He Quit His Dream Job to Fix Bikes on YouTube (And Makes More Money Now)

Summary

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YouTube Creators Hub Podcast Summary

Episode Title: He Quit His Dream Job to Fix Bikes on YouTube (And Makes More Money Now)
Host: Dusty Porter
Guest: Andy Quandt (The Bike Farmer)
Date: March 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Dusty Porter speaks with Andy Quandt, a former corporate employee who left his “dream job” to become a full-time YouTube creator, documenting his work as a bicycle mechanic under the channel “The Bike Farmer.” Andy shares his journey from small-town bike shop owner to viral content creator, dives deep into strategies behind his channel’s growth, and provides insight into building authentic community, monetization, and the evolution of his content—including launching a new experimental channel centered on AI and the future of work.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin Story: From Bike Shop to Content Creator

• Pandemic Spark: Like many, Andy saw the bike business explode during COVID-19, leaving him with time to experiment and discover creators like Bob Ross and Jerry Rosa, both of whom inspired his format.
• Influences: He likens his approach to Bob Ross’s calm instructional style and Jerry Rosa’s “watch me work” videos on guitar repair.
  • Quote (Andy, 01:45): “I kind of fix bikes the same way that he paints paintings… It’s the same thing over and over again, but each bike is a little different.”
• Starting the Channel: Andy’s initial focus was just to hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours—his dual north stars from Ali Abdaal and MrBeast.

2. Defining the “Watch Me Work” Format

• Not ‘How-To,’ but ‘Watch Me Work’: Andy emphasizes his videos are not traditional tutorials.
  • Quote (Andy, 03:52): “These aren’t how-to videos, it’s watch me work videos. And I’ve never heard anybody say that before. I’m hoping that… people will start recognizing it as a legitimate format.”
• Community Engagement Tactic: Early on, Andy cleverly promoted himself as the “Bob Ross of Bicycle Mechanics” in a Facebook group, giving his channel a major viral boost.
  • Quote (Andy, 05:33): “I made a post… pretending to be some random guy… It totally worked. I had a thousand subs within like two or three days.”

3. Content Creation Workflow & Channel Programming

• Consistency is King: Andy set the goal of uploading two videos per week for two years, inspired by Ali Abdaal’s advice.
• Video Variety:
  • Core content: Long-form bike repair videos (“watch me work”)
  • Occasional roast comedy/shorter-form rants—though he’s pulled back due to concerns about being too mean
  • Shorts/Reels: Light use, mostly repurposing comedic snippets for Instagram rather than TikTok
  • Livestreams: Targeting every Friday at 10am for interactive sessions with regular fans
    • Quote (Andy, 10:11): “I have this relationship with the camera now where there’s an audience back there and I feel like I have friends out there in the void.”

4. Building & Benefiting from Community

• Organic Following: Community is essential both for engagement and income.
  • Bike swaps and real-life gatherings reinforce his status—
    • Quote (Andy, 13:04): “I’m like a local celebrity at the bike swap… It’s like comic con for me.”
• Not a Natural ‘Joiner’: Despite not feeling like a community-builder, Andy recognizes the value and impact of fan relationships through recurring viewers and live streams.

5. Financial Realities & Monetization (19:44)

• AdSense Revenue:
  • Seasonal range: $5,000/month in winter, up to $11,000/month in peak summer.
  • Super Thanks and livestream donations included in AdSense.
• Brand & Sponsorship Deals:
  • Agency partnership netted $17,000 in first 90 days, now 1–2 sponsored videos per month.
  • “I wish I would have known [about sponsorships] sooner.” – Andy, 16:12
• Merchandise & Affiliate:
  • Merch: $1,000–3,000/month, started with Fourth Wall and DIY fulfillment.
  • Amazon Affiliates: $400–500/month (room to grow).
• Total Streams: AdSense, sponsorships, merch, affiliate, memberships.

6. Evergreen Strategy: Long-form Content, “Background Viewing,” and Ad Optimization

• Video Length:
  • Most uploads are 30–60+ minutes; mimics Bob Ross’s formulaic consistency for rewatchability and long-tail earnings.
  • Inserts relaxing, chill music to encourage “nap viewing,” maximizing watch time.
  • Quote (Andy, 23:28): “Make them long and make them boring. But it’s interesting and people learn from it… I want people to fall asleep while they’re watching my videos because I get paid for all that watch time, whether they’re conscious or not.”
• Midroll Ads:
  • Leverages YouTube’s rules (after 8 minutes, more midrolls), boosting revenue, especially on longer videos.

7. Workflow & Process (25:52)

• Content Pipeline:
  • Sourcing interesting bikes through a local charity.
  • Deciding on the story/hook ahead, but often adapts as repairs reveal surprises.
  • Solo creator—all shooting, editing (in iMovie), packaging, and community management.
• Editing Style: Personal in-jokes and quirks make his content hard to outsource.
• Thumbnails & Titles:
  • Simplicity wins—clean titles, minimal text, striking images.
  • Uses AI for brainstorming, but personal touch is still essential.

