Lamarr Wilson Part 2

[00:00:00] Grim, Part 2 of our conversation with Los Angeles-based gaming and lifestyle social media personality Lamarr Wilson. And as part of the conversation Lamarr gives us his practical tips on everything from posting on multiple platforms to getting sponsors for your content.

[00:00:23] If you haven't listened to part 1 of this interview, you might want to check that out first. If you're ready for Part 2, Lamarr starts us off by giving us his impressions of the Apple Vision Pro. Join us for a part 2 behind the post conversation with Lamarr Wilson.

[00:00:36] You have an Apple Vision Pro and I wanted to ask you, do you think that the Apple Vision Pro is going to change the way we create or consume digital media? Not in a scary iteration. Okay.

[00:00:49] You know, that's somebody who, you know, I have, I relation with Apple but I pay for it. So like, and just, you know, just so you all know, it's not sitting there. It wasn't a review unit. So I paid for it.

[00:01:00] And I'm not disappointed by I still use it, but I, here's what I think. I think the best thing I like about the Apple Vision Pro is the immersive video. And there's two types. So there's the put it on and it looks like you're in a theater.

[00:01:17] You know, you have that kind of, you know, where it was like, there's an IMX screen in front of you. I think that's amazing. And I've watched several, several movies in that mode. And I think that'll be fine.

[00:01:29] But I think the one, and I think they are calling it immersive video is the one where they had a one with Alicia Keys where you put it on in your in the studio with there. Now they have these special cameras. You can see around the studio.

[00:01:44] But it's like she's right there singing to you. So I may have watched that one 10, 15, 20 times. But the point is, like, I can, I can see that revolutionizing sports. You know, I've watched the playals right now.

[00:02:00] And I'm just imagining, man, if they had those cameras, if Apple had their relationship had those cameras, I would pay premium to watch it like I'm on the court. Like I'm sitting on the court side to get that kind of immersive video, I'm thinking of concerts.

[00:02:17] So that's coming. I know Apple has a relationship with MLS. I think they have the rights. So I heard they're going to be testing that was soccer that will get me into watch the soccer because I want to see, I want to see that technology at work.

[00:02:30] So no, in this current iteration, but I see where they're going. Okay. Let's go. Good. Right. Staying on just on a current, you know, current events and current technology, tick tack. Tick tack may not be a thing in the United States in about nine to nine months.

[00:02:51] And a lot of people are doing one. Well, actually, a lot of people, there's basically three ways that people are reacting. One, they're just, ah, Tick tack is going to be here. It'll be fine. They're doing nothing.

[00:03:03] Then there's the, you know, the opposite of that, people are completely freaked out. They don't know what to do. And then there's probably the right answer in the middle to where it's like, okay, if I haven't already diversified, maybe I probably should.

[00:03:15] You know, you are on Tick tack, you are on Instagram, you are on YouTube and I want to imagine some other things. What is your recommendation for creators who may have at this point only be on Tick tack just because it's so hot, it's so viral.

[00:03:31] It's, it's, it's the thing that the kids are using. But if they haven't done anything else, what is your recommendation that they do? Yeah, I really feel bad for the, and I mean, it's in the most positive way.

[00:03:42] I feel bad for the people who kind of blew up on Tick tack because they didn't have to make anything else anywhere. You know, you got millions of, some people got 10, 20, 30 million plus on Tick tack. Why would you try to push on Snapchat or some other places?

[00:04:00] You're rocking it, right? But yeah, the reality is that this is probably not going to be here. So diversification number three, I upload two six different places every video. Now, YouTube, now you may see some of my Tick talks that are not on YouTube shorts.

[00:04:21] And that's because YouTube has one minute limit and sometimes I, some of my videos go over that. Instagram reels that you do a minute 30 and it's six times less you do 10 minutes. But I usually don't go over a minute 30.

[00:04:33] So, so Snapchat and YouTube has a one minute lock. So they don't get some of my videos. I don't try to cut them further because it just takes out. It just takes a spirit out of the video.

