I just subbed to your bodybuilding pro YouTube vids today. Bring that shit back, Matty
Hey, thanks Rambone!!
You know...gosh, I do want to. But I've been thinking I want to devote the second half of my life to something more noble than
oiled men in thongs the sport of bodybuilding.
Don't get me wrong - bodybuilding is near and dear to my heart, and I quite enjoyed the years of going to expos and having my IFBB press pass.
I do miss it. Funny enough - I stopped going in 2014, because the time away from my kids made me sad. Bad timing, as my son entered junior kindergarten that year, and my little girl was in kindergarten.
I missed my son's first step because I was at the 2011 Arnold Classic, and I suppose that was in my head [as everyone on here knows, I overthink EVERYTHING], and I just didn't want to be away from my kids that much. In hindsight, even though the timing of my quitting the expo scene was off - I have no regrets having spent so much time with my kids during the formative years of their lives.
But I also read not too long ago that Nick from Nick's Strength and Power makes $100,000 a year from YouTube ads alone...contrast that with ad revenues starting in late 2016 - they were down to a crawl! Once "the powers that be" [globally] realized that YouTube caused Brexit in the UK, and then Trump's election in the USA, something had to be done. Advertisers pulled out like crazy, and bodybuilding videos were automatically flagged because of association with steroids.
I barely talked about steroids - but simply covering pro bodybuilding meant an automatic red flag due to mere association! Check out one of Nick's videos on the subject:
YouTube is now serving ads like crazy [maybe you've noticed - I'm getting multiple ads per video, on almost all videos]. Revenue is way up!
But do I want to dedicate to something that potentially doesn't generate me much income?
And if I do - do I want that subject of dedication to be bodybuilding?
So I've been thinking...I want to start a YouTube channel on missing and murdered/exploited children. I have been a huge fan of Unsolved Mysteries [the originals, hosted by Robert Stack], and I think I'd like to devote the second half of my life to helping to solve cold cases.
This way, at least if the business model fails...I can know I'm dedicated to a noble cause. Whereas if bodybuilding ad revenue flops again, it's a bit harder for me to say "Oh well - at least I covered bodybuilding news", and feel as good about it.
I'd be fine dedicating my life to trying to help solve unsolved child homicide cases, even if I make under minimum wage doing it. I can live comfortably on my rental income [cost of living is CHEAP in Thunder Bay - cheap as hell]. And as much as I would like to a few thousand more monthly from YouTube, if I'm going to make nothing - I'd rather make nothing trying to help the families who have lost loved ones, than to make nothing covering bodybuilding.
I'm a bit conflicted on that right now!!
Like I said - I overthink everything.
I'm glad you paid attention to my YouTube work! I was up to 185 million views last I checked...and it DOES have the potential to make money [especially with Patreon]...but I'm really starting to think I'd like to devote my resources to missing children.
It may be the project for the rest of my life.

I'm grateful for the kind words, Rambone - honestly, kind words like that make it worth it. If there is some way I could do both, I might do that. Maybe six hours a day towards missing children, and two hours a day towards bodybuilding content. You've got me thinking about this one!