8. Innovation: Launching the "Instead of Working" Channel (29:17)

• Premise:
  • “Documentary experiment” on reclaiming agency in the age of AI and automation.
  • Original plan: 52 weeks, one video/week, all built using AI as an assistant.
  • Viral Out the Gate: First video (posted Christmas Day) got 340k+ views almost immediately, bringing in daily subscriber spikes.
  • Quote (Andy, 29:53): “Within about 15 minutes I had this idea for a 52 week plan where in 2026 I was going to build a whole new business just using AI to make videos. And it was going to be an experiment.”
• Insights:
  • AI is not a magic bullet—passion is still key to long-term sustainability.
  • Playing with new ideas helps combat burnout.

9. Burnout and Maintaining Motivation (16:34)

• Burnout is Real, Especially in Winter:
  • Views drop, creative energy lags, but consistency pulls him through.
• Advice:
  • Having other creative outlets (e.g., learning woodworking) helps fuel his main channel.
  • Community interactions (bike swaps/live chat) provide energy and remind him of his impact.

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Memorable Quotes

• On YouTube’s Power:

  • Dusty Porter, 33:18: “I think YouTube is one of the best platforms for people… we live in such a negative world. I love being able to put positive things out there and help other people do the same.”

• On Leaving the Bike Shop:

  • Andy Quandt, 14:29: “I make more money with the YouTube channel online than I ever could with the bike shop… I called it the most difficult, no brainer decision of my life.”

• On AdSense & Midrolls:

  • Andy Quandt, 23:28: “Make them long and make them boring… I want people to fall asleep while they’re watching my videos because I get paid for all that watch time, whether they’re conscious or not.”

• On Authenticity:

  • Andy Quandt, 12:15: “I don’t really fit in anywhere… But there’s definitely a bike farmer army out there.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:45] Andy’s origin story and Bob Ross inspiration
• [03:52] Defining “watch me work” content
• [05:33] Facebook group hack for his first viral breakthrough
• [08:46] Advice for new creators in 2026 & “watch me work” philosophy
• [10:11] Workflow: Two videos a week, livestreams, and content format
• [12:15] Community and in-person celebrity at bike swaps
• [14:29] The tough but easy decision to shut down the bike shop
• [15:14] Monetization lessons—late start on sponsorships
• [16:34] Burnout, winter slowdowns, and creative coping mechanisms
• [19:44] Monetization breakdown: AdSense, sponsors, merch, affiliates
• [21:49] Evergreen content strategy, midroll ads, Bob Ross consistency
• [25:52] Workflow details: Sourcing bikes, solo editing, ideation
• [27:45] Titles and thumbnails, using AI, packaging learnings
• [29:17] Launching viral 'Instead of Working' channel using AI
• [33:18] Big picture: YouTube as positive, empowering platform

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Final Thoughts

Andy Quandt's journey is a masterclass in leveraging passion, niche expertise, and authentic storytelling to build a thriving YouTube business. From his quirky “watch me work” format to his openness about income, burnout, and creativity, Andy offers clear, actionable insights for creators at any stage—in 2026 or beyond.

Essential Tips:

• Consistency and authenticity outshine production value.
• Find creative ways to reach your audience (even if it means being cheeky in Facebook groups).
• Don’t be afraid to pivot or try new formats (comedy, livestreams, AI-driven experiments).
• Prioritize community even if you’re “not a joiner”—it pays off in both fulfillment and income.
• Learn the business side: multiple revenue streams are key to stability.
• Use tools like AI to enhance your process, not replace your creativity.

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Transcript

[Andy Quandt]

But one day I was like getting close. I think I was at like 500 subs or something like that. So I found a Facebook page that was Home bicycle mechanics or something, and I was reading through it and I'm like, this is my audience. So I made a post and it was like, have you guys seen this guy? He's calling himself the Bob Ross of bicycle mechanics. It's crazy what he's doing. You should check it out. And posted one of my own videos.

[Dusty Porter]

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's conversation on the Creators Hub podcast. I have another wonderful guest for you this week. Before I introduce him, I do want to remind everyone if you're a creator looking to grow your channel, we have a ton of different services and offerings for you. Everything from one on one coaching with me, our mastermind group, the YouTube channel reviews, everything will be linked below in the show notes. So today's guest is Andy Quandt. Andy is a corporate dropout bicycle mechanic turned content creator living in southern Wisconsin. He's a father of four mostly grown children, avid golfer and bowler, lover of fine things, and he absolutely insists on enjoying life, focusing on authenticity, creativity and curiosity instead of working for a living. I absolutely love that. Andy, how are you doing today?

[Andy Quandt]

Great. How are you doing?

