Invest in Breaking Gear Fear
July 2022
Budget Update
I still spend approximately $500 on average per episode IF I DO EVERYTHING. Cameras, load cells, breaking the break testers, gear, projects, and general costs of running a business. I'm an opprotunivor and bootstrap this channel because it would cost $5,000-$10,000 per episode if I wasn't careful and utilize free help when possible. I try to make every video 1% better than the previous one and you can see the improvement if you watch anything from a year or two ago or even the very embarrassing first videos I did! The finish line is in site of the new website which was more work than the drop tower and necessary to have that as a foundation to scale 10x from where HowNOT2 is at today. The Big Wall course and Big Wall Bible turned out way better than I hoped but also gave an insight to how I can't do everything myself anymore if I want to grow. So I need to hire help.
Free help is wonderful and I am eternally grateful that it got me to this point, but paying for it is day and night different. But I don't need to pay someone $50k a year to be a sidekick. I use fiverr and upwork and virtual assistants which I think I figured out the hack to communicating crystal clear what I need, which helps them help me and everyone gets 5 stars. Hiring help can be the make it or break it stage in this transition to making Youtube a full time job. If an editor can do version 1 of an edit, I narrate it, and they do a 95% good job that only takes me an hour to detail to maintain the quality I want, then it frees me up to do the filming and creative side more. If I hire a proofreader and ghostwriter, this paragraph would sound way better :), then I could have higher quality books and blogs. If I hire a virtual assistant to migrate all the episodes into blogs on the new site then just the first step of many is saving me 31 hours I calculated!!!
I got my first $949 from extreme gear today since starting 6 months ago. Foregoing 10% to kickstart the store with sales and buying gear I had to pay him back for is just now generating money. As of now, HapaDesign has completely screwed me and hasn't given me any money and now we have moved our site to be fulfilled by printful but that is about $500 a month as long as I promote it regularly - also just now seeing our first dollars from swag since day 1. Ad revenue per click is down for all youtubers since everyone is back outside and living life - which is great! $1400 a month doesn't pay the bills though. I keep tinkering and experimenting and will figure out how to wean myself off donations and adult like a real youtuber but I must rely on 1% of my audience to help on patreon with $1 per episode.
I'm excited about having dozens of A-Z content and 10s of thousands of break tests delivered into thousands of very helpful blogs, thousands of entertaining long form videos, and posting daily short form flavors of this content on Instagram. The focus now is building a good system to build a good team without losing the brands quality and style in the process. Thank you for investing in breaking gear fear if you can and please don't do it if you are broke. I need 1% of the audience to support to make this free for everyone and if patron isn't your thing, below are a few ways to donate one time donations. I appreciate you!
$HowNOTtoHighline
ryan@slackline.com
Ryan Jenks
ryan@slackline.com
2022
1st Quarter Update
I am going to give early access to Patreon supporters if I have the episodes done before 11pm the night before publishing :). I'm coming out with courses that Patrons will have access to the entire course the first week we release it, rather than having to wait for it to be slowly released 1 video at a time. I will also be transitioning the behind the scenes updates from youtube Monday updates to exclusively for Patrons. I will always keep the information and education, including the courses, free and never block it behind a paywall. I just appreciate my supporters and want to do something extra for them.
In the last 3 months, I have spent $5k on a camera, $5k on the website (update being released in about a month), $2k on a new load cell in slacksnap, $2k on SPRAT certificate, $2k on the Iceland trip coming up, $2k on gear to break. Income in the last 3 months has been approximately $10,000 or about half of what I've spent. Donations are appreciated while I transition to earning enough from ExtremeGear.org's support of 10% of what you buy and HowNOT2Swag.com sales.
End of 2021
I STOPPED CLIMBING BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID. After 10 years, in 2016, I literally stopped climbing because I was tired of always feeling like I was going to die when I played outside. I didn't understand my gear. Ironically, highlining felt safer for the rush. It's fully redundant and a more controlled environment. Being that highlining was so new, I explored answers to questions we all had. 5 years later, we now break gear fear for the end user who wants to understand the gear they trust their life to. I now enjoy climbing again and can even push the limits of the gear I use.
There Are No Paywalls On Any Of Our Content
We believe information on life supporting gear should be available for free to everyone around the world. The more I give of myself on this channel, the more people have supported me. Not just with their money, but with their time, talent and opportunity.
How Do I Make A Living?
