The Artist who REJECTED $5 MILLION DOLLARS with Cory Williams | Bad Decisions Podcast #73

You refused a $5 million offer for the

IP of Silly Crocodile.

>> $5 million is a lot of money. I trust

me, when I saw this, I was like, m I

should probably sell this. I I didn't

even call my wife.

>> No, I didn't call my wife. I I said,

"No, this is not for me." Because

Because

>> Wow. Your why was stronger than

everything else that was coming at you,

right? What is the why? my childhood

there was a lot of death there was a lot

of tragedy there was a lot of abuse

silly crocodile is me as a child I

remember how I was I remember how I felt

then the character the reason he is good

and the acting is good is because it

comes from a real place

>> for the benefit of everybody watching

and listening what is the workflow like

>> oh well I'll show you really quick if

you want to see a demo

>> oh yes

>> so I can hit play

>> and now I can walk around as a crocodile

>> this is crazy

>> I can move this basically just move the

eyes like this This is the coolest thing

anyone's ever done on the pod.

>> Oh, it isn't so much fun.

>> I really didn't understand the reasoning

behind why you turned down the $5

million in that 2 minute when you showed

us the demo. I completely understand.

>> One day I'm going to be sitting down

with my kids having a meal and then

we're going to see it on TV or wherever

and we're going to say, "Look what we

did. Look what we did."

>> Corey, welcome to the Bad Decisions

podcast.

>> Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited to be

here and thanks for the invite.

>> Of course, man. How are you doing today?

I mean, we were just comparing water

bottle sizes for whatever reason cuz you

were grabbing your water and you just

showed your water and it's like it's

already beating us and I'm not happy

about that. We need to get bigger.

>> That is symbolizing the number of

subscribers. By the way,

>> this is one thing that people do not do

enough, especially in the dev community.

Like people who are creating, they're

not drinking enough water. And it's

really good for your brain. It's really

good for your body. And so it's like,

you know, if there's one thing I want

for you for you to take away from this

is drink more water.

>> I I do agree with that. Actually,

between the two of us, I'm much better

at that.

>> Much better.

>> And I think you forget it when you're

behind a computer, especially because

you get into the scene, you're working

on your project and three, four, five

hours pass and you're you haven't drank

anything. So I think we start a day by a

very good lesson, which is drink more

water.

>> Drink more water.

>> I love that. Corey, we're gonna get

right into it. Mhm.

>> You refused a $5 million offer for the

IP of Silly Crocodile, which is a kids

show that you have developed over the

years that lives on YouTube, and you use

real-time workflows with Unreal Engine

to create it. It's gotten massive

traction over the years, and you've

spent a lot of time, effort, and love to

create this. Now, we uploaded a video

talking about the fact that you rejected

the offer. And what's fascinating is

that we've gotten all sorts of comment

under the video from different people.

Most of them were surprised, baffled at

the fact that you have refused the $5

million offer. Now, we did a little bit

of research. We know and and kind of

understand why you may have um made that

decision. But for everyone to understand

why you refused that offer, I think we

have to go back. But you have to let us

know how far back we have to go in your

story to understand the reasoning behind

your decision.

>> Well, um I don't know how far back it

really goes. I mean, it's a it's a it's

a pile of many different things and

experiences and ideas and future

outlooks and more so how I'm feeling

today and what Silly Crocodile is doing

for my life, for my family, and those

around me in the physical. Um, you know,

the the big thing here through

experience. I've been making YouTube

videos for 20 years now. I'm the first

professional YouTuber. I've been doing

it for ages. And you know what I've

learned is that if you sell something

too early, a channel, a brand, or

whatever it is, you're kind of selling a

bit of your soul because when it's still

in that process of being built and being

born and understanding what it is and in

a sense becoming meta, is that the right

term? you you are selling it before it

has a chance to have legs. And this is

the first time in my career where I know

that I have something that has legs

because I mean I've watched my friends

who've succeeded on high levels and

fallen uh to low levels and all of this

sort of stuff. And so like I I can see

it clear as day. So for me it turning

down $5 million dollars now is an

investment in myself, right? It's

keeping it for myself to continue to

grow this thing to be what it should be.

Uh, but more than anything here, uh,

again, it it it comes down to what is it

doing for my life right now? What is it

truly doing? Because Silly Crocodile is

not just a kids cartoon. It's not. It I

mean, for those of you who don't know

what Silly Crocodile is, Silly Crocodile

is a 2-point feed 5D crocodile that runs

around in a 3D world trying to

understand who he is, but he's neurode

divergent. He's a little different. And

so am I. Like, I can't read very well. I

did terrible in school. And you know,

everything I learn, I learn by doing,

but I'm super ADHD. Um, and so this

crocodile is actually me as a child who

had a lot of childhood traumas and

issues and bad experiences. And the

narrator of the show is me as an adult

speaking back to my childhood self to

help me navigate the world. So, I'm

essentially using this as like a form of

therapy for myself and for the children

out there who are going through similar

things and who feel out of place and

feel different. Right? So, there's all

of this sort of stuff. And yes, $5

million is a lot of money. I trust me,

when I when I saw this, I was like,

I should probably sell this. But it I I

didn't even call my wife.

>> Oh,

>> I didn't even call my No, I didn't call

my wife. I I said, "No, this is not for

me." Because Because

the company that wanted to do this

wanted to essentially use Silly

Crocodile and my channel as a stepping

stone. they had an IP that they'd

invested in that they they saw potential

in, right? Uh but it didn't quite fit in

with what it was that I was doing and my

message to the world because I mean at

the end of the day I'm here I live

forever through the inspiration I give

others throughout my lifetime. That is

my mantra. That is my everything. I've

got a tattoo all about it. It's like I

am here to change lives and to live a

good life. But if I do this, I'm not

feeding my life's purpose, right? So

what's $5 million if I die? And I go,

"Man, I should have not sold that. I

should I should have kept that." You

know, and but but again, the investment

in myself here is that the money will

come back because when you work hard,

when you believe in something and and

you have a good business sense, you

know, I'm I'm constantly taking in

information on how to do things better,

it'll happen. It money has always been

magic in my career. And even if the

YouTube money is terrible, which it is,

it's what's coming that will pay me back

in tenfold, you know? So, it's if

anything, man, last thing I want to say

about this is the job that I'm working

right now is the job that I would be

doing if I already won the lottery or if

I already got $5 million. This is all

I'd want to do. I would I would I would

say, "All right, I'm done with

everything. I'm going to go do this. Oh,

wait. I'm already doing this." So, as

far as I'm concerned, I've already won.

You know, like I've got money to to to

be able to be comfortable on. I've got

investments in certain things and and

and those things over the years that

I've done have, you know, have been

good. Is money a little tight right now?

Sure. But again, I would pay to do this.

So, it's perfect and I'm happy and

that's that's what matters.

>> Wow. I [ __ ] love that. And I'll tell

you why. By the way, I we can swear

here, right? Hey, this is fine. We can

we can I know you don't do it. I I know

you don't do it.

>> No, you're good. You're good. This is

your show. This is

>> I just want to say the only thing I can

get from whatever you just told us is

that your why was stronger than

everything else that was coming at you,

right? The why, whatever that is, and I

want to break that down,

>> was stronger than the $5 million. Even

if it was 6, seven, eight, I think the

why was stronger than that. So I guess

the question I want to ask you is what

is the why?

>> The why is again going back to my

childhood. You know a lot of people have

hard childhoods. It's it's not uncommon

unfortunately to have a tough childhood.

If you had a great childhood then oh

thank your parents. Uh and if you love

if if you had a hard childhood still

thank your parents because there are a

lot of things and that they did good and

all of that. Right. Anyway, my

my neurode divergence and my feeling as

a child uh really impacted my work. And

so my why is to uh heal myself and to

understand what happened, but also to to

help heal others faster so that they

don't have to go through what it was

that that I went through and and how I

felt. And um there was I mean to long

story short, there was a lot of death.

Uh there was a lot of tragedy. There was

a lot of abuse. there was a lot of

mistreatment um you know living in

different families uh and all sorts of

stuff like that. So I I kind of have

this like a whole bunch of stuff like I

I I should not be who I am today in

terms of what you would think after

somebody went through stuff that I went

through. You would think I'd just be a

drug addict or doing something else, but

no, no, no. I'm I'm completely opposite.

I I'm so glad I have ADHD because I also

have the ability to sort of forget or

forgive or both at the same time. So

>> yeah,

>> it's very interesting when you're saying

that all the past memories and all the

childhood is now coming into pieces

together for you to make this show. But

>> how the the duration that you are

running Silly Crocodile? What about the

time before that? What was the impact of

those tragedies or those traumas on your

content creation? Because you've been on

YouTube for the longest time. First

professional YouTuber like wait, that's

20 20 years ago.

>> 20 years. Yeah, I started over over 20

years ago now.

>> How long is Silly Crocodile now?

>> Uh, Silly Crocodile started in 2019.

>> So, it's around 6 years. So, we talking

about at least 14 years of other type of

content.

>> How did that go about and how those, you

know, traumas were impacting your

content back then?

>> Yeah. So, it it it was the same. Um, but

I was I was still very hurt and and

weirdly very angry at my past. And so a

lot of my content was, you know what, I

am an idiot and I'm gonna be as stupid

as possible and I'm gonna be so funny

and everybody's gonna love it and and so

that's what I did. I mean, I I I did a

lot of just really dumb things to uh

make the world laugh to show that like

yeah, like I mean, I'll straight out

like my my stepdad was terrible to me

and um and really just mentally,

physically abused me and and so it was

like over all that time I I was like

fine, you know what? I am gonna be

everything you said I was, but I'm gonna

be the best idiot you've ever seen in

your life. And so that's what I did. And

then people are like, "This guy's great.

