Sunday, Jan 29, 2023 • 15min
How Peter McKinnon Turned $0.55 Into A YouTube Empire
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How did Peter McKinnon turn $0.55 into 5.5 million subscribers on YouTube? In this episode, Peter talked about:
Which jobs can prepare you for a career as a creator
Why he quit his job when he only made $0.55 on YouTube
How he stood out in a saturated niche
What he learned about filmmaking from Casey Neistat
And more. I’ve been excited to share this one for a while, enjoy!
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Talking about
Speakers
(3)
Peter McKinnon
Jon Youshaei
Casey Neistat
Transcript
Verified
Jon Youshaei
00:00
55 cents: is all Peter McKinnon made on
YouTube,
and he decided to drop everything and become a full-time Youtuber. So how did he go from working at a restaurant, to turning a few cents into a multimillion-dollar YouTube
empire?Share
Peter McKinnon
00:16
Oh, that's real money!
Share
Jon Youshaei
00:17
In this interview, Peter reveals how he did it by breaking every rule on
YouTube
.Share
00:21
He didn't follow trends...
Share
Peter McKinnon
00:22
What can I do that is not trendy?
Share
Jon Youshaei
00:24
He didn't change who he was for the algorithm...
Share
Peter McKinnon
00:26
Love mimicking a sound.
Share
Jon Youshaei
00:29
And he gave five more unconventional tips, if you're struggling to go from part-time to full-time,
Youtuber.
Share
00:35
And Peter broke down several clips, I dug up from the start of his career till now, so you learn exactly what happened.
Share
00:41
I'm John Youshaei and you're watching: Created.
Share
Peter McKinnon
00:43
You're very good at what you do.
Share
Jon Youshaei
00:48
Peter, welcome to the show buddy.
Share
Peter McKinnon
00:49
Thanks.
Share
Jon Youshaei
00:49
My hope is to make this the most research interview done. I went to your
Vimeo
as well.Share
Peter McKinnon
00:54
Oh yes! Rest in peace.
Share
Jon Youshaei
00:54
Yeah, I'm telling you. Yeah, we're gonna bring it back to life.
Share
00:58
You dug way deep, okay.
Share
00:59
Way deep. I gotta do my research.
Share
Peter McKinnon
01:01
Okay, you went there. I'm excited!
Share
Jon Youshaei
01:02
Yeah, let's start off with the first clip. I won't give much context. I will just let you go ahead and play this.
Share
Peter McKinnon
01:09
I'm now a full-time YouTuber and it took me, if you think about it, 18 years to get here. It took me washing elephants. It took me getting fired from jobs. It took me working at a steakhouse,
Home Depot
going through training at Apple,
trying to figure out what I wanted to do.Share
01:25
Yeah, yeah. Still think that! Ahah.
Share
Jon Youshaei
01:27
Take me through that journey of the jobs you had leading up to becoming a full-time career, and the day that you left behind.
Share
Peter McKinnon
01:36
I remember that was a big realization moment was the steakhouse and I worked on the line and then when the shift ended, I was about to leave and they're like, "You gotta clean the kitchen still. It's midnight. Now, we gotta clean for the prep people coming in tomorrow."
Share
01:50
And it was that moment, I just can't do this isn't me, I can't do this stuff. And I went to the back and the manager was there, I just said, "Hey, I think I'm done, I don't want to work here anymore." And she's like, "Well can I do you want like less hours?" I was like, "I want no hours".
Share
02:02
Actually took off my apron and I walked back to my little protege and drove home and it was at that moment I thought I got to stop doing random jobs and at least start taking jobs, even if they're still retailer part-time, they're at least more tuned to what my interests were to kind of like... I can't just be a pro photographer tomorrow because I decided. I knew there were steps and processes that we're going to come in between that.
Share
02:27
So I thought if I get a job at a camera shop, it gets me that much closer, I can learn cameras more. And then maybe I get an internship and I can intern with people who do it professionally and I can learn more.
Share
02:38
And it was those little steps along the way that eventually led to the big one, which was just, it's time now, dude. You've been putting it off long enough, you've done all of the steps, you could just doing them forever or you make the big jump instead of the step.
Share
Jon Youshaei
02:52
But I think one of the things I admire most about you Peter is that your turning point came when you only have 55 cents of
AdSense
revenue, and you know, talking to a lot of creators, I was talking to Graham Stephanie like, "Yeah, I, I became a full time creator when I had $1 million."Share
03:09
I was like, what? And so I wanted to play this clip with that context.
Share
Peter McKinnon
03:16
That's quite a contrast.