[Dusty Porter]

Fantastic. So your YouTube channel, I had it pulled up here and of course it closed out on me. The Bike Farmer YouTube channel now has right at 112,000 subscribers, not even 400 videos. Videos uploaded. You've got a great community that you've built over there. Can you let the audience know before we get going good today? What is the origin story of this channel? The Bike Farmer channel? How did everything come to be sure.

[Andy Quandt]

So I think it was during the pandemic. I realized, well, first of all, during the pandemic, the bicycle business really took off. Everybody was buying bikes. Everybody that had one wanted one fixed. So I was really busy and I was trying to take a little chunk in the afternoon to just decompress and take a little nap and get some rest. And I started watching a lot of Bob Ross Joya painting and taking a nap, watching him. And one day it dawned on me and I'm like, you know, I kind of fix bikes the same way that he paints paintings. It's the same thing over and over again, but each bike is a little different. Like a waterfall here or a mountain there, you know, kind of deal. And then the winter comes around and I had nothing to do. So. So I was watching a lot of YouTube and came across a channel called Rosa Stringworks. A guy named Jerry Rosa, who was a guitar luthier. And he would just ramble on about whatever. He was a really folksy dude from Missouri and I was addicted to his stuff. And I got into acoustic guitars, which is primarily what I was watching him fix. And I found one that I, I needed to have work done. I found an old Gibson acoustic guitar that had a broken bridge. And I was just so happened, going on a road trip, going down to Texas to go ride bikes and passing nearby his shop or his studio. And I stopped in and dropped the guitar off and started talking to him about YouTube. And I asked him, how much money do you make? You know, that's what everybody wants to know, right?

[Dusty Porter]

Of course.

[Andy Quandt]

And he said, his best month, just in AdSense money, he pulled in like $8,500. I was like, I can totally do what you're doing here, dude. You know, like, should I start a YouTube channel? And he looked me in the eyes and he said, absolutely, you should.

[Dusty Porter]

Yeah, I love that. I've actually, I think I've messaged Jerry before to come on the podcast. Maybe now I could, could, could have you maybe ping him and see if he'd be interested to come on the podcast. I love that. I love how you took the one to one of. Okay, he's doing guitars, but I could do the same thing with bikes. So maybe explain what kind of videos you make on the channel.

[Andy Quandt]

Yeah, so I mean, my two main influences are Bob Ross and Jerry Rosa. And I think that the space that all three of us are in is a watch me work. These aren't how to videos, it's watch me work videos. And I've never heard anybody say that before. I'm hoping that if I blast it out into this community, that people will start recognizing it as a legitimate format, because that's what I watched. And Bob Ross is the OG Watch me work content creator. And I really was like, man, I gotta focus on that. The same video over and over again. The same deal.

[Dusty Porter]

Yes, being. Being this what you just explained. I'm a. I love technology, obviously. And there's a guy, I can't think of his name right now, but he does this where he livestreams and he posts these really long form videos of basically work with me where people can, can watch him fix these things called Apple HomePods. This older generation of Apple HomePods had some major problems and he goes in and he fixes them and he talks you through it and he talks about different current events and different things going on in his life. And you're basically like, you're sitting there in the shop with him. Which when I watch your videos or Jerry with the guitars. It's so interesting and intriguing to hear the thought process and just the longer form nature of the videos. Now I have to ask you this. When did. After you started, was there a moment in your mind where you thought to yourself, okay, this thing might like, this thing might really work? Like, do you remember a moment or a video where you thought to yourself, okay, Andy. Or you went to your wife and your kids or whatever and you said, hey, I think I might be onto something.

[Andy Quandt]

So there were a couple of moments. So here's how it went is I'm like, okay, I'm going to set out and start a YouTube channel. And I started watching videos on how to start. And I found Ali Abdul and he said, make two videos a week for two years and your life will change. So that's what I set out to do. And then saw some Mr. Beast thing where he is like, make a hundred videos and make each one better. So those two things were stuck in my mind. And all I was trying to do is get to a thousand subs and 4,000 watch hours. And I had 4,000 watch hours pretty quick because these are 45 minute videos. And, you know, it added up. But one day I was like getting close. I think I was at like 500 subs or something like that. So I found a Facebook page that was Home Bicycle Mechanics or something. And I was reading through it and I'm like, this is my audience. So I made a post and it was like, have you guys seen this guy? He's calling himself the Bob Ross of Bicycle Mechanics. It's crazy what he's doing. You should check it out. And posted one of my own videos pretending to be some random guy, like thinking that the people that get it would think it was funny and most people wouldn't get it. And it totally worked. I had a thousand subs within like two or three days on that post. It went wild. And that I had an idea. So the other format is kind of like roast comedy. 12 minute, really snarky, cynical, sarcastic. My kind of sense of humor. And I put out a bicycle or a video called why Are Bicycle Mechanics Such Assholes? And it went viral. It got 150,000 views in a week. And every single bicycle mechanic on the planet. I mean, I could not believe that I was getting views from Czechoslovakia, you know, like. Or the Czech Republic, I guess it's called now. It was just wild and that really put me on the map. And, you know, I dropped that video right after I monetized. I had gotten my thousand subs from the Facebook post. I had the 4,000 watch hours. I monetized, dropped that video. So I was making money. I think I had. I think I got. My first check was 1200 bucks or something.

