Doug: Hey, what’s going on? Welcome to the Doug show.
My name’s Doug Cunnington, and this is part two of the interview series with Paul Lipsky. Last time we talked about eBay and Tik TOK and drop shipping. So if you missed that, definitely check it out. And today we’re going to talk about YouTube and sort of the. The life cycle of a, of a YouTuber. And I mean, starting a YouTube channel and creating content and all that stuff.
So Paul, welcome to the studio. Thanks for coming out here. I love doing in-person interviews.
Paul: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for having me. This is actually, I think this may be like the first live in person podcast I’ve done.
Doug: Very cool. Have you done a lot of podcasts in the past?
Paul: I’ve done a couple of them.
Doug: Okay. Yeah, it’s um, there’s something a little different doing it in person.
I mean, obviously the body language and we could look at each other and all that stuff. But I mean, we do get so used to like working on the computer and zoom and like creating video and all that stuff. But, uh, it’s great to just look directly at someone and have a conversation. So if y’all missed out on the first episode, check it out and you could hear more about Paul’s backstory, but we’re just going to jump right in and focus on YouTube stuff.
And when did you get started on YouTube?
Paul: Yeah. So I got started in 2017. I had started dropshipping in January and I was part of a few online forums that were talking about dropshipping and. I was getting a lot of questions because I was doing, I was doing pretty good with it. So I made like a couple of really bad videos describing how I was doing something.
I was using this really like terrible software that wasn’t designed for drop shipping. So I basically did like a tutorial video, a screen recording showing how I use it. So that was the first one. And then. I don’t know, later that year, I just started making a couple of more, just talking about my experience and giving some tips about dropshipping.
So that was late 2017 and then early 2018. I kind of like caught a break to be honest, because it’s kind of a weird story. But in 2015, I, I was super into this raw food diet where I was basically eating like a lot of fruit. Okay, don’t, don’t judge. And so there is this camp for adults in upstate New York.
That’s where I lived at the time where, and I’m sorry for this tangent. This is going to make sense in a second. So I went to this camp where all you ate was fruit and it was like a weird hippie sort of time I was there. And I met this guy there named Steve Rakin. Steve had a YouTube channel where he talked about eBay.
He was he was doing like thrift store stuff on eBay and he’s like Yeah, I’m gonna be youtuber. It’s gonna be my whole life and I was like, okay, dude, whatever you say A couple years later. His YouTube channel is huge. He’s a youtuber like that. He actually made it So then I lost contact with him this whole time and then early 2018 I saw his channel, I reached out to him, and he was like, Yeah, I remember you, and like, brought me on his channel, and like, really pumped my channel up.
So, you know, you just never know. Like, these weird things in life, like, why did I go to that fruit place? It was worth it in the end.
Doug: That’s so funny. What the fuck, man? Yeah. Fruit camp. Yeah. People hang on to the, until the, the end of the interview, we actually did a sound check where we talked about diet a little bit.
So it actually, it goes in together. And I was like, I could talk to you about food and diet and fitness for like six hours. We’re hiking tomorrow. Yes. So I think we might actually do that. But okay. Fruit camp. We’ll put a pin in that. What’s your favorite fruit?
Paul: Pretty basic, but bananas.
Doug: It’s not basic man, you know, you know what you like super into berries right now I mean, I love bananas too, but the blackberries and blueberries and raspberries nice really good for your brain Yeah, I need all I can Okay, so berries are great fruits awesome and You caught a break.
How big was Steve’s channel when he had you on
Paul: I think he was under a hundred. So I, I want to say he was like in like 60, 000 or so, but like super good engagement. Okay. Yeah, really good engagement on his channel.
Doug: And how big is your channel now?
Paul: I’m at like 110, I think, or 106, somewhere between. Around there.
Doug: Okay. And we, so quick, quick note. We’re asking about the subs. It’s just a vanity metric really, because I was telling you on our last hike that I have a plaque right in front of me. I think I have like a. Probably by the time this goes out, I’ll have like 130 K or so. It’s all smoke and mirrors. It’s all bullshit.
