TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

Building A Skateboarding YouTube Channel With High-Impact Editing

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We sit down with Destin from the Dern Brothers to unpack how a skateboarding YouTube channel grows through smarter editing, tighter pacing, and real storytelling from the road. The conversation traces his 20-year path from early failed channels to filming with Bam Margera, Darby Allin, and an unexpected Tony Hawk moment, then turns that experience into practical advice for creators. 
• building a skateboarding YouTube format that stands out with higher production value 
• using skate spot history and sourced clips to strengthen storytelling and credibility 
• learning YouTube structure through years of uploads plus filming and editing for Ross Creations 
• diagnosing early mistakes like bad audio, slow pacing, and intros that lose viewers 
• cutting fluff, shortening setups, and making hard choices on what stays in the edit 
• how the Bam Margera connection started and how collaborations open doors 
• the accidental Tony Hawk restaurant appearance and why you should ask fast 
• filming with Darby Allin, the risk of injuries, and the mindset inside skate culture 
• using GoPros and smaller cameras for better angles and lower gear risk 
• turning unused footage into members-only videos without doubling the workload 
• monetizing with merch, sponsorship ads, paid demos, travel, and multi-platform revenue 



The Tony Hawk Surprise Tease

SPEAKER_01

He didn't even tell us. He invited Tony Hawk on his own. So we showed up. I started uploading on YouTube back in like 2006. I've had like four or five YouTube channels. None of them took off real, real big. Make good content and just start off like fast-paced, like heavy hitting, like get right into it. I think a lot of people spend way too much time in the intro.

Meet Dustin And The Channel

SPEAKER_00

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast that's here to give you the extreme information about your YouTube channel. I'm here, Travis is every single week I am, and I have a really cool special guest today on a very cool channel. Some of you have probably seen this before from the Dern Brothers. I'm here with Dustin. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01

I'm doing good. It's it's uh it's been a good week. We just got back from Vegas and I'm excited to be here with you today.

SPEAKER_00

So amazing. If you're new here, we uh we talk to different content creators all over YouTube and find out about their stories. And I, you know, the Dern Brothers channel. First of all, I love the logo, looks just like Super Mario, which is amazing. Um, I want to understand how this channel started. Um, we'll talk about where you're so actually before we even get into that, tell me a little bit about your channel and what you guys do now.

SPEAKER_01

Cool.

Skate History Videos With Real Clips

SPEAKER_01

So uh the basic breakdown of our channel, it's at its core a skateboarding YouTube channel, but there are a lot of other skateboarding YouTube channels, and so we wanted to be a little different, add a little more production value to our videos. Um, you know, I I I've always loved editing, so uh that's my expertise, I would say. And and so I really enjoy just the high edits that we do, and then the col and then I we always wanted to collab with like the other big skaters and names in the industry, and I think all of that mixed up has made our channel just more unique than the average skate channel. And we do a lot of kind of skateboarding history videos where we kind of go to a skate spot and tell everyone all the tricks that have been done at that skate spot and who did them, and then we'll show the clips. So I'll I'll literally go out and find I'll I'll watch like hundreds of skate videos, find the clip I'm looking for, put it in our videos. So right when we give you that information, you see what we're talking about. And then besides that, we just go on adventures around the country or or wherever and and just kind of meet up with skaters in real life, get a session going, and then I make the edit, and yeah, it's going good.

SPEAKER_00

Amazing. We'll talk a little bit more about this part of your journey a little bit later on, but let's rewind a bit. Uh,

The Long YouTube Grind Since 2006

SPEAKER_00

we'll go back to the very beginning before you hit the first upload on YouTube. What were you doing at that point in your life? Um, all right.

SPEAKER_01

Well, the well, the first upload on our channel was in 2020. But if we go back further, I started uploading on YouTube like on my own without my brothers back in like 2006, I think was the first time I ever uploaded a video. And it was just skate videos, just so it was kind of the same content. And then we grew up in Florida. There's a lot of rainy days in Florida, and I and I've always loved like you know, just film and filmmaking in general. So when it was raining, me and my friends would get together and be like, oh, we can't film skate videos, but let's like film come some some goofy skits or just kind of do something with a camera so that I can have more stuff to edit. So I I have I've had like four or five YouTube channels, none of them took off real, real big, but it it gave me kind of like the practice we needed to go into what we're doing now. And so I did that for years, and some of the videos we would make were skate videos, some of them were just comedy skits, and um, you know, YouTube, you're you're always trying to make it, and nothing ever really worked too much. So I was like in and out of YouTube up until about 2020. Well, in 2020, we did do one Dern Brothers video, but it was just one, and I think the timing wasn't right for us, so our channels stayed there for quite a while and just we didn't upload again. Um, but

Learning YouTube By Working For Ross

SPEAKER_01

I started working for another big YouTuber named Vlog Creations, or some people know him as Ross Creations. So I was his filmer and editor for on and off for like a year and a half, and I really learned a lot about how to do a proper YouTube channel in that time. And then once I quit working for him, um I I told my brothers, like, okay, I have all this knowledge now on on how to properly do this and you know, get a channel monetized, get some views coming in, how to structure a proper YouTube video. I'm gonna do this by myself, or you guys can join me and we'll do it all together. And I think that's gonna be the better option. So, you know, they agreed. They were hesitant at first, they didn't really put the time in like I did, but but eventually we started to get more numbers, we started to get more like we started to get monetized, and they realized okay, if we put a little more effort into this, this this really could work. So that's kind of the origin story in a very brief uh paragraph, I guess.

