but what if your gear powered you to push past them?
Lululemon's hard-working training gear can get you there.
You need ultra-breatability that vents heat fast,
tough fabrics that stand up to wear and tear,
support that stays locked in even when your legs shake.
Explore Lululemon training gear in store or online
at Lululemon.com.
And 10.
Tax Act can think of a million things more fun
than filing taxes.
Tax Act is going to name some now.
Sitting in traffic, folding a fitted bed sheet,
listening to your coworker talk about his fantasy team,
digging a hole, digging an even larger hole
next to that original hole.
Unfortunately, Tax Act's filing software
can't make taxes fun,
but Tax Act can help you get them done.
Tax Act, let's get them over with.
Explain to me how someone could make 10,000
in their first month on social media.
So, many will know you as one of the biggest
short-form creators around.
With millions of followers across all your platforms,
you've got some insane cards, including an SV.
I didn't know much about cars,
but I really wanted a McLaren 570S.
I made $1,000 in a night, I'm alive.
I did 1.5 million in a week.
I made about 3.6 million when I was 19.
The coolest thing I've ever done in my life is,
I invested 1.3 million into a development
that went completely sideways.
The guy had gone ghost
and I didn't hear anything from him and thank you.
I'm gonna let you into a little secret.
Over 65% of you that watch these podcasts
are unsubscribed to my channel,
and it's completely free.
I've literally built a replica van studio
on the other side of the world.
I flew my carpenter out here
and shipped all the materials across
just to get to these incredible guests
and record these episodes.
So, if just you could do me one favor for a second,
let's get out your phone,
it's get your TV remote out,
click the up button and find that subscribe button.
Just hitting that button will allow me,
as I've done numerous times,
to level up the guests that you see on this show
and make this the biggest automotive podcast in the world.
And hopefully, you'll take something away from that.
So, if you see the value
in tapping that subscribe button for free, please do it.
Cam, shortly, I'm gonna ask you to explain to me
how someone could make 10,000 a month
in their first month on social media,
which I've seen loads of content
with you talking about this before.
But many will know you as one of the biggest
short form creators around
with millions of followers across all your platforms.
And I remember that heartfelt moment
where you're actually able to buy your dad
a Ferrari 488.
You've got some insane cars,
including an SV that's parked just behind the van now.
But in your own words, who are you and what do you do?
Yeah, thank you for that.
My name is Cam Casey, I'm 24 years old,
and I started social media when I was 18 years old.
I started as photographer
and then I grew my own social media
and started making my own videos
and that's how it grew to what it is now
and to become more successful than I ever would have thought.
So 10 years ago, you weren't doing social media
like you're doing it now,
so can you just give me a snapshot
of what life was like 10 years ago
versus what life is like now?
10 years ago, I was just like a normal kid
as like an athlete.
I just did football, baseball, wrestling.
Like I just did sports like a normal kid
and grew up in a normal town
and went to a normal public high school
and normal public middle school and just played sports
and that was like my competitiveness.
And your dad was pretty critical
to you playing sports as well, right?
Like he did a lot to help you with that?
My dad was my coach usually.
So my dad often coached me and I would play sports
and he would help me out with that
because that's what he did growing up
and we weren't really into cars
and didn't have any special cars or anything like that.
So if you were playing sports and that was your world,
what was like your dream
if you could have achieved it?
Like at that point in your life?
When I was 14, so 10 years ago,
it was probably to be a professional athlete.
Like I want to be like a pro football player
and football is an American football.
That was my thing.
So what was the point that your road
forked off in two different directions
and instead of becoming like a professional athlete
and going down that road,
you became the creator that you are today?
It started on Vine.
I was a Vine editor.
So I would make Vine edits, football,
Vine edit highlights.
Like there's like House of Highlights now
and like all these sports pages and media pages.
I used to be one of those on Vine.
So I had a page called football hits
and it would just be like cool, crazy football hits.
I would take like NFL footage, cut it up,
put music over it and post that on Vine.
And that's kind of how I got started in social media
and I started to get like that like dopamine rush
of like getting views and growing your followers
on social media.
Then Vine went away and I was still into social media
and doing all that stuff.
So I had Instagram and I would just post my photos
on Instagram and I just got really, really involved
in Instagram and social media and being a photographer.
Did it all change when like reels came along?
The ability to put a lot of content
within 60 seconds into something like,
did you start to see that you were growing followers faster
that you knew how to kind of get people hooked
when that kind of entered the market?
It was more when TikTok came around.
TikTok was a bigger, bigger change and shift.
And I actually hated TikTok when it first came out.
I was like, this is awful.
This is terrible.
Like I don't like TikTok.
Like it's cringe.
It's like musically like anyone that's on there is cringe.
And I started, because I was in Los Angeles at the time.
So I had moved out of my hometown.
I went to Los Angeles to be a photographer
and I wanted to shoot celebrities.
I wanted to shoot weddings.
I wanted to shoot whatever I could to like pay the bills
and make money and things like that.
And I started meeting all these YouTubers
and people that were in the space
and they were like, you should get on TikTok.
You should do TikTok.
And I'm like, no, like TikTok's cringe.
Like it's gross and weird.
And I was just sitting around one night
and I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna embrace TikTok.
I see all these people making all this money on TikTok.
I see these people blowing up, getting famous on TikTok.
Like I've always wanted to be in front of the camera more.
I've always wanted to make my own videos more.