Share
Jon Youshaei
03:17
I know, I was like, "Okay..." and get your thoughts on this.
Share
Peter McKinnon
03:20
Remember this day? This screenshot is from, it's from when I first started my
YouTube
account, I'll throw it on the screen here. 800 subscribers. 6,889 views, 1,600 watch time minutes. And my estimated revenue of 55 cents.Share
03:39
Now this was the day, this exact screenshot when I took this, was the day that I decided to go as hard as I could with
YouTube
being my full time.Share
03:49
Yeah, that was, I remember that vividly, it was proof of concept to like I logged in one day and it was just not zero anymore. 55 cents. I was like, "Oh, that's real money".
Share
04:00
That 55 cents will turn into a dollar, maybe 10 bucks, maybe 100 bucks, maybe enough to pay one bill, just one bill of mine. And if I can pay one bill, I can pay all the bills. So it's the only spark that I needed to just set that fire. And yeah, that 55 cents, that screenshot, I think I printed it off actually framed and put in my office.
Share
Jon Youshaei
04:19
Wow. I wanted to talk about romance that swept through
YouTube
and play this clip. I think the first moment that Casey Neistat
appeared in one of your videos.Share
Peter McKinnon
04:29
Okay. Oh, this is good.
Share
04:31
Okay guys, so the thing is I get asked a lot. Like I see all kinds of comments of people saying like, oh, that's like
Casey
because you ride a Boosted Board
. And to be honest, like just because I ride a skateboard, I don't think that makes me like the guy. I don't know, does it bother you that I ride a Boosted Board
?Share
Casey Neistat
04:45
No, but can you plug into the charger when you're done with it?
Share
Peter McKinnon
04:48
Yeah, yeah.
Share
Jon Youshaei
04:50
Looking at the stats at that point, you had about 700/800,000 subscribers.
Share
Peter McKinnon
04:55
Yeah.
Share
Jon Youshaei
04:55
And he had about 8 millions.
Share
Peter McKinnon
04:57
Okay.
Share
Jon Youshaei
04:58
How did that initial relationship happened? Did
Casey Neistat
DM you? Did you reach out to him?Share
Peter McKinnon
05:04
Well, I first met him at this little shop somewhere in
New York
. I didn't really say much because I didn't want to be the guy being like, hey, can we be friends or anything?Share
05:14
So I just kind of hung out and then I think it was like a few weeks later or a few months later, he DM me on Twitter, just said, "Let's make vids", I was like, "Sure, when?" He's like, "Come to
Amsterdam"
and he's like, "When?" he's like, "Tomorrow". And I was like, "Okay". And I bought a ticket and flew to Amsterdam
, like within like 15 hours or something.Share
05:33
Which is really funny as I got back from that trip and then he was in Toronto, like the next day, like, "Dude, we could have just done this here!". Somebody hung out again there and, and then every time he called me, my heart would sink a little bit because he was always saying, "Hey, are you free on the weekend?"
Share
05:47
It's like, "Oh, what's what now?" He's like, "Let's go to
Bermuda
" This guy...Share
Jon Youshaei
05:52
What did you learn from
Casey Neistat
in your first 24 hours with him?Share
Peter McKinnon
05:56
On that trip one of the first things he said to me, which was interesting, which I learned, we were having breakfast and he said, "What do you want to film today? Like, do you have your ideas? Like, do you know what you wanna do that, can I help?" I was like, "Yeah, I think, I don't know, maybe I don't really know what's in plan or what's in stories." Like I've got the whole thing mapped out, like my video is already done. He's like, "Oh yeah" and he's like, "Oh bro, I've got this so streamlined".
Share
06:16
And we left and he went to an exact spot to do an intro that he already knew and everything was very much mapped out in his mind and he was able to execute, finished film, do everything in that video, but with such... that was just so strategic, like there was no time wasted.
Share
Jon Youshaei
06:32
Can you talk about when you get approached now from other creators, what advice would you give to make a good first impression?
Share
Peter McKinnon
06:38
It seems to be most of the time, like, let's collab, or like I'd love to work for you, or I can shoot this. And it's always around the person you're meeting and you don't know that person. So right off the bat, you're kind of like, "Ah I don't really know who you are and I appreciate the help of being offered that I don't need, but there's other people...". And it's just kind of a weird situation.
Share
Jon Youshaei
06:57
Maybe you want to have a business conversation approach the manager.
Share
Peter McKinnon
07:00
He's the guy who's gonna get it done anyway.
Share
Jon Youshaei
07:02
Yeah, interesting. So takeaways for creators, if you guys are listening.