SPEAKER_00

I love that though, because if you think about it, um that means you've been a content creator like around 20-ish years, which is wild. I mean, there's not many creators that can say that on this platform. And I love that you you shared that part because so many people will look at a channel like yours and go, oh, he's only been doing it for a couple years and now he's blown up and he's you know, he got lucky, blah, blah, blah. But you've been doing this for so long. And then the the part about learning from another big YouTuber is huge. Not everyone, not everyone gets an opportunity to do that, but again, it shows that you when you really wanted something, you put in the time, and it wasn't just something that happened because you happened to know famous people. Um, talk a little bit about the times when you first started before this channel and things weren't working. What do you think

Why Early Videos Failed

SPEAKER_00

the things were you were doing that weren't working? Why wasn't it working before?

SPEAKER_01

Um, so when I watched some of my old videos, I can see why other people maybe didn't jump onto them. The audio was very bad for sure. Like we were never mic'd up in those older videos, and I think the pacing was was off. And and you know, back then I think uh there were a lot more channels doing comedy skits, but you know, we were ours were like just not produced well, so I think I just had a lot to uh learn at that point. But but we were having fun. Me and my friends, we had a blast. We made over a hundred videos on an old channel, and and you know, it was a good time making them, and I I did learn a lot. Like uh I also went to film school uh in probably 2018-ish, around then, and and I learned a lot there too, but I think I learned more to make like YouTube videos from just doing it myself or from working with Ross at Vlog Creations. Um, and you know, I I I definitely learned like a lot about like lighting and sound from film school, but but YouTube is just a different thing altogether. Like you wouldn't even edit a YouTube video the same as you would like a film. So it's a very different thing. And I think it was a really important part of my journey to kind of experiment on my own for so long and just grind it out until I figured out the right formula.

SPEAKER_00

What

Cut Fluff And Fix The Intro

SPEAKER_00

do you think a misconception is that uh you had going into YouTube early days versus what you know now? Like what was you went into it thinking what, and now you're like, no, that's not how it works.

SPEAKER_01

Um, yeah, I thought that like it was easier to get lucky and get viral for sure. I thought like if you just had a funny idea, you could build like a bigger story around that, and sometimes that's not not smart to do. I a lot of those comedy ideas we would have, like for comedy videos, we'd be like, Oh, this is such a funny joke, and then we'd wrap this like bigger story around it, and it ended up being like a 10-minute video, but really there's only that one funny part, and so I think a lot of people that start YouTube they have too much fluff around their ideas and they need to cut it out, like make a shorter video if the content's not worth it. I think I see that mistake a lot. People will have like really drawn-out intros, and when viewers are clicking on that video, they're gonna click off or click to the next thing because like whatever's on their screen, they're like, Oh, uh let me try that video. This video is kind of boring. So I think that's a big mistake a lot of uh people make when they're starting YouTube is that they're just uh putting too much at the front of the video that's just doesn't need to be there, like cut it out, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's it's it's it's so smart, and it's something that we we say a lot here on the podcast and in other ways, but uh, I think a lot of people forget it when they're filming because they think everything they're doing is so important. And the hardest part of content creation sometimes is to take something out that you feel is good, but you know isn't because feeling and knowing are two different things, like you can feel this is a good idea, but then when you do it and you watch it and you go, That's just if that was anyone else, wouldn't watch that. Knowing and going with your knowledge sometimes is harder. Do you ever have a problem with that? Um, maybe not so much anymore, but in the past where you have an idea, you're like, This is gonna be crazy, it's gonna be great. You film it, maybe even start to edit, and you're like, This is just not it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, definitely. We we cut a lot of stuff out of our videos that we think is funny at the time or or really cool or or whatever. Um, and I started kind of like one thing that helped me with this is that um we started doing the members only videos, so I just like put all that bonus footage that I think was good, but maybe doesn't make the cut into that, so at least it's going somewhere, and people that are really into us can watch it. But that's another thing I learned from Ross at Vlog Creations. He always seemed to undervalue his work, and I admired that because we would film some. He does like he did pranks and all that, and we would film some of those prank videos, and we were all dying laughing in the editing room, but he would cut it down so much, and I'm like, Oh, are you sure you want to cut that much out? And he's like, Yeah, let's just get to the next thing, and and that's something that I kind of learned from him like, okay, like maybe you don't need to sit on something like for five minutes, like just get to the point and move to the next thing. One of our uh, well, our definitely our most viewed video we did with Bam Margera at his house, the Castle Bam tour. That's an hour and a half long, but I feel like it it needs to be that long because it's all important information. There's not a lot of extra, you know, stuff that doesn't need to be there. Like I made sure, like I if I wanted to, I could have made that three hours long, but I cut it down to an hour and a half.

