“I’m beginning to believe that Bobby doesn't have a house, but Bobby has the world” This quote perfectly captures the essence of Bobby Briskey aka Living Bobby as a creator. Bobby, known on socials as Living Bobby, is an amazing travel creator. His love for travel and creating videos started while teaching English in Vietnam. Fast forward six years and now he has a loyal community of 2M travel lovers on YouTube. At the end of the episode, it became very clear that creators like Bobby will be the travel agents of the future.
Check out Bobby's videos on YouTube or follow him on Instagram
Intro 0:00
This is creator culture by hashtag paid.
Danny Desatnik 0:06
Hey, I'm Danny Desatnik. And if you're new here, this is a podcast all about creators. Every week I'm chatting with incredible creators and sometimes the people that support them. I'm here to understand three things, how creators are building their brands, what their brand partnerships look like and what to expect in the future from this incredible world of creators. So welcome to week 12. And I want you to think about your most recent travels, how did you know the best places to visit, or what food you should eat, or what adventures to embark on, there's a pretty good chance you turn to creators to learn from their experiences. And that's the space that we're covering this week. I'm talking to Bobby brisky. Bobby, who's known as living Bobby, on all socials is an amazing travel creator with such addictive content. His love for travel, and creating videos actually started when he was teaching English in Vietnam a good number of years ago. And fast forward to present day, he now has a massive and loyal community of 2 million travel lovers on YouTube. I think the most interesting thing for me throughout this chat is that I became more confident that creators like Bobby are going to be the travel agents of the future. So let's get to the good stuff. Here's my conversation with Bobby risky. I came across a cool comment on one of your videos recently. And it was I'm beginning to believe that Bobby doesn't have a house. But Bobby has the world. Tell me what that means to you.
Bobby Briskey 1:36
And I tried, I remember my reply to that comment, actually now. And my reply to that comment is, or was that the world is my house. And that's kind of how I feel to be honest. I mean, I don't really lead a traditional, you know, like, I live in one city type of life. I do live, technically right now in Paris. But that's more for the cultural experience that I have here. And I haven't really been living the most traditional way of life for about the last like seven years or so, I've been just traveling around the world, from city to city, country to country, and just live in this world of
Unknown Speaker 2:20
travel. And that was something that you dreamed up when you were to right out of the womb, you knew this was gonna happen.
Unknown Speaker 2:28
Now this is interesting. This is in this is an inch. That was that's a really interesting question, because actually, I didn't travel outside the US where I'm from, until I was 19. And then it was kind of like, instant, like, Okay, this is what I love. This is what I want to do. This is what I've always wanted to do. But it wasn't something that I dreamt up. It was just kind of something that I tried. And then I instantly fell in love with it. Which is why like, I'm such a supporter and like trying new things, because that just like came out of nowhere. Where is the first place you traveled? I traveled to Southeast Asia right now. And at the time as well, it was very affordable for traveling around. I also just thought it was I've always been fascinated with Asia as a continent, I think it's a super fascinating place to visit, especially if you haven't left your home country, if your home countries, you know, the US or Canada or something like that. Because it's just a complete culture, shock. Everything is different. The energy is different, the food is different, the people, they everything, everything's different.
Unknown Speaker 3:41
I remember when I went to Thailand, it was 2017 the one thing that I was told, which blew me away, which was when you're on the street and you're looking to buy street meat, make sure you see steam coming out of the food. Versus that that's just that's been sitting there because you don't know how long it's going to be sitting there for. And in my mind. I never even thought about that because I'm based in and from Toronto and Canada Tim Hortons for example, our main like fast food chain, like those muffins may be there for like two three days and you don't even think you think about it, that it's good. And that was such a mindset shift for me. So what was the biggest change for you or the biggest realization on that first trip having been in the US for 19 years and then going to this country that's vastly different.
