Hi there, and welcome to another edition of Intake, the newsletter that brings you the most trusted media and information sources of your favorite founders, experts, and creators.
Today marks the one-month milestone of Intake! I just want to say thank you to all the readers and those featured who have made the launch of this newsletter such a success. I can’t wait to see where we are at when we reach the six-month milestone!
Now, let’s get into this week’s feature, Brian White.
-Zach (@ZachMRosen)
Brian White
Brian is the host of the popular YouTube channel My Tesla Weekend. Starting only two years ago, he has amassed 46,000 subscribers and posted nearly 700 videos that provide an in-depth analysis on Tesla and many of the new technologies being utilized and developed during the EV revolution. His detailed breakdowns and unique insight into Tesla make him a fan favorite in the space.
Follow Brian:
X (Twitter) → MyTeslaWeekend
Youtube → My Tesla Weekend
Brian’s Intake
Tesla / Electric Vehicles / Automobile Industry
Youtube Channels:
- James Stephenson - Hosted by James Stephenson
- Best in Tesla - Hosted by Lars Strandridder
- Electrified - Hosted by Dillon Loomis
- The Limiting Factor - Hosted by Jordan Giesige
- Munro Live - Hosted by Sandy Munro
- Tesla Daily - Hosted by Rob Maurer
X (Twitter) Accounts:
- Justin Demaree
- Scott Walter, PhD
- Matthew Donegan-Ryan
- Sandy Munro
News / Current Events
- Ground News (app)
Space / Rocketry / SpaceX
Youtube Channels:
- Everyday Astronaut - Hosted by Tim Dodd
- Marcus House - Hosted by Marcus House
- Scott Manley - Hosted by Scott Manley
Science
Youtube Channels:
- Tom Scott - Hosted by Tom Scott
- Joe Scott - Hosted by Joe Scott
- Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
- Climate Town - Hosted by Rollie Williams
Entertainment
- The Always Sunny Podcast
- This American Life Podcast
Q/A
You are an outspoken supporter of Tesla. What about this company is so compelling to you? What drew you to it initially, and what about its future makes you most excited?
”The company is compelling because it isn’t the next Toyota or the next Apple, but the next Dutch East India Company. If Google stays the course, they could double in ten years. If they really innovate, they could triple. Tesla is different. They’re disrupting the automotive industry, sure, but also a lot of huge industries related to it, and beyond. Stationary storage could double the value of the company and it’s already underway, but if any of their moonshots like humanoid bots, autonomous driving, or Dojo, they could jump by a trillion overnight, all while having the next disruption already on deck.”
How do you determine whether a particular source or content creator is reliable and trustworthy?
”It needs to be universally factual. If an opinion is stated, it needs to be clearly labeled accordingly. If I see a lie, even a lie by omission, the trust is broken forever. I loved Wendover Productions for teaching me about all kinds of topics on which I had zero understanding, until he covered Tesla, and it was so breathtakingly stupid and dishonest, it led me to question how wrong everything else he had made must also be. The second factor is avoiding clickbait. If they resort to it, it tells me the topic isn’t interesting on its own. The last is effort. Even though many of my most popular videos were very easy to produce, my favorite ones (the ones that produce the most value to viewers) are still what I wish there was more of. YouTube’s algorithm punishes those who aren’t constantly posting, so we have to play their game.”
What is the best advice you can give to an individual just starting out on Youtube?
”Start with the highest appearance of production value you can afford. Any modern smartphone is enough, but invest at least $40-80 in a microphone, and make the rest of the little things look good. Good information is lost without a bare minimum of production. Don’t develop a format that is so labor intensive you can’t keep going. If a video takes 8-40 hours to produce, you’re not going to survive long enough to hire professionals. Aim for daily. If you can’t publish daily, YouTube is going to make escape velocity almost impossible to reach. Set a hard-out limit, whether it’s a certain number of views or subscribers. Having tangible targets will help you avoid spending an outsized portion of your life wandering down a dead end. I had a handful of channels demonetized when YouTube took their big step away from cottage creators, so I only gave myself 90-days to hit that mark, and just barely made it.”
What does the Tesla community mean to you?
”My experience with the community prior to launching my channel at the end of 2020 was very much as an onlooker. There were forums I’d visit and join in on the discussion, and I was already doing so much analysis it just made sense to turn it into a channel. The investor enthusiasm has definitely waned since then, and I’ve been told by a number of former supporters they were no longer willing to contribute due to Elon’s outspoken positions on contentious topics. It was a tough road early on as a creator because there were a lot of new channels that weren’t very serious, and it was impossible to get interviews or collaborations. It gets easier as you get bigger. The community is everything to me now. I speak at a lot of events and it’s amazing to meet all these people face to face.”
Thanks for tuning in to another edition of Intake! If you enjoyed this edition, please consider sharing it with a friend.
See you next Friday!
-Zach (@ZachMRosen)