How Bam Margera Became A Friend

SPEAKER_00

So well, let's talk a little bit about let's rewind because you just mentioned Bam Marjero, who's a huge star and obviously uh is in a lot of your videos. Let's rewind before he started getting involved and tell us how do you know all these famous people? Because uh obviously they're in the skate uh kind of where we'll talk about Darby Allen Allen and everything. Um, they're in the skate ecosphere, but then again, so are a lot of people. Uh, how do you know these guys or how did you meet these guys?

SPEAKER_01

So uh my brothers, we all grew up skating. We all started skating in 2002, and uh my brothers took skating to another level than I did because I kind of got into the filmmaking side of things. I got I had a lot of other hobbies I got into, and I always skated, but they skated like every single day. So they got to a pro status, and because of that, they were entering contests, they were constantly filming clips that would go viral, they're in a bunch of skate movies, so just that projectory, like not even with the YouTube side of things, they've met like a bunch of other pro skaters just from being at contest or skate demos or traveling. Um but the way we met Bam Marjera is a little more of an interesting story because we posted it. It was in 2020, they had the uh like you know, COVID lockdown stuff. Um there was a contest that a big uh creator did on YouTube and Instagram called the Barracks. If you're a skateboarder, you know this company. And they did a challenge where we want you to skate at home. Uh so don't go outside, skate, bring the ramps into your house or skate on your in your backyard, whatever it is, don't leave your house. So we did that by our parents have a pretty big house, and we had a skate ramp in their backyard, and we had a lot of extra wood and ramps laying around. So we drug them all through the house. We started from the top story, went like put wood down the stairs, came downstairs and skated through the living room, all that. Our video ended up blowing up, and everyone kept saying, Oh, that reminds me of the Viva La Bam episode where he put ramps in his parents' house. And because of that, I think uh Brandon Novak, one of Bam's friends, saw that video, but then started looking at my brother's Instagram and saw a skate spot that he wanted to skate in Orlando, and he was like, Oh, that these guys are cool, but also he was working on a skate video himself, and he's like, I want to skate here. And someone he knew was like, Oh, I know where that is, it's in Orlando. I bet if we went, we could hang out with these guys and they'll show us the spot. So we got a message from Brandon Novak and we're like, Yeah, we'll show you around. Come on out. He was out there like a few weeks later. We skated with him all weekend, and then at the end, he was like, Hey, you guys should come up and meet Bam and stay at the castle. It'll be really fun. You can come next weekend, and we're like, Yeah, like let's go. Like, obviously. So we got in the car the very next weekend, drove up there, and uh, I think the first day we were at his house, because at the time, Bam had another house down the street. So we spent like a day or two there before Bam even showed up, and then Bam showed up, we met him, and we just hit it off real fast. We hung out with him, skated, and at first we were just gonna stay the weekend, but Bam was having a good time with us, and he was like, No, just stay the whole week. Like, you can stay at this house, whatever. So we spent like 10 days there, I think, skated, and that ended up being our first Dern Brothers video on our YouTube channel. So we uploaded that, it was a great trip, and then we didn't really talk to Bam again for a while, but we kept randomly running into him over the next year or two, and it was just coincidence, and we're like, yeah, and he he was super stoked, and then we just started hanging out more and more, and it developed into the friendship we have with him now, and now we see him like once a month at least, and we're filming with him and skating with him, and he's so interested in what we're doing with our YouTube, he just joins in whenever he can. So it's been real cool.

SPEAKER_00

So it wasn't hard to convince him to be in your videos.

SPEAKER_01

He doesn't, he just wants to skate, and so if we have a camera, he's like, Oh, I can get footage like clips for my Instagram to show off, whatever. So, no, it wasn't hard to convince him, and and and the following we get and the views we get now, also he's like, Oh, it yeah, if I'm skating with you guys, people are gonna see it, so let's do it. Like, that's all he cares about is just making cool skate videos like we do. Um, at the end of the day, if we weren't monetized, you know, we'd still be making videos, maybe not as frequently, but we all love to just skate and film videos, and that's kind of his background too. When he made those first CKY videos, like he wasn't getting paid for that, he just thought it would be funny and fun to make. So it I think because of all those reasons, it's just worked out.

SPEAKER_00

For people who don't know or maybe have heard the name, like, bam, that sounds familiar. He uh Bam was with Jackass for a long time, many, many, many years ago, and then split off and did his own thing, did Viva La Bam and had a lot of success there. He was definitely in the news for a lot of different things, but he seems like he's really turned his life around, and it's really interesting that um we don't see him maybe even more. I like does he have his own YouTube channel now?

SPEAKER_01

He had a YouTube channel at one point, but he uh man, that that was probably over 10 years ago. He hasn't really touched it since. And I don't think he has really any interest in doing it himself. I think he's stoked that we're doing a YouTube channel, and he works with a couple other YouTubers in the skate world. Uh, like this guy, Winkle, I think his YouTube's WinkleTV. He does a lot of videos with him as well, and a couple other guys, and then he's just satisfied with you know doing the quick editing and posting on his Instagram. Uh, because I mean YouTube is especially like with the videos we're doing, it's a lot of work on the editing side. And I don't think he has time for something like that right now.

SPEAKER_00

Do you do you ever think uh how how often are you looking at making content?