Unknown Speaker 4:28
It was an interesting feeling actually because I I had kind of started this travel this fire for travel about maybe a year prior and that fire started from watching different people on YouTube one was actually a YouTube channel in Canada called a high on life and Casey Neistat, you know, the godfather of YouTube, those two channels really got me ready for what travel would look like and high on life had gone to Thailand and I watched all their vlogs. And they did such an amazing job it really just characterizing the experience of how it is to be a traveler there. So when I touched down, it was kind of like I was living in one of their videos, I was like, This is so cool. Like, I didn't think this was even real. So that was my, my initial reaction. Like it felt like a, like a movie. It felt like a story. It felt like it felt like acting in real life. But it's, you know, it was it was a complete shock. To me, it was it was amazing.
Unknown Speaker 5:32
And you said that when you watch high on life, and obviously Casey Neistat videos, there was something about the editing and the way they went about the cinematography of that video to make you really feel and understand the culture. What was it about the editing specifically.
Unknown Speaker 5:48
So for high end life, they're fabulous at editing. It was more however, it was more so the personalities that came there, it was, um, it's it was for friends that just decided to travel, and just their way of enjoying every moment, exploring something different. And then along with that content of just like all of these tiny different things that were completely different. It was, it was it was really bad. It wasn't necessarily the editing, specifically, however, Casey. I mean, Casey has a quote that says something like, the video is made in post, it's not made when you create it. And I mean, for him, it's, it's so true. Like, it's not saying that I don't like Casey's personality loved his personality. But it's more so that he specializes so much in that, you know, cinematic, everyday life type style, which I don't think anybody else has really captured in the way that he has. So yeah, that's the Those were the, those were the two things that I enjoyed.
Unknown Speaker 6:58
And it makes sense. And when you look at some of the best, and you look at Disney look at Pixar. It's the character development that makes amongst the colors and the music. It's that character development that really makes it so I can imagine, I was actually watching on the idea that I was watching one of your videos recently. And at the end you mentioned Oh, you're looking for an editor. So you've been editing and you're a one man show for the past like six, seven years now what I'm hearing?
Unknown Speaker 7:23
Yeah, yep, one man show on the creative front. Yeah, I, for brand partnerships, I have a brand manager. But uh, but on the creative front, one man show,
Unknown Speaker 7:35
I've always heard from creators that hiring that editor is giving away your children. So how's that process, man?
Unknown Speaker 7:41
So to be honest, this process has been about a year and a half process, I've tried a handful of editors. And I think that for me, I can say now truly, that I am ready to give away my child, you know, give away my baby. Um, but in the past, I just, I just wasn't like, I would see the videos that they edited. I could do that better. You know, like, I should have just done that. And I didn't have this, like long term focus on hiring, you know, it takes a long time, especially like, for me, I've been kind of like cultivating my style for the last maybe seven years, like just every not every moment, but more. So just like everyday thinking a little bit on video and being like, oh, what should I do here? What should I do there? So obviously, you know, you can't have somebody come in and instantly know how to do something. So yeah, looking for an editor. Anybody that listens to this wants to apply, go to my video apply.
Unknown Speaker 8:44
Really it's I need I mean, I found a few people that that look good, but it's it feels like a never ending search. It's to what we were saying earlier, where there's two parts to the video. There's the characters, there's the substance, but then it's how is it put together? And how is it given to the people that are ideally going to watch it? You mentioned that you're the one man creative, but then you have a brand manager with you helping you source deals. What's the thought? What's the strategy? Do you work with a select number of brands? What's the How do you like working with brands?
Unknown Speaker 9:17
Overall, I love working with different brands, I only bring things to my, to my videos that I think will speak to my viewers. I don't I don't really focus on that as one of the key revenue sources. It obviously is one of the main revenue drivers. I don't like to have things based on that most submissions that come to me, I'll just turn away because it just doesn't. It's just not in line with my viewers with myself with something that I can truly approve for the mandate on everything. It just needs to be from a company that I truly believe in that I know that can bring value To my audience, um, and that just has the same value system on creative marketing and everything, however, as well, the product obviously that
Unknown Speaker 10:13
I would be talking about. And so when you're working with brands, is it more integrated throughout the video and that you're showcasing product? Or you're showcasing their service? Or is it more so of an ad read?
