Dirty Chain Podcast Episode 28: The Vegan Cyclist - Racer and Youtube content creator

Dirty Chain Podcast Episode 28: The Vegan Cyclist - Racer and Youtube content creator

 Tyler Pearce, a.k.a The Vegan Cyclist, joins the Midpack to discuss his wildly popular YouTube channel, content creation, cycling, and his plant-based lifestyle.

We also get an update with new details from Todd Poquette about this year’s enhanced gravel race, The Crusher.

Trevor:

With him, of course, was Tyler Pearce also known as The Vegan Cyclist. And after we talked with Jeremiah, we thought it would be great if we reached out to Tyler and learn just a little bit more about him as a cyclist, as an athlete and a content producer. Tyler was kind enough to not only give us his time, but also a great in-depth and very honest conversation.

Sheldon:

All right, Trevor, I think it's time to hear from Tyler himself. And as he would say, all right, let's go, bro.

Trevor:

You get a ride in today?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. I went out on a mountain bike ride and a big storm is rolling in. And then I went, I have this local KOM on this single trail. And so I was like, "I'm going to go out. I feel real good. I'm going to go out on my mountain bike and go get this KOM." And the whole time, I'm just like, "Dude, I'm flying. I know I'm going to get this KOM." And so then I'm thinking like how I'm going to make a video of this, the first mountain bike KOM. And then I get to the top, I look at the computer, I'm like, "Dude, I got up by like 20 seconds. Fuck, yes." And it's a big one. It's like 17 minutes. But when I got home, where the segment starts, it starts from the parking lot. And then I come in a different way. And so then there's like 40 seconds of me just noodling about doing nothing.

Trevor:

So were you just seconds off of this KOM or were you pretty far off of it then?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah, I was like 30 seconds. So if it had started where it should start, I would have got it by 10 seconds. I would have had it.

Trevor:

When you, like today, when you were doing the KOM attempt, do you always run with a GoPro on your bike, like all the time? Is that like just set-

Tyler Pearce:

No. No. And so a lot of times what I'll do is I'll go out and I'll go get it or I'll just do the ride and then I'll film it at a separate time. You know what I mean? So like a B roll type thing or depending on the size of the KOM, if it's sub 10 minutes, then I can do a drone shot on clip of the whole thing, but anything over 12 minutes then I can't, unless I'm going to have my wife follow me.

Tyler Pearce:

But like this one, I was just going to get it. And then I was going to go back and just do little segments all the way through it and just get B roll and stitch it all together.

Sheldon:

Now with a mountain bike, one like that. Is that something you would prefer like a chest mount gimbal or would you use like one of the newer GoPros that can stabilize on your handlebar?

Tyler Pearce:

I mean, if I was doing a KOM attempt, like this, I wasn't going to use a GoPro at all. I was just going to use a DLSR at a drone and it would just be nothing but sick shots, all stitched together. You know what I mean? But so far what I've been doing on the mountain bike, anytime I've done any mountain bike stuff is in my mouth. So I have like, it's like a mouthpiece, and so then you put the GoPro in and you just clamp down.

Trevor:

Really?

Tyler Pearce:

And it actually is, it works really well.

Sheldon:

Now, is that an official GoPro product or is that something you had to rig up on your own?

Tyler Pearce:

No. Yeah. It's like a little mouthpiece that goes in there.

Sheldon:

So, wow. I've never even seen that before now. Now you were talking about drones. We had Jeremiah Bishop on last week and he was talking about how you had two different drones for different styles of shots. Do you have only two drones or do you have like your own little fleet that you use for different stuff?

Tyler Pearce:

No, I just have two, the Skydio 1 and the Skydio 2.

Sheldon:

Now, what's the differentiation between those two? What do you use one for versus the other?

Tyler Pearce:

Well, I just had two because of battery. So, that's it. I brought two with me. They both basically do the same thing. The 2 is just better. But it's just, I wanted to make sure that if one flew off into the volcano, you know what I mean, that I was going to have a backup. And then when you go on the ride, even though I have multiple batteries, it's basically a 10-minute window by the time you get it up and shoot, and then there's no way to charge it.

Sheldon:

Okay. They just have batteries that you can swap out of them?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah.

Sheldon:

Okay.

Tyler Pearce:

Are we podcasting now?

Trevor:

We're in it, man. We're into it. I do have a question though, before we get too deep into like the weeds of gear and all that, can we just rewind a little bit and get to know how you got started with all of this? You're known for cycling of course. And then creating super high quality content. So did those things develop alongside each other or did one were you into video editing and all that, and then applied that to your cycling? How did that all start?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. So, I've talked about this a little bit on various podcasts or whatever the case, but I'll go into a little bit more in depth that I have no idea what I'm doing and I need to make that very clear. So, sometimes what you'll see is people have success, and then you peel back the curtain a little bit and you find like, let's say, Casey Neistat. And he's been in that industry of filming. And he had HBO specials and that's what he does. That was his profession. And so when he turned to YouTube, he had all of this talent, all these connections, all this skill.

PART 1 OF 4 ENDS [00:27:04]

Tyler Pearce:

He had all of this talent, all these connections, all this skill. And he just made it look like it was kind of homemade, but you know what I mean? An engineer going to make bike parts or something, they have that skill. And so then they can apply it there. I had no skills whatsoever. I just started pointing cameras at things and then trying to make sense of that. And so I didn't go to school for videography. It was never anything that was a part of my life. I had a real up and down career path. And at one point I'd started a web development company. And the way that that business model worked was just like, you would have a project. And then two months of trying to find a new one.

Tyler Pearce:

So you would just have nothing to do. And my son was young. He was two, three, and he was real into motos. And so I kind of just wanted to make home videos. So I kind of started filming him. And then since I had nothing to do, I was just playing around on my computer, watching YouTube tutorials on how to edit videos. And I mean, the first 30 videos I've made are just absolute piles of turf. Right. I mean, that's just what it is. But there was a study that I had read where they took two MIT or whatever, and it was called the perfect pot study and they gave one group and they said, you have to make a pot every single day for 30 days.

Tyler Pearce:

And then the other group, they said, you can only make one pot. Right. And so then one group had 30 days to think about it, research it, do all this technical analysis. And at the end of 30 days, present what they thought was the best pot. Right. The pot doesn't really matter, but it's they presented a thing. The other group just hammered away and every day made it and then made revisions to that. Right. And so they didn't get a lot of time to really dive into what would make a good pot. They just learned by mistakes. And at the end the group that did 30 pots, their pot was way better. And it was, whatever stipulations on how it had to pour and angles, you know what I'm saying.

