EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

OUR INTERVIEW WITH JUSTIN

Nick Lange

Justin, I’d love to start with a quick intro to yourself, and your experience building this great channel.

Justin Odisho

Sure. Thanks for having me on the show, Nick. I’m glad I’m on the list there of editors. I’m not sure how many editors, or how many episodes you can get. Are there thousands of editors? Probably, otherwise, I wouldn’t have a channel. My name’s Justin Odisho, and for the past five years, or longer than that, I’ve been sharing educational material on Photoshop from your pro after effects all about photo and video editing. That’s mostly what people probably know me for, alongside just being interested in sharing online and experimenting with these different social platforms. For the most part, people have learned editing from me in some way.

Nick Lange

So I saw a video of you in a TedTalk you gave, I saw you had a photo of yourself as a kid at a computer, I think playing a video game at that point. When did you discover editing and when did you realize how much you loved it and decided to teach editing as a career?

Justin Odisho

Sure, I do remember that I have a TedTalk. I had to put a picture of myself as a kid. So I grew up on computers and stuff. I think my brother had gotten a copy of Photoshop or After Effects, and we were playing a lot of video games and people like to make little shiny graphics of their name or whatever, and After Effects with like a firework or something. It was fun, like learning how to do little things like that. That’s how I got into editing. How old was I, I don’t know, 15 or 16. Something like that. Then, YouTube came out around 2006-ish.

So it started like right timing, right place. I liked making videos and I enjoyed sharing videos as well. So that was what I was into, doing Photoshop stuff. Some of my first content on my channel was sharing Photoshop How-Tos.

Nick Lange

And so you had that first video doing fake tattoos in Photoshop about six years ago?

Justin Odisho

It was 10 years ago, maybe 11. I don’t know.

Nick Lange

So at that time, what was your goal with this channel, and how did that evolve?

Justin Odisho

Sure. I actually had been posting on YouTube before this channel that I created. So I made this channel in like 2011, so that’s somewhere around 10 years or more. I actually had already been posting on YouTube and making videos and editing since, like, 2007-ish. What was happening was I kept getting copyright strikes for having music in my videos, or I was just experimenting with what sort of stupid stuff you could post on YouTube that might get views, just seeing how it works. If you post something, you get views, you might share it to a forum or something. I was just sort of learning naturally. Back then, you didn’t really have Reddit. I don’t even know when Reddit came out, but it wasn’t that popular. I was just sort of interested in this sort of dynamic of audience building. So the reason I started the channel with the Photoshop stuff was because my other channel kept getting copyright stuff. So I thought, what is a form of content for me that I can upload content, and have fun sharing stuff, but it’s safe and viable. That was sort of my thought process. So I thought it seems like people like Photoshop stuff, and I like doing Photoshop, and no one’s going to copyright-strike me for that. So that’s why I did the first stuff. One of my skills was that I knew Photoshop. My first video was like, “Okay, here’s me Photoshopping a tattoo.” The first one didn’t have any voice-over, but then in the next one, I said, “Okay, well, why don’t I talk about what I’m doing and share the steps and make it educational rather than just a demonstration?”

Nick Lange

Awesome. So on this journey to almost a million subscribers and over 110 million views, what have been the major milestones? When did you celebrate along the way?

Justin Odisho

I’d say a hundred thousand was probably like one of the most major milestones through my dabbling with the Photoshop stuff. Even just as a hobby I had already built up, I think maybe like 20 to 30 or 40,000 subscribers. So I had somewhat of a knack for doing this whole YouTube thing. Back then, there was no monetization there. I wasn’t thinking about making a business – it’s much different than how it is now, where people do it purposefully to try to make a career out of it. I didn’t really quite know what I was doing. I just enjoyed doing it. Around the time I was graduating college, I was doing a lot of random freelancing, part-time jobs. I was just getting frustrated with working for other people, so I gave it a dedicated effort to work on my channel daily and try to see if I can make some sort of business opportunity out of it. So around 2017, after uploading daily and trying to experiment, figuring out what different things I can do, the video editing content that I made really stuck. That shot me up to a hundred thousand subscribers pretty quickly. I think it was a good combination of timing and just already being on the right path. I think a lot of people wanted to get into video editing around 2017, and it’s still growing. Just from the momentum there, I released my own products on my website. I found different ways to monetize myself, and thankfully, I’ve been able to do it as a business since around 2017. But I still gotta keep working.

