The Hacksmith Interview: The Struggle of YouTube's Iron Man

Created with Jon Youshaei

I interviewed James Hobson aka the Hacksmith about the struggles and cost of being YouTube's real life Iron Man. Thanks .Store for sponsoring. Get your branded .Store domain for your merch store for $0.99: https://www.created.store/jon (code: JON) Join my newsletter for latest creator news & tips: https://created.news Join my Discord of 5,500 creators helping each other grow: https://discord.com/invite/created We also discussed the struggle of running a business on YouTube, how James has sold millions of dollars in mini sabers, built Captain America's shield and real life light sabers, and what actually went into creating videos like John Wick’s Bulletproof Suit, Thor’s Stormbreaker, Self Healing Wolverine Claws, and 4000° Plasma Proto-Lightsaber Build. Special thank you to Danny Bui, Pouya Mirzaei, and the Origin Films team for filming this interview and our Hacksmith Studio Tour. Highly recommend working with them if you're ever in Toronto. 0:00 - 0:50 Who Is The Hacksmith? 0:50 - 3:20 How Hacksmith Makes (And Spends) Money 3:20 - 5:02 Building World’s First Lightsaber 5:02 - 6:50 Quitting Job For YouTube 6:50 - 10:27 Struggle of Running a YT Business 10:27 - 12:44 How Can You Inspire…If You Go Broke? 12:44 - 17:37 $100K To Make A Video 17:37 - 20:37 Creating Because You Have To, Not Want To 20:37 - 26:31 Quitting YouTube 26:31 - 33:00 Growing Too Fast, Too Quickly 33:00 - 40:12 Lessons From Grant Thompson (The King of Random) 40:12 - 48:49 Hero vs. Hub Content 48:49 - 56:22 Hacksmith Income Breakdown 56:22 - 1:07:32 Problems With Hollywood (John Wick’s Bulletproof Suit) 1:07:32 - 1:11:56 Selling $1M of Mini-Sabers In A Week 1:11:56 - 1:18:23 Building World’s First Cordless Lightsaber 1:18:23 - 1:23:06 What Makes A Good Video? 1:23:06 - 1:32:39 MrBeast’s Advice To Hacksmith 1:32:39 - 1:36:14 Creator Burnout & Fears 1:36:14 - 1:38:27 Future of Hacksmith Industries 1:38:27 - 1:41:44 Inspiring Fans to Become Engineers