Matt Bowles: Hey, everybody. It’s Matt Bowles and today we have Nick Nimmin – who helps individuals and companies grow their influence with online video on his personal channel – where he shares growth tips for YouTube video creators. He has increased his own subscriber base by over 100,000 subscribers in the past 12 months alone, and he’s added tens of thousands of targeted readers to his email list, and turned his website – TuberTools.com – into a growing resource for the video making community. In addition to his personal successes, Nick has helped clients leverage YouTube as a positioning and awareness tool, helped them turn YouTube into a consistent generator, and has helped clients turn the passion of making videos into a fulltime income
source. Also, Nick has lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand for more than a decade and he and I are in Thailand together right now. We both were just speaking at the Nomad Summit – which brings together over 400 location independent entrepreneurs, or digital nomads – under one roof once a year in Thailand. So, we had the great opportunity to get to hang out with each other as speakers at that conference, get to know each other, and I immediately – after hearing Nick’s talk and getting to know him – wanted to bring him on the show to share both his expertise on YouTube, as well as some of his incredible life experiences with the show. So, Nick, thanks for being here.

Nick Nimmin: Hey. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Matt Bowles: All right. Now, we need to start by going way back. You just told me literally as we were doing an audio check that you once opened a concert for 2 Live Crew and that you were in the hip-hop and rap

Matt: Space back in Cincinnati, Ohio before your Thailand days. So, I want to start and go back there because I also was a hip-hop DJ during the ‘90s.

Nick: Really?

Matt: Absolutely.

Nick: Oh, nice.

Matt: So, ‘90s hip-hop is near and dear to my heart. I mean it’s part of my heart and soul and so that was a huge thing. Also, kind of putting down beats for people who wanted to rhyme over them, but making mixed tapes. And then I actually turned that into my first business.

Nick: Nice.

Matt: So, what I did is I started then DJing. So, I built a mobile DJ company when I was in high school and I started DJing high school proms. I started DJing weddings and that kind of stuff. So, by the time I was a junior in high school, I was DJing senior proms at other high schools.

Nick: Nice.

Matt: And then my senior year, I actually DJ’d all of the senior proms at different area high schools and then – when I went away to college – I would come back in the summertime and the summertime was the circuit for high school proms and then weddings and all of that kind of stuff. So, I sort of made a mainstream business out of it, but my love, of course, and what got me into it was, of course, hip- hop and particularly in the ‘90s, right? So, I want to hear your story about how you got into it and then what led to this opening for 2 Live Crew. So, tell that story.

Nick: Nice. So, first, I want to say maybe those were the indicators of why we were both on stage recently, right?

Matt: Yeah, yeah.

Nick: I mean I guess we’re just into that sort of thing, right?

Matt: Yeah.

Nick: So, basically, what happened is – similar to you – I would make instrumentals, right? I got into digital music and I started making hip-hop beats and a friend of mine had some friends who were rappers. They started coming over and listening to the songs and they really liked what I was making. So, I went out and got a microphone and they came over and started actually recording. So, then I started producing actual songs for these guys and then, of
course, more and more people started coming and all that. Foolishly, I didn’t make a business out of it, but I should have at the time. But what I did get to do – as you mentioned – is I got to open for 2 Live Crew because of doing that.
So, basically how it worked was 2 Live Crew came to town and the person that was promoting it knew somebody who knew the guys that I made the music for and that opening band had an issue where they couldn’t make it or whatever and they reached out to them and said, “Hey, you know you guys are already kind of on the circuit, so to speak. So, do you guys want to open for 2 Live Crew?” They’re like, “Yes, absolutely.” Now, keep in mind they’re a local band. They weren’t doing this professionally, so to speak. So, one of the guys couldn’t get off of work in order to open
for 2 Live Crew. Personally, I would have been like, “Hey, boss, I’m leaving.” Do you know what I mean? “Fire me, whatever you want to do. I’ll find another job.” But for him, it was a good job and he was like, “Hey, I just can’t do it.” So, they asked me since I produced the song. I knew word-for-word the whole thing. So, they asked me if
I would go in and fill in for him and that gave me the opportunity to be a part of that opening thing. It was for one song for 2 Live Crew for me, personally.

Matt: But you got to meet Luke Skywalker and the guys.

Nick: Yes.

Matt: And you got to be backstage and part of the whole production and all that kind of stuff.

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: Amazing. And how did that feel being in front of that size of an audience and everything?

Nick: It was cool. Keep in mind, 2 Live Crew wasn’t at their peak then.

Matt: Right, right.

Nick: They had already had their thing and then you know started dying off. So, it wasn’t a humongous audience but – at the time – it was the biggest audience that I had ever stood in front of. So, it was fun. It was scary. It was intimidating. I was nervous you know all of that good stuff that comes along with that, but it was cool.

Matt: And maybe was the forerunner to your stage presence and your video presence and all of that kind of stuff.

Nick: Sure. Yeah, yeah. All roads lead to Rome, right?

Matt: They do indeed. That’s right. So, take us a little bit more on that journey in terms of what you were doing – sort of your entrepreneurial trajectory. I mean you’ve pretty much been a serial entrepreneur for most of your adult life.

Nick: Yes.

Matt: So, take us down that trajectory and then what led you to Thailand and to where you are now.

Nick: Okay. So, I first started working for myself in some capacity when I was 19. I have done a bunch of different businesses. I did a pooper scooper business to where we went out and we were picking up dog crap around the area and the idea was, “We’ll do it first and then we’ll hire people.” But then after a few weeks, we were like, “What are we doing? We need to do something else.” But we did that. We had a commercial or I had a commercial cleaning service where we did office buildings. That was pretty successful. I had a door-to-door marketing company for 10 years. I also did an advertising service where we basically would go to hotels and we would offer them to do their in-room guest directories for free in exchange for letting us sell all the advertising and make the money from the advertising for that. So, I’ve done a handful of things that propelled me in this direction. But one thing that happened is I got out of a relationship. Towards the end of that – at the time – I was actually running the cleaning company and the marketing company side-by-side. And as far as my video presence, I would lean most of that on what I learned from going door-to-door also. But basically, I got out of a relationship and I was having a difficult time with it, as often
happens when people get out of long-term relationships, and my brother – who was already living here in Thailand reached out to me and he said, “Hey, if you want to take some time – if you can hand off everything to your partner and take a month – and come over here and just hand out, clear your mind, I guarantee you you’ll feel much better when you go back.” He said, “I want you to come over here so badly and take this
break because I think it’s so important that I’ll actually finance the whole trip – all-expense paid trip, all-expense paid ticket trip. You don’t have to bring a dollar. I’ll cover the whole thing because it’s
that important for me to get you over here so that you can feel better, right?”

Matt: Amazing.

Nick: Because that’s how my brother and I roll.

Matt: That’s amazing.

Nick: So, it’s like we have an awesome relationship.

Matt: Who’s going to turn that down? That’s unbelievable.

Nick: Right. Yeah. So, I came over here for that month and we went all over the country and I was just blown away by the country. I started talking to him saying, “This is fantastic. I would love to live here as well” because I was into the lifestyle. I was like, “Man, this is just great, but I have all this stuff back home and it’s kind of locked me in there.” He was like, “Hey, if you want to come over here –” because he was doing professional graphic design at the time and he said, “Hey, if you come over here, then I will help you start getting into that. Then you can start doing that as well.”
He said, “You probably won’t make as much, but it will give you the opportunity to live this lifestyle if that’s something that you want to do.” At the time, another side effect of this at the time, I was really overweight – like very overweight – because I was working so much. Like I said, I was running the cleaning company and the marketing company side-by-side. So, I ended up getting up to 280 pounds. So, I was just not taking care of myself in any way,
shape, or form, and so what I did is I went back and I sold everything and I started going to the gym, getting myself together, taking that time from doing that and started getting my health together. During that process, he started teaching me how to get customers. He started funneling customers my way. As far as the graphic design is concerned, I was playing with Photoshop in high school. I learned how to use Photoshop in high school back when it was Photoshop before they had all these addition numbers you know and all that stuff. But I was playing with Photoshop in high school and it was kind of a passion of mine to do just graphic design and that kind of stuff and I was always doing all the graphics for any project that I was working on and things along that line or along those lines as well. But I went back, sold everything, and then started the process of making that transition over to here. How that happened is I ended up losing 100 pounds.