Nick Lange

You put out so many videos. It’s an amazing, amazing pace you’re working at. How do you pick your topics, and how often do you know when a video is gonna be a big hit? How often are you surprised by something either going viral or not performing as well as you expected?

Justin Odisho

I keep a running note list of topics. One thing that I think is necessary and helps me a lot is I actively sit down and think of vague ideas. So, sometimes I’ll do research. I’ll look at, you know, what’s popular in a music video, or sometimes people will send me a comment question and I think that would be a good video. Sometimes I see what’s performing well on similar channels and put on a different spin on it or different programs. So I actively try to generate and keep a list of ideas that just pop in my head. If I didn’t write them down, I would never be able to remember them all. Then when I’m working, I can sit down and think of which one would be a good idea for today. I can go find all the footage and put the project together, to see if it works. I’ve uploaded a thousand or so videos, so by now, I do have a pretty good feel of the audience. Sometimes I just know, like this thumbnail, this title, and this topic are going to perform well. Sometimes I know this one probably won’t perform as well, but maybe it’ll serve a purpose like in a search engine or something. Sometimes I’m, I’m surprised some random video that I thought wasn’t gonna do anything, something I made just as a filler video, gets a million views. Sometimes I make a video and I think it’s gonna get a million views, and it doesn’t get any views.

Nick Lange

So in your experience, what are those principles that seem to work with thumbnails and titles?

Justin Odisho

Well, being on YouTube for so many years, it’s actually been changing more and more throughout the years. In the beginning, it used to be about packing as many keywords in there as possible. Like “How to X, Y, Z 2020 high-quality high definition.” I feel like simplicity, and then directing it toward a human audience is what I’m experimenting with. You always have the basics. It’s actually quite a skill, copywriting a good title. A simple “How To…” is a classic for centuries. Like, “How To Tie Your Shoes.” That’s always gonna work. But you can always experiment with a list of topics that do well, like “Five Tips for X, Y, Z” or “Five Ways To Do This” – that always seem to do well cause it piques curiosity. So, I’ve been trying more and more to see what happens if I keep it simple, keep it clickable. As far as the thumbnail, putting faces, keeping it simple as well. But you gotta remember, it’s gonna show up small on a phone screen, so you gotta not cram in too many little [00:10:00] words and things. Just keep it bright, colorful, and maybe a face. Simple. Symmetrical. It’s a science. I don’t know.

Nick Lange

Yeah, that’s great. What have been the biggest challenges for you along the way? Have you ever considered quitting or trying something different? What did you learn from that experience?

Justin Odisho

Sometimes you go through phases of burnout because you’re a one-man team, and you have to do everything from sitting there and thinking about the title, making the video, recording the video, editing the video, and coming up with the products to sell, working with brands, everything, and live your daily life. There’s no guarantee that you’re gonna make a living. You just have to keep making content and keep up with the changing algorithm and the changing pace. So I’d say, just the consistency over many years of trying to remain relevant and finding an audience is, is quite a challenge. I mean, I’m in year five now and the algorithm is changing. There are lots of things that are changing and you can’t just rest on your laurels. A subscriber is a real person and those people come and go. They may have wanted to learn editing in 2019, and currently, they’re not so active in wanting to learn editing. So you gotta keep finding new people. You can’t rest on your previous work.

Nick Lange

Tell me about this lifestyle that you’ve built for yourself – that you’ve designed for yourself – with this career.

