Tommy Jackett: [00:00:00] Very low barrier to get into the ground squat.
Josh Janssen: [00:00:07] We've committed to do the daily talk show for 10 years. I had guys
Matt D'Avella: [00:00:11] on the calendar
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:13] just like
Josh Janssen: [00:00:13] to check the temperature in the room. I told you my squeegee story,
the daily talk show episode
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:21] 968. Matt D
Matt D'Avella: [00:00:23] availa. Yeah. Well, welcome to the studio. It feels like freedom is really yeah. To be in Australia. It's ironic. Cause that's usually what Americans talk about. But so your brain is just doing so well. You've been in Australia for how long? Uh, since December. Yeah, we got in and did our hotel quarantine on like December 4th in Sydney.
And you celebrated your birthday?
Tommy Jackett: [00:00:47] Yeah. I saw him at a
Matt D'Avella: [00:00:48] hotel, corny in hotel quarantine. And actually there, dude, we lucked out with hotel quarantine cause like. Obviously seen a lot of stories of people. Who've had a really tough time and a rough go, but we had a balcony. They actually gave us a choice.
They said, and this is when you become an influencer. Is it true? You hung
Tommy Jackett: [00:01:06] your plot future in
Matt D'Avella: [00:01:08] the hotel. Yeah, that's right. I want you to send it to them beforehand. That's how I got this good hotel. No, obviously we just lucked out. Uh, and they, but they did give us an option where they said this hotel has a balcony, or you could have like a suite, which is like basically an extra room, like a living room with it.
And, uh, that was a difficult choice. And it was actually a tour, everybody in the room because there was all these police officers and military there. And everybody started chatting about it. Cause like which one would you do? Would you go for the balcony or would
you
Josh Janssen: [00:01:33] everyone got to, sorry, were you on a bus?
Matt D'Avella: [00:01:35] What was the deal? You're on a bus. And then we like logged into the wifi of the hotel and we were in the bus before we got off. And then we were just poking around and then Nat was like, Oh my God, I think they balconies. And so when we asked, when we got up to the concierge, we're like, Oh, do you happen to have balconies?
And he said, actually I was going to give you a suite, but we could do either one. And then, uh, that's when we were just like, That was like paradox of choice. I had no idea what to do. Cause we were like more space, obviously it would be great, but like not having fresh air for a week would be insane. I
Tommy Jackett: [00:02:04] haven't spoken to anyone.
I don't think that's anyone that's been incarcerated. So you pay for the hotel quarantine. Do you even know what hotel you're getting?
Matt D'Avella: [00:02:13] No. No, no. You just like secret hotel, really? Like, you know, I wanted to film it cause I was like, this is such an interesting experience, but you're not allowed to cause it's like, cause it's just kinda like secret and not secretive, but I just think it's just, um, they have such a tightly run system there and that's just your security team.
Yeah. Like I said, ever since I hit a mill, you know,
uh, no, but, uh, you know, they, um, you know, you don't know where you're going, they just, you know, you come up to a hotel and like, I think having that outdoor space like really saved us. And for me, like, I actually just played video games the entire time. I just like played 60 hours of, uh, ghost of sushi, which was
Josh Janssen: [00:02:55] pretty great.
So you're spending, is this the most amount of time you've spent
Matt D'Avella: [00:02:59] in Australia? Yes by far. Yeah. In the past, it's only been three or four weeks, but we're doing, this is going to be at least a five month trip now,
Josh Janssen: [00:03:06] observations for staying longer. What have you noticed that you
Matt D'Avella: [00:03:08] don't need to pick up? I mean, obviously my wife is from Sydney and uh, it's, you know, and I've loved it every time I've come here, but I think I've just fallen in love with it even more, just, um, you know, there's great people.
Good food, Papa
Tommy Jackett: [00:03:23] John's you know how much he's um, is do you say Papa? John's
Matt D'Avella: [00:03:27] yeah, that's that? That's their motto. Good food, good people. We don't actually have puppets in Australia, so nobody got that.
Tommy Jackett: [00:03:35] She's influenced by net saying, how good is this? How
Matt D'Avella: [00:03:38] good is this?
Tommy Jackett: [00:03:38] Yeah, I can imagine that's like really selling in Australia or is it doing itself?
Yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:03:43] I think that she is cautious to not. Put too much pressure on like, how great is it here? I think he's pretty fucking great. It's great. I mean, honestly, and like, you know, there's really no comparison because the States, you know, for all of 2020, and I, I want to say, you know, it's weird as I, I, it's hard to enjoy it with the amount of guilt that I have for being here because it's like really rough too, for like my family now and, and everybody in America and Los Angeles and, and around the world, like, everybody's really.
I'm having a hard time and not to say that like, obviously Australians have had a difficult time as well, but like in America, right. And now it's just a different universe. It was being
Tommy Jackett: [00:04:19] served as streets like in Melbourne. We, where you are now is we went through months of. Real strict lockdown, curfews, similar to what happened in LA.
Yeah. And so, I mean, we've come out the other side. I mean, we had a lockdown last week, five days, businesses closed and that's where it's like, you don't know what was going to happen if it would go longer. And so it's weird because our cases are so low here, but they're still so strict. And so it's this.
Yeah. It's uncertainty for
Matt D'Avella: [00:04:46] everybody as well. What was nice about. Being in hotel quarantine, 14 days, they did a health checkup every day, but it was also a mental health checkup. So they were checking to make sure that we were doing okay. And, you know, we were, you know, keeping the peace and not like losing our minds, being locked in a hotel room for 14 minutes checking.
Uh, they just, you know, they're just like, are you, how are you doing? Yeah. Like I like, yeah, exactly. Like, I mean, they, they run through the health checks, like just, you know, I think they do the
Josh Janssen: [00:05:13] thing where they hit your knee and
Matt D'Avella: [00:05:16] it's over the phone. They can't talk.
Josh Janssen: [00:05:18] It could, I could just imagine a reflex test.
Matt D'Avella: [00:05:21] Yeah. That might. Yeah, it was that easy to test for COVID when you're
Josh Janssen: [00:05:25] doing Haney exercise, whilst
Matt D'Avella: [00:05:27] you're in, I actually did, because leading up to hotel quarantine, I was probably in the worst shape that I had been in a, I don't want to say my entire life, but like for like probably the past, like five years or something.
How do
Josh Janssen: [00:05:39] you notice what's the
Matt D'Avella: [00:05:41] parts, you know, it's just funny. Cause when you work out, uh, Or when you start to put on weight, you start to like notice parts of your body that you've never noticed before. You're like, I didn't have that many roles before. Like I definitely had a very big gut and like, when I would sit down, everything would start to roll over.
And, uh, and I wasn't used to that. And so I was like, okay, I need to actually like, get my life together. But it's hard. Cause like all my routines were changed and it's, uh, I wasn't able to go to the gym, uh, in the States. And so
Tommy Jackett: [00:06:07] they still not open
Matt D'Avella: [00:06:10] as far as I know. I didn't go to the gym. I mean, there were at points when they opened up, but I just never felt comfortable going.
Um,
Tommy Jackett: [00:06:17] so today's Friday and on the show, we usually do something called fat Fridays. And so here for it,
Matt D'Avella: [00:06:24] I'm here for it. And I'm really hungry. I haven't eaten anything all day.
Josh Janssen: [00:06:27] Uh, what do you not like when you come to Australia? Are there any, is there anything that you would eat, you know, go out of your way to eat because you enjoy it so much or that's just very
Matt D'Avella: [00:06:37] Australiana, Australiana.
Um, the meat pies are obviously great. Um, Yeah. I mean, nice lamb meat pie. Oh, you're a matte. Yeah. That
Josh Janssen: [00:06:50] is format
pie.
Tommy Jackett: [00:06:52] I mean, what's more Australian is you're you're you're the shitty of that made pie. The more Australians
Matt D'Avella: [00:06:57] heard, right. You get into the servo, right? Yeah.
Tommy Jackett: [00:06:59] It's funny like the, the culture of Australia in terms of cuisine stuff, it's, it's a bit it's can be a bit different.
It's not like young to Italy. Or Mexico or something where it's very specific. Um, today we've got a few things that we want you to try. You may have tried some of them before.
Matt D'Avella: [00:07:15] Okay. I think you've probably already, yeah,
Tommy Jackett: [00:07:18] thanks
Matt D'Avella: [00:07:18] a lot. You didn't be surprised by
Tommy Jackett: [00:07:20] everything. You don't have to be surprised, but we just want to get, get a little, um, gauge and then we also have something currently cooking that we're going to bring down
Matt D'Avella: [00:07:27] from.