He's being real with himself and all

this stuff." And so, man, I was going

viral with all these different things. I

mean, I've been on on big shows uh and

and done a lot of things. And I've had

much larger virals than what I've had

today because of the things that I've

done. Um, so I um I was seeking

attention as well. You know, in my early

career, I ve I'm very much an attention

seeker. And I'll admit it because I

didn't feel like I had enough of it as a

kid. And I and it's not attention that

I'm looking for. It's approval. And when

I started to understand this is when my

content started to change. When I

started stopped trying to be an idiot

because I was like, "Wait, actually,

Corey, you're not an idiot. You're

really smart." And then I started doing

smart things and I got into Unreal

Engine and then I found out, oh, I'm

actually pretty good at this. But um

yeah, it it's uh so my content was was

uh self self-degrading

uh and and it did cause me a lot of

mental problems after a little while

because I started to believe a lot of it

in another level and uh and and I had a

major crash and my career kind of tanked

and yeah, I got into a real bad

depression for a while.

>> How did you bounce back?

>> You know, I I just changed everything

around me and I said, "Okay, I I accept

myself for who I am. I I made a video

actually talking to the different

versions of me. Uh, and this is on my

channel SMP Films for those of you who

want to see it. And the the video was

called People in My Head. It was so

real, but that was the bottom, man. I

was I was on I was I was in dark places.

>> Are you talking about something like the

movie Split, I believe it's called,

where the character has multiple

personalities. Is that what you were

trying to act out in that video? Cuz

I've seen the video.

>> Yeah. So, so, so the video like there

was uh um um spiritual Corey and idiot

Corey and and and emotional Corey and

crazy, you know, and then all the

different Cory's. We all just sat down

and had a conversation and that video

hit me like a ton of bricks. I said,

"This is what I have to do, okay?" And

so, my video ultimately changed my life.

And then I met this amazing woman and uh

she was my girlfriend. She's like, "I

got to move to Alaska." She's like, "You

want to go with me?" I said, "Yep, I'll

pack my things." And just that was it.

And I moved to Alaska and my life just

changed. You go like from Los Angeles to

Alaska, it is night and day. You go from

like warm, sunny, beautiful to cold and

uh and and all nature. And boy, I I I

climbed a lot of mountains and I made a

lot of big life changes and and uh yeah,

that was the that was the start of of

the upswing of my life.

I feel like a lot of creators go through

exactly what you just described in

different ways unique to themselves, but

almost everyone experiences the rise and

fall, but it's just a matter of you

being able to bounce back, right? Can

you keep going in a world where everyone

is essentially looking for approval? So

even if we say we don't, naturally the

algorithms work that way, right? If

people approve of you,

>> then your video is going to be shown to

more people. And technically, you're

looking for attention for the videos

that you create. So, at the end of the

day, as much as we say we don't like it

or we don't want to do that, if you're

trying to create content and you're

trying to win, whether it is for your

business, whether it is for passion,

you're still in that world. So, how do

you deal with that mentality now that it

looks like I I believe so you figured it

out much more than before. How are you

dealing with that now so that it doesn't

actually take you to a dark place?

>> Uh, I mean, I'll be honest, it still

does. Every now and then, I still go

into the dark places, but therapy, I've

officially started going to therapy. So,

I've been going to therapy now for two

or 3 months, something like that. Three,

I'd say 3 months. And man, uh, just the

life changes that I've seen from that

and understanding where it comes from

and more than anything, how to stop the

spirals before they happen. Uh, you

know, they always say like the the

brightest lights cast the darkest

shadows, right? Like I've always been so

like I I I try to stay bright. I try to

share everything that I can. I try to

encourage creators, help creators in any

way that I can. Uh, I'm just very open

about stuff because I want to help the

world. Um, but but I got to help myself.

I can't help the world. I can't change

the world until I change this, until I

do good for this. I've understood all of

the darkest sides and I've understood

all of the lightest sides. But it's

understanding how they connect and how

to remain in in the lighter side. That's

that's what uh what I've been working

on. And so, yeah, I mean, it's um I uh I

I I don't do things now for attention.

Uh thankfully, I'm I'm I'm out of that

phase. Um, I I feel like I've already

made my impact and I have accepted that

I've made my impact on the world. But

now what I'm doing is helping others so

that they don't have to try to seek

that. So they don't have to spend their

lives trying to get approval. Somebody

saying good job to feel worthy of life,

>> right? Because that's all it was. Like

when people say, "Oh, they're attention

seekers." Like any if you ever see

anybody online who's making videos and

you're like, "Man, this person's just

doing this for attention." Think deeper

about what's going on inside of them.

It's so much darker. It's so much

crazier. And some of the biggest

YouTubers from back in the day

especially, they all dealt with this.

They were all dealing with this stuff,

man. And it wasn't until later we

started seeing their crashes and then

when they'd come back or they'd never

come back and they would go into dark

places and and I have many of them. And

gosh, I wish I could talk about their

stories, but those are their stories.

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>> P O D C A S T in case you didn't know.

Let's get back. I remember creators who

popped off really quickly and then they

had their fall shortly after mainly

because no one had any experience doing

this whatsoever. There was no rule book.

There was no blueprint on how to be a

creator, how to get so much fame and

money instantly at a young age

specifically, especially with the gaming

community and then suddenly you don't

know what to do with this amount of

attention. Some people know how to deal

with it naturally. They were good at it,

but many didn't. So, I guess what I

found fascinating with your story is

that you've been you've been going for

such a long time and you found success

over and over again. And what I love

about it, at least from what I hear from

you and what I what I experience in this

conversation and in the videos we've

seen from you, is that you're figuring

things out as you go, but you don't

stop. You're not giving up on your

dream. And I think that's the most

important thing. If you have that why

and if you keep that why very clear in

the center of your head, you can always

bounce back. You can always go back to

where where you originally were, right?

There's a reason why you started this in

the first [ __ ] place. You just have

to remember it cuz so much [ __ ] is added

to your life. So much clutter comes in.

So much noise. I can I can speak for

ourselves right now as the channel is

growing. I have more and more noise.

Like naturally, you just get more

comments, more people's opinions that

you hear on a daily basis. And even

crazier, this is something that's been

personally bothering me with AI. I love

AI. I use it on a daily basis, but what

I hate is that there's just so much more

content being generated every day that

I'm sometimes just feeling left behind.

Like all I have to do is just sleep for

a day and I wake up, I check Instagram,

I'm like, "Fucking hell. All of this

happened in 24 hours. I feel left

behind. I cannot even imagine. By the

way, I'm creating content all the time.

I cannot imagine how people who haven't

even started yet feel when they see all

of this.

>> Yeah, it's it's hard. And see, like I I

was I was really uh he heavily heavily

uh active on LinkedIn. I still am. Um

but I actually had to tell my people on

LinkedIn, hey, I I need to step back. Uh

not that I'm quitting. It's just that I

need to focus on getting the work done.

I want to lead by example, not like keep

trying to show you to get attention to

show you like, hey, please say this is

good. Um, but it was um what I started

realizing is that people are chasing

right now and the the AI is the big

shiny ball and I'm just watching

everybody chase it and and they're just

sharing these things and and they're

just like, "Look what I'm doing. Look

what I'm doing." And meanwhile,

everybody a lot of the people are

hurting because the jobs are weird. uh

you know people have made big

investments and then didn't stick to the

thing they invested in and their why

isn't solidified and all this stuff and

so stepping back took me out of the

noise because you are who you consume

and if LinkedIn and all these other

places are just chasing big shiny balls

that's the right or that's that's the

wrong place to be especially for me. So,

by focusing my my energy on being more

so with the children at uh my kids

school, I I volunteer at their

afterchool club and I play with the kids

and they call me Silly Crocodile. You

know, that's that's the healthy place to

be, the real world where the real things

matter, where they really make sense

because I can bring that stuff back. Um

but yeah, it's it's really tough with

AI. I I mean, I I I enjoy some of the

stuff that I see. I shake my head at

most of the stuff that I see. Um, but I

I'm just trying not to compare myself to

others because no one is like me and I'm

not like them and and then the only one

that I can compare myself to is myself

because yeah, it's I I'm just I I know

I'm unique. Everybody is. We just have

to find what it is. It's unique about

us.

>> So where do you see this line that takes

AI from being a tool that actually us

creator can use and can be at any part

of our workflow, right? We can use AI to

enhance anything to or improve anything

to it to a tool from a tool to become

something that is a threat to a creator.

How do we see that line?

>> Well, I think here this is this is a

this is my theory. Okay, this is just a

wild internet brain theory. I call

myself internet brain because I'm but uh

it's kind of like what I think is going

to be the threat is when AI starts to

become its own platform. It says, you

know what, we don't need creators. we

don't need YouTube, we just need ideas.

And then that AI platform just serves

you and what it thinks and starts to

understand that you like and and then

you put in prompts of like, I want to

watch a show about da da da da. And then

you can watch and then AI starts to

track you to know how long you're

watching, what's your retention. AI

knows if you're going to be dropping off

or whatever. So it knows what to do to

spike your your attention, right? So, I

think it's going to utilize the uh

audience retention, all the analytics to

better serve you. And then those people

who have these dreams uh their their

prompts and all that stuff, other people

are going to be like, "Oh, I want to

watch this guy's dreams. He seems to

have a good way of thinking and

dreaming, right?" And so AI replaces the

creators completely because as culture

goes, I think the and I hope this is I

hope I'm wrong, please. I hope I'm

wrong. Uh I I think kids are going to

grow up and AI is going to be so good

that they will just be like, "Oh yeah, I

mean this is just where you go to watch

content. Sure. Yeah, yeah, I can go read

a book if I wanted to, you know, sure I

can I can go listen to this other thing

or go to a live show." Uh but AI is just

easy and it's here, you know, and it

becomes a part of their culture and who

they are. But also that's when I think

the um there's going to be a crisis of

mental health because we start to lose

who we are because we're not even

following people anymore at that point.