Justin Odisho

Although there are challenges, there are also a lot of great things about it. I’ve worked many regular jobs and the great thing about this is, although I do everything myself, I also do everything myself. I don’t have to wake up at a particular time. I don’t have to answer to – well, you know, I do still have responsibilities. I have to answer to the audience, but I don’t necessarily have to answer to anyone. It’s a very flexible schedule. If I wanna work at midnight, if I have something to do at 2:00 PM on a Wednesday, that’s nice. I’ve separated working. I’ve separated my time and my effort. So when I make a video, or when I make a thousand videos, the video I make today will still be there next year and the year after that. There is a challenge with software tutorials where that software might get outdated in five-ish years, so there’s some sort of shelf life. But rather than going to work for one day and then your effort only lasts while you’re working, the effort compounds on itself, which is nice.

Nick Lange

That’s great. How are you gonna evolve the channel as time passes? Where will you go from?

Justin Odisho

I think I’m always wanting to experiment more. People’s interests change. Perhaps in a few years, their Premiere or Adobe won’t be the editor. Perhaps there would be some, I mean, we already see it now, with vertical content and short-form content and mobile creating. People just wanna create and mobile. So I always think I have to keep experimenting and try and keep up with what will be viable. You always have to keep creating content. I think it all comes down to just continue creating content. You can’t make one video and sit on it for 10 years. You have to keep going. 

Nick Lange

Right, and I see how you’ve really embraced shorts. You’re putting out a ton of shorts. But even with these short videos, you’re packing in a ton of information, and they’re really polished. How have those performed for you? How do you balance these efforts to continue producing your sort of standard, like the traditional videos that you make, with experimenting with shorts or other formats?

Justin Odisho

So the shorts is a new experiment. I feel like I have a sort of love-hate relationship with them. I find myself watching them personally. I think it’s probably, overall, like damaging to society that we just keep scrolling on these short, attention-sucking things that are just designed to sort of clickbait you in some way, and probably don’t provide much long-lasting value. A part of me doesn’t want to contribute to that. But also, YouTube is really pushing it. I would not be doing my job to not at least try to see if I could grow my channel in this way, or if I could find a new audience be in this way or see what it’s like. So nothing has performed amazingly well, but also I have such a large catalog of videos that I can take some of my longer videos, and cut them down into shorts. It’s more economical – it’s like recycling almost in a good way.

Nick Lange

Do you find that that algorithm reaches a new audience? Are you finding different types of growth – audience growth – with the shorts?

Justin Odisho

It’s performing okay so far. I think it’s being pushed. I think it’s being pushed in the search, it’s being pushed on the homepage. I haven’t done it long enough to figure out much but I think if I made like 100 or 200 shorts, I definitely see some good results, cause I’ve only done like a couple of dozen

Nick Lange

Are you putting them on TikTok as well?

Justin Odisho

I originally did some TikToks as an experiment, but as one person, I could only handle so many platforms at once. Some people do hire help and whatnot, but, I didn’t really go too, too much on TikTok, although many people probably built a great audience using TikTok. So I had some experience with it, but now I’m sort of seeing, what the YouTube shorts will do and hoping that it’ll lead people to come back to the channel, subscribe, and go to the longer form content as well.

Nick Lange

Awesome. Well, this podcast series is dedicated to helping editors – passionate editors – find the perfect career for themselves, illuminating paths that we might not know existed, and showing the success stories; talking about the tactics and the strategies that people used to get there. In that great TedTalk that you gave a few years ago called “Be Who You Are”, you had some really interesting notes in there that I think will resonate with people far outside the editing community: “Consider what you haven’t considered” is something you said. What does that mean?

Justin Odisho

Hmm. It’s been a while since the TedTalk. I am still proud of the TedTalk. I haven’t really watched that. I don’t really like watching myself on camera.

Nick Lange

It’s so good.

Justin Odisho

I think I still agree with most of what I said there. I think a lot of us, we assume these things, like you said, jobs that you might not have known existed. So even now, talking about short-form content and YouTube thumbnails, I see a lot of people on Twitter. I’ve seen a young kid on Twitter and he was making a living, making thumbnails for a lot of the top YouTubers. 