So let me like make some TikToks.
And I'm gonna like embrace this.
Like I don't care what other people think.
I'm gonna go for it on TikTok.
Would you describe yourself as quite an introverted
extroverted person?
Introverted for sure.
Like big groups.
Putting yourself on camera for the first time like back then
that was probably a bigger thing
than it would be to like an extroverted person like myself.
Yeah, it was scary.
It was scary for sure.
And I didn't want to be judged
and I didn't want to like have people make fun of me
and like that kind of stuff.
But I was like, this is what I want to do.
Like I love making videos.
I love taking photos.
Like I want to be on social media
and like now is the best time ever.
It's new platform.
There's a high influx of viewers
and a low influx of creators.
So naturally your views go way up for stupid videos.
So I was like, I'm gonna do this and I embraced it.
Had you ever made a dollar
prior to putting your face on camera for social media?
No.
So I made money from photography
and I would shoot these like companies
or I would shoot these people.
But that was like just because of my photography.
I would reach out to these companies,
show them my website, show them my Instagram
and I would get a couple hundred bucks to do a shoot.
And that was like a big deal for me at the time.
And I didn't really realize how much money
that you could make with social media.
If someone had told you that you could have made
like 10 grand in a month back then,
what would your reaction have been?
I've been like, dang, I can like pay my rent so easily.
Like I can pay my rent like two weeks or a week.
That would have shocked me.
And then on top of that,
if they'd have said that you could do it
by creating videos about stuff that you're passionate about,
you'd have then had an extra amount of excitement
on top of that too.
So we're going along this timeline.
I'm picturing this guy, he's in Los Angeles.
You pursued photography, videography as a career.
You're starting to meet people through doing it.
So it's like opening your mindset
and opening up a little bit.
When was a moment, if you had to pinpoint one,
that you think something happened
and you were just like, oh my God.
And you realized maybe the possibility
or some of the possibility of what the now has become
was actually achievable.
I started going live on TikTok.
So I started posting my own videos
and I started going live on TikTok
and I would get donations.
And I would go live like every single night
for three or four hours and just like talk with people
and answer questions, talk about photography,
talk about the stupid videos that I was making
and people would send me donations.
And one night I went maybe for like five or six hours
and I made $1,000 in that night.
And I was like, whoa, like this is insane.
Like if I did this every night,
like I can make 30,000 a month.
And that like really opened my eyes.
And what kind of level of like following
were you at by then?
I was between like 500,000 to a million on TikTok.
Wow, so that is still quite a lot.
And how was that taken to build that up?
It was a lot, but not at the time it wasn't that much
because you just, you make one viral video
and you would get thousands and tens of thousands
of followers and I had just started making
these like stupid prank videos and photography videos.
And I had connections to like kind of famous-ish people
in the space and I was making videos about them
or with them because I would do these
photography shoots for free, like for completely free.
I would say, hey, let me do a photo shoot with you.
I'll give you everything.
This is completely free, like totally for you.
And here's my work.
And I think I had good work at the time
because people would answer and say yes.
So then I started making videos about it.
What is it about you specifically and your videos
that at the beginning of that journey
that you're talking about then gave you
the advantage that made you grow like that?
I think it was the fact of who I was surrounded with
and the people that were around me.
I was around people that had the same mindset
and had the same idea to do the same thing as me.
And we were all collaborating with each other.
We were all like talking and whether it was people
I was meeting on the internet or people I was meeting
in real life and they were just like,
hey, if you do this or this idea
and also seeing other people successful,
I would take what I saw as other people having success
and replicate it to my own and do it in my own way.
I'm currently recording these podcasts
a long way from home in a van studio.
I built to perfectly match my van studio in the UK.
These work trips abroad can be difficult
but that's why I use Surfshark.
It helps me work seamlessly from far away
and stay protected across all of my businesses.
Each day I'm using Surfshark to swap my VPN
back to a UK server so that I'm able to access
key systems within my businesses at home.
I'll also let you into a little creative secret.
I use Surfshark when I get back home to the UK
to pretend that I'm still in the US.
That way my US episodes that I filmed
like the Chip Foose one that I did last time
which has achieved over 1.3 million views
gets pushed out to a US audience.
When the recording's finished in the van for the day
and it's time to relax,
I'm still able to enjoy content from the UK
and all around the world.
I recently went on a road trip with my friend Chris to Spain
and during that the F1 was on
and I was able to use Surfshark to swap my VPN
to a UK server and still watch the F1 in my streaming account.
And that's important when I have faces like Gunther Steiner,
Otmar Schaffenhauser and Will Buxton
regularly on the podcast.
In a world full of thieves browsing online without Surfshark
is essentially like leaving the keys to the van
on the bonnet for anybody to steal.
You're at risk of all your information being taken.
Surfshark protects you from all this
while encrypting your data at super fast speeds.
With over 3,200 servers across the world,
stay safe using Surfshark by clicking the link
in the description below
or typing out the link that is on screen now.
RTSP stands for Road to Success Podcast.
So with this link you'll get Surfshark
for an extra four months at an unbeatable price.
And to make it even easier for you to try,
Surfshark also gives you a 30 day money back guarantee.
So if you're not satisfied, you don't pay.
So what are you waiting for?
Make sure you're using Surfshark, stay safe,
and I hope you enjoy the rest of this episode.
Thanks Surfshark.