Matt: Wow.

Nick: Yeah, almost all of that was before I came. I think it was like 80 something pounds before I came here and then the rest fell off once I got here. Well, it didn’t fall off, but I exercised it off once I got here. The graphic design thing had started but – in all honesty – it wasn’t enough to sustain me. Thailand is cheap, but there’s also like if you come from the Western world and you don’t want to make the sacrifices of living in a $100.00 a month apartment – so to speak – then you definitely have to make some additional sacrifices somewhere. So, what I did is I came over and I didn’t want to dig into savings or anything like that. So, I said, “Okay, I’m going to come over and I’m going to sleep on my brother’s floor” because he had a house at the time and he had an extra bedroom that he used for
storage. So, I took a camping mat and a blanket and I slept on his floor there for, I don’t know, probably three or four months before I went and got my first apartment here, which was like 5,000 baht, which is still like 150 bucks, right? But, at the time, 150 bucks took you a little bit further than it does now here in Thailand. But I got that first apartment and then just kind of rebuilt everything from there.

Matt: That is amazing. The story actually resonates with me because of a lot of the people that I was just speaking to at this Nomad Summit, right? So, people would just come up to me and start talking to me and I would ask them questions – “Where are you from? How long have you been here?” – this kind of stuff and it was amazing. I mean there were a number of people who had come to Chiang Mai just recently – I mean just within the last week or two – and had come for the summit and were planning to stay and they said, “I had heard about Chiang Mai –” which – for people who don’t know – is one of the top, if not the top, hub in the world for digital nomads and location independent business owners. The community here is unbelievable I mean from people all over the world who are here doing interesting things and networks in the way they have the community set up, it’s quite incredible. So, a lot of people I think hear about it and then they just want to come here and then they get here. They may not have much money at all, but they found a way to get to Chiang Mai and now they’re going to try to make something work. A lot of people were at that early stage. They were like, “Well, I’m not really sure. I have a couple of business ideas, but I just wanted to get to Chiang Mai so I could plug into the community and then I could have a supportive environment to build my business.” People are coming from a lot of places and they were saying, “Listen, I don’t know anybody in my circles who support the type of lifestyle that I want, who supports the type of entrepreneurial
path that I’m looking for, but I listened to the podcast and I heard about Chiang Mai. So, I’m here to basically be a part of the community and build my business in a supportive environment” which just blew me away how many people had that type of a story.

Nick: Yeah. Yeah, it’s crazy because there’s the risk involved of just leaving your country and everything that you know in the first place. There’s that side of it. But on the back end of that, for the people who are coming over and they don’t know what direction it is that they’re going to go yet, it’s terrifying because you come over and you don’t know. “Hey, am I going to be able to make this work or not?” You don’t know if you’re going to end up being able to be here for six months or if you’re going to be able to be here for a year before you end up having to go back. That’s the big one is that fear of having to go back and not being able to pursue what it is that you initially set out for. The same thing applies like if you are an entrepreneur in any capacity, even if you’re in the same hometown that you grew up in and you’re still taking these entrepreneurial adventures, those fears are still there in terms of like, “Hey, what if this doesn’t work out? Then I have to go back and get a job” right? So, it’s similar in that regard, but the difference here is – or anywhere if you move outside of your country – the difference here is okay, if the business isn’t doing great and you’re back home, you can go get a job to supplement if you want, right? But here, if business isn’t good, you’re going home and then you’re going to have to figure it out once you get there. It’s not like you can just go and find some part-time job to work while you’re building your business. You’re either all in or you’re on your way back – one of the two.

Matt: Right. Although, I think the risk mitigation aspect of coming here that a lot of people find is how much lower the lifestyle expenses are and the living expenses.

Nick: Yeah, absolutely.

Matt: So, the amount of income you need to make from your business to cover your living expenses is a much lower threshold than if you were living in LA or New York or San Francisco or wherever, right?

Nick: Yes. Right, absolutely. Even in the middle of nowhere.

Matt: Yeah, anyplace in the United States.

Nick: Yeah, I mean it’s still cheaper. Right.

Matt: Or the UK or Western Europe or anywhere.

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: Can you give people a sense of that, Nick, because you sort of mentioned a number really quick in passing, but a lot of folks – if they haven’t been to Thailand or maybe they haven’t been to the region – maybe this is the first they’re hearing about Chiang Mai in general as a city. Can you give just a sense of the cost of living over here compared to the United States just so people have a sense of that?

Nick: Well, first I want to say that since I’ve been over here for 11 years, when I go back to the States, I’m just blown away at how much money I burn through just doing like day-to-day stuff like, “Hey, I’m going to take my mom to go eat” and then it’s like, “Wow, there goes 40 bucks.” Do you know what I mean?

Matt: Yeah.

Nick: It’s incredible. But yeah, over here you can be comfortable. I mean we all have different expectations, but you can be comfortable on roughly $1,000.00. But if you have $2,000.00 to spend–

Matt: Say what that means. $1,000.00 per?

Nick: Month.

Matt: Month?

Nick: Yeah, $1,000.00 per month, you can be comfortable.

Matt: For?

Nick: Yeah. So, basically, you can get a room for let’s say 10,000 baht. That’s 300 bucks, right?

Matt: Three hundred dollars a month?

Nick: Yes, and that’s a comfortable studio.

Matt: Accommodations, right?

Nick: Right.

Nick: You have air conditioning. You’re in a safe building to where maybe you’re a few floors up. You don’t have to worry about anybody breaking into your place or anything like that. You have most likely for that price range you’re looking at you might have a small kitchen included. As an example, a studio that we built here, we pay 10,000 baht a
month for that, which is roughly $300.00, and that room – I’m not sure of the actual space – but comparatively, it’s the size of probably two bedrooms in Cincinnati just for the reference since this is a real estate show. They might know what I’m talking about here, but about the size of a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati that would cost probably $150,000.00, okay?

Matt: Yeah.

Nick: It’s about that size for that space that we get for 300. In that, is included a small kitchen, a refrigerator, and a TV. It also comes furnished, which is something that doesn’t happen a lot back home either.

Matt: Furnished, right. Yup.

Nick: So, you don’t have to go out and get this place and then go out and buy sofas and beds and all that stuff. It comes with everything. So, that particular space here would be – like as a single person coming over here – that’s all you need, without question.

Matt: For sure, for sure, for sure, yeah. And these are comfortable, spacious studios that you would get in the U.S. comparably for $300.00 a month for a nice studio apartment. Okay, so there’s that. And then when we talk about food – and I’ve been eating. I’ve been here for about three weeks now. We’re talking about you go out to a nice Thai restaurant. An entrée – seafood entrée like a shrimp curry with rice type of entrée – $2.00 to $3.00 is about the
price of a nice seafood entrée for really good Thai food, which is to say that I have been eating a lot of really good Thai food. But it’s like everything, right? Massages, Thai massages, a 60 minute Thai massage–

Interviewee: That alone is worth living here.
Interviewer: $8.00 for a 60 minute, professional, Thai massage. I mean it is just

unbelievable. The cost of living over here is incredible.

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: So, I think a lot of the attraction is lifestyle arbitrage, right, as it’s known?

Nick: Right.

Matt: So, if you can generate income based on U.S. dollars or UK or Euros or whatever it is, but you have this kind of overhead, that helps a lot of entrepreneurs not have such a high threshold of needing to make X number of dollars to cover basic living expenses. They can just lower their living expenses and have an amazing quality of life. I think that’s, for me, what stands out  about Chiang Mai is the cost of living to quality of life ratio.

Nick: Yeah, right.

Matt: Because I’ve been to a number of countries that are very cheap, but they do not have the quality of life of Chiang Mai.

Nick: Yeah. The life is cheap too, right?

Matt: I mean this city has incredibly beautiful weather, but I mean it has a coffee shop culture – and independent coffee shop culture – on par with any Western European capital city, in my opinion. I mean
the coffee scene here is unbelievable. I mean the restaurant scene, I
mean it has all of that and yet it is unbelievably inexpensive.
Interviewee: And on the coffee scene, they even take it up a notch because it’s
like local beans. I mean of course they have Starbucks and all of
that, but they also a lot of the cafés around here, it’s like local
beans that are pulled in from local mountains and all that stuff. So,
you’re getting fresh stuff that yeah, it’s fantastic.