Tyler Pearce:

But so that's just was the thing is I was just banging away these videos of my son ride motos. And I kind of felt at a certain point that maybe I'm doing too much with him at too young of an age. We had gone out riding motos and he wanted to play on the playground. And I got kind of frustrated. I was like, dude, we drove two hours, it's costing me money. What are you doing? You can play on a playground anywhere, man. And we left that track, not happy. We were kind of fighting and I was like, dude, this is not what it is. This is not what that's about. I don't want to be that moto dad who's pissed at my son for not doing well. And so then I sort of backed off that. And I was like, I think I'm putting too much pressure on him.

Tyler Pearce:

And so I sort of focused more inward on myself cause I didn't have his permission to put him on social media. Right. He's like three. And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to do sort of my own thing. And at the time, when I first went plant-based I thought that was going to be a much bigger focus of the channel. So hence naming myself, The Vegan Cyclist. The cyclist part of it was, I think when I started my channel, I was like a Cat. 4, you know what I mean? I was barely into it and I wanted to document a little bit more of the family aspect of being plant-based. But very early on, I was so excited that I was vegan.

Tyler Pearce:

I was like, dude, I'm so stoked. I'm wearing the badge of being vegan. And then I started going on these forums and the hardcore vegan community, I was turned off right away. I had gone on a vegan podcast, two months into the channel. And I had said, she'd asked me something. And I said, "Well, I'm a little bit more like performance aspect of it." And she was just like, "that's not what it's about at all. It's only about the animals. And if you think this is going to help you with your health, that's just so ignorant of you."

Sheldon:

Yikes.

Trevor:

[crosstalk 00:31:44] I think you were talking to one of my ex-girlfriends. Like, that sounds exactly [inaudible 00:31:48]...

Tyler Pearce:

It was just very strange. And so then, I still really believe in a plant-based lifestyle. I think it's great, but I kind of turned a little bit more away from diving into the political side of it or the activism side of it. Cause that's just not who I am and just started making videos that I want to see. So when I was young and we were going to go ride motos on the weekend, I'd pop in a VHS tape of like Crusty Demons of Dirt or like Terrafirma. And I just remember being ten, watching this video of dudes jumping and just being so stoked to go ride. And that motivation is just like, bro, I got to go ride. And no matter if I go out and go in circles in a field, these guys, this video just hyped me up.

Tyler Pearce:

And so when I got into cycling, there wasn't anything like that. You would go on YouTube and you would find one, a ton of dudes with paywalls. Hey, you want to get better at cycling? Click up, swipe up, click here, pay me. And it's like, what the hell dude, can you just tell me some basics? So there was a bunch of guys with paywalls and I was like, that's lame. And then about racing. You could find some shitty video of the tour in a different language and you had no idea what was going on. And so I would make a video that I would want to watch, or I'd answer a question that I would want answered. And then the next video, I would try to make it better.

Tyler Pearce:

And in the first year of making videos, I only got a hundred subscribers and I'd still would spend 20 hours on a video? You know, it'd be a lot of time into a video and it would get like three views: me, my wife and my grandma. And at the end of a year, I think it was more about a year and a half, I was kind of at that point I think a lot of people get to where it's not worth it. Your time versus what you're getting out of it, it becomes irresponsible. You know, I can't just sit here and make a video for 10 people to watch while I have a real job and a family to feed. But in the second year I got a thousand subscribers and I'd make a video once a month or whatever.

Tyler Pearce:

It's just very low pressure. And then in the third year I got 10,000 subscribers. And so then it kind of started to do better. But then, I started to feel comfortable with making content and, I don't want to say, I'm an artist or anything, but it started to transform into a very artistic feeling, in versus just banging away on a computer to make some hype video. I would start with a blank canvas and try to tell a story. And so then there was a lot of competition and, even right now, everyone is a YouTuber, right? There's everyone does a cycling breakdown. You know, I've gone to a race and after the race, there was five videos of the same fucking race, you know what I mean?

Tyler Pearce:

It's like, so how many different angles and that's cool that everyone wants to watch race breakdowns, but I've tried to turn more into telling a story that gives you a feeling that you can identify with no matter at what caliber racer I am or what I'm doing. Right. So if I'm riding a volcano with Jeremiah and it's the most epic thing in the world, to tell a story that a guy in Kansas, that he went out and did a 10 mile ride on some flat gravel roads can still sort of identify with and go there's parts of that story that I can feel. And so that's kind of where it's really morphed into and-

Sheldon:

Well that's what I say, you can't teach somebody and be a good storyteller. I mean, you're just naturally you have a skill of telling a good story and putting it into a visual format that's enjoyable to watch. And I have gone back in your mat catalog and watching it develop, it's interesting. And its entertaining.

Tyler Pearce:

The thing though is you have to really stick to like, why do you do what you do? Why do you create videos? So the volcano video, and then the video I did with Greg Doucette the bodybuilder. Literally they have the exact same views, right? They're locked in some weird same trajectory. They both have 150,000 views. The one with Greg that took me 20 minutes to create, right? I mean, it was the easiest video ever. It was just me race him on Zwift. I got some B-roll of me lifting some bananas and I just played the whole race and talked over it. It was the easiest video I've ever done. 150,000 views. Then do the impossible route, right? The hardest, most complicated project I've ever done, that thing has taken me over a hundred hours just in the edit alone, right? And then that doesn't count the cost and time to fly to Hawaii to, I mean-

Sheldon:

Buffer-

Tyler Pearce:

Just everything, man. It's just unbelievable, the amount of time, same views. So, you know what I mean? You got to not, I got to not look at those views as a metric of success because I'm wildly more proud of The Impossible Route than I am of anything else I've ever created. And I sort of feel at a certain point, even if I never make another video again, I'm really happy that I was able to see that whole thing through. And again, that's not my job. I'm not a full-time YouTuber, I'm not a videographer. You know what I mean? It'd be one thing if you had a team and a budget and you had all these guys that were doing their job.