Is there a video for you that you look back on
in your journey before all the cars,
before everything that just blew up
and you were like, oh my God, this is insane?
There's one video where I put a soda bottle
in a clear balloon that looked like a condom
and I put it in a clear balloon
and then I just dropped it off of a roof
and let it explode in slow motion.
And that did over a hundred million views.
And I was like, whoa, this is legit, this is insane.
But like I obviously know you
because I'm a massive car fan.
This podcast is all about guests
with a connection to cars.
We've literally got an event store SV Roadster
outside the van and the list of cars
that I've got on here.
So I remember all of them.
It's absolutely insane.
You had an R8 that you sold for GT3 RS.
You had a McLaren 620R.
Like you've had high-end eyes.
You've actually also, it says here, bought a Sprinter.
So like we both got Sprinters, that's one thing.
But to amass those cars from dropping
a Coke bottle off a roof to most people
is just absolute insanity.
Like when did the actual business side of it
start to make sense for you?
That was when Snapchat started coming around.
So when I was 18, it was all photography.
I moved out of the house at 18, moved to Los Angeles.
I'm like, I'm gonna make this work.
I'm gonna figure it out.
18, I was a photographer trying to do photo shoots,
trying to make money, like trying to pay rent,
like struggling kind of.
19 is when TikTok started coming around
and I was making TikTok videos.
I started going live.
I made $1,000 in a night on a live.
I was averaging like 300-ish to 500 maybe
a night on a live.
So I was making like 10 to 15 grand a month
when I was 19.
I saved up like 200 grand.
I was really cheap.
I was living in an apartment with four people
that was a two bedroom apartment
and I was paying $600 a month.
And I was like, I wanna save every single penny
that I possibly can.
I saved up about 200,000 over that year.
So I was making between like 20-ish grand a month.
Spending 600 bucks a month on rent.
I had a Hyundai Kona like living very, very below
my means spending 1500 bucks a month
making 20,000 a month.
How did you know to do that?
Why did you have the mindset to do that
versus like go and finance a 488 straight away?
I really wanted a McLaren 570S.
That was really what I wanted.
I didn't know much about cars.
At that point, I wasn't super into cars.
My younger brother is the one who got me really
into cars and I was like, yeah,
I just want like a 570S.
Like that'd be so cool.
The doors go up.
It's only like 150K.
I wanna save up for that.
So that's what I was saving up for.
Was it mad the fact that you and your younger brother
could have that conversation
that buying a super car was actually a thing?
Because what did life look like growing up
if he was to give us a snapshot?
But then there was no super cars around.
No, no, there's no,
I didn't grow up around super cars.
I didn't see, Lamborghinis weren't a thing.
If you saw Lamborghini,
it would be like the biggest news of the town.
The cool car was like the Corvette.
If someone had a Corvette,
that was like, oh, that's a cool car.
And I wasn't even really into cars.
I was into sports.
That was my thing.
I love football.
I love baseball.
I love wrestling.
I was very competitive.
That was my thing growing up in my town.
So I'm picturing a dad
that's also very much into sports as well.
So if you were talking about yourself,
you were kind of a bit worried to put yourself on camera
because you're a bit introverted, et cetera.
And like dropping Coke bottles off roofs
is probably the furthest thing away from football
is possible.
So like, what did your dad think
when you started getting into this?
Because people are often influenced
not to do something or to do something by their parents.
So like, was that a big thing for you?
My parents have always been relatively supportive.
They really wanted me to go to college after high school
and I really didn't want to go to college.
I was like, let me make this work.
I wanted to live in a van actually.
Out of high school, I wanted to get something
just like this and I wanted to do van life.
It's like a trendy thing.
Have you seen it where people make a little bed?
They basically turn it into a home and I'm like,
I can save up enough money and I'll live out the van
and I'm going to LA, like all I wanted to do
was go to LA and like make it work.
And they're like, no, you have to go to school.
So I found a film school in Los Angeles
that I went to for like three weeks.
And then they said, if you can figure out
how to pay your rent, like you can do your own thing.
As long as you can pay for your own bills
and pay your own rent and things like that,
you can do whatever you want.
So I made that work after a couple weeks of photography
and things like that.
I went away from the question.
Quite introverted though.
If they'd have turned around and been like,
this is ridiculous.
Like you're literally dropping coat bottles off roofs.
Like there's no way that you can make a career out of this.
Do you think that would have steered you off the path
that you're currently on
or do you think you'd have just kept hammering it?
No, I was very, very determined.
I was like, this is gonna work no matter what
because I'd seen other people do it.
My parents had never seen anyone do it.
But I'd seen, and especially being in Los Angeles,
I'd seen like these people do it.
Like I'm like, this is very possible.
Like this is a very feasible thing.
And it was only until I started making like
over $10,000 a month that my parents were like,
oh, like you're actually making like real money.
Like this is good money.
So my dad, who is still very, very involved
with everything I do with business,
we're business partners.
I was able to retire him and now we just work on solely
what we're working on with real estate
and cars and social media and everything like that.
But he just had a normal job
but he was very, very into what I was doing,
helping me track my finances, track my expenses
and things like that.
And that's, he became supportive very quickly.
Well, I'm pretty sure that's easy to do
when you can actually see bank statements
for that amount of money on the in front of your eyes.
But other people can't see them.
The first things that other people tend to see
is when people buy something a bit ludicrous
like the McLaren 570.
For you, what was that like going
and like buying a car like that for the first time?