Matt: It’s amazing. So, that I think encompasses a lot about Chiang Mai
and why there’s such an incredible community here. So, you’ve
been here a number of years. You’re obviously staying here. You
love it here and I can absolutely see why. Most of the people who I
talk to are like, “Man, I hope I don’t ever have to leave this place.
I’m here and now I’m just going to stay.” It’s like a vortex. It’s
amazing. Okay.
So, let’s talk a little bit about now what you’re doing and what
you’re primarily known for. I mean you have really developed I
think a number of incredible techniques for YouTube and online
video content creation in general that have propelled you – I mean
particularly over the last couple years – into a very prominent well-
known space in the YouTube tips category. You’ve grown your
personal YouTube channel over 100,000 subscribers in a single
year.

Nick: Yes.

Matt: I want to talk a little bit about both how you did it, but even more
importantly how other people can do it. so, let’s maybe talk in
general about some of the tips that you would have. Let’s say
someone is either starting from scratch or they’ve dabbled a little
bit, maybe done a little bit of YouTube stuff, video creation, but

they haven’t really taken it very seriously. Talk about maybe let’s
start with what are some of the core tips if someone wanted to
create a plan for really growing an audience? This is for people
who are in any business, right, who want to grow an audience by
delivering value through YouTube. What is the best way to get
viewers and get an audience and build a fan base through video?
Interviewee: The first thing – as you mentioned – for people who want to take it

seriously, right?
Matt: Yeah.

Nick: The first thing is to take it seriously, right?

Matt: Right.

Nick: Because just like with anything that you do – if you’re a blogger, if
you are a podcaster, if you are putting videos on the internet, or if
you have a business that you’re running – you have things that you
have to do consistently in order to make the machine work on your
behalf, right?

Matt: Right.
Nick: YouTube is exactly the same. So, the first thing that you want to
do is you want to make sure that you’re taking it seriously. The
second most important thing that you want to keep in mind on
YouTube is that you are keeping watch time in mind. Watch time
on YouTube is basically the amount of time that people watch
each, single video, okay? It’s also the amount of time that people
watch additional videos on the platform – preferably your videos,
specifically.
So, there’s watch time on a per video basis and then there’s session
time, which is on a per session basis, which basically means it’s
like technical jargon for the amount of time people spend on
YouTube and the amount of time people spend within your own
content. So, what you want to focus on – the most important thing
that you need to focus on – is one, your audience retention. So, you
need to be able to keep people watching your videos.
Let’s say you have a 10-minute video and somebody comes into
your video and they watch a minute of your video and they leave.
That video is not performing for you in a way that’s going to help
your channel or that’s going to help you on the platform. However,

if you make a 10-minute video and people are typically watching
five minutes of that video or six minutes of that video, then you’re
going to start getting preference on the platform. YouTube can
help or will start promoting your channel internally on the platform
as well.

Matt: Yeah, no. So, make good content that is going to keep the viewer
watching throughout the entire video and not have them lose
interest?
Nick: Right.
Matt: So, make it tight so they don’t get bored but make it long enough
so that they’ll watch through and you’ll get a decent amount of
watch time. What would be the optimal length would you say for
making videos on YouTube that YouTube wants to see?

Nick: There was a study done last year that studied over 70,000 channels,
over 50,000 subscribers, and that study showed that videos that are
seven to 17 minutes in length tend to perform best on the platform.
Now, with that said, all of this – when it comes to data like that –
all of it that’s like a blanket statement, okay? But on a per channel
basis, sometimes you’ll have videos that you make that are three
minutes that outperform videos that are 10 minutes because it
comes down to the watch time, but it also comes down to how
people are interacting with the content as well.
If you are ranking your videos for search, it also comes down to
what terms that you’re actually going for to pull in traffic and
things like that and it also comes down to your thumbnails in terms
of how you can actually pull people from the suggested features
elsewhere on YouTube. So, there are other variables besides the
watch time, but that’s the thing that gives your channel and your
videos the authority – so to speak – on YouTube so that the
platform itself can start suggesting you elsewhere on the platform.
Matt: And is it a total number of minutes of watch time or is it a
percentage through the video? So, if you make a three-minute
video and people are watching all three minutes of the video or if
you make an eight-minute video and people are watching four
minutes out of the eight-minute video–

Nick: Four minutes wins.

Matt: You get the four minutes?

Nick: Yeah, four minutes wins. Now, the percentage comes in when you
are looking at the people that you’re ranking against, okay?

Matt: Okay.

Nick: Really quickly for anybody listening to this right now, you might
be thinking, “How in the world can I tell how long people are
watching my videos? How in the world can I tell what’s working
and what’s not?” I just want to let you know that YouTube – inside
of their analytics – has an audience retention report and you can
see second-per-second how people are actually responding to your
content. So, that’s how you know that information. But let’s say, as
an example, that you have a bunch of videos over in the suggested
sidebar while you’re watching one video.
So, basically, how that works let’s say that you have one video in
the suggested sidebar that the thumbnail is getting a higher click-
through rate than you. Then because they are getting a higher
click-through rate on their thumbnail, if their video is performing
better, they’re going to put that video in a better spot than what
your video is in. But if their thumbnail is getting a higher click-
through rate, but your video is outperforming them, then they’re
going to move you up because you’re actually keeping people on
the platform longer.

Matt: Got it.

Nick: Does that make sense?

Matt: Yup.

Nick: So, in that regard, the reason that it’s important to not make just a
bunch of one-minute videos is because you want to accumulate
that time per video so that you can outrank other people and be
suggested over other people. So, if you have a three-minute video
and people watch 100 percent of that, the most watch time that you
can get per viewer is three minutes. But if you make an eight-
minute video and people are watching just half of it, then that still
gives you the opportunity to get four minutes of watch time per
video – which all of that watch time credits the authority on your
channel – so to speak, which can give you that overall lift.

Matt: Okay. So, let’s take a step back and let me ask a more macro

question.

Nick: Okay.

Matt: Why should a business owner or an entrepreneur or a real estate
agent or a self-employed person start a YouTube channel, do a
YouTube show? Why should they do that on YouTube? Why
should they use the medium of video?

Nick: There are over a billion users on YouTube, okay? There are over a
billion users on YouTube and – in addition to there being over a
billion users on YouTube – when you’re watching videos,
subconsciously and consciously you’re getting to know the person
that you’re watching their videos. So, let’s say that you are a real
estate professional. Maybe somebody listening to the show, let’s
say you’re a real estate professional. This becomes extremely
valuable for you because – in addition to all of the other marketing
efforts that you’re doing – you can also use your videos.
But in addition to all of those other marketing efforts, basically
what you’re doing is you’re letting people know your expertise.
You’re letting people know the nuances of your personality
because what happens is there’s something called – that I spoke
about at the event – there’s something called parasocial interaction.
With parasocial interaction, that’s basically the idea of a one-sided
relationship and that happens to celebrities. That happens on
YouTube to where basically when you are watching a channel
consistently. You start to feel like you know that person who’s in
the video because over time, they mentioned that they’re going
through this.
They mentioned that they just sold this house. They mentioned that
they just did this particular thing. Then you start to be involved
with what’s going on and the information that they’re sharing. So,
with that, you actually start to develop a one-sided relationship
with that person – even though they may have never had any type
of interaction with you whatsoever – outside of maybe a comment
on their YouTube channel or something like that.
So, in addition to sharing your expertise, sharing what it is that you
know, you’re also using YouTube as something that is 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, around the clock building relationships for
you. If you’re doing any type of business – especially real estate or
something like that – then that relationship side of things is
humongous.

Matt: Okay. So, let’s say that someone is a real estate agent in a
particular city and they want to use YouTube and they want to use
video content to really just dominate their market and use that as
their medium for accelerating beyond their competitors, let’s say.
They came to you and they said that they haven’t done YouTube
before. They don’t have a channel at all.
They want to start a channel and they want to grow it as efficiently
and quickly as possible around their area of expertise, right, which
is being a real estate agent in this particular market. What advice
would you have from the start? Somebody says, “Nick, I’m ready
to take it seriously. I’m going to commit to it. I’m an expert on real
estate in my local market. That’s certainly my area of expertise.
So, I have the knowledge. I’m willing to take it seriously. What do
I do from zero to 60? What are my moves to get this off the
ground?”

