The Wassabi Brothers say creator success isn't about subscribers anymore

We are Wasabi Brothers and we love each other's, right

Yes, yeah, there it is. You guys make content together, but you also have your own individual things too

So how would you describe the vibe of your individual content? Well, Aaron has more of a just like fly on the wall kind of content

Just filming all of his life. He's doing daily vlogs. Yes, he's the lifestyle vlogger as they say

I feel like Alex is crazy. Mine's like relationship-y, crazy, adventure, yeah

I feel like mine's more like Gen Z, right? I'm in college right now, so I'm making a lot of college vlogs

Are you like teaching them a lot of stuff about Gen Z user behavior? Uh, yes

More so things not to say. Okay. And he's like, you can't say that. I'm like, oh, I can't say that anymore

He's like, no, starting this year, you can't say that anymore. I'm like, oh, okay, good, thank you

There's a lot of teaching, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're like, let me teach you the words, the things you need to know. Yeah

Have you taught them about Gorilla Tag? I've not, I... You don't even know

I actually think that's Gen Alpha. That's Gen Alpha. We gotta call mom to have another one

We need another one, mom. Yeah, you gotta get a Gen Alpha sibling. We don't know things. You guys have been coming to VidCon for a while now

And so I want to know, what's the biggest change that you've noticed? There's a lot more people now

Before, back in the day, I knew every YouTuber. I knew everybody that was walking by

Now it's just a lot. It's a lot. It's like they got Snapchatters, TikTokers, Instagrammers, everything

It's cool. It's exciting. It's a lot of new faces. How is the, you know, the industry at large, I guess, changed for you guys since you first

started making videos? I just feel like it's more known now. Like back in the day, like we were saying, people were like, what do you do

We shoot videos for TV. And it's like, no, just for social media

Yeah. But now it's like everybody knows it. And it's kind of like nice and refreshing because everybody, like you don't have to

feel like an outsider. It's like everyone does it now. Yeah. At what point did it feel like

okay, we could actually make a career out of this? It wasn't until this guy made a career out of it

that I feel like we were like, oh, maybe this is a possibility for us. Yeah. So you had to lead

the charge. I just fell into it. And then I was like, guys, jump in. The water's great. Yeah

What gave you though, that inkling that this could be a thing? So for the first four or five

years of YouTube, they didn't offer you it wasn a paid job It was just a place to put videos and people could see it So we did it just for the love of the game he came to my apartment when i was in college and

he saw the videos and he's like you should upload these and i was like but they're not like funny they're like yeah kind of serious vlogs and he's like just do it just do it and i did it and then

i found an audience and then before i knew it i was like hey can i come out to cali no actually

he asked me to come out to california i was like i guess i could try it yeah and now i'm here

obviously like when you first started i'm sure like subscriber count was a big deal to you like

watching the numbers increase i've talked to a lot of different creators where it's like

that's not the number isn't so much important anymore so what are your thoughts on that like

what is like the most important metric that you um yeah subs don't really matter like back in the

day if you had a subscriber and you upload a video they're gonna get notified now it doesn't

like now they don't even if they're subscribed they might not get notified because youtube doesn't

that they want to see it or I don't know it's algorithm so it more counts on the views and the

community I feel like the comments mean more than the views do yeah just seeing how we affect people

are you guys in the comments like yeah I read every and we read every single one you read every comment

they say not to do that sometimes well the good thing our community is like nice really nice yeah

we don't get much hate since you guys have been doing this for a while do you have you thought

about you know tricks for curbing burnout I've been burned out a million

times yeah I guess I don't know yeah you tell me I need to know I need to learn

this what do you do in that situation you just got to work through usually just like hang out in the dark and cry a little bit no you just got to relax or

refresh and yeah and once you do that you can like have a clear mind and figure

out what you what the next step is what's the most important thing when you're going into making a video. Well, we have a new channel, so we're still like in the

experimental phase. So we're kind of dipping our toes into everything, but I think we should just

do more car ride videos because everybody loves the car ride videos because all we have is brother

banter and interacting with people. So I think that's the ones I enjoy the most. They have been

surprisingly fun because we were a little skeptical in the beginning. And then my wife was

like, you guys should do car ride videos. And we're like, are you sure? Our talk to videos are the car

Something my brothers have taught me is that having fun is the most important part

I was always like, you gotta, you gotta. I never said that. Aaron says that all the time Aaron says all the time I swear If someone comes up to you like what do I have to do to be successful like 10 years from now What like this piece of advice you would give I would say consistency