[Dusty Porter]

That's awesome. Let's take it back for a second. With the videos that you make, did you have any experience with editing or production before this, or is this something that was brand new to you?

[Andy Quandt]

It was brand new to me, actually. Thank you for asking that question. The first year, I would just set up my iPhone for the first few videos. And then I bought a camera, Sony ZV1, I think. And I realized that the mic needed to be good. But I would make get footage and then send it to a friend of mine who was like a video editor. And I thought this. Well, you had to be like some fancy guy to do this. And he would basically cut the videos for me. But we were just putting it out. Like, if you watch my first 1012 videos, it's just me working in the shop. And then one day I was like. And he was doing it for free. He was just like, I want to help you. He's like, this sounds like a good idea. And I felt bad about asking him to rework stuff and whatever. So I just decided to use imovie. So I would say my first 200 videos were done in imovie. I just would cut them, drop in some music, and put them out. So that's how I learned.

[Dusty Porter]

But do you think it's possible to start a new channel right now in 2026 on YouTube and find success?

[Andy Quandt]

Well, I. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. And anybody, if you've got an idea for a channel or want to try it, I say, go for it. I talk to people all the time. One of my favorite recently, I met a guy who. He inherited his family's old butcher business, but it has kind of turned into a hobby. And so he's the guy. He's way up in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan. So he's the guy in the area that processes all the deer harvest, but he also works with local farmers. And I'm like, that is super interesting. And I explained, watch me work. I'm like, start a channel. Two videos a week, you know. And I don't think he's done it, but he was really intrigued as something to do. I think anybody can do it. If you have at least in my watch me work kind of world. If you have a skill that other people want and don't have, you don't have to. Well, you can kind of explain what you're doing, but don't treat it like how to just start making videos of what you do in your process and talk about yourself. People really love having a friend out there that's doing something interesting.

[Dusty Porter]

All right, so alongside these long form video essays type work with me videos, you kind of do the live streams as well. Can you talk about the. The programming on the channel? How often do you live stream as opposed to upload. Upload regular videos? Are you doing short form content? Just talk about your whole workflow as far as kind of what you're putting out there on the channel.

[Andy Quandt]

Yeah, my, my primarily driver is the goal of doing two videos a week for two years. I was gonna quit and just go to one video a week after two years, but I've just kept it going. And that is either a bike fixing video or sometimes I go for a bike ride or like the one I dropped the other day was just me kind of shuffling stuff around the shop. So it's just those are my long form videos, the core thing. Every once in a while I'll do one of those roast comedy. But I don't know, I kind of. It's like insult humor and I feel like I'm being mean to my audience half the time. So I've kind of stopped doing that just because I feel icky afterwards. But so I make those videos to kind of pepper in and keep it different. I don't do much with short. I have had some success lately with chopping up the funny parts in my long form videos and making reels for Instagram primarily. Not much on TikTok. It would be easy to do it all, but I don't know, I just don't want to manage all that stuff. And then the live stream thing, I try to do live streams every Friday at 10am but I don't do it every Friday at 10am and I just stumbled across it one day. I was like, what is this like? And I just went live. And then all of a sudden I had like 40 people on and they were like, oh, bike farmers live. And they're like, hey man. And I was. And I was on for an hour and I had a blast doing it. So for me, like, it's strange, I have this relationship with the camera now where there's an audience back there and I feel like I have friends out there in the. In the void. And so doing the live streams. I'm just hanging out with a bunch of friends in the shop. But I'm in, totally in control of the conversation, which is kind of fun and nice and the same people show up every week and I really enjoy and I look forward to those live streams and yeah, let's talk about the community aspect.

[Dusty Porter]

You just kind of touched on it. There's how important, how important is that? The curation of the people that are coming back and how it has helped you monetize. These same people are showing up to these streams or watching these Work with Me videos, explain how important that is to your channel and growing and niching down on YouTube.

[Andy Quandt]

I think it's really important and really valuable for creators to harness that as much as they can. And I think I'm really not that good at it. I don't have, I'm not, I'm just not a joiner, I guess. You know, even in the bike world there's a lot of different scenes and people dress the same and talk the same and are into the same stuff. I've never like found these little cliques to fit in or I don't really fit in anywhere. And so like I don't feel right creating my own community. That said, when I go to the local bike swaps in the winter around here, all the cities have a bike swap where everybody brings their bins apart and we hang out. I'm like a local celebrity at the bike swap, so there's definitely a bike farmer army out there and I can't even get anything done at these swaps. It's wild. It's like comic con for me.