Nick: You want to make the initial content that you’re launching on your
channel. You want to make it all around series playlists. They have
two different types of playlists. They have a normal playlist. They
have a series playlist. The normal playlist is basically just a way
that you can organize your content. It’s a way that you can
organize your own content and a way that you can also organize
the content of other people who you may be interested in. You can
display that on your channel or you can just have it on your playlist
page to where it’s a grouping of videos, right?
A series playlist is where you are telling YouTube – it’s actually
just a checkbox that you check and you’re telling YouTube –
“These videos are all directly related to each other in some way.
Every video in this playlist is directly related to each other.” So,
what they do is they let you put each video into one series playlist.
So, you can’t do multiple series playlists, but you can put multiple
videos into multiple playlists, okay? So, that leans on the power of
the series playlist, okay?
So, how that works is basically when you have a video playing on
the watch page that is part of this series, then YouTube is going to
suggest the other videos in that series – or some of the other videos
in that series – to the people who are watching that video. So,
you’re going to see that video at the end – or other videos in that
series at the end – of the video after all of your stuff has finished
playing. Those other videos in the series playlist are more likely to
auto play next – which is the default setting on YouTube – and
those other videos are more likely to be suggested next to that

video in the suggested sidebar as well.
So, what you do when you create the videos in a series playlist is –
in addition to putting up the videos and increasing that watch time
because you’re creating an actual series that people are more likely
to binge-watch – you’re also increasing the chances of them going
deeper into your own content through all of those other features
that YouTube is suggesting you through.

Matt: Okay. And let’s talk specifically again advising someone who’s
just starting off with this. What frequency, how often do they want
to publish content? What duration should those videos be and any
other sort of tips for getting out of the gate and developing? If
someone was going to develop a content calendar and they were
going to say, “I really want to do this plan and I want to grow
consistently and efficiently” what should that content calendar look
like?

Nick: If you’re trying to be somebody who is fulltime on YouTube and
you’re trying to be somebody who is doing it in that regard,
uploading three times a week is the best way to get rapid growth.
Actually, daily is the best way to get rapid growth because the
more that you upload, the more the algorithm favors you as long as
people are responding to your content. If you’re a business owner,
you also have your business to run. So, you have to keep that in
mind as well.
But what you want to do is you want to upload at least once a
week. If you can do two or three times, then that’s a bonus, but at
least once a week. The reason for that is because YouTube serves
your content to other viewers based on their viewing history, right?
So, if you are in their viewing history or the more that you’re in
somebody’s viewing history, the more likely you are to be served
to people with similar viewing histories to that person who’s
watching your content.
So, if you’re uploading three times a week and they’re suggesting
you to all of these new viewers and then basically you’re getting
embedded in their viewer history as a recent video, something that
they’re currently interested in, right? So, the more that you upload,
you’re in their recent viewer history. Therefore, that allows you the
ability, so to speak – or the opportunity – to be suggested to other
viewers with similar watch histories of those people who are
watching your videos.

Matt: Okay. And three times a week may sound – I don’t know if that
sounds like a lot to some people – but basically, if you’re just–

NicNick: It’s a lot. It’s a lot.
Interviewer: But if you’re just talking about a five to seven-minute video, right?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: And the person who’s recording it – let’s say the real estate agent
in our example – they’re already an expert on their market. I mean
they can talk about this stuff off the top of their head in the way
that you can talk about this stuff off the top of your head or
whatever, right?
Interviewee: Right.
Interviewer: So, if you already know your subject matter and you’re just
speaking about a particular aspect of it for five to seven minutes
with the camera on, in theory, you could just batch that.

Interviewee: Without question. That’s actually not even in theory. I mean that’s
the most efficient way to create content is to batch produce it
because what happens is if you say, “Okay, I’m’ going to upload a
video every Friday, right?” Then what happens is if you’re not
batch producing content or you’re not making content ahead of
schedule, then what happens is Wednesday rolls along and you’re
like, “Oh, crap. I need to make a video for Friday.” Then it
becomes an issue.
It becomes something that is more of a strain on you instead of
something that you’re leveraging to your benefit. So, batch
producing content where you sit down once a month and knock out
four videos if you’re doing weekly, eight videos if you’re doing
twice a week, or 12 videos is you’re doing three times a week. If
you go ahead and knock those out in a session, then it gives you all
of that space over the course of the month to where you don’t even
have to think about it.

Interviewer: Right. And so even if you were doing three times a week, that’s 12
videos a month, which you could sit down in an afternoon – if
they’re five minute videos – and you know what they are and
you’re an expert in your issue and you can speak about it or you’ve
outlined and scripted them briefly – and you can just knock them
all out in one afternoon. So, if you can schedule one afternoon a

19The Maverick Show 07
HOST: Matt Bowles GUEST: Nick Nimmin

Transcribed by GMR Transcription
month, then you can have that three video schedule.

Interviewee: Yes, without question. And of course, on the backside of that,
there’s also the edit. So, let’s say that you are a real estate
professional. You might want to outsource your editing or
something like that so that you can continue focusing on what it is
that you’re good at because there is a learning curve typically that
comes with editing and all of that and processing audio and all of
that. so, if you want to just focus on your business and only use
YouTube as a marketing tool, then find somebody either on your
team or find somebody to whom you can outsource the editing.
Interviewer: Right. And if you don’t have someone on your team, Upwork.com
is where I find a lot of the people who I hire as independent
contractors to perform various different things because – as a
business owner – you want to put your time into the highest and
best use of your time and where you’re getting the biggest return.
So, you delivering your content and you allowing your audience to
build that relationship with you over video – and you being out
there and stuff – that is an enormously valuable use of your time.
You learning how to edit videos and then spending your time in the
editing room and all that kind of stuff is probably not the highest
and best use of your time because, again, if you’re a real estate
agent, you’re either out selling houses, you’re building
relationships with clients, or you’re recording videos and allowing
them to – you’re building your expert positioning. You’re building
your authority. You’re building your relationships with people who
don’t even know you yet and so forth.
So, those are all very good uses of your time. The editing and that
kind of minutiae, you can go onto a site like Upwork and there are
a few other competing sites too and if you’re not from the U.S.,
there are others like People Per Hour in the UK and there are other
sites, all of which I have used. You can just look. Just Google for
YouTube editors or video editors or that kind of stuff and you’ll
find a ton of people. If you haven’t used these sites before, you can
filter by the number of hours that the person has put in on the site,
the number of reviews.
You can say, “I only want people with five-star reviews or
whatever it is.” So, I highly recommend that for a lot of these sorts
of more technical things so that you don’t have to spend your time
learning it and doing it and all of that.

20The Maverick Show 07
HOST: Matt Bowles GUEST: Nick Nimmin

Transcribed by GMR Transcription

Interviewee: Right. And another thing – speaking specifically to real estate
agents – is one way that a lot of real estate agents use their
YouTube channels is they will make videos of the houses that they
are showing and they’re using YouTube as a way to, “Hey, I’m
just going to put this house out there on my YouTube channel.”
That’s the worst thing that you can do with your YouTube channel
as an agent. Build a different channel for your houses so that you
can try to rank those houses in search and all of that.
But as far as building your personal brand or building the brand of
your agency for your real estate, doing that as something where
you’re presenting on camera, you’re sharing information, that’s the
real way that you want to do it because what happens is let’s say
that somebody is watching one of your videos on your expertise
because they’re trying to learn what it is that you know or they’re
trying to get insight because they’re getting ready to make a big
purchase and they’re just trying to inform themselves, right? So,
what happens is they watch one of your videos and they subscribe
to your YouTube channel.
You upload your next video as a, “This is a house I’m showing”
video where it’s a house tour and what happens is when you
upload new videos – when people subscribe to your channel and
they click on the little notification icon – then YouTube will
actually send them an email of your uploads when you upload your
videos. So, what happens is they send out that email and because
it’s not based on the topics that the people are interested in because
they might not care about the actual houses that you’re showing
yet, they care more about the information that you’re sharing,
So, they’re less likely to click on the video of your house tour
because they don’t care, right? So, what happens there is YouTube
can tell – just like any other email service or whatever – they can
tell, “Hey this email was opened, but all of these people are not
clicking on it.” So, the people who actually subscribe to this
person’s channel, the people who are actually clicking on the bell
notification for this channel, they don’t care about what’s going on
in this channel. Therefore, why should the algorithm promote this
channel because the people who are actually subscribed to this
channel and actually signed up for notifications don’t care about
this channel either?

