10 Years Since I Quit My Last Job & Moved Into My Van - Thoughts On Being Self Employed & Flat Broke
10 Years Since I quit my last job
Transcript
0:02
welcome everyone adam the woo here as
0:02
the recording of the sunday august 15
0:04
2021
0:07
each and every weekend on said sundays
0:10
well every sunday they do a farmer's
0:13
market right here
0:15
in downtown
0:16
now i am going to be heading to saint
0:18
cloud florida about a half hour 25 miles
0:20
give or take
0:21
a former hometown of my where i was
0:24
living when i quit the last job
0:28
i ever worked 10 years ago the
0:30
anniversary has reared its head a decade
0:34
ago well it's it's a week give about
0:38
about a week ago i missed the day it was
0:40
august 9th
0:42
2011. and i am going to
0:45
take a trip back a little nostalgic
0:48
look back
0:49
in my thoughts on
0:51
this last decade decisions i have made
0:53
and some announcements
0:56
i'm inviting you to join me i'll get my
0:58
car
0:59
say hello to big the foot
1:02
cruise over to saint cloud
1:04
join me
1:05
shall you it's not too far really from
1:08
celebration florida
1:09
down to sight cloud
1:11
would take about a half hour
1:13
to take a toll road 192 a little longer
1:15
but toll roads about a half hour and
1:18
just like that
1:19
weather changes very quickly
1:22
around these parts
1:23
sunny a few miles down the road rain
1:26
and of course not thinking left the
1:28
umbrella
1:42
jeez
1:42
it's coming down barely even see the
1:44
saint cloud water tower up there
1:46
in the distance
1:48
a little bit of precipitation here
1:50
turning off 13th street which is also
1:53
highway 192
1:54
onto pennsylvania ave
1:57
down to where my former apartment
2:01
used to be
2:02
right up here a couple blocks the rain
2:04
is letting up a little bit
2:06
just a little not too much and check it
2:08
out welcome to saint cloud
2:10
a little mural right there left hand
2:12
side this beige building top floor
2:16
first window you see
2:26
i lived up there in a little one bedroom
2:26
place on the corner
2:28
for a few years
2:30
i would say probably in july
2:33
well june or july of 2011 i started to
2:36
contemplate
2:37
quitting my job
2:39
traveling
2:41
started to go full time here on youtube
2:43
platform
2:44
making videos traveling
2:47
it wasn't something that was done by a
2:49
lot
2:50
or a few people doing it
2:52
but it was something i wanted to do i
2:54
knew if i started it
2:56
others would kind of jump on board
2:59
some kindred spirits if you will that
3:01
understood
3:02
a desire for
3:04
roadside attractions
3:06
travel videos
3:08
and something a little away from the
3:09
norm
3:11
could have been that my lease was even
3:12
up in june or july that might have been
3:15
kind of prompted my thoughts
3:18
i could still recall having my van i had
3:21
a ford e150 van that i would park
3:24
sometimes i'd park
3:25
over there
3:27
and that lot because of street cleaning
3:30
through here in downtown saint cloud
3:33
but if there was not street cleaning my
3:35
van would be parked directly under my
3:37
window which was that first window up
3:39
there the bathroom was the next window
3:41
this was a totally other apartment there
3:43
are two apartments
3:44
up top and i would look down at my van
3:46
and think to myself
3:48
what if i just moved into my van and
3:50
didn't pay rent and not didn't have
3:53
a permanent home just so i could travel
3:57
and once i got that in my brain the next
3:59
thought was what if i quit my job
4:02
and then i don't have to go to work
4:11
just saying that out loud loud
4:11
doesn't even sound like it would make
4:12
sense there was even a point in one
4:14
evening that i went downstairs i had an
4:17
air mattress in the back of the van
4:20
had the pillow slept in the van even
4:22
though i could have been up in my nice
4:24
cozy bed up top just to see
4:27
if i could hack it if i could do it if i
4:30
was built internally or in my mindset to
4:33
be able to sleep in a vehicle and once i
4:35
did that once or twice i knew
4:38
it's go time
4:41
and the wheels were in motion
4:42
not only in my brain but also putting my
4:44
two-week notice in to the last job i
4:47
ever had which was a feed store it was a
4:50
half a mile from here sometimes i
4:51
wouldn't even drive sometimes i would
4:53
just walk
4:54
over there depending on how much time i
4:55
had
4:57
oh yeah it's all coming back to me now
4:59
look how flooded the road got just in
5:00
that
5:01
that short little time frame
5:04
also throwback to anyone who remembers
5:06
back in those days
5:08
fishermen in the fridge
5:11
if you know
5:12
you know right through here
5:14
okay i'm gonna
5:16
oh it is like yeah it is
5:22
