Introduction

Hi, my name is Jake Tran. I went from an immigrant from Saigon, Vietnam at the age of two to one of the top business YouTube channels on the platform with almost 600,000 subscribers, and I am one of the passionate few.

Welcome to this episode of the Passionate Few podcast. Today it's your host Omar here, and today you're in for an incredible interview as we sit down with none other than arguably the most dangerous, evil, and playfully entertaining YouTuber on the platform today - Jake Tran. Known for his controversial video business essays ranging in topics from things like how the ultra-wealthy evade taxes, will find art, so why do Chinese billionaires keep disappearing, the economics of the mafia, the CIA's plot to assassinate Julian Assange, and even most recently a video delving into the topic of whether or not Coca-Cola actually contains cocaine or not.

Jake shares with us in this incredible interview his blue ocean formula for success on the platform and how he actually started from very humble beginnings, coming to this country and really had a dream to have success on YouTube but failed several years prior. And of course, Jake to date has now reached tens of millions of people through the platform, has reached over six hundred thousand, now approaching seven hundred thousand subscribers, and most recently even bought his mom and dad a home in the process.

So I really want to encourage you guys to sit back, relax, and enjoy this incredible interview with arguably the most controversial and dangerous viral video business essay creator on the platform - none other than the king of controversy, the always inspiring and always curious YouTuber, Jake Tran. Enjoy!

Interview Begins

Omar: Thanks so much for being on the show today, Jake.

Jake: Thanks for having me.

Omar: Absolutely, dude. So first of all, I want to talk about your success on YouTube. You're only what, 23 years old at this stage?

Jake: Yeah, 23.

Omar: 23, and you've already got how many subscribers on YouTube?

Jake: Almost 600,000, and like the video today had like 70,000 views, right?

Omar: 60-70,000 views. Yeah, today's video was - the thumbnail says "The Man the CIA Fears the Most" and the title is "The CIA's Plot to Kill" - "The CIA's Plot to Assassinate Julian Assange," and that's probably at like 70-80k views right now, and you just posted it today.

Jake: Yeah.

Omar: So it's this insane growth, and guys, this is why I brought Jake on the show. So Jake, before we talk about kind of like where you got to now with YouTube, take me back - you know, you're only 23. Where did you grow up and sort of where did entrepreneurship or the desire to do something on YouTube kind of start for you? Should I start like very, very beginning or...?

Jake: Yeah, I want to know where it kind of - what led you to what you're doing now. I'm sure it was a series of things.

Early Life and Background

Jake: Okay, I was born in Vietnam in Saigon, and I moved to America when I was two to Southern California in Orange County, and I grew up there the first half of my childhood, in the second half in Arizona. And I guess every entrepreneur has like little stories of love selling stuff as a kid, and I definitely had a few of those things.

Like I used to sell at these Asian markets - they would sell these like Asian little energy drinks, and I would have my parents buy me a case and then I sold it to my friends for like a few bucks extra per bottle. So that was one example.

I would - so I really wanted toys like expensive toys, but we always grew up poor, so I was very frugal naturally growing up. So in middle school, I would like get one toy and then get bored of it, flip it on eBay for cash or another toy that I wanted, and just keep the cycle going. And then I would make a little bit of profit each time, so I would save up a little bit of money.

Omar: Super dangerous! Probably don't recommend that for everyone because I was meeting strangers in person as like a little kid.

Jake: Oh really? To try to do the toys like swap?

Omar: Yeah, like something - yeah, like my neighborhood in front of my house. It was - I'm surprised I didn't get kidnapped or anything.

Jake: And how old were you at that time?

Omar: Middle school, so however old you are in the... 12 or whatever.

Academic Success and Taekwondo

Jake: And then does that lead to more entrepreneurial things, or when does kind of YouTube come into play for you?

Omar: Yeah, so unlike a lot of entrepreneur stories - like most of them do bad in school - and I didn't do too well in elementary school, probably because of the language barrier. I don't remember too much, but starting in high school I was really good at school, loved math, I enjoyed science. The science classes in high school weren't good, but I enjoyed it, and I graduated 11th of my class. And I could have got valedictorian or whatever, like second, third place, but I didn't take all the AP classes that were available because at the time I was super obsessed with taekwondo.

That was my full-time job in high school. I would get out of school for like 30 minutes and then go straight to taekwondo where I would help teach or teach a class - like three classes a day and train for one class in a day. So I was working five to six days a week in high school.