I’ve been running some ads and actually one of my friends texted me earlier today, the guy who you haven’t been to a campfire, have you? No, I haven’t. Okay. The guy running that, he has a great channel campfires of financial independence retreat, and basically. He was like, dude, your, your mile high FI podcast channel has blown up.
And the thing is he was kind of competing. He was like, I want to get more subs. So I was like, ah, let me rejigger some of these ads. I was just not paying attention too much. And then basically he was about to catch us. He was 17 behind apparently. And then we got like 2000 new subs in the last couple of weeks.
So I almost feel bad, but I’m like, dude, like it’s just, it’s, it’s crazy. Bullshit, it’s kind of bullshit. So you you have a very engaged channel. I took a look at some of your videos You get plenty of views you get comments, but if people want to Research the smoke and mirrors that i’m talking about So I got the plaque my channel has grown by 100k in the last six months or something like that And you can see the videos that I am not running ads on and there there’s just a few hundred views Interesting.
So I don’t know, like if YouTube is suppressing me a little bit because I, they’re like, Hey, this guy’s running some ads or whatever, but it is truly like the engagement is what matters. Yeah. However. People care about the plaque. People care about the sheer number.
Paul: I cared about the plaque when I was getting close.
I really wanted that plaque. And that’s when my, my subscriber growth started to slow down. So I was getting really frustrated.
Doug: Oh, it’s like, I wonder if they do that. They’re like, you’re getting close, and you think you’re going to do it. And then we’ll just scale everything up.
Paul: Like every video I made, I was like, subscribe, please.
Doug: Okay. So You started in 2017, uh, your friend, Steve from Fruit Camp, you did a collab. He, he helped you out. Side note, you, you have, you have courses, online courses. Yes. And when did you start creating online courses? Was the YouTube channel part of the funnel initially, or were you strategically doing this or did that come about later?
Paul: I’m laughing because there was no strategy in the beginning. Nothing. You just tried to help people. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So in, before I started, well, yeah, really before I started seriously posting on YouTube, I was coaching people individually, one on one and that quickly became like impossible, unsustainable.
So that’s, that’s part of the reason I started the YouTube channel. And then I started looking into online courses. I ran into uh, Pat Flynn online. Who’s like a big on online marketer. I’m sure a lot of people know him and around that time, and he still is talking a lot about online courses and like not making them on, like, Udemy, I don’t know what I’m about to say on this podcast.
Doug: It’s just entertainment. Okay. Udemy, it’s like they suppress your sales and you can’t charge enough. And there’s a lot of issues with the big, the customers are there, but like a lot of limitations, always trade offs.
Paul: Right, right. And the big thing with that is you can’t charge a lot. So yeah. So then I was like, Oh, let me try this.
I’ll, I’ll make a course. And I didn’t have a big YouTube channel, but I put it out there anyway. And I was really scared. I thought it was like crap. I remember launching it and then like, wanting to crawl under my bed. I was like, this is so stupid. Everyone’s gonna think this is so dumb. I can’t believe I’m charging 200 for this.
But people loved it and it, it, legitimately changed some people’s lives. So yeah, that was pretty cool. That was really cool.
Doug: How’d you bump into Pat Flynn?
Paul: Oh, I didn’t physically bump into him. It was just, sorry. Yeah. I just found him online. Actually did join his small mastermind he had a while back.
So I was actually working with him one on one. Later, but at that time I just seen him online.
Doug: Gotcha. Did you in your group, was there a guy named Dave? There was an FBI agent, an accountant. The drone. I know Dave. Yeah. How do you know Dave? Just online. No way. Yeah, just I ran, I saw like some Instagram stuff and yeah, he started DMing and yeah, he’s been on, he was on some other interviews that I’ve done, but I haven’t talked to him in a while.
Paul: Yeah, I haven’t talked to him in a while either, but of everyone in that group, he’s the one I was closest with. Like I’ve hung out with him in Florida. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s a great guy.