i would sit right over here on this
5:22
little planter
5:24
this was the door i had a key and go up
5:26
there
5:26
walk up a flight of stairs
5:28
and go up to my room and slumber before
5:31
going to work
5:33
my job at the feed store
5:35
up until
5:37
august 9th of 2011 when everything
5:39
changed i have discussed all these
5:40
details before
5:43
over time you know over the
5:45
over the ten year of me doing videos
5:47
i've discussed all this and showed some
5:49
of these spots but it's been a while and
5:51
i figured heck it's in his sin has been
5:53
exactly a decade a week ago was the
5:55
anniversary of a decade of me
5:58
quitting my job granted i did move out
6:01
of this about a month or two before and
6:03
just slept in the back of my van would
6:05
go to work completed put my two-week
6:07
notice in two weeks before but that was
6:10
my window
6:12
right up there
6:14
and i traveled around in my van
6:16
for many years
6:18
sleeping in the back of the van walmart
6:20
parking lots off the side of the road
6:22
had no money no income coming in no
6:25
monetization
6:27
social media wasn't really relevant then
6:29
there was no collaborations no one else
6:31
was even really doing it at that point
6:33
which
6:34
i know it probably sounds
6:36
that that it doesn't even sound like
6:38
that would be fattenable but just
6:40
because so many people are doing it now
6:42
and it is is a way to
6:44
make a living and have a business and
6:45
have a way of life it was not that way
6:48
then you were seen as someone
6:51
who was doing something that was not
6:53
commonplace
6:55
it was many many people
6:58
many people
7:00
said what the heck are you thinking
7:02
you're going to make videos you're going
7:04
to film things
7:07
and people are going to watch them there
7:08
was no indication of money never even
7:10
knew that was an option going back just
7:12
a tad bit before august 9th when all
7:15
that everything kind of changed
7:17
started doing videos the first video i
7:18
ever uploaded was on new year's eve 2009
7:22
but really i started making videos into
7:23
early 2010 so it took about a year and a
7:26
half
7:27
before i quote unquote
7:29
went full time
7:31
and during that time even up into the
7:33
first couple years of me making videos
7:36
i was still in a band i was in a band
7:38
here from florida
7:39
i was in a band from california but
7:42
before i joined the band from california
7:44
i was in a local band around here we had
7:46
a pretty decent following outside of
7:48
saint cloud in orlando no one had ever
7:49
heard of us and still has not heard of
7:51
us but we had a pretty decent you know
7:53
pretty decent following around these
7:54
parts and we would play in a venue right
7:57
here called big d's
7:59
which is now an antique store it was a
8:01
it was a bar
8:02
we played in here and i can still recall
8:04
the day when
8:06
sandon from lucky number 17 screen
8:09
printing company who i get my t-shirts
8:11
done for the band
8:13
brought an adam the woo t-shirt a shirt
8:15
with my name on it
8:17
he brought like 10 or 15 or 20 of them
8:19
to this show that i was playing with the
8:21
band because he said hey people are
8:23
watching your videos
8:25
you should sell t-shirts and i was
8:27
completely against it i'd not like that
8:28
i said no one is ever going to buy
8:31
a t-shirt with my face on it but they
8:33
did they sold it's now an antique shop
8:36
it's no longer big ds
8:38
but right up here they would have you
8:40
know who was playing out here on the
8:41
side they would put like you know
8:44
what bands were playing our name on my
8:45
band would be up on the side of it and
8:47
that was the first shirt i ever had
8:49
before spreadshirt before the t-shirt
8:51
sales online
8:52
and then shortly after that i decided to
8:54
have some online t-shirt sales well i am
8:57
here to announce officially as of today
8:59
i have taken my t-shirt shop
9:02
completely down in honor
9:05
of how i used to think i'm going back to
9:06
the way i used to think if you look it
9:09
up as of this very moment
9:11
it pops up with a 404 shop not found
9:15
i am happy and content to say that there
9:17
are no longer
9:18
adam the woo t-shirts
9:20
available online granted a few months
9:23
ago i stopped making a profit on them
9:25
and i took away anything that i would
9:27
make
9:28
and just had shirts for anyone who
9:30
wanted some last minute ones just to get
9:32
them for you know ten dollars plus the
9:33
shipping fee instead of my normal you
9:35
know seven eight dollars profit i would
9:37
make over the last
9:38
few years even though i really hardly
9:39
ever promoted them in recent years
9:42
i finally have just done it completely