Did you feel like it was the moment,
almost like when you get a plaque on YouTube
that like solidified like what you were doing
was working and you were actually getting results
off the back of it?
So I didn't buy the 620R until,
because I wanted the 570,
but then Snapchat came around
and then I made like real, real money.
And I was like, whoa, like, I have a different budget now.
It was a good job you didn't buy a 570,
because when I had mine, it literally disintegrated
and it felt a bit.
So it was a good job that you got into one
that was put together a bit better.
I'm a 570 hater now
because everyone thinks my car is a 570
because it's based off of the 570 GT4
but converted street legal,
tuned differently, whatever, 620R.
So anyways, Snapchat came around
and I was posting my short form videos on Snapchat
and I found out that they were making a lot of money
from Snapchat because Snapchat had a TikTok competitor.
Every company was fighting for TikTok's market share
and market space because TikTok was just dominating.
So all these platforms, Facebook, Instagram
and Snapchat was the biggest one
that had a TikTok competitor
and they were paying out a million dollars a day
and I started posting a lot of videos
and just started spamming videos on there.
Got a lot of views because they were good videos
that were getting views on TikTok.
So if they get views on TikTok,
they'll get views on every other platform.
Which isn't always the case, right?
Because especially with Instagram and TikTok,
you can post something to Instagram that will like flop
but it will fly on TikTok.
It is different now.
When it back then,
it was good short form video performs everywhere.
So I was posting those videos on Snapchat.
I got a call a week into it
after I'd posted like 10 videos that I had made 150,000
and I'm like, whoa, like this is wild.
Just to confirm, 10 shorts.
10 shorts.
For 150,000.
That's insane.
Yeah, they got like three or four million views
on short form stuff.
Which to be fair for short form,
you've literally got videos
on like your YouTube shorts that have done 450 million views.
So it's not even like an insane amount of views
compared to other videos that you've done
but it was generating that amount of cash at the start.
Yeah, because no one else was posting on it
and no one knew about it.
So was it like you and maybe Alex Choi at the start?
Because I think he was fairly early
to Snapchat as well, right?
He did it well.
David Dobrik did it really well.
Lance 210, he's like a prank guy did it really well.
There was like five or six people
that had done really, really well.
But it was kind of like a secret.
Like no one wanted to tell the secret.
And me and one of my roommates knew about it
and we were like really going hard on it
and just putting out as much as we possibly could.
And what was that stuff like?
Because for us to be natural in videos,
this is what we'll get onto
like how other people can do the same thing.
But to me to be natural in a video,
I have to be passionate about whatever it is that I'm doing.
So what content was it?
Like what made up those 10 videos for you?
It was like riddles and challenges
and dropping Coke and soda bottles off of buildings
and like random weird prank stuff.
But oftentimes there'd be no English in the videos
and I wouldn't speak in the videos
because when you speak, that limits your audience.
You can only do US English speakers.
They've kind of done stuff now
with like AI and translating stuff.
So it's a little bit better now.
But I would do non-speaking videos,
the most viral type of videos that I could.
I put pool chlorine and soda bottles
and that would make it explode.
Like just doing wild stuff
to get as many views as possible.
And what was kind of the most amount of money
you ever made on Snapchat in a month?
I did 1.5 million in a week.
That was wild. Yeah, that's pretty ludicrous.
That was wild.
And that was in the early days?
So that was right when they called me.
So I posted like five videos.
Didn't think much of it in a week.
Posted like five or 10 videos.
They reached out to me personally and said,
hey, like I got three million views.
And they're like, hey, like you're qualified for the payout.
Like we'd love to have you on the phone
and talk about your payout.
And I'm like, okay, like,
and I was hoping it would be like 10 or 15 grand.
Yeah, I was hoping it'd be like 10 or 15 grand.
You didn't know then?
I had no idea.
I was hoping it would be like 10 or 15,000.
And I'd be like, at the time, I was 19 years old.
So at the time I had made, this was like November.
So I had made like 180,000 that year.
And I tracked it very carefully
cause I was very into it.
And I was like, I want a 570, like making 200 grand at 19.
I'm like, I'm doing like pretty good.
And I'm like, if it's like 10 or 15 grand,
like that'd be a great bump to the end of my year.
Like I could get over, I could make over 200K, whatever.
And then when they called and they said,
yeah, your earnings are over six figures,
I was like, six figures.
Like how much, how much is six figures?
I didn't, I didn't know what six figures was at the time.
And I'm like 10,000, like no, 10,000 is five.
A hundred thousand dollars?
I'm like, no way that actually meant a hundred thousand
dollars for three million views.
Lo and behold, it was like 150 something thousand
off of three videos.
And I was like, I have just striked gold.
Like felt like I won the lottery.
But it seems like you've also remained like fairly calm.
Like, did you like phone your dad, like going crazy?
Yeah, I called my dad, I was like, what did he say?
He was like, no way.
He just didn't believe it.
He didn't believe it was real.
He didn't actually think that like that had happened.
And I'm like, Snapchat sent me an email that said,
I made a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Like we'll see.
Like it seems pretty real.
And yet in 2020, you made six hundred pound for shooting
for an alcohol company, like a video.
And that was your biggest gig up to that point.
Yeah, yeah.
It's insane how fast you can go from like zero to hero
with these things, but remaining leveled is like
one of the other things cause people lose it.
Like football is in the UK and over absolutely losing it.