[00:04:44] Yeah, I upload six places, including my Facebook page, Facebook Snapchat, Instagram reels, Tick talk, YouTube shorts and the last one is, Threats, Instagram Threats. And so I just, I just upload there. I just recommend people. She always be diversifying anyway.

[00:05:04] But if you haven't done it, pick places that you, you know, like even if you have a small audience there, this is the time to start. We got a year or less, probably less than a year now. Less than a long, so it's hoated up.

[00:05:18] So this is happening. This is not a, oh no, it's happening. It's, it's law. So, you know, the, the worst thing that could happen is, okay, it gets delayed or support somebody markedly by a, or it gets, you know, president's change and, and they cancel it, whatever.

[00:05:37] It's still a good thing for you that you diversify into these other places. It's not a bad thing at all to be posting elsewhere. Tick, Tick talk has an amazing algorithm. Nothing can top it.

[00:05:51] But your content is, once you've made it, you made it, just post it elsewhere. You know, that's, that's my thought process. I know it's harder for people who post using the Tick Talk camera

[00:06:04] because then you got to find a way to take the water mark out and put it elsewhere. I don't post like that. I just post, I edit and find out, and then I upload it everywhere. That seems to work good for me.

[00:06:18] Can you walk us through like an average video? So it's a minute and 30 seconds. That obviously does not take you a minute and 30 seconds. What's behind the scenes look like for a minute and 30 second video for you? Yeah, so I, I, I filmed from my iPhone.

[00:06:33] That is my primary camera. I recently got a little bit more, you know, a wireless mic that I put on my, you know, it's like a little bit better with the sound.

[00:06:44] But I just, yeah, I filmed it from, you know, I pressed start and I don't turn it off until I'm done. And sometimes that's three minutes. Sometimes there's five. Sometimes it's 10.

[00:06:53] Just a person when I'm talking about, I know some people, it drives me crazy when I see some videos when I see their hand. They, they, they, they, they go and click each, these, these parts that they made.

[00:07:06] So they're in a editing 20 different clips and I'm just, I don't, I don't edit like there. I, I do the whole one hole clipping that chop it up from there. I just seems to work better for me.

[00:07:16] But yeah, so like if I, if I got some headphones on, be doing the next day or so. And, and so, you know, I'd like to camera run. I do my thing. I mess up or whatever.

[00:07:27] And I start over and do all this, I let it all stay in there. And then I just go on the final cut and slice it up how, how want it to be. Hopefully, I'm, I'm trying to meet my goal time.

[00:07:39] And so the whole process, I mean, it's definitely under an hour or less I'm adding like a lot of, if I'm doing a voiceover video that takes longer, you know? Oh, that sounds so.

[00:07:52] Yeah, you know, because I have, you know, to go in and just kind of match it with the, with the clips. But I actually find the voiceover is more fun to do because if I'm doing a vlog, it's, you know, it's, I like those videos too.

[00:08:03] But I can, I mean, there's times I could knock out a video and half hour have it up. Sometimes less, if it's a all one take video that could be up at 15 minutes. You know, so just, it's just depends on the type of video.

[00:08:16] But it's not as long as when I was doing the, you know, the other, my screen videos would take, there's only takes some hours. Not all day. I was always kept my videos pretty simple. They're not skits or three camera systems.

[00:08:34] I keep it very simple so I, because I don't, I don't love editing. I've tolerated editing. You know, yeah, yeah, so I, I, I like doing my own editing. But anything, anything more intricate. I, I just don't do the kind of content to care.

[00:08:54] Yeah, yeah, to care about that. So you mentioned using iPhone. You have a little wireless microphone so you sound better. I actually saw one of your videos where you were using like this road microphone to plug into the bottom of your phone.

[00:09:09] I think you bought it because the old one that you were using had the lightning port on it. That's a video from a while back. Yeah, I moved, I moved on to this one now. Yeah, how, how do you land? Yeah, I put this right on my shirt.