We're following AI who is not a people,

you know. So

>> was trained on people's work and now is

just mixing it up and adding new things

to it and

>> it's a snake eating its tail right now

is what it is.

>> You know, you know what's crazy? We just

got invited to use Sora 2. Have you

played around with that? I've seen a

lot. I am impressed. Uh but yeah, I mean

I got an invite. I just haven't done it.

I don't

>> be be careful. Warning if you're going

to open it up because it is this

completely revolutionary new platform.

I've never seen anything like it where

it's just generating meme content at

speeds of light because people are, as

you said, dreaming new ideas and it's

just generating the clips and it's not

necessarily following everything you

say. It's adding its own spice to it and

it's changing the cuts, the camera

shots, but it kind of understands. It

has a pretty good understanding of what

you're looking for and it's become this

meme uh meme machine creation over the

past few days. There's just so much

content that's being generated and I

went in there just to see how good it is

because we test and experiment

everything and we post about it on the

bad decisions page to see how practical

new AI tools are. And when I went in

there, I honestly speaking, I was stuck

for at least 15 minutes scrolling

because I was seeing some fascinating

things that were funny, but also just

>> weirded it out by the fact that all of

this is being generated within minutes

by people. And every time I reloaded it,

it's generating new content. It's there

>> and you can scroll up and down and left

and right. So, it's not one way anymore.

It's just it's two ways. So up and down

to see new content, left and right to

see different versions of the same

content that people have created. So

>> man, that's what I was talking about.

>> Martin. So if there was a Martin Luther

King moment where he's talking about

someone and you like that, you want to

see people's versions of that, you just

go right and left. So you're scrolling

sideways and up and down. But what's the

crazy thing that I want to ask you guys

about is this. We understand that that

will destroy our brains. spending time

on that without any value, it's going to

destroy our brains. Kids don't know

that. If I gave this to the 12-year-old

version of me, I'll be on it 247.

>> How do we solve that? That's my

question. We don't have kids, so I can't

give you that answer. But you have a

kid, right? How kids do you well?

>> Well, two problems now that you have to

solve. How do you deal with that knowing

that these things are coming along?

>> Again, it's going to come down to

parents.

Parents have to be involved with their

kids. Parent parents have to limit that

screen time anyway. Like even YouTube, I

mean honestly, I mean I'm creating

content for children who are left in

front of iPads, right? And and it's not

just that now. Now it's in schools and

all that which is really great. But um

it's it's an an it's an inevitable wave

that is coming and I'm fully aware and

as a parent I'm just going to be more

intentional with hey, come on, let's go

do something. Let's get out. Let's let's

go on a road trip. Let's uh let me show

you how to do this cool thing outside

when I was a kid. You know, let's do,

you know, and if they start saying,

"Dad, that's boring." Then maybe what I

need to do is understand what makes you

happy. Let's do what makes you happy. I

want to lean into whoever you are. What

do you not know about yourself? And what

kind of things would you like to know?

Let's find that out. You know, if

sitting down in front of AI is something

that they like to do, then you know

what? We're going to do it together. You

know, make it a make it a family thing.

make it something because again I can't

stop the change of future and I can't

stop the the how technology is going to

come. All I can change is how I react

and how I, you know,

Yeah. how how I act in this in this

moment.

>> Like, you know, here's here's something

that that I've really come to learn

about myself and about the world and and

and being finding happiness, especially

when in moments like this with with AI.

We we think about our past, right? For

me in particular, we think about our

past and we think about the good times

and the bad times. And a lot of what

that does is causes us to be very uh

depressed. We get sad about the good

times are gone, the good old days, all

that. We become depressed, right, with

our memories. We look forward to the

future and then and then we think, "Oh,

we're going to be big or or oh no,

things are going bad." It's it's never

just like a mellow like, "Yeah, things

are going to be the same." Like, we're

always either good or bad. So, what it

causes is anxiousness, anxiety, right?

But if you focus on now, all you can

think right now is how do I feel right

now? Am I happy? If I'm not happy, can I

be happy? Can I let myself be happy? I'm

happy. Great. What can I do for the

future right now to make things better?

Okay, I'm gonna do this right now

because right now is the good old days.

Every single day that you live, every

minute you breathe is the good old days.

So, while we have these fears of the

future, it's what we do now that makes

the impact on the future. But both the

future and the past are just what we do

in our head. They they don't even exist

as far as I'm concerned. Now is the only

thing that matters, you know. So like

that's a lot of people are just so stuck

in the future or the past, depressed and

anxious. Why can't we be here? Why can't

we just be happy and then it'll it'll

work out, right? You life is life is

whatever you choose it to be. Whatever

reaction you choose to have to whatever

is happening around you in in in the

darkest caves with the the least amount

of food, there are there are people who

might be able to smile. That's weird.

caves, but maybe maybe you know and

there are people who are filthy rich

sitting in mega mansions by the ocean

who are on the verge of taking their

lives, you know. So there's all sorts of

ways we can feel it just matters about

here and what we're doing. So yeah, it

doom and gloom, sad of the past, all of

that. Just be be present.

>> It's it's fascinating to hear it from

you, Corey. One of my personally biggest

issues is I live in the future. I don't

live in the now. And I think the first

step to actually overcome it is to

understand that to recognize it that you

are not living in the now. And what I do

to myself most of the time is I try to

remind myself that you know this is the

future. Whatever you do now if it's

going to impact it, if it's going to

help, let's focus on it. If it doesn't

help, if it's just a stress, if it's

just a thought, then if it doesn't help,

just forget about it. M

>> but I know a lot of people who live in

their past and you know a lot of people

who live in their future. What was your

methodology to actually bring yourself

in the present moment?

>> Um well this again this is kind of

coming through therapy is this is

something I've been learning and and I I

would learn it on my own from time to

time but it's very much prevalent now.

But uh yeah, I um my my every bit of

depression I ever have is because of my

past because I sometimes I feel like

man, I was number seven most subscribed

in the world. I you know was on all

these things. I was making insane

amounts of money earlier on in my career

and you know I was in TV and movies and

I did all this crazy cool stuff and I'm

like I'm not doing that anymore. Yeah.

Am I as good as I used to be? Meanwhile,

I'm still pulling in 17 million views a

month on the channel. Like what are you

thinking? Uh, and then future, yeah, I

worry. And so, I don't know. I've I've

just seen that if if I if I do that, I I

just I practice a lot of mindfulness

every day. Every day, I will go outside

while especially while it's still kind

of warm. I'll put a pillow on the

ground. I'll take my shirt off. I'll put

it over my eyes, and I'll listen to a

10-minute meditation, and I'll just be

mindful in the moment. Every day, I

don't let it stop me,

>> you know? And that's so so important,

especially for me, and and I think for a

lot of other people, you should give it

a try. That's what we should do.

>> Of course. And you know, the funny thing

is I thought the majority of this

conversation is going to go down to the

Unreal Engine route. And we're going to

get there because I'm fascinated by

Unreal Engine. We use it every day. But

what I really find interesting is this

conversation specifically, the topics

we're covering now. Because when you say

and talk about certain things, let's say

the trauma in the past or the multiple

voices in your head, the one that you

made a video about and the things that

we're going through today, why I love

talking about this is that if this were

to happen to me and if I were watching a

podcast like this and I see Cory, I see

Farah, I see Farah going through the

same [ __ ] thing that I'm going

through, I'll feel better because I'm

not alone. And that's what I want.

That's why I'm still going with this

conversation. Why I find this

interesting is because I know there are

people out there who are going through

the exact same things. Past traumas

thinking they're not good enough.

Imposter syndrome. We have that to this

day. It happens. I mean, I feel great

about everything we do and we're more

successful than we've ever been. But

there are days where when I start

question, I'm like, are we doing are we

doing good right now? Exact same thing

you're saying. Like you're pulling in

the views, but you still question

yourself. And I just want everyone to

know that that is normal. It happens to

everyone. And if it's happening to you

right now and it's making you feel like

[ __ ]

>> it happens to everyone. So you should

not put so much attention on it because

the people that you're looking up to,

whether if that's Corey or somebody else

that you have on the internet, they're

going through the same things, but

they're still pushing. They're not

giving up, which is why they're in the

position that they are.

>> Yeah. All you're seeing on a screen,

especially on social media, is the

little bright spot of our lives. The

little tiny spot that we allow people to

see in our lives. We say, "I like this

part about me, and this is probably the

part that other people are going to like

like. I'm going to let that part out to

the world." And so, that's all I was

doing. And and now it's like, wait, why

don't I just open up? Why don't I I I

have nothing to hide? I I've I've I've

degraded my mental so much and I've put

myself down over the years. like why not

just let it out? Why not just give that

to the world? Like I I mean obviously

there's a lot of personal stuff I keep

for myself and and and and a lot of it's

boring. It's the boring stuff that that

makes life great.

>> But I give you the the the big stuff

that that might make an impact and

that's Yeah. But yeah, there's there's

so much there's so much I mean this is

not a therapy session for me. You know

what it kind of is. It kind of is. Every

time I talk to people I learn about

myself. You you ask me questions that I

don't ask myself. And then later after

this podcast, you know what I'm going to

do? I'm going to go sit down. I'm gonna

be like, "Yeah, what what is my like I

know my why, but where else is it?" Like

what, you know, and I start questioning

that. It's so It's so good to question

yourself, you know? And a lot of people

too like they feel like they're failures

in the things that they're doing. And

man, you know, another thing I learned

and and Okay, here we go. This is going

to be funny. I I was on this show called

Naked and Afraid.