Nick Lange

That’s awesome.

Justin Odisho

He might have been only 16 or 17, I don’t know, and he’s making all these thumbnails, all these big YouTubers want to work with him, and he probably didn’t consider that possibility. Maybe when I was thinking about what I was gonna do when I’m older, you always think like, “Okay, I’m going to go to school. I’m going to graduate.” There’s just this vague idea of some real job that you’re gonna get, and we don’t consider all of these weird, new jobs and opportunities that don’t fit into that traditional idea of what you assume.

Nick Lange

What are some other ideas – other career paths – for editors that you see opening up, and how do you think this role is gonna evolve in the coming future?

Justin Odisho

I mean, even myself, I’ve experimented. I need help. I hired someone, just sort of freelance, to help me take my old videos and turn some of them into shorts. Now that everyone wants to make a video, or at least like a lot of companies and a lot of people want to get into video, a lot of people need video editors a lot in all different areas, like long-form social media type of work. I’m not too sure what other specific jobs I can point out, except for the fact that a lot of people are looking for editors, just video, in general, is booming. I mean, here we are on this podcast platform, and even on that side, someone had to develop this podcast site and the tools for editing or I don’t know. Do you know what I’m getting at? Am I getting at the right thing?

Nick Lange

Oh, absolutely. Along those lines, you have a great podcast of your own and before we started recording, we chat for a second about things you’ve learned along the way. What have you learned? How and what can you teach me about running a good podcast?

Justin Odisho

Well, I don’t know if I could teach you about running a good one, but I have conducted like, I don’t know, 30 or something interviews. One, I ramble a lot. I still ramble. I rambled in this interview cause I haven’t done one in a while. But I think I learned to be a better listener and really, wait. Sometimes I would have something to say, and then they would talk, and I would think of something good to say. Then they would sort of go on to a next point and I would cut off everything they’re saying just so I could bring up that point that I wanted. Sometimes you lose a good point and you gotta just listen to what they were saying.

Nick Lange

Yeah. How do you pick your guests? You have some really amazing editors on your show. How do you choose them?

Justin Odisho

Some of them were opportunities that came to my inbox. Some of them were people that I personally found interesting and reached out to them. Mutual connections, colleagues. I’m not actively doing it so much anymore, but a mix of those. For the most part, I would say it’s people that I find interesting, whether they’re an editor or not.

Nick Lange

You’ve built this huge viewership around the world. I was looking at your audience breakdown and it’s amazing how wide that reaches. In that TedTalk, you mentioned that you have made a lot of friends around the world from this experience of building this channel. Tell me about that. What opportunities has this channel created? And tell me about the doors that it’s opened for you.

Justin Odisho

Yeah, one amazing thing like, along with the flexibility and whatnot, is that I have colleagues and friends. I know someone whether I’m in California or Toronto, or New York. And I’m sure other places, I mean, I haven’t been everywhere in the world, but it’s nice to feel like no matter what room you’re in, you possibly have some sort of connection or something to bring to the table. Especially in many industries, it’s always nice. As a side note, I’ve gotten really into playing chess lately. That’s probably why I haven’t been uploading that much. And I went to a chess tournament, and actually, there are a lot of chess YouTubers. They have lots of subscribers. They have like a million subscribers. They get tons of viewership and I have nothing in common with them, except that I still have something to bring to the table and say like, “Oh, hey, I follow your podcast. I also have a channel. I also do a podcast.” or “I know editing if you ever need anything in Photoshop or Premiere.” It’s always a valuable skill to open doors and bring to the table. And people are usually like, “Yeah! Let’s connect.” Like, there’s “Do you know anyone who makes thumbnails?” Yeah, I actually did connect to them with a couple of people. But I don’t know what I would say if it were just like, “Oh, I work at this job that I got from my degree. Do you need any IT work on your website?” I don’t know if it would be the same.

