The Email

Episode Information

Date of video

August 25th, 2015

Date of upload

October 7th, 2015

Duration

9 minutes 22 seconds

Edited by

Michael Aranda

Katelyn Salem

Appearances by

Michael Aranda

Katelyn Salem

Brought to you by

Taylor Vangilder

Debbie Chute

Jim Slaughter

Location

Missoula, Montana

EcoGeek Offices

Weather

Haze

Temperature: 50°F/10°C

Wind: 4.6 mph

Humidity: 57%

Anthropometry

Weight: 183.5 lbs/83.32kg

Body Fat: 21.3%

Heart Rate: 54 bpm

Blood Pressure: 115/75 mmhg

Season Four Stats

Distance

Jogged: 26.5 mi/42 km

Cycled: 63.7 mi/101 km

Driven: 3892 mi/6264 km

Flown: 2459 mi/3957 km

Food

Boloco: 1

Bobby's Burger Palace: 2

Burger King: 3

Caffe Dolce: 1

Chipotle: 3

Cold Stone: 1

Denny's: 1

Domino's: 2

Earl of Sandwich: 1

Finn & Porter: 1

Fuddruckers: 1

HuHot: 1

In-N-Out: 1

Jimmy John's: 1

Lil' Orbits: 1

Lizzy's: 1

Market On Front: 7

McDonald's: 4

Mike's Pastry: 1

Pita Pit: 1

Pizza Hut: 1

PotBelly: 1

Quizno's: 6

The Squealing Pig: 1

Subway: 1

Sweet Peaks: 2

Tagliare: 2

Tamarack: 1

Tasty Burger: 1

Wendy's: 1

Wok N Talk: 2

Misc

Flights: 4

Gym Visits: 1

Haircuts: 1

Papyrus: 3

Plane Issues: 1

Transcript

In Michael's Car

Michael: So even though I was like, five or six or whatever time it was when I fell asleep this morning, ah, I still set an alarm for eight o'clock so that I could get to work by nine. You may have guessed that I didn't make it to work by nine. I just slept right through that alarm and it was glorious.

EcoGeek Offices

(Jessie talking in background)

Outside in Missoula

Michael: Look how smokey it is.

Michael's Office

Hank: (On screen) -getting really nervous. I'm getting freaked out just talking about it.

Michael: Yesterday I received an email from someone - I don't know who, they used an anonymous email sending service so that I wouldn't be able to tell what their actual email address was. I don't even know how to preface this.

Katelyn: They basically just seem unhappy with you.

Michael: I can't tell if the person who sent this is just fishing for attention or what. If that's the case then I guess they're gonna get it because I feel like this is worthy of sharing with the class.

The email is entitled, "Tiny House".

"Geez, you have commitment issues!

"2010, Dan Brown - "Come make videos for me!" Yes!

"2011, Charlie - "Come make a Chameleon Cicuit album in London!" Helz yeah!

"Samantha - "I have school in Vancouver. Move in with me!" Sure, let me pack my stuff!

"Hank - "Have this job in Missoula!" You got it!

"You lived in Missoula for over three years. You made Stefan move there, as well as Katelyn and Logan. You have your "company" there, other friends. You started university. Now, yet again, you're just gonna run away? How long and far do you think people will just keep following you around?

"You frequently talk about throwing everything away and living on a boat...

"Fact one - you don't sleep properly.

"Fact two - you don't manage your finances properly ($20,000 in debt).

"Fact three - you don't eat properly (can't be bothered to learn how to cook).

"Fact four - you don't exercise properly.

"The reality is that getting a tiny house will not magically fix the behavioral issues you have! You've just recently had this delusion with hiring an editor. You were convinced that it would fix your YouTube channel, but it didn't. Why do you think it's any different this time?

"Analogy: Juggling. If you just stare at at juggling balls for thirty seconds twice a year, will you, in ten years, be the best, most awesome master juggler Cirque du Soleil has ever seen? No. If you stare at the produse in the store for a few seconds as you walk past them, will you become Michelin Star chet? No. Same goes for taxes etc.

"When it comes to YouTube, you are probably not as good as you think you are. In eight years you have just over one hundred videos. That's hardly proper experience. Script supervising Hank doesn't raise the quality, quantity or consistency of you main channel. You remove yourself from taking responsibility and complain about it being 'an accident'. For example, if you feel exhausted and you wish take a nap, knowing you have other things to do. Responsible people take steps to prepare for a nap, like an alarm clock, asking someone else to wake them up, etc. Instead you 'pass out for five hours,' and you won't bother to self reflect on how it happened, why it happened, or what could be done differently. You just think to youself, 'Oopsie!' and carry on. You refuse to accept failure. Instead you choose to chug energy drinks and skip on sleeping to catch up on what you supposed to be good at. It is not perfectionism if you have to stop and redo every detail over and over again until it works. That's called struggling.