>> Okay.

>> Where you they sent me out uh it was a

discovery.

>> You're not naked and afraid though. Were

you

>> Oh, yeah. I was totally naked. Oh,

completely. Yes.

>> Yeah. No, I was not afraid though. But,

uh, most people would be, but okay. So,

uh, long story short, they send you out

into the jungle. I They sent me to Bise

with a random woman I'd never met,

right? Uh, and so I had to survive for

14 days with nothing but a but a machete

and a bug net. And I said, "Okay." And

you have no shelter. You have nothing.

You have to build everything from

scratch. It's horrible. It was the best

worst experience of my life. And I say

that because I went feral. Like I legit

went feral. Like feral meaning like you

actually go wild. Uh and and everything

is terrible and it sucks and you're

hungry and you don't sleep for 5 days

and bugs are eating you alive and you're

bleeding everywhere and your body is

destroyed. And then on the fifth day

when your brain says, "I've had enough."

It's like it's like the the the the the

shell that of all the bad just comes

right off of you like a cicada coming

out of the ground and just and then you

go, I'm I'm different. This is who I

truly am. I understand, you know, and so

it's that uh I started to say, okay,

here's all of the things that I was

really bad at. These aren't bad things.

These are good things. I'm I I get to

fail forward. Everything that I was

terrible at, I'm gonna say I'm gonna

learn that. And when I learn that, I'm

better now and I'm gonna learn that and

I'm better now. And naked and afraid

switched that in my brain. So I fell in

love with failure. I don't do it

purposefully. I'm not actively trying to

fail, but when I fail, it's like

opportunities to learn new things. And

to this point, like, you know, obviously

I'm making stuff in Unreal Engine.

Everything I know is from failure. I I

didn't take classes. I didn't I didn't

go to school for this stuff. I have no

background in animation whatsoever. It's

all just because I failed a lot and got

excited every every time cuz I learned

something new. And so now I'm to the

point where I literally ask my friends,

hey, if you need help with something and

you're completely stuck and you don't

know what's going on, send it to me. And

if I can't fix it, I'm going to get real

excited about it and I'm going to obsess

because I don't fail enough anymore, you

know? So that's uh yeah, failure. That's

I I love to fail. And that's one thing

people really got to learn is to to love

failure.

>> That's such a powerful mindset. If if

you love failure because everybody

fails, you just fail fast, you learn

faster and you just keep moving

>> because I I don't think anybody can say

that I achieved success without failing

on the way. And the moment you don't

stop because a lot of people will stop

when they fail. They overthink it. They

will they would they won't even bounce

back. But if you have that mindset, if

you can build it, that failure is the

part is part of our journey, then I

think you will be unstoppable.

>> You know, just to add on to that, I we

have a lot of conversations with artists

on a daily basis because of the Discord

community that we have in the comment

section, sometimes we get on voice calls

with them. Um, and the most common

problem that I found between artists is

that they're too afraid to start. So,

let's give an example. They've been

looking at Unreal Engine for the longest

time, but they're too afraid to download

the freaking software and give it a try

or let's say they're in Blender. They've

been using all the tools and animation

is their weak spot. They know it. It's

been years they've been thinking about

learning animation, but they just never

start. They know it. They comment under

our videos. They're like, "Oh, this

animation bit is something I'm weak at.

I know uh it's been a while. I wanted to

learn, but you know, it's too

challenging. I don't know where to

start." And I found this to be true with

myself, but I have taken that window of

wanting to do something and actually

doing it and the fear in between. I've

I've just shortened that window as much

as possible. So if it takes someone a

year to make the decision to finally

[ __ ] download the software or learn

animation or learn texturing or whatnot,

I've turned that into one week or one

month. acts like if I want to do

something

>> although it's always scary because

whenever you start something new you're

always going to be bad at it that's the

thing that people are afraid of right

you you know when you start something

new there's 99% chance of you being

horrible at it 1% chance you're talented

naturally but I guess that's not true

with everything with software you have

to still learn the tool so we I've

shortened that window for myself and

that allows me to not think and

overthink the fear so that's why I

managed to try Blender I've already

tried Cinema 40. I've learned a bit of

Houdini, learn a bit of Unreal Engine.

And I have people who only learn one

software and they never leave that ever.

And they have it in their mind. They

want to go and do it, but they never do

it. So that mentality that you guys were

talking about of not feeling fear

anymore, understanding that whatever

you're [ __ ] at, that's normal because

you're learning something new. So just

jump faster into the cold water.

>> Yeah. something that uh and this is it's

failure to launch is what the that term

is but it's uh one thing that people can

do to overcome that is by

learning other lessons from the outside

that can still apply to help them. So in

that sense like what I would do is um

going to the gym is a really great way

to do it. You don't even have to go to a

gym. Start by doing push-ups every day

as as as hard as they may may be. Maybe

you're a bigger person, maybe not.

Whatever. If it's if you're a bigger

person, try with try different things

like calf raises or whatever and allow

yourself to do that work to get a little

bit better each time and start to notice

the tone in your body. It is a physical

change that we can see and feel, right?

And as you do that, you get better. And

as you do that, get better. Like, oh

man, I was better than yesterday. Oh,

today I didn't do nearly as good. And

then those are times where you can go,

why? Why didn't Okay, I didn't sleep

well enough. I didn't really eat good

today. I'm not drinking enough water.

Those are lessons you've learned, right?

So all of that um is something that you

can apply to Unreal Engine and all that

is you can say hey look you know if I if

I can do this to my muscle here if I can

you know build better biceps and all

that it's I can allow myself to not be

good in the beginning and I can allow

myself to get a little bit better a

little bit better until you're making

video games like oh man it's Unreal

Engine I I barely I I downloaded it for

the first time in 2020 you know and and

now

>> actually

>> huh

>> how did that And yeah.

>> Oh, so so I I actually started uh in

Unity, but I was only Unity using Unity

for like three months. Um because Unity

like you could just open up the project

and say make it a VR project and then

you could just drop in a static mesh

without even having to worry about it.

And then in VR you can grab it, move it

around. So I was making cartoons that

way. Just that's all you know. And

Unreal Engine I was like, hm, look at

all this cool stuff that's happening.

Cory Strawberger, I loved what Cory

Strawberger was doing and a couple of

other creators. And I was like, "Yeah,

I'm I'm going to try this." And then I

told myself, I told my or I told my

wife, I said, "Hey, I'm going to be a

master of this. You mind?" She's like,

"Go for it. Go for it." So then I, you

know, I I put the um I put a sign on the

wall, which was my um all the the naming

charts like I had a custom naming

convention that I was like, "This is

what I'm going to use every day like

religion." And that's what I do. And uh

and I have a file structure that I like,

so it's speedy. Uh, and and I just say,

"Yeah, I'm so I man, I I crashed so many

projects early on and it was so hard and

it was so bad, but then but then I

didn't and now now it's like everything

I'm doing is super stable." And if it's

something that crashes, it's usually not

me. It's like, okay, maybe I got to slow

down on the graphics on my card over

here because it's like, whoa,

you're too good now.

>> Slow down, Corey.

>> Yeah, slow down a little bit. But no,

it's um but but I'm a master of my own

thing. Like I I can't I'm not I'm not

actually trying to say like I'm an

Unreal Engine master. It's like no no

no. I'm a master of of what it is that I

do because I'm niche. I focus on what it

is I'm do that I do. And

>> I mean there's nobody doing anything

quite like I'm doing. Like everybody's

doing some people are doing real-time

stuff and this and that but but even

Silly Crocodile is so unique. It's not a

you know that's why I can say I'm I'm a

master of it. For the benefit of

everybody watching and listening, what

is the workflow like? You can be as

brief or as detailed as you want.

>> Oh, well, I'll show you really quick if

you want to see a demo.

>> Oh, yes.

>> Oh, yes. That's even better.

>> There we go. Hang on. So, fire it up.

All right.

>> This is the beauty of Unreal Engine.

Real time.

>> Real time demo.

>> There we go. Okay. So, I'll go and hop

over. So, here we go. This is You see

that? All right. All right. So, this is

my world. This is my Halloween world.

I'm I'm releasing this music video. um

tomorrow, maybe even tonight.

>> Okay.

>> I don't know. So, yeah. So, um I'm going

to go ahead and go trick-or-treating

really quick. So, I can hit play

>> and then

>> and now and now I can walk around at the

silly crocodile. Go this way and hop and

then we go we go trick-or-treating.

>> All right, silly crocodile. You gonna go

trick-or-treating? Wait, what's that

house right there?

>> Oh, this one. Uh this is the narrator.

This is where you got lazy. You decided

not to put anything else but a bunch of

pumpkins. Cuz you said, "Oh, it's so

creepy. Just the pumpkins."

>> Holy.

>> Stop. Stop picking on me, silly

crocodile.

>> Yeah, but you did a good job over here.

On this house over here, you decided,

"Oh, I'm going to make a a pumpkin that

looks like me." And you did a good job.

It's kind of shoddy work, but nobody

knows because I don't get close to it.

>> This is crazy.

>> Yeah. So, you know,

>> Okay. You just pulled that out of

nowhere, man. That was That is nuts.

This is the coolest thing someone's ever

done on the podcast.

>> This is the live thing.

>> You're watching Silly Crocodile live.

>> This is the coolest thing anyone's ever

done on the pod.

>> Oh, well, this is so much fun. And this

is the um remember narrator doesn't know

anything about anything. He just

happens, you know, pull and he just he

just um gets really lucky uh because he

puts himself in the position to be

lucky. Isn't that right, narrator?

>> I suppose so, silly crocodile.