Doug: That’s crazy. What a small world. Yeah. Yeah. Randomly. I just bumped, I think he was, he posts a lot about a Chick fil A.
Paul: He does. Yeah, he does. And his Tesla.
Doug: Yeah. Yeah. Good dude. Okay. So you ended up working with Pat Flynn stuff a little bit in his mastermind group. Very cool. Okay. So you were just trying to help people one on one wasn’t working, develop the course. Let’s get into some of the. like sort of day to day with like YouTube.
Can you talk about your schedule, especially in those earlier days? Can you talk about your team? If you have one, do you do the editing, some of the gear very wide open, but what did it look like in those early days?
Paul: Okay. So in the early days gosh, good question. I’m trying to, trying to like go back in time in my mind.
It was definitely very basic. I remember. I don’t know where I got my camera from. I must have had one lying around. I don’t even remember what it was, to be honest, what camera I was using at the time. But I really distinctly remember going to Best Buy and buying a microphone. I bought the the Yeti one that, you know, Sort of stands up, I forget what it’s called.
And like, I was like sitting in Best Buy, I’m like, gosh, should I buy this? It’s a hundred bucks. I don’t know. And then like I bought it. I was like, it was like one of the best things I’ve ever bought for my channel. So there’s that. And it’s just like natural light and lights from the house. Like really?
Cause I didn’t know, like. Any of that stuff. So in the beginning, it was like basically nothing. It was just like me sitting down in front of the computer, minimal editing, just trying to provide value as much as I could.
Doug: Okay. And that makes sense. I always say people should focus on audio. Like people can handle poor lighting or bad video, but if your audio is goofed up.
People will not stick around right nowadays, maybe even more so. Cause most people watch on their phones. It depends on your channel, but a lot of people watch on their phones.
Paul: And I think it got somewhat sort of like lucky because right before that I’d sort of gotten into photography for like a very short moment.
So I actually had it like a decent camera that I could, uh, could use. But this was when I was in New York and we had a one bedroom, apartment. It was like 500 square feet. It’s like anytime I wanted to make a video, I had to kick my husband out or like quickly make it, it was, it was stressful.
Doug: I remember those days too, where it’s just like, you know, we have, I’m in a studio now and you have a studio and like, I suspect your lights are kind of permanently up.
Your camera’s up. So you just like click, click, click, everything’s ready to go. But it was a struggle back then. It would take me like 30 minutes to set things up and then I have to tear it down. So it’s like, all right, I really want to batch videos. And were you doing the same thing?
Paul: Batching. Yeah. And now I hate batching.
I will not do it. Don’t like it.
Doug: Exactly. Yeah. It’s like, I just want to get a finished product and like move on. All right. So you were doing minimal editing back in those days. Do you do more editing now? I mean, your videos have really evolved, I think, right?
Paul: Yeah, actually. Come to think of it, I don’t do much editing now either.
So I went through like a lot of changes. I was, I had an editor for a while that I’d hired out. And he was able to do some really fancy, cool stuff. But You know, he, I, at some point when the channel started making less money, I, I decided to go back to editing myself, keeping it really simple.
And that’s sort of, sort of works. So yeah, nothing crazy.
Doug: Got it. And were you running ads on your channel or because you had the course? You just sold your course and had the great margins and no other people running ads on your channel.
Paul: Oh you mean So was I running ads to my channel? Is that what you’re asking?
Doug: Yep, were you were you monetizing your channel via ads like AdSense?
Paul: Oh, I see. Yes. Yeah Yeah, as soon as I had AdSense, I turned it on so I started making money. Unfortunately Right when I was supposed to qualify to be able to run ads, that’s when there was that big, like, ad pocalypse.
Doug: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Paul: Remember that? And they changed all the rules, so I had to wait longer to get more subs or more views or something. So it took me a while to become monetized, but I’d already had my, my course up by then, so it didn’t really matter. Yeah.
Doug: Do you run ads now?
Paul: I still have AdSense on. Yeah.