Tyler Pearce:

That's one thing, but it wasn't the case, you know what I mean? This is just me all the way through. And so not having a gatekeeper, right? Or, I wanted to create something awesome. And then I did, and it took a lot of time, took a lot of work. And again potentially I could have just turned on a camera of my face and said something controversial and got the same amount of views, but... Yeah. Yeah. So, it's kinda frustrating sometimes to see what other people put out and the kind of views they get. But that's where I really try to look at it more as an artistic side of things.

Trevor:

So where are your metrics then in terms of a successful video? I think that can be, as getting into the whole podcast scene, it's all about numbers, right? All about how many people have listened, the percentage of the episode that they've listened to, where they're listening from, what the fuck, all that kind of stuff. It's all numbers and numbers and numbers. So where do you personally then look at something you created? I mean, you kind of already talked about it and say that was a success.

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah, I can't. When I look at my metrics and analytics, I want to flip my desk over and quit. It doesn't make any sense. I hate how YouTube is so secretive about why something does one thing and why it does another. Right. So it's just a crap shoot sometimes. So right now, I don't understand, but with the whole COVID deal, everyone's home watching YouTube. My views for the last 28 days are up 70%.

Trevor:

Holy cow.

Tyler Pearce:

Ridiculous, right? My subscriber count per 28 days, up 120%. Revenue? Down 34%. So I'm like, what the shit is this dude? How can I have quadrupled the amount of views I've done in a month? And I've actually lost a third of my revenue? And so I just-

Sheldon:

[crosstalk 00:40:37] They don't give you any breakdown on that?

Tyler Pearce:

I mean, you can dive in and see which video is making what, but again, and not that views are necessarily always tied to how you're getting paid. I mean, it's a cost per click. So in December, that's why everyone tries to put out a bunch of videos in December because around Christmas ad rates are way higher. So you'll make way more on YouTube, putting out videos in December, then you will January. And so, potentially advertisers are pulling from YouTube. And so then the cost per click and the ad rates go down. But again, that's why I'll never be a full-time YouTuber, because it's too stressful. And then it will change the way I make content. And I don't want to do that. Right. I don't want to be forced to make a video every day to feed my family.

Tyler Pearce:

I don't want to be forced to make some piece of shit video just because I have to get something up to keep that algorithm churning. So my metrics of success, I can't look at the numbers. It doesn't matter the views, the likes, the whatever, for me personally, it's the comments, right? So when someone says, "dude, I've had a real shitty day and I watched your video and it made me smile." That is a self, that's so gratifying. Versus, maybe I put out a video that gets a hundred billion views, but it's changed no one's life. And no one gives a shit. And it's just a video that came and went and who cares?

Tyler Pearce:

This is something that when my son grows up and has his own son, that I can sort of be really proud of what I did despite on how much money I made or the success of the channel. Right? Can you imagine being some shit ass vlogger that does clickbait all the time or doing some fake prank? And you're like, yeah I made a hundred grand off of YouTube, but I sold my soul out. You know what I mean? And I don't want to do that.

Trevor:

So, we've talked a lot. I mean, this is how your content creation kind of has developed. Back at the beginning when you started this whole thing and you thought it was going to be about your plant-based lifestyle and then it kind of went into, it's more so focused on your cycling lifestyle. How has your relationship to the bike, then, kind of developed as you're developing this channel, this platform, a lot of people find cycling as an escape, but now it's kind of turning into a job or, so how's that going?

Tyler Pearce:

Man, that's such a good point, right? Before YouTube really picked off or took off, cycling it wasn't my entire life. There were so many other aspects to my life. And definitely around 2018, for sure in 2019, I would say I was a full-time cyclist, even though I have a full-time job. I own a web development company and a data distribution service that ties into e-commerce websites and that sort of thing. That is my day job. We have employees, I can't let that go. But in 2019, I was a full-time cyclist. I mean, I was traveling all the time for events. I was training all the time and it was like, dude, this is a job. And I remember we were somewhere with my wife's parents and my wife had said something like, "so when's your ride today?"

Tyler Pearce:

And then her mom was like, "why do you have to ride, we're on vacation." And I was like, "oh, well, I got to keep riding. I can't just not ride because this is kind of tied to what I'm doing." And so then that's where ride all the bike's came out of, right? Is I can't just ride road all the time. I'm going to burn out, I'm going to hate it. I'm going to really, then how can you be a cycling YouTuber and hate cycling? You know? So I had to really make sure that I was going to still love riding bikes and by separating it and not calling myself a road cyclist, even though I guess that's primarily what I am. Gravel bikes, mountain bikes, track motos, BMX, thick. I mean, it doesn't matter, right? So trying to dabble in all the different stuff and keep it light, and keep it fun and not sort of pigeonhole yourself. And you'd be like, oh this is the type of rider I am, I'm only going to do this. And then I put together a team and so that kind of helped offset my personal goals.

Tyler Pearce:

So if the team does well, then I feel success, right? Versus if I'm just by myself, even if you get second, in a race of a hundred guys, technically you're the first loser. And so then it's very hard to find success in road cycling or bikes, it doesn't matter what kind of bike it is, its very difficult to win anything. And so having a team where I can sort of play a role, but then have guys that are stronger than me in that discipline do well. I can feel success in that.

Tyler Pearce:

And so just dabbling in all sorts of different things: road, crits, the fondos, the adventures. I think even though I love racing, I just love to compete, the adventures that I've been doing, boy, those are so much fun. And I find myself maybe that I am more tailor suited to not an ultra endurance, but sort of in between, like a six to ten hour technical ride. I seem to do my best during that window. So anything less than that, it's too intense. I don't have the kind of out-and-out power that I need. Anything longer than that is just insane. Who wants to ride for 24 hours? No. And so [crosstalk 00:47:34] everyone's different, right? So you got to sort of find what you enjoy and I enjoy a multi-surface adventure above anything else. But again, if you do too much of one thing, it's going to burn you out hard.

Sheldon:

I absolutely agree with that. I mean Trevor and I both started as road cyclists. I've more moved to gravel as I started kind of getting burned out. But you mentioned traveling more in 2018, 2019. As you've traveled the country, how do you compare the California cycling scene versus some of the other States that you've gone to, or do you even see a difference in different areas of California?