That's great. Cause I was actually concerned that it was going to be nothing but candy because I do look at bags in and I was like, I actually need a meal. It's not much of a,
Tommy Jackett: [00:07:38] I mean, Josh, you could even add or should I go? Yeah, we'll
Josh Janssen: [00:07:41] go for the softest in regards to like most obvious, uh,
Matt D'Avella: [00:07:46] Australian thing.
Okay. Okay. Got you. Got you. Yep. Yep. Yep. Tim Tams. Yep. Okay. Just had one, two days ago, but delicious. Uh, this is amazing.
Tommy Jackett: [00:07:57] And so, uh, I want you to maybe just treat it. This is, uh, the people from America, the, your hometown, your home, your Homeland, your motherland, and what they, if they haven't tried one before, what's the vibe,
Matt D'Avella: [00:08:11] give us the mandate.
It's funny. Cause like Nat, um, have you guys ever done a Tim-Tam slam? Yes. Right. Is that like, what are we?
It's my entire family to do it. Like the first year she had Christmas with my family. Yeah. And so then we were all doing it and then, but she then told me afterwards, because she was like, everybody does this. Like everybody just didn't notice last night. He's like, this is like how you eat a Tim Tam. And then she said, it's not as common as when she made
Josh Janssen: [00:08:34] it.
You would, you would do it if you had an international guests. Okay. That's great. How would you describe it?
Matt D'Avella: [00:08:41] Okay. Obviously smooth. Okay. You know, to me, I'm getting strong notes of chocolate milk chocolate. Because obviously Tim Tams, they have a lot of different flavors. This is the classic, right? This is the OG original.
I actually prefer the double. Yeah. But Oh, they're got double big one. Nah, nah,
Josh Janssen: [00:09:05] it's just like, um, they dip it in chocolate twice, I guess.
Tommy Jackett: [00:09:08] Okay. I think they kind of stuffed up or they're winning because they are better than the original, but I wanted to get the original because it's the original
Matt D'Avella: [00:09:16] plastic.
Um, it's funny that we don't have anything like this in America. The closest thing is like an Oreo. No, not calories. I mean, it's like, what else would be close to this? Yeah. I mean,
Tommy Jackett: [00:09:28] it's just a couple of wafers to cats. Do you have Kit-Kats yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:09:32] we have kick-ass that was giving me a lot of shit the other day, because I it's hard in Australia cause like, whenever you're in a different country.
Right. Cause people have different kinds of snacks, but I'm Tim Tams anywhere else. Yeah. And so then I saw it looked like a Kit-Kat bar. And, uh, but it didn't say Kit-Kat on the cover and look exactly like kick hat. And I was like, Oh, what? I was like, did the lady, I was like, can I get that Nessel bar missile?
And that is excellent. First of all, is Nestle India.
Josh Janssen: [00:10:00] Some people like it, there were a few ways of saying it. And so which one? Which one was it? The, um, Nestle.
Tommy Jackett: [00:10:07] Regular Kit-Kat yeah. Okay. Um, all right, I'm going to pull out something go. Are you guys
Matt D'Avella: [00:10:13] going to eat this door?
Josh Janssen: [00:10:14] Definitely. Tim, Tim.
Tommy Jackett: [00:10:16] So, um, I mean, there's one thing when you're in Australia and that's veggie mine.
Oh my God. So I'm gonna slide you over that. I actually got something else that is, um, uh, quite Australian shapes, veggie mite
Matt D'Avella: [00:10:29] flavor. Am I doing Vegemite on Vegemite here. You're doing veggie mine on
Tommy Jackett: [00:10:33] a spoon.
Matt D'Avella: [00:10:34] No, you
Tommy Jackett: [00:10:35] can't do that. Just give us a little
Matt D'Avella: [00:10:37] bit supposed to eat it though. Am I right if he had it before?
Uh, yes, I have had it before.
Tommy Jackett: [00:10:44] All right, good. So you kind of say give it a snare. This you're
Matt D'Avella: [00:10:48] getting strong notes of yeast.
Josh Janssen: [00:10:51] Have you ever, do you normally eat yeast? Um,
Matt D'Avella: [00:10:55] in my bread, show him. Um, no. Yeah, like, I don't know. As far as I've been told, this is kind of like a, an equivalent, obviously not taste profile wise, but this is like eating mayonnaise.
Yeah. But you wouldn't do it. It's a spread
Tommy Jackett: [00:11:10] speak for yourself. Can you show how much you've got to lie too much?
Josh Janssen: [00:11:16] I mean, imagine if it was on the bread. All right,
Matt D'Avella: [00:11:20] bro. I fucking
Josh Janssen: [00:11:23] just really roll it. It's salty
Matt D'Avella: [00:11:25] as I, the bedroom, my challenge
challenge.
Tommy Jackett: [00:11:28] What do you think you wash it down with a veggie. Might I'm shrinking
Josh Janssen: [00:11:32] drinking some water out of our,
Matt D'Avella: [00:11:37] let's see you don't like that.
It's like, it's almost like tastes like gasoline. It's actually kind of smoky.
Tommy Jackett: [00:11:44] That's good. That's a good, yeah, Smokey's good. Not sure. And these are
Matt D'Avella: [00:11:49] shapes. These are a bit easier to take down. Um, yeah, I'm I'm uh, I need you guys eat with me.
Tommy Jackett: [00:11:57] We'll
Josh Janssen: [00:11:57] watch it. We'll watch if you have rude. So
Tommy Jackett: [00:12:00] finally,
Matt D'Avella: [00:12:01] so I actually love these just like bed you mine.
So can you guys explain to me like the appeal of Vegemite and why it hasn't spread? Has it just, did
Tommy Jackett: [00:12:14] you have it as a kid? Yeah. So loved it. I didn't, I'm an Australian that doesn't necessarily like Vermont very specific. It has to be small bit on buttery toast and I love it just a little bit and then put poached eggs on the toast that even works to
Matt D'Avella: [00:12:29] just add adds a little bit extra.
Tommy Jackett: [00:12:31] There's a straight. I think it's like a veggie mite straight or something important. Melbourne, you drive through port Melbourne, a little suburb here smelling the veggie might being made really? And Saudi's nice, but I'm in the branding. Yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:12:45] it is. It is beautiful. I mean, they've got a lot going for it.
It's iconic
Tommy Jackett: [00:12:49] and people do love it, but you
Josh Janssen: [00:12:51] have pop tarts as a kid. Yeah.
Tommy Jackett: [00:12:53] Yeah. Was that bread for you?
Matt D'Avella: [00:12:57] Yeah, that was, yeah, that was our bread
Josh Janssen: [00:13:00] use that instead of common was pop tarts as an actual breakfast food. Very
Matt D'Avella: [00:13:04] common. I would have cinnamon. Pop-Tarts probably for breakfast every day. Um, probably for a couple of years.
Yeah.
Josh Janssen: [00:13:11] There's that, um, new, uh, brand of cereal that everyone's talking about? Like the. No it's that? Um, yeah, all the podcasts
Matt D'Avella: [00:13:20] or space station has it, uh, it's space station actually owns it. Who is a, yeah. It's they're like my, they helped me out with my brand integrations. Is that, um, um, what is
Tommy Jackett: [00:13:28] it called?
Yeah. Yeah. Fuck. I love that dude. What's it. You should be, um, great on Snapchat.
Josh Janssen: [00:13:35] Um, but th but it's all like high protein and all the sort of made cereal. That's not bad for you. Yeah. Which is interesting. Um, have you had. Uh, Carmelo koala before. Nope,
Tommy Jackett: [00:13:48] I guess very Australian cause of the koala. Kara
Josh Janssen: [00:13:51] koala.
Bri. These are delicious. These are delicious. Okay. I am so excited. This chocolate again? Yes. I'm
Matt D'Avella: [00:13:58] so excited. Yeah. You guys really know how to balance flavor to wait till
Tommy Jackett: [00:14:04] the surprise comes from the top.
Josh Janssen: [00:14:06] Uh, Kara mellow koala. I'll have one as well. I love, I do have a, quite a bit
Matt D'Avella: [00:14:10] of a sweet tooth. Yeah.
Perfect. All right.
Josh Janssen: [00:14:13] Okay. Can you say that word? I love how you say that.