[Dusty Porter]

It's, it's amazing.

[Andy Quandt]

It's, it was really bizarre.

[Dusty Porter]

Let's talk about your decision not to reopen the bike shop. What, what, what role did YouTube play? And obviously let's not talk monetization quite yet, but your decision to, to do this, was it a conversation you had with your. Why your family? What was that decision like?

[Andy Quandt]

Sure. So I live in a very small town. There's only 6,500 people here. Trek is the largest bike brand in the world. I think it's a billion dollar bike brand. They're 10 miles north of me. So most of the enthusiast cyclists here, cyclists here are associated with Trek somehow. This town needs a small little bike shop like every town does, but it's really hard to make money with it. It just doesn't make money. I was able to start my career as a self employed bicycle mechanic because I had the bikemobile which was A sprinter van and I would tune up bikes. I had a website that people would sign up and I would tune up bikes in their driveway in Madison. And that was my way of like having a profit center for my local bike shop, which has this huge history. It was like the bike shop in town from 1933 to 1990, and then I was able to reopen it. I named my son after this bike shop like 10 years before I owned it. It's really a part of me. However, I make more money with the YouTube channel online than I ever could with the bike shop and it's really hard to find help. And I'm more passionate about making videos and doing my own thing now than I am about living my life dream of owning a bike shop. So I called it the most difficult, no brainer decision of my life. I'm full time content creator now, which is, I think the goal for many of us. And I, it really, it was hard to pull the trigger, but I did.

[Dusty Porter]

You know, that is, I mean, I love stories like that. And I'm so happy for you that you're able to, to live this life and do what you're doing and have your voice heard. That's just, that's amazing to me. What is something that you wish you would have known sooner now that you've done this for a while? Looking back at the journey thus far on YouTube, what is something you wish you would have known sooner?

[Andy Quandt]

Let's see here. I guess from day one I was really focused on AdSense money and I begging for super thanks in every single one of my videos, which was a huge part of it. And then memberships. I never did the patreon thing because YouTube memberships had become a thing. But one thing that I never really understood or wanted to get into or something was sponsorship deals or brand deals. And that changed at the end of last summer when another creator in the bike space, Matty Active, he'd be a fun one to have on your show, by the way. Matty Active, he stopped by to visit and meet me and he's like, we started talking about monetization and he's like, you don't do any sponsored videos? I'm like, no. He's like, oh, I gotta hook you up with my agency and they'll start bringing you deals. And so I did that last fall and now I have like one or two videos a month that are sponsored and that has really helped with the monetization. So I wish I would have known that sooner.

[Dusty Porter]

Yeah. And we'll talk about the monetization here. Coming up, I have a question from one of our members in our mastermind group. It's something we allow them to do is ask questions to to the guests of the show. Joey asks, was there a time in your journey when you felt burnt out and lacked motivation to keep going? If so, what happened and how did you get through it?

[Andy Quandt]

That's a really good question. The answer is all the time. Probably I'm feeling a little burnt out, but never so. I don't know if this is unique to the bike space, but I know it's a thing for bike farmer and I've talked to other bike people so it happens. But in the winter I see a real dip in views. So like right now is one of those times. It's just 10 of 10, 10 of 10, 10 of 10 every single time. And just like the last two videos started out at 10 of 10 and I finished somewhere in the 7 or 8 of 10. And it's hard to stay motivated. But I have that soft goal of two videos a week. It's drop on Tuesday morning, drop on Saturday morning. And it keeps me going. And it's like, just put out a video no matter what. Who cares about that? You gotta keep the train moving down the tracks. But it does feel repetitive after a while. And I'm a creative person, so another thing I've been doing lately that's really helping is because I closed the bike shop down. I had my garage back. I was selling bikes out of my garage in the summer. So I've moved everything around and I'm building a wood shop. I want to learn woodworking. And so I have other creative outlets that I work on as well just to kind of keep the creative juices flowing.

[Dusty Porter]