Tyler Pearce:

Well, a lot of people ask that question. And I would say the pinnacle is the same everywhere. You're always going to have a dude or a couple dudes that are just so strong. And it's so insane how it's just like that across the board. No matter where you go, no matter who you're racing with, there's going to be a dude who is going to tear your legs off. Now in California, I would say there's a higher concentration of those guys, but the pinnacle is the same. You know what I mean? Like winning a race anywhere is going to be very difficult to do. But again, in California, you might have 10 guys that can win a race. And in New York, you might have three, you know what I'm saying? Like there's the cream of the crop is going to be solid. But-

Sheldon:

Now are you seeing gravel catch on in California the same way it's starting to catch on... Like here in Michigan, it is dominant. Road, we hate to say it... part of it's because our road surface here, you can ride gravel and it's going to be smoother than the paved, but gravel has just completely encompassed the Michigan racing scene. Are you seeing that encroachment in California? Or is road still kind of the dominant force?

Tyler Pearce:

No, dude. Road is dying, it's not good. It's not in a healthy state. And the reason for that is, you wake up at three in the morning, you drive four hours, you get to the road race, 17 guys show up and you get dropped in the first one mile. Fuck. You know what I mean? Like, what is that? You hate that experience. Now in a gravel situation, because not everyone is racing, now you've got 2000 people lined up and maybe you get blown out in the first mile. You still have a wonderful day ahead of you. Even if you're riding by yourself, you're out for an adventure. But you're not going to be riding by yourself, you're going to find other guys riding at your pace. So it's just the mentality behind it is completely different.

Tyler Pearce:

And so me as a racer, I love gravel because you can still be super competitive and trying to win any gravel races again, insane. Because you have Peter Stetina or whatever. You're just like, what the hell? There's no way I'm going to win, but just being up with those guys is so insane. So then it elevates the status of your placing. Right? My 40th at BWR is probably, that's my proudest result. Because of the hitters that are there. Ted King, Peter Stetina, I mean, it's just insane. And so me getting 40th, I'm just like, yes dude. I know that everyone here was giving it their best foot forward. And I did great. Now if I got 40th in a road race out of 42 guys, that's not good. That's not a fun day.

Trevor:

You're driving home [inaudible 00:51:53] there.

Tyler Pearce:

I mean, I don't want to say that you should just never do a road race ever again, or a crit or whatever. When I did the So Cal crit, that was one of the most funnest races I've ever been a part of, just the dynamics of it and how fast it was and how scary it was. But we should just all do, we should just all ride all the bikes. It doesn't matter.

Tyler Pearce:

And so I think that it would be healthier for road to have guys not put so much emphasis on road, because what ends up happening is you'll have guys that are extremely fit. They've got a five watt per kilo FTP, they show up to this road race with a team of nine. Then you've got Fred, who shows up and he's got a three watt per kilo FTP, no team. And he just stands no chance. And that guy, he's probably not going to come back and race. It's going to take a real special person to get their teeth kicked in every single time and still want to keep doing it. And so that's again why I think gravel is blowing up. But, now you've got a gravel event, every fricking weekend, USAC trying to come in and sanction the whole thing. And it's like, I hope that it doesn't get ruined.

Sheldon:

Yeah. I mean, that's been a big conversation here and I can only think of one gravel race that we have in the entire state that's USAC sanctioned and everyone else's, they're definitely standing back with their arms out saying, we don't want that. We want to be able to sit afterwards and have a bunch of beers in a parking lot.

Trevor:

We've had some interesting conversations about exactly what you were talking about, competition versus adventure. And exactly what you're saying. I don't think the two are totally separate ideas and you can be competitive and still have an adventure. I'm not sure if I would have-

PART 2 OF 4 ENDS [00:54:04]

Trevor:

And you can be competitive and still have an adventure. I'm not sure if I would have the best adventure doing a crit, but maybe the adventure of a gravel race is an adventure, and I can be competitive at the same time.

Tyler Pearce:

Well, and that's where, like the Fondos, the road Fondos that do just time segments, that's like a great mix. I love that. I love when I did the garden state Fondo they had it to where it was, it's like six times segments up the climbs only. So I got to ride with my coach and friend who's 200 pounds and eight feet tall. And so obviously he's not going to be competitive on the climbs, but if we, if it was a start to finish thing, well then now I'm forced to go with whatever move, like now I got to be drilling it. And I'm like, I can't see any cool sites. Like, oh, there's a neat pizza stop. Nope, I'm racing, but that's not how it was, right? It was, you knew the time segments were coming up, you go full gas, you go full race and then you come back and you enjoy the ride to the next segment. And-

Trevor:

Are you able, are you able to, when you're doing like the races or just rides itself, are you able to focus specifically on that? Are you always thinking about what the story is going to be? Can you be in the moment enough just to enjoy the ride or are you always kind of-

Tyler Pearce:

No. Yeah, no. And so a lot of times I've gone to races before. Actually one of the best is my best finish in a road race ever. I got third at the Patterson Pass, where first and second are actual pros. I out sprinted everyone at the, like, it was the breast race and it was a very hard race. Like it started with 60 guys. You went over this climb, I think three times, like it was a solid climb and I just ended up being like the two pros, they broke away. But we come into the finish, there's only like eight guys left and I out sprint the other seven and I'm on the podium with two pros. I didn't record any of it at all, right? I didn't story it. I didn't have a GoPro. I didn't, because before going there, I was like, you know what? I want to just sort of focus on the race. I want to just focus on, on seeing what I can do without having to like set up a camera and have all this like stress.

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. I ended up fricking doing great, but then it was like, shit dude, I don't have anything to tell this story. And so it goes back and forth right. On, I mean, obviously a lot of my training rides I'll go out and I won't take any pictures or go pro anything and just enjoy the ride myself. But when it's into something big and I think that, like, I don't want to sound douchey, but a lot of people sometimes don't understand how hard it is to do, to be competitive at an event, while also going to make a sick ass video, right?

Tyler Pearce:

Like my BWR video. I mean the whole time, 'cause I only have two go pros, so there's no way it's going to last seven hours. So I have to start and stop that GoPro. And I've got a front and a rear and then I had, I think, a spare battery with me. So what shots do I want to get? Well, I got to get a shot from the start. You know, I need to get a shot when we get to the single trail. Like this is all in my head, you know? And then like I see a guy do something cool. And I'm like trying to turn on the GoPro real quick and you know, then I've got my rear. So then I know Phil Diamond's behind me, so I click that on. Like, I mean, there's just this cloud of how to get these shots, like in my head.