9:45
annihilated
9:46
the shirts which all kind of stems right
9:48
here from from a big d show now an
9:51
antique shop
9:52
patreon's been gone for a couple months
9:55
spreadshirt is now officially gone
9:59
yeah it feels pretty good
10:01
never got into doing this
10:04
really to make money in fact i didn't
10:06
even know you could for
10:08
probably for a year or two i only i had
10:09
8 000 subscribers went for for a couple
10:12
years before i even got to that point
10:13
because no one no one even knew what
10:14
youtube was
10:16
took a long way to progress
10:18
you know to what where the general
10:20
population knew about youtube so never
10:22
really did it to make money but let me
10:25
assure you i am making money now i had a
10:28
i had a thought that i was never going
10:29
to return to the job at the feed store
10:32
until i made enough
10:33
where i made the same in a month
10:36
as i made
10:43
as i made on youtube as i as i made the
10:43
feed store after i get off work
10:44
sometimes i'd go home take a shower and
10:46
i'd walk over to the save a lot which is
10:49
a grocery store very inexpensive grocery
10:51
store this is the back side of it well
10:53
say the back side of water because there
10:55
is water flowing from this pipe right
10:56
here
10:57
and i would get myself frozen pizza you
10:59
know a couple dollars worth of food
11:02
very very tight budget
11:04
this is half the store was halfway
11:06
between
11:07
the feed store i worked at and that
11:09
apartment and i would just go home watch
11:11
a movie and then next day
11:13
go back to work
11:14
pretty cool it still exists has not gone
11:16
out of business
11:17
good old save a lot
11:19
yeah
11:21
many meals from in there here it is this
11:23
is it this would have been the spot when
11:25
i did drive my van i would park right
11:27
here or there or sometimes right over
11:30
here next to the hay trailer
11:33
used to be a hay trailer right here
11:34
while the round bales would go in here
11:37
and sometimes i'd park my van there but
11:39
the hay trailer that had the square
11:40
bales of hay
11:42
coastal hay they called it
11:45
as opposed to alfalfa
11:47
hay which was a little more expensive
11:49
the trailer would be right here in fact
11:51
you can kind of see the indentations of
11:52
where a hay trailer used to be and even
11:55
the fence line where it's bent in where
11:57
sometimes a truck driver would
11:59
smash into this
12:01
this building which is not
12:03
the feed store i worked at it has
12:05
changed names changed owner it is no
12:08
longer affiliated
12:10
with those i worked for
12:12
not even the same place the building
12:14
went empty for a while
12:16
and another
12:18
another feed establishment took over but
12:20
this was the last job that i ever
12:24
punched a clock at
12:26
or worked at
12:27
and because it's a sunday there is no
12:29
one here which makes it a little less
12:30
awkward
12:31
for me to be walking around showing the
12:33
front of it
12:35
as stated not the same establishment but
12:37
it is the same building
12:39
right here i would drive the forklift
12:41
around i would you know pull around
12:45
the the salt that you would need for the
12:47
water treatment over in here
12:49
different different colored bags and
12:51
stuff would be right in here which they
12:52
no longer have those anymore i would
12:54
open up the side door to bring the feet
12:56
out
12:58
right over here
12:59
it's looking pretty good whoever owns it
13:01
now they're really keeping up with the
13:02
place
13:03
i would open up this side door someone
13:05
would order something i would bring it
13:08
of the front
13:09
chew their car their car say their car
13:11
was here or their truck was here a lot
13:12
of trucks
13:14
put the feed in the back of the truck
13:16
tons and tons of feed every day 50 pound
13:19
bags a lot of people order 10 bags
13:26
yeah i always had a sore back but i was
13:26
pretty strong then probably a lot
13:27
stronger than i am now back then there
13:29
was a mower shop right there the mower
13:31
shop is gone now it's an enterprise
13:34
rental car
13:35
establishment
13:38
five years i worked here five years i
13:40
worked in this building
13:41
and in the last year of me being in
13:45
constantly was thinking well i made
13:48
10.50 an hour which was
13:50
for the amount of work i was doing in my
13:52
opinion was rather pitiful however
13:55
i dealt with it i
13:58
i did not dislike it enough to quit and
14:02
as the last year started to formulate
14:04
the last year of the five years me being
14:07
that disliking that disdain turned into
14:10
almost a hatred
14:12
of where i worked and not being able to
