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In the year 2022, very few of YouTube’s founding creators remain at the top of their craft – Ian Hecox is the exception. Through some poorly aged content, hairy legal battles, and a departure of one of their main personalities, Smosh remains resolute, and they owe a lot of that to their incredible fans. 

Ian also walks us through keeping Smosh’s content fresh, and his tried-and-true mentality on being a creator. His Rocky Balboa-like endurance has kept him passionate for seventeen wonderful years of content, proving to us all that it truly is more of a marathon than a sprint.

Kevin and Ian reminisce on the “good ole days” of YouTube, getting retrospective about the so-called sellouts of the time and how they stack up to their RAID: Shadow Legends counterparts of now. Ian may finally have convinced people that being a YouTuber is a legitimate, viable career, but Kevin hasn’t had the same luck, and he tells us that he’s still fighting that good fight.

If you were on YouTube back in 2012, you probably remember the “grand promise” that creators were given. We talk about the ludicrous amount of money being thrown at YouTube in those days, and the relationship it has to the hype of today’s esports. MCN’s may have sounded enticing to some creators back in the day, but Ian exposes the truly bad business model they were built on. Creators have much more business acumen now than ever, and companies like Mythical Entertainment who acquired Smosh are proof.

We round out the Smosh discussion by celebrating the team of almost 40 employees at the company now, and by finding out just what Ian does on a day-to-day basis. While he spends a lot of time flexing his business muscles, that hasn’t sapped his love for being on camera. He also explains the difficulty of putting a mission statement together for a channel like Smosh, and more importantly, how their previous employers failed.

Our Patrons join us to ask Ian about some of Smosh’s misunderstood projects, early regrets, and his favorite videos of yesteryear. It was an absolute pleasure having Ian on to get some insight into the real business of being a creator. He is living proof of the importance of so many values we talk about here on The Create Unknown, and we can’t wait to see what the next seventeen years will bring.

Thank you to all who joined us for the live show this week, and a huge shout out to our Patrons – you make this show happen. Next week: a Matt and Kevin guide to understanding the world. Be there!

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CREDITS: 

Hosts: Kevin Lieber and Matt Tabor 

Produced and Edited by Ben Webster → https://twitter.com/benwebsterTCU 

"Created in the Unknown" theme by Basswaite: https://linktr.ee/Basswaite  

Theme by Mega Drive → http://megadrivemusic.com  

Opening Animation: Kidmograph 

City Animation: Eric Langlay 

"The Create Unknown" is produced by Unknown Media. 

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