[00:09:22] And I saw Mark K's MKBHD, he was doing a car, his car video. So I'm like, why is it sound sounds so good? I've got to get a sound person. And because I know he's using his iPhone for those videos.

[00:09:32] I'm like, but how does he sound so good? And that's all it. I saw that logo on the chest and I was like, that's what I need to get. And I've been, I've been super happy. Yeah, I know you have a ring light. I do.

[00:09:44] I know you, I can't remember the name of this, but I know you have another thing you can put your iPhone on that it'll turn in or track you if you move around the room. Oh, that belkit thing.

[00:09:52] I don't use that much, but yeah, do you have one of those? Yeah. But the point I'm getting to is that you are creating videos that regularly get over a hundred thousand views, that often get over a million views. And you're just doing this on equipment

[00:10:09] that probably many of the people listen to this podcast have in their pocket or have access to on their laptop or their iPod or whatever. That's been the point. That's why I do it like that. I, you know, getting a comment from the education background,

[00:10:23] I've tried to keep things, you know, what's that saying? And keep it simple stupid. You know, like I just try to keep it simple to show people that you can do the big productions. You can have the red camera like Mark has

[00:10:38] does and definitely, I mean, his views reflected. I mean, yes, some people have crazy quality, you know? But you can also have good quality with what you already have. You know, like most people have a phone. And like most phones, I just, I just switched to it because

[00:10:57] I started doing videos while I was moving away from the camera. I'm like, okay, I need a microphone that goes with me. But the camera, I mean, the microphone, I phone is fine. So I also have a Google Pixel sometimes I use that for filming

[00:11:10] because I need to show something on my phone. That's fine, you know? So, you know, but yeah, I do it that way the show people like just very inexpensive equipment. You can get started and be a creator, especially when you're doing a short form

[00:11:25] and just jump right into it. Okay, so I've got one last question. I want to ask, I think, buddy, you might have one more question. I'm not going to try to keep you forever. But, you know, you are the CEO of unboxings

[00:11:39] and you get that, you know, you get that moniker for a reason because you unbox a lot of stuff. And I mean, you unbox a lot of stuff. So I know that a question you always get is,

[00:11:54] are you buying all that stuff or people sending you that stuff? And I know that it's a combination of the two. But then there's a question, it always gets asked. Well, how do you get free stuff? How do you get brands to send you free stuff?

[00:12:08] Now I know what you're going to say so I'm going to preempt it. You will always say that is not the right question to be asking. I would say that you get free stuff when you get started. I would say that to you. I'm sorry.

[00:12:20] I wouldn't say that to you. You made me like me but I've seen it. But if I'm trying to keep, if I'm trying to keep someone, yeah, because I'm like they're missing the point. Right. Yeah. So my question to you is,

[00:12:30] how do I get free stuff so that I can be a Lamar Wilson? Okay. So in order to do it, it's honestly so simple. I learned from a kid. I remember years ago, this kid was in one of my lives and what is what is parent.

[00:12:48] He's in one of my lives, Google Plus. And he was like 12. And he had like a relationship with logic tech and I'm just like, I think it was logic tech. And I was like, how in the world? And you're smaller than me. And so it was really simple.

[00:13:07] Like in his case, he just reached out and he had a form letter. He just kind of reached out. But here's what I taught people. If you pick something you like, I like gaming. I mean, you know, 90% of my stuff is gaming related. I like gaming.

[00:13:23] So what I did, I started talking about things related to gaming, of things that I already had. So I already had a controller or I already had a game, or even if I didn't have it, I will talk about the news about it.

[00:13:35] So put that out there into the ether, put that out there to the world. Other companies started to see it. And they were like, hey, oh, he's talking about this. I kind of think we make a controller. Let's see if he'll, so that happens a lot

[00:13:51] where they'll reach out to you once, but you have to put the content now. And I always tell people, they were like, how do you get all this stuff? And I wanted to. But I go to the account, they have no videos.