14:16
do what i want
14:17
you know during the weekdays monday
14:19
through friday well technically i work
14:21
monday through thursday i work 10 hour
14:23
shifts so i have friday saturday and
14:25
sunday off which was nice i would come
14:27
in at 7 30 get off at six
14:30
that would work it that way so that was
14:32
good however during those days that
14:34
something was happening
14:35
i couldn't go do it because
14:37
i was stuck at work or if there was
14:39
something i needed to get go out of town
14:41
to do i had to take one of my week
14:43
vacation periods to do
14:46
and it really the thing that hit me the
14:47
most was
14:48
when i would recommend add-ons to
14:50
customers
14:51
and things like that and then christmas
14:54
bonuses would come around in the last
14:55
couple years business was not so great
14:58
and they would tell me hey we're not
14:59
going to give you a christmas bonus this
15:00
year
15:01
and i started thinking what about all
15:03
the extra stuff that i'm doing
15:05
to make someone else money
15:08
i thought what if i make what if i do
15:09
that for myself
15:11
and start to be self-employed down the
15:14
road
15:18
if i find something that works for me
15:18
possibly
15:20
i can make my own money instead of
15:21
making money and making someone else
15:24
wealthy or at least someone else uh have
15:27
a substantial income that i'm not
15:29
getting anything back for other than a
15:32
minimal paycheck
15:33
that coincided with the fact that i just
15:35
wanted to travel i wanted to see the i
15:37
wanted to see things i will say see the
15:38
world because i really am not a world
15:40
traveler but see the u.s
15:41
which i did
15:44
and because i did all those things
15:46
all these people driving by are thinking
15:48
the heck is this guy doing
15:49
that's the guy from the bean store that
15:51
used to work at the feed store right
15:53
there people thinking right now but
15:55
probably not none of these people
15:56
probably remember me
16:02
you know what's weird
16:02
but quitting a job quitting working
16:06
was the best financial decision i ever
16:08
made i did not know it at the time
16:10
but i make more now than i ever made
16:12
working
16:13
a job
16:14
anywhere
16:15
don't really have a lot of skills
16:18
just you know it was always retail it
16:20
was always back breaking work or
16:22
stocking shelves
16:25
there's nothing wrong with that
16:26
did that for a very long time
16:29
and when i quit
16:31
the last job i had which was here
16:33
didn't think i was gonna i didn't think
16:36
10 years later
16:38
i would be standing here
16:40
thinking wow that was a successful
16:42
decision
16:44
i thought i would be
16:48
probably homeless still living in the
16:48
van
16:50
scraping by
16:52
eating raw top ramen
16:54
you know out of the packages or sandwich
16:56
spread sandwiches
16:58
i've been a good portion of my life i
17:00
was flat broke even when working
17:03
and that was another thing that would
17:04
always
17:05
go into my head
17:08
i would work 40 hours a week
17:11
paying rent paying the van payment and i
17:13
was still in the hole
17:16
financially i thought if i can just
17:19
cut my bills out
17:22
and have
17:23
no rent
17:25
no van payment
17:26
once i got the van paid off
17:29
and just travel all i will need is gas
17:32
and enough to go to a grocery store and
17:34
buy a pack of bread
17:36
and some sandwich spread stuff like that
17:39
if i can if i can minimize my bills
17:43
if you only need five percent of what
17:45
you are making to survive
17:47
you can make 95 less
17:50
that may not make a lot of sense but you
17:52
don't need to make 100 of your income if
17:54
you cut off 90 of what your bills are
17:57
thought about how much you make
17:59
it's how much debt you have
18:01
and how much you spend
18:03
and when i stop when i realize that
18:06
it all started to make sense the way i'm
18:08
explaining it makes no sense all you
18:11
need to know is
18:13
it worked out
18:15
as stated never was about
18:18
becoming wealthy
18:20
making a lot of money
18:22
even making any money
18:24
it was all about just getting by if i
18:26
could just get by
18:29
that's what it was about and
18:32
doing things and doing stuff i wanted to
18:35
do that i was interested in
18:42
i believe that's why i have the
18:42
mentality that i have
18:44
up to this day
18:46
because i did it for different reasons
18:49
because when i realized you could
18:51
monetize videos and make an income
18:54
i was excited about that
18:56
who knew
18:57
who knew that i could make sorry you
18:59
know 100 a month then 200 a month and
19:02
300 a month
19:04
and then onward and upward
19:07
