Callux: My Life Story So Far | Minutes With | @LADbible TV
people meet people meet KSI and they're like expect him to be this horrible but he's like one of the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life and has time for everyone but yeah his go is like killing the world YouTubers aren't anymore just like kids in bedrooms making videos uh they're out here you know I'm gonna put this out here and I think that KSI is the the next Rock like gonna be absolutely huge in in tenure like everyone in the world will know him [Music] so firstly for those watching who don't know who you are can you give us a little introduction to yourself yes I am Callum McGinley is my real name but uh calyx online a YouTuber for the last 10 12 years and make shoes now and own a production company there's a couple of things we'll start off right at the story so what was your childhood like old heard it's a good question you know childhood wasn't the best uh didn't have a big family around me like mum and dad in in London but they were separated um didn't have the most money grew up in a council estate in East London my mum had to like get people to come round and like just to give us bread milk and like some orange juice and that was kind of what we'd live off like beans on toast and stuff so shout out to my mum actually because really like one that I grew up with her and weren't like given the best hand but she she definitely like made the most of it on YouTube and online like obviously we only show the best parts of our life but uh I think that a lot of people they forgot or they they guess that we've all gone to like their most amazing schools and we had all this money but um it was probably exactly the opposite so yeah when when I I'm sure we'll get into this but um when I was younger I had leukemia so Childhood Cancer and um I'd been ill for like two or three weeks and I woke up one morning I was sleeping in my mum's bed I was age four or five I woke up and and uh the the pillow was I was like stuck to the pillow and um uh it was like I thought I checked my hands there was like blood over them and and then I tried to wake my mum and she was like go back to sleep it was like four a.m 5 a.m so I was like okay I'll go back to sleep then and then I wake up like six or seven let down it's actually all red everywhere and um she turned overlooked at me and we didn't have a phone in the house so it didn't have like a landline phone and so she had to go shout like two balconies down to the street for someone to like call an ambulance and come free so it was like literally didn't have anything and how long would that battle kind of last for it was about two years two years yeah so like what what are your memories of that time I remember like yeah the bad stuff like the in the ambulance going like oh I don't know what's wrong with me on the way to the hospital getting there my mum coming back crying being like you're going to be here for a while what does that mean um uh then like every two weeks you'd go for a lumbar puncture which if you don't know what it is it's like they shove a huge needle in your back um so that would be like every two weeks and knock me out and do that you just remember the bad stuff so it's like yeah you get you isolation in a room away from um my parents for like two weeks um but obviously Miss years one and two at school so like key years in your in your life and they were gone and taken away from me so yeah that was kind of the stuff that I do remember is there any positive stuff that I remember this can there be I don't know well I suppose I was gonna say a part of the positive thing is like homies and your mum was because yeah it made her really ill actually yeah yeah I think off the back of it and the stress and everything that went into it she she got really ill off that yeah I remember the night says she sleep next to me and she'd asked the hospital if she could like literally Camp next to the bed and uh so yeah honestly yeah I wouldn't have been able to [Music] um shatter so how did that period of illness impact you in your later childhood I think I always knew that I had to try harder than the other kid so my mum like be that into me um I think that off the back of it I don't know I was quite skinny pale young kid not much has changed um but uh yeah I was always like a bit different to the people at school and then I think that kind of sculpted my um my personality a little bit and I was probably like the class clown or I try and if I if I wasn't looking like other people I'd try and make other people laugh and I think that's kind of as I say like not wanting to change much in my life that's probably them sculpting me for who I am today so there's been like multiple steps in my life where it's been like I could have literally gone in one or two ways like uh how he brought up or your parents are separated bang you've gone into different ways um there's been some trouble with addiction in in my family as well then there's like you have leukemia where do you go has been super lucky that that through my mum through who I am we've been able to like break out of that entire mold and be alive and be well and have a great thing going for me now what made you then start a YouTube channel what made you get into that world I wasn't very academic and there's not much at schools or there wasn't historically that kind of catered for people that were maybe a little bit more creatively minded rather than academically minded if I'd have pla applied myself to academics as I have done with the creative side of my life I would have been like I don't know I'd like to think that I'd be at like Oxford but I just wasn't set for that I my brain doesn't work like that and you weren't catered For being creative so you I tried my best to be in terms that I did drama um I didn't do arcs I couldn't draw but I I basically tried to do as many creative things as I could and that came across as sport as well like football rugby squash really good at squash