Matt D'Avella: [00:14:15] Carmella, Carmella, caramel, caramel, caramel, caramel, Anthony.
Josh Janssen: [00:14:21] All right, here we go.
Tommy Jackett: [00:14:22] So cute little
Matt D'Avella: [00:14:23] distraught looking. Yeah. Um, okay, so what we're seeing right here. Yeah, just character. I mean, it's a beautiful koala. Give it a sniff. Yeah, but you smell chocolate.
Tommy Jackett: [00:14:35] It's a real sugar. Smells like sugar. Yeah. Oh yeah. The Carmelo yeah. Is
Matt D'Avella: [00:14:42] really boring. Yeah. Drips out out of this thing. And this is, um, a well-known this is like an Easter type thing. Or is this like a, it's like an everyday thing. Yeah. Like a breakfast thing,
Tommy Jackett: [00:14:57] nothing. Um,
Matt D'Avella: [00:15:00] what do you think, um, you know, it's exactly what you would expect it to be really?
I think so. Yeah. Yeah, it's a caramel and chocolate together. He's a
Tommy Jackett: [00:15:12] w what are you? Right? Hire Tim Tam or caramel or koala caramel.
Matt D'Avella: [00:15:17] I think obviously it comes down to preference. And for me, I like the crunch
Josh Janssen: [00:15:24] that is definitely a daily carry
Matt D'Avella: [00:15:28] daily, everyday carry. And you can only have so many of these, I think back to yeah.
I think I agree.
Tommy Jackett: [00:15:34] And we've tested it. We've had
Matt D'Avella: [00:15:37] many, yeah. A crunch is satisfying in a way that like, just like a smooth, I think you'd find
Tommy Jackett: [00:15:44] that a chunky Kit-Kat that has caramel through it too. I think you'd like that. If you like caramel
Matt D'Avella: [00:15:50] crunch. Yeah, that sounds amazing. I think I just got a cavity.
Really? Are you doing dental programs? Good here in
Josh Janssen: [00:15:58] Australia. I'll be fine. I'll be fine. Okay, cool. Um, Are you a breakfast guy with a cat going to cafes in Australia?
Matt D'Avella: [00:16:06] Um,
Tommy Jackett: [00:16:06] cause that's big here, like going from break culture. Yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:16:10] we haven't. Well, yeah, we've done a little bit, I think honestly. Yeah. Your breakfast sandwiches, like the eggs and bacon.
Uh, what do you just call? What do you call it? Like bacon and eggs,
Josh Janssen: [00:16:19] bacon and egg,
Matt D'Avella: [00:16:21] bacon and egg. Yeah, let me get a bacon and egg, and it's assumed that it's a sandwich. Cause I
Tommy Jackett: [00:16:25] brekkie role is an Iraqi role. Yeah. E yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:16:31] been a, we would say bacon, egg and cheese, I guess.
Josh Janssen: [00:16:34] I wouldn't know. Can I get a bank and an egg?
If you said, I
Tommy Jackett: [00:16:37] like biking, roll, roll, roll.
Josh Janssen: [00:16:41] What's it been like? Um, we've had a few
Matt D'Avella: [00:16:43] of them and they're very good by the way. And like the bacon here, it's different.
Josh Janssen: [00:16:49] It's
Tommy Jackett: [00:16:49] like, you know, it's actually a slab of meat. It sounds it. Doesn't
sorry. Yeah, exactly. Like ham, because that is fatty in America is usually very crunchy. And it's just
Matt D'Avella: [00:17:02] like, it's like the crunchy that you kind of lose a lot of the flavor then too. It's just like, yeah. It's super dry
Josh Janssen: [00:17:07] with filming in Sydney. What have you found about filming in Australia versus a lie?
Matt D'Avella: [00:17:14] Um, I think that in Australia, I don't know.
It's like, have you been out in the bat? Like, have you actually went out really? I don't want to do that. I don't know. You know what I think early on, I found out that like, I think there was this expectation when you're a YouTuber at least like maybe years ago, uh, that you had to do a vlog and that you had to kind of capture your life and run around and be this kind of personality.
And I realized that's not me. And like, I experiment with it and I include those kinds of bloggy type stuff in my video sometimes. But like, I find that I am just much happier when I just kind of plan my videos out and can kind of do what I do, uh, at the apartment. Uh, obviously I think that goes to there's there's only so far you can get with it and I'm seeing something come down here.
Here we go. So, okay.
Josh Janssen: [00:18:03] This is a, the savory.
Matt D'Avella: [00:18:05] London. Oh, wow.
Tommy Jackett: [00:18:07] Because we not just pigs in chocolate for loving sausages around Georgia boys come
Josh Janssen: [00:18:12] around. It's a sausage sizzle. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Matt D'Avella: [00:18:15] Can you tell us what a sausage sizzle is? Yeah. Yeah. You got a sausage white bread. It's got to go diagonal across and then what?
You just got a, Oh yes. I got some onion. And then, um, Catch up mustard. Yeah.
Josh Janssen: [00:18:28] Would you call this a hot dog in the U S yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:18:31] well, no. I mean, it actually has a sausage though, cause we do have sausages. So you call them, it's a different kind of meat and nobody knows what you're made of just a medley of, we
Josh Janssen: [00:18:40] don't know what's in this,
Tommy Jackett: [00:18:42] it says beef on the rapper might have one.
So this is a sausage sizzle. We've had a sausage sizzle here at the office today.
Matt D'Avella: [00:18:49] Lovely. And this beautiful. And this is what I need actually.
Josh Janssen: [00:18:52] Right. For those that are jumbling the sausage. Okay. And you've got sought. Would you like, do you like
Tommy Jackett: [00:18:59] onion or no? Yes.
Josh Janssen: [00:19:01] So they started, you know, Bunnings. It's like a, um, to
Matt D'Avella: [00:19:04] shop.
Thanks, Georgia boy, by the way, I didn't say thanks. Have you been to Bunnings? Uh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got an umbrella
Josh Janssen: [00:19:12] from Bunnings. Yeah. So, um, Bunnings is a, is like a, um, what do you call it? I can depo. Exactly. And they always have sausage sizzles on the weekend.
Matt D'Avella: [00:19:21] And also I've heard about, uh, freedom sausages what's that you don't know what that is.
You never voted
Tommy Jackett: [00:19:28] freedom sausage when,
Josh Janssen: [00:19:29] when you vote and you, um, there's, there's a sausage sizzle. Oh, yeah. Schools and all that sort of thing. I mean, so
Tommy Jackett: [00:19:37] go postal.
Matt D'Avella: [00:19:39] Um, you don't actually go in
Tommy Jackett: [00:19:41] person anymore. I mean, we don't do it. I mean, when was the last time you voted? I can't even remember.
Matt D'Avella: [00:19:46] Okay. You guys don't fuck with
Josh Janssen: [00:19:53] Oh, you have nailed that. That is so good. Can you hold
Matt D'Avella: [00:19:55] that out? It's a beautiful looking line. What does it need? That wasn't even true.
Josh Janssen: [00:19:59] And so the, um, onions in, uh, at Bunnings, I believe that you have to put the onions underneath the sausage because someone, there
Matt D'Avella: [00:20:08] are plates here, by the way, they're underneath,
Josh Janssen: [00:20:12] uh, people were, uh, apparently slipping on onions together.
Yeah, thank you. And you make me one up, please?
Tommy Jackett: [00:20:21] Possibly, possibly
Matt D'Avella: [00:20:22] just, yeah,
Tommy Jackett: [00:20:24] yeah. Yeah. It's a real team effort here. Thanks guys. I'm the guy fine. You
Matt D'Avella: [00:20:29] clean this table, right? Yeah. No,
Josh Janssen: [00:20:32] thank you. I'll just type that right.
Matt D'Avella: [00:20:35] This is real good. Okay. This is perfect. All right. So I love to say you guys have made 33 sausages.
Well, it was like an eating competition.
Tommy Jackett: [00:20:45] We actually have made that many, there was either get, um, like not enough for two H or enough for two or three inch. And so I took a smart move.
Matt D'Avella: [00:20:56] Yeah. I took the pump. Yeah, no, you gotta be safe. When it comes to food.
Josh Janssen: [00:21:01] I would have five. That was sort of my easiest to number
Tommy Jackett: [00:21:04] five.
Did you really have the number in your mind? You're like today I'm having
Josh Janssen: [00:21:08] five. You'd have to put it on the like, so the schools would do sausage sizzles and you'd have to write it in a paper bag and put the money in the bag. No, I would say five. Yep. Yeah, that's great.