"You expect that everything is handed to you on a golden spoon without having to lift a finger. Take moving to the UK. You made videos and tweets about how it's hard and someone should gift you a visa, when it's not that hard. You're from a first world country, you're a man, you're educated, and you have tons of resources to get a visa. You could have seeked Michael Stevens's help (an American immigrant) or CGP Grey (also an American immigrant). You could ask for YouTube networks to help you, like Channel Flip. EcoGeek is not the only video production company out there. You can send an application to a UK based one. Tell them you're American and would be willing to relocate. Same thing with voicing an audio book. You just tweet a request expecting someone to offer, for example, to fly you to New York, cover your travel/accommodation/food expense and on top of that to give you a several thousand dollars for your trouble. DUDE!! You have expensive recording equipment and software to make a demo of you reading "Green Eggs and Ham". Google for a voice/acting audio book agent or company and ask for them to pass the word. But no, too much effort.

"You fantasize about travelling and meeting people. Why do you believe you can only do it from a tiny house? Why not commit to Missoula and make it your HQ from which to travel?

"Financially you waste massive amounts of money on junk food and eating out. Secondly on petrol for you five miles per gallon Mustang (including grear knobs and air intake parts). You make circa $9,000 a month. You could easily save up $20,000 to cover debt in three months. In another three months you could have your down payment for a proper house.

"This is all unsolicited. I believe you know the things I've said. I also believe your behavior doesn't reflect that. I suggest a life coach (www.therapists.psychologytoday.com). Ring one up and get some professional perspective. Dr. Chris Southall seems fitting. Prioritise the present tense. It's easy to fall in to indecisions about your mother and ex-girlfriends etc, but those won't resolve your current attempt to run away in a tiny house or your debt.

"I wish you well. I'm sorry for beign harsh, this probably hurting your feeling."

Katelyn: I betcha it's this guy. Dr. Chris Southall just to get you to be one of his patients!

Michael: These things at the beginning that this person quotes as commitment issues... If you wanna see them that way, fine. To me, that looks like taking advantage of opportunities as they come my way. I didn't make Stefan move here. I didn't make Katelyn or Logan mover here.

Katelyn: No you didn't.

Michael: I also don't expect people to just keep following me around. I will give these four facts to this person. They are correct in saying that I don't sleep properly. I don't manage my finances properly. I don't really eat properly, and I don't, well, I dunno. I wouldn't say that I exercise incorrectly. I just don't exercise as much as I'd like.

I don't think that getting a tiny house is going to magically fix my behavioral issues. In eight years I have just over one hundred videos?

Katelyn: On your main channel? What about vlogramen? What about WhatImDoingRightNow? What about WhatImPwningRightNow?

Michael: What about the over a thousand videos on WhatImDoingRightNow?

I have no idea how they decided that I make $9,000 a month. I don't.

Katelyn: If you did you probably wouldn't have some of those issues up there.

Michael: My cheque from EcoGeek is like $2,700 dollars a month, and the money that I make from Patreon does not cover how much I pay Logan.

I think the most hilarious part about this thing, though, is that they're sort of chastizing me for expecting everything to be handed to me on a golden spoon without having to lift a finger, and in the same paragraph they're just telling to me ask other people for a visa or a job or an audio book agent. I wanna know why this person is so perturbed by the decisions that other people make with their lives, that they wrote this very long email.

Katelyn: Maybe they really really wish to help you but they're doing it in exactly the wrong way.

Michael: The fact that they used an anonymous email sending service tells me that they knew deep down inside, even maybe subconsciously, that they were being a bit of a dick. If this person lets how other people live their lives affect them to this degree, my supposition is that this person is not happy, and that is why they sent this email.

I consider myself to be a usually happy person and I feel like the reason that I can maintain that level of usually happy is because for the most part I don't care what other people do with their lives. That's fine.

You know what? I think I'm even going to go ahead and say yes, I do have commitment issues, because I don't feel like I should have to commit to something if it no longer makes me happy.

Katelyn: I think that you're also trying to do what you want to do, even if you may be struggling at times.

Michael: I would be enjoying my life a little bit more if this camera wasn't broken. Both my drones are busted. My Black Magic camera's busted.

Katelyn: I would say maybe you need to be a little more careful but nothing has really been your fault.

Michael: I didn't do anything!

Katelyn: Like this stuff was not your fault, that drone falling out of the sky wasn't your fault.

Michael: I dunno - Did I show this already? This is the thing that punctured the bottom of the camera and I dunno if I'm just supposed to cut this to make this shorter but it's obvious that if you have this all the way on it's gonna, it's gonna go pretty far into the camera. When I was screwing it in and caused the damage it didn't offer any resistance. It wasn't like, "Oh, that's pretty tight, I probably shouldn't twist any more.

Katelyn: Yeah.

Michael: It just, it kept going. I emailed them and they responded today saying that, uh, physical damage is not covered by the warranty. My only option is to ship it to them and then they'll tell me how much it'll cost to repair it.

I set this monitor up to cycle through tweets. If you feel like making something appear in my office, you can tweet at me and it'll show up right there. Just cycles through tweets forever and ever and ever.