Nick Lange

Yeah. What got you into chess? Do you play online, like chess.com? How do you play?

Justin Odisho

Oh, my brother again. My brother challenged me a few years ago. I don’t know why he just like sent me a “Let’s Play” and I was losing, and I didn’t want to lose. Then I got completely insanely addicted. Now I study it and it’s sort of weird. Maybe I wanna be a coach one day.

Nick Lange

That’s awesome. Okay. Are you into documentaries? Would you ever use your filmmaking skills to make a film about chess?

Justin Odisho

Oh! I mean, I’m open. Actually, it’s been a cool networking thing, cause even at the local chess club, none of them are YouTubers. None of them are online much. but I know one of the guys they teach at local academies and stuff and even then, it’s like, “What do you do?” And then he’s like, “Oh, we actually need a documentary, like to follow the kids around and to show what we do so we could show it to other academies.”  So speaking of jobs that we were talking about earlier, create jobs for editors, I think if you have these skills, it seems like there are lots of people that want video and want these sorts of skills. Personally, my skills are more so on the editing and the software side. I can use a camera. I can shoot, and I like making stuff and sharing stuff. But to define myself as an editor, I don’t really know what to define myself as. I just, most notably, have made like a thousand editing software tutorials. So that’s what a lot of people know me for. And it’s sort of been a business.

Nick Lange

Well, okay. So how do you learn so much? Seeing you fly through these tutorials, I was like, “Oh my God, he’s a master.” How do you educate yourself when you find something that you want to figure out how to do? What’s your process for learning before you teach?

Justin Odisho

I’ve always found editing sort of to be like riding a bike because I did learn when I was young and it all seems similar. It’s all been the same from [00:26:00] when I was editing silly little video game videos. Of course, the software is evolving and there’s still stuff that I don’t know, like the very technical. I was just Googling some really technical issues about frame rate and drop frames and why they’re 59.99, why do they round them that way? This stuff, I don’t know. This is just how the analog transfers to the digital. But the basics, I guess I just learned them once. Then also, through teaching, I created a lesson plan and an example project and ran through it, and recorded it every day. It keeps you sharp and it keeps you active. Teaching is one of the best ways to learn. So that has been like a double win or something.

Nick Lange

Yeah, no, that’s great. And what are your favorite movies, and do you have anything to say about the editing in those movies?

Justin Odisho

It’s been a while. At one point, I was trying to watch like the IMDB top list, just to, you know, educate myself, be more cultured in film. But I like all the good ones, I guess. Fight Club, that’s a good one.

I actually don’t watch movies that often recently. If I can do a “How to Edit Like This and Like This Movie,” it’s sort of tough with copyright, but I don’t know. I’d have to open up the list. There’s no weird one. They’re all classics. They’re all stuff that’s probably highly rated.

Is there a good movie you’ve seen recently that I might be missing?

Nick Lange

I watched Elvis yesterday. I thought it was great. I saw Nope last week, that new Jordan Peel film. Did you watch that?

Justin Odisho

I haven’t. I like the Johnny Cash movie, actually.

Nick Lange

That’s a great one. Walk the Line. Yeah, I’m such a fan of Jordan Peel in general because of the amount of symbolism, like layered symbolism. So after finishing Nope, I was talking about it with a friend I saw it with, and we realized like all these seemingly random plot points or things that you feel are just there to advance the story, are actually like totally connected to this symbolism of like viewership and observation. There’s like this single-eye theme that keeps appearing throughout the whole movie. I don’t want to give it away, but it’s really brilliant. I don’t know who does his editing or how involved Jordan Peel is, but boy, the sound design in that movie is just mind-blowing. What is your experience with sound design, and what tools do you use? And what advice do you have for people who are passionate about sound design?