because it was like there's an art to it and then I was like I'm really good at Call of Duty I'm going to show the world that I'm going to Call of Duty so I play with my schoolmates and then again like didn't have that much money through this period so it's like I have a laptop for Christmas my dad was like yeah you can have a laptop for Christmas because it went in and out of contact with with him during my childhood um and originally it was like laptop like a old Acer laptop that I would turn the other way facing towards my small 20-inch TV and the laptop would record the screen and then I'd upload that onto onto YouTube really good at Call of Duty started Eclipse channel the only way I can describe it is is like you being framed for college Eclipse so cool interesting stuff that happened I'd curate it upload three times a day for like a year or two and then dropped out a uni and at the end of the year I just didn't turn up to my final exam because I was like this is me this is my future I believe in this so much didn't tell my mom just came home and I was like oh yeah they're not I'm not going back next year like they've sent this letter and I'm not going back it's just like crying obviously everything that she did to get me to that point I'd then thrown out the window sorry man but I believe I believe that I really I believed in it I I knew that this was going to be the future but by how engrossed I was in it were you making enough money at that point for that to be a career or was it that much of a gamble you just you went for anyway yeah there was no money there was no money whatsoever in it back then the only money was like Machinima contracts I think so if you if you got yourself a Machinima contract then you were like singing so I I like had a couple friends that had shows on there and I'd I'd edit together Clips or show or bits of the show and then try and get paid that way but when I left uni I don't think I was earning any money and then a week after I left I I got contacted by a a YouTube Network called base 79 who are now uh Brave bison I think they were bought by wrightster and uh Rich Mansell who um is is now still my manager co-founded after party Studios with me works for me um on no two ways as well he interviewed me when they were just bringing me in to look at to sign my channel up the Call of Duty Channel and he was like this guy knows so much about YouTube like offered me a job on the spot so I started next Monday went out of uni straight into a YouTube job worked there for three and a half years quit the Black Ops Channel started calyx and the rest is history but when did you really start to feel your career as a content creator take off yeah it was it was my first video on the calyx Channel because I was like what shall I do what is no one else doing and what can I how can I be different and I think there was like one other person at the time that was doing public interviews out in London and um I think it was a Sam Pepper and um so I just went out and tried to do something a bit different to him yeah my first video was animal Impressions where I went out what's your favorite animal were you doing impression for me so stupid but just wanted to carve a niche and and do something different and that's when it you know I think my first video did 110 000 views when I had no subscribers so I was like oh right I'm onto something here just want to ask you what's your favorite animal animal uh tiger can you make can you do an impression of a tiger can you do an impression of a horse thank you how many subscribers have you got now I got four million I can't actually believe it and every time you think you've hit like the top then it just keeps going and I think um I'm still I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such a an amazing group of like-minded people the sidemen Carl Randy and all the other UK YouTubers that are doing their own thing and trying to push forward all the time I knew that would be the future I didn't know it was gonna be the future future I didn't know that we'd be sitting here now and you lot care about like what what we've done with our lives and how it's happened there were still times when I was a YouTuber and I was a couple years in where I had to like borrow money from wonga.com and then pay it back a couple weeks later when I you know when I got paid so and it's pretty much only like in the last year or two that I'm like okay cool maybe this is like something that I can do to generate generational wealth and not just like like make sure that everyone below me and my family is good because I I wasn't given the best start so how can I give everyone else below me a good start how would you describe your content now um um I think I was one of the first YouTubers to come up with like a single idea and then go and execute in the best way possible in the olden days in the olden days back a couple years ago I'd pick a thing like I'm gonna prank my friends in a seance prank and then do it and then film every single part of it make sure it's meticulously edited and a really stunning thing to watch is there a video that sticks out in your head is the video you're most proud of yeah the movember series that I filmed last year um basically trying to get young men to open up about their mental health and just talk to each other and have a conversation when times are hard and even when times are not hard but just have a secure group around you that you trust and that you can talk to about anything your two favorite fishermen have arrived what's up everyone hello welcome I'm here today with Ethan we're going to do some fly fishing but not only are we fishing we're gonna catch a fish gut it and then eat it have you fished before never so do you feel better prepared for lockdown oh I saw you talk about this the other day you said that this time around you actually uh you're doing prepared for it yeah you're doing good I wasn't why not they did some research myvember did and 50 of um boys in the UK that