Jake: And taekwondo actually was a passion of yours that you tried to take on YouTube kind of initially, right?

Omar: Yeah.

Jake: So did that go well?

Omar: Funny story - I got into taekwondo because I got into like three fights in middle school. So my dad was one of those - so my dad was super worried that I would become some delinquent, right? Which is a reasonable thing to worry about. So he put me in taekwondo, and I just fell in love with it. And I've always been horrible at sports - normal sports involving balls like soccer, basketball - absolutely horrible. But for some reason, I've always been pretty good at martial arts. It always came rather naturally, so I got super obsessed with it.

Jake: What was it about it that made it a hook for you?

Omar: Probably because I have like more violence in me than the average person - getting into fights and stuff. You seem like such a mellow guy too, that's crazy you say that.

Jake: Martial arts keeps me calm.

Omar: So there was that aspect, and I don't know, I just loved it - like learning how to use your body as a weapon. There was something about that that I just loved. And yeah, I became an instructor super early on. I was helping out students when I was just a few months in, just because I picked it up really fast, and so I became an instructor.

Discovery of YouTube

And then at the time in high school, I was really into watching YouTube. It was my main form of entertainment back then because we didn't have cable because we wanted to save money. So I would watch these tech channels like Linus Tech Tips, Marquez Brownlee - both of them are still going strong today, super big fans of them. And I would just - I fell in love with the idea of being a YouTuber and having fun making videos, getting brand deals, having sponsors, getting free stuff from sponsors. That was like a really cool perk.

Jake: That was the dream - yeah, just getting free stuff. I thought that was so cool.

Omar: So I started a taekwondo channel because that's all I knew back then, and my goal was to be the Linus Tech Tips of taekwondo. That did not work out.

Jake: So you wanted to - your original plan was to teach taekwondo kind of on YouTube?

Omar: Yeah, and be the taekwondo guy. Because I saw Linus Tech Tips - I'm not sure if you're familiar with that - but Linus has this huge team, they have a giant warehouse, they have fun on camera, they have editors, and I thought that was so cool. So I wanted that, but for taekwondo.

Jake: And so you start it, and how long do you try it before you realize, "Ah, this isn't working as great as I thought it would be?"

Omar: So I was super strategic back then, so I was doing it for like one or two years, and I grew up to like - I grew to like 5,000 subscribers, which is pretty bad for one to two years. But I found a lot of YouTubers have a story like that where they just went for years and years with barely any traction - like Mr. Beast, I love that. They go years on YouTube, they fail, and then they find an angle and just boom, explode.

Jake: So I did that for around one or two years, no traction, because one, the content wasn't good obviously, but two, the market for taekwondo was not very big in general. So I took a break, went to college for computer science, and in college I was very good at school. I really enjoyed it actually. I was right - I was like on the edge of becoming an academic, like I really wanted to research AI or something like that. So did that, became a web developer, dropped out of school once I got that job at my community college.

Omar: You just dropped out?

Jake: Yeah.

Omar: So what motivated that? Because...

Jake: Well, the whole purpose of going to school initially was to get a job - some kind of coding job. So once I got that job, like there's no point. I buy the cow if you got the milk.

Omar: I get it.

Jake: It was right at the end of my second year of community college, so I had - I needed two credits left or something like that to get my associate's degree. One was like public speaking, one was something else like biology or something. And public speaking - I was speaking every day in taekwondo, so I didn't really need that.

Skills Transfer to YouTube

Omar: So you develop - you kind of developed the skill there that would then translate to kind of what you do now on YouTube, but you didn't know it at the time, right?

Jake: Yeah, I've learned a lot of stuff over the years, and they've all accumulated into being like really good for YouTube. One of them is teaching and public speaking with taekwondo. That was a major one because on YouTube you have to explain things in the most simple manner possible. A really good advice I got was your videos should be understandable for a five-year-old. That's how you should think about making your videos because if people have to like put mental effort into understanding your video, you've already lost them.

So that was a major thing that helped me with YouTube - teaching taekwondo because I was literally teaching five-year-olds and people older.

Omar: So you were learning how to communicate at every age level, and how to break down steps, and how - so it built that muscle. Very interesting. Because we had a class called Little Tigers for like five, six-year-olds, we had like the kids' class, a little bit older kids, then we had the teenage and adults.