If you like this conversation that you're listening to right now, I just want to ask you one thing. Can you go and subscribe to the show, whether it be on your podcast player or over on YouTube wherever it be subscribe, I would really appreciate it. Leave us a review. Also, let me know what you think of the show. And don't forget to check out all of the resources and the things that we offer creators down below in the show notes. And lastly, if you know a creator or have contact with someone who you think would be a great fit for this podcast, let me know. Send me an email Dustyustyporter.com with that said, back to the conversation. Yeah, I think that's important. Have other stuff, whether it be other hobbies or, you know, I find that right now I'M so busy in my personal life, my family life. It's made me that much more focused and able to double down on my work, especially the YouTube stuff and the podcast, because I know how important it is for my. My growth of my business and supporting my family. And so kind of having, having those motivations, whether you have to seek them out, you know, whatever it may be. And sometimes people ask this question, Andy, and the answer from me, the YouTube coach, may be, hey, maybe you do need to take a break. Maybe you do need to step away. May isn't something you need to do going forward if you're not that invested or you're. If you're not that bought in. And so the burnout thing is real for creators. It can be a lonely space for you, being able to go to those bike swaps and, you know, having that interaction with your community through the live streams, that probably helps a bit. And so I love to hear you kind of respond honestly and transparently to that. Let's talk about money now. So you mentioned you're just, you know, you got into the sponsorship world doing a couple of videos or four, whatever videos a month for sponsorships. You have the AdSense revenue break down all of the buckets in which you're making money from your creative avenue here, your YouTube channel, and then maybe give us an estimate of what you might make on an average month. And I know it's seasonal, right? The winter may be worse than the. The summer. So you can give us a comparison of both?

[Andy Quandt]

Yeah. So, all right. Adsense is the. The one that I think about the most, and that's the check that I wait for every month. You know, at the low point, like right now, it's a couple months of $5,000 a month. the high point, at the end of last summer, August and September, I think we're above $11,000. So I think that's really good. For AdSense money, I signed up with an agency that has been bringing me brand deals, and in the first 90 days of that, we brought in $17,000 brand deals. And I don't know if that's. I think that's what I was paid. And that is. It kind of goes up and down, but that's really good money. The super thanks and livestream stuff is all part of that AdSense chunk. So I don't count that as extra. I do Amazon affiliates, and I should be doing a lot more with that, but I don't. That's another one. It's like, man, I just. Sometimes I'M just like, how am I so stupid? But that was about four or five hundred dollars a month, I think. And I've started doing merch and when I first finally got the merch up and going and I use a third party fourth wall, you know, print on demand. And then I ship some water bottles and stickers out of here and that is, I don't know, it's like $1,000 this month. But that first month I did it, it was like $3,000. It was a really nice bump. Yeah, that's about it. Those, those three ways.

[Dusty Porter]

Can you talk about. And I know this. Let's talk about the combination of evergreen videos, videos that live on and are still valuable years down the road. We'll talk about that and the combination of that and just these long form videos. Like if we go to your channel now, it looks like the of a video is around 30 minutes to an hour, leaning towards that 45 minute mark. And so can you talk about the benefit of doing that for optimizing for ad revenue because you are getting multiple mid rolls in there. And then if people are watching for a long time, that increases that watch time and retention and viewer satisfaction, which is what we know YouTube's looking at right now. So just talk about all of that and how that kind of works for your channel.

[Andy Quandt]

Yeah. For the evergreen content, I always turn to my north star, the man himself, Bob ross. He had 33 seasons, 13 episodes each. They were all 28 minutes long. The exact same thing. And I mean incredible consistency. I just don't know how he did it. I mean he was built for this job. And here we are decades later and go look at his YouTube stats. It's insane. You know, whoever's got the rights to that. There's actually really interesting documentary out there about how he kind of died broke and yelling. But so I look at that and then I think about Derek Beery and Vice Grip Garage. I watch that a lot and he's pretty famous out there. And I always look forward to watching his finding a rusty old car in the field and get it working in the field and drive at home videos. That's his bread and butter. It's the other videos that I don't click into. And I see the same thing on my channel. Like if I just do a boring old, you know, bike fixing video, it always does pretty well. But if I mix it up a little bit, who knows? Sometimes it's big and sometimes, sometimes it's not. So I just, you know that core bread and butter and I really hope that it's evergreen and that this channel makes money for me indefinitely on some level, if I do decide to put down the bike farmer pick and shovel. I don't know. Is that the right metaphor?

[Dusty Porter]

It is, yeah. No, I love that. And then can you speak on the mid roll ads and the optimization for that with the longer form videos?

[Andy Quandt]

Yes. So I think eight minutes is like the. Is like a big thing because you get. You get C2 mid roll or something like your second one.

[Dusty Porter]

That's right.

[Andy Quandt]

I know. So here's the other thing that I do. I play like really relaxing chill music in the background. I try to have a really chill vibe because I love napping. To YouTube. I pay premium so I don't get interrupted by ads, but I want people to fall asleep while they're watching my videos because I get paid for all that watch time, whether they're conscious or not. So make them long and make them boring. But it's interesting and people learn from it and so on and so forth. So 45 minutes an hour. There's this guy, Simon Fordman, that I watch. He is another car guy. No talking. It's just straight up, like, amazing. He's just a really good filmmaker. And some of his videos are an hour and a half, two hours long. And I'll watch them and fall asleep and go back and watch them again. And I mean, I'm like, this guy is killing it on my inability to stay awake.