are aged 15 to 25 saw those movember videos last year which is like nuts it's like it's it's such a real tangible uh set of data like people still come up to me on the street and they go when are you making more of these videos because like they were great um so I think there's the single videos I'm super proud of but as a series that November thing I think has changed a lot of people's lives and uh well I like to think so the amount of messages and the engagement that I got off at the back of it was crazy so really glad that I did those videos but it's so weird that the audience that like they they see us as these like amazing god-like creatures that don't have anything going on when you talk about like oh yeah I was on my own for three months in lockdown they're like ah no way so I think we just need to bear that in mind a little bit more that they they just see and believe and and consume us in our best possible State when it's not always like that what's the point for you during this whole Creator Journey that's been the hardest point for you mentally it's really tough to pick out a single moment in time there's been times where I've been like super low um and you know but but they wouldn't be down to like what I do maybe it's just a bit of everything or it's personal life that then seeps into but the actual journey I think is always hard and you just need to keep overcoming it and that's life like lifestyle there's no single point it's just that you go through these small battles maybe every day every week or every month or you'll be good for a couple months and then something will knock you off your um your ledge your pedestal whatever and then you just kind of have to it's how you get up from that so I think that YouTube in itself is like an unrelenting Beast that that is you'll make an amazing video and you'll see some you'll see some creators make amazing videos and then they won't upload for like months afterwards because like they've put all their work and effort into this one video and then they're like oh I have to go and do that again and again and again and again until you just stop so I think it's that like the never-ending you know it just keeps going I think that that's the hardest bit has that ever brought you to the point of burnout oh I've been out like five times now yeah because I used to throw my all into each video and and and and then I'd sit there afterwards and you'd get that dopamine hit straight away of like oh it's on a million views in 12 hours 2 million three million and then uh you're like to do this again yeah and again keep going you know as long as you've got good people around you to talk to you and you do some fun stuff on the side and look after yourself go to therapy um then you're good you're fine what's been the happiest moment in that Creator Journey you've had um probably the first release of no two ways um I started sneaker brand about two years ago and that first release was like kind of everything that I'd worked for and everything that I've learned to then put 750 pairs of shoes on sale at 6 pm on the 15th of August and then them sell out in 63 seconds but there's a clip of the whole thing happening and I just burst out crying straight away I don't know why there's like there's almost like I was I wasn't sad I was just like overwhelmed by like my whole I didn't know that my path was going to leave me here but my whole path led me to this point where I started a brand and people cared so much that it sold out 60 Seconds [Music] all right like this is not YouTube Merch this is another level entirely how did this come about yeah well it's interesting you say that's not YouTube merch because obviously we did we did a piece of research and that was what like people said they were like this is so different which means so much because that's what we tried to do from the beginning I had a passion for sneakers for years and years and years I wouldn't say like I'm an early early sneaker head going back back but say I'm a new generational Sneakerhead and so I was collecting buying pieces trying to sell them so on so on and I was like wait hold on a second like why has no one done this before but I actually made their own the majority of the time a big celebrity or an influencer or someone will want to do say sneakers or makeup and they'll go to a brand and they'll co-produce it with them I was like I I knew that that was the only way in for me at the beginning so I I did that I hit up two Brands um one of them came around my house looked in my collection I was like yeah yeah come down to the factory next week um never got in contact with me again and didn't reply to any of my emails it was a warm intro as well as well it was it was a friend of a friend and they never got back to me so I was like you know what you sorry I know you're probably gonna I don't mean it like that but like as in but you're probably a really nice guy but uh but like I'm gonna go do this myself and so I did and I kept like throwing it out into the world I'd be on sheets like this I'd be like does anyone know I want to start shoes does anyone know anyone met a couple people and then met Rocky uh Rockwell princely the most humble talented guy I've ever met in any of any of my industries that I've worked in he knows absolutely everything about trainers I knew he was the guy after 15 minutes of me and him and from there yeah just started I guess the why is because um I had an interest in sneakers and because no one else had done it and I love taking risks and um throwing my own money into projects that have probably no probability of getting it back ever or it's a huge risk that's what Richard likes to say my manager or Mentor likes to say is just like you love taking a risk but they just keep paying off so yeah how do you even start designing a shoe yeah um well I wanted to make something completely from scratch so obviously the option was there to just buy a shoe from the pre-made shoe and put a logo on the side of it and I think