Matt D'Avella: [00:21:20] Yeah. They used to do that. I mean, they would do dollar dogs at baseball games.
Don't have you guys do that at like cricket
Tommy Jackett: [00:21:25] games now they like to inflate the prices at those events, but there is I Kia. Yeah. That's German establishment. Like a home Depot vibe. No, it's like a Swedish. Sorry. Um, and they do, they do wonderful. $1 hot dogs or $1. Mm mm. Yeah. They are her dogs. Wouldn't do meatballs, meatballs.
Yeah, definitely this because there's Swedish meatballs, Swedish meatballs, but you'd ask for meatballs. If you went to Sweden, wouldn't you? Because I went to France and I asked for a of French onion soup and we, what? And you just got yeah, I get,
Josh Janssen: [00:22:03] yeah, the start of the year, your new doco came out. Uh, I was actually looking at it cause it came out on the first of Jan.
I was refreshing Netflix because obviously Australia is ahead. Did you have plans? Like you were going to sit down and watch your own film? No,
Matt D'Avella: [00:22:22] dude, I can't anymore. I noticed that early on and I thought it was something that was wrong with me and it might be, but it was it's like the first documentary I did.
I remember I would do some screenings and I would go. This is, you know, you have to like, kind of put yourself in my shoes where I have seen this thing hundreds of times, like through as many times, like I re cut this film a hundred times and then I've gone through every interview. So many times. And then by the time you get done with one of these really big projects, you kind of start to hate it.
I mean, you go through different emotions where there's parts of it, where you really love it. And you're really excited when you're making it and then parts where you hate it. And then I think at the very end, you're just kind of over it.
Tommy Jackett: [00:23:01] And, um, are you numb, like to feedback? So it's great. What does that do for you?
You know, like I could imagine it's, it's both like your, not that happy with it or negative to it just based on the amount put in when you just like remove from it.
Matt D'Avella: [00:23:18] Yeah, I guess it's like similar to you guys where you don't do it because of the feedback or the output, whatever you get from it, you do it because of the experience of making the thing.
Cause you actually enjoy making it. And so like when somebody says, Oh, it's amazing. Like it changed my life. Obviously that means a lot and it really feels good, but like you can't take that with too much weight. Because then you also take the negative comments with the same amount of weight. And then when somebody says, Oh, it sucks.
That was the worst thing I ever watched, watched a waste of money. I'm going to cancel my Netflix.
Josh Janssen: [00:23:51] How many people minimalists
Matt D'Avella: [00:23:53] get cut back. Yeah. And then, but then, you know, you just, you just have to take each of them and not let it change the reason why you did it to begin with. So what about the
Tommy Jackett: [00:24:02] noisier?
It gets, because I mean, it probably. It's fairly noisy for you into, like, I love stopping one of the videos you made recently and just seeing him, you showed the likes that an Instagram post, like you showed the sort of like, um, analytics of it just on the screen. I stopped it. Of course I did. And I was just like, Oh look, how many did he
Matt D'Avella: [00:24:22] get?
Tommy Jackett: [00:24:24] You made a joke about it too, that you weren't just trying to swing.
Matt D'Avella: [00:24:30] You're gonna swing your Dick. You got a joke about it.
Josh Janssen: [00:24:34] That is such good advice.
Matt D'Avella: [00:24:38] Is that going to be one of your little cutaways?
It's going to ruin my brain. It's going to be either,
Tommy Jackett: [00:24:47] but what is it? What's the, what's the feeling babe, as it has got a bit noisier
Matt D'Avella: [00:24:50] for you. Um, I think that like people pick like the, the different metrics that mean the most to them. And like Instagram is just not that important to me. Um, and so it doesn't affect me one way or another.
Um, and like, I think I've gotten good at just kind of distancing myself from overall feedback, like comments and stuff, because it's like, it always gets to you. It doesn't matter. Like if you get a thousand comments on a video and then 10 of them are negative or a hundred or negative. That can still get to you no matter where you are.
You're still like a person at the end of the day. And so like I try and just to avoid it, or I just look at it very early on. Cause usually in the first day or two, uh, it's just the people that like have been watching my videos all along for the past year. And like they're always positive and encouraging.
If you go to the
Tommy Jackett: [00:25:34] bill on. Uh, to get the notification. Yeah.
Matt D'Avella: [00:25:38] And you also, like, I'm gonna have another one he's gone to yes. Need you also need feedback though. Like feedback is important. Cause if you're not, actually, if you're just completely isolate yourself from seeing what people are saying, you can make some crap and you know, not have any perspective of it.
If you kind of like. Think that you're hot shit. And like everything you make is amazing. Um, you won't know when you make some duds, how different
Josh Janssen: [00:26:00] is it making a Netflix documentary than it is a YouTube video in regards to pro? Like where are the similarities and where is it
Matt D'Avella: [00:26:08] completely different? Uh, tone is different.
I think that you can get away with a lot more on a YouTube video in terms of like tone and the kind of the jokes that you might make on it. Like. You can talk about swinging your Dick in a YouTube video, but then if you made that same joke in a Netflix thing, it would have to almost like the tone would just be completely different.
And like, I could just be silly in a YouTube video and it's fine. And people think it's funny and they like it, I think for the most part. Uh, but then if you were to do that in a YouTube video, it would almost like, or know in a Netflix special or show, it would almost feel like try hard and like, not funny.
And like, it almost has to have like, The humor needs to be elevated in a way, at least a little bit. I don't know. It's the production value is different and you know, you typically have bigger crews. He's struggling
Josh Janssen: [00:26:53] with it. Mustard
Matt D'Avella: [00:26:53] guys, if you are, do we have to call that out?
Josh Janssen: [00:26:57] Yeah, that was three
Matt D'Avella: [00:26:58] squeezes.
Put a lot of pressure. Cause last time you guys were like what a perfect squeeze.
Tommy Jackett: [00:27:04] Um, so the, the videos you might for UGB obviously you've got final cut. You. Needs you, you just say, yes, that's good enough to post all. Yes. I will post that. When you're doing your Netflix documentary, obviously it has to be seen.
Yeah. Final version watched before it's uploaded to Netflix or wherever they do it. Yeah. Um, what was that? Um, the, the time between sending it off and then. Getting back, any feedback or what the next
Matt D'Avella: [00:27:31] step is like. So there is a lot of feedback. It was like probably a year process of, from the first cut to the very last, like, just, just around it.
Cause it was January 20, 20, I think when we finished up our first cut, do you upload it into
Josh Janssen: [00:27:42] like, do you upload it to a special system or you like panicked about how like, Oh, does it look too cheap if I use Google drive?
Matt D'Avella: [00:27:49] Netflix has a whole system. Yeah. So they have a whole backend that you like. That's to give you credentials that you log in and then you upload the film.
Uh, and then, cause I think for them. They like to kind of have that feedback. And they like to be able to have everything in one place, because if you think about it for them, it's all about scale. And so they're working with hundreds, thousands of directors in different films. What I'm saying, they won't eat all
Josh Janssen: [00:28:12] the versions, even like Cole shades.
So like at what time do you wintering into that
Matt D'Avella: [00:28:17] system now? No, but like at the end they do, I luckily don't have to do all this stuff, amazing producers that were able to handle all those nitty-gritty details of like. Call sheets and everything like that, but they did ask for all that stuff. And so then we had to submit because they just want documentation for everything.
Uh, and I think just, just in case they ever need to go back to something, you know, I think the more data that they have the better, um, but it is interesting. I mean, compared to a YouTube video, I don't need to show it to anybody. And I don't, I just make it myself. Uh, I edit the video myself and then I, I actually now upload it to Google drive.
And then I have my brother upload the video who works with me because I don't want to look at YouTube studio. I don't want to see like the metrics and how they kind of like, it just gets like really, it's like easy to just like go in a downward spiral. And I'm just like, every time, like you get like true anxiety, when you log in to upload a video or like, Say two hours after you upload a video, you log in to see how it did cause YouTube ranks your last video compared to your previous nine videos.
And then imagine how Wayfield it doesn't matter how many views you get. Cause it's like, it's a comparison to yourself and you can not always continue to do better and better and better. And so then. There's this fear that like, Oh, this is it right? Cause we've, I think we've all seen, like, people who've built something and then it just falls apart.