Doug: Okay. What do you earn if you can share like per month?
Paul: Right now it’s, it’s about like 1,500 a month.
Doug: Okay. And do you know how many views you get per month so people get back in? It’s okay if you don’t remember.
Paul: I don’t. I’ll know off the top of my head. I don’t have the YouTube app on my phone, the studio app, so I couldn’t check.
Doug: Okay. Very good. And for me, like, so I don’t run ads on.
I think there’s a couple older videos, but at some point I was just like, I don’t want to make money online people running ads on my channel. So I’m just like, I’ll just turn everything off. Okay. I am curious now if I did turn it on, like what it would be. Yeah. Cause we’re in the sort of business area and the RP RPMs could actually be like fairly significant compared to others where it’s maybe like five bucks or something.
Paul: Yeah. And I, I went through that debate too. Like, do I want people to be able to advertise on my videos? So I wasn’t sure. And I kind of had this. This theory, and I’ve heard this from other people, and there’s, there’s absolutely no proof of this, but it makes sense. It makes too much sense to my mind to to not run with it, which is that YouTube will promote videos if there’s ads running on them so they can make money.
I was like, that makes sense. It did. Yeah. I’ll keep them on. Yeah. And it helps the channel like pay for itself, you know, at the buy equipment at the pay for an editor. So it kind of, Offset that.
Doug: Yeah. And it may be something that I test because I’m not against changing my mind on something with new information.
So, although I personally hate ads, but I pay for like YouTube premium. So like I never see ads. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Moving on. You mentioned when the channel started earning less money and it sounds like you were sort of, just. Downscaling and stuff like that. So you’ve been doing this a little while you’ve had good growth.
You’re selling your course, but there’s always an evolution of like creators. In fact, this year in 2024, there was like a whole lot of big YouTubers that were like, I’m quitting. Like, did you get into watching those videos? Yeah. And I didn’t even know any of them, but I was like, this is very interesting.
It’s like a reality TV show. So what was your take on people quitting YouTube, especially these massively successful, like million plus subscriber folks stopping?
Paul: You know, I’m not surprised, honestly. I think during the COVID times, we just saw like explosive growth everywhere. Like my drop shipping stores took off, courses doing really well.
YouTube channels, like my best month in terms of views and money I was making. And so during that time period, I felt like it was such a wasted opportunity not to spend as much time on YouTube. On my business. Cause if I spend one hour on my business, I get like 100 X results from that. And then a couple of years later, like mid 2022, started 2023, something changed.
And it’s just like, I don’t know if it was inflation or what, or people were like, now I’m going to spend money on travel. I’m not going to watch YouTube. I’m not going to worry about building a business. I don’t know what it was, but something changed. Massive slowdown. A lot of my friends who were in the same space saw the same thing.
And so then it’s like you spend an hour. And you don’t see the 100 X anymore. You see maybe two X or maybe one X or a half an X out of that. So now it’s like. That’s almost like permission to slow down. Cause it’s like before it was a waste to not spend time doing your business. But now it’s like, what’s, you know, I can, I can take a few hours off.
I can spend a few weeks off. I can get lazy and take months off. And it’s not a big deal. I mean, it’s the opportunity cost is much lower. So. If other YouTubers experience the same thing, then it kind of makes sense that they’re kind of like, Oh, this is a good time to end things. You know what I mean?
Doug: I do. It’s so interesting too. Cause like in the beginning when we were scrappy and we’re like, ah, like I want to do this on the side, my day job is not fulfilling, then the, One X return or the two X return. We’re like, Oh, it’s not bad. This is like, I made 4 today. Like, that’s so amazing. It only took me six hours to do that, but yeah, now we are.
In a luxurious position where we can really choose what we want to work on. And we, we haven’t mentioned it. So we live, live in Longmont here and we’re part of the, the Phi community. And can you talk about like your involvement and I’m not sure like how how much of a follow you. And although we’re, you know, socially connected via the coworking space, the Mr.