Planning Uploads And Using Bam Wisely

SPEAKER_00

We'll get to other stuff you've done too, but I think the BAM thing is really interesting. Um where you go, okay, this is a BAM video we should do versus this is just a regular Durn Brothers video we will do. Um, like how do you figure out what contents for it? Or do you just show up and go, hey, let's just skate and let's see what happens?

SPEAKER_01

Um it yeah, it depends. I think nowadays we usually have more of a plan, but at the beginning, when we first started uh hitting YouTube hard, um, you know, like I said, we did the first video at Castle Bam in 2020, and then I think the next video we uploaded was 2023. But right when we started uploading in 2023, it was uh at first we were doing once a week. Every Wednesday we would post a video. And I think at that point it was kind of like let's go out and skate and just see what happens. And the videos weren't as high quality, but nowadays we're not on that weekly schedule anymore. And we do try and make videos and post them as much as we can, but on average it's probably two a month now instead of four. And it's a little more planned out. So for the BAM videos, we pretty much know going in if it's gonna be a video with BAM or not. Uh, like if we're going to Pennsylvania to stay at his house, obviously we're gonna film some BAM content. But a lot of times we'll plan out a video and BAM will hit us up saying, Hey, I'm gonna be in California uh next week. Are you guys doing anything? And we'll be like, Oh, we're we're free this day and this day, but on Tuesday we're gonna film this, and he'll be like, Oh, that sounds fun, I'll I'll come out too. And then it just turns into him on the session. So it it really has been it's turned into Bam being a main character on our channel just because he wants to hang out and just you know film with us all the time, and it's it's been real cool. But yeah, I'd say for the most part, it's pretty planned out when it's a BAM video.

SPEAKER_00

So when he's so involved with your channel, has that opened up other doors for either other skaters that you want to work with or companies or anything like that? Has that opened up doors kind of accidentally?

SPEAKER_01

Um, for sure. I think that it's definitely opened up some doors with some of the skaters that have uh come onto our channel. Uh, there's been a couple times where because we do a lot of the spot history videos, like I was saying, where we uh we talk about skaters that skated spots and we like to interview one of the skaters every time. So a couple times we'll uh we can hit up BAM and be like, hey, you got this guy's number, we want to interview him for that video, and he'll he'll help us out with that. And then um, besides that, we've started to get invited to different events around uh the country or or different skate shop openings or or skate park demos. And sometimes it sometimes some of these events will look at it like a package deal. Like we were just in Vegas and they they got BAM coming, and then they're like, Oh, we should get the Durn Bros too. So I think because we're working with BAM so much, it's kind of opened the door, like, oh, let's get that whole team out there, like the Dern Brothers and Bam, because they make good content, and then we'll make a video out of the whole trip, anyways, and it just promotes them even more. And so definitely it has opened some doors for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Is there any concern that um having Bam in so much and either even some other large skaters in so much that it kind of dilutes Dern Brothers somewhat? Uh, not to say that it's not good content, obviously. The views you're crushing, you're absolutely destroying it, which is great. Um, and your content's awesome. So that's not the problem. But do you ever worry that like if Bam is like, uh, I'm kind of over it now, and now you have to kind of sit on the stuff that you guys currently do, like, are you worried about that at any point, or are you just kind of just going with the flow?

SPEAKER_01

Not too much. I don't think Bam will really be over it, but I think uh I mean, just knowing him, he's so like like right now, especially him being sober, he's just so into skating. But but I guess it could it could happen for sure. But we we could always fall back onto like the other videos. Like, not every video we post is a BAM video. Lately, we have had a lot of BAM content, just coincidence because we've done a lot of trips with him and everything, but we also have a lot of videos that I need to edit that don't have BAM in it at all. So it's it I I'd say it at this point it's probably a 50-50. Like 50% of our videos, bam's probably gonna be in it, 50% is gonna be someone else or or just about us. And I think that's a good balance to have. I don't think that we need BAM in every single video for it to be successful. Um, and sure, like it's gonna get the best views when he is, but but we do we get great views without him too, and and some of the content uh I don't I think would be more interesting if Bam isn't in it, if it has nothing to do with him. Like, we don't want to force his presence into a video that doesn't need to be.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I

The Accidental Tony Hawk Collab

SPEAKER_00

see that you have a video here with Tony Hawk, who's another uh legend of skating. And even if you don't watch skating, uh you've at least heard the name. And if you're a video game player, you've probably played the video game at least once or twice uh in the come up in the come up years. Um, how did that get connected?

SPEAKER_01

Is that also through BAM or did you that actually yeah, that is a door open through with BAM? Uh we we did we do know Tony a little bit. Uh we've been to his warehouse and skated his ramp, and that had nothing to do with BAM. And uh Dalton skated some contests with Tony, and so we kind of know Tony Hawk, but not well. That that video that you're talking about, we were actually planning on filming that video one day, and we were we didn't even ask Tony about it. We were just gonna go to his restaurant and review the food. Bam flew in the day before we filmed that and was like, Hey, um uh I had to stop in LA. Uh, what are you guys doing? I might drive down to Oceanside to hang out with you guys. And we're like, well, today we're busy, but tomorrow we're gonna go and eat at Tony's restaurant. If you want to come and eat with us, we're gonna film a little food review thing. And he didn't even tell us. He invited Tony Hawk on his own. So we showed up, and so I'm like, Oh, are you down to do an interview? Because we're filming this video. And he's like, Yeah, but if it's real quick, I'm down. So cool. We got Tony definitely because of BAM on that one. And we have another idea that we really want to film. With Tony too in the future. So hopefully that happens because it uh that was that food video one was kind of like on the spot. Like, okay, let me think of some interview questions, like real quick.