Josh Janssen: [00:29:33] So your brother is saying it, do you notice the tone shifts in him where you've dealt? Like, Hey man, it's like, Oh, it didn't kind of say,
Matt D'Avella: [00:29:39] I guess that wasn't a good video.
Tommy Jackett: [00:29:40] Has he ever said, uh, yeah, Matt, this bit of
Matt D'Avella: [00:29:43] it. We just, well, we just did recently, we just started doing this recently. It was something that we used to do more.
Uh, and then obviously like, you know, priorities and things change, but like we just recently started doing it. But earlier last year he was really the one like uploading everything. And like I could tell it was getting to him and like, obviously he wasn't the creator behind the video, but he was getting attached to the numbers and he would get like, He'd be like, yeah, the lucid dreaming video.
I mean like, obviously like a great video, but just like, it's like really tanking and I'm like, thanks Mark. And I was headed, like you said that to like my family. And I was like, well, that's upsetting. Um, because you know, you try not to like measure, I guess how well you're doing based upon one video, but it's so easy to get caught up in it.
And by the way, that video, which was tanking, we changed the title and then it ended up doing better, really thumbnails
Josh Janssen: [00:30:34] and stuff. Like you hear that people. I've heard some YouTubers say I'm not a filmmaker. I don't make videos. I make thumbnails like thumbnails apparently. Uh, you know, don't bother making a video unless you know what the thumb is going to be.
Matt D'Avella: [00:30:50] I understand why that's important. I think I could see somebody saying don't make a video unless you know what the title is. I think the thumbnail, like that's kind of ridiculous. Cause like at least in my experience. Yeah. You can, you can backtrack it and you can figure out a way, like you can make a somewhat generic thumbnail.
And if the title is good enough, you're okay. Like, but the title also to me represents an idea, it's the elevator pitch for your video. And if you can't boil down the substance of your video into like 40 or 50 60 characters, then you probably don't have a great video idea. Um, and like, if you're gonna invest a week of time or.
Yeah, two weeks, a hundred hours of time working on a video, shooting, editing, and planning and doing all this stuff you should probably think through like, is this going to resonate? And is it actually going to do well? Um, because like you're always balancing the creative artistic aspect and then a financial self-sustaining business aspect to it.
So they don't, they're not like by the, yeah.
Tommy Jackett: [00:31:50] So w uh, reverse engineer this episode, it's probably the wrong way around. What would you
Matt D'Avella: [00:31:57] engineer? Swinging
Tommy Jackett: [00:32:02] Matt D of Ella's Dick swinging
Josh Janssen: [00:32:04] Matt de Vela tries Australian or writes Australian food or something. Yeah,
Matt D'Avella: [00:32:11] it's pretty good. Yeah. It's so hard with the podcasts and I, you know, I had a podcast for, I think you guys now have 10 times as many episodes as I did. I think I stopped there on a hundred, but.
I felt like at least in my world, because it was self-development the most cliche titles, like, um, overcoming struggles, like, I don't know, whatever it was just always like, so cliche and self development focused, I think at what was out
Tommy Jackett: [00:32:42] hated our episode. Um, Imposter syndrome.
Matt D'Avella: [00:32:45] That one was fine. I think imposter syndrome, I think is okay.
But still, like, there was some that I was okay with, but then some of them, I was just like, I hated myself because I'm like, these are so corny, but I'm like, I can't, like, I don't want to spend any more time thinking about what this would be titled. I know that it would help. And I kind of like love, like.
Even like what Joe Rogan does where like, he doesn't, I mean, obviously like somebody like him can get away with it. Um, but will you just like name the episode with the person you're interviewing? Yeah. You know what I mean? And the number of person. Yeah, exactly. But it doesn't work if you're trying to, like, I did notice a difference if I named it something, especially when you post it on YouTube.
Well,
Tommy Jackett: [00:33:22] I think so, maybe the thought is, so Joe Rogan is big enough to do that. Is there any misconceptions that you had in your mind? Uh, say two, three years ago about what an audience would do for you gross.
Matt D'Avella: [00:33:38] Yeah, I think, I think a lot of people fall into that, um, that trap or that mistake. I hope my teeth are trying because it's just like white bread.
Josh Janssen: [00:33:46] Really? It's a wonder. It really is a one-to-one right?
Matt D'Avella: [00:33:49] Yeah. I mean, that's the, that's the bread you got to go for, right?
Tommy Jackett: [00:33:52] Wash it the better.
Matt D'Avella: [00:33:57] You can't say that about many things. Um, Yeah. I think that like, well, when I first started, I, I really thought that like, I kind of modeled what I was doing off of Joe Rogan, because I was like, well, I worked for him. Right. It will work for it'll work for me. And that's not the case with like, almost anybody, especially like anybody that's really well-known like a Casey Neistat or a Peter McKinnon.
Uh, Gary V like they all. Did something that were different and unique and that weren't being done at the time. And so like, just even obviously Joe Rogan has the celebrity aspect that obviously helps him. But even if you wasn't a celebrity, it would still be really difficult. Like if you're just gonna copy what somebody has already done.
Yeah. Like verbatim that formula is it's probably not going to work and you probably have to think of a different angle. And so like uploading just podcast excerpts, um, and then naming them, whatever, you know what I mean? You, you have to actually get a little bit more creative than that and you have to actually find a different path,
Josh Janssen: [00:34:54] I think could be just as successful, not having social media.
Why do you have social media in 2020?
Matt D'Avella: [00:35:02] You mean like Instagram and like everything apart from YouTube? Yeah. Um, well, I don't have Facebook. I have Instagram and that's probably the only one. I, I, and I look at Twitter because Twitter is kind of fun too, because you can have conversations with people. I did.
Yeah, that was during the COVID. It was a really rough time in my life.
Tommy Jackett: [00:35:23] COVID made a lot of people seek it and made a lot of people. Tick tock,
Matt D'Avella: [00:35:28] tick tock, Chinese company. I mean
uh, I don't know, coincidence. This is weird then. That's how conspiracy theories are born. Um, what was the question? Uh, social, social media, social media. Um, Instagram for me. I don't know, like, there's something I like about it. I think that obviously. Uh, I don't think it hurts to have, unless it's really affecting your mental health.
And I think that I've actually like really built a really healthy connection with Instagram, where I just don't really use it that much. And I'll pop in every once in a while and I do get something from it and it is nice to connect with people and like message people on DMS. When I have a minute to do it.
And then, uh, it is also a helpful promotional tool. I mean, like if I'm like making a course or a digital product, or if I want to talk about something, it is an additional microphone to, to share a message. The same reason why I have a newsletter is to just, um, because, and put all your eggs in one basket.
Like, you know, uh, what we've seen with Google search and Facebook and all the stuff that's happening in Australia right now. Like it just goes to show that, and, and a lot of these news companies and media companies interview sign up to our newsletter, like they're all scrambling now. And it's actually the
Tommy Jackett: [00:36:49] main news site has you don't need Facebook sign up here.
Matt D'Avella: [00:36:52] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so like, they're all waiting behind and they were relying too much on Facebook. And so I think that if from the beginning, you just diversify a little bit and like, Of course, you're probably not going to be able to, you know, if you get, if you're really popular on one platform like Facebook or YouTube, you're probably not gonna be able to get every single ship up to that level, but it's just making sure that you can keep doing what you're doing.
If one of them decides to like pull the cord or, you know, I think
Tommy Jackett: [00:37:18] it's hard when there's no ships up to any level. And that's where the pressure comes because you haven't landed a platform or haven't landed. Success on one specific platform, success, meaning just a big audience at this point. Um, was there thinking actually different when you hadn't blended the YouTube
Matt D'Avella: [00:37:38] audience or I think it was the same as you, you guys cause like when I started, sorry, that really sticks to your team.
When I started, um, I was doing freelance filmmaking. And I was doing, um, part of the freelancing started to become like doing original long-form films, like minimalism. And so since that worked out, I was like, okay, this is a potential path where it's not, it's original content, but I'm like collaborating with other people and I'm making films and like, I don't need an audience to be able to do that stuff.
And so for me, from the beginning, I had that safety net to go back to, uh, so I built up. Uh, savings. I, I, you know, I had a nice runway to help me in case I were to like slip up and fail. And like, obviously I did a lot over that. The year and a half that I was like building it. And then I just, I always knew that I could go back to freelance and I knew that like I could, I could go back to the client work that I like really enjoy doing, which is working with different companies and startups and tech companies.