Money mustache coworking space, but yeah. Can you talk about that? Cause it does tie together because I think the values are similar. And if we’re like, Hey, the return’s not good. And we have enough money where we can just be more strategic about how we spend our time. We will be strategic about how we’re spending our time.
Paul: Right. Yeah. I think it’s all connected, honestly, like you were saying. Yeah, so I, I found this like fire world before I started dropshipping. My husband came home one day and was like, Hey, there’s this blog that you would love. His name is Mr. Money Mustache. And I was like, I thought it was some hipster, honestly, for the name of it.
But I checked out, I was like, Oh, he’s right. Like, I actually do like this. So I started like implementing some of the stuff. Like I started investing in index funds like all sort of like bogel head sort of stuff. And I remember when he posted about the coworking space, I remember that post and remember saying, Oh, that’s cool.
But I’m in New York. He’s in Colorado. And I just kind of forgot about it. And then I stopped honestly, reading his blog. After I started my business, I went all in like with business podcasts and things like that. So I just kind of forgotten about it. And then our, my in laws moved here, my brother and sister in law.
So when my husband and I, we actually did van life for two years, while we were doing our drop shipping and stuff. So we were traveling around a lot and we kept coming back here to visit with our in laws or my in laws. And One day I was like, I just need to get some work done. Like it’s too stressful in their house.
All the kids. I’m like, let me see if there’s a coworking space. So I’m like Googling it or Google maps and it comes up. MMM HQ. And I’m like, what the heck is MMM HQ? Like, is that like for chefs or something? Like, I was like, oh my gosh. And all of a sudden, like all the dots connected. I was like, oh, it’s so funny.
So of course I joined and then, you know, just started meeting people around here and connecting with them. And. Pleasantly surprised that we don’t talk about money all the time.
Doug: Almost never. Almost never. Very interesting. What year was it when you were like, I want to get out of the house? Where’s it, where’s a co working space in town?
Paul: Uh, so that, that must’ve been 2021.
Doug: Okay. Yeah. Got it. I was going to say, I did exactly the same thing. Like I was loosely familiar with Pete’s blog, Mr. Money Mustache. I probably didn’t read it as much as you, but we were investing in that way and kind of just doing our own thing. Same deal. I went all in on business podcast and it’s a weird, it’s weird.
With entrepreneurship and like the fire community. Cause they love to like, just complain at each other. And they’re like, they don’t really get it. Same coin. It’s just the other side. It’s like people value certain things and they want to spend time doing things that they care about and maybe invest their extra money in either a business or an index funds.
But at the end of the day, they want time freedom. They want to have financial independence. So they don’t have to like. Work with a boss or they could do whatever the fuck they want, basically. But anyway, it was 2019 when we moved here and it was maybe 2020. When I joined the coworking space or so, and then got integrated with the community and it’s super awesome.
We’re lucky. Like there’s a lot of people, like you said, there’s a lot of creators in our area and they’re like, oh yeah, I understand the kind of work that you’re doing, especially with YouTube courses, email list, all that stuff. A lot of people don’t get it. Well, as we’re coming towards the end, what kind of struggles are you having with like YouTube and sort of the grind?
And I’ll give you a second to think. Because just earlier today, I was telling Elizabeth, my wife about a course. I’m probably going to do a podcasting course. I think we chatted about it a little bit, but even though I’ve launched, I think like six different courses, all successful in, They were all fine. I have like a hangup for like for the last few weeks.
I’ve just been like, ah, do I want to put myself out there again? Like the, that never goes away. Even if you’ve done it before, which is really weird. Cause I, I don’t know why I’m not like pushing past it, but it’s, it’s difficult. And part of it is like. Putting more content on YouTube or podcast or sending out those sales emails and stuff like that.
Even though I know, like I literally have a wait list of people who were like, tell me when you have the product. Cause I want to buy it from you. So how do things look for you either on YouTube and the courses and all that stuff currently right now?
Paul: Yeah. So I think after that whole, like YouTube slowdown, I was talking about and like, and that wasn’t just YouTube is also like just everything in the marketing space.