Tyler Pearce:

And I think I might got it down pretty good now, but, and so almost now it sort of takes me out of the suffering, which is like beneficial. So with the volcano ride with Jeremiah, almost the whole time I'm thinking, what shots I'm going to get and telling Alex like, hey man, there's, I need you to get this shot of us coming up this road. And, I'm just thinking about it the whole time, where if I hadn't had that piece to it, I might've been thinking about how insane riding up a volcano is and then get really.

Trevor:

In your head too much or something?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And then maybe you go too hard or you do something like, even though it is difficult to do, sometimes it pays off because you're not focusing on how bad your suffering.

Trevor:

Yeah. I feel like. And we apologize if you're repeating things that you've talked about on different platforms a lot, but I mean you're just, in a ride itself, you're kind of having to balance these different things. But then in your life, as a content creator, as a cyclist, and then as a father and a husband, and a full-time job, how are you balancing all of that? And how do you, work all that out?

Tyler Pearce:

So, I call it the unbalanced balanced life. And it's basically, I have three priorities. You have your A priority, you have your B priority and you have your C priority. And the way I would look at that is A priority, you're making gains. B priority, you're not making gains but you're not making losses. And then C priority, you're regressing or you're losing a little bit. So, if like to put it in context of like fitness, you know what I mean? If you go out and you do a three hour ride with VO2 max intervals and you hit all your numbers, you're making gains, but you could also go out and do a two hour ride that you stop at a cafe. And, you have some good times, you're not really making a lot of gains, but you're not losing anything.

Tyler Pearce:

Or you could go for a 10 minutes cruise on a beach cruiser, like yeah, you rode, but you're not, you didn't make any gains, right? So with those like boxes, A, B and C, I try to shift around what I'm doing to allot that into one of those boxes. So it doesn't remain cycling is my A priority throughout the whole year, 'cause that doesn't make sense. Yeah, I'd be a super strong cyclist, but I'd be divorced and I'd have no YouTube channel, and I wouldn't have a job.

Trevor:

Right.

Tyler Pearce:

Right? So, I mean, you have to move that around. And, that could be as small as by the day, or by the week, or by the month, but in any given moment you would look at my life and it's chaos. But when you zoom out over the whole year, I would say that I've spent quality time on every aspect of my life. Quality time, as A priority for YouTube, for family, for cycling, for work, for just mental health. You know? So like I might have a week, I did this train like a pro challenge back in December, where I did 20 hours a week on the bike for three weeks. And obviously during that three weeks cycling is my A priority. And then, recovery was my B priority. And so then what was C priority was my family, but you only have so much bandwidth, you only have so much time. And so, what doesn't even get prioritized is cleaning, is working, right? I mean, just like there's something that's going to have to give.

Tyler Pearce:

So then after that crazy three weeks, now I'm going to flip it. Now I'm going to make my family, A priority. I'm going to go spend some quality time with them, right? 'Cause it's quality. It's not just, oh, I'm sitting on the couch with my daughter. Well, that's not doing anything like, yeah, you might feel like you're with your family, but not really. They're not going to remember that. Like, what they're going to remember is me taking them to the trampoline park, letting my wife, you know, get a day to herself and me going full gas with the kids, and spending a whole day with them. That's what makes a difference. That's what creates a data point on the chart.

Tyler Pearce:

So that's how it is. You just move it around all the time. So there are weeks, there might be a week where it's like full gas work and I'm not, I don't touch a YouTube video and I ride six hours and, but I make a lot of gains in work, right? I, we pick up new clients. We improve the platform. Like whatever it is that we're doing, we're just a busy time, but then I can't just keep doing that, 'cause then I'm going to lose everything else. So you have to, you've got to keep it rotating. And that gets difficult to try to be like, okay well, what in my life is regressing or having issues? And I got to focus on that. And so you're just always kind of keeping everything up.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Sheldon:

Now, I just want to go back just a tiny bit. It was one question that I kind of, we kind of skipped over, back over and talking about the different matrices on social media. Now, do you see a difference, depending on the time of year, on the interaction that people are giving for say road videos versus gravel videos versus mountain biking videos? Or is it, are you seeing gravel videos that you make, making gains along with how kind of the scene is changing a little bit?

Tyler Pearce:

Well, so I would say that I try to make a video that no matter when you see it, it's relevant. And so that's like, I would say the biggest thing that I try to think about is how do I give life to this video? If I make a video that is just very specific to a very single moment, it might get a little spike in the beginning, but then everything after that, the views are just not good. So then the return on investment of my time into that video is not good, right? I put a lot of time into the video, but it's, after a month, no one cares about it anymore. So like Dirty Kanza, that's a video that every single year when Dirty Kanza comes, people are going to be seeing that video. And no matter if you know who I am, or you don't know who I am, it's a good story. It's a good piece of entertainment.

Tyler Pearce:

And not that I can do that all the time, I get that was a lot of work and it's, it takes a lot of time and stuff, but it's just one of the greatest comments that I get. And I actually just got this comment 20 minutes ago, was a guy said, "I don't know why I'm watching this, I don't ride bikes at all, but I'm enjoying it".

Trevor:

That's great.

Tyler Pearce:

I was like, fuck yeah, dude. Like that's entertainment, right? I've transisted, I've gone above just a cycling video. And this person who doesn't know anything about this, is finding enjoyment out of it. And that's like, man, that makes me feel super, super good.

Trevor:

So, as your YouTube career, I don't know, what do you refer to it as? It's not-

Tyler Pearce:

I don't know. I don't know dude, it's not a career.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

Because it's not where I put all my eggs into the basket, but obviously as it continues to grow, it becomes more a part of my life. You know, I was actually thinking about this the other day of like, what would I do if I just stopped this? What is the next chapter? What is after the vegan cyclist? 'Cause obviously I can't be 70 years old, and be like, what's up bro? That doesn't-

Sheldon:

No, please do that.

Trevor:

Yeah, yeah, thinking me too.

Tyler Pearce:

I just, I, how long is it going to last? What is that going to look like as things change? I mean, especially right now, man, what a crazy time to be alive and trying to think about if you're at a business that is only walk-in traffic, foot traffic. Yikes. You know what I mean? If you put all your eggs in the basket of a retail shop, you're fucked. And so I'm happy that I have tried to diversify as many revenue streams or projects, or pieces of me that isn't all tied to one industry or one aspect, right? So if I, if YouTube went down tomorrow, I'd be super bummed, that is a big part of my life, but I still have a kick-ass family, and I still have a web development business. And, right now we're about to launch one of the first virtual trade shows in the industry, right? In that space.