[Dusty Porter]

Yeah, the. The thing about that is that these, whatever you want to call them, video essays, long form, whatever you want to call a video podcast, we're seeing on the. On the data side that people are consuming content this way. I look at my daughter who watches this channel about Pokemon, and this guy does like 45 minutes to an hour long facts about old Nintendo games and Pokemon and stuff like that. She's really into that. And these are things that she'll watch kind of in the background. We call this background viewing. Well, guess what, folks? Background viewing. You still get paid for those ads, right? And you know, I've heard Shonduras, which is the guy behind AD's channel, which is one of the biggest, if not the biggest kids channel out there. He's talked about at these different conferences about optimizing for people watching while they're doing other stuff. And I know my kids put his show of their family on the TV and they do other things, whether it be homework, whatever, and they're getting that repeat revenue, you know, whether it be through YouTube Premium, like what I would be, or through ad revenue, whatever. And so I wanted people to understand and hear how you're optimizing because, you know, Andy's right. After eight minutes, you're able to put mid rolls in there. After, you know, 15 to 16, there's another mid roll look. I get it. It's frustrating from the viewer's perspective, right? You can pay for YouTube Premium, but there has to be ways that we, you know, get paid. And AdSense is a great blessing and very much thankful for that. As a creator, can you talk about your workflow? As a creator, how do you manage your time? How do you. Do you outsource anything? Talk about from like, you know, ID ideation all the way to upload? What does your situation look like?

[Andy Quandt]

Yeah, so it's a little bit tougher now that I don't have the bike shop, because when the bike shop is up and running, I did a lot of used bikes. You know, I'd recondition used bikes for sale, which is a nice story arc for any video. I can just do a used bike or tune up bikes in. You know, they're brought in for repair, which is another really nice way. Or sometimes somebody would reach out and say, hey, I want this kind of bike. And I would like, build one for them. And like, I've even had a couple videos where they. They agree to be on camera. Those always do well. It's kind of hard. I don't have that anymore, so. But I can always do a bike fixing video. I have a bike charity that I actually started in Madison years ago that still exists, and it's an endless supply of bikes. So like yesterday I went over there, I returned the ones that I had fixed so they can sell them and fund their programming. And then I grabbed a couple more to bring back to the shop. I can always do that. And so each one of these bikes, I have to, like, think about it as like, does this. Is this going to be an interesting bike? Is there a story here? Is this characteristics or mechanical problems that will be engaging for the viewer? So I'm always thinking of that up front. I try to do the, you know, imagine a thumbnail and a title beforehand with those videos. But a lot of times you don't know what you don't know. And so you get into the project and you're like, oh, you know, this happened to that bike. And so that's the new thumbnail or title. I do everything myself. Everything. I don't. I think I hate. I'd hate it if I'm Forgetting someone. But I would love it if I could find somebody to edit my bike videos. But I do little there. There's like little funny things that I do that only I can do. I have little sayings that pop up and different editing techniques that make it funny. And I just don't know if an editor could really learn that. And so I haven't tried it.

[Dusty Porter]

And as far as the packaging goes, can you dive deeper into that? Like, as far as like thumbnails and titles? What have you learned along the way? What works, what doesn't.

[Andy Quandt]

So I thought I started using AI after you did your AI, you know, the last one, I don't know, a couple months ago I'm like, okay, I'm going to. Which is interesting because I started a whole new channel, which I'd like to talk about if we have a minute. But I started using AI for my titles and thumbnail ideation stuff. It is a good idea, like if I really talk about the bike, how I found it, you know, in my prompt, how the. How the repair went, what the video's about, what I think it's about, what's interesting and what I want, how I want the audience to react to it. AI does a great job of telling me how I should package it. Right. I find that helpful. But if I just use its language and its ideas without my input, it. It doesn't really work better than what I come up with on my own. So I use Canva for my thumbnails. I try to keep it simple. Couple, two, three words, a nice crisp image. I have a wall behind me where you see it's gray, all that gray. It was like blank gray. Because I wanted that contrast for the thumbnails. It didn't seem to help. And everybody missed my. You can see it here, my goofy. What do you call it? Pegboard. Not pegboard. What's the word I'm looking for?

[Dusty Porter]

I know what?

[Andy Quandt]

Bulletin board. My bulletin board? Yeah, yeah. Which is cluttered, which is bad for thumbnails. But people missed it, so I added back the bullet bulletin board. I don't know. I'm still figuring it out. I just. It seems like packaging is everything, or that's what all the experts say. But for me, I haven't really found the magic bullet yet. So I don't know.

[Dusty Porter]

So this new channel called Instead of working, it's got six videos, 31,000 subscribers. This is a really cool use case. I'm going to read the description really quick. It says Instead of Working is a 52 week documentary experiment led by Andy Q, which is obviously Andy, who we have on the show. A bicycle mechanic and former corporate refugee. This channel explores how to reclaim agency, dignity and purpose in a world where employment is becoming obsolete. What's the premise here, Andy? What are we doing? I mean, why is this channel doing so well so quickly?