[00:14:02] You gotta put, you gotta tell people what you're like, how do they know? My agent got to me about a month ago. Because I was like, man, I would like to do some, we're talking about travel, some other channels.

[00:14:12] I'm like, man, I would like to do some travel videos. She's like, where's the last thing you've done to travel? You talk anything about travel and that just like, okay, point taken. You know, like, you're not talking about how the world

[00:14:21] would adults to know, I want to work with them. If I haven't talked, if I haven't even, we're gonna talk in about it. So that's the first one. Started by talking about the stuff that you want to talk about, it will get out there. They may contact you.

[00:14:33] The second one is just take the leap of faith and contact them. They all have, all those sites have PR emails on their sites. And you just, I email, and I still do, to the day, I'll email, say, hey, I'm so, so I remember when I started,

[00:14:49] I had like, with 10,000 followers, maybe you've listed that. I was just like, hey, I got a small channel, but I talk about so and so. Can I get a review sample of said product? And I remember the first thing I got was an iPad stand. Not the iPad.

[00:15:06] It was a stand for the iPad. It was the first thing I got, like in 2010, 2011, when I was just getting started. And that was the greatest thing to me. And then from there, I got really shit with that company. So they said more stuff.

[00:15:19] And then it just, it's snowballed from there. But the first thing people have to do is do the content. You'd be surprised, Rob. Like you do content. So obviously I'm not talking to you or Bodhi or any, but like there's so many other people who see this stuff

[00:15:33] and they just, they don't do the basics. And that's when I was like, you're asking a wrong question. Because you just want free stuff. And the thing is, I know from having a marketing background. None of this is free.

[00:15:48] It's no cost to me, but they want something every third. They, you know, there is a, there is a, the video I give them, or even the Instagram post I give them, the story post I give them, is the value is higher than probably what they're sending.

[00:16:04] And they know that and they know I know that. So it's an exchange. So once, I just look at it for an appony view because I don't want to be like, hey, look at me, I get all this free stuff.

[00:16:13] It's like, no, it's, I have to work for it. You know, it's nice. It's not even wrong. I'm not, yeah, when I had a couch sent to me, I'm not going to be like, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:16:24] It's like, yeah, go ahead and make the course on how to get that couch because that was nice. That was nice. That was nice. I've been told by some friends, I need to make some kind of outline. And I would, you know what?

[00:16:39] I don't think I would charge for it because like Gary Vee said so many times, he said he puts all this stuff out there. It tells people exactly how to do it. 95% of people won't do it anyway. Like, you can give somebody the outline.

[00:16:51] And I have, I've given friends the literal outline of written it out. Exactly how to do with the examples with emails. I'm kind, nothing. I can speak to this part of it. There are folks who want to learn how to do it and their, their few.

[00:17:07] And there are folks who want to learn how to do it so they can get with they see coming from it. And if the, if the getting what you see coming from it is more a want than actually doing the work,

[00:17:20] it's very easy to quit because you tell me if I'm wrong on this. You've already said that you use an iPhone, a, you know, a ring light, a little microphone and you edit in the final cut.

[00:17:34] Things that I would imagine many people listening to this show actually already have. But the, there's work that is involved in doing the thing. And if you're more concerned about, well, how do I get the thing that the work will grant me?

[00:17:49] Then you are concerned about doing the work. It's very easy to quit because the bar was so low. I say this all the time is like, you know, why do you know, I'm a podcaster. And one out of 10 podcast make it beyond episode 10.

[00:18:05] One out one out of 10, you know, 90% will fail before you get to episode 10. And I believe that it is like 50% fail before you get the episode three. So if you can get to episode four, you're in the top half of all podcasts.

[00:18:18] If you get to episode 10, you're in the top 10% of all podcasts that have ever been created because most people quit. So early but why do they quit? Because it was so easy to get started. And if it was never your thing to actually build the platform.

[00:18:30] It was just what I built this platform. This is what the platform will provide me. There's a dislike or there's a disjoint there that doesn't allow you to do the things when it's hard.