Unknown Speaker 10:24
Yeah, so I'll typically control the entire script, always control the script is the creative. However, they will give me some points to really talk about it's never I don't do dedicated videos of very often, I think I've only done one dedicated video in the entirety of my YouTube channel. So it's basically like, never. So it's normally a one minute ad rate, I'll do I tried to integrate it into the video in a way that will not make the viewer kind of think, oh, okay, there's the sponsorship read, like, I don't like clicking on a video. And instantly, it's a sponsorship read, because you're not there for the sponsorship, you're not there for that. So I really try to create some sort of flow. For example, I just did a brand deal with Sony, in my last video on their new yearbook. And I integrated it in a way of talking about it was a, it was an airplane video and talking about how one of the cool features of the airplane is that you can connect Bluetooth to the entertainment system. And then I, you know, went off on Oh, these are, you know, incredible, they're the best tech for your phones have ever had.
Unknown Speaker 11:38
That's how I typically tried to do that. What I'm hearing is obviously, the creative and the product, the creative in your hands needs to be available, the product needs to be something that aligns with you and your audience. What else is really important to you when working with brands
Unknown Speaker 11:52
overall, like it's, it's just the value system that they have, right? Like, I don't like to have creativity stalled a lot. And sometimes there's been brands in the past that I choose to not really work with now because their their system of flow and movement is so slow. And I I'm really dedicated to bring the highest quality to my audience, but also the highest quantity, which is quite difficult. So definitely just like appreciating each other's time. And this is, you know, this goes without saying the product needs to be in line with everything that I'm doing as well. But yeah, I mean, I would I would just say like the value system overall.
Unknown Speaker 12:34
And when it comes to devices, because that's interesting. Do they give you the opportunity to get to know them? Or do they want to get to know you before running this activation?
Unknown Speaker 12:43
There have been companies in the past that want you to try their products. with Sony, for example. This last time I've been, you know, somebody that knows the Sony team for the last couple of years now. I went to like a creator's Sony camera camp, which like was in Montana, and they like flew everyone in and like we had like youtuber conversations. And it was so cool, like Sony, amazing company for doing that. I'm just kidding that the, you know, they chose the sponsor the video, but, um, so for them. I mean, it was like I already had a relationship with them. And I've used Sony products throughout my entire life. And I know that for me, I find them super high quality, and they're pushing the boundaries and everything. I'm just technology in general, but there have been companies that has that I wasn't aware of before that sends me their products to try it and says like, if you feel like this is something that works for you. Maybe we can talk about a partnership as well. But it's not like oh yeah, we'll send you a product and you got to post about it. You know, it's it's more so like, we just want to create this relationship. So that's great. I really enjoy when companies do that.
Unknown Speaker 13:59
Yeah, that's something that all companies should hear. I think it's like a term I've seen go around on marketing Twitter calling no ass gifting.
Unknown Speaker 14:05
Yeah, you know, I mean, for me, I really that's the only thing about the gifting thing I sometimes will turn down companies from sending me something just based on I really get the vibe that they want a post out of it. And I try to make it explicitly clear that if I like this I'll definitely post about it but I'm not going to be like oh so and so's sent me these energy bars drink things. I love them. Yeah, they have chocolate mocha. Thanks again. No like I To be honest, I'm a minimalist so I don't need I don't need a maximum of products on my hand. I love the gifting when it comes with Yeah, no obligation.
Unknown Speaker 14:48
A little while earlier you were saying that brand partnerships it's it's a part of your your business, your ecosystem. It's not at the forefront. What is the business of living Bobby or Bobby brisky made up of today.