I think I had to make some changes and I, I did Did so kind of like before that, my whole strategy, if you want to call it a strategy was I make YouTube videos, I have a course. Like, that’s it. If you like my videos, you want to join the course. Great. If you don’t, that’s also great. Like that was it. There’s really no funnel sort of set up like YouTube was the funnel.
And I think that that really worked for me. And I think it worked for a lot of other people as well, because on YouTube, you get to know someone like you watch their videos, you follow them over and over and over again. And my theory is that like what YouTube may have changed was that. They stopped like showing to our viewers like our videos like
Doug: oh, yeah
Paul: to our subscribers I don’t know if again, I don’t know how true all this is.
It’s just my sort of anecdotal observations about it So now the people aren’t seeing me as much unless they’re actually going to the subscription feed, which no one does so now like on YouTube, I feel like All the videos I make have to be that first video. Like what is dropshipping? I’ve made a lot of what is dropshipping videos in the past year because those are the ones that do well.
Those are the only ones that do well, I should say. So I feel like. It’s very sort of like surface level for YouTube right now. So with that change on my end was that I had to start making lead magnets, which I’ve didn’t do a lot of before and trying to get people onto my list who haven’t bought something and then nurturing through my, through my email list.
And it also like this year I decided to completely change everything. I had like three or like three courses basically, and I condensed them into one. And I’ve closed everything down. So you can only join once or twice a year. And I’ve also raised my prices on those because now I’m working with fewer people.
I’m enjoying it a lot more because those people are more committed because they’ve paid more and. I’m working with them for a set period of time and I can really concentrate on them. I, this is the first time I’d done it just, just recently. And it went really well because I was able to work so closely with just that group.
And it was a smaller group. It was a lot less stressful for me, a lot less annoying for me. So yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like basic marketing stuff, like a basic funnel, but I’ve never had it. Now I have to kind of have it.
Doug: So before you set up the email list and stuff, like literally, it was just, A video and then people could buy the core like you would link in the description and maybe mention it and then they would Find their way over that way.
Paul: Yeah So I know I had lead magnets in the past, but it wasn’t like a major part of my strategy So but mostly it was hey, if you like my video check out my courses. They’re linked up in the description
Doug: Okay. And then as far as the launches go, because before, before like people could buy it at any time. So you’ve only done one proper, like you open it up and then you close it down.
Yeah. Can you talk about what that launch looks like? How many days is it? How many emails do you send? Do you mention videos? How do you manage just that launch?
Paul: Yeah. So I do it all. I did all on email. I didn’t talk about it in my videos at all. The videos are just. top of the funnel, send to lead magnet.
Yeah, so it’s all done through email and I think it was about a week long, maybe, uh, I think it was maybe like five or six days and yeah, it’s just a, it’s a bunch of emails kind of like warming people up or as soon as they join, they get a warmup sequence that’s automated, but then I started sending them emails, letting me know I’m going to open it up and then I open it up.
There’s a webinar. So it always start, it started, The, the launch week started with a webinar. That was kind of like the big thing that I do for it. Okay. And then they have like five days to join. So yeah, that’s basically it.
Doug: Is there any additional scarcity that you add in there? Like in the webinar, you’re like, Hey, if you buy before the end of the day, you save 50 bucks or whatever, or.
Paul: So because this was my first one, I told everyone truthfully that the price, the next time I launch, it’s going to be higher. So that was the only additional scarcity I had. I’m not sure what the price is going to be next time. It will be higher. And maybe I’ll do that. Maybe I’ll say, Hey, if you joined during the webinar, there’s an extra 10 percent off or whatever.
Doug: Interesting. Okay. And I remember some, something that we were at, you were like, Hey, I heard your interview on John Ainsworth’s podcast. And I, I’ve done a lot of launches. So if you, If you listen to that, and then I think it’s what John usually recommends people do too. So it’s like the pre launch and then whatever five day actual launch and then shutter down.