SPEAKER_00

Like, oh crap, he's here. We need to do something.

SPEAKER_01

But I I think we have a pretty solid idea for another video. So hopefully we get to that in the future, too.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Tony's interesting because he he transcends skateboarding. Because again, people who aren't into skateboarding have probably come across Tony in some form or fashion, whether it be the video game or some of the other stuff he's done. I mean, he's he's a legend uh easily, like he's just he's top tier, and that's gotta be like for for some skateboarding channels, has got to be the gold standard of like, I would love to collab with Tony Hawk and just randomly show up at his restaurant and he's there, must have been just a cool bucket list thing. It's like, hey, you know, we weren't expecting it, but man, what a cool thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you know, I would say to anyone in that cert, like, if you ever find yourself into a circumstance like that, like take advantage because I could have just been like, Oh, cool, we could have just had lunch, but I'm like, no, let's like pull him into the video, and never hurts to ask. You know, if he was too busy or didn't want to, he could have said no, and that would have been fine. But we asked him and he was down, so it worked out great. And I don't ask, don't get basically.

SPEAKER_00

If you don't ask, you you don't get a yes most of the time. That's so cool. Uh, let's

Darby Allin And Fearless Stunts

SPEAKER_00

talk a little bit about uh Darby Allen. Uh the he just recently won the AEW World Championship. Congratulations to him. Um, der Darby is a professional wrestler, but uh very much a skater. Um, he is an unusual character, at least on TV and such. And for those who don't know, uh, you can do a Google search for for Darby, and you will see most of the time half his face is painted. Um, he does extreme, extreme wrestling, um, where he is he will not walk straight when he's older. That is, there's no way he will ever walk straight. And then I just recently saw a video with him, it might have even been one of yours, where he was skateboarding and and doing some crazy tricks there, too. And I'm like, this guy just has does he even feel pain? He's such an interesting guy. Tell us, he's actually from Seattle. I'm in Seattle. Um, I'm curious, like, how did you uh come into contact with him and tell us a little bit about Darby?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Darby's great, super nice. Uh, we've known him for a while. I think around the same time we met Bam. So in 2020 or 2021, like maybe the end of 2020 or early 2021, we met him. I think uh he hit up my brother Dalton just from his Instagram clips. He was a fan of Dalton skating, and I think he saw one of our videos at our house. We built this rail going off the roof of the house so you could just drop in on the roof, roll down the roof, and you didn't even have to all, you just ride onto the rail. Super scary because you have to be super precise. But uh, one of my brothers grinded the rail to the ground, and I think he wanted to try that, so he was like, Hey, can I come over? And I'm like, Well, we don't just have that set up all the time, but uh we could set up some cool stuff. So we invited him out and we hung out with him and skated with him, and he stayed a few days, and then and then after that, we just kind of kept connecting with him because we we all had a good time hanging with him, and he's fearless. He'll he'll just like be hanging out and he'll be like, Oh, I'm thinking of a stunt I want to do, and he'll jump off a tall tree into this small thing of water, or he'll do a backflip off the top of the skate ramp, and for no reason, he'll just start doing stuff like that. It's gnarly, he has literally no fear. But um, that was like before his wrestling career really, really took off, and now it's on another level. And uh, we just filmed with him in Atlanta, and uh we had that planned out before he even became the world champion. And then when we were out there, it was like a couple days after he won that title and he had the belt with him, and it it was just another thing that was just a good coincidence that worked out, like right timing. And and I think we we have like right now like six videos I haven't edited, and and so it's kind of like, oh, this one's in next in line. But once we filmed that, and I'm like, oh, Darby's world champion now, yeah, I'm gonna edit that video now. That's jumping to the front of the line very smart. Hot off the press, like yeah, get this out. And that video got over half a million views, so I think that was that was a smart timing because yeah, Darby's all over the news right now.

SPEAKER_00

So I I think now I remember it was a documentary he was in actually in his early wrestling years where he was with friends. But he the thing is Bam and uh Darby both have the reputation for doing stunts that are very dangerous and can get injured. Darby specific Bam probably doesn't even want to do that anymore, uh I imagine. Uh, he's an older guy at this point. Would not be good for him to do anything like he used to do. Darby's in a different situation where he's carrying a championship for a company and outside, I mean, he's gonna get injured in wrestling. He really can't afford to get injured outside of wrestling. Does he ever want to do something where you're like, listen, Darby, I don't think this is a good thing. I don't want to get you in trouble with your company. Like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01