that's what maybe 90 of other people would have done because it's really hard I brought some I'm allowed to yeah yeah I brought some with me um so I've got like a a very early sample this was the first shoe that we released exuberance and then here's like a earliest sample they're supposed to be the same shoe or this is like a this is the real one and this is probably thirds third or fourth sample that we got through and absolutely everything on here is is designed by us but it was kind of about the hardest thing to do for us at the beginning was the the outsole because it's um it's around two three four thousand dollars per size to open a mold for an outsole so immediately at the beginning you're going to be chucking in 50 Grand just for one part of the shoe and then yeah pretty much everything we we did months of trend research we did um looked at who our competitors might be what you know fashion is designed maybe a year or two ahead so we went to kind of conferences events had a look at what materials were coming in what colors and palettes and we spent basically eight months straight barely uploaded any YouTube videos just kind of working out what it's going to look like and this is where we got to very early on um you'll see that they are you know a little bit similar but we've got different uh midsole outsole and then we've taken some Stars off but the design is kind of there the material is not and the colors are slightly different and there's been some upgrades to like the tongue and logos and so on but this looks very generic I think with the with the outsole um and I think we want it to be quite different and uh Rocky uh you know I can't take much credit I can take credit for some of the decisions along the way but um and we worked on this shoe together but it's his you know ideation and his know-how that went into this and I think that we've got a silhouette now that is quite recognizable if you see on this street even with like the orange pull tabs which are on the majority of our shoes or just this chunky um midsole outsole kind of thing here that that yeah I think is is so different to everyone else there's so much so now that like h m and other people are copying it but that's finally happening which is sick thank you so much but I think this one as well looked like a little bit childish a little bit rounded um every single decision basically we sat there for hours and hours going right is it a gummy Soul does it fade um what's the quality of this it what leather should we use should it be uh something that is vegan or should it be something that's um nubuck or something else and and the price difference in that and how much should the shoe cost so in the end the shoe actually this is a really expensive shoe that should probably should be on sale for like two three four hundred pounds from any other brand but we I wanted to sell it for 90 um which basically meant that we made no money on the first one um but I just I just wanted to make the best possible product I think many people have seen this as well it's amazing to see something exclusive no it even says on the bottom yeah what's fascinating is just it's seeing the progression like you can see where the creative decisions have been made together and then you know then we've moved on to kind of where we are now this is the first time that these have ever been shown on camera oh so I don't know when this is coming out um but these are these are going to be very soon I don't know if they'll be next but I just thought I'd wear something special today yeah get the exclusive um so like looking at your YouTube channel over the past few years is it fair to say that the budget of your videos has got higher in the last last year in particular maybe yeah I started after party Studio as as a thing to enable me to make higher quality content but then it slowly started to slip away from me in terms of like they started doing like amazing stuff KSI can't lose Sony pictures um the documentary about ksi's first fight and leading up to the Logan Paul one if you haven't watched yet by the way it's it's actually amazing but it's made now it's made by us directed by Rubber Duck um and then we've worked with like Netflix and so many other companies now so yeah it was there to kind of make my content get better but now it's often it's doing its own thing and um I'm still there every day no two ways after partying calyx are all in the same office now um in East London um but I'd say in the last year I actually don't like high quality videos I don't like shooting stuff like this anymore I don't like it because I think it takes away the audience feel a little bit alienated by it I think they want to see a GoPro that's in 1080P that's zoomed in four times yeah I don't want to see this um but this has a time and a place like my my movember videos or I've seen like filmed like this but I try and stay away from it now actually I don't know I think it I think it's gone full circle take me back to filming with my laptop camera they'll see that in the next video then let's do it but okay like but then when you're looking around now on YouTube who inspires you um I think the beautiful thing about our friend group is that everyone's doing their own thing so I'm actually inspired by all of those guys I actually saw a care there's a clip of JJ the other day um someone sent it to me yesterday him saying that he's the richest at the moment but I'm going to be the richest in the future but isn't it amazing that you can have that conversation it's not about being obviously that stems from like doing cool and I think that we're all doing it so I'm inspired by all of them and I hope that I Inspire some of them as well but if I have to pick someone like David dobrik obviously like revolutionize vlogging um and Mr Beast is is just Mr Beast congrats on 100 million um so there's some of the things that he's done within his business and how he runs his YouTube channel I've taken um but yeah hopefully you know I've