Tyler Pearce:

Like, so there's other accomplishments elsewhere that I'm really proud of. And so, but again, it's-

Sheldon:

But you'd still be riding bikes?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah, and yeah, I'd still ride bikes for sure. But the, it is becoming such a core piece of my identity that I would say, so my name is Tyler. No one really knows that. And I would say that in a, especially in 2019, 90% of my interactions are, I was called Vegan, hey Vegan, yo Vegan. And so, which isn't bad or good or whatever, it's just that is socially or my human interaction with people is heavily weighted on this. And so, I take it really serious and I try to just continue being myself. Like, someone sent me this Reddit link, where people were just shitting on me.

Tyler Pearce:

And I was like, I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to read it, but I did it. Whatever, I started reading it and, it's like this one guy was like, I used to like him, but he got so, his ego's just through the roof and he's so narcissistic and just a piece of shit. And I was like, I want to like come to my defense.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

But there's just, you're not going to change people's perspective and how they look at it and how they see it. And I have such a small window to tell a story, that, so I post this video about my son climbing Alp Du Zwift. And I got this one comment where this guy was like, I know he didn't want to do that and you pushed him to do it and he said he used something in the video that I had said to my son, and then he knew my whole life, right? And I was like, bro, you've watched a 10 minute video, and you think you know my entire relationship with my son, you know what I mean? Like, ah, but like it's just, I can only do so much. I can only show so much and I can only tell so much, but I try to just stay the same person that I've always been.

Tyler Pearce:

And that's another thing it's like, sometimes hate, you get hate on something, but you can sort of offset it because it's a brand or it's a company, or it's like, well, they're talking shit on, like if you work at Coca-Cola and someone's like, Coca Cola sucks. Well, it's like, okay, well I'm not Coca-Cola. I'm sure you hate the company I work for, but I'm not Coca-Cola. I am my brand.

Trevor:

Right.

Tyler Pearce:

Right? I'm not any different. It's not like when I make a video, it's not like I have spectacles on and I'm like an engineer and talking all proper. And then I turn on the camera and like, what's up bro? You know, like that's not it. That's how I talk normally, all the time. And recently a lot of people that I've been seeing, they're just like, you got to stop with the dude, the bro, like it's so annoying.

Tyler Pearce:

You know, one guy did like a math equation of how many dude per minutes I'm saying, and it was funny. But like the thing is that is, when I'm talking to the camera, I'm trying to literally talk to you. 'Cause it feels weird when you just have a camera and there's no one around, right? I don't know if you've ever tried to talk to a camera, but it's super awkward.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

If you start to be self-aware that there's no one around and you're talking to yourself, it gets weird. And so then you're not really yourself because that's weird. And so when I'm saying dude and bro, it's because I can't say your physical name, I can't end the video and be like, what's up Trevor? You know what I mean? Like that doesn't, so one or two guys in the video are like, oh yeah, dude.

Trevor:

There's not many Trevor's out there, so that's true.

Tyler Pearce:

Right. So, I have to say to me, I have to say dude or bro, as a connecting, as connecting us. And that's just what comes out naturally. It's not something. And it's like, when I get excited, then my dude's per minute go through the roof, right? But it's-

Sheldon:

If you really want to rub some salt in that guy's wounds, you need to put a bro dude counter in the corner in one of your episodes, just let it ding the whole time. And you know, he would just be sitting there and just be gritting his teeth, pissed off at you.

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah.

Trevor:

You know, but I think that it is about connection and you're obviously connecting to people because people watch your content and watch your videos, and do connect to the stories you're telling. This might be kind of, maybe too deep of a question, but like right now, in the situation everyone's in, do you feel some sort of responsibility to be, I don't know, giving people something to take them outside of their shitty situations, like videos that they can just escape?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. So, when this all happened and started happening, I was very confused at what I was going to do. How do I post something? How do I post something happy? Or, how do I create new content around this?

Trevor:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Pearce:

And I sort of was, I like, was off of social media for like a week. I didn't post anything. And I had a guy message me and he was like, hey, you need to be posting shit. Like I'm bored and I'm depressed, get making content.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

And so then I was like, you know what? That's right. Like, and he had said it in a more elegant way, but like basically that I have an obligation to post stuff, to help people. And I had never really thought about myself as any sort of, like in that way, right? I'm just making dumb, whatever YouTube videos. But in this moment where it's a pandemic and people are literally scared and terrified and don't know what to do.

Tyler Pearce:

And it's like, is the world ending? Like we don't know, we've never been in this before. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm going to go out and I'm going to make this video with me and my teammates. And, we're going to go on this really cool ride and I'm going to do this Instagram story. So I got real hyped up to like create some content. So then I go out dude, and I put all this time and I'm doing this.

Trevor:

Oh no.

Tyler Pearce:

And then I posted a picture on Instagram, and then I posted the picture, then I go and I start building the story. And so then I build the Instagram story. It takes me like an hour and a half to build this Instagram story. I'm so proud. I'm just like, bro, people are going to be like, yay. Thank you, Vegan, like great story. And then, I see the first comment. It's like, you piece of shit. Why are you riding outside? I'm like, what? And then, so then I go to the next comment, and the next comment, and the next comment, and it's just like, I used to like you, but you're such a piece of shit. And it's like, dude, I have no idea what's going on right now, right?

Tyler Pearce:

And in my area, especially like, I think when I posted this, it was like February or we're just like right in March. Like, it was just when it was happening, our County had like less than 10 cases. It was, there was no mandate in place, there wasn't like, you ha, you're no lockdown. It was, Fresno County had put out a thing saying that it is healthy and they encourage you going out and riding your bicycle, just stay in groups of less than 10.

Trevor:

Right.

Tyler Pearce:

That's it, right? And so everyone lives, and is living this, in a different way, right? If you're in New York, that's completely different-

Trevor:

Sure.

Tyler Pearce:

Than if, where you are, where I'm at, and so, I mean, I can only do what I'm experiencing. And so anyway, so then I just got shit on, right? And so I was like, aw man, that's not good. And then I think I went on a string of like three or four posts that no matter what, I was getting shit on. I posted a picture from like three months ago, and still people are like, how dare you post this? You know, you're encouraging people to go outside. I'm like, but it's an old post. Well, you need to say that. You're like, oh my God, dude, what? And it's just, it got real squirrely. And so then I was like, man, I don't know what to do.