I've never uh told him that, but I've definitely had those thoughts. Like, like, because he loves skating, and you can get hurt. Sometimes the skate injuries happen at like when you least expect it, doing the simplest stuff. It could happen like anything, could roll your ankle, and all of a sudden, like, oh, I've actually fractured it. Whatever, whatever it is, you could you could definitely get injured skating. And then on top of that, he's always like jumping his these cars and and four-wheelers all around his property, doing these crazy jumps. And when we were filming with him the other day, he he did this like he was like, I'm gonna try and go as fast as I can. I want to jump past the landing ramp and land on flat with with his uh you know uh side by side ATV thing. I'm just like, What are you doing? Like, but I I mean I don't think there's any stopping him. Once he wants to do something, he's gonna do it. No one can really tell him not to. So I'm just gonna grab the camera and film it.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Listen, that's everyone wants to see it. Like, who wouldn't want to see that? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's definitely a crazy guy, but I don't think he thinks too much about getting injured. If it happens, it happens, but he just goes for it because he wants to live life to the fullest. I mean, he climbed Mount Everest, he could have died doing that, but do you find that that's the mindset of people in the skate community? A lot of them, a lot of them for sure. It's funny because growing up, we we had more friends that skated, and a lot of people will fall out because they'll get other jobs. Like, I can't believe how many like of my older friends that I would want to skate with, and over the years they'd start telling me no, like, oh, I'm a tattoo artist now. I I can't mess my hand up. But if you're in skateboarding and that's your career, then you gotta be kind of in the mindset, like, yeah, I'm gonna get hurt again, it's gonna happen, whether it's today or next week. Like, that's part of skating. There's gonna be injuries, but you just gotta do it, and I think that is the mindset for a lot of skaters. And you know, it's mostly a good thing, I'd say, because it pushes their limits, but but it could be bad because some skaters really get injuries that just last the rest of their lives sometimes.

Injuries And Skate Culture Reality

SPEAKER_01

So what was the craziest injury you've seen? Oh man, I mean, I've seen some really bad like uh head hits for sure. I've seen uh broken bones, I've seen people like at the skate park even try and go off something too big out of their comfort zone and their leg will just snap in half. It's been pretty bad. Um my brothers have been knocked out. Um you know, I I've broken my ankle. So there's been some bad ones. I think the off the top of my head, the worst one I've ever seen, Nigel Houston, he posted, and I wasn't there for this, but he posted a skate slam on his Instagram a few months ago, and it's it's really bad. He got he like cracked his skull, got a concussion, and he was out for a a couple weeks, and it was I mean, he should have been out longer. That looked gnarly, but yeah, they they definitely happen.

SPEAKER_00

When you when your friends or family get injured, uh are you I I've seen videos where the reactions are different depending on like who's around. A lot of times people laugh. Um, but is are do you feel concerned immediately? Are you trying to think about okay, we need to get this bird in the hospital, or are you just kind of like that was funny, I was great, you got hurt, it's fine, you know, brush it off.

SPEAKER_01

It definitely depends on the severity of the injury. Like if you're if you roll your ankle or you just take a mild slam, then yeah, it's probably gonna be a little funny. But I mean, if if someone like tries a trick and and they fall and they and their arm is clearly broken, I don't think anyone's gonna be laughing at that. It's kind of like, okay, let's get let's definitely get you some help right now. So it it depends on the situation.

New Cameras And Creative Angles

SPEAKER_00

So we're in a really cool time uh of technology where there are so many different action cams and cameras you can use now and place in different spots. There are some very high-quality small cameras that would fit like on a skateboard or something. Has any of this technology uh changed the way you want to film things? Because the angles you can get now with the quality you can get now, pretty amazing stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, I think uh in the skate world, uh skaters are pretty particular with the cameras they always wanted to use for skate videos, but I think uh even GoPros and stuff like that have come such a long way that now it's like they look so good and they're so small. A lot of skaters are filming with stuff like that, and it's really convenient because you can really get into some interesting angles or circle around them easier uh while they're doing tricks, get create more creative with the way you're filming with GoPro. So I think it's been a great thing that uh the technology has come so far with all that. And and I think even with like a lot of car stunts and stuff, like you can just attach a GoPro and the cameras, if it gets destroyed, it's only a few hundred dollars, whatever. If you know, it's not the end of the world because some of our other cameras are like like two or three thousand dollars. So we don't want that one to sit on a car hood or or anything like that. But if if we're skating and we drop a GoPro, it's it's not as big of a deal. So I think there's it's definitely a good thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Are there any shots that you wanna you've been imagining? It's like, oh, I would be really cool to get this particular type of shot or or this camera angle for a particular something you maybe you even haven't done yet, or one you're particularly proud of that you have done?

SPEAKER_01

Um, I think it depends on the situation, like what trick it's kind of like when we go out to film videos, it's you know, there's gonna be like talking bits and skating bits, but the skating bits aren't really planned out usually. So it just kind of depends on in the moment. I'll try and think of the best way to film it. Um so there's I don't know if there's anything like, oh, I really want to put a camera on a on a hot air balloon or something like that. I don't know if there's an example like that, but but there's when we're in the moment, I definitely try and get creative, especially sometimes my brothers will do the trick like two or three times or or whatever we're filming, and then I'll on the second or third like trick attempt, I'll be able to get more creative and experiment a little more. And I do I do enjoy doing that, but I don't know if there's like a specific example I can give you.