Matt: That’s a really important tip I think in terms of what the content is
going to be on your channel and making it high value, not selling
stuff.

Nick: Yes.

Matt: I mean that’s the big thing not “Here’s my listing. Want to buy it?
You know I’m trying to sell this. I’m trying to push this out.”

Nick: Right.

Matt: It’s creating high-value content information and then establishing
your expert positioning, establishing your authority in the market,
establishing a warm, friendly personality that people trust and
relate to and all of that kind of stuff, and delivering high-value
content that people want to consume and they’re interested in and
all of that.

Nick: Yes.

Matt: So, that’s what it is. Now, if someone wanted to have YouTube as
a medium for also being able to show, “here’s a 360-degree video
tour of this house” would you recommend, Nick, that that be
maybe a separate channel and then they have it as one of their kind
of–

Nick: Yes, without question. Make it a separate channel. Add it to your

channel page as a playlist.

Matt: As a playlist, right?

Nick: As a section, yeah, as a section playlist.

Matt: Because then it can stream through and it can be on your channel,
but it’s not being published through your channel and going out to
everybody to divert that level of interest.

Interviewee: Right.
Interviewer: So, you can still have it there so when someone’s on your channel
and they’re consuming your content and all that they’ll be like,
“Oh let me check out your listings too.”

Nick: Right.

Matt: But you’re not force feeding that to everybody who’s going to then

unsubscribe?

Nick: Yeah. In addition to that, a lot of real estate agents – and a lot of
just professionals that are selling anything – they think that their
YouTube channel needs to only be those specific topics. But if you
have a local business – if you’re selling real estate locally – like in
your situation it’s a little bit different, but for local real estate
agents who focus on their local area, you also might want to think
about, “Okay, well not only am I going to share my real estate tips
to share the knowledge set that I have, but I’m also going to share,
“Hey, these are the top 10 things that happen every year in this
area that you want to make sure that you check out.”
So, basically you’re not only showing your expertise on your real
estate knowledge, but you’re also positioning yourself as a
resource for the local community on all of these other topics that
are directly related to the community in addition to just being that
real estate resource. So, you become like a, “Hey, I wonder what’s
going to be happening this month? I need to go to this person’s
YouTube channel and see what’s coming up this month, what it is
that they’re talking about that’s coming in the community this
month.”

Matt: Right. What are the biggest mistakes that you see people making
on YouTube? Maybe they’re putting in the effort, maybe they’re
putting in the time and they’re trying to do it and they just come to
you and say, “Nick, I’m not getting the views. My subscribership
is not going up and my videos they’re not getting enough people to
watch them.” What are some of the biggest things where you then
take a look and be like, “Ah, that’s why and that’s why” that you
see people sort of mistakes that they’re making?

Nick: In most cases, it comes down to improperly titling their videos
because they’re titling videos based on things that they think
people might be looking for instead of actually looking into seeing
what people are looking for. So, basically, every single video that
you upload to YouTube, you want to optimize that video for
search. If you’re going for local business, then that can be even
more powerful because the competition that you have is extremely
low in terms of local business.
Another way that you can actually leverage YouTube is let’s say
that you are a new real estate agent and you don’t have the
authority yet in your area, your website is new so you don’t have
the authority in your website in terms of it being able to outrank
other agents in your area. YouTube, you can put up a video today
and – if you optimize that video properly for search, depending on

the competition in your area – you can outrank the websites that
have been in your area for 10 years with that video that you
uploaded 15 minutes ago, right?

Matt: Wow.

Nick: And you can be that number one search result as a video result
which people click on like crazy on top of the people who have the
established websites in your area.

Matt: Wow, wow. So, that I think is really important and really
significant. So, let me back up also a little bit and just kind of talk
to you a little bit as an entrepreneur and as a business owner. Can
you give us a little insight in terms of how you structure your time
and you manage your time as a business owner? I mean your
YouTube publications are obviously very meticulously planned
and orchestrated and that kind of stuff, but you do other stuff too. I
mean you do podcasting and you have other streams of income as
an entrepreneur. You do a lot of stuff.
So, I feel like one of the things that people struggle with – not even
just new entrepreneurs but even people who have been doing it for
a while – is time management and time mastery and being able to
really get themselves to focus and produce the things that are going
to add the most value to the business, right?

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: So, how do you – as a business owner and entrepreneur – structure

your time and make those decisions?

Nick: I structure my time based on I’m a really big fan – and this might
sound kind of counter, maybe against the norm a little bit but – I’m
a very big fan of making sure that my happiness in the way that
I’m living my life every day is a humongous priority over
everything else. So because of that, I’m typically the most
productive later in the evening and – when I wake up – I’m a little
bit more scattered and my brain just isn’t there yet. So, what
happens is I will typically wake up. I’ll meditate for 20 minutes a
day.
After my meditation, I’ll get ready, I’ll go out. I’ll grab a coffee
and then while I’m grabbing a coffee I’ll do my YouTube
comments. I’ll be on Facebook talking to anybody who’s awake
over on the other side of the world who I’m working with and

making sure that things are getting done that need to be done and
then just kind of freestyle the rest of my day until it comes like
evening time and then I’ll go home and then I’ll sit down and do
all of that. So, if I have an actual client meeting that I have to be
there for, then I’ll go and do that. But outside of scheduled
meetings, I freestyle most of everything that I do and I arrange it
on just how I’m feeling, what it is that I want to work on, and I
prioritize things based on what I want to do.
So, I know that sounds kind of weird and maybe not the best way
to do it, but for me, I’m a really big fan of making sure that –
because we have a limited amount of time. So, I’m a really big fan
of making sure that the time that I do have is spent in a way that I
enjoy because there’s no turning back.

Matt: And how do you or how have you, I guess? You have a long
entrepreneurial trajectory, so some of this particular question may
be relevant to various points along your entrepreneurial journey
and you can talk about whatever point you want. But I want to ask
how you deal with stress and how you deal with, shall we say,
down moments in the entrepreneurial roller coaster, which is one
of the things that I talked about in my talk at Nomad Summit.

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: What I tell all people who are trying to get into the entrepreneurial
game is, “Listen, there is a very real entrepreneurial rollercoaster.”

Nick: Yes, yeah.

Matt: I mean I started a real estate investment company in 2007, on the
verge of the global financial collapse, the centerpiece of which was
the U.S. real estate market, right?

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: But certainly whatever space you’re in, right, I mean it goes up and
it goes down. How have you over the years – obviously you’ve
been in the game a long time – dealt with those down moments in
the rollercoaster and high-stress periods and how are you able to
get through those? What techniques do you use?

Nick: In those periods, I stress out just like everybody else. I’ve been
meditating for three years now. So, for me, that definitely helps
because it helps me – and it sounds kind of New Age – but it helps

me just kind of keep an eye on how my brain is operating and the
ways that my brain is working and thinking about things. So,
because of that, that helps me in terms of, ‘Hey, this particular
thing that I’m working on isn’t working or it’s not working as well
as I would like it to, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s
something that it’s not working right now.
So, instead of freaking out about it, I need to figure out exactly
what it is that’s making it not work, figure out how to make it
work, or just wrap it up” and make that decision. So, it’s not
necessarily a process that I go through per se. it’s just more about
recognizing what my brain is doing in the moment and trying to,
again, lean on the lifestyle or something like that in terms of how I
actually cope with down times.

Matt: Right. So–

Nick: That was a little longwinded, but you know.