Jake: And all the while, are you thinking like, "I really want to do YouTube, I really want to do YouTube?" Is that in the back of your mind, or did you kind of give up on that idea as a whole? I mean, because I know one thing I love about kind of getting - you know, you and us becoming friends is I would talk to you about, you know, the awesome stuff you're doing and the brand deals and how you're able to like impact these audiences, and I said, "How did you know what to do?" And you were like, "It was always part of the dream," you know? And I love that - it was the dream was always present in you at that time. So where was it when you had the job and all that?

The Millionaire Fastlane

Omar: Yeah, so let's see. So once I stopped the taekwondo channel, I took a break from YouTube, went to college, became a web developer, and sometime in college I read the book - my friend recommended me the book "The Millionaire Fastlane" by MJ DeMarco, and that book pretty much changed my life. Because at the time I was leaning towards becoming an academic, but then I read that book and I listened to the whole book on Audible in like one day, and I came in the next day of school just completely distraught and like my world had been turned upside down. I was thinking to myself like, "What am I doing here?"

Jake: What was the realization, or what's one or two takeaways that the audience might get value from about that book?

Omar: Well, I recommend everyone read the book - I'm gonna butcher the crap out of it - but "The Millionaire Fastlane," check it out. But the general principle is that there's two lanes you can take in life: the slow lane and the fast lane. Slow lane is the traditional route - going to college and working five days a week until you retire, and by the time you retire you're too old to enjoy the money anyways. Or you can go the fast lane route where you create a business where you can get to retirement, financial freedom within a few years versus working your entire life, but it requires a lot more sacrifice.

And at that moment I didn't realize that there were two routes. I thought there was only one route. So it just opened a completely new world to me.

Jake: And it was then that you decided like, "I want to commit to YouTube," or when is the shift? Because I know you had a couple breaks where you start-stop, start-stop. What was the next iteration, the next attempt at YouTube?

Omar: It was definitely not like a straight line. I was taking breaks, never break. So I read that book and I tried a bunch of different stuff initially. I tried stock trading, and then I had an idea because I was studying computer science - I had an idea for an app where you could set alerts for when stocks did certain things with the technical analysis, like it crosses this moving average or crosses below this 10-day moving average or whatever.

So I took a course on Udemy by Nick Janatakis and learned how to build a SaaS app, a software as a service app. So I built that app, I called it Beautiful Stocks, and I thought that was going to be like my business.

Jake: Your million-dollar play.

Omar: The app was super buggy, but I learned a ton building it. So I used that app to land the web developer job I got, which is incredible for my age at the time. I was 19, maybe 18 - can't remember - but I landed a $40 web development job that was remote.

Jake: Forty dollars an hour?

Omar: Yeah, at my age, which at full time it came out to like $80,000 a year or something, with no degree. So that was pretty incredible. I was really happy with that at the time. I was very proud of myself. So I started doing that job, got bored of it after a while because I was kind of just translating designs into code, and it was missing the creative aspect that I really needed in my life. So that's when I started getting bored and got back into business, and that was when I got back into YouTube.

Return to YouTube - Graham Stephan Influence

Jake: So what was your first foray into the new attempt, the new Blue Ocean? I know we're gonna talk a little bit about that. But I know you did a couple videos - Graham Stephan, Mr. Beast now are fans of kind of how you've rebranded and what you've built, which are some of the biggest YouTubers, fastest growing YouTubers in the world. But take - like what was the - what did you come back that second iteration trying video-wise?

Omar: So at that time I started watching Graham Stephan a lot, so I became a fan of him. So I really wanted to get back on YouTube because he was making videos like how much money he was making, how the business of YouTube works. So I - it like reunited the spark of wanting to be a YouTuber.

So I started making videos similar to him, but the problem is when you're making videos similar to the people you look up to, it's a good way to start and get your feet wet, but you don't give people a reason to watch your content over theirs. Because I always use this analogy, but YouTube really comes down to your video being shown on either the homepage, the recommendation tab, and whether or not people click on your video versus all the other videos available to them.

So if you're just copying someone, if your video and their video gets shown on the homepage and viewers have a choice to click on yours versus the person you're copying, why would they choose yours when the other person - you recognize their name, they have like 100k views or whatever, so they have that social proof, they're familiar with that name - they would choose the person you're copying every single time. So that's why copying doesn't really work, and that's what I was doing the whole time.

Jake: How many videos did you try before you realized that?