never had really the desire to have
19:10
residual income from anything else now i
19:12
did go down the rabbit hole like many
19:14
others with merchandise
19:16
you know in the last few years really
19:18
never pushed it
19:19
but had the t-shirts for a while you
19:21
know for a few years of that i was
19:22
pushing them rather heavily
19:25
but at this point i don't really i don't
19:27
really need that it's why i dropped a
19:29
patreon that's why i don't do live
19:31
streams it's why i don't accept super
19:32
chat
19:34
that's why i do not want crowdfunding
19:36
that's why i do not want you know anyone
19:38
to to comp me on anything any stays i
19:41
don't want to be hosted i don't want to
19:42
be sponsored i don't want any of that
19:45
i'm making way more than i ever made
19:48
working any job i've ever had in my life
19:51
for that i'm completely grateful ah yes
19:54
stopping off at a true saint cloud
19:56
staple
19:57
morse market
19:58
used to always walk here from my
20:00
apartment also only a block away from my
20:02
former apartment i know it must be
20:03
really confusing for others to to think
20:06
why would you give up money that is just
20:08
handed to you
20:10
why wouldn't you just have merchandise
20:11
for sale
20:13
why wouldn't you
20:14
you know doing live streams
20:16
having people
20:17
give money
20:19
why would you not accept that and
20:21
i think what it boils down to is the
20:23
fact that for me personally it is not
20:26
needed
20:28
at this stage in my game or my life
20:36
is not needed at all and
20:36
there is the way my brain works is i
20:39
have to be a little bit rebellious and i
20:41
have to do the opposite
20:43
of what everyone else is doing so when i
20:45
started all of this
20:47
over 10 years ago quitting the job 10
20:49
years ago
20:50
a week ago was 10 years
20:52
but starting videos 11 and a half years
20:54
ago
20:55
no one was doing it i was kind of an
20:57
outcast i was punk rock
21:00
if you will
21:01
doing things
21:02
differently
21:04
than everyone else i never wanted i
21:05
never wanted to be
21:07
like everyone else that was part of why
21:09
i got into the punk scene the punk
21:11
community started being in a punk band
21:13
then when i stopped
21:15
playing bass being in a punk band i took
21:18
all those thoughts if you want to call
21:20
them values
21:22
that's not necessarily values but just
21:24
that thought process
21:25
shifted it over to what i'm doing now
21:28
not getting into it where i feel like
21:31
now the new generation of youtubers or
21:34
those getting into
21:36
the platform for good reason are looking
21:38
at it from a different angle on why i
21:40
started doing it and i don't want to be
21:42
lumped into that
21:49
the conglomeration i don't want anyone
21:49
looking at me thinking that's why
21:52
i started this granted
21:54
anyone's everyone sees
21:57
current they see
21:58
the now they don't see the the past
22:01
what got you there or the future of what
22:03
you know the future will be so they're
22:04
always looking at now and some would
22:06
assume why i am doing this is for that
22:09
reason i just want to abolish that
22:11
completely
22:13
and that is probably why because i'm not
22:14
only stubborn but also rebellious and
22:18
punk rock
22:19
attitude a lot will disagree with me on
22:21
this
22:22
but that's fine
22:24
a lot disagree with me quitting my job
22:28
traveling doing videos it was frowned
22:31
upon i was shunned
22:34
ridiculed
22:36
and now the same people that are doing
22:40
are now asking for advice on what they
22:42
should film and what kind of youtube
22:43
channel they should start
22:52
life is good
22:52
i appreciate everyone that's watching
22:54
that has watched for all these years
23:01
i could not do this above all that
23:01
forget everything i said i could not
23:02
have gotten to where i'm at
23:05
if it was not for the viewers the
23:07
kindred spirit folks out there that get
23:10
it
23:12
whether it be the commenters
23:14
whether it be those who are just
23:15
watching not even commenting
23:17
comments are such a small percentage of
23:20
the viewership
23:21
so those who have never loved to comment
23:23
thank you
23:25
those who have never done anything that
23:26
just put their eyes on any content any
23:29
video that i've ever done watch my
23:30
travels all these years
23:32
thank you that is the most important
23:34
thing
23:47
that means a lot to me
23:54
oh man i was thirsty i'll see you in the
23:54
next video the vlog
24:03
is over
24:05
harder to crush these ones than the
24:07
other ones
24:08
but i did it
24:09
old school throwback yeah anyone selling
24:12
anything online with my name on it
24:14
isn't for me