Story of the Funniest YouTuber
The following chapter is from Limit Breaker: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
A couple of years ago, I was in Las Vegas.
And there was a moment where i saw a few people asking this guy for an autograph.
It was a little guy with a backwards cap, white, earrings, etc.
Seemed like a normal guy.
Is he some kind of celebrity? I wondered.
The people I was with had no clue who he was.
Once the group was done taking pics with the guy, I went up to one of them & asked them who he was.
They looked surprised that I didn’t know the mystery guy.
‘You don’t know who that is?? That’s Vincent Valentine!’ they said.
Who??
After some time, they told me that he was a famous YouTuber who pranked people in Las Vegas. He was popular in the local area and his channel was blowing up!
Once I got back to Florida, I checked out his channel.
And the dude was hilarious.
Not regular hilarious.
But to me, he was the funniest pranking channel I ever came across.
I’ve seen other prank channels. Vitaly, Fousey, Hood Pranks etc.
Those were cool.
But something about them didn’t feel right.
But with Vincent Valentine? Dude felt like the real deal.
Ultra composed, timely humor & seems like your friend.
His YouTube channel name was Limitless EXP.
After watching a few of his videos, I was surprised by the latest post.
This post was made in 2016.
Where he said he was quitting YouTube.
Huh?? I thought he was just getting started…
Damn.
After going through the video, I could sense what the issue was.
He was starting to get a lot of negative comments on his videos.
The negative comments came from the freeloaders who were whining & asking for more videos.
Or just whining in general.
Vincent Valentine had more fans.
But unfortunately, the negativity bias often hears the criticisms first & the loudest.
What could have been a great YouTuber unfortunately doesn’t make videos anymore.
But to this day, I still view him as the funniest prank channel out.
There’s some hope that he makes a comeback. Who knows.
Guy is super young.
But what were a few of the lessons?
Plenty, now that I think about it.
The most important part is that it’s better to attract your true tribe over numbers.
Doubt Vincent wanted his channel to blow up to the extent that it did.
But more people is not always a good thing.
Honestly, more people means more freeloaders.
Human nature ain’t always pretty.
It’s better to have 1000 true fans than 1,000,000 iffy people who only ask and never give.
The tough part is that the brain focuses on the negatives over the positives if you let it.
That’s why you need to take CONSCIOUS effort to keep the vision targeted, clear & to the point.
Otherwise, the mind treats the negative opinions like the velcro.
‘What’s your tip for this issue if you were in his position?’
I think the best tip is to talk to one person no matter how big your audience gets.
I wrote a tweet today where I said:
- Talk to your younger self rather than a target market.
This may have confused some people.
But try it. Create for your younger self…Forget the market research for a few.
What you will notice is that the content your younger self needed resonates with a lot of peoples present day self.
And just like that, you are ATTRACTING a market rather than seeking it.
The story of Vincent Valentine is powerful.
Something tells me that he may one day make a return.
Hopefully once he’s back, it’s back to the roots.
Back to focusing on the younger self.
And the younger self is what allows you to attract the 1000 true fans.
Forget the millions.