SPEAKER_00

I I'm I'm appreciative that you're the editor portion of this because I have an editor question and I think like it's important for people who are smaller creators who edit all their own stuff. Uh, and

Editing Workflow And Finding Pacing

SPEAKER_00

while they're you know, people listening might not have a skate channel, they probably have a channel that's going to be similar enough that the question I'm about to ask you can still be answered. When you're editing your content, how do you determine what stays in versus what doesn't? And then how do you determine pacing? How do you define pacing? How do you get the pacing to make sense?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think uh so when I lay out all the footage out, uh we just filmed in Vegas and I laid it all on my timeline last night. And it's like six hours of footage, like the raw footage that we filmed. So I'll just keep making passes through it. Um, and I kind of will separate it with gaps on the timeline. So I'll go through I'm like, okay, this is everything we filmed in this location, this is everything here, and so on. And I'll just start cutting out the fat and I'll make one rough pass, and I'll just be like, okay, here's all the tricks that people landed or the falls that might be worth showing. This is all the talking bits that are important. I'll I'll just trick keep trimming the fat. And then in my head, I'll kind of start to edit the video before I actually do it on the computer and be like, okay, I think this section will do good first, then there, then there. And I'll just keep going through like passes basically and just kind of trimming it down, trimming it down, start to add the background music and until it becomes like a full edit. Um, and sometimes when we're filming, I'll I'll start doing the editing in my head, even then. I'll I'll be like, okay, we got that shot. Let me get this B-roll shot, let me get another angle of this, and I'll start, okay, that what he just said will be perfect to place before that trick. So a lot of it's just like intuition. You just kind of like know when you're in the edit, and that will come with practice. The more you edit videos, the faster you'll get it doing it, um, and the more you'll know of where things are placed and what to cut out. And a lot of stuff I'll I'll kind of push to one end of the timeline if I'm unsure if I want to use it, and then I'll double back, I'll look at it later when I get more of the edit complete. I'll go back. Okay, does any of this make sense to put back into the edit? And usually I only add back maybe one or two clips and and just throw the rest away. Because if I'm if I'm hesitant about it, there's probably a reason, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I love

Members Videos From Bonus Footage

SPEAKER_00

what you've been doing recently, and you talked about this earlier with your members-only content where you're kind of reusing some of the extra stuff because we get a lot of questions from people like, oh, I you know, I want to do members only, but like I don't know what to put there. Like, do I have to make something new? And I see that there's this extra footage from Bam versus Darby Allen that's 20 minutes long, which is great. It's not like you went to make that video specifically for it, but it's a good way to get people to want to sign up for your membership. Because now, if you watch that first video, now you might want to see all the stuff that you didn't see. Even the thumbnail for it's really interesting. Like, there's so much. What goes into this? It isn't just throwing a bunch of content at it, it's still like its own video, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, it's it's raw footage, so it's not gonna have like the background music, it's gonna be more simple, but it's more like you're just hanging out with us. It's just more moments of what we were doing, and it might be like some funny stuff that Darby said, or or like maybe part of his house that didn't make the cut to the actual edit just because the pacing wasn't right. Um, like we filmed a little in his kitchen, and my like our uh mom was out there with us uh because they're from Florida, so they they drove up and they were hanging out in Darby's kitchen holding his belt, and it just didn't find a place in the actual edit. So I'm like, well, it could just go in this like video for the members only, and it's just random content. And I like that you said how uh some people approach you and ask like about doing members only, and they don't know what to do at first. Do we need to make new content? And we were kind of the same way when we started doing the members only. We were trying to keep up with like at least two members only videos a month, but we were we didn't know what to do, so we were making new content every month. We would go to the skate park and like, okay, let's try and make this as simple as we can, but give them a good video, and it was a lot more work because basically I was just doing another video or two a month on top of the other big edits we were doing, and it just wasn't working out. And so then we took a gap and we didn't really do too much with the members' videos, and and then I had the idea like you know, a lot of footage on our regular videos don't make the cut. Instead of just deleting them from the timeline, I can just shove them to the other end or make a new sequence and put them in there, and then and then at the end just put it all together, and and that's not a lot of extra editing, it's just the stuff that I moved to the side, and then that's a video, and and people have been liking them so far. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Anyone, I think the thing that people forget is if someone's paying for a membership for your channel, they're already kind of a super fan, right? So it doesn't have to be overly produced, it doesn't have to be like super slick. They want to see stuff like this. Have you gotten feedback from your members about any of this content?

SPEAKER_01

For sure. They they've definitely we got comments on all those members only videos from different subscribers saying, like, oh, we love the extra footage. Thanks for putting these out. I feel like uh some of the more sincere comments come from those members only videos because they are the super fans, like you said, the people that want to see just a little bit more. And and we don't need to impress them and pull them into subscribe. We've we've already gotten there with those people. So just the raw, more easygoing content works for works for them.