The second they earn a lot of money,
they end up going and crashing their cars
and then matters to rebuild them.
Like people are just wild with it.
But as being like a level headed,
like something that's really helped you get to where you are.
Yeah, I think I could very easily have lost it all.
I could very easily have blown it all.
But what was like a moment that maybe you wouldn't have
done again if it was now?
We all have that dream trip we've been wishing we could go on.
But too often life or usually price gets in the way.
That's why Priceline is here to help you
turn your dream trip into reality.
With up to 60% off hotels and up to 50% off flights,
you can book everything you need for your next adventure.
Don't just dream about that next trip.
Book it with Priceline.
Download the Priceline app or visit priceline.com
and book your next trip today.
Got your happy price, Priceline.
I invested in a project that I invested,
this is kind of a long story.
I could go into it.
I invested 1.3 million into a development
that went completely sideways in South.
And I had to go through an entire lawsuit
to get this land back to build this development again.
So I got very into real estate and I'm like,
first of all, I don't wanna get taxed extremely heavily
on, cause I had made about 3.6 million that year
when I was 19 from the 1.5 million dollar a week
and then in our 750,000 dollar a week, 400,000 dollar a week,
like it added up to about three, six, or four.
Like around there is how much I made from the spotlight.
And I was like, I wanna get into real estate.
I wanna be able to make this work for me.
I wanna be passive.
And I had been interested in that for years.
I don't know why, but I was just like, I love real estate.
I wanna be able to make passive income and-
This might not last forever.
Yeah, exactly.
And I knew it wouldn't last forever.
I knew that when the news came out,
I did David Dobrik's podcast about it.
I had a New York Times article about it.
Like I knew that like people were gonna find out about it.
People were gonna post about it.
And it would just, it would eventually go away.
So I'm like, let me run this for as long as possible.
But let me also make this last
because and everyone around me is like, save your money.
Like don't blow it.
Like don't be an idiot.
And it could have very easily have gone.
Like it could have very easily have been all blown.
But I bought real estate
and I made one bad investment into 1.3 million
into a development project.
And the guy had gone ghost
and I didn't hear anything from him.
And basically I think he essentially took the money
and ran, went through all this lawsuit,
hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits,
eventually got this land back.
And thankfully the land is worth enough
where I'm able to recoup my investment now.
And now I'm building the project
and actually funding the entire project just by myself.
And I'll be able to recoup that money now,
but it was a disaster.
I've heard that happen in like other people as well.
Like even in the UK, I had a friend
that had a really successful clothing brand
and he actually sadly lost his clothing brand.
So he took some money out for a quick property investment
and the guy just ran off with all the capital
for like the 12 homes.
And he was sure that it was going to be absolutely fine.
Like all the dots dotted all the crosses crossed.
He was absolutely sure that it was going to be okay,
but you've got to be so careful
when getting into stuff like that.
And especially who you partner with.
Like I learned a lot of lessons.
I learned a lot.
But you also like to teach people a lot of lessons.
And that was like in my opening,
something that I said to the audience was,
what would your advice be?
You've made videos on this of course,
but today like what would your advice be
for someone to get from naught to 10,000 a month
on social media?
And why does it matter to you
that your mindset might have changed
to open up to actually tell people?
Because when Snapchat was its thing,
you were keeping it close to your chest
like not telling everyone.
And people definitely fear
the kind of age of the courses everywhere.
Like, well, hang on a second.
Why would he be telling me this stuff?
Cause he's just trying to sell me a course.
Like why, for one,
do you try and help people with this?
Because this is like the better way to live.
It's not a fun way to live life
working for someone else
or being stuck to one location.
Like I'm able to travel all over the world.
And I've been able to travel everywhere
I've ever wanted to go
and been able to make money from my phone
and make money online.
And it's the best way to live, I think.
And I don't sell anything about it.
I just like to do it
because I like to show people
what I've been able to do
and show people that's possible
to get a $600,000 car
when you're 23 or 24.
I bought for my 24th birthday.
So that's why I do it.
And should I tell people how I would make $10,000?
What I'm picturing
is one of my favorite programs ever
were those business ones
where they would take an entrepreneur
that's like built X,
give him like a hundred bucks and a truck
and be like, off you go for 90 days,
go and build a million dollar companies.
If I gave you a phone
with a brand new account on TikTok, Snapchat,
Instagram, there was no name on it.
There was no face on it.
It had zero followers.
So you've got 30 days to go and make 10 grand.
Like what would you do?
I would sell a product with social media.
I would develop a product or service,
a digital product or service
and sell that through social media.
Become and show yourself as an expert
in whatever you're passionate about
or whatever you're good at
and develop a product or service around that.
So not AdSense?
Not AdSense.
AdSense is a great tool once you're large.
When you have a lot of views,
you have a lot of followers
and you're getting a lot of consistent viewership.
AdSense is great,
but the best way to make quick, fast money
in 30 days on social media
is develop a product or service
or sell someone else's product or service.
Which is quite interesting
because most people would have started
like listening to that conversation,
thinking, well, it's all right for him
because like he's got millions of followers
or like other people have got this.
But what you're actually saying is
that as a micro creator,
as someone that can build X,
it's like, is it the value of the people
following them versus then?
Yes, the quality of the audience
is much better than the quantity of the audience.
If you have a really strong quality audience,
you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars
without getting over 100,000 views a month.
