I Watched 800 Casey Neistat Vlogs – Here’s What I Learned
I missed one of the greatest moments of internet history. When Casey Neistat published his first vlog on March 26, 2015, and then continued for 800 more episodes, it changed the internet world.
I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that. Sure, YouTubers had daily vlogs before, but nobody had consistently and masterfully applied a three-act structure and a narrative arc to their vlogs before Casey Neistat.
Most people simply tracked their daily lives on camera, with no narrative or theme connecting the various clips.
Casey Neistat not only applied the basic features of great storytelling, he also beat every other daily vlogger in terms of production. As one blog described:
“Casey has pioneered his own unique DSLR setup that combines an incredible camera by Canon, a high-quality microphone that offers hyper directional performance and a GorillaPod that provides a convenient selfie stick type of functionality.”
This setup allowed Casey to create daily content with some of the greatest production quality at the time on YouTube.
And at that time, I missed it.
I wasn’t watching YouTube regularly and was obsessed instead with climbing the corporate ladder. But now I’ve quit that life, started a YouTube channel, and discovered Casey Neistat over the past year. As a New Yorker, his content particularly resonates with me.
After watching all 800 Casey Neistat vlogs from 2015 through 2017, I’ve learned so many things about YouTube, filmmaking, and great storytelling. Here are the top 10.
1. Know why you’re being creative
Casey Neistat was clear from the start – he wanted to force himself to improve his filmmaking skills by making a movie every day. His overarching goal was mastering this creative pursuit.
Although he was also simultaneously starting a business, the now-defunct social media company Beme. It was basically Snapchat before Snapchat, but with much worse tech.
He used his daily vlog to help promote the company. It didn’t take long, however, for the vlogs to feature Beme less and less as the company experienced challenges and his YouTube popularity soared (for more background, here’s a good article by Casey’s business partner, Matt Hackett).
Regardless, Casey’s attention and effort at quality daily storytelling indicated that his primary goal was to create great videos. It was never about pure marketing of a company or product.
Know why you’re creating or pursuing anything. If the goal is simply fame or money, you should reassess. You’re unlikely to enjoy the journey without at least a little passion for a craft.
2. Be patient and trust YOUR creative process, not anyone else’s
Casey Neistat was a filmmaker for years before starting his daily vlog in 2015. He had been making internet videos even before YouTube existed.
His first big video was trolling Apple on the poor quality of their batteries. That video is from 2003. More than a decade before he crossed the 1 million YouTube subscribers threshold.
What many don’t acknowledge is that the majority of big creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs have worked at their crafts for years before experiencing success. And by “success” I mean some degree of financial freedom.
Casey Neistat realized his version of YouTube success by publishing his daily vlog consistently. He had his unique style with timelapses, action sequences on first a bike then an electric skateboard, and the use of sunglasses that gave him a signature look (although they have a practical application too).
He trusted his storytelling process.
Trust your own.
The worst thing any of us can do is attempt to copy someone else completely. It’s one thing to draw inspiration and incorporate elements of their style (great artists steal after all), but tell your own story in your own way.
We all have something unique to share with the world based on our life experiences and interests. Being a carbon copy of someone else is simply inauthentic and people will sense it.
3. Gear doesn’t matter – the story is king
One of the biggest hurdles to starting a YouTube channel – especially for someone like me who doesn’t have a filmmaking background – is all the gear. Cameras, microphones, editing software, lighting, etc.
One of the 5 things I learned from my first year on YouTube is that gear doesn’t matter. People will watch if you tell a great story.
My top video has fairly low production quality, and my second best has distorted audio in parts. They aren’t perfect. But they’ve still received tens of thousands of views and hundreds of likes (and new subscribers!).
Casey Neistat made it clear in this video: his first foundational principle is not having good gear, but telling a great story.
This principle can be applied to many other parts of life. Don’t let excuses stand in the way of creating great art or turning your dreams into reality.
4. The power of creating daily
Casey Neistat has even admitted this himself – had he not published a daily vlog, his channel may not have taken off. As mentioned, he had been creating videos online for over a decade prior to his daily vlog. And while he had amassed a very respectable half a million subscribers, he was nowhere close to the tens of millions he compiled in a couple short years.
Not only did his vlogs consistently appear in his viewers’ feeds, it forced him to be disciplined. He committed to showing up every single day to create. This insane routine made him extremely productive.
While most people cannot sustain that level of intensity – planning, shooting, editing, and publishing within 24 hours while working a stressful day job and raising a newborn – we can all get more disciplined around our productivity.
Pursuing a creative goal is not an excuse.