Omar: I don't know, a lot. Too much.

Jake: Well, what did you learn from that, and what advice do you have for YouTubers out there who might be kind of stuck in that phase?

Blue Ocean Strategy

Omar: So I imagine YouTube as any other business, and an analogy I like to use is restaurants because restaurants are a common business that people open and want to open. So if you just open a restaurant that doesn't differentiate itself from all the other restaurants available out there, you're always going to be struggling for the next customer because there's nothing - you don't have any advantage, you don't have any reason people will choose your restaurant over the other. And that's what a lot of people do on YouTube because YouTube is just like any other business - they just open just another restaurant, they start just another personal finance YouTube channel that has no moats, that has no new offering, it doesn't solve any problem. So that's why they'll always struggle, and that's what I was doing until one day you read a book.

Jake: So I've read this book "Blue Ocean Strategy," and it just changed the game. It teaches you how to go into any crowded industry - what they call a red ocean where you have to constantly fight for customers, constantly fight to be alive - and it teaches you how to create your own little sub-niche that differentiates yourself from all the other people in the red ocean to create your own blue ocean.

Omar: And the parallel here - can you explain to them the blue ocean, red ocean, what it means in the metaphor?

Jake: So in a red ocean, you're competing - a ton of competitors, there's blood in the water.

Omar: Blood in the water, everyone's fighting each other.

Jake: You want fresh water, it's a fresh opportunity, right?

Omar: You want to create a blue ocean where there's no competition, where the only person customers have to go to is you.

[Podcast advertisement break]

Timeline and Growth

Jake: And how long ago was this? Because this fascinates me - how fast you've grown. Your success was really in the last one to two years, right? The explosive sort of growth?

Omar: I saw my old Instagram post where I crossed 10,000 subscribers - that's when I made the switch over - and that was like two years ago.

Jake: Crazy. And then what was your first attempt at - or where was the moment you realized, "Okay, how did you go from like, 'Okay, I need to create my own blue ocean on YouTube, this is what I'm gonna do, this is my game plan?'" Did you try a few things before you know certain things worked? I mean, what was the trial and error process when that realization hit?

Omar: So I looked at channels that I liked, I looked at channels, and I took what they did well and I added in my own spin to everything and created this little - this business video essay thing that I call kind of like business documentaries that no one else is making.

Jake: So that was your first attempt?

Omar: Yeah.

Jake: Nice. And did the first ones do good right away, or...?

Omar: We're getting more views, but it was like 1,000, 2,000, and then around a month later I made a video titled "Why Graham Stephan is Killing the YouTube Algorithm," and I shared with Graham. He was like shocked and really liked it, and he shared it on his Instagram.

Jake: Oh wow.

Omar: And within a few weeks it was at 100k views, so that was like - that was the initial spark that got me off.

Jake: And then so right away are you off to the races and thinking like, "Huh, am I going to turn this into a business? How am I going to..." Because prior to that you probably didn't make much in AdSense revenue at all, right? Brand deals were not even remotely in the consideration.

Omar: Yeah, I was only at maybe like a few thousand subscribers. But yeah, pretty much right away I just dug into it and kept making those videos and kept improving.

Content Volume and Revenue

Jake: And how many videos are you at now in the series like that, give or take?

Omar: Over a hundred.

Jake: Over a hundred. And for people - for any any high-level context you can share with people about kind of the revenue that can be generated or the business back-end side, and whatever level of specifics or, you know, just so people have context of like what's possible in terms of like views, brand deals, etc., because it's explosive and most people have no idea, right?

Omar: You can make a living off of just AdSense, but brand deals is a lot more - that's my main focus is brand deals and AdSense. A lot of people sell courses - I personally don't want to be associated with that. But I've gotten a ton of value from online courses, so I don't think they're like scammy or whatever. It's just not my thing.

YouTube Strategy and Advice

Jake: How about rules to YouTube? Do you have any advice for people in terms of frequency of posting, in terms of how to go about brainstorming, anything like that for people watching this going, "Holy - if Jake did it, like maybe the young Jake who's doing taekwondo right now and like watching this video like with a notepad" - like any advice people at any age really that want to really break through?

Omar: So first thing is solving some kind of problem, because YouTube is just like any other business. A successful business solves a unique problem that no other business has solved before. So I see new channels blowing up all the time, and all the new channels that blow up - the single thing that all of them have in common is that they were - they started making content on something that no one else has made before, like some unique angle, some unique niche that no one else has thought of making before. And that's why they blew up, because there was no one offering that product to the marketplace that people were craving.