You know, like I'm doing hundreds of millions of views a month
between all of my social platforms,
but it's very viral,
very like large scale type content.
Whereas you can also be very, very niche
and be very, very specific
about what you're an expert in
or what you're great at
and selling either your own product
or someone else's product.
Like you can have affiliate
and make money from affiliates
and make a ton of money from affiliates.
I know a lot of people that crush it with affiliates.
So short form versus long form in that conversation
because I come from a world
that's very much long form, long form,
long from my friends that I'm surrounded with
all make videos that every single one
of them are north of half an hour long,
like probably an hour most of us are making.
And then I come to America
and one of my friends, Jackson, Captain Crankshaft,
you might know of like he crushes it
with short form automotive content
and you're crushing it with short form.
I look around like all these guys are obsessed
with short form.
Like does that also come
with the opportunity of brand deals and things like that?
Like why would you choose short form over long form?
Short form is a lot easier.
Short form is a lot easier
and you have a lot more shots on goal.
Like you have a lot more shots to go viral.
You have a lot more shots to like figure out
what you're doing
and you can make three, five, 10 videos a day short form.
You can't do that with long form.
Long form is a very like special curated piece
that you have to like only put out
once, twice, three times a week maybe
if you're like really going hard at it
whereas short form you can do multiple day,
you can post multiple day
and you get a lot quicker like reaction
and you get a lot quicker like feedback
from your audience.
Do you think it's a lot harder for people
to get to know who you are though
and start to understand your personality with short form
or does that not necessarily matter?
It depends what kind of stuff you make
and it also doesn't really matter.
I know someone who makes, the kid I live with,
he makes content that's very international.
People don't know, he doesn't share his life.
Like he doesn't share about his life at all.
He just makes great viral content.
He did 1.3 billion views on YouTube shorts last month
and he made a ton of money from it
but no one like knows about his life.
He just makes viral challenges, viral cooking videos
and like actually is able to like
just pull a ton of views from that.
He gets great brand deals.
He makes a ton of money from AdSense
and that's like his bread and butter.
He doesn't sell anything to anyone
and that's two different routes
but if you're gonna start from zero
selling something to someone is so much better.
So let's talk about like the feeling of success
from all of that though.
If someone gets going, they're able to pull in some views.
They're able to make that kind of money
but it's what you do with that money.
You're talking about you're invested
in everything that you're doing now
and you're doing it all alongside your dad.
But a memory for you that must be like above
so many of the others would have been buying him that 488.
Like talk us through the idea of doing that
because didn't you rent in one
before actually buying him one?
Yeah, so I rented him a 488 back in Los Angeles.
He came and visited me and I was like,
let me rent you like he had always talked about
liking Ferraris and liking the 488
and he loved the 488 and I was like
let me rent this for you.
So I spent like 1000 bucks rented it for two days
when they visited LA and he was like in love with it
and I was like, this is a really cool feeling
and like it's still the best thing I've ever done
in my entire life.
The coolest thing I've ever done in my life
is buying him that car and I was like
I should really do this for his birthday next year.
Like and I really wanted to do it
and it was his 50th birthday
in like two years from now or two years from then
and my mom was like, just wait till his like 50th birthday.
So you have told your mom already?
Yeah, I told my mom about it
and she's like, just wait for his 50th birthday
like do it in a couple of years
and I'm like, no, I have the idea.
I want to do it.
I want to do it now.
And it was a, it was an interesting journey.
Who was the first person that you told
that you'd actually done that for him?
My brother, I told that I really wanted to do it
because my brother was living at home still.
So my brother was with my dad at home
and I was like, get him to spec
because my brother always just, he loves cars.
So he always is on the spec websites
like specking out, you know, Bugatti's
and whatever just for fun.
So I'm like, spec out a 488 and ask my dad
to spec out a 488 and let's see what he does.
And he's specked a red on a black interior
with a red like accents, exactly what I bought him.
And he's specked out this car
and I was like, okay, I know exactly what he wants now
like he wants the sports seats,
he wants the red, he wants all the carbon fiber options,
you know, everything like that.
A relatively basic, classic black on red Ferrari.
And I knew exactly what he wanted at that point.
So that's when I started searching for it.
The day you gave it to him, like,
what springs to you, like, what was his reaction like?
So we've seen the videos online,
but like to you, like, what did it look like?
So I found the car in North Carolina,
North or South Carolina.
One of the Carolinas in a random state
in the middle of nowhere kind of.
And I found the car and I was like,
hey, like, this car is perfect.
It was 250,000.
I'm like, how can I reserve it or hold it?
I wanna come pick it up a couple of days
before my dad's birthday, I'm getting it to him as a gift.
And they said, oh, you have to like put down a positive
like $20,000.
And so I'm like, shoot,
I don't know how I'm gonna put down a 20.
Cause he has access to all my bank accounts
and everything like that, because we work together
and do everything on my investments here.
So I'm like, shoot, how am I gonna do a $20,000 down payment
and to a dealership and him not see it for like five days?
Like that's not possible.
So I called one of my friends and I said, hey.
I need a favor.
I need a favor.
Can you put this deposit down?
I will send you the money,
but you just need to send it to the dealership.
So I told my dad, I'm like, hey, my friend, his name is Tony.
I'm like, hey, Tony's like needs a loan.
He's in a little bit of a tough spot right now.
Like I'm just gonna give him $30,000 or $20,000 for this loan.
Like he's my good friend.
He'll pay it back, whatever.