Tyler Pearce:

And so, then I kind of backed out of it. And I just started working on these older projects that I'd had from before the apocalypse, and really kind of just put my attention into the impossible route and doing some Zwift stuff. But we're all going to deal with this in our own way, as long as you're being responsible, and you're not like going around and licking poles and coughing on people. You got to have some kind of mental health aspect to this. You can't just lock yourself inside. I mean, how many people are going to come out of this with diagnosed depression, because they weren't able to do anything?

Trevor:

Right.

Tyler Pearce:

You know what I mean? Like, and I'm a hermit. Bro, I've been social distancing for years, right? I mean, I don't, I live in a town of 500, where in the winter, there's less than a hundred people here. So you know what I mean? Like, I enjoy being away from people, but the fact that I can't interact with people, is really weird. It's so strange to not have any hope for the future, right? And maybe hope is not the right word, but like I'll stay at home for weeks on end and do nothing, and see no one, and it not be an issue because, well, next month I've got this going on.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

Or I'm going to go over here or I'm going to go do this group ride, or whatever, you always know in the future, we'll be able to-

Trevor:

You can count on it.

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah.

Trevor:

And now you can't, we can't count on anything.

Tyler Pearce:

There's nothing.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

And so, I went out for a ride right now and I saw a cyclist coming the other way, which no one ever rides up here. And I was just like, what!? Like, waving super aggressively, hi, hi. It's just so strange, but it's-

Trevor:

Turning to more of a positive theme than a positive subject. Just this whole project that you've put together in the last few years, what's the best place that it's taken you to? The best experience you've had? That you can say, it's because of this project.

Tyler Pearce:

I mean, riding up, being the second person ever to complete the impossible route.

Trevor:

Sure, yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

I think that that's like unquestionably one of the greatest, I don't, because without this YouTube channel, that would've never happened, right? That, because there's so many aspects to it, of one that I wouldn't even have known it was a thing. It only came about because of Jeremiah and I only got to know Jeremiah because of the YouTube channel. And because I got to go to Ros Petoutsia and mistake him for a low-level Canyon rep, which I got shit on for. Like, 'cause I didn't even know when I posted him in the video, I still had no idea who he was, right? And I don't even remember why I remember his name. It was like, I just, we're there at Ros Petoutsia, we have no bikes, I see Canyon. I'm like, hey, can we get a bike? And that was that. And then, so when I posted them, I think the guy's name was Jeremiah or something. Everyone's like, "how dare you!? He's our local hero".

Tyler Pearce:

And then, so I quickly messaged him. I was like, bro, I didn't know, you know what I mean? But that's like such a testament to Jeremiah, is cool of a dude he is.

Trevor:

Right.

Tyler Pearce:

That even at the world level caliber he is, you don't know it. You know what I mean? He's like, when you talk with him, he doesn't have that vibe of, oh bro, you're not on my level. And no matter, like I went out when I was riding with him after his Fondo, the things he was doing on a bike were, I was like, this is insane dude. This is unbelievable that you're able to do this, but still in that same moment, he's like giving me encouragement. Like, I went for this KOM and he was like, "oh yeah dude, get it, yeah, oh man, you're crazy". And then I was like 10 minutes off his time.

Tyler Pearce:

But he was so encouraging and it just, he doesn't, like that's so cool, right?

Trevor:

Yeah, yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

And that's just like a testament to just anyone who, no matter how fast you are or slow you are or whatever, we all can relate to the same thing. Like, getting dropped sucks. No matter if you're getting dropped by Chris Froome, or if you're getting dropped by a woman that has been on the bike for a day, right? Like, you're just like-

PART 3 OF 4 ENDS [01:21:04]

Tyler Pearce:

-n that has been on the bike for a day. It doesn't matter in what level you're getting dropped, that getting dropped, feels terrible. I think we can all relate to that and if we more went on the universal relatabilities, I guess if that's a word, then I think we'd all be able to connect a little better.

Sheldon:

I wanted to mention a moment in your Impossible Climb video that, I just really... It was at the end and you were just talking to the camera and you brought in your wife and you talked about setting a goal and completing the goal and there was a moment where it wasn't about wide aerial shots of anything or watching you climb up the s-. It was just you being very honest and saying, here's a goal I had, this is what I wanted to do and you and your wife having this little conversation about goals. Are you a very goal oriented guy? Is that kind of what drives you to do a lot of these things or after you did that was it like this realization that's like, holy shit, this was something that I tackled. This was a goal of mine and I tackled. I don't know. I just, I loved that moment.

Tyler Pearce:

I am a fly by the seat of pants type of guy and so I very rarely have long-term goals. It's just, this was definitely one of those, I mean, Jeremiah called me two weeks before we did this. You know what I mean? So there wasn't much planning. This wasn't like something I had pinned on a board of climb to the top of the world. It wasn't, it was just whatever. Obviously looking back on it, you're like damn, that was sick. I try to have goals, but my life changes so much, so quickly, and so often that I try to make them very loose. You know what I mean? Very fluid. I think a fluid goal is so much better because a goal can motivate you, but a goal can crack you. If you have a goal to hit 400 Watts for 20 minutes and you go out and you've trained, you've invested all this time and energy, and this has been something you've been working towards and you do 250 Watts.

Tyler Pearce:

You're just like, wah ha, I'm nowhere near my goal. So then that can totally crack you and so having obviously long-term goals are nice to have, but having little micro goals along the way that are easier to obtain. Sort of what I do, is if I could just do one thing a day to move the needle, I'll be in a good place. Right? So no matter what that thing is, no matter how big or how important it is, I got to do something every day to make, to push my life in a forward direction. An analogy that I have is, say you just, all of a sudden, you're standing on Earth and you want to get to the ocean. You have no idea where you are, right? You could be anywhere in, let's say, America.

