental health.
Choose wisely, my friends. snacks, naps, or mental health. And now on to the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle. I try to make this interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This show is brought to you by House of Macadamias.
It seems like it was just yesterday that they became a sponsor and I became aware of their existence because before they became a sponsor, they sent a giant box of delicious snacks. And it seems just like it was yesterday that I ate all of those snacks over a period of a few days and was a happier man for it.
This month, I'm much stricter on my diet and trying to be much more responsible with my consumption of snacks. I think moderation is key for that. But in general, I think, first of all, macadamia, to me, I think, is one of the more delicious nuts, but it is definitely the healthiest or at least one of the most healthy. I think it's pretty much the healthy.
I remember when I first started keto many, many years ago, I did a bunch of research on which nuts I can and can't have, I guess, if I want to be ultra low carb. And everybody recommended macadamia as like the one that has all these nutrients and all that kind of stuff. I'm sure there's a lot of science. You can look it up. I think there's like,
omega-7s or whatever, those different kinds of fats. It doesn't matter. The points are delicious. And the raw ingredient of the macadamia nut that House of Macadamias provides is just delicious, and of course they do all kinds of snacks around that. And my task, whenever I do an ad read or talk to anybody, like my neighbors or friends, about House of Macadamias, is not to do any sexual innuendo.
That's job number one. My brain is that of a silly person. At heart, I'm still a child, and I will forever remain a child. Like that Tom Waits song, I don't want to grow up. Maybe that's not even the name of the song or the lyrics, but I'm just going to go with it. And this is a good chance to mention that Tom Waits is somebody that I've dreamed of talking to on this podcast for a long time.
He's a very difficult interview to get. He's dropped a few crumbs to me of hope, you know, saying like, yes, maybe one day. So I hold on to that hope like a hold on to the delicious house of macadamia nuts with childlike joy in my eyes. Go to HowsomeAcademia.com to get 20% off your first order. This episode is also brought to you by 8sleep and its new Pod 3 mattress.
There's been a few days over the past, let's say, three weeks where I've been extremely stressed because of several things going on in my life. You know how life is. It's an up and down process. Both the ups and downs contribute to the beauty of the whole experience. Anyway, when things are kind of difficult, I saw an escape in friends, in books, in moments of simple joy, in moments of peace.
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Chapter 2: How does MrBeast view the future of his videos?
What do you think that is?
Well, yeah, because I think the tweet I responded to is one where he was saying that users will jump over if Twitter can potentially pay more than other platforms. And I was just saying, obviously, because Google has Google AdWords, and that's Google's whole thing. It's putting ads on stuff. They've been doing it better than anyone else in the world for a very long time.
It's very unlikely in the next few years that Twitter is going to just magically or any platform, you know, give a creator the ability to make higher CPMs than on YouTube. It's kind of crazy. Like some creators in December, you know, Q4 because ad rates are higher because of Christmas and everything. Some creators literally make like $30, $40 per thousand views. That's after YouTube's cut.
Like it's almost like hard to think about like how high the RPMs get. And even then, once you pull out of finance and cars, the high CPM niches, and you move into just normal stuff. It's still just crazy. The sheer volume of creators and the fact that all of them get these multi-dollar CPMs at scale, it's pretty beautiful.
So you do, I don't know what you would call them, but like integrated ads in your videos and you do, I would say masterfully. It's like part of the video.
Are you talking about brand deals?
Brand deals, is that what you would call that? Yep. So it's a brand deal. It's part of the video. It's still really exciting to watch. And yet there's a plug for the brand.
In general, just brand deals, since you brought it up, integrating them well. I think that's something a lot of creators don't do. They'll just do a brand deal out of the blue. They'll just be filming a video and then around the three minute mark, just start talking about a random company.
And I feel like if you don't want viewers to click away and you want people to not get pissed off and call you to sell out, you got to find a way to integrate into content. And ideally, use the money in the video to make it better. The easiest thing you do when you do a brand deal is just tell people how you're using money from the brand deal to make your content better.