And he's like, okay, like that's fine.
So I sent him the $20,000, the $20,000
and then went to the dealership and he had no idea.
He thought that I would just like
loaning my friends some money.
And then I get often invited to like concerts
or festivals or events or whatever,
just random stuff all over the US.
So I told my dad, I'm like, hey,
I got invited to a Tate McCrae concert.
That was because I looked up who was performing there
in that city at that time.
And I'm like, hey, got invited to this concert.
I'm gonna, I need to go fly out there.
So I booked the ticket.
I booked it like normal.
I booked a hotel, whatever.
And that, he saw all that
and he saw and saw that I was booking all that,
but he thought I was just going to some concert.
He didn't think that I was going to go pick up a Ferrari
for him.
So we get there.
I land in North Carolina.
I go get a U-Haul truck and I go get a U-Haul trailer
to like trailer this car from North Carolina to Chicago
because it's about 16 hours.
So I land the day before his birthday
and we go straight to the U-Haul place,
pick up the car, pick up the trailer
and then go drive to this dealership.
This dealership's in like the middle of nowhere.
I stop by a chase on the way there
and I pick up a cashier's check for the full amount
because I had to buy the car in cash
because I couldn't get a loan
because my dad would know if I'm applying for a car loan
and whatever, it's a whole mess.
I also didn't want to have a payment on a car
that I'm gifting someone.
So anyways, go get the remaining 230,000 in cash,
pull that out and have a cashier's check.
And I'm like, this shouldn't cash
until at least the next morning.
And I plan to give it to him the next morning.
So I pull the cashier's check out,
go give it to the dealership, pick up the car,
load it on this U-Haul trailer
and I drive 16 hours back home
from North Carolina to Chicago,
park it under this, like the road trip was a disaster.
There was no AC in the car.
It's a whole mess, no radio.
Like I was listening to AirPods.
It was honestly a terrible road trip.
That's a long 16 hours.
And yeah, and I'm trailering this Ferrari
when I like haven't really trailered cars that much
and like the back of this giant U-Haul box truck,
disaster, absolute mess.
But safely make it back.
And you're also not supposed to trail a Ferrari
on a U-Haul trailer.
Like just, I had to load it on backwards
and it's a whole mess.
Anyways, get to Chicago
and that's when I like finally surprise him.
So I give him this cardboard box
and I put the keys and a Ferrari hat inside of it.
And I put the keys under the hat
and I'm like, hey, like, first of all, we surprised him
because you didn't even know we were gonna be there.
He thought we were at some Tate McCrae concert
in North Carolina.
So we surprised him.
He's like, oh my God, this is the best birthday ever.
Thank you so much for surprising me.
And we're like, happy birthday surprise.
Like that was it.
We go get lunch, whatever.
The Ferrari's just like sitting in a nearby parking garage
and he has no idea.
So we get back from lunch
and I go upstairs and I grab this like cardboard box
put the hat and the key and the Ferrari
or I put the key in the hat and I can close it.
And I say, hey dad, like you're gonna have to come outside
and open this box.
Like I got you a gift for your birthday.
He's like, oh, I was like,
you don't have to get me a gift.
I'm like, you have to open it outside though
because it's gonna like pop and explode
of like confetti and whatever.
I just made up some reason
why I had to go open it outside.
Sent my brother to go grab the Ferrari
and I said, go pick up the Ferrari,
bring it around the corner.
And when I text you now, pull around the corner.
So he comes outside, I say now, now, now, like come now,
like hurry up, come around the corner.
He's starting to open this box
and then just the red Ferrari comes around the corner
and he's looks up and he's like just in shock.
He thought I rented it.
He was like, is this a rental?
And I'm like, no, like I bought you this car
and he just like broke down and didn't know what to say.
And it was a very emotional moment.
So if you have absolute moments of euphoria like that
that have come from this journey,
what is your biggest fear going forward?
Like what could break that journey for you
and what is it that you're doing to avoid that?
You talked about like your investing
in real estate, et cetera, but like,
where do you see like the biggest risks
to what do you currently do?
I think the biggest risks are just my health and safety.
Really, I worry about that a lot
and I stress about that a lot
and like I want to make sure that I treat my body very nice,
that my dad treats his body very nice,
that my whole family, like I invest a lot into that
and making sure I stay healthy.
And I think that's like my biggest.
So have you had a moment that's made that a thing
like that's freaked you out?
No, not really, which is weird, but it's always,
it's always like, that's probably the biggest like.
Has that come from also being known
like and a lot of people knowing who you are,
does that freak you out a little bit?
I have had scares like that in the past
from being like popular or like,
I don't wanna say famous, I don't think I'm famous,
but popular online.
I've had people show up at the house,
I've had to get security at past houses.
I've had to deal with letters at my door,
people showing up at the house, stuff like that,
which is not enjoyable.
How does like a semi-introverted mindset deal
with like the hate comments
and like the scary kind of side of it all?
Like, has that been quite hard to suppress?
Cause anybody that starts doing this
and it's on that journey, they've got their micro,
follow in, they're building it up, they're in a niche,
they're trying to earn that first 10K a month
and then boom, like I'm gonna kill your mum
comes up on the thing.
Like how do you have to get over that on social media?
Like, have you had some tough moments
from like a mindset perspective with things like that?
The only time that hate comments
or anything ever get to me or bother me
is if there's some truth rooted in it
or they know something very, very personal about me
or something that I haven't shared online.