Unknown Speaker 14:59
I really tried to focus on the videos. So a large revenue stream is AdSense. For me, I don't like having that be such a big piece of the revenue. But to be honest, I think it's the best place to focus your time on because if you grow your channel grows, you have more opportunities in the future I would, I've really been trying to come up with different products and services that I can offer to my audience. So there might be something like that in the future. As of right now, it's mostly AdSense brand partnerships, kind of like one off things here and there.
Unknown Speaker 15:37
And talk to me about that idea of offering a product to your audience, it feels like you as as the channel living Bobby or us, Bobby brisky is the modern day travel agent. So what would that potentially look like?
Unknown Speaker 15:49
My vision is to offer things to my audience that enables them to travel as frictionless as possible to not have all this friction around them. Oh, like, where do we go? Oh, this backpack is terrible. Why was it so expensive? Like, I feel in the travel industry, there's not necessarily things for the everyday traveler. It's either like you're a dedicated backpacker, or you're going on a cruise, right? It's like there's no in between, there's not like, I just want to go to Thailand and go to a monastery today, you know, like, there's not like, there's no products for that it feels like so I just have this idea of empowering people to one, you know, step outside of their comfort zone and, and get out their travels see something new. And to just empowering people even further in making things for them that can make them live their adventure dreams. And it is an interesting thought that travel agency part because people have said that to me in the past,
Unknown Speaker 16:52
well, how often do subscribers message you and say, Hey, I'm coming to this region, like what should I do? Can you give me an itinerary? Is that something that happens often?
Unknown Speaker 17:02
Every day? Every day? multiple times a day? Yeah. I it's funny because I think I've gained this like reputation now from people that think I've been everywhere. So sometimes people write to me be like, Hey, I'm going to this city in this, you know, random country, and I'm like, Oh, I'd love to go there. And then I like read the rest. It's like, can you offer me suggestions on a budget food plays amid share hotel, like, you know, these very specific questions where I'm like, Oh, yeah, get on Google and probably figure some things, but it definitely is something that, you know, obviously, during this pandemic time, it's been a little bit weird for traveling, but now it feels like people are really like, it's an everyday very frequent thing
Unknown Speaker 17:48
that happens when you go to a new place. Do you have like a system in mind? Like, I have to check bathrooms? I have to check the boat gauges, I have to check the OSHA like what is it that's important to you when you're traveling a place?
Unknown Speaker 17:59
I like to say, I've always said this from like, from the moment I doubt to Thailand, I didn't want to ever be a traveler. I wanted to be somebody that lived like a local wherever they went, right? Um, and I mean, I'm not against visiting like big sites like here in Paris, for example. I just had a friend visit me and I took them to the Eiffel Tower in the Arctic to the arms and you know, these these places that are you know, very touristy, but definitely, you know, you want to see them, right. So not against that. But what more so what I mean is like, um, you want to really integrate yourself, you want to meet locals you want to there's an application called couchsurfing. Do you know couchsurfing? Yeah. I mean, I'm like the number one ambassador for couchsurfing. I love it. I love it. Um, I think that it's the best way where you can take your experience of travel from being a traveler to truly understanding the country and the culture. I'm not that much of a beach guy.
Unknown Speaker 19:06
I like the beach. But But you know, only only if it's like a local experience. has a travel board, have a country or a city ever reached out to you to say, Hey, we're trying to increase the amount of tourism in our city or in our geography. Can you come and shoot a week? a two week long video? And if so, has that experience been positive?
Unknown Speaker 19:28
I'm trying to think of I've done one before. But I don't think Yeah, I haven't. I don't think I have done a travel board video before. Um, travel boards have reached out however, we've never come to a Yeah, we've never come to a creative outlook on being successful for like both sides. I'm somebody that I'm very specific on like, my ideas and like how to market them and stuff like that. And what I've found with just the people that I've talked with so far has been that they have a very specific creative outlook on what they want things to be. And for me, I'd rather just go to the country and show the country that I believe is there. So, um, however, I am in talks with multiple travel boards right now, which is not something that I typically AM. It's not like I'm always in contact with a couple. But now since things are reopening, travel boards are really starting to get heavy with having creators come and make videos there.
