10 Most Valuable Lessons I have learned from Casey Neistat

After a successful five years in the commercial film industry and receiving multiple awards, it seemed like my career was set for tv commercials. However in 2016, it was a conversation with Casey Neistat on top of a mountain in Cape Town that changed the way I would perceive the future of media. Casey Neistat is regarded as the ‘Godfather of YouTube’ accumulating over 3 billion views on his YouTube channel which has an impressive 12 Million Subscribers. He was the recipient of the ‘British GQ New Media Star of the Year’ in 2016, as well as the co-creator of his HBO series ‘The Neistat Brothers’ which is a docu-series about the coming of age of him and his brother Van. He is also the recipient of 14 ‘Streamy Awards’, 2 ‘YouTube Creator Awards’ as well as nominee for the ‘Creator of the Decade’ Shorty Award.

While on this hike in Cape Town; Casey proposed an idea – a leap of faith if you will – for me to leave the traditional film industry and move to New York to help him build his new company, ‘368’ a hub for YouTubers and creators to collaborate, share ideas and grow their channels together, as well as assist him in creating his daily vlogs. In exchange he would mentor me in the world of YouTube.

Although a daunting request, the opportunity was one that was extremely difficult to turn down, so I left my fast growing trajectory in the traditional world and took the biggest gamble in my career (thank god I did take Casey up on his offer).

Casey has taught me so much, and drastically impacted my career as a filmmaker. Therefore, in today’s blog I am going to outline the 10 Most Valuable Lessons I have learned from Casey Neistat.

1. A fool sleeps when he’s tired, a wiseman sleeps every moment he can

If you need something and don’t know what it is it’s probably sleep. Casey believes that your best work is done first thing in the morning, while your mind is fresh – your ‘cup of creativity’ slowly drains out through the day. However balancing everything he has to do, requires him to wake up at around 5am and get to bed at 1 or 2am and some nights not sleep at all (When we were actively daily vlogging). Casey taught me the valuable lesson of sleeping every moment you can. In a cab, in an airport, sometimes even before a large speech began and the room filled up we would lie on the chairs and get a good 30 mins in. I am not saying this is healthy, but to optimize workflow, it definitely works. 

2. Free is the Most Expensive

It sounds counterintuitive but it’s true. Be wary of Brands / people who offer you free things, especially when they’d otherwise be costly. Nothing is ever free. It’s the law of equivalent exchange; accepting free things places you in a position where you now ‘owe’ something . Don’t allow yourself to get into ‘favor debt’, this can drastically hinder your credibility as a filmmaker. I rather skip the red tape and buy the product, it’s cheaper in the end.   

3. Family First

Family is Casey’s number one priority, no matter how busy, he has a strict rule whereby 18:00 he’d wrap up to go home to have private family time, then once they’ve gone to bed, jump on his boosted board, drive back to the studio and shout at me for everything I’ve done wrong with the edit, haha.  Family should always come first. As a new dad,  prioritizing my alone time with my wife and little Seth is extremely important not only for our relationship, but also to prevent burnout in my workflow. (This is something we will explore in-depth in a blog to follow). Improved emotional and social support plays a massive role in moderating between absolute exhaustion and personal well-being. This allows Casey to maintain peak performance in his workflow and achieve the best results possible in all aspects of his life.

4. Unless a meeting involves food, don’t attend

Efficiency is extremely important to Casey. He is extraordinarily organized. Time is money and in order to make the most out of his time he prioritizes killing two birds with one stone. If he has a meeting scheduled in the afternoon, he will make sure it is during his lunch break. This optimizes the output he can generate with his time. This is a simple notion that I now employ in my daily routine. Do the most efficient tasks that will generate the most rewarding outcome. Also, don’t forget to eat, and drink enough water.