Like for example, like my address
or something like that, that freaks me out a little bit,
but general hate stuff, like you look stupid
or your hairline or whatever it is,
like that doesn't bother me.
When people often grow in terms of follow in
or like mentally or even like what they're up to and doing,
they typically like disconnect from maybe a group
that they grew up with, et cetera.
And that can be like a really hard thing.
You like mentioned when you went to LA
that you fell into the right circles, the right groups
and that you were kind of all driving yourself forward
by making videos, et cetera.
Was that the same kind of thing for you?
Did you like almost separate from the lads
that you were playing football with at a start?
And is that something that you kind of just have
to deal with when you're on this journey?
I did, actually.
I had my friends in high school,
my really close friends in high school were,
because I grew up outside of Chicago.
So I grew up like 20, 30 minutes outside of Chicago.
So every weekend, the nights, whatever,
when I was in high school,
I would drive down to the city and do photos
and I would hang out and those were my friends
that I would take the photos with.
And those were people in college.
Those were full grown adults,
like 30, 40 year old people
that I just met through Instagram and through social media
and those were like my closest friends.
My actual friends that I went to high school with,
most of them were just like school friends.
Like you hang out with them at school,
you'd see them and you'd play football with them,
whatever, like they were school friends,
but like when I was home or doing my own thing,
I had my photography, Instagram, internet friends.
So people from my high school,
there's one person that I was close with.
She's actually a girl, been a great friend,
my whole life and now actually works for me
and helps me with social media and things like that.
But yeah, I didn't really have like high school,
high school friends.
What does it take then, if she came to work for you,
what does it take to run however many million followers
it is across all the platforms now?
It takes a lot, but it takes a lot of work
and it's nonstop and it's 24 seven.
Because to someone hearing say 10 videos or 15 videos
for like 150 grand on Snapchat, I think it was 10, wasn't it?
Yeah, something like that.
They'll just think like, what the fuck?
Like that's like, you literally made a short,
but like, are you scripting these?
Are you thinking about these concepts?
You executing like one or two,
have you got like a plan of how many that you upload
over a given week?
Like do you put strategy behind it?
Not as much as you think actually,
not as much as you think.
The US is different gravy to what we've got in the UK, man.
It's off the rip, really.
It's off the rip.
I would like to give myself a little bit more scheduling
and a little bit more like formality,
but I'm not anywhere in any city in any state
for more than like a few days, really.
I did like 87 flights or something last year.
That's a flight every four days on average
over the entire of last year
and this year is kind of the same.
And I'm never anywhere for more than four or five days usually.
So that is a tough thing, scheduling wise
and making consistency wise and everything like that.
I'm kind of just filming off the rip
and I make sure I have things that I do every single day.
I make sure I get those out every single day.
I make sure I post on every single platform
multiple times every single day
and that's helpful from a,
I have like five people
that are in my group and help me out
with everything that we do
and we're making sure that I'm posting
on every single platform every single day,
multiple times a day.
And who's a creator that you like look up to?
Or are you like very much in your own lane?
No, there's definitely like a lot of the OG YouTubers
I look up to.
Like the Paul brothers, I'm inspired by a lot.
I see what they've done.
I would say that them two are probably the biggest
and I actually got to shoot with them
like on the come up time and Jake actually,
Jake Paul was the one who put me on a lot in the beginning.
So do you have like that fire inside you in your belly
to do the same kind of stuff that those guys have done?
Or are you very content and happy living
with the things that you've been able to achieve
others of now?
And do you think it's okay to kind of be like that
if that's the way?
I would say I'm very happy.
Like I'm a very happy person, but I'm definitely not content.
Like I definitely want more bigger, better things.
I'm not content at all in that way,
but I'm a happy person, if that makes sense.
Well, I think that's a great way to wrap up
what has been a very hot, but very interesting podcast
to get a look into the life behind Cam Case,
the guy that people see for 60 seconds
usually in a reel on the internet.
So thank you so much for telling me
about how you've got to where you are today.
Please make sure to like and subscribe
to Road to Success as well.
If you want to see better guests every single time,
just like Cam here now,
then you've got to make sure you're subscribed
and we will see you again soon.
About this episode
Cam Casey shares his journey from a regular athlete to a social media sensation making millions through short-form content. He discusses how he leveraged platforms like TikTok and Snapchat to build a massive following and generate significant income, including the emotional experience of gifting his father a Ferrari 488. Cam emphasizes the importance of mindset, collaboration, and strategic content creation while navigating the challenges of fame and financial success. His insights provide a unique perspective on the intersection of social media and luxury cars.
Surfshark:Go to https://surfshark.com/rtsp or use code RTSP at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!
From a small-town athlete to one of the biggest short-form creators on the planet… Cam Casey’s story is insane. From earning $1,000 in a single night on TikTok, to making millions at 19, to buying his dad a Ferrari — this is the full unfiltered journey.In this episode we dive into how Cam built his empire, the viral moments that changed everything, the setbacks, and the lessons he’s now sharing with the next generation of creators. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more exciting content about your favourite shows and celebrities. Hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest episodes👍 Like, Comment, and Share this episode. Join our discussion in the comments sectionNeed Help For Your Business With My Digital Marketing Agency? Check out Tweak: https://www.tweakuk.com/🔗 Follow Us:Instagram: @Roadtosuccessofficialpodcast@benedictfowler