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Chapter 3: What are the key factors for creating viral content?
What was that like? It's interesting. Well, not even just the algorithm, just the content. Like I'm going from basically 15 minute short films to...
one sub one minute vertical content it's a whole different just ballpark um and so the first little while i was doing tiktok it was just kind of figuring out how what what does mr beast look like in this short form content but recently we've really started to catch our stride and come up with some original concepts and figure out how to innovate over there just like we did on youtube because i don't want it i didn't want it to just be shitty youtube videos yeah you know and so like an example is um
We played the rock for 100K and rock, paper, scissors. And the loser had to donate 100K to charity. We went to random people on a campus and we offered them. So I said, I'll give you $100 if you fly to Paris and give me a baguette. And then they said, no. And I was like, I'll give you $300 if you fly to Paris and give me a baguette. And I was expecting this person to say no.
And it go up to like 10 grand. And he's like, yes. And so he flew to Paris, got a baguette and brought it back and gave it to me. And that across everything got like 450 million views. Because it's just really cool just to see this random guy get on a plane, spend a day in Paris and we cut it up real nicely and bring it back. And so we're starting to find just tons of original content over there.
But it seems like an epic video to make for one minute.
No one on short form is doing it. That's the thing. It's like, it's just so funny because like TikTok's been big for a while now, years. And then, you know, as we started to really figure out things on the YouTube channel and get it cranking where I have some free time, we set our sights on TikTok and like, okay. What are people not doing?
How do we make it better, put in more effort, make it good? And we did the same thing we did at YouTube, just different over on TikTok. And it worked. And now we're the fastest growing or most followed TikTok account in 2022. And it's just funny that no one else did that.
And you're not afraid to do epic stuff, which also during the brainstorming, some of the ideas you're like, that's better as a short. That's crazy.
Yeah. Can you remember one? Because I remember I said that a bunch, but I can't think of one.
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Chapter 4: How does MrBeast approach creative problem-solving?
Like when we give away an island, like we gave our 100 million subscriber an island. Yeah. you can't find private islands that don't look like shit for less than $10 million. So this isn't doable, right? All right, the idea doesn't exist, not doable, X it off.
Chapter 5: What are the challenges of scaling Feastables and MrBeast Burger?
But then you dig into it and you find different alternatives and you find, okay, well, what if we just buy a $2 million island that sucks and then spend a million dollars importing some sand, let's build a beach, let's import 300 trees, let's build a little bit of canal, let's cut some paths, boom,
Now it's a really nice island, but it's actually affordable because we don't have $10 million to spend on video, but we can afford to spend three and a half and lose whatever, a million dollars on that video. So like, that's an example of like, yeah, if you just went off the gut test, you'd be like, this isn't doable. You know, every island's $10 million. We're screwed.
Chapter 6: How does MrBeast define success in his career?
Like if we go cheaper, it's just a terrible island. No. And so if you like... There are so many different ways you can achieve what you want. You've really got to push through notes, which not a lot of people do.
Chapter 7: What is the role of love in MrBeast's life and work?
You have to have more of a dominant personality and just a willingness to, when people tell you it's not possible, just actually go through all the variables and eliminate them all yourself.
Have a stubbornness and a resilience to failure, maybe.
For what we do and creators online, it's very imperative that you have... That a no isn't a no to you. You really have to think.
We take a personality test and just having a dominant personality is a better indicator that when someone tells you, oh, there's no way you're going to build a brick wall for under 100 grand, you'll be like, okay, and then still go check the next 10 vendors and figure it out.
Yeah. What advice would you give to an already established channel? Like with one, two, three, 4 million subscribers, how to like 10 exit, like increase it without losing me.
Yeah. That's where it's very specific, like channel by channel. You can't give general advice.
Okay.
Yeah. Because if I do, millions of creators are going to see this and then they're going to do it and I'm going to fuck them over.
Oh, I see, I see. So let's say I'd like 2 million subscribers on this podcast.
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