Matt: No, no, it’s really good. I mean one of the things that I do find that
a lot of highly successful or peak performing people will say in
interviews is that meditation is really a key to their – they do it
every single day, you know? I mean so people who are in high
stress, high-intensity environments or people who are really
performing at a very high level, I think that’s a very consistent
thing. Now, do you do a guided meditation? Do you do TM? Do
you use apps like Headspace or how do you do your meditation?
Interviewee: Basically, I have a cushion and I’ll wake up and then I’ll just go sit
down on there and then I’ll just I’ll breathe – just mindfulness.
Yeah, so basically I’ll just sit down on my cushion and then I
basically just sit there and then I breathe it through. I have a little
timer on my phone and then I just let that run out and then I’m
good to go. And I can say for anybody who doesn’t do meditation
– at least for me personally – and again this sounds weird.
If you don’t meditate – this sounds weird. But it has literally
changed the way that I perceive everything because we have the
inner dialogue going on in our heads all the time – and especially
in situations where business is going down or you’re having a dry
spell – right? You have all of this stuff going on in your head – all
this inner dialogue – to where you’re making things a lot worse
than they usually are, you know? In your brain, your mind is
saying, “Hey, this is the end of the world. Everything’s over. This
sucks. Now I’m going to end up having to go get a job. What if

this doesn’t work out?”
You’re having all of these self-doubts that are coming into your
head. But, for me, what meditation has done is it’s helped me be
able to identify and separate myself from those thoughts. So, when
those thoughts start creeping in, I can identify and say, “Okay, well
this is just a thought that I’m having based on what I’m going
through and how I’m feeling at this moment in time right now.” so,
I just recognize that as a thought.
Yeah, it’s definitely a situation that I’m in, but it’s not something
that I’m going to let ruin my day, so to speak, or ruin how I make
my decisions throughout the day or how I treat other people
throughout my day because this particular thing isn’t working out
in my life and then that allows me to let that thought go and then
actually address whatever problem it is when I’m in front of my
computer, when I’m actually dealing with the issue instead of
letting it be a monkey on my back, so to speak, throughout the
whole day and influence literally my entire experience every day.
Interviewer: That’s really significant. So, if somebody wants to start learning
more about meditation – because I feel like one of the things that
happens is the way you described what you do – somebody might
say, “Oh, I’m just going to jump in to try to sit down and do an
unguided meditation on my own for 20 minutes every single day.”
I think what sometimes happen is people their mind will wander
off and then they’ll get disillusioned with it or frustrated, “Oh, I
can’t do that” or whatever and then they’ll drop the practice.

Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you have a recommendation

Matt: Do you have a recommendation – either a resource that someone
should start with like, “Read this” or “Listen to this” or whatever –
to learn about how to do it?

Nick: Absolutely.

Matt: Or do you have a recommendation for a building process like
where should someone who’s never meditated or never done it as a
serious and consistent practice, how should they start and how
should they evolve into it?

Nick: The first thing – at least what got me into it – is I had always
wanted to try it and I would sit down and – like you were talking
about – I would get frustrated and I would be like, “This doesn’t

even make sense. My mind’s just kind of going whatever.” I
expected to sit down and then my mind just kind of blank out and
then everything’s okay, right?
That’s the expectation that I had. But I read a book called Search
Inside Yourself and that book is –I can’t remember his name but –
it’s basically by the Google ambassador. He’s the guy who – when
presidents come to Google or high-level people go to Google – he
is the guy who walks them in the front door, arranges everything,
and makes them feel comfortable and all that. He’s a lifelong
meditator, but he also started a program at Google for their staff as
well.
But basically, as part of that, he wrote this book to help additional
people and it really demystified meditation because initially –
before I actually started practicing meditation – I looked at it as
something like, “Hey, this is something that hippies do” or “This is
something that people who are into the New Age type stuff do or
something like that.” But there’s actually real, hard science behind
what happens in your brain when you meditate. It’s not a spiritual
thing. I mean it can be depending on what it is that you’re doing,
but it’s not necessarily a spiritual thing. It’s not necessarily this
woo-woo type of thing. There’s actually hard science behind it in
terms of how your brain responds to meditation.
In this book – not only does it share some of that information – but
it also simplifies the process in terms of, in a real, basic way, when
you sit down don’t expect anything. Just sit down, focus on your
breathing, and that’s it. If your mind wanders off, that’s normal.
That’s not a big deal. You’re not doing it wrong, so to speak.
You’re not, “Hey, this isn’t a bad meditation session” so to speak
because your mind wandered off. The fact that you identify that
your mind wandered off and that you’re able to pull it back to your
breath again, you’re winning.
Every time you do that, you’re winning and over time – just like if
you go to the gym and you’re working on your muscles – every
time you do that, you’re basically increasing your ability to
recognize those thoughts as they start taking you in the wrong
direction.

Matt: Right.

Nick: Again, longwinded, but–

Matt: Yeah, that’s a really substantive answer though. I mean I think
that’s really important, right, because a lot of people hear like,
“Oh, I’m going to meditate” and they listen to something and like,
“Oh, all these successful people meditate. I think I’m going to try
that” and then they get frustrated. They get disillusioned. They
don’t do it. So, it’s a commitment to cultivating it as a practice,
right?

Nick: Yeah.

Matt: And so I think that’s a really significant framework for people who
want to get into that. All right. Are you ready for some lightning
round questions?

Nick: All right. Let’s do it. Let me take a drink of water.

Matt: Now your answers can be as long as you want. So, don’t feel like

you have to give a rushed answer.

Nick: Okay.
Matt: These are just going to be short questions.
Matt: The first one I’m going to start with – I’ve never asked anyone else

before.
Nick: Oh, great.

Matt: You are going to get it.

Nick: All right.

Matt: Top five hip-hop emcees of all time?
Interviewee: Oh, man. I have to say, Eminem. I have to say, Jay-Z. I have to say

I personally like Mos Def also. Top five?

Interviewer: I’m giving you five. Have you seen – by the way – the Chris Rock

movie called Top Five?

Nick: No.

Matt: Okay. Have you heard of it?

Nick: No.

Matt: Okay, you should watch it. It’s called Top Five and the reference is
top five hip-hop emcees of all time. so, the whole movie they’re
asking – I mean it’s a film, right, but the characters in the film are
asking each other about their top five favorite hip-hop emcees.
You have to watch it.

Nick: Nice.

Matt: But anyway, so after seeing that movie, it’s an amazing
conversational piece I find for anybody who has any love for hip-
hop or has for any number of years anyway, right?

Nick: Sure.

Matt: So, I find it to be great. Okay. So, you’ve got Eminem, Jay-Z, and

Mos Def. Who are the other two?

Nick: Yeah. I would say Common is in there also. Yeah, Common, and
who would number five be? Gosh, this is such a – whew, it’s so
tough. In my brain right now, I’m like, “Okay, who would be a
really good fit for this?” Then I’m like, “Well, I don’t want to say
this person.”

Matt: Take your time. Take your time. Listen, this is an important

answer.

Nick: It is, right? As soon as I say number five, I’m excluding so many

awesome emcees.

Matt: Yeah, but you’re allowed, right? to be honest, I’ll buy you a little
time here in your answer. What I’ll usually do when I have this
conversation with people who love hip-hop, I’ll be like, “Who are
your top five?” because I’ll ask the question first and then they’ll
tell me their top five and then it will turn around to me. They’ll be
like, “Who are your top five?” I’ll intentionally pick five that they
didn’t name so that we can have a total of ten.

Nick: Sure, sure.

Matt: Do you know what I mean?

Nick: Sure, sure. Well, that’s coming. That’s coming. That’s coming.

Matt: You’re going to flip the lightning round question on me?
Nick: Man, for number five. Gosh, this is such an important one. This is
probably the most important thing that we’ve talked about, right?

Matt: Yeah, I would say so. I would say so.
Nick: Gosh, who would number five be? Even though they’re awesome,
I don’t want to say Biggie and Tupac because it’s just kind of like
that’s expected. So, I don’t want to say that.

Matt: You’re allowed.

Nick: Huh?

Matt: You’re allowed.

Nick: You’re allowed? Okay.

Matt: But you only have one though. You can’t say them both.