And I'm like, and it, it even gets really bad. I can go back to weddings and I'm like, I didn't mind filming weddings. And like, I'm not too good to shoot weddings. Now, if everything fell to shit. And I think it's always good to have that in your back pocket where you're like, there's always that, um, And then obviously, and then like, yeah, like to have a family support system helps, like, so then you could like crash on somebody's couch or you can, um, do other ways to save money if things did come to that.
And I think like, no matter what level you're at, like that that's always there in the back of my head. Like, I mean, cause you always, you never, I think you never. Should really take what you have for granted and you should be ready to that it might be taken away from you at any moment. Um, and then you just have to be ready to go back to filming bar mitzvahs.
Josh Janssen: [00:39:17] Are you thinking about the future? Like how often are you looking at where you are now and then planning for what's
Matt D'Avella: [00:39:23] ahead? I mean, you know, it's funny, it's like we talk about like, kind of creating runway with content a lot, like obviously runway with money as one thing. And then like, I used to get really good at it where I'd be like four videos ahead.
And I would just be able to like really kind of map out what I wanted to do, uh, lately, uh, especially in like trying to manage my anxiety. Cause like with the views and all that stuff that came also a lot of anxiety came from that. And I had like, it was like crazy where I was like, I don't know if you guys saw the video where it's literally just called.
I have anxiety. Like that was like a real, like, it was really scary. And it was like a breakdown where. I didn't feel like I had control over myself and I had no kind of, I had no idea that you could have such physical symptoms from something like anxiety, where I thought that I was like, literally being poisoned with carbon monoxide.
And like, you start to like, lose your mind and then it just spirals even further. And I think it is almost entirely because of YouTube. Right. And because of the pressure that I put on myself, And it was pressure. I put on myself and it's like, you have to realize that you have control. You have the ability to step back.
And when you feel like you are being forced to do this thing, and when you feel the pressure that you have to always keep doing better and better and better and better, eventually it's going to snap. And the pressure is just going to break you.
Josh Janssen: [00:40:43] So why, why do you still do it? Like, I guess if I was in your, it's always funny, you always look at other people's positions, right?
Yeah. It's like when you
Tommy Jackett: [00:40:52] would do it's crystal clear what I would do for
Josh Janssen: [00:40:55] Josh. So you, you know, you talk about, um, not necessarily going out that much or whatever, and Sydney from a filming perspective or like your space, like, I would love the idea of. Being a hermit in with like nice nature and all that sort of thing.
And like write a book. There's something about like writing or something where it's like, you're not having to engage with all of that sort of stuff. You're not doing the social media thing. Have you thought about drastically redesigning? You live to be a bit more hermity. Yeah.
Matt D'Avella: [00:41:26] Nat and I joke about this all the time where we're just like, I'm going to fucking retire.
This is actually like a nightmare. This is an awful, um, and we go through phases of that. That's not the everyday though, and that's not like the, every, every moment of the day, it's like, It usually happens later in the day it happens maybe in the middle of a really big project, like a film, or like a course where I'm just like, Oh my God, this is so much freaking work.
And like, part of it is just resistance to this project and feeling kind of overwhelmed by it. Um, but then the other part of it is that like, I am asking too much of myself and you guys have done a great job of like bringing on other people to like help you make what you do. And I think that's something that I'm trying to get better at realizing that I just can't do everything myself.
And so I think I just love it too much. Like I really, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I really love making videos. I love the process of it, and I know I've taken breaks before.
Josh Janssen: [00:42:25] And how do you feel.
Matt D'Avella: [00:42:27] When you do that, I'm just like, so ready to get back to it. Cause I really love doing, what does that
Josh Janssen: [00:42:30] say in the moment, like when you're having one of these moments?
Oh,
Matt D'Avella: [00:42:33] she's, she's usually breaking up with me because like, you know, she, she broke down
Yeah, exactly. But I mean, cause she does, um, she's got a pretty demanding schedule herself working with, um, agencies and. Well, it's freelance and her life is so much better than it was because she now can take one day off a week to work on personal stuff. And she doesn't have to work on weekends where when you have a full-time job, it's expected of you, that you're going to do everything you can for this company.
But now that she's freelance, she's like, no, actually I'm just done on Friday, but still even with that agency, world is very demanding. Um, and so she, yeah, she, she has an equally tough time. I wouldn't say either of us have, uh, I would say the pressure is pretty close. Uh, uh, mine might be a little window just being so public.
Yeah. Facing,
Tommy Jackett: [00:43:23] is it, um, I mean, you kind of mentioned that it's, self-inflicted that pressure. It is. Yeah, because you could then, is it cathartic to say that to yourself? Like, well, I'm just fucking doing this to myself. Does that relieve anything for
Matt D'Avella: [00:43:38] you? Yeah a little bit, but, but that's kind of close. That's kind of a similar to being like, like, Whoa, have you just tried not worrying about things?
Tommy Jackett: [00:43:48] So in the, in the context of, um, if you were to think about you go and work for somebody else yeah. There would be still pressures on that role, but then is there light that comes from I've created this so that it's self. Imposed pressure, but it's, it's come from something that you've created. Like, do you go, how do you navigate out of it?
Do you use any of that as a strategy to actually get yourself to feel any better?
Matt D'Avella: [00:44:16] No. I think that if I were actually working a full-time job, I think that I'm just. Predisposed to it. My personality type is to be a bit of a perfectionist and like really, um, obsessive over the work that I do. And also, I think it obviously comes from like really enjoying and like getting a lot of fulfillment out of it.
But then you have to, like, you set up these boundaries to make sure you don't, uh, you know, over commit to it. And I think that was one of the reasons, um, you know, like we talked about earlier having my brother upload videos for me on my behalf. So then I just can completely tap out and be like, I don't want to see the metrics.
And, um, and so that kind of stuff helps. Like that's a boundary for me that I can now set that it doesn't affect me as much. And like, I don't worry as much. Like we uploaded a video earlier this morning and I haven't like looked at the metrics or any of the views and killing them. It's uh, it's like, it's like an itch that you want to scratch.
It's actually, to be honest and I think, can we do a live
Tommy Jackett: [00:45:13] reaction to what it's got right now on
Matt D'Avella: [00:45:16] you just see the sweat down my face? Um, so the thing is like,
Tommy Jackett: [00:45:21] I know Matt would say give you some action. Do you want him? I would actually like one,
Matt D'Avella: [00:45:26] I didn't have one before I have one. Um, I think that. The, yeah, this is kind of to the point of, um, what we did with our original video on the YouTube channel, the three-year rule.
And obviously we're working on a follow up now that we're shooting today and it's like, When you just look at the metrics for one video for one day, you know, it's just kind of crazy to look and put so much pressure on that one moment. And I think that's, it's crazy about being an online content creator.
And obviously there's other jobs that have similar kind of like metrics in terms of like performance, even a musician, you know, I mean, they've a lot of pressure just for that one album that they release. Uh, but then. Every single week to be being like, was this a good week or not based upon the amount of views that I got.
And it's just so arbitrary in the long run. Do you
Josh Janssen: [00:46:12] actually, do you realize that you connect, like, are you connecting your emotional state to those things? Like I find that sometimes I'll think about my emotional state and it would be connected with how. The podcast episode was that day where we forgot currently eating Tim Tams, emotional, connecting, emotional state to the video stuff.
Have you picked up on that where it's like, you've actually been, been in a shitty mood and then you've realized that fuck it's connected to the video that came out
Matt D'Avella: [00:46:45] yeah, I think that that happens. And I think it's, it's interesting. Cause like sometimes not. And I noticed that with fights and I think like, The one best thing you can do.
One of the best things you can do to kind of improve your relationships are to really try to become more self-aware. How are you going to
Josh Janssen: [00:47:00] say delete YouTube?
Matt D'Avella: [00:47:03] Yeah, that probably has saved a marriage to stop listening, to imagine
Josh Janssen: [00:47:08] couples that have YouTube channels, like the fighting.
Tommy Jackett: [00:47:12] No. I mean, it's good content.
Maybe
Josh Janssen: [00:47:15] I told you not to use that title.
Matt D'Avella: [00:47:17] Yeah. Yeah. That would be fucking brutal. Yeah. Um, but the it's like building self-awareness around how you are responding and how. Because you might find yourself later in the day at some point, getting into a fight with your partner and just being like, like that came out of nowhere.
But then if you really look back, you're like, Oh wait, it actually started in the morning because like, I was annoying that and asking her where my shoes were, cause I lost them. And then she was frustrated because she was trying to get ready for work. And then it builds up to all these things throughout the day.