Share
07:06
I feel like it's such a trend Peter with you. I find creators do one thing. I've done a lot of interviews or creators like, "Yeah, I send a headline in the thumbnail to a creator that one collaborate with and wait for an answer."
Share
Peter McKinnon
07:16
You never do that.
Share
Jon Youshaei
07:17
Yeah, you're all about relation and almost being the opposite in a way that, you know, in the short run may hurt, you in the long term it seems like it's worked out in a big way.
Share
Peter McKinnon
07:26
Yeah, friendships might last longer. And yeah, I'm just all about doing things differently. If I see a herd going that way, I want to go the opposite way, and if a lot of videos are trendy, I'm like, what can I do that's not trendy?
Share
Jon Youshaei
07:37
Yeah, I think there's so many more interesting topics to dive into, especially with you. And one of the things that I want to ask you about is this: I'll let you play and I'll give you more context.
Share
Peter McKinnon
07:53
Can I do it now?
Share
07:54
Yeah just do it.
Share
07:54
Do I seat aside?
Share
07:55
Do it. Wait, wait.
Share
07:58
Just from here?
Share
08:00
This is yeah, go for it.
Share
08:01
Okay. Hey, this video is brought to you by
Squarespace
. Does anyone at this point not know what Squarespace
is? Who doesn't know?Share
08:08
That's true.
Share
Jon Youshaei
08:09
So context for everyone that was a
Squarespace
brand integration, one of the videos, but it was so freaking entertaining that I almost forgot. Yhe reason why I want to give context because you know, there's so much humor into it. How do you think about a brand integration like that?Share
Peter McKinnon
08:23
So instead of speaking to you about
Squarespace
, I can speak to Squarespace
Pete and we can speak to each other and just kind of have this fun banter that someone just gets to enjoy instead of being pitched to, right? It's entertaining and it's fun.Share
08:36
And now it's at the point where if I don't do it, people are like, "Bring back
Squarespace
Pete!" And I've got so many ideas to take it so far when it sounds like an ad read is when it's the least appealing.Share
08:48
So even if it's going to sound like it, can you do something visually that's going to change it up? Can there be an activity that you do that? That you can do with someone else? Is there just is there somewhere else you can shoot it? Is there a way that you can take one of your interests and provide me an example of of what the brand is, instead of just telling me about the brand?
Share
09:06
I don't care. I don't want to hear it. If it's a brand about like if we're talking about trimmers, like do something funny with the trimmer. Like, what happened to the trimmer all the time? You cut yourself? Are the battery's dying? Can we do a skit about the battery's dying, or give me some examples or just anything other than just sitting there reading a script.
Share
Jon Youshaei
09:24
That's amazing, man. It's such a trend, I'm sitting here like, you know, you're like zigging where the industry is zagging and I found another area where you had a conversation with a fellow magician.
Share
Peter McKinnon
09:34
Yeah, this is a good day.
Share
09:37
I remember thinking a couple of years ago,
Casey
is the biggest it'll ever get, or Layla is the biggest, what Logan Paul
is the biggest. And I think that number of like how fast they're growing and their audience reach is gonna, like exponentially grow.Share
09:50
When we've seen like Ninja, it's just different people overnight.
Share
Peter McKinnon
09:53
Yeah.
Share
09:54
Go from 0 to like 15 million sub.
Share
Peter McKinnon
09:57
Yeah.
Share
Jon Youshaei
09:57
And Peter, the thing I want to show with that are these statistics I pulled on the most viewed
TikToks
, which are all magic related.Share
10:07
And I was so curious to ask you because of your background in magic, right? And Zach King, having some of the most viewed videos, why you didn't go into this digital form of magic when there's such an appetite for it?
Share
Peter McKinnon
10:22
I think because when I see a talent like Zach King and respected the level I do, I don't need to throw my hat in, because I just don't personally feel like I could do better than what Zach is doing. So it's not like if I got in there, there'd be, there'd be too many cooks in the kitchen. It's quite the contrary, I wouldn't even know how to cook the meal. Why cook the meal when it's already being fed and it's delicious?
Share
10:46
So I kind of just think that's his realm and he owns it so much at this point, even if I did, it would just be in the shadow of someone who's doing it the best.