helped Inspire some other younger creators as well in the same way what do you think is the future of content I think it's I think tick tock's ruining people's minds but I do love it but like if we're being serious like people's attention spans are already quite bad going from like TV and film to YouTube and now we've got stuff that you can get a hit of dopamine every five seconds you can literally squirrel yeah wow yeah you feel it that's funny you laugh you send it to a friend bang next one and you can just keep doing that it's just like casino slot machine every time you flick your your it's the slot machine you're pulling it you've just got unlimited coins but you'd actually don't know that the coins that you're giving away are your own mind your mental health you compare and compare comparing yourself to other people don't realize what this is doing now and and unfortunately as a Creator you you need to take this in mind because this is the stuff that what is working things will come back around but I think at the moment kind of wish Tick Tock was banned you grew up probably watching television and watching TV four channels uh yeah four channels I'm interested to know like as a YouTuber who's 30. how do you
not View television look they're TV's finally like getting some YouTubers on board in certain places talent shows or whatever uh I was in LA like two days ago and I saw um Liza koshy I think that's her name Koshi uh up on a billboard with like oh who was it it was like two Mega celebrities and then her and she's super famous in the US I'm not going to take that away from her but five years ago you wouldn't have seen that yeah no way that would have been another famous person so I think TV is finally embracing us but I there's they're nowhere near where they should be they should we should be on the TV every day but guess what uh the KSI did uh ask me anything on Reddit yesterday and I read through it and one of the things like will we ever see you on TV and he went because I we are the TV you took too long you didn't believe in us and now we're gone and like your watch time is just gonna go down down and down down unless you come up with clever ways to embrace what what the kids want to watch you talked about having a good group of people around you and like you've come up with and built the you like the side man and calfresi and all these people what's it been like growing your Brands together I think the um I like him our our relationship is I it's like it's almost the same as uni and like you go to UNI study subject and those people that you're with like your your lives have led here and you have common interest but then on YouTube I think it's even just beyond that as well I think it's like you've all gone through this time where you had to do ideation editing promotion marketing how do you make money what's next so we're all so like-minded because I think that we've actually also not only just because we're doing the same stuff over the last 10 years but we've also been sculpted by the business um so it's like having another you know nine brains that are exactly the same you think the same way but everyone has their own intricacies or their their specialisms so it's been it's almost like perfect I wouldn't I wouldn't have wanted it any other way people meet people meet KSI and they're like expect him to be this horrible but he's like one of the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life and has time for everyone but yeah his go is like killing the world I I got uh Addison Lee on the way here right and I drove past the sidemen on a billboard at Old Street um defy expectations a brand deal on the side I was like wow and that's just happening more and more you've got Bazinga on a board you've got KSI on a bus because it's Capital you've YouTube is on anymore just like kids in bedrooms making videos uh they're out here you know I'm gonna put this out here and I think that KSI is the the next Rock like gonna be absolutely huge in in 10 years like everyone in the world will know him like when you look at that Journey from where you were with no money to where you are now with this entire business underneath you how does that make you feel yeah there was actually it's really interesting that you asked that question there was a moment the other day when the office was pretty full and I was like every single person in here works for companies that were my brainchild and I was like yeah I can't take credit for kind of some of the steps that have taken along the way especially in after party Studios because it it went off and became its own Beast it's an incredible production company on its own and you know what it's not just like a group of people that yeah all work for for me or all the ideas that I've created but are a group of people that are all so nice I know this is kind of slightly like left field of what your question was but I think I'm so lucky to have such an amazing group of people around me and definitely wouldn't be at the heights I am now without them so there's also like the pride in that like just having such a solid group of people because the way I the way our lights are higher generally is like are you good at what you do yes cool and some people might stop there the next level is like are you a nice person and I think we put a lot into that that'd be really nice um like care and and I'll be able to trust you and stuff like that is number two and then number three is like are they smarter than me so I drop your ego to the side is this person actually gonna be able to teach you something and and Propel your career calm is there anything else you want to talk about is there anything else you think we've missed that you would like to cover I think you just got my whole life in like 45 minutes no I'm good [Music] yeah probably footballers boxers um I get a lot of rappers in my DMs I do want a DM from Jack Hardo but I haven't had that yet so yeah Jack if you're watching this I will see you soon
2022-09-27 07:54