And I think that if you start to reflect on that and be self-aware about those instances, When you're feeling those things in a similar way to, when you were saying, like, just getting anxious about a video and not realizing why you're anxious. Um, I think that that, that can certainly help you to figure out what the source of the problem is.
Yes.
Tommy Jackett: [00:48:09] I mean, there's lots of opportunities for everyone, but I think, um, maybe it's just in my mind thinking about you and the opportunities you have. From what you've created. Like I just thought, like, imagine if Matt, Dave, Ella, I'm quitting YouTube for six months to just do wedding videos and you book them up and you get a matte day of Ella style wedding video, like I'm sure sell it out.
You tell him that it's a
Matt D'Avella: [00:48:32] great idea and sell it
Tommy Jackett: [00:48:33] out, but that's just one idea that came to mind as you were speaking. Um, are you, uh, sort of, uh, do you romanticize with ideas or, or are you pretty focused on what you've got and what you've
Matt D'Avella: [00:48:47] created? I wish I remembered the YouTubers name. Maybe I'll look it up right now because he'd made a video called, um, my YouTube escape plan.
Oh, that's I like that.
Tommy Jackett: [00:48:57] Yeah. And kind of, is there a bunch of those now?
Matt D'Avella: [00:49:00] Uh, maybe I don't even know how big it was. Uh, Is it? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't even escape plan. It was exit like his exit strategy kind of like a startup would have an exit strategy. Um,
Tommy Jackett: [00:49:12] Well, a lot of people say you need an exit strategy for any business you created.
Matt D'Avella: [00:49:17] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Think about it. It's going to be popping up. It's I'm probably cause I'm getting the Australia algorithm. Ah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, yeah. again, there he is. It's Jake Roper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just called my exit and my YouTube exit strategy. Um, I think that's not a terribly unhealthy way to look at it because of how demanding YouTube is.
I think obviously. There is another solution, which is what I'm actually doing now, because I used to do a video every single week. And now I've scaled back to a video every other week. I think it's just managing the amount of work that you do and saying like, okay, I can't do everything. So I'm just going to really pull it back.
Yeah, for me, it helped actually having other YouTube creator friends that I chat with and, and we, we speak regularly and just like. Having all of us go through the same thing and realizing that none of us were doing anything to change it. And I was like, I just got to do that. Yeah. I just got to scale back on it.
Um, it's UI.
Tommy Jackett: [00:50:11] Sorry. Why YouTube is YouTube.
Matt D'Avella: [00:50:15] Yeah, but it's like, um, YouTube exit strategy to me is not like a bad idea, but I think what it also could do is like, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be like my exit strategy I'm going to do blah, blah, blah. And then in two years I'm going to quit. Uh, but it could mean.
Do you have a strategy for when you no longer want to make YouTube videos? Like how do you transition out of something that you may be became dependent upon for a living and for
Josh Janssen: [00:50:41] fulfillment, the Slack channel where a bunch of YouTube, big YouTube creators chat. Do you find that there's sort of a, um, A common road that you all go through.
Like, I can imagine you being doing it for the amount of time you have versus someone else. Do you feel the pressure of the, uh, the, the young creator coming in and like, do it, you know, it's like, um, Allie Abdel or whatever, producing fucking like 15 videos. Yeah. And he's a
Matt D'Avella: [00:51:12] slow down, like, do you think
Josh Janssen: [00:51:16] you feel that, um, that pressure or how do you sort of reconcile
Matt D'Avella: [00:51:21] it?
I think that is probably one of the strongest polls to feel like you're not creating enough when you see everybody else doing so much. Um, Holly's amazing. And he's brilliant. Um, and he has something that a lot of people don't have, which is just like, he just, his degree, he's like super smart and I'm like an idiot and it takes me a lot longer to like, make my videos.
And, uh, it takes most people a really long time to make videos. Uh, there's also some people like Peter McKinnon, who is amazing as well, naturally on camera. Um, but he's an editor. And so like he can just shoot a video in a day and then pop the footage over to his editor. And then like that's all the time.
It takes him to make a video. I'm not, I don't know his process too much. And I don't know if that's. I'm sure every video is a little bit different, but from what I'm aware, that's part of his process for some videos. But for me, that's just never going to happen. I also really love editing. And so I don't want to give that up.
And so I think you have to, again, go back to, we were just talking earlier before the podcast about how like everyone, but the success is different for everybody and like your outcome, but it's going to be totally different from somebody else's. And so don't compare yourself to other people cause it's completely arbitrary and has nothing to do with your own happiness.
Josh Janssen: [00:52:33] Every other week doing it, changing up a schedule. Are you having, if you have the amount of videos you do in a year, you having your revenue?
Matt D'Avella: [00:52:42] Um, maybe it depends like, right. Like I think with having the amount of videos I do, it forces me to kind of do like a little promotion or something in every video, whether it's for.
Of course I'm selling or for my, uh, for an integration. Uh, I have actually like this year, last year, I probably did like 20 to probably 30 integrations, which is like a brand that pays to like, have me talk about them in a video. Yeah. And so obviously I just, for me personally, it's not obvious, but for me it's just like, it's a product or company that I use and I get value from.
And so this year I just decided to do one a month with Squarespace. And so I've cut it down by like, A half to a third. And so obviously that's a half to a third, less revenue through integrations. And then with views, obviously you get through Google ad sense. And so that would probably be half there. Um, but it depends.
Cause then if I, if I do, like, if I push a course in a video, it may actually be more money than an integration. Uh, I were experimented and I'm like trying different things and like, we'll see how it goes. But the one thing I was going to experiment with, I guess even the open, closed enrollment for courses, because I was hesitant to do it for a while.
Cause it feels like a tactic. You can just look like, what does
Josh Janssen: [00:54:01] that mean? Sorry.
Matt D'Avella: [00:54:02] So, right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, if you have open enrollment for a course, it's open all the time, but if you do open closed, it means that it's only open for two weeks out of the year or four weeks, whatever. Um, and then you said this kind of finite time.
And so it incentivizes people to buy the course because they're like, well, if I don't buy it now, then I'm not going to be able to be enrolled in it. And so that's where it kind of feels like a tactic, uh, for some people. And it turned me off a little bit, but then there's also this idea where. I don't have to sell all year.
Every video I don't have to. I hate selling shit. And I hate like, in my videos, like it, I thought it'd be easier selling my own shit, but it's actually way harder because it's like, Hey, buy this thing that I made versus a Squarespace is actually really great, by the way, they're the sponsor of this integration,
Tommy Jackett: [00:54:45] Tim dams and, um,
Matt D'Avella: [00:54:46] Caramella.
Koalas. Yeah. But it's just, if you know what I mean, it's easier to like, Like say something about somebody else. Like, yeah. Like Josh is really smart. Like I, if I said like, Hey guys, I'm really smart. And what I made is really good. Good,
Josh Janssen: [00:54:59] good.
Matt D'Avella: [00:55:01] I don't think people are going to buy it.
Tommy Jackett: [00:55:03] I'm cutting amount of videos in half.
Have you actually cut the workload in half? Because it can be trapped to then have more time to actually somebody
Matt D'Avella: [00:55:12] said that, I think, uh, I forgot who said it, but they were like, Oh, now that you're doing half the videos, are you putting more work in each video? And I'm like that, it's the purpose. Yeah. Yeah.
Tommy Jackett: [00:55:19] I think that's the trap. I wouldn't say I'd see it as the mistake. If you were spending double account, but it's easy
Matt D'Avella: [00:55:26] to do, right? Yeah. Now, I mean, I know that you guys, uh, had talked about slow growth on here and really appreciate the
Josh Janssen: [00:55:33] kind of words all the tick. Yeah.
Matt D'Avella: [00:55:36] Okay. I got that little bulk baby. I noticed the
Josh Janssen: [00:55:40] tone that I'm buying dinner tonight, the boys and the
Matt D'Avella: [00:55:42] boys just gave me a plug.
Um, I forget, uh, Nat actually might've even been the one that shared it. Cause obviously she was a big part of slow growth and I think she saw you guys talk about it in an Instagram post. Um, but yeah, it was, um, I mean, that's something that I've been like really passionate about. Uh, and haven't been able to work on it towards the end of last year because of the film.