[Andy Quandt]

Okay, so like I said, I listened to your podcast and I can't remember the guys names that you had on. You're talking about AI and how you're all using AI to make videos. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna figure out what these guys were talking about. And I hadn't really done anything with AI in months and months and months, probably 10 months. Just avoided it altogether because I don't know, everybody around me says it's bad for the environment or something. I don't know, I just had head trash about it and I was blown away by how much it had advanced in 10 months. And then I just kind of had this little tinge of existential dread and about how much this is going to change the world. And I do a lot of deep thinking and catastrophizing and so on. And so I started prompting, you know, like, hey, this is pretty incredible. How's this going to affect the labor markets? And then I started learning about it and I had this other channel instead of working that had sat dormant for about eight months, about the same period of time actually where I just wanted to talk about some ideas and deeper thoughts that I've been having. Things that I do on my bike, farmer videos that people don't want to hear because they're just kind of there to relax, you know, touchy subjects. Maybe it's politics, maybe it's economics, maybe it's philosophy or psychology. And I was like, I'm just going to film myself raking the yard and talk about this stuff. That was what the instead of instead of working channel was going to be. But it wasn't sticky with me. It wasn't sticky with any kind of audience. Well, anyway, that prompting session I had, within about 15 minutes I had this idea for a 52 week plan where in 2026 I was going to build a whole new business just using AI to make videos. And it was going to be an experiment. I got really excited about it. I started working on the introduction video that I planned to drop the day after Christmas. And as I was developing that video, the, the idea changed and I was using this one chat session to kind of develop this whole thing scripted. The video used AI as a writing partner and then just sat and I got a teleprompter and it's just a talking head video where I'm reading it off the prompter at the screen and dropped it Christmas Day. And it was viral from the get go. It was so hot. It was the first video on the channel. I deleted everything else. There was only like three videos. And I mean, what's it up to now? Are you looking at it? It's like 365 or 365,000.

[Dusty Porter]

343,000 views.

[Andy Quandt]

Yeah, yeah. And. And then I just like I was getting 2,000 subscribers a day for a week or two and I was like, holy cow, what did I run into here? So I learned a lot in the comments about this technology and how people are reacting to it. And so the second follow up video was more of a response to those comments where I'm like, oh, a lot of people don't think that AI is going to. It's just a gigantic nothing burger. And so I started asking AI, like make the best case for AI being a gigantic bubble that's going to burst at the end of the day. They were like, oh, it's still going to cause economic, you know, upheaval and mass unemployment. So the instead of working concept still exists. And then I tried making some subsequent ones. You know, I had lightning in a bottle because that second video did really well too and they just kind of flopped and it's fizzled out and I've lost the passion.

[Dusty Porter]

The main premise of this podcast from Get Go has always been to help people get their voices heard. I think YouTube is one of the best platforms for that. We obviously have other, you know, things like TikTok and Instagram and all the other social areas. But I think YouTube is such a great platform for people and we live in such a negative world. I love being able to put positive things out there and help other people do the same. And I think that's really the premise of this podcast. So I will link this channel as well as your main channel instead of working to let people know kind of what's possible. And I think that when it comes to AI, I've talked about it numerous times here on the show. You know, you're either going to use it or you're going to get left behind. And so you have to decide whether or not you want to utilize it. I don't think it's going to replace us. I don't think it's going to, you know, there's going to be some major changes happen with upheaval, and it depends on how the government monitors and manages it. I understand all of that, but I think that as a creator, you still have your voice and your creative genius that you can use, but utilizing AI to help doing it more efficiently is kind of the way to go. So guys, thank you again for listening to this conversation with me and Andy. This has been a wonderful conversation. So Andy, thank you again for joining the show. And that's a wrap on the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. I do this every Friday, sitting down with a wonderful content creator. If you've listened this far and you're still here, let me tell you, you must be a creator who really wants to invest in your craft. And if that's so, check the show notes of this episode because you're going to see four or five different ways we can help you as a creator. I love sitting down with content creators, working with them one on one in my coaching program. If you're looking for a little bit of a lower barrier to entry, try our Creators Corner mastermind group. 5 to $10 gets you in that group. You can chat with other creators all throughout the week. Participate in our Mastermind calls, get exclusive podcast recordings. It's a great investment in your journey and we offer YouTube channel audits and reviews where we do Screencast Recordings for 50 bucks. Take a look at your channel and tell you where I think you should be spending your time.

[Andy Quandt]

Time.

[Dusty Porter]

There's other ways you can connect with us like our email newsletter, our running list of tools mentioned on the show. All of those things will be mentioned in the show notes below. Thank you as always for listening to this podcast and if we've helped you in any way, please go leave us a review wherever and however you listen to your podcasts.