Yeah, we can talk to each other. Isn't

that kind of weird? I can look right at

him.

>> Okay.

>> Wow.

>> But that's it. That's right.

>> You're using a controller at the moment

as we are speaking or using WD?

>> No, just using the controller. So

simple. I can I can move this and then

uh basically just move the eyes like

this.

>> No way.

>> I can move right and left. I can jump.

And then uh if I was on Cameo right now,

I can make him fart. I can turn him into

a ninja. I can I could do a million

things. and I have so many different

costumes and you know different things

and yeah I mean it's it's uh it's I I

it's not it's not simple it's

straightforward the way that I've done

it you know and and there's so many

times that I just want to like teach

people how to do I'm getting stuck there

>> dude collisions are hard truly the

master of what you do just like you

mentioned this I first of all the voice

acting at first when I watched the video

I thought you're using a filter or

you're processor or something or

something

>> that's you That's him. That's what he

does all the time. He just He's in the

shower singing.

>> And wait, so you got the controller on

controlling the character. You've

already created the blueprints that

allow you to move the character the way

that you want it to move and the tail is

following the movement.

>> You got the motion control.

>> Yes. Which is beautiful. And you've got

live link, I assume, with another iPhone

because it's following your mouth. Am I

right?

>> Yep. Yep. So aha.

I have eyebrows,

>> bro. I I wouldn't sell for 5 million.

Cory, you're right. I wouldn't sell for

5 million. I've seen two minutes of what

you can do in here. I wouldn't sell it

for 5 minutes.

>> This is And you know what's beautiful is

that because you're using a game engine

that is real time. You get to have your

own experience in real time. So, you're

not trying to produce something and then

after the fact figure out how it looks.

You can record everything and be in that

experience. Even once you record

everything, you can still go back and

change things, right? I assume cuz

you're recording to the sequencer.

>> Yeah. Yeah. So, let me get out of live

and then So, this is stuff. So, I I just

go to um you know, I go up to window and

I go to cinematics and I'll go to take

recorder and I'll just record all the

motions. And so, let me show you what a

scene looks like um for this. So,

>> by the way, for anyone Corey, anyone

listening on Apple podcast or Spotify, I

I recommend you guys turn on video for

this part if you haven't already.

>> I will I will for now. Thank you for

letting me know that. I will I will

explain what I'm doing here and and what

I'm showing. So, what I'm doing is I'm

opening up a thing called the sequencer.

The sequencer is essentially like uh

imagine like a notepad of everything

that has been happening and recorded in

the scene. And so, it's got a list of

all the different characters that I

moved and everything. So, I'm going to

go ahead and enable it. And this is I'm

going to just start playing it here. You

can't hear the audio obviously, but you

can see he's this is just a recording

that I did earlier. And there's a music

video that's playing in the background

right now. Silly crocodiles talking. And

then you're gonna see all of a sudden

all these other silly crocodiles coming

in and dancing. There's a whole dance

routine. So here it comes. All the silly

crocodiles coming. And it's just me uh

doing the stuff. And then by the way,

the the the blue one over there, it's a

shout out to my friends at Mob

Entertainment. It's my HuggyWuggy

version of Silly Crocodile.

So yeah. And and that's all it is. So, I

I just I basically played some video

games, made my own video game, and

walked around with the crocodiles and

went trick-or-treating and and had a lot

of fun with it, you know, and and that's

what it's all about. That's what real

time animation truly is. But the world

doesn't really seem to know that it

exists in this way. And uh it's faster

than AI. That's the truth of it. It is

faster than AI because literally on your

podcast, I was just silly crocodile. I

can call into a school and have a

conversation with kids at the school and

actually see them on camera just like I

can see you, you know, and

>> and you have control over every aspect

of the creation. That's the beautiful

part of it. That's one thing that I

dislike about AI. I mean, again, we use

it in our workflows all the time where

whenever it's practical, but what is

truly fascinating about this workflow is

that you control everything from the

ideation scripting uh to the animation

to even how the tail moves after the

fact. You can go ahead and change those

things. And what I love is the world

itself looks gorgeous. You got so much

detail in there.

>> Yeah. And this is so So now I'm using a

3D connections like a space mouse. And

then like you can lay cameras this way,

you know? So like I'm doing this in real

time while it's still playing back. Like

this is the music video still happening.

So I don't where's

uh where's this scene at?

>> Where's everybody?

>> It might be this scene.

>> Wow.

blown away. I'm blown away.

>> I know.

>> My god. Especially the the audio part.

So Cory, you have different words

because I've seen a few of uh the show

on your YouTube channel like the jungle

and the different places.

>> It was a desert scene.

>> And then you decide for every episode

that for example, I have this idea that

I want to do I'm going to go there. Do

you script everything or most of it is

improvised? Yeah.

>> Um it's mostly improv. I have a a good

idea of what it is that I want to do.

I'm going to go back to a regular screen

here.

>> Sure.

>> Um, yeah,

>> I have a good idea of what it is that I

want to do and then I just kind of do

that thing. A music video, obviously,

it's already scripted, right? Uh, but

improv, what I did for you is exactly

what I do. Uh, it's when I make cameos

for children, it's me. It's me right

there, just the same way that I would

make the show. And, uh, you know, I just

actually got one right now. It's was

really funny. Um but uh that's that's

all it is, you know, and it's I I

understand the character because

remember the character the reason he is

good and the acting is good is because

it comes from a real place like Silly

Crocodile is me as a child. I remember

how I was. I remember how I felt and and

the voice is just whatever feels funny.

It's a mixture of Beus and Buttthead and

um something else. I'm not entirely

sure, but it's just like a mixture of

things that I liked, you know, and and

so yeah, I just I just roll with it.

>> Corey, when you were demoing this for

just two minutes in our previous podcast

with Jim Gulick, we talked about you and

during the conversation, I actually

brought up that I really didn't

understand the reasoning behind why you

turned down the $5 million. In that two

minute when you showed us the demo, I

completely understand.

>> Yeah. It's going to go somewhere bigger.

>> The tech. Yeah. No, it's it's not even

about the tech. It's about the you. And

when you said you are silly crocodile, I

can feel it

>> when you are talking on his behalf. I

really can feel it. And I truly believe

it will go way over five billion. I can

guarantee it here right here on this

podcast.

>> Oh, I appreciate that. No, it's it's a I

again, it's it's an investment in

myself. And I'm not saying that as in

like I'm going to get rich. I'm like,

"No, I'm rich already. I feel good."

Like, it's so it's it's you I I cannot

explain how good it feels to create that

character and then actually have an

impact on the children at my kids school

>> and create that character and to make my

kids happy.

>> To be able Like, man, if I if I gave $5

million

or if I got $5 million, I can't buy that

feeling back. There's nothing that can

buy that feeling. That is a feeling that

is coming from a real place that you

It's like a once in a-lifetime feeling

once you find it.

>> Yeah.

>> Right. This is what life is about as an

artist. So why am I going to give it

away? Like yes, listen to this though. I

I will one day sell it. Saying it out

loud. I will. But it's just the same as

when my children go to college, right?

And they they go and they live their own

lives. They leave the nest. One day

Silly Crocodile will leave the nest

because his story has been told. because

I got what I needed out, right? And then

one day I'm going to be sitting down

with my kids having a meal. They're

going to come home, grandkids around

maybe, and then we're going to see it on

TV or wherever and we're going to say,

"Look what we did. Look what we did.

That's it.

>> I [ __ ] love that."

>> And that's that's worth way more than $5

million. That's more than any There's no

That's priceless.

>> Mhm. I I totally agree with that. And

again, you know the why. Uh, another

example that I can think of is Mark

Zuckerberg. I mean, this story is pretty

damn famous already, but when he was

bringing up Facebook early days, they

wanted to buy it out for a very high

priceion. And he told everyone, "Fuck

off." Like, there's no way. Everyone in

the board wanted to sell it. They were

like, "Dude, this is the chance of your

lifetime." He was like, "No, I know

where I'm going. I know where Facebook

is going. I have a clear idea. This is

my why." And imagine what a shame it'd

be if he actually sold it. Look where he

is today, right? If he sold it that

early. Yes, he would have made a quick

buck and it was a lot of money, but he

has created such a huge network of

everything that he's loved. Again, I

don't care what you think about him, but

he's been following his passion. Good or

bad, he's been following it, right? And

so, it's the same thing here. You know

what you want to do with Silly

Crocodile. The story is not done. And

so, you've kept it for yourself. And I I

admire that. It's not an easy decision

to make. I know that because we saw the

comments under the video we made about

you. So it's just

>> someone said take my kidney too.

>> Yeah. Like my kidney.

>> I want to just talk about a little bit

of the technicalities, right? Because I

know our audience is going to be

interested in that.

>> Mhm.

>> How long have you practiced the art of

3D?

>> Uh so the first time I ever opened 3D uh

would be in 2019. I think it was

November 2019 is when I started. Uh

maybe October 2019. Anyway, it was a

Unity. Like I just opened it up and I I

had another guy that was I I hired him

to work with me and and uh we were doing

live action stuff and I said his name

was Josh Bartell's really great guy. I

wish he would come back to work. He

moved I love him. I love Josh. I love

Josh. Anyway, so I told Josh I said Josh

I want you to learn Blender and I'm

going to focus on Unity. Let's do this

together because I can and

>> you want to go be a pastor.

>> Okay.

>> So I uh I was like okay let's do this.

>> Completely different things.

>> Oh yeah. different things. Yeah.

>> Yeah. Well, it's I mean he was he's that

guy. He's just such a cool dude. Chill.