Unknown Speaker 20:32
Talk to me about this other side of travel, you're a creator, obviously, that's why that's why we're chatting. What's it, like meeting creators from other countries where you grew up in North America with a very specific view of the world, and then you're meeting other people who you connect over this create this creative outlet? But they grew up very differently?
Unknown Speaker 20:53
Yeah, to be honest, that's my favorite thing about or not my favorite thing, but it's one of my favorite things about YouTube is meeting people that are creators from from, you know, a variety of countries because, you know, I spoke about couchsurfing before. And couchsurfing is, you know, it's a wonderful website, however, you don't share this bond as well over your, you know, professional life, right of also creating, it's such a, you know, thing close to your heart. Right. So, yeah, I mean, it's a it's a wonderful experience, because not only do you make videos with them, but at the same time, you know, I've had creators invited me to stay at their houses in the middle of the countryside in a country, I had one creator in India that invited me to his home to shoot a video with their village, their, like, tiny village, like, it was like me, and 100 people in this tiny village, and everybody, like, welcomed me, like cheering for me and stuff. And, um, and that wasn't like, that wasn't because like, Oh, you know, youtubers coming, it's like, it was just what they do for everybody, right? So it's, it's allowed me to live, just really incredible experiences with different types of creators, it also has been interesting to have them break down their business structure, because depending on the country, they're the way that their business and just ways to generate revenue looks completely different. So you give me an example? Sure, so I mean, cpms very differently by knishes. And countries, but I don't think people realize like how, like how incredibly different they they are sometimes, for example, for a few creators in India, Pakistan, a couple other countries, they, you know, maybe they'll have a million subscribers, but they'll also be working a day job as well. So they have two jobs, because the cpms just aren't where, you know, they are in North America. I have also seen some creators that they'll really focus a lot more on products, or services that you might not think of doing if you're a creator, like I have a friend that he runs, Airbnb experiences also. And he, he managed, it's more of like an experience, but he runs them through Airbnb. And he's always booked by his audience through that. And it's kind of like, it's a quite large way to generate revenue for him.
Unknown Speaker 23:44
So then is there so just like couchsurfing for travelers? Is there a site that or a community that YouTube sets up to allow creators to meet like yourselves meet other creators when you go to different cities or countries?
Unknown Speaker 23:57
Unfortunately, I don't know of one. Yeah, that I don't think that exists, actually. And that's, that's one of the things I mean, maybe there is something that I just don't know about. But there's YouTube Spaces across the world. And I've been to a handful of them, the one in London Ism mazing. It's like a dance studio where you can, like, do an incredible amount of different things in there. And it's all free. There's a cafe where you can get unlimited, like matcha lattes and stuff. And people are so nice there. And so YouTube does do a lot. And YouTube is an incredible platform. They don't do anything for connecting creators while traveling. That would be amazing. So for that, I mean, what I do is I'll just reach out to people when I see we're doing something similar. And typically we connect super well over, you know, first doing something super similar on YouTube, but then just we realized we have a lot in common as well.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
That's amazing. Yeah. So I was gonna ask, like, how do you find these creators? Is it just through your feed that pops up? Is it through friends that tell you about other people?
Unknown Speaker 25:09
I mean, I think it's just like reaching out to the people that you really enjoy watching. Like, for example, here in Paris, I was watching this creator that was doing super similar videos to me just in French. And I was like learning French from his videos. And I just reached out to him, we connected and now we're super good friends. That's it's so fascinating to see his business structure, as you know, somebody that lives in France, compared to my business structure in the US. It's super similar. But also it's interesting seeing his business structure after being on YouTube for I think he's been on YouTube for like, 10 years now. So in a lot of ways, it's like, he's my, like, big brother on YouTube. Big Brother from a different country. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:55
Instead of Big Brother instead of brother from another mother for you from another country. Yeah, that's what I was going for. Yeah. Do you have a take on the difference between someone calling you a creator versus someone calling you an influencer?