SPEAKER_00

It's funny because it's so simple, but it's it's the unlock for people because so many content creators once they get monetized, they want to leverage it, but they usually give up on it because they're like, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do. And it seems like it's more work and I don't have time. But what you're talking about is during your actual edit, you're actually moving that content over. So you're already doing the work. And then at the end, when the video is done, you just scrunch the other stuff together. So it's not that much more time. If you have time batched out and set aside on your calendar or your day to do the edit, it's maybe another like 30, 40 minutes. And now you got something that's that's you know, from a perspective of monetizing, is a good thing, and also for the super fans to get people really excited about that as well. What

Monetization Merch Sponsors And Demos

SPEAKER_00

are the different ways you're monetizing besides like members only? Like what else is what else is cooking over there? And what are the things you're thinking about in the future?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, uh, well, we do have uh Durnbros.com, which is you know our where you can buy our merch. And so we we sell a little of our merch on there, and that's going well. Uh, we have a deal in the works with Zoomies uh to get some t-shirts in Zoomies. It's a test run, so hopefully that goes well. And then besides that, and and this won't work for everyone, but for us being a skateboard channel, uh, we've had a lot of skate shops and um skate parks invite us out. They'll pay to fly us out, they'll give us a demo fee, so we get paid to be there, and we we skate for an hour or two, and we make a video out of it. So then we're making a video that we can also monetize and get more money out of the trip, and and then we're already out in the location, we can explore more. So so that's a that's been great. Like just getting to get into travel, do meet and greets and demos, getting paid for it, and then making a video out of that whole trip for our channel. It's it's just like a no-brainer. Um so those are the main things right now. Uh, I'd say the other ways that we're monetizing our content. And then, and then yeah, uh Facebook too, like you can monetize on Facebook so it doesn't have to be just one platform. Um, even Instagram and TikTok, they're a little harder to get monetized on, but you can you can uh you can pull in a little bit more revenue from those sites.

SPEAKER_00

So you would you say you're you're basically at a full-time kind of uh revenue model right now? For sure, yeah, yeah. Um how long did it take to get to that point?

SPEAKER_01

Uh I mean we grinded uh so you know I I saved up money when I uh worked for vlog creations for Ross, and I blew through it quick, but I moved to California because my brothers were already out here, but I was just telling them, like, you know, I'll do DoorDash or whatever it takes to till to make it till we start monetizing the channel. And that's what I did for like a couple years. I was just in my spare time doing food delivery stuff or whatever, and or picking up side filming gigs uh and and just kind of getting by, but we yeah, it's probably been like a little probably a year and a half to two years since I've had to do DoorDash. Um so it it definitely took a lot of grinding to get there, but I just told myself I'm gonna do it as long as it takes, because especially working for Ross at Vlog Creations, he told me like he grinded for six years until he made money. And and I hear that from a lot of the big YouTubers. They had to grind and I mean if you look at my past, I grinded for a long time because of the old channels I had. But with the Dern Brothers channel, um, I kind of got went in no having a lot of knowledge already, and I think it helped to get to where we were making a comfortable amount quicker. But even even in the last like six months, like you know, it keeps going up. We're we're getting more views and pulling in a little more revenue, and it's it's been really good. Oh, and then I forgot to mention uh sponsored ads, you know. Uh so that's been been great. We have comp companies reach out and you know, 60 to 90 second ads, and your video will pay you whatever. And that's been another good good way to get pull in a little more money, just make it so that we can keep doing the videos, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Keep doing it. That's so amazing.

Advice For New Creators

SPEAKER_00

Um, I I I guess finally, if you had some advice for a content creator who's starting out now or has been starting for a little while and they're just not quite figuring it out, uh, give them some advice. Again, you've been doing this for like 20 years, which is wild. Uh, you definitely have some ideas. Tell us uh what the what some of the gems of uh knowledge would be.

SPEAKER_01

I would just watch your favorite creators and really study their videos. Um like I I I when I started Dern Brothers uh after working for Ross, I was like, okay, how can we make these videos stand out from the other skateboard YouTubers? So instead of watching like the top skateboard YouTuber channels, like I did a little bit of that. I went and watched like the top YouTube, the top YouTubers in general, like Mr. Beast, Ryan Trahan, Erak, and I and I watched their pacing, I watched how they did their intros, and I listened to as many like Mr. Beast podcasts that I could, because he he just drops like a lot of YouTube knowledge on you, like subtly, and and it's important stuff that you need to pay attention to. So I would say just do your research and don't be afraid to grind it out. No one's gonna go, I mean, it happens, but it's super rare that you're gonna go viral like one or two videos. You gotta you gotta put the work in, you gotta learn, and you gotta be prepared to kind of grind it out for a couple years to start getting some traction. And my best advice is to just have that like go in there knowing that you're gonna have to do that work. Like it's not gonna be an instant thing. I see so many people try to do YouTube and they quit after three months. And it it's like if they push a little longer, they might start getting more traction. They just and don't be afraid to uh kind of look at your own work and And see what's working and what's not. A lot of people just get stuck. Like, I gotta put my intro, I gotta put my graphic at the start of the video, stuff like that. And it's just not gonna like if people don't know you, why does that matter? You know, like they gotta like make good content and just start off like fast-paced, like heavy hitting, like just get right into it. I think a lot of people spend way too much time in the intro.

SPEAKER_00

Destin

Wrap Up And Subscribe

SPEAKER_00

from the Dern Brothers. He's worked with Bam Margera, he's worked with AEW champion Darby Allen, he's done a collab on accident with Tony Hawk, and he is living the life that he's always wanted to live. But he didn't start out with a viral video. He's been doing it for over 20 years. What a great guest you've been. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you want to learn more about the Dern Brothers, there'll be links in the description and in the show notes. And if you're here and you liked what you saw, hit that subscribe button, and I have another video for you right here. See y'all in the next one.