[00:18:41] When you don't feel like it, when you're, I really don't feel like creating a video today. But I need to if I want to do these things. I'm not saying that you never take a day off. But the days off cannot be more than the days on.

[00:18:54] There you go. There you go. Yeah. And that's why I answer some people the way I do. And it's not in a crash way. It's very respectful. But it's like, yeah, you're asking, yeah, you're asking the wrong question. You know, because there's steps you have to do before.

[00:19:08] Like it was years and I was talking about game for a long time. Oh no, I have a better example. 2015 I started out of fun doing a Oreo taste. They had weird flavors. I started doing Oreo videos. People are like what are you doing? You taught my games.

[00:19:23] Is that why you're doing Oreo or tag with? I'm just like, oh no, it was, it's because they're stupid. And I like Oreo's, they should see. But it took Oreo. I think they finally read that. I had dozens of videos out.

[00:19:37] They didn't hit me up to, I think about 2019. You're like four years or five years later, they finally, like acknowledge my existence completely. Like, like they didn't acknowledge me at all. You know, so that happened. But I wasn't doing it to get Oreo, it'll acknowledge me.

[00:19:57] I was doing it because it was a fun video to do. And they got really good videos too. So, you know, again, it's just doing stuff for the right reason. I don't, I don't do videos hoping that PlayStation, again, PlayStation is another one.

[00:20:09] Didn't didn't hit me up for years. But recently in the last year, they've been, they've been workrooming, make sure I get something there, because you know, I've got to solve the results of stuff I've been doing with other companies.

[00:20:20] So, you know, but again, I just did it because I like gaming point. The Robin I talked about this last week when we were kind of reevaluating what this podcast was and who we should are we still targeting the right people.

[00:20:33] And you have to have the ability to do the social media, you have to have the ability to do the editing, the behind the scenes, the post-production, the pre-production, the, you have to be able to do all of that,

[00:20:44] especially when you start now unless you're like Ryan Reynolds or something, you have a team. But you have to be able to do all of that. And that takes a lot of time and a lot of energy.

[00:20:53] Like this morning, Rob was working on this episode and I was working on social media stuff and then we come in and we interview and then we leave today. We'll be working on other stuff. You just like, I don't think people take into consideration

[00:21:06] because a lot of people make it look easy how much time this takes. And I think Lamar, you're one of those folks that make it look very easy. But it's not. But thank, no, thank you for saying that.

[00:21:16] It's funny because before I got in here, I was thinking of if you're going to ask the question related to this, one of the most frustrating things I get is the people who find me for the first time. It's like, who do you think you are?

[00:21:29] How did you get this stuff? You were, you know, and just like, you ain't, you know, you know, I know people bigger than you. Like just completely coming in there going on. I don't get mad at it anymore. I get frustrated sometimes.

[00:21:41] But what I, you know, what I realize is like people are looking at you in the moment. They don't look at the, they don't go back to my profile and say, oh, he's been doing this a decade and a half.

[00:21:54] You know, that's why or that I've actually been in marketing sales marketing for, you know, to more, you know, 25 years. They do that, you know, they don't, you know, because whenever I, how do you get this stuff?

[00:22:05] How do you get, it's like, and I tell them, it's just like I've told them in the comments it's like, I've been doing this, I've been the sales of Mark. I've been, you know, building computers.

[00:22:13] I've been in all this just 96, you want to be 10, 94, you want to really 10, I go. Working at best, working at Best Buy when I was a high school. Sorry, I was a high school in 94. Sorry about that, guys. So I need to make sure you do it.

[00:22:25] Everybody know that you're younger than us. So yeah, so it's, it's hard. So I, you know, I try to, I've tried to let them know. Yeah, this is just, it's not as easy as it is things. But I make it seem easy because it's gotten easier.

[00:22:45] But I've done hundreds of videos. I don't even know how many I've done at this point. When I was counting on the YouTube channel, I want to say it's like 884 that you had on YouTube. That's just YouTube. It's more because it's public. This is public.