Unknown Speaker 26:10
I'm somebody that's I'm like, the chillest person in the world when it comes to like, stuff like that. Because, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, okay, like, it doesn't really matter. Um, however, the term influencer always has been a little bit weird to me. I think that it rains true sometimes, where, for example, I was very influenced by high end life, but I wouldn't necessarily, I wouldn't necessarily say it. As influenced, I would say it more so as it's difficult to define, right? But it's more so that you're finding enjoyment out of something that they're doing. And then you're doing that for yourself. But being influenced is like giving them like the like, it's like you were influenced by them, you didn't make this decision for yourself. So I would just say it's like providing information almost. So yeah, I would say creator is more so what I want to be represented as I love creating myself, I love bringing things to other people. I love the process of you know, thinking of ideas of then editing those videos and seeing people like react to that scene, if they see the difference of seeing if they it seen if they noticed that I took like, two extra weeks to make a video. So it's, it's fun to it's fun to be a creator, I think influencers maybe more of a professional term for friends, maybe because it brings them it makes them understand maybe the value that you're creating for them. But on a personal level, I don't necessarily like the term
Unknown Speaker 27:48
influencer. I like that distinction a lot. Yeah, it makes it easy for someone to understand what your value is. But at your core, your goal isn't to influence your goal is genuinely to create. So it's almost like there's two parts to what this person is. That's really interesting. Tell me there. So we've spoken about a bunch you as a creator, how you're working with brands, your travel plans, maybe moving into some product, what what's next,
Unknown Speaker 28:17
what I'm trying to do is make travel viral, right. That's been my goal for the last couple years. Like I want to travel the beyond the scale of challenges, for example, and I know that, that that's one reason why I mixed travel and challenges together. Because I truly believe that, you know, I grew up in a small town in Chicago, right, like close to Chicago, I say Chicago, because nobody knows the town I grew up in. So it's close to Chicago. And in that town, nobody left that town. You know, nobody left nobody, you know, if you went to Paris, they'd be like Paris, Oh, my gosh, you know, I don't want to spend my, you know, monthly paycheck on that type of thing. And they didn't really see the value in it. And I think that once you see the value of growing your perspective on things, it affects you in every portion of your life. So for me it is my goal right now is to make travel viral, sure, people to travel more for people to seek out different destinations to go to places that they never dreamed they would go before, not to go to you know, the cities that I mean, they can go to cities that are very popular, obviously. But I want people to just explore just to adventure to seek out different perspectives. Love that.
Unknown Speaker 29:31
And so what do you what do you think has to go into that to make that a possibility? outside of just making incredible videos of totally, you know, eating fast food 24 hours or eating ramen for 24 hours or being on a crazy first class train? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 29:47
definitely shooting for the extreme right now on that. Um, I think there needs to be the one word that comes to mind is community. I i've been focusing a lot on career In the last two years really just trying to master I mean, there's never a way to master the system, Mr. Beast is probably the master of the system, you know, but there's a way that to understand how to be your own, you know, Master of the the algorithm and communicating with your audience and everything. But for me, I really like to focus on what that community looks like. Currently, I don't really have tools that people can go to, and, for example, see the places that I've been to in the past or, you know, set up their own travels, you know, I'd love to create some tools that really make the community of people that watch the videos very strong. So that's what I'm doing right now. Um, I actually have a map. That's all the different places I've been to, it's really cool to look at and all like the specific restaurants and hotels and experiences and stuff. And that's kind of for me, like the first step on the pathway of creating these tools to create a true community of travelers but really just people that want to seek out more the world
Transcribed by https://otter.ai