I was a painting contractor with several employees. It was hard to run a business full time and pump out videos every week - I did it for 5 years. I had to earn the money to pay to do the channel until 2019 when I started asking for donations and got $7,000 (and spent $17,000). In 2020 donations almost matched expenses at $19,000, making it so I didn't have to earn any more than what I need to live on. January 2021, I stopped painting and just had my 1 employee working so I could focus on HowNOT2. It was enough to pay the bills but still very distracting. I made $25,000 in affiliate links and ad revenue but spent $13,000 more than donated. My goal for 2022 is that donations will cover expenses and I will make enough with ad revenue and affiliate links (I get a sales commission if you buy gear with my links) to live on. I will never take a salary from donations and it will always go 100% back into making better content.
End of 2020
Transparency Is Critical
I love transparency when I donate to projects. You should know where money is being spent if you are supporting HowNOT2. Here are our budgets. If you have questions about details, feel free to ask. Based on our 2021 budget, we spent on average $500 per episode and did 120 episodes in the year. We won't be hemorrhaging cash on drop towers in 2022, but we will be investing in delivering better and better content, so I am budgeting $500 cost per episode and 100 - 200 episodes in 2022.
I Can't Give My Supporters Anything Extra... Yet.
I love transparency when I donate to projects. You should know where money is being spent if you are supporting HowNOT2. Here are our budgets. If you have questions about details, feel free to ask. Based on our 2021 budget, we spent on average $500 per episode and did 120 episodes in the year. We won't be hemorrhaging cash on drop towers in 2022, but we will be investing in delivering better and better content, so I am budgeting $500 cost per episode and 100 - 200 episodes in 2022.
I'm not legally a nonprofit, I just make no profit! Donations by individuals are NOT deductible as we are NOT 501(c)3 (too time consuming and expensive) BUT if you have a business and want a tax deduction for a large donation, please message me and I can give you an advertising invoice for your business. I can bring up that you supported the channel, however please keep in mind I don't do sponsorships. It doesn't feel right to be paid to say nice things about a product.
DID
In the last 6 years
Over 300 educational, timeless, videos on youtube
4 versions of the Bolting Bible with 155 pages & 300+ photos
Highlining 101 - 80 short videos squished into 7 episodes plus a text book where you can learn everything you need in order to use a highline that is already set up
Rebranded as How NOT 2 - Breaking Gear Fear for all Extreme Sports (and not just highlining). Organized within our 23 playlists
Coordinated our list of 1400 facebook groups with SlacklineGroups to make one single resource with 99% of all groups in the world so people can get plugged into their areas.
Built a slow pull 200kn break test machine called SlackSnap and have tested over 2000+ samples of gear
Built a portable hydraulic system called BoltBusters and have tested over 300+ bolts and hangers
Built a 45 foot drop tower to test dynamic loads
Created a crowdfunding idea and raised $300,000 in 4 days for LineScale3 to become a reality giving everyone access to better tools to learn about their gear.
Played a lead role in "Pushing the Line" on Discovery +. A 6 episode series about highlining
Designed, tested and built the 1600 square foot net for GGBY with a highline in the center of it
Wrote the History of Slack and Walking in Flow books
Dozens of stunts applying the knowledge we have learned through our testing
Created my first film about the Sweden World Record Highline
DOING
Current Projects
2-3 episodes a week in 2023
4 versions of the Bolting Bible with 155 pages & 300+ photos
Writing the following books:
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Highline Anchors
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Highline Rigging
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Big Wall Bible
Always working on load cells - ideally pressure plates to test cam pressure
Creating a formula of everything I love in the youtube videos I watch to create the best quality possible
How NOT 2 backyard science testing for as many sports as possible
Redoing all the thumbnails and descriptions for previous episodes to make the data digestible
Reinventing blogs to be filtered like a store filter - so you can find just the content you want to read/watch
Having the website professionally designed for a solid foundation for our written form of our content
Blogging every episode in a readable format on our new website
Partnering with ExtremeGear.org to help you understand the gear you are buying
Planning to re-purpose our most helpful information in short form content for Instagram and TikTok to adapt to the latest trends.
Collaborating with the biggest names in the extreme sports education space to homogenize how information is shared.
FYI: I am no longer a part of Juno Coffee. Purchasing coffee from there will not support this channel.
Patrons support us per episode
$HowNOTtoHighline
ryan@slackline.com