Justin Odisho

I wouldn’t call myself an expert in the field of audio and sound at all. But you know, I’ve taught a few things in tricks, like how to make an underwater sound effect. I think everyone just needs to know the basics of levels and decibels and peeking, fading in and out, and whatnot. There are even some transition techniques like L cuts and J cuts where the audio comes in first. But as far as making sounds with the aluminum foil and stuff like that, I probably wouldn’t be the right guy.

Nick Lange

Yeah. That’s amazing. What advice do you have for editors passionate about editing when there’s a career they have in mind that they need to work toward? What inspiration and practical advice can you give them?

Justin Odisho

I guess I couldn’t act like everyone is going to find some weird niche, like an internet career, as I’ve been able to do for a handful of years – who knows how long it’ll go? I do think everyone could benefit from having a hard skillset in knowing a software very well.

Everyone would benefit from knowing Photoshop. No matter what job you’re in, probably everyone would benefit from it. Maybe not everyone, but as an editor, besides equipment, just your knowledge. Have the basic equipment and the basic software and tools, but then your knowledge on even like what we’re talking about, with films. There’s no limit, I think, to how increasing your skills and knowledge could increase your earning potential, career-wise.

Nick Lange

What do you think the future of the software options is going to look like? So someone who’s learning editing right now, how do you evaluate Premiere versus DaVinci versus Final Cut versus Avid? What advice do you have?

Justin Odisho

Well, obviously, I’m probably a bit biased because I’ve always used – I actually – although I got into everything from Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects, I actually learned most of my video editing in Sony Vegas at first, and then Adobe later. Adobe is nice because there isn’t necessarily a direct equivalent to like After Effects. There are Photoshop alternatives, but there isn’t such a direct equivalent and they have all of them. It’s sort of like they have this monopoly. Wait, I probably shouldn’t say that. But I know lots of great editors that use Final Cut, and it seems like everyone wants to make a video call to switch to DaVinci lately. I don’t know if DaVinci is paying people or what. I think video editing is like riding a bike to me. To me, it seems like it doesn’t matter what software you go to. I mean, a cut is still going to be a cut. I’m more worried about, or not worried, but I feel like is it ever going to get to a point where, like, what is going to become obsolete by some app on your phone that just does a lot of stuff for you? That’s what I would be thinking about. Like what skills can you have that are not going to be just replaced by some automatic tool?

Nick Lange

That’s a great point, and that’s actually something I wanted to ask you. In the age of AI, with more and more of the technical work being performed by the software, how do people protect themselves against becoming obsolete?

Justin Odisho

I actually had a little random video I posted on my channel about this, maybe if people can find it. But I think although AI will probably do a lot of things that will be helpful, like just make masking better or automatic, or maybe syncing to music some more automatic, I don’t think that if a robot, for us, – this’ll be funny if I’m wrong. I don’t think that it’ll be able to do the human portion of storytelling. So like, when do you cut? Not how do you cut this shot, but when do you cut this shot? How is AI going to necessarily decide that? I don’t know.

Or arranging clips in an order that makes sense.

Nick Lange

When people ask you whether film school is worth it, what do you tell them?

Justin Odisho

Okay, let me first say, I personally, think that there’s so much great free education online, in any subject. I would even probably be on the side for regular school. I have also asked people on my podcast who have gone to film school, and some of them said they did find good connections and learn things. I think it depends on what you want to be. Myself, I never really worked in the traditional Hollywood, big expensive camera, big crew sort of film, so perhaps, I didn’t need to go to film school. But if you want to do that sort of thing, maybe film school would be helpful for you. But for the most part, if I had to give one answer, I would say, education in general, is changing so drastically. I do think a lot of old ways of education, there’s something broken about them and something that needs to change, or at least look into everything that’s available right on the internet.

Nick Lange

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I went to film school, both as an undergrad, and as a grad student. I dropped out of grad school after one semester, already deeply indebted, which was really stressful. It’s a really hard way to start a career in film, when no one waiting for you after school, you’re just like everyone else trying to eke out a path. So I’m so impressed by people who have self-taught, and I love the people like Einstein, who taught himself everything he knew about science by pursuing that on his own time. I think that is personally the way of the future. Will you tell me about how you’ve built a business around this career? So you sell overlays, you sell packs of effects and transitions; tell me about that, and what other products or other revenue streams you might explore in the future.