So that's number one - just differentiating yourself. And number two, when we start out we always try to look for like little hacks, like what tags do I use, what description do I use - small stuff like that. But the number one thing that matters is making the best possible content, the best possible video. Like all everything that you want comes from making the best possible videos.

Thumbnails and Titles

Jake: So in Jake Tran's assessment, can you give the audience context about whether they're entrepreneurs who sort of want to start their YouTube business or people who, you know, already have an existing business and want to leverage it to kind of like gain more of an audience - how important are the ingredients of obviously video, like you said, is king, but thumbnail, title? I mean, any rules to those things? Because I know those are super important. We were both just at a YouTube conference where Mr. Beast was kind of talking about that. So any insights on, you know, the power of thumbnails and titles? Because I think a lot of people might hear that, and I'm sure you've seen it - I'm sure we've all been guilty of it, right? It's like the same video, you change the thumbnail, could have 10x more views, right? Even if it's quality content, if people don't click on it, they'll never see it. So any advice as it relates to thumbnails and titles you've learned?

Omar: The video is definitely the most important part, but the thumbnail title are like the entry point into the video, because no matter how good your video is, if no one clicks on it to watch, then it doesn't really matter at all. So yeah, thumbnails and titles - it's like the entry point, it's very important. But at the end of the day, what people are going to remember you by is the video you make. Like if people recognize you on the street, they're not going to compliment you on, "Hey, I really like your thumbnail titles." They're going to say, "I love your videos."

Work Ethic and Production

Jake: And so for you, at what point did you go, "Okay, this is a one-man operation." Like you were putting hours of work and research into this, right? Like how much prep time for you went into your first couple videos, just so people can kind of see the commitment that went into that?

Omar: Probably like five days. That's why I only put out one video a week.

Jake: So you literally five days of full-on research and focus?

Omar: Yeah, not the entire day, but yeah. Because creative work like gets you pretty exhausted. You start, stop, breaks.

Jake: What are some of the things that you wish you would have done differently in terms of like maybe advice you can give to people who are starting? Maybe the trickiest things to kind of look out for, things that were hardest for you to do, and you're like, "Oh, I should have just done that. Why did I get in my head about that?" Right? Any little things that are kind of obvious now that you could impart to the audience in their own maybe YouTube journey?

Omar: I think probably the worst advice you could use is "just keep making content," because it comes from like the Gary Vee camp - and I actually really like Gary Vee - but people like mistake this and forget like the other part to it. Because a lot of the advice you hear is like, "Just make content and eventually you'll blow up," but the problem with that is if you keep putting lipstick on a pig, it's still going to be a pig. It's not going to change anything.

So one is keep putting out content, being consistent - that's like the advice you always hear, "Be consistent." But the second part is actually innovating and continuing to improve - like actually sitting down and thinking like, "What can I do better?" Because when people hear the advice, you know, "Just put out content and eventually you'll blow up," they don't think about like - they just keep putting out the same video. But no matter how many times you put out a bad video, it's still going to be a bad video.

Personal Success - Buying Parents a House

Jake: And I know that your momentum now has allowed you to kind of have the success where you recently just bought your mom a house.

Omar: I started posting on that, yes.

Jake: And what did that feel like, and what was that for you? Was that like a dream you always had? I know you said you kind of grew up from humble beginnings, so two years later you're able to get them a house off the success from YouTube. What does that feel like for you?

Omar: Honestly, I was kind of indifferent about getting the house, but my parents love it. It's a beautiful house, and I had - I let them pick out all the options and crap.

Jake: Was that a goal for you? Was that something where you were like, "Man, I want to do that for my parents?"

Omar: Not necessarily, because we already had a house, right? But this is just a lot - a much better house. It should be a good investment. I don't like investing in real estate too much, but it should be a good investment, and they get a new place to live. So yeah, it was a win-win.

Jake: And then in terms for you of... oh, go ahead.

Omar: No, I wish I had like some super emotional story about that.

Jake: No, no, it doesn't have to be. It's the truth.

Future of YouTube and Opportunities

Omar: For you though, as you look back and you as you look at the landscape of YouTube growing - like kind of like your experience last two years, but also what's coming up - how do you see the landscape of it changing? What are the new opportunities you're seeing, or do you think it's just permanently looking for that new blue ocean? Then that'll be that kind of evergreen strategy?