Tyler Pearce:

How do you get to the ocean? You have no map, no nothing. You're just going to start. If you just start walking in a direction and you just stay on that direction, you will, at some point reach the ocean. Now you may have started in Florida and started heading west and so your journey to the ocean is going to be very long when it could have been very easy, but no matter what you headed in a direction and in an amount of time, you'll be at your destination. Maybe it's not the exact beach you wanted to go to, it will be a beach, right? So when you get there, then you can reflect on how you got there and that sort of thing. But having this very specific goal of well, I want to get to this point, you might, inevitably steer your life in a very different direction than what it could have been in and it could have been better.

Tyler Pearce:

My wife is a great example. I tried so hard to not have her in my life. I mean, I was just a total turd taco to her when we first were together. I had no plans on marrying her. I didn't want marriage. I didn't want kids and I just constantly would do things to push her out of my life because at that time, my goal, this is like when I was 19, my goal was to be this big entrepreneur. I wanted to be a billionaire. I wanted to drive Ferraris. I just wanted to chase women all the time. That was my goal and that's a shitty goal to have, obviously, but in the moment it's like I'm missing all of these amazing opportunities. If I had just had a broader goal of happiness, you know what I mean? Versus being like, well, that is what ha- money and possessions, that's what happiness is.

Tyler Pearce:

I remember one time, this was early on in our relationship and she kept wanting me to tell her I loved her. I thought I was giving her a compliment. I was saying, well, I really like bacon cheeseburgers and I would rather be with you than have a bacon cheeseburger. Right? That was the analogy that I gave her. To me, bacon cheeseburgers at the time they were high up. So this [crosstalk 01:27:07] is pre pre vegan. Now it's so insane to think about how many twists and turns my life has had that have ended me up with this life that is just unbelievable and something that I have tried so actively to not have.

Tyler Pearce:

Just being open to new things, you know what I mean? Plant-based. Being vegan. I was so into bacon that I went to a burger place and I got 8x bacon. Okay. Not double bacon, not triple bacon, not quadruple bacon, bro. I said, I want eight sides of bacon.

Trevor:

[inaudible 01:27:54].

Tyler Pearce:

And ate it! That's what I ate. Even the waitress was like, what the fuck is this guy doing? I'm not some hippie or I wasn't, I am now, but I wasn't some hippie that was all super into saving the planet, saving the animals, eating carrots. I mean, I was bacon and cheese and steak, and that was it. I'll always see it that when you're only on that side of the fence, you're like, oh, this is great.

Tyler Pearce:

But when you start to expose yourself to new things, you know what I mean? You start to have a broader perspective of life and in all aspects, the more experiences you can have, the more you can experience, which is like the hippiest thing you could ever say. You need to expose yourself to things and maybe you don't like them is what I always tell people, if you think being vegan is stupid and eating plants is unhealthy for you... Try it. Then if you're right, you will have strengthened your standpoint and you can stand proud and say, bacon cheeseburgers may make me healthy and it's way better for my life and carrots can suck it. Right? You have to have at least tried the other side. What mostly happens is when you start to eat a little bit healthier, not that you have to go full vegan, but when you eat a plant or two, it makes you feel a little better. Then you go, well, man, I actually, I feel a little better so maybe I'm going to eat a little more plants.

Tyler Pearce:

Then it's just this snowball process to where you end up getting to be 90% plant-based, which I think is ultimately, the healthiest way to go. Eighty to 90% plant-based is very obtainable by anyone and no matter what side of the fence you stand on, be very hard to argue that that's not a very healthy, very environmentally friendly and also mentally for you, because you could still eat, meat every once in a while or whatever, have one portion of meat a day. Like it's practical. It's good for you. It's good for the environment. Then what ends up happening is you have these crazy vegans who are like, "Nope, it's a hundred percent or nothing!" And it's like well, that's not the message. Right? The message should be just try to get a little healthier or get a little more exposure to something different.

Trevor:

So we're not promoting 8x bacon cheeseburgers. All right. That's what I'm getting here.

Tyler Pearce:

I mean, look, but again, having a bacon with 8 X or a cheeseburger with 8 X bacon, it gives me the opposite end of the spectrum. Right? This is what I've been really careful with my son is that he's not fully vegan. He and my wife, I guess, would be called pescatarian because they eat fish occasionally. A little bit of cheese, every once in a while, but for the most part, they're 98% vegan. That other 2%, that's not the battle and I want to make sure that my son doesn't become 16, 17, 18, and go do "My dad was such a hippie. I hate plants. I resent broccoli and now I'm going to go completely in the other direction." Right? I need it to be his choice. I need it to be something that he wants to stick with for the rest of his life. I'd much rather him be 90% plant-based for life than a hundred percent plant-based until he leaves my home and then eats 8x bacon.

Sheldon:

Right?

Trevor:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, this is fantastic and really appreciate it. Sheldon, can you think of any other...

Sheldon:

Honestly, we pretty much ticked off everything. The only one that I had on here and it seems super shallow after everything that we got into, was..what came first, your YouTube or your Instagram, but now it's almost a moot question at this point.

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. So Instagram came second. I think I started it two years after my YouTube channel.

Sheldon:

Oh really?

Tyler Pearce:

I don't remember where I was or what I was doing, but I started the Instagram account and for the first post, it took me an hour to think about what I was going to post. Like the caption and I was like, dude, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this every time where I have to try to think of some funny creative caption. So then at that point I was like, well, you know what I'll do is, I'll just have this template. I'll say what's going on in the picture, bruh. Right? So that was where this whole 'bruh' thing came from is because I had a video where I did a race day video and my son said something about my wife had gotten me a coffee cup and he goes, do you like your new teacup? And I go, it's not a teacup. I don't drink tea, bruh.

Tyler Pearce:

So that was the video I had just done and so then I grabbed that. Then every Instagram post that I made was just Riding bikes bruh, or whatever, Eating carrots, bruh. It was just easy. It was like okay this is an easy caption that I can always do. So then I don't know. I think I did that for years. Then it just started getting to the point where I'd make some long posts or some deeper posts and at the end, it'd be all metaphysical and deep and then be like...bruh. It's like, ah, see that kind of ruins it, you know? I think just in the last maybe eight months or I don't know what it is, but in the last year at least, I deviated away from ending every Instagram post with a 'bruh'.

Tyler Pearce:

I love Instagram, man. My YouTube videos, I get so mentally entangled with making it perfect, which sometimes it's why I don't put out a lot of content or don't put out stuff all the time. Cause I'll just sit there and I'll stare at it for so long or I'll have something like, there's so many videos I've just canned and never uploaded because I just wasn't happy with it or