Justin Odisho

Sure. Well, first of all, I made myself a website, and then I made myself a webshop. I had to figure all that stuff out. One of the best things I’ve ever done doing this as a business on my own is creating and selling my own things directly to the people that watch, because just relying on ad revenue on YouTube is probably not the most sustainable or greatest way to make a living. You really have to be getting millions of views just to be making a living on just ad revenue, so we’re talking about just the top-tier YouTube celebrities. However, for more of the regular and middle-class YouTubers, you can really go a much longer way by using the relationship you have directly with people. In my case, people came to my channel to learn how to do Premiere Pro effects. So if they want to save time, I made presets. I spent a lot of time on them. I’m proud of the presets, transitions, and effects that I made. Tons of people don’t want to learn it, and they don’t want to do all the keyframes and they don’t want to do all the things. They’d rather just give you some money, and they can use the pack forever on other projects and save a bunch of hours. So it’s like a win-win, I think. Was there another part of the question?

Nick Lange

That was it. Anything else you have planned coming up? Any other products, courses, or other ideas you’re exploring?

Justin Odisho

Yeah. One thing I’ve actually never done, which is kind of crazy, is I’ve never actually gotten into the course side of things. So many people ask me, “Do you have a course on this?” Like, yes, I have a lot of stuff all for free on YouTube. But it seems like people still want an organized course. I just feel like that’s one thing I’ve really been neglecting on is like, having a bunch of courses and allowing people, if they choose to learn that way. But for now, I have all the playlists on my channel. And of course, the more products you can create, the better. The more videos and products you make, the better. So, yeah, always trying to make more.

Nick Lange

Awesome. You’re in Toronto, is that right?

Justin Odisho

I’m actually not. I’m in the Metro Detroit area. But a lot of people think that. It’s close. It’s like, right across the river.

Nick Lange

Okay, I don’t know why I thought that. In this post-pandemic virtual world that we’re in, what’s the importance of location as an editor? Is it possible to be creating an amazing career, not just as a YouTube creator, but in all areas of editing, regardless of where in the world you are? What are your thoughts on that?

Justin Odisho

I think a lot of what I’m speaking towards more so applies to non-traditional forms of media. I’m probably sure that like a film studio for a big-budget film is not outsourcing its editing across the country. I may be wrong actually, though, but I feel like, it’s probably more local. But aside from that, I do think that there’s so much opportunity that is non-location dependent that you can do from anywhere. For example, I built my whole YouTube channel, not in what you typically think of as a major media city like New York or California. And actually, I think in some ways, it’s been a benefit that you’re not right in the middle of it, and you have a more bird’s eye perspective to be able to take your own approach.

Nick Lange

Yeah. Okay. And then, as final parting words, what inspiration can you give to the world of editors who would love to have a career like yours?

Justin Odisho

I would say video editing is a great skill that adds from randomly learning it as a kid, like a teen, to now. It has never seemed to go stale or go out of style. it seems like it’s only getting more and more important in the world video. It actually seems like it’s taken over the world completely, video. So always be proud of your skills there. It’s not like a waste of a skill, it’s a nice skill to have, and it’s an important skill. I’m not gonna say that everyone is going to be able to make some lucrative living making YouTube videos, as well as anyone who could start a business and run a successful restaurant or business. But like you said that I said in the TED talk, consider different ideas, think creatively, and really think about how powerful all of the tools you have right in front of you; on your phone, the Internet, your networking, and all of these tools are to possibly be able to do something with your skills that you didn’t traditionally think of. I don’t know if that’s motivation.

Nick Lange

Totally. This is great. Thank you, Justin. Can’t wait to see your next videos.

Justin Odisho

Thank you, Nick, for having me. And thanks, everyone for listening.