Show up. Do a little something every day. Move the needle closer to your goal.
5. The dangers of creating daily
Showing up daily doesn’t mean killing yourself with pressure and stress. Balance is obviously key. Even Casey Neistat burnt out after 800 days of vlogging, as he explained in this video.
He also highlighted another important consideration: mindfulness and presence. When you’re so wrapped up in creating or pushing forward with your goals, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s right in front of you.
If you’re constantly thinking about what’s next or what else you need to do to further your goals, are you ever really present?
Make sure to balance your pursuits with what matters most to you in life: family, friends, etc.
There’s no restart or reset button in life. Prioritize.
6. Introspection can be draining – for Casey Neistat, it’s easier to look outwards and analyze
This is more specific to daily vlogging or other forms of art that tell personal stories. Sometimes it gets too personal.
It’s why – I suspect at least – so many fiction writers go emotionally insane. They constantly tap into deep emotions that possess them in negative ways.
Daily vlogging is similar. Revealing your personal thoughts on a daily basis while inviting your audience into your daily life is mentally (often physically) exhausting.
Thoughtful introspection takes a toll, as opposed to critiquing what’s going on in the world externally from yourself. It’s why many people make great psychologists for their peers, but not for themselves. It’s why many psychologists and psychiatrists have their own shrinks.
Casey Neistat invited us in for 800 vlogs. I’m mentally drained even thinking about it.
While it may be useful to share personal stories at times – both as therapy for yourself and others – it should be balanced with creations that look outwards. Too much introspection leads to emotional burnout.
7. Don’t overshare your life or your kids
On a related note to introspection, don’t overshare your life or your kids. We live in an increasingly “sharenting” environment filled with kidfluencers and even parents willing to put their children in harms’ way so they might get famous.
One thing I always respected about Casey Neistat is how he stopped showing his childrens’ faces as they got older. His eldest son, Owen, was practically an adult by the time Casey included him in the daily vlog, so it wasn’t much of an issue. But his little girls were growing up with a dad who had a major social media presence.
Casey could have tried to use his daughters for content. He didn’t.
He also turned the camera off during more sensitive moments or when he wanted some personal time with his wife.
In our modern social media environment, we may be tempted to overshare our life or our kids, but it’s important to appreciate the consequences this could bring. Social media influencers have been robbed, their children have been harassed, and many have regretted their loss of privacy.
It’s important to know exactly what you’re sharing and confirming it’s for the right reasons.
8. Seize on relevancy, relatability, and shareability
Casey Neistat is a master at all three. Perhaps his biggest daily vlog (and overall video) came when New York City experienced a major snowstorm.
The city issued weather warnings and encouraged people to stay inside. What did Casey do?
He attached a rope to the back of his jeep and went snowboarding through the streets of Manhattan in what became an epic video.
If a newsworthy event is happening near Casey Neistat, he still gets out there and covers it in some way. Whether it’s Donald Trump, an orange New York City sky, or the recently released Apple Vision Pro.
If you want your content to go viral, you have to seize on relevancy, relatability, and shareability. Those three factors are a recipe for producing valuable content that will grow your audience.
9. Work hard to get the shot
The amount of effort Casey Neistat puts into his videos is insane. Even seemingly simple sequences are incredibly complex. My favorite was when he rescued his drone and filmed the entire thing on his vlog by attaching a GoPro to a rope.
Even this more recent video of him and his wife Candice getting food has crazy shots – drones, multiple cameras, different perspectives. Insane.
The message I took away from all of this – if you’re taking time to create or pursue something, work hard. Make it look easy to the untrained eye, but complex to the person who’s paying attention.
Casey Neistat always works hard to get the shot and tell his story.
10. Quantity beats quality when you’re starting out
Not all of Casey Neistat’s videos were overnight successes. Like everyone else, he’s had duds. But when his YouTube channel took off, those duds experienced growth because like a high tide that lifts all boats, his bigger videos helped his smaller ones.
When you’re just starting out at something, whether a hobby or activity you’re a novice at, you need reps. You need practice.
Yes, some people are naturally talented and don’t need as much time on the learning curve, but for many of us mortals, we need experience. We need to fail. Regularly and often.
So while we should try to create the best content or products possible, we shouldn’t wait for perfection to find us. Good is good enough when we’re just starting out.
We also don’t know what gems might be created in the process. I certainly didn’t expect my top YouTube video to be about afternoon tea in London.
But with all of that said, if I had to boil down what I’ve learned from Casey Neistat above and beyond these 10 takeaways it’s something far more basic and simple.
Press record.
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