5. You can never have enough Gaffer Tape

Casey’s studio is iconic, it has everything he needs to create a video on the fly. He ensures that everything he needs is ready and well organized to prevent him from having to travel to the store to get anything he may need. Of all the tools he uses, none is as important and valuable as Gaffer Tape. Inevitably while creating videos, things will go wrong. Having gaffer tape on hand is crucial to fix literally anything. I guess he learnt this the hard way by wrecking more cameras in a week than I have in my lifetime as a filmmaker. From balancing a tripod on a ladder dangling 20 floors up, to sticking a gopro to the roof, gaffer tape allows Casey to act instinctively and maintain a flow state whilst creating. At my Production Company, JOE, in Cape Town we have a monthly order of  gaffer tape on retainer. It is used daily for all sorts of tasks. It is the one tool every filmmaker NEEDS to have at all times.

6. Shut up and make something

Casey reacts immediately to any situation that will make a compelling video. He’d literally throw a camera at me and say ‘follow me’. Next minute we’d be off filming a Drone that can deliver pizza. He doesn’t over overthink anything, He just ACTS. The rise of content consumption is becoming more and more present within our daily lives. The average person spends 4 Hours and 49 Minutes on social media every day. That is 73 days in a year! Imagine if that time was converted from consumption into creation. It has become increasingly common for ‘armchair commentators’ to have opinions on art but do not create anything in their spare time. Shut up and make something. A fancy camera is not preventing you from telling a good story. Stop consuming and go create.

7. Views are not a metric for success 

Although super successful on YouTube, the views were and still are not the priority for Casey. They came as a result of his masterful storytelling, but were not the driving force behind his motivation to make films. For Casey the love of filmmaking and telling a story far outweighs the thrill of checking his YouTube analytics daily. Casey did not monetize his daily vlog until much later in his YouTube career, by doing this it allowed him to create freely. Not having to worry about if this video would perform better than the last and so forth. Metrics like AVD (average view duration) and CTR (click-through-rate) were not what influenced the content Casey would create. His underlying love and passion for filmmaking is what drove him to create a daily vlog every single day for 800 days. Try not to get bogged down in the perpetual cycle of sensationalism, this will force you to make choices on behalf of the audience and force you to do stuff that may be against your brand image and values.

8. Run!

80,300 Miles or 3.2 Laps around the earth. That is how far Casey has run since he was 20. He runs 10 miles EVERY SINGLE DAY. Running allows Casey to escape his busy world. We would often make the joke that people like to run away from their problems. With Casey, running allowed him to fix his problems. He could take time to regather his thoughts and find a way to solve the problem. Running is something that I have tried to implement more consistently in my daily life and is definitely something I regret not starting sooner.

9. Never advance at the expense of someone else

Relationships are crucial in the film industry. The way we conduct ourselves on set, collaborate with others and express our ideas are ultimately what makes us likely to succeed. Never EVER try to advance your career through someone else’s misfortune or failure. It can have a devastating long-term effect on your relationships in the industry as well as make you seem like a d*ck. The only failures you should capitalise from are your own. The only failure is not learning from your failures, finding a way to use your mishaps as a launchpad to take criticism, understanding what you can do better so you can propel yourself in the right direction. But never ever place someone in the firing line for your own benefit, the effects are more detrimental than you expect.

10. Share your fails

Everyone has failed more than once in their life. I mean while writing this I can think of 10 personal failures this year alone, and learning from these is what makes me better at what I do. A compelling story will never be a full success. We have to experience times of struggle. 

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Casey Neistat’s influence on my career as a filmmaker has been invaluable. His lessons have taught me the importance of prioritizing sleep, being wary of free offerings, and putting family first. Additionally, he has emphasized the significance of efficiency, resourcefulness with tools like gaffer tape, taking action and creating instead of just consuming and overthinking, focusing on storytelling rather than views, the power of running for mental clarity, maintaining integrity in relationships, and embracing failure as a means of growth. These lessons have not only shaped my professional journey but have also enriched my personal life.

Casey, I know you are reading this and I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for me! Love you my brother!