Um but yeah, so we we did that together

and then he learned that the basics of

it. I said, "Okay, now once you kind of

understand that, I want you to teach me

the basics of it so that I'll know that,

you know, so it was like a faster learn

process cuz we knew we know nothing." Uh

and then Unity was easy for me to pick

up because I just opened it up. I

watched a couple YouTube tutorials and

boom, bam, bam, bam. Okay, that's good

enough. So yeah, and I had a lot of

videos that did really well. Well, I

mean, they'd be hitting tens of millions

of views. Like, bam, bam, bam. I was

like, "This is awesome." Uh, so most of

my like early I I did I did UGC stuff

with Peppa Pig. It was like an official

collaboration that I did with them, uh,

Handshake deal. But,

>> uh, I would I would basically create

these 3D models of Peppa Pig toys and

move them around and all that stuff. And

again, tens of millions of views. That

was all in Unity, just in VR, just

holding on to them, you know. But that

was it. That was my first my first taste

of 3D. And then I saw I was like, "Okay,

there's limitations to this VR stuff cuz

this is not going to work." Um, but

yeah, that's why I switched to Unreal

cuz it had so much more and it was

focused on cinema.

>> I see that. And within Unreal Engine,

the fascinating thing for me is that you

are controlling the entire pipeline,

right? Is there anybody helping you out

with the videos?

>> No, not at all. It's it's me. Everything

from the writing, the acting, the

producing, the animating, the creating

the meshes, the everything. I I do

everything now. But it's it's skill

stacking from every failure that I've

ever had and every opportunity that I

had to get better. That's what's that's

why it works. But I don't completely

reinvent the wheel. I mean, just to be

clear, like I'll I'll find like um oh,

here's an asset packed for, you know,

$20 and it has some of the things that I

need. Oh, great. I'll buy that. And then

and then I'll just pick it apart and

I'll bring it back into Blender. I'll

change it as I need and then I'll bring

it, you know. So, like this one is uh

Poly Town. this uh scene I'm working on

right now. And then obviously there's a

ton of other stuff that didn't have that

in the asset pack, but it was a good

base. The lighting was bad. Uh but you

know, I've learned lighting and and

that's also through the help of other

people and other artists on LinkedIn.

>> I want to know how long does it take for

you to come up with the idea and produce

the video and it's ready to go. Yeah.

>> Uh usually come up with the ideas on

Monday and have it out by Friday,

Saturday. So it's Yeah, that's it. And

it but it it's there's some days where

it'll be the same day. Uh like you know

if I do the question and answer video

like I did recently. Um the video didn't

get a lot of views but it got a lot of

cameos and sold a lot of books. I mean

that was like a connection video. I call

that a heart. I have a couple different

types of content I make. Um but yeah so

that that was the same day. You know I

asked the kids at my kids school. It was

it was like four o'clock. You know I was

playing with the kids. Hey what do you

want to ask Silly Crocodile? Ask Silly

Crocodile if he could come to my house.

Okay. Wrote it all on my phone and then

I came back and I recorded that entire

thing and then I, you know, adjusted the

cameras and then I uploaded that night.

So, it was just like boom. Yeah. So, it

depends.

>> If you're enjoying this conversation, we

just wanted to remind you that we come

back to you every single Tuesday with

another episode of the Bad Decisions

podcast. It will be available on

YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcast.

Now, back to the conversation. In the

video that we posted about you and we

talked about selling crocodile a lot of

people commented that hey I have an idea

too. I have an idea that I can one day

sell it for a great price. If someone

comes to you now and say hey Corey I

have this idea I want to get started.

How do you tell them what is the best

way?

>> That's a big question because there's no

one way. There's no one answer for

everyone's problem right. Um, the

biggest thing is obviously is download

Unreal Engine, do the first hour, uh,

sit down and and uh, learn the things,

only the things that you need to know

and not a whole bunch of other crap. You

could sit down and buy a an a a course

on how to make this one 3D movie and da

d, but you're going to learn a bunch of

crap that you don't need to know and

you'll you'll be it'll fill your brain

too much. I have ADHD hardcore. I have a

hard time focusing if I'm not excited

about it. And when I'm creating somebody

else's project and just watching them do

what they do, it's not feeding my soul.

So, my attention goes nah and then it I

don't do it. I get I get bored and lazy.

So, if I say, okay, what do I want to

learn today? I want to learn how to uh,

you know, turn my phone into a baseball

bat and then uh try to make the phone

hit a ball inside Unreal Engine. Ah,

that's crazy. But I can think on a level

and say, "Okay, well, if this phone can

track my face, or even better yet, I can

use it for position tracking. Then if I

can do position tracking, then I can

move a bat." Okay, then all I need is a

ball now. So I I turn this into a I'm

just just my brain just doing this. And

then and then and then I can be like,

"Okay, well then how do I make a ball?"

Okay, well, uh, if I just say get a

sphere, it's a very basic shape, and

then I say enable physics, simulate

physics, and then it falls. Well, if I

can manage to swing just at the right

time to hit it, then I get it right.

I've just done it. So, it's like when

you find, and that's just a random

example, but like

>> your ideas just need to be simplified.

Focus on only what you need to know and

not all of the other stuff. You will

learn the other stuff as you go, but

when you overwhelm yourself, you'll burn

yourself out. That's like going to the

gym and like, you know, this powerlifter

is like, "All right, buddy. Come on in.

We're going to get you pumped up."

you're like, "This is my first day." You

know, like that's not going to help you.

That you're going to die. You're going

to go home and be like, "I hurt so bad.

I don't want to go back. That's a

terrible experience." But if you go in

and you're like, "Okay, I want to stand

and I want to go on the treadmill for a

while. Okay, this feels good. Yeah, my

body feels good." You're going to go

back again, you know, and hopefully

you're not that like, you know, like but

you you you take that time and you get

excited about the next little steps. You

don't have to take big steps. Little

steps.

>> Yeah. Yeah. People get they they overco

complicate, man. If there's one thing

about Unreal Engine people that I've

seen about people who come in and then

they ch they play and then they leave,

it's that they just went too big. They

got too crazy. They spent all their

money right up front thinking it was

going to stop the problems that they

might be having with their why.

>> You want you want to you want to have a

good project. You want to be really

successful. You don't come into Unreal

Engine going, "I'm going to make the

greatest game ever." You come into the

engine saying, "This is going to be

fun."

You come in and you say, "I have I have

an idea that I love and I there's

nothing in this world that can change me

from the the feeling that I get from

creating this thing and I'm going to do

everything I can like it's a baby like

it as a child. Like I have to brush

their teeth every day or they're going

to get cavities, you know, like that's

that's the mentality. That's what a lot

of people miss."

>> I agree with that. And the reason why I

think that's important is because as you

mentioned the why, right? Why are you

using the tool? Because tomorrow Unreal

Engine might not be there, right? It

might be another tool. The next day

Unity may not be there. It might be

replacing. And all of these tools,

>> some of them remain, some of them die

out. It really depends on who's a

developer. And the reason we bet on

Unreal Engine is because we believe in

what Tim Sweeney is working on and the

guys behind Epic Games, they deliver on

the features. And so we were working,

originally I was on Cinema 4D, changed

to Blender because it was more

tutorials. it was much easier to find

assets and tutorials for the things I

wanted to create. And then I made the

move to Unreal Engine because of the

photo realism and

>> the the fact that it's uh in real time

essentially, right? So that was my

reason. But at the end of the day, we

had a why, which was we wanted to create

these worlds, whether it was a

documentary we did for Egypt, we want to

create uh the tomb of Tutank Camun. And

in Unreal Engine, we could do it. And

then we turned that into a documentary.

And if you were to create that

documentary in Blender, it would be very

difficult because metahumans were not

there and metahumans had just been

announced. So Unreal Engine just gave us

the features, but our why was different.

It wasn't like, oh, let's just get into

Unreal Engine because it's real time.

No, the real time capabilities allowed

us to fulfill our why. So I agree with

that. But I want to go to my question

here, which was formed when I was

looking at the comments. A lot of people

looked at that video where we talked

about your success and said, "You know

what? This is just unique to Corey.

Corey has worked in the industry, so

that's why he has this offer, this

opportunity. It's not going to happen

for me, so I'm just not going to try."

And I thought that was so pessimistic. I

understand that the $5 million doesn't

happen to everyone, but you can still

find success, right? You don't have to

look at someone like yourself and say,

"Oh, just because he was in the industry

and he's had all these experiences, he's

going to win. I'm not." And I found that

to be so demeaning for those people. And

I tried to talk to them, but I it was

kind of hard to have that conversation

in the comment section. I want to have

it here with you guys.

>> I want to know what you think about

because

>> people have this mentality, especially

now with AI, that if I get into 3D, if I

get into VFX, there's no jobs, there's

no way for me to make money. But then I

hear as we have this podcast time and

time again, people are making money,

people are finding success, but it

really depends on what they're working

on and how consistent they are. Are they

posting about their work? Are they

sharing their work with the world?

>> Those things I think are very important.

I wanted to get your thoughts on it.

>> Losers focus on winners and winners

focus on winning.

A lot of people tend to watch other

people to see what their success is and

compare all of what they're doing and

feel like I'm never going to achieve

that, but they don't see all the work

that went into that. The minute I

stopped watching what other people were

doing was when my success started

happening. Like, yeah, I mean, I am

skill stacking from all of the different

experiences that I've had on YouTube and

just over the years, but again, I didn't

go to school for this. I was terrible in

school. I didn't have any of that. I

don't I didn't have the luxury of having

a even a you know a very supportive

family growing up. You know, there's a

lot of that. And so the all of the

success that I have is because

I just wanted it. I loved it so much and

it didn't matter what anybody else

thought. I mean, listen, I like I said

earlier, I I thought I was an idiot and

so I played on the fact that I was an

idiot. Yeah, fine. You know what? I am

an idiot. I'm just going to be the best

idiot I've ever been and and and all

that. And it was really degrading. But

my uh my success early on on YouTube,

like I I I had a lot of his success, but

there were a lot of other people that

were much more successful than than me.