And that worked really well. And I mean, basically I copied it from other people, right? Like I signed up, I mean, I bought courses from people and then I was like, why did I buy this? And I went through their funnels and it was like Derek Halpern and like, Ramit Sethi and a couple other people. I was just like, okay, what are they doing?
I’m gonna copy them put in my own words, but I mean like you look at the funnel So did you study any other folks? Oh, yeah.
Paul: Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so that That podcast was it the art of online? Whatever it is.
Doug: art of online selling. We’ll link up to a great, great show.
Paul: Yeah. That I was listening to that podcast when I was formulating, like I said, last year, I went through a lot of change and pretty much everything I described.
I got, you know, it can, it’s aligned with what he teaches. And like you said, it’s like what a lot of people do. So yeah, I, I do the funnel hacking. I’m signed up for a lot of lists and I put them all into a folder called funnels. And I keep everyone’s email. So if I ever need to go back and see like how many days between people send the emails, stuff like that.
I think it’s just helpful to see. And interesting as well.
Doug: Yeah, very cool. All right. I, I don’t think I have any more questions. Like. All the topics that we could talk about, Paul, I could do this for like, every day for like a couple of weeks for a couple of hours. But as we’re wrapping up, is there anything that you want to mention about being a YouTube creator and then being a digital course creator that.
Could be important or inspiring or discouraging or however you want to frame it because it’s not it’s not all perfect, right? Yeah, we’re talking about some of the struggles and I mean, we’re again We’re in a great spot to pick and choose but at the same time It’s like we can’t create jobs that we hate or else we’re going to be miserable.
So Wide open any final parting thoughts?
Paul: Gosh, I don’t know. Don’t do it. No no, I mean you gotta you gotta love what you do. You got to love the topic that you’re talking about, whatever it is. So, you know, Doug and I are kind of lucky that we’re kind of like nerding out on this stuff because it’s a great sort of feel to be in as creators.
But if you love, you know, playing piano, for instance, you know, there’s a market for that, you know? And if you’re making videos about online marketing and you don’t love it, that’s going to show, and you’re not going to want to keep doing it. So make the videos about piano and playing piano and teach people piano.
Um, Yeah, I guess that’s the best, best I can offer people
Doug: a hundred percent agree. And I’ve definitely looked at the channel and thought, Oh, I gotta, I need to do a video on this. And then I just wasn’t feeling it. And I’ve been doing a good job, just like, I’m not going to do that video again. Cause I, like you said, the ones that are performing well, that actually suit your funnel, it’s like beginner stuff.
And I’m like, ah, I need to come around to it and do it. But like right now I’m like, all right, I need to whatever be true to myself to be pretty corny, but like people can tell if you don’t give a shit and you’re trying to do videos, but I love interviews like this, which is why we do them. And I hope it hits, hits home for certain people out there.
All right. If people want to learn more, they want to check out your channel or, you know, wherever you want them to follow you. And it’s mostly drop shipping on your, on your channel, but yeah. Where can people find you?
Paul: Yeah, YouTube’s the best place. That’s the only social media I use at the moment. So check me out.
It’s Paul J Lipski on YouTube, or just search for Paul eBay or Paul dropshipping. And I’ll, I should come right up
Doug: right on. Well, thanks a lot for hanging out. And if people missed The first episode, be sure to check it out. We talk about drop shipping and really kind of focus in on the, the tick tock and eBay area.
It sounds like TikTok is a pretty ripe zone and subsidized. It sounds crazy. Sounds crazy. All right. Well, thanks a lot. And thank you. We’ll hike tomorrow.
Paul: Yeah. Sounds good, man
Doug: And I’ve been curious. So, the other week, Elizabeth was, she thought that you were vegan, but you’re pescatarian, right? Right, yeah. Which sounds like a religion now that I’ve said it. It’s like Catholic, but not quite. Um, so, and you’re also, I’m looking at your guns there. How, um, What’s your diet like? How do you, do you track protein pretty closely where you’re like, you’re getting enough or no?