Jake: Obviously YouTube Shorts and short-form video is a thing now and will probably continue to be a thing, but I think long-form video and medium-form video on YouTube - I don't think that's ever going to go away. There will always be a need for that until the day arrives where we can like upload information into our brain and not have to watch content or read content. There will always be a need for that, and there'll always be need for advertisers or businesses that want to get those eyeballs, which will create business opportunity.

Brand Deals Strategy

Jake: Could you also share a little bit too about the psychology of brand deals and integrating that? I know you become a savant at that. Can you share a little bit about kind of like what - a) what brands are looking for, and then also b) kind of some of the unique strategies of like integrating that in brand deals so content creators kind of don't, you know, for lack of a better expression, "hold themselves out to just anything?" Like you talk about like brand deal integration and just kind of like your approach to how creators can start thinking about that and making money off it?

Omar: So companies, brands that buy sponsored spots on YouTube channels - they have a lot of options. They can buy Facebook ads, they can run YouTube pre-roll ads or like mid-roll or whatever, they can buy Instagram ads. But they choose to buy YouTube ads or influencer ads because influencers have that unique connection with the audience that they can't replicate themselves, because you have like an influencer who has influence over their fans promoting your products. So there's that inherent part that they're buying, and that's why they don't just go to Facebook ads or whatever.

So I view it again like any other business - you have to provide the best service possible to these brands. So I try to make mine as personal as possible.

Jake: And then in terms of integrating them into videos, I know you do a really good job at it. Any insights for people on kind of how they can do that or other content creators?

Omar: Pretty much going back to what I said - brands can easily pay for a generic Facebook ad, but they're paying because you can give them something personal. A lot of the YouTube people I talk to, they kind of just like sponsor spots just to get the money - like they just read off the talking points and they say like they hate dealing with brands. But I genuinely enjoy it, and I try to make it as personal as possible so they get what they're paying for. And that's working out pretty well.

On-Camera Presence and Voice-Over Work

Jake: That makes sense. How about advice in terms of being good on camera or audio? I know a lot of your videos - you actually have a cool setup because you share these stories, but your face isn't necessarily on the camera in every single shot. Was that like a conscious choice to sort of create content that you kind of play to your strength of audio? What was the psychology or the rationale for that?

Omar: Well, in the business niche, most people are just making talking head videos, so that's why I lean more towards that. But like being good on camera - I'm pretty sure I have like mild Asperger's or like borderline Asperger's, so I think that plays to me not super caring about like hate comments or whatever. It doesn't get to me as much as other people do. I think that's played a big role.

Jake: And then how about in terms of like doing the voice-over stuff? Is that something that you - I mean, you don't have to necessarily go into too much detail, but in terms of how you go about like recording audio? Are there times where you record and like you'll kill that idea? Like what - how - what's the iterative process of like "record that, no it sucks?" Like just so people can get context of like behind the scenes, your kind of process, your workflow?

Omar: At the beginning I was super insecure about my voice. I thought that was my biggest weakness.

Jake: I love that's why I ask, because I know there's people listening here that go, "Dang, I'm insecure about my voice, I'm insecure about how I look, I can't - I can't wait on YouTube. No matter what I put out..."

Omar: I thought that was my biggest weakness. I just thought I had a weird voice, but apparently people really like it. So I wouldn't have found out until I tried.

Jake: So you initially had that insecurity, felt that insecurity, and just did it anyways?

Omar: Again, borderline Asperger's, so I didn't care that much.

Research Process and Creative Advice

Jake: And in terms of content coming up forward, do you have - I'm sure you do a ton of research, but do you have any advice for people in terms of how they can go about researching, other than kind of what you mentioned about like looking at what other people are doing, adding your own unique spin on it? Anything you've learned that kind of helps you in the creative process? Because a lot of people get burned out creatively, so what advice do you have for people out there to kind of keep the ideas flowing?

Omar: There's no easier way around it - it's just aggressive Googling like for many, many hours. I wish there was a secret, I wish there was a magical way to go about it where it's more efficient, but for the stuff I do, it's just a lot, a lot of research.

And that's why I think pretty much like the most important part of any business you start, it should play to your strengths. I'm a big fan of Robert Greene, and one thing he talks about in the book "Mastery" is that everyone has their own natural inclinations - is what he calls it - where it's things that you naturally lean towards that you're just naturally inclined towards, that you're just naturally - you have a knack for it.