Nick: I know, I know. Okay, I’ll throw Biggie in there just to go ahead

and put that in there.
Matt: That’s a good choice.
Nick: Yeah. How about you? How about you?
Matt: You’re going to throw it back at me? Let’s see. You picked Biggie.
So, most of my stuff is going to be East Coast New York City stuff
and it’s also going to be the ‘90s.
Nick: So, Nas is probably going to be in there?
Matt: I would probably put Nas in there. You already named Biggie. I
will tell you, actually, who really influenced me very early on in a
deep and meaningful way and getting me into hip-hop. I would say
Chuck D from Public Enemy.

Nick: Oh, nice, nice.
Matt: I would say maybe Guru from Gang Star would be very high on

that list for me. What is that, three? I would say –

Nick: It’s tough, right? As it starts coming to an end it’s like, “Man”

because you start excluding a lot of people.

Matt: You know who I might even say who I feel like – it would be New
York City-based stuff. I mean almost all of my stuff is going to be
East Coast. I mean I do have appreciation and love for certain stuff
that came out of the West Coast but, for me, it’s like East Coast is
really where it’s at. You know who I might even put in there who
some people might think was controversial? I might even put
Heavy D in there.
Nick: Oh, interesting, interesting.
Matt: Because I feel like some people feel he was kind of a little bit on
the pop sort of side of things, but I feel like his skills and what he
contributed was really huge and really significant. I think his body
of work was enormous and really significant. So, I might even put
Heavy D there. I’m trying to think about people who influenced
me personally, you know?

Nick: I was influenced a lot by Ice-T and Ice Cube – even though they’re
not really high on the emcee level. It was just at that particular time
it was like, “Man, these guys are so cool.” Do you know what I
mean?
Matt: Yeah.
Nick: And that side of it. These days, Ice-T wouldn’t stand a chance, but
back then it was like, “Man, it’s just so cool. It sounds so cool how
he says stuff.”

Matt: I mean Ice Cube has had longevity.
Nick: Yes, without question.
Matt: Ice Cube is widely regarded. Snoop Dog was on a late night show
and somebody said top three rappers of all time. He said Ice Cube
was in there for him, you know?

Nick: Nice, nice. Yeah, I personally wouldn’t put him in the top ten, for

sure.

Matt: Yeah, I mean I might have to say, Rakim. I feel like just in terms
of people who took the whole thing to another level, you sort of
have to say Rakim in there to give that props. But yeah, I think I’m

probably at my five.

Nick: All right.
Matt: I mean East Coast stuff you know, Naughty By Nature, EPMD,
Dos Effects, those kinds of groups I think had a lot of influence on
me.

Nick: Yeah, for sure, for sure. They had a lot of influence on the world.

Do you know what I mean?

Matt: Yeah, yeah.
Nick: What a great time.
Matt: Amazing.
Nick: Do you know what I mean? When all of that was happening, what

a great time.

Matt: ‘90s hip-hop is just amazing.
Nick: It changed the world.

Matt: It was amazing. Oh, I don’t know if I told you about this. Since you
love hip-hop, you’ll appreciate this. I was down in Medellin,
Columbia last year for a month and there is a community there
called Comuna Trece, Community No. 13, right? This was a
number of years ago – maybe a decade and a half ago or so – the
government committed a large human rights massacre there and
they massacred a bunch of civilians and stuff. they said the
community was harboring the rebels, FARC I think rebels where
they said they were harboring there or whatever – whatever the
pretext was – and they went in and they just mowed down a huge
part of the civilian community.

Nick: Oh, man.

Matt: It was a terrible massacre. It was pretty high profile. But anyway,
what happened was the community – as they were rebuilding the
community – they decided to rebuild it on the pillars of hip-hop
culture. And so the community is – first and foremost – street art
all throughout the entire community, right, which is a combination
of different images or pictures that are significant to the artists and
the people in the community or things that make them think of

positive things. But also there’s a mural of Rakim in the
community and there’s all of this hip-hop iconography there as part
of the street art.
Nick: Nice.

Matt: And they have a hip-hop community center where they teach kids
starting as young as five years old how to emcee, how to DJ, and
how to breakdance.
Nick: That’s awesome.

Matt: Oh, it was unbelievable. And so we took a tour of this community
and our tour guide was one of the top rappers in Columbia,
personally gave us the tour, and then he did a hip-hop workshop
with our tour group and basically showed us like, “This is how we
teach the kids who are five, six, seven years old how to rap.” He
did this hip-hop workshop with us and then they did a graffiti
workshop with us and they were showing us graffiti techniques for
how to use the spray paint and all this kind of stuff. Then, they
invited us to join in a breakdancing class that they were having for
five, six, seven, eight-year-olds.

Nick: Nice. Wow.
Matt: It was unbelievable.
Nick: I bet.
Matt: It was amazing. What I’ll do is I’ll send you this link – and I’ll put
it in the show notes too for people who are interested – this rapper
who gives the tour. J.Co his name was. He actually did a TEDx
talk in Medellin about the significance of hip-hop and how it
influenced their community. So, he’s talking about how it
originated in the South Bronx, but originating in the South Bronx,
it wasn’t just an African American art form. It was, in large part, a
Latino art form as well, right?
As all of these hip-hop artists and DJs in the South Bronx are
coming out, there were also Latino [inaudible] [01:00:32] being
African American and that Spanish language connection and all of
this made it very highly relevant for colonized and oppressed
communities of color all around the world and that they resonated
with it and all this kind of stuff. So, he gives this whole TEDx talk
about the significance of hip-hop and how their community

adopted it and how they’re using it for the revitalization and the
rebuilding of their community. I mean just unbelievable stuff.

Nick: Nice. Nice.
Matt: I mean just amazing.
Nick: Nice. That’s incredible that they rebuilt a whole community on
that. You know what I find crazy about stuff like that is like when
people first started making hip-hop, right?

Matt: Yeah.
Nick: They had no idea, right? They were just doing it because like,
“Hey, this is cool. This is fun. I love riding these beats” or
whatever. And then it’s like the next thing you know, a community
is being rebuilt in Medellin, Columbia from what they started. It’s
incredible.
Matt: It’s amazing.
Nick: Yeah, absolutely incredible.
Matt: All right. So, that was a long answer to the lightning round

question.

Nick: Yeah, yeah. So, maybe not so lightning. That was just kind of like

thunderstorm.

Matt: Like a thunderstorm. That’s like the thunderstorm is rolling in.
Okay. The next question is what would you say are your top one,
two, or three sort of favorite – either they can be YouTube shows
or they can be podcasts or they can be blogs – but content that you
consume that you find valuable and that you would recommend to
other people – top two or three?

Nick: I like Sci Show because I like to learn things and they basically
take the knowledge of humans basically and they put it into bite-
sized clips. If you want to learn about like, “Why do you get a
cold?” like that kind of stuff. They just give you all of these bite-
sized clips of information, which is great.

Matt: And what’s the site?
Nick: Sci Show.

Matt: Yeah. How do you spell it?

Nick: S-C-I S-H-O-W.
Matt: Okay. Is it a video?
Nick: A YouTube channel.
Matt: YouTube channel, okay.
Nick: Yeah, a very large YouTube channel. Yeah, Sci Show is awesome.

Let’s see here – Joe Rogan, of course.
Matt: The Joe Rogan Experience podcast?
Nick: Yes. Yeah, yeah. I watch that on YouTube or listen to it while I’m
working. And I really like Vsauce also, which Vsauce, he also does
science-based stuff, but he doesn’t upload as frequently as he used
to. But when you watch his videos – by the time you’re done –
you’re just exhausted in your brain by all of the information that he
shares.
In reality, it makes you feel smart. But by the time it’s done, you
literally have no idea what’s going on. But he’s presenting it in a
great way and you’re like, “Wow, that’s really good. I never even
thought about that.” But, by the time it’s over, you’re like, “Man, I
feel smart, but I have no idea what just happened to me.”

Matt: Right. And that’s a YouTube show also?
Nick: Yeah, yeah also a YouTube show.
Matt: All right. Top three travel destinations that you have ever been to
that you would love to go back to, recommend to other people, and
so forth?