Consistency? I think that's definitely it. Not giving up. Yeah. You get that hate comment, kind of just brushing it off and moving on to the next

And if one video doesn't do as well as the others, don't take it personally. Yeah

Just learn from the mistake and move on. Okay. Yeah. I'd say just trial and error. Just keep going, figure it out

You're going to suck at first. Everybody sucks at first. I just say keep going. You have nothing to lose

Just keep swimming. You have everything to gain. Just keep swimming. What's the best that could happen

Oh, that's good. There you go. Good line. I think Andrew told me that

I did tell you that. Oh, yeah. What are some like creator, maybe trends that you're looking at that you're excited about

The siblings things are doing really well. Twins, siblings, siblings, brothers, sisters

So I'm excited that that's doing well because once there's a trends pop up all the time

But once something pops up that we're like, oh, that's like that we're comfortable with that one

Like that's us that just got us so it's just easy to fall into so we're excited to see where our channel goes

I've been seeing a lot of travel content like 50 states and 50 days. Oh, if you want to combine the driving

Oh the states. Oh, we could do that. That's like the third time he's mentioned this

I think he's trying to let us know what he wants to do He wants to go on a road trip. That'd be so cool. Okay, Wasabi Bros road trip. Oh my gosh

So drive just from East Coast to West Coast is like three or four days

So we're about to do that. So every day it's going to be like two months. Okay, but think of how many views it is

Think of the memories. You're right, you're right. Oh sorry, think of the memories. Think of the memories and the fun

All right. What do you think is important to your generation though when they're consuming content? Like..

What's important to them? Yeah, like what do you think they're looking for in a creator

I think my generation is looking for the wrong things right now. Okay

I should take a step back. Okay. Less brain rot. Okay. Like authenticity. Yeah

It'd be great to have back in our generation just like they had in their olden times

Hey, it's not olden times. I was just going to say you were doing so well until you said that

It was like ten years ago. I'm nervous. I don't know. You were doing so good until you threw us under the bus

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I think that's actually a really astute observation. There is a lot of brain rot content on the internet

There is, yeah. And I think you're right. Let's bring it back to authenticity

I would never be a shorts creator I mean but you have had to diversify That another thing that you had to like you have to adapt you have to adapt and you started in long

form you end up making shorts yeah I mean we all everybody does shorts

everybody's clips but yeah the long form is making a little comeback so I'm

excited for that I think people are finally rotted it's like full circle

the circle of life it's coming back around yeah yeah we do this thing at

Mashable we have a series called in my bag okay and it's about the tools and

devices that creators use to make their content what's in your bag you go first

yeah chapstick okay why chapstick cuz I need it all the time I didn't know

we're going that route I need sunscreen cuz I'm vlogging outside you want you want tech options or I you can do both okay okay okay yeah like a chapstick and

a tech off technologically I would say handheld tripod is probably the tech I

I use the most. Like, I can't do anything. I can have all this other equipment

but if I don't have that handheld tripod, I'm messed up. Yeah. Yeah. You're not freehanding it

For me, it's the mic. Okay. The longer I go, the more I realize audio is kind of the thing

Like, if it's bad audio, it'll annoy me too much. And then I'm like, I can't do it anymore

So I would definitely say audio. Mics, lobs. We both use the DJI lobs

DJI lobs. DJI is very popular with creators. So easy. Yeah. And the Sony too, but yeah

I love that you brought, like, a display. You're like, let me show you what's actually in my bag

I have to. Thank you. I mean, you understood the assignment. I appreciate it

Vlogging. Hello. Aaron's more of the tech guy. Yeah. I have my camera over there

Should I bring my camera out too? Do you want to bring your camera? Bring your camera. Thank you

Breaking the fourth wall. Wow. I think Alex gave me this like five years ago. Okay

I gave you that. It's a Sony. It's a ZV-1. Okay. Yeah, very nice

I can't go anywhere without it. Okay. Point and shoot. Point and shoot

It's point and shoot. Okay, Aaron is a tech guy. Yeah. We all bring something to it

and I feel like tech is my thing. Yeah. And he's funny, and he just brings in the knowledge

of everything that's happening right now. Yeah, you. And he's really funny too

You are really funny. He's funny too. Okay. Everyone's really funny. We're funny too, yeah

Oh my God, thank you so much. Do you have a frivolous thing that you can't live without? Usually a fan, because I sweat very easily. Same

So like, yeah. And toodaloo from Mashable. Till next time. Thank you