Share
Jon Youshaei
10:55
To be fair though, there's so many photographers on
YouTube
when you entered the space. What were some of the problems with, you know, the photography space that you try to solve when you entered it?Share
Peter McKinnon
11:05
Boredom. Just boredom. It was like orientation videos when you got a retail job and you just sit down and watch all the safety procedures before you could put the uniform on and they're never good videos. And I thought, it's gonna have more fun! We gotta vlog and then show some real-life examples and just have a bit of like humanity in this. Let's just like, let's not take ourselves so seriously, it's just photography! How do we make this cool? How do we make it actually cool?
Share
11:32
This dude who's got a beard and tattoos and a backwards hat, who's out hanging out with a vlogger, this is not what photography space is used to. But it's what would relate to people who are up and coming and starting in photography. So that's kind of my mindset moving into it.
Share
Jon Youshaei
11:50
It's speaking of bringing humanity to your videos, and one of the best ways that you do it - and you've done it multiple times in this interview - is adding sound effects.
Share
Peter McKinnon
11:57
Oh yeah, that was a long time ago.
Share
12:01
You went deep.
Share
12:04
[Sounds from Peter's recorded video]
Share
Peter McKinnon
12:08
You know weird this has to do?
Share
12:12
Oh I'm gonna pass out.
Share
12:18
I remember doing that dude Andrew was like wow that was actually awesome. It's like yeah that was pretty good wasn't it?
Share
12:27
I've always loved sound effects, man.
Share
Jon Youshaei
12:29
Dude, I bought your sound pack.
Share
Peter McKinnon
12:31
Oh nice.
Share
Jon Youshaei
12:32
Yeah I remember that video, one of your top three favorite sound effects, you can do them live?
Share
Peter McKinnon
12:38
I wouldn't say there's like a go to, I used to do like a helicopter a lot like...
Share
12:44
But I was like you know when it's coming down, I used to love that like the punch sounds obviously always...
Share
12:48
Just those are always really good. But yeah I love mimicking a sound if I hear something I was like, oh that was good. What was that? What was that? Or how would you make a sound if you were filling up a glass of water? Like what would that sound like? Like like...
Share
13:04
With something like that. I don't know I just I just try it!
Share
Jon Youshaei
13:06
Pete, as we around the corner if you got memory lane. The last clip is one that I dug deep for.
Share
Peter McKinnon
13:12
Oh man, you know of course I know bro! Remember I shot this to an ice rink midnight because the lights were still on.
Share
13:24
What defines a moment. Is it the people who surround us or is it simply our surroundings? Maybe something we touch.
Share
Peter McKinnon
13:36
Jon I was trying to find this file legitimately a few months ago and I couldn't find it anywhere. I don't know how you found it. That's so impressive!
Share
Jon Youshaei
13:47
We dug deep on this.
Share
Peter McKinnon
13:49
Yeah, you did.
Share
Jon Youshaei
13:50
Can I be honest?
Share
Peter McKinnon
13:51
Yeah.
Share
Jon Youshaei
13:52
What was the story telling you what was going? It was so... I couldn't believe that you made that, given how good of a storyteller you are today.
Share
Peter McKinnon
13:59
Yeah, I made that ages ago. Camera contest or something and I never enter stuff and was like, I could bust out a short film like that in no time, like taking like one night. So I went out and just like compiled a bunch of clips and wrote something and went to like voices.com, found some guy sent him my script and everything and I got disqualified for some reason.
Share
14:18
I was like the winner. But it was something like I used to clip, not in the time frame when we were supposed to shoot. I used to do that all the time. My wife was always a huge advocate still is of practicing your craft.
Share
14:30
So if she sees me just pounding videos after videos after videos, she's like, "When was the last time you went and took photos, not for Instagram? And it's like," Oh! "." Ah you should probably do that "." Because as much as you're the teacher and as much as you're the guy inspiring everyone else to get out there and do it, you still need to follow the passion that got you here in the first place. And if you're not learning, you're unlearning, so you gotta make sure you keep your skills sharp and you learn new things that you're inspired and that will eventually trickle down into inspiring new things for new people. "It's like," That's wise! "
Share
15:01
Pete, I just have to say thank you man, I don't know if you have any final words of things...
Share
15:04
You know, I've been interviewed a lot and that was a lot of fun. Thank you, thanks for all the effort you put into that, because it made it quite memorable.
Share
Jon Youshaei
15:13
Oh man, that means the world.
Share
15:17
Alright, if you made it this far, hit that follow button, because I think you're going to love our next episode and leave a review, it only takes a few seconds, you don't even have to write anything, but if you want, drop in your social handle and you'd be surprised at how many times a DM folks say hi, see how it can help out because ultimately meeting you guys and helping you guys is why I started this, I'll see you next time.
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Jon Youshaei
Peter McKinnon
Casey Neistat