[00:23:01] Yeah, you have way more because as you said, there's, there's videos that you have that are on TikTok and Instagram that don't make the YouTube because of the time restriction. So I would have to imagine that you're well over 1000.

[00:23:13] I mean, you know, and I have several that are, that I have several that are private. I had to take down over the year. Like, like, I, I clearly hit well over over a thousand on YouTube by itself. But that's crazy to even think about.

[00:23:28] Like, you know, a thousand, you know, and then social, you know, social media posts, these short, short form ones. I don't even know. It's just, it's been a lot of content and I want to keep doing it. I love what I do.

[00:23:41] I love what I do and I love that it couldn't sustain the living, which is still weird to me, you know, at my age that I'm on par in a sense of being able to live off this

[00:23:53] as some of these kids coming up, you know, that, you know, that I may but, you know, to do it. So I'm, you know, it's so, so I'm told you are too old to do this. It's over. Well, LeMar, we're going to wrap up with this.

[00:24:09] I know we told you when to keep you 45 minutes to an hour and we, I think we're blowing through the hour this. Is it an hour already? Yes, it's been an hour.

[00:24:16] It's like, you know, I feel, I feel, I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I feel like I'm certain that we could. So if you'd ever like to come back, you're definitely welcome. But I want to, you know, just in the conversation with this last question for you.

[00:24:27] If you had one thing that you want to tell our listeners, a creator that maybe is just getting started. What is the one piece of advice? You can say that over the last 15 or 16 years you've been doing this. That you would give to them.

[00:24:44] Oh, that was, it's going to sound cheesy though. It's going to sound so like, I'm so serious about this. I just try to have fun every day because life can suck.

[00:24:56] Many, many day and I'm so, I'm so, I'm so genuine in series about that. Like this is supposed to be fun. There is a, there's work involved obviously. But I get to talk about things I want to talk about.

[00:25:10] I'm the boss. I am a control of this stuff. I want to talk about and I could make a living off that. I can't, that's why it has to be fun. And that's why it

[00:25:21] exacerbates me with people getting, getting to their, you know, fights about this Marvel, this DC, and this Xbox and PlayStation, like getting so, getting their, I already got high blood pressure. I'm working on it.

[00:25:32] You know, I don't need it. I don't need it. Excessrated, but this is all supposed to be fun. And so, if you're not having fun with it, then you gotta re-valuate. That's, that's really the

[00:25:45] core. You can build your foundation off fun. That's the one where I keep some people over the years. I just have fun doing this. I think that that's probably the best advice, Lamar honestly.

[00:25:58] Thank you so much for agreeing to come on and being really generous with your time with us. I, I sure you have a lot of stuff you could done today. So I really appreciate you carbon out the

[00:26:07] hour and 10 minutes or so with us. Again, I didn't know this felt like 15 to 20 minutes. I was expecting more questions than this is great. You all, you're all a really good at this.

[00:26:19] Thanks, man. So thank you for having me on. We really appreciate you coming and hanging out with this Lamar. And as I said, we're going to, you know, in, in right here,

[00:26:32] but you have the welcome, you know, the welcome light is on. If you want to come back, because you want to get something off the chest or you want to talk about something as new

[00:26:41] in the world of being a creator, you're always welcome to come back on beyond the goals. Appreciate you. If you're not yet following Lamar on social media, you should do yourself a favor and start. Lamar has made it really easy to find them. It's at Lamar Wilson

[00:26:57] with two R's on all the socials. You can also go to Lamar Wilson again with two R's.com. That is the conclusion of our interview with Lamar Wilson. Thanks again Lamar for hanging out

[00:27:09] with Bodhi and I, and thanks to you, the listener for hanging out as well. Also, if you like the support me on the post head over to beyond the post dot com for size patreon or you can become a

[00:27:18] patron. Members get access to our in-between the post episodes exclusive behind the post episodes, our private community and more. Once again head over to beyond the post dot com for size patreon and thank you for making independent podcasting possible.