Jake: Or you get it, or you're willing to do it more, or you...

Omar: Yeah, it's like in class in school, there's always a smart kid that doesn't put as much effort but he still gets good grades. You should find that niche, that industry, that hobby where you have that natural inclination towards. And everyone has a natural inclination towards something, and if you don't - you say you think that you don't - you probably just haven't tried enough stuff.

Jake: I love that. That's so true. I noticed a recurring pattern with you is reading and books. Can you talk about how instrumental that's been for you and like what's your - what's your routine with reading?

Omar: I only started reading heavily after I read the book "Millionaire Fastlane" in college, so I wasn't always a reader. But yeah, a lot of the problems you have in life have been solved by other people, so if you can just solve that problem with a book, then it's like - it's like the ultimate superpower, in my opinion, learning.

Jake: What's your favorite book right now?

Omar: Favorite book right now - I don't really have one, but books that I've - stand out and have like changed my perspective on the world, I come by very rarely. And a few of them are like "Millionaire Fastlane." I love "The Black Swan" by Nassim - that seem to love - huge fan of him. And let's see, other books - I can't think of any right now.

Jake: Any other significant ones you recommend? Because we got "Millionaire Fastlane," because I know the audience is going to be super inspired by this. We got "Millionaire Fastlane," we got "Blue Ocean Strategy," and you mentioned another one - Robert Greene "Mastery," was it?

Omar: Yeah, "Mastery." Actually didn't finish that book. I just read what I needed to and got what I needed.

Jake: I got the value from it.

Omar: No, I love that. Yes, that book. The one I just mentioned, "The Black Swan" - what's the biggest... I'm so curious - what's the biggest question most people ask you when they watch your YouTube videos? What do you get asked the most?

Omar: Usually make a joke about me being on hit lists, stuff like that.

Jake: I know, because - because if you can share with the audience like just name some of the names of like videos or some of the topics covered, just so the audience - if you guys haven't checked it out, and guys, we'll put links in the description below, you guys gotta check out Jake's stuff if you haven't already. Comment down below, let us know if you have, though.

Omar: So a recent one that took off was on the Pandora Papers that recently came out - so "Pandora Papers: Leaked Documents Exposed Global Elite." Another recent one that has done really well is one on BlackRock - "The Company That Owns the World." One of my favorites is "Why Do Chinese Billionaires Keep Disappearing?" - when the Jack Ma disappeared, I love that video so much. "Why Haven't We Seen Hyperinflation?" - that was after 2020 ended with all the money printing. Stuff like that.

Analytics and Hooks

Jake: Very cool. And in terms of the analytics, is that something for you that you also are like - you always have your head in, or are you just focused kind of exclusively on like "make the best video that hooks people the longest?" Were you...

Omar: Yeah, well, you focus on making the best videos, and the way you get feedback is by looking at the analytics. So it's not nothing too major, nothing too heavy.

Jake: In terms of like hooks, stuff like that - like can you share with the audience a little bit about... I'm trying to like dig all the, you know, all the gems out of your mind because I know things like the hook is very important as well, right? Like, you know, can you talk a little bit about that - the psychology of the beginning of a YouTube video? Because you have some of the most compelling videos. Sometimes it'll be like midnight and I'll try to go to bed, and so you put out a video, I'm like, "Oh, my buddy put out a video." I check it out, and like your first line is like "Why, you know, why do Chinese billionaires keep disappearing?" or and then it's like fast B-rolls, I get so hooked into it. How much of that for you was really like putting the time in, and what have you learned from that part of it?

Omar: It's still a struggle for me, right? Like I don't have a definite formula on it. But yeah, same thing with the title thumbnail - is the entry point into the video, it's the first part, the first impression people get. So if you don't hook people in... today people have a very short attention span, and all your competitors are on the sidebar waiting for the viewer to click on them. So you have to put a lot of effort into keeping people watching, especially at the first start of the video.

Avoiding Burnout and Professional Mindset

Jake: And how do you keep from burnout? What keeps you focused on it? Obviously the money is great, the impact, the audience loves it, but for you, what keeps you from kind of burning out or wanting to try something else? Because it seems like you're in such a good momentum with it. I'm curious - what is the problem you feel you're solving, or what is it that keeps you so hooked and your success and with these videos?