And until recently, I still struggled

with the fact that I never became a

millionaire. All my other friends seemed

to become millionaires, but but I was so

focused on what they were doing and not

focused on what I was doing. like I I

think my time is coming, right? But

that's not my goal anymore. That's not

my focus. My focus now more than

anything is no, I just love this. And

it's all going to happen because

remember that like you know, you focus

on the future and looking at what other

people are doing. You start getting that

anxiety. That's all it is. It's anxiety

talking. Stop look stop looking so

forward at other people's forward other

people's futures and look at your your

now and what are you doing now to make

that difference. If you're if you're

going to say if if you're in your moment

you're saying I'll never be that, you're

right. If you say I'm going to be that,

you're right. You are what you say

you're going to be. You just got to

believe it and act on it and and and and

just have a have a brain to to fall in

love or a heart to fall in love with the

thing that you're doing. If if you don't

love what you're doing, do it

differently. find what it is. Of course,

that pessimistic sense that people have

is coming from a lack of of love, a lack

of understanding of themselves on a deep

or they don't know their why. So,

they're looking for somebody else's why

so they can see if they could take some

of it. But it doesn't work like that.

>> Yeah.

>> What is it that makes you happy deep

down? Take that time to breathe. And

again, meditation's amazing. Go on

YouTube. There's one that's called self.

It's I think it's 10 minutes self-love.

Listen to that a couple times and try to

understand what is it about yourself

that you can find and and and you can

like lay there. So I briefly I want to

talk about this. You lay there and you

just say think about yourself in the

past. Think about yourself in your best

points of your time and then ask

yourself may I be happy.

May I be happy? What does that mean to

you to be happy? If you allow yourself

to find that happiness, then ask

yourself, why am I happy? What is this

about me that feels happy? If you

understand that, focus on that and how

can you build it? Like the skill of

working out or being really good at

Unreal Engine, it's a skill to be able

to find and build on what makes you

happy. That happiness leads to success

100% of the time. Yes. 100% of the time.

Because happiness, you can't buy it,

right? If you are your best self,

success is going to find you because you

are your best self. So why would you

spend any moment of any day being

negative and hating on yourself and

looking at other people's successes?

Because that is not going to do you any

better. stop wasting your time and find

who you are and find that happiness,

man. And and you know what? Hey, if

you're feeling really bad and you're

like, "Man, this sucks." Then it's okay

to take a break and breathe. It's okay

to go sit down and play video games for

a little bit. It's okay to get lost in

certain things. Don't don't go crazy on

drinking. Don't go, you know, uh,

finding dopamine in places that, you

know, is unhealthy to find dopamine,

man. Take your shoes off and go for a

walk in the grass, you know? Go go go go

go do something that made you happy when

you were a kid. Go do something that

that connects you back to who you are

when you're truly happy. Yeah, that's I

just sorry I go on that.

>> No, that was that was beautiful. That

was really really beautiful.

>> I want to do something definitely after

the podcast. Get the link to that

meditation. We're going to put it in the

description making sure anybody who's

interested they can go and check it out.

>> I think everybody should give it a try.

We haven't told you this, but we

actually meditate too. And uh we haven't

done it in a while properly though. We

we meditated for a long time. And I

think it's been just about a few months

we haven't meditated as much. And I want

to get back into it because not only do

I completely agree with you and and how

it makes you feel after you meditate. I

think just to turn that click on for

people,

ask this ask yourself this question.

When was the last time you were alone

with your thoughts for 10 minutes and

you allowed yourself to speak with

yourself? Because if you think about it,

most of the time the moment we wake up,

if you're checking your phones, you're

already consuming other people's

opinions, news about another continent

that you don't even [ __ ] live in,

right? I'm hearing about the news in the

US. I'm in the UAE right now, but I see

that [ __ ] every day. And then when I

wake up, maybe Farah's talking to me.

He's giving me his thoughts. And when I

come here, our producer is gonna give us

his thoughts. and my mom and my dad and

all of that is voices in your head

>> that is not yours. And I'm not saying

they're good or bad. I'm just saying

they're not your voice.

>> And so I think what meditation does for

me is for 10 minutes I get to actually

listen to what I'm interested in, what I

have to say to myself. And sleeping

doesn't count. When you're sleeping,

you're dreaming. That's also not under

your control. So you actually need that

10 freaking minutes per day to just let

yourself talk to yourself. And I feel

like if you if you ask yourself that

question and you haven't given that to

yourself, try it out. Force yourself to

do it for a few days, I guarantee you

will fall in love with it.

>> Yeah. You you are who you who you you

are what you consume and you are who you

hang out with, you know, and and those I

mean it's so true and we all know that.

So if what you are consuming is the

happiness that's inside of you, you're

more of that. I mean that's that's the

simple part of it.

>> Yeah.

Corey, you've been through a lot of

different cycles of YouTube and social

media and algorithms and you know,

sometimes they go up, sometimes they go

down. Sometimes the same video that

worked two years ago, it doesn't work

now. And

>> for artists and creators who are

starting out, it can get really scary.

It can get really disappointing. I

wanted to ask you, since you've been

through many cycles, how do you

basically handle that?

>> Well, uh, there's a spot on the wall I

bang my head against. It's got a pillow.

But I mean somebody can do that.

>> It's but there I mean the real side is

it is frustrating. It absolutely it's

frustrating. Every time there's a change

like no it's like a black box. Nobody

knows what's inside and and we all just

kind of try different things but like

it's it also you have to look at it

again as an opportunity to think outside

the box. What do you not know that maybe

you could do differently and then do

that? Like right now, like I I my my

views dropped on my channel because AI

slop was a big thing that impacted my

brand so bad, man. And people are taking

Silly Crocodile and making all these

really bad knockoffs using my videos,

everything. And

>> I saw the LinkedIn video you made. It's

it's really it really hurts to watch

those videos that they made out of silly

crocodile.

>> Yeah. for for for those of you listening

who haven't seen that video, basically

what it is is they're they're taking

they're using AI to take all of the

captions of all of my videos and using

my IP to create other videos and just

trying to capitalize on the strength of

my SEO, my search engine optimization on

YouTube, my keywords. And so it dropped

my rankings uh on YouTube because

YouTube started uh seeing that uh Silly

Crocodile was synonymous with really bad

content that nobody wanted to watch. And

it was like it just I've watched it and

I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is bad." And

I could see it. And uh so I said, "Okay,

well, I'm going to do something

different." I started collaborating with

people and I said, "Okay, if I open

myself up and I start collaborating,

then maybe this will make a change." And

sure enough, when other people were

posting Silly Crocodile videos that were

actually me collaborating with them,

their views were skyrocketing. It would

become their top videos, their top

performers instantly. And then, of

course, YouTube came out with a new

feature called collaboration. And now

they reward you even more. And now my

views went from 13 million uh views a

month to uh see I can tell you the

current numbers of it to um I think it's

like seven 17.7 million

>> views, right? So a massive jump uh and

just because of collaboration feature.

There you go. You can kind of see it. So

So I'm I just showed a line chart and

it's like a massive jump. So but that's

the thing.

>> Collaborate with silly crocodile. How do

you collaborate with other channels?

>> So, I have Silly Crocodile in different

rigs because I've tried many different

things. So, you know, I have a a Silly

Crocodile as a character animator rig

that I can just give to somebody and

they can do 2D. I have Silly Crocodile

in 3D and I can do compositing because

Unreal Engine is great. I can just

export this layer and say this goes on

top of this video and I can put the

video in the background and use it as

reference and have shadows and d and so

there's there's many ways that I can

collaborate. Um, but it's uh it's it's

really great because for the people that

I collaborate with, it helps them

understand uh better storytelling. It

helps them with audience boost

obviously. Uh and it helps them with

just the algorithm in general because

the algorithms goes, "Oh, this is a

trusted channel. Cool. Okay, we get it

right." Uh and what it helps me with is

better SEO. Uh other people see what I'm

doing in other places and it goes they

go, "Oh, cool. I can jump around and see

Silly Crocodile visiting other worlds."

is like Silly Crocodile having a

sleepover with a friend, you know?

That's that's what it's like. So, it's a

it's a win for everybody and YouTube

obviously loves it. So,

>> I love the fact that you're being

creative, not just in your work, but

also problem solving outside of Unreal

Engine. And this is the beauty of it,

right? You didn't give up just because

the views went out. You're like, how can

I solve this problem? You're

collaborating now, which is even if this

never happened, collaborating has always

been one of the best ways to get your

performance of the channel up. And it's

also fun because I imagine you're now

reaching out to different people. You're

making great connections. And so that

problem solving inside Unreal Engine and

outside Unreal Engine is key to your

success. And I love that.

>> Yeah.

>> I need to ask your opinion about

something cuz we use Unreal Engine for

different purposes than you, mostly for

education actually, but you're using it

for Silly Crocodile and you're using the

virtual production pipelines which

you've demonstrated incredibly well in

this podcast.

Where do you see the future of this for

different creators like yourself or

maybe even traditional media switching

over to modern pipelines like yourself?

I want to know if you forget about AI

for a moment, where do you see this

virtual production and this kind of

workflow in the future?

>> Well, once the companies uh who have

money, whoever, whoever the creators,

let's just call it focus on the

creators. Once the creators understand

how actually easy it is to create

content, especially now, like Unreal

Engine was much harder when it was UE4,

>> like my gosh, it's night and day. Uh

it's I think what's going to happen is

people will start to create content

faster in exactly the ways that they

want if they allow themselves that that

time. Um I uh it's hard to say because

everybody's got a different idea of what

it is that they want to do.

it.