Nick: I loved Japan. I absolutely love Tokyo. I’ve been to Tokyo a
handful of times now, loved it. I really enjoyed Cambodia. Yeah, I
really enjoyed Cambodia and, of course, the south of Thailand. I’m
up north right now, but the one thing that I don’t like about being
up here is that we don’t have the water that they have down there.
I’m a big fan of the beach, but it’s so hot and all of that. I would
prefer not to live down there, but I absolutely love the south of
Thailand. It’s incredible.

Matt: Yeah. I was on the island of Ko Pha Ngan last year for about five
weeks and just lived right on the beach and it was just insane.

Nick: How incredible.
Matt: Yeah. But I will say you’re right. I mean the weather up here it’s

less humid, it’s gorgeous up here in Chiang Mai
Matt: So, it’s amazing. I agree, Cambodia. I was in Phnom Penh last year
for a month as well. I spent about a week in Siem Reap. Siem Reap
blew me away.

Nick: Yeah.
Matt: I mean that’s one of my top Southeast Asia regional
recommendations. I say to people, “Go to Siem Reap” because of
those temple complexes that you will see. I mean Angkor Wat is
the most famous but, to me, some of the other ones in that area
were even more just aesthetically just like stunning.

Nick: Wow, yeah.
Matt: It’s unbelievable.
Nick: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, so.
Nick: I always tell people if I’m talking to people online, as an example,
and they’re like, “Hey, I’m coming to Thailand. What should I do
in Thailand?” I’m like, “Well, you should come to Thailand, but
you should also make sure that you make time to go see Angkor
Wat and the stuff in that area because if you’re going to come this
far – like if you’re coming from the Western world and you’re
going to come this far – you can’t come over here without seeing
that, in my opinion.”

Matt: Agreed. I totally agree, yeah, agreed. Okay. So, places you’ve
never been – bucket list travel destinations – what are your top two
or three?

Nick: I want to go to Vietnam. I haven’t been to Vietnam yet, oddly. I

want to do Machu Picchu.

Matt: Nice.
Nick: And Paris is on my list. I’ve never been to Paris, but it’s been a
place that I’ve always wanted to go. I actually have this vision in
my mind of – once everything is exactly how I want it to be in my
life – I have this moment of accomplishment that I hope I don’t die
before I actually say, “Okay, well I’m just going to book a ticket”
right? But I have this vision of myself sitting outside of a café
somewhere in Paris. My laptop is sitting there on the table and then
I can see the Eifel Tower in the background. That’s my vision of,
“Okay, this is exactly how I want everything to be. Everything is
right on point. This is my moment right now.”

Matt: Paris I feel is a city that lives up to the hype. I feel that it does, you

know?
Nick: Nice.
Matt: Everybody’s like, “Oh, Paris, it’s this, it’s that and this is the Paris
of the whatever region.” It’s this huge, iconic thing and you’re like,
“Really, by the time I get there, is it really going to be all that?” I
feel that it does live up to the hype.
Nick: Nice, nice. See, now I’m even more excited.
Matt: Listen, I love Paris. I mean I’ve never lived there for an extended
period, but when I go through Paris or I spend time there – stop
over for four days or something – I have nothing negative to say
about Paris. I really like it and Machu Picchu is amazing. I did that
about two years ago. I mean that also lives up to the hype. That’s
an extraordinary experience.
Nick: So, you just reinforced both of those.
Matt: Listen, man–
Nick: What about Vietnam? What do you have for Vietnam?
Matt: So, actually, I’ve only been to Ho Chi Minh City for a long
weekend, but I’m going for a month, March. I’m going to go to
Danang and I’ll be there for a month.

Nick: Okay, nice.

Matt: If you want to come to visit, man, I’ll be around.
Nick: Yeah, I may, actually. Yeah, yeah.
Matt: You know it’s central coast, so it’s on the water.
Nick: Yeah, it’s on the water, yeah.
Matt: And then easy access to if you want to go north to Hanoi or you
want to go south to Ho Chi Minh City or you want to just hang out
in some of those cool beach towns. I will be there for a month,
brother, so you have an invite to come over and we’ll hang.

Nick: Okay. That’s in March?
Matt: Yeah.
Nick: That’s great because that’s smoke season here.
Matt: Yeah, exactly. So, if you want to get out for a little bit on the

water, you have a standing invitation, my friend.

Nick: Okay, awesome. Thank you.
Matt: Okay. Last question and then I want you to tell people how they
can get ahold of you. If you were to pick one most influential book
or resource in your entrepreneurial journey that really inspired you,
motivated you, moved you that you might want to recommend or
pass onto somebody else?

Nick: Yes, and this is funny because it reads like a children’s book,

right?
Matt: Okay.
Nick: I read this book a long time ago. I think I was 20, I believe, when I
read it and I had already gotten started on the entrepreneurial
journey, so to speak, but I wasn’t really in tune in terms of thinking
about the lifestyle and thinking about how you can leverage your
position to create greater good and all of that good stuff. There’s a
book called Rhinoceros Success, right?

Matt: Okay.

Nick: At the time, this book basically – after I was finished with it – like
it’s so easy. You can read it in an afternoon. But for whatever
reason, the way that the information was delivered in that book
really resonated with me at the time and it basically made me
commit to saying, “You know what? No matter what, I’m going to
stay on this path and no matter what, I’m going to keep walking
down my own road, so to speak, instead of trying to make sure that
I’m doing this because people say you should do this or I’m going
this because people should do this.”
It basically inspired me to make that commitment to say, “Okay,
no matter what, I’m going to keep walking down this path. If it
goes well, awesome, if it doesn’t go well, then I’m going to keep
going until I can figure out how to make it go well and if it means
that I have to die trying, then that’s what I’m going to do. But if it
means that I can also keep educating myself and all of that in order
to make things work out, then that’s what I’ll do as well. But this is
the path that I want to be on and I’m going to commit to that path.”
Actually, you can’t see this on the show, but I actually have a
tattoo to remind myself that was the path that I wanted to be on so
that every day when I got out of the shower, I would see it in the
mirror and remind myself that this is the path that I want to be on.
Interviewer: That is amazing. Do you remember who the author is of the book?
Interviewee: Scott Alexander. Yeah, it’s actually a three-part series, but the one
that got me started was Rhinoceros Success. It’s ridiculous. When
you read it, you’re just reading through it and you’re just kind of
like, “Wow, this is just like a kid’s book.” But for whatever reason,
you know different things resonate with different people, right?
For whatever reason, that book just really made a huge impact on
me in terms of committing to that life.

Matt: Incredible. So, we’ll put the link to that book in the show notes as
well. And then how can people find you, Nick? I mean the first
thing I want to do is certainly encourage people to check out your
YouTube channel. I have spent a bunch of time watching it since
you and I met at the conference and the amount of highly
substantive, free help content on there for wherever you are in your
video journey – including super beginners who are about to start a
channel.
In terms of getting off the ground, what are the first steps, what
mistakes to avoid, how to do this stuff? I mean it’s all there. So,

the first thing I want to do is send people to your YouTube channel
and then they can follow you on social or connect with you
however they want. So, how do they do that?

Nick: You can find me on my website, NickNimmen.com and then all
roads lead to Rome from there. So, one thing I also want to say for
anybody listening as far as my YouTube channel is concerned, like
Matt was saying, I give freely on the channel. It’s not a sales pitch
or anything like that.
I give freely on the channel and my thing with that channel – the
main thing that I’m trying to accomplish there – is basically
creating ripples of inspiration and knowledge to help other people
who are wanting to get into video because – being someone who is
in the space of sharing information that helps other creators – gives
me the opportunity to help those people reach other people in a
better or more efficient way and because of that, I give freely all
of the information that I have on my YouTube channel and it’s not
a sales pitch. So, definitely go over there if you want to learn
anything about making videos or YouTube.

Matt: Okay. And then if people want to follow you on social and stuff,

they can get all that through your website?

Nick: Yeah, all that through my website or from my YouTube channel,

either one.
Matt: Okay, fantastic.
Nick: Nick Nimmin everywhere, N-I-C-K- N-I-M-M-I-N. That’s my

handle everywhere.

Matt: Right, fantastic. All right, well, Nick, thank you so much for being

on the show, man.
Nick: Thank you.
Matt: This was awesome.
Nick: Awesome. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you having me on.
Matt: Absolutely, buddy.
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[End of Audio]
Duration: 73 minutes