Tell me about it.
Paul: I don’t, I actually used to be vegan. So she’s not far off. Okay, but I was vegan for a while. And then when I started working out a lot more, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough in terms of recovery. So I started eating eggs and then I added in some seafood. So I don’t track any of it. Um, I just don’t feel like I need to.
I just try to eat like a balanced meal, you know, protein, a vegetable, or, you know, lots of fruit as well. And that’s kind of it, you know, and making sure I eat enough too.
Doug: Okay.
Paul: Yeah.
Doug: It’s always like, Oh, just try to eat a balanced meal. There’s no secret.
Paul: You can go insane trying to, I feel like trying to measure all your macros and stuff.
And I don’t know, that’s not for me. I don’t, I don’t want to spend the time doing that.
Doug: And I, I think I was like chronically. Like under eating and like intermittent fasting and stuff, and then trying to work out and the workout sucked. So now I counted macros for maybe a couple months just to get a baseline.
And then I stopped and now I just try to make sure I eat enough protein. Cause I wasn’t eating enough before. Um, and it’s easy for me cause I also, it’s a meat, right? So if I just really load it up and then if, if we’re on vacation or whatever, it’s just like, All bets are off. And if I go to a place, maybe I’ll get an extra chicken breast or whatever, but yeah, it’s pretty, pretty tough.
Well, that said, did you grow up working out like, or did you get a lot stronger in the last few years?
Paul: No, I know. It’s definitely been the last year that have gotten stronger. Um, I had tried to work out for like most of my life, like lifting weights, like everything that people tell you to do to gain muscle and weight, like lift heavy, Low reps, that sort of thing.
And I could never gain weight. I’ve always just been like stuck or I would lose weight. It was very easy for me to lose weight. And so I was just kind of stuck for a while. And then I started doing this new stuff that I do, which is all this ninja training. If you’ve ever seen American Ninja Warrior, it’s like that.
I’m not on the show. Everyone always asks, I’m never going to be on the show, but. It’s fun stuff. There’s a gym here where you could do all that stuff and it’s just so much fun And I spent hours there. I got lost doing it. Yeah, so I’m like hitting those muscles over and over and over again and obviously the protein from eggs and fish Definitely make a huge difference.
And so like in the past, uh, eight months or so, I’ve gained like 10 to 15 pounds.
Doug: Holy shit.
Paul: Yeah. And I wasn’t even trying to.
Doug: Well, you were obviously the calorie surplus, so you were able to put it on and you were doing enough, like muscular activity, right? Okay.
Paul: Yeah. How old are you? 35 I turned 36 on Saturday.
Doug: Oh, yeah. All right coming up. I just turned 45 okay interesting. Well, that gives me hope although you get the 10 year, you know youth So, yeah, yeah, I I got a side note and then we’ll move on I was gonna say I could do like a whole show just talking about this stuff, but There’s a guy that I was on, uh, I went to a couple of Toastmasters meetings, guy named Brad, who I think he auditioned for American Ninja Warrior.
We watched the show for a few years way back, but, um, does he go to the gym here? I think he may have been out of the Boulder area, but he was in some of the Toastmasters meetings around here.
Paul: Oh, really? I don’t know anyone named Brad. It’s a pretty small community. Most of these gyms, they cater to kids.
Kind of like karate gyms, if you think about those, like it’s mostly kids that go, but there’s always like a small core group of adults. So there’s, you know, like a dozen of us or so do this and there’s local competitions we do. And then we also do those obstacle course races, like the Spartan races. Oh yeah.
Yeah. So I’m doing my first one of those in a few weeks, actually. Now.
Doug: Okay. Cool. Well, and I wonder if you bumped into him at like the competitions, cause there’s probably not a ton of them around. So people come from all over the metro area to do it. Cause there’s not that many of y’all. Right. So,
Paul: right. Y’all ask around if anyone knows a Brad,
Doug: I forget his, I think that was his name.
It could have been, I don’t know. He was pretty strong too. All right. Well, listen to this.