That's a That's a hard answer for me. I

I don't I don't think I've ever thought

about that. That's such a good question.

I love questions that like that and make

me think. I'm like, "Yeah, I'm not

prepared for that one. That's a really

great one." Um, ask it in a different

way. Sometimes that's the best way. Ask

that question in a different way. Do you

see

more and more people like yourself in

the future creating

as individuals? Because I see this

myself. I see the shift from 500 man

companies to leaner companies to

eventually individuals because again AI

tools that itself is part of the reason

because now we can create faster. We can

create better. I'm not talking about the

prompt to final video kind of thing

because those are still quite

>> I would I'm not going to sugar coat it.

They're junk. But you can still use

specific AI tools and those are great.

They're really helping us as artists

speed up our workflow and make content

at uh at higher quality. So, I want to

ask you, do you think more and more

people like yourself are going to be

around as these new pipelines appear?

>> Got it. Yes. I think that the work that

I'm doing and the collaborations that

I'm doing and that I'm I'm I'm working

hard to share this process, I think it

is going to inspire more people to do it

because I'm seeing like I'm I'm getting

calls from major studios. like I'm just

being open like Fox Entertainment like

the head of Fox Entertainment had a

meeting with me and I did this whole

thing for him too and he was just like

wait what you know and then I had other

meetings and I always get like second

meetings cuz they have to bring in more

people to show them what's happening and

uh but I but I think that people I think

again where they were over complicating

things and now that they're seeing wait

we don't have to over complicate this we

can do it much simpler with a much lower

budget and just do this. So I think um

once people are getting bo once once the

big shiny ball that is AI starts to wear

down on people's minds and they start

seeing what it is that I'm doing and the

things that is going to happen success

is coming with this. There's stuff

happening. Um once they see that I think

there's going to be a wave of new

creators and I'm going to be completely

open with them to help them navigate

that as well. Like I'm I'm not I'm I'm

completely accessible. Like I I love

being accessible to people. I love

helping as much as I can. like LinkedIn

and all that. I I live there, you know,

uh to help people. But, um yeah, I think

um

>> I think we will see more of that. And

and there's so many amazing artists

right now who are still so busy

wallowing in their sadness that once

they find themselves out of that

sadness, they'll find this or a tool

similar to it and go, "Actually, this

isn't so bad." And they'll find their

happiness again. I mean, it's a wave.

People do this. It's it's it's what we

do, you know, especially with big

changes. People don't like change, you

know, it's it's a natural.

>> That's true. That's true. But I mean,

it's inevitable, right? Change will

always happen. The reason why I asked

that question also, I do want to

reiterate it is because

>> I love seeing people like yourself find

success because it is proof that you can

do it. It is proof that other people

who, like you said, are in a sad

position because they don't know what

their why is, but there was a reason why

they started. They just forgot it. And

to know that you can be a one-man show

and have success or you can even be a

small team and compete with the big

guys. The best example I can give you is

at Sigraph we met with the guys that did

flow. Are you aware of that? Flow.

>> Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yes.

>> Okay. So they did the cat film with

Blender, right? Using EV. And what's

fascinating is when we stalked them on

Twitter on X, we found out they actually

didn't do any compositing. They did

everything like all the changes they

wanted just in the Blender engine and

they just finalized it there which is

fascinating cuz they won an Oscar. And

if you were to tell anybody before that

like can you actually do something in

Eevee and win an Os? They're like no bro

you can't even upload to YouTube with

Eevee people will laugh at you. Well

there's proof you can actually win a

freaking award. Now it's not about the

award. I understand it's about the fact

that it's possible you can actually find

success. And these are just different

examples. And I always want us to be

like the speaker megaphone shoving that

in people's faces who are watching and

listening to this podcast because I

believe every single time we upload

these episodes, as long as we just

change one person's mind, I think we

won.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's you you guys

are doing a lot of good right now. I I I

really I've been seeing posts on and off

like I'm I'm busy focusing on my own

work so I don't get to see everything

you do. But the great thing that you're

doing right now is you are that

megaphone for these creators like myself

and and for many others that you've

featured on the show and it's it's just

such a good thing and I love that you're

doing this. That's your that's your

niche. That's that's where you're really

great and I can tell that your hearts

are in it and you're so good at asking

questions especially when I'm like can

you ask it differently because wow that

that hit me hard you know. Um, but yeah,

>> that was a challenge for me as well cuz

I already had one question in my mind.

Now I had to say it again in a different

way. So I appreciate you saying that,

man. It it means a lot. And this is like

70 what? How many?

>> 73.

>> 73. And we love this. This is this feels

like a break from work because it's a

part where we get to have conversations

with people like yourself cuz we can't

randomly come and knock on your door in

your house and then watch the session.

>> Yeah. We cannot do that. But this

podcast allows us to have that

conversation with you, get to know

people like yourself because I'm sure

we're going to meet up in the future in

person as well

>> and uh and see the great work that you

do and then share this message cuz I

know I'm telling you guys right now. I'm

going to be in the comments when this is

uploaded and I'm going to see people

saying that this episode changed their

mindset, their approach cuz I [ __ ]

know people are going through the same

[ __ ] we're all going through. It's just

that people don't really talk about it

on social media because you, as you

mentioned, you want to show that one

little bright light in your life. You're

trying to hide most of it. So, I just

want to tell everyone, hey, everyone

feels like [ __ ] at times and yet we

still pushed through it and we can find

success. So, as long as you understand

that we're all the same, I think that we

won with this episode. We did what we

wanted to do.

>> That's that's all that matters, man.

That's that's why I'm here and that's

that's why I trusted you for this. I was

like, "Yes." Again, what is my mission?

I live forever through the inspiration I

give others to my life.

>> That is, by the way, that is a phoenix

tattoo.

>> Yeah. Yeah. So, it's a phoenix. I drew

it. So, it's a phoenix tattoo because I

I when I pass that, you know, I I I go

into ashes and then the the fire that

burns back up is the inspiration is the

life goals, the lessons, life goals, the

the things that I've taught through my

life and the impact I've had on people.

That's how the phoenix bird uh burns and

flies and flows, right? So, yeah.

>> I found a phoenix tattoo. I I kind I

kind of like that. We should We should

give

>> because I I believe in what you just

said. Maybe I'll have you draw one for

me as well, man. Can you do that?

>> I'll try. I'll try. My next one actually

is going to be a little girl on a swing

right here. And then when I get old, I

can go like this and she can swing.

>> Is there any silly crocodile tattoo on

you?

>> No, but I'm going to get Okay. I No, I

have I have a I have a goal. When silly

crocodile goes to a streamer and for the

first time I make a million dollars.

Just a million or maybe if I if I pass

that five. No, I wanted to put uh just

the smile or actually a smile over my

heart maybe.

>> So just smile.

>> Just just his smile. Yeah.

>> No, that silly crocodile smile, right?

>> Yeah. He's got a very distinct smile.

Yeah.

>> Okay. Yes. Okay. It's part of

>> because that's that's all that matters

is is like, hey, be happy with being

silly. Be be true to be being who you

are. You are a 2.5D person in a 3D

world. That's that's what I am. That's

who I am. And so it's not just silly

crocodile. That's my life.

>> That's beautiful.

>> I wanted to say thank you for giving us

your time. And we understand that you're

busy. We're working on the Halloween

video. And just for context, are you

going to be going back to that after the

podcast?

>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm finishing that up.

I'm I'm putting a dinosaur in the next

scene and then I'm good.

>> Okay. What's the just what's the

timeline like for you in terms of work

hours when you wake up to when you go to

sleep?

>> Well, this one is different because it's

a Halloween video and it's currently uh

uh October 9th. Uh so I only have, you

know what, 3 weeks until Halloween. Uh

but so I'm I'm I'm on crunch time.

Usually I don't work as hard or as fast

as I am right now. Uh but usually lately

I've been allowing myself two weeks to

make videos uh because I'm focusing on a

little more quality. I can do it fast,

but it's not about speed right now. It's

about quality. It's It's telling a great

story. Um, but yeah, I mean, uh, my work

schedule as it is right now, I wake up

every day at about 5:00 a.m. I come up

here and I start working, uh, real hard

until about 7 and I go kiss my kids to

wake them up and then make breakfast and

do all that stuff. Send them off to

school. Back at this 9:00, I'm working,

working, working. 5:00, turn it off. Uh,

sometimes 2:30, turn it off. And then um

and then I come back to work after the

kids go to bed and then um maybe work

until midnight. So I you know

>> I'm I'm I'm I'm rolling on 5 hours of

sleep, but I'm it's like right now it's

okay. I know my limits. But as soon as

this video is done, dude, I'm sleeping.

[Laughter]

>> This is not that's not usual. This is

not usual production time, but the the

the nights I do not work nights like

this. Morning. Sure. I love it. I love

waking up and creating. That's just like

it's like doing my exercises, you know,

but meditation through the day, go hit

the gym during the day, you know, so I'm

not I'm I'm not just stuck at a

computer. I totally understand that.

Thank you so much for sharing that cuz I

think a lot of people were curious how

the time looks for you every day. But

again, thank you. We appreciate you,

Corey. Keep doing what you're doing.

We'll be looking forward to more of the

Silly Crocodile videos.

>> Thank you guys. I appreciate it.

>> Appreciate it, man. Thank you guys for

watching and listening to this episode.

If you guys want to do the meditation,

link's going to be in the description.

Let us know how it felt afterwards.

We'll be looking forward to that in the

comments. And see you guys on the next

episode. Until then, ciao.

>> Thank you guys so much for watching and

listening to another episode of the Bad

Decisions podcast. Our goal is to bring

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