141. The Dark Side of Being a Successful YouTuber ft. Chris Hau

What’s up Rock Nation, today we’ve got the legend Chris Hau on the pod! Chris is a filmmaker, photographer, and entrepreneur who’s completely flipped the script on how creators work with brands. After building a 600K-subscriber YouTube channel and crushing it on social media, Chris realized that all the views, likes, and followers didn’t actually bring him happiness. Instead, he stepped back, redefined his goals, and went all-in on his production company, proving you don’t need massive teams to make massive moves. Chris loves to work with Travel and Tech brands like DJI, Fairmont, and One-Plus, and leverages his personal brand into six-figure production deals. Chris is all about creating meaningful projects, building community, and helping other creators find success while staying true to themselves. This episode is Chris like you've never heard him before.

Check out Chris here:

https://www.youtube.com/@UCRte954rw0oeMWFroy_ClAw

https://www.instagram.com/thechrishau/

https://thechrishau.com/

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Timestamps:

0:00 - Trailer

0:41 - Intro

2:18 - One Handed Crack

3:50 - Taking a step back from YouTube

6:05 - Working with small vs big crews

7:52 - The ideal team size for Chris’ production shoots

10:10 - How Chris builds out his crew

11:15 - Why Chris hated big production crews

13:00 - Chris’ hiring process

15:19 - How Chris educates clients on the unique value of his production company

17:48 - Finding the white space in a saturated industry

19:29 - How Chris leverages his personal brand

20:45 - Working with Fairmont on Lake Louise

22:40 - Navigating sales calls with potential new clients

24:48 - Communicating your value to clients

26:50 - Leveraging Chris’ positioning for 6 figure paydays

28:36 - How Chris double dips on partnerships

29:36 - Working with tourism boards

31:27 - Where Chris sees his production company going

34:15 - Spec ads Chris is working on

35:29 - Travel changes you

40:38 - The importance of creating spec ads

43:53 - Chris’ journey to overcome people-pleasing

49:19 - How Chris’ relationship with YouTube has changed (move this earlier in the convo?)

52:43 - Reframing a toxic mindset

59:29 - Reading vs. listening to books

1:00:39 - The pressure to create on YouTube

1:06:01 - Aspirational lifestyle

1:07:49 - Chris’ YouTube creation process

1:10:19 - What Chris would do differently if starting YouTube today

1:12:56 - Reframing his identity as a photographer

1:18:31 - Chris’ love for teaching

1:20:59 - Hosting live events

1:26:45 - Advice to your 18-year-old self

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