And so I've been really focusing on that. So basically half of my time isn't on this course platform slash you know, social media account. And then the other one is really dedicated to just YouTube
Tommy Jackett: [00:56:12] videos. I have something, if you didn't have anything to allocate that time to maybe that's the trap.
Matt D'Avella: [00:56:18] I think I need to, I don't know about you guys, but like, You gotta stay busy.
Right? You gotta like, have something that fills your days. Like you just be so empty and lonely and like, I don't know. You just need to like, do something. I don't even know, like, like reading books and like, even like traveling when we could, I don't know if I'd be fulfilled by that. Yeah.
Josh Janssen: [00:56:37] So, uh, you're like the minimalism guy you've done a lot in the space fire financially, independent retire early.
Like it. How much do you sort of gravitate towards that idea? Cause there's a lot of similarities
Matt D'Avella: [00:56:53] and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of people that follow that movement and I might be way off, but like, are they, a lot of them are like, I want to have the. Option to retire early
Josh Janssen: [00:57:06] days. Yeah. It's like giving you the option to do whatever you want with your time.
Matt D'Avella: [00:57:10] You, so you might to work. Yeah. Uh, but you have enough money that you have the, you know, the financial security forever. Uh, I love that. And I think it's amazing. I think that's what everybody should be working towards, um, to be able to have that freedom and flexibility to do what you want to do and pursue your interests to make a full-time living.
But
Josh Janssen: [00:57:30] you there, would you say that you, uh, If you looked at what fire was about, which is being in a position where you could. Uh, do what you want, are you in that position and are you executing
Matt D'Avella: [00:57:41] on it? Uh, I think pretty getting pretty close to that position. Uh, like I, you know, I started out with six figures of student debt and I got, I paid that off in.
I owe you money, right? Yeah. Yeah. I wish it worked like that. Um, And so then, yeah, I paid it off in like four years of just doing freelance filmmaking. And then I started investing in my 401k, which is my like super annuation. And so I I've been investing in my retirement account for years and that's built up to the point now where I could actually stop investing in it and I would still have.
Enough money to retire. If you got 10% return, which is likely to happen. Um, but that's to say like that doesn't count the revenue that you need and the income that you need over the next 40 years until retirement or 30 years. Uh, also, I just don't, I don't see myself retiring. Yeah. I dunno. Do you guys like see yourself?
Actually?
Josh Janssen: [00:58:39] I think it's like not having the stress, like financial stress. I think that I definitely see that as something. I like it. And that's part of the fire movement, I guess
Tommy Jackett: [00:58:49] it's where the stress would be. So you might have stress in a certain area of your life that like that is. Just a byproduct of something that's hard to eradicate.
So then you'd move. Say, if you, all of a sudden had all this money, you might put pressure on yourself in another area to create something. Well, it's like
Josh Janssen: [00:59:09] optionality. I think that's what I like it. Do you think, say with them you look a Bitcoin or GameStop or all that, like it seems, especially with things like Robin hood, all of a sudden everyone's.
You know, gambling on the stock market or having
Matt D'Avella: [00:59:22] a car. I think gambling is a great word.
Josh Janssen: [00:59:25] Um, is it the enticing when you're doing okay. And you have that cash in the bank to be able to, you know, fall into the trap of maybe like, you know, you've got money, I'm going to do this or that, or, you know, throw it into some of these, these types of
Matt D'Avella: [00:59:42] no, I think, cause I've, I've probably consumed enough financial.
Uh, advice and literature over the years that I know that you wouldn't want to put a significant percentage of your savings into something that risky. Um, I mean, like I've thought about like, I'm like, Oh, maybe I'll put in like a few thousand bucks into like one of these like risky investment things just for fun.
Uh, but I, I just don't see it being. I know it's just not worth my time. And I'm like, I'm very boring when it comes to like my finances and I think that's probably a good thing. Um, and I think also like just having like the foundation of minimalism and simple living and not wanting things that I don't have, I think has really helped because, uh, if you're, Oh, if you're always changed chasing the next thing, like, even if you get to the point where you could financially like retire, Uh, then you might be, well, I can actually get a bigger house if I worked a little bit harder.
Yeah. And I don't think we really, we don't really have that. It's like lucky enough to be able to do what we love and not really have to worry about the money aspect of it. I meant. Can you
Josh Janssen: [01:00:46] access your 401k early? So like superannuation. Yeah. So superannuation is Australia. It's like, it is, um, mandatory by employers, how much percent what's the percent, 9%, um, uh, of every employee's pay goes into super, which is like the 401k.
So you said after 55? Yes. So yeah, you have to wait until you turn, is it? I think it's 65, 65, 65. Yeah. After 60 retiring at 55. And so is that, is that a, um, like do most Americans, would they have, like, say for you, is it four Oh one K and then having another investing thing that you can then access sooner?
Or is it all about just like investing. Long-term I
Matt D'Avella: [01:01:33] think that the, you know, it depends how much money you save, but obviously like apart from a 401k, you might invest in real estate. And I think that's probably like the one area where, unless, unless you live in like a small rural towns where like, how can anybody achieve fire if they actually want to buy a house?
And like, I want to move to Vermont. Do you want me to come? Have you been looking into housing prices? Have you been there? I guess it's just syrup prices. Have you been there? I have not been at Vermont. Okay. Yeah. It looks beautiful. Uh, Bernie Sanders that says yes.
Josh Janssen: [01:02:04] And so a lot of white men. Yeah, it has the, yeah, it's got like 95% white people really well, which isn't like it.
It's
Tommy Jackett: [01:02:13] not the point for Joseph. He's already gone in a rice, got
Matt D'Avella: [01:02:18] dad that they wish you didn't repeat.
Josh Janssen: [01:02:21] I literally, in that moment, I thought Vermont's going to hate this
Matt D'Avella: [01:02:26] board. You're not going to get
Josh Janssen: [01:02:26] them. They've got great socks. Socks are my favorite socks. Um, and so yeah, on the real estate thing, I feel like there was a time where you were looking at.
Buying or like, it was at least on the cards
Matt D'Avella: [01:02:40] we look at it, but then like, it's just so depressing. It's the same thing. I think when you're looking to rent, uh, you think you have a budget going into it and then you're like, Oh my God, like there, there are no windows in this house and it cost a million dollars and you're like, okay, well I guess 1.5.
And then, uh, it's just, I would find it so hard to. To kind of make that kind of investment and spend that much money on a house and then get in that much in debt when, if it was so long to get out of debt
Josh Janssen: [01:03:09] about saying like family, because your sister had a place in, was it Joshua tree or like seeing other people own and do all that sort of thing, like, would you do the whole destination sort of thing, like a cheap place in the middle of.
Some sort of
Matt D'Avella: [01:03:25] rural area, maybe. I mean, listen, if somebody's going to do it as a financial investment, you know, if you have that kind of money where you're like, all right, yeah, look, I'll throw money into a property here or there, then, then that might be worth it. I don't know if I would do that. I think it's kind of silly to buy a house.
That you wouldn't actually live in. Cause there is so much that goes with it. You know what I mean? And like, that's the one thing that I've seen from so many homeowners that I know is that it's just like drug it's way more work than you think
Tommy Jackett: [01:03:54] even reached people going on homes.
Matt D'Avella: [01:03:55] Yes, that's true. Yeah, because they buy it out of all these joints and they buy outside of their means too though, where they're always renting.
I mean, if you buy it. I mean, some of these people do they buy like 20, $30 million houses. And that to me just seems so wasteful as well. Yeah. You know, I'm like Jesus, like packing
Tommy Jackett: [01:04:11] cash, you might have the money. I'm sure there's a bunch of rich people that. Just like, I'll put it over there if I get in that house.
Matt D'Avella: [01:04:18] Yeah. And they don't even, yeah. It's so hard to judge people that are rich for making decisions about the money that they've made themselves. Um, but yeah, but it's fun, but it feels right. Doesn't it? It does. It
Tommy Jackett: [01:04:32] does. Yeah.
Josh Janssen: [01:04:33] Matt, Dave Ella. Thanks for coming on the
Tommy Jackett: [01:04:35] daily talk show. This was a joy. So it's great to have you in our studio.
We've we've done podcasts from two of your houses yeah. That you own two of your rentals, or we did one in the parking lot,
Matt D'Avella: [01:04:50] um, LA in Venice. Yeah, that was fun. It's just good to be in person with people. It is not, it was beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, we'll take a nap together.
Josh Janssen: [01:05:07] have a good one
Matt D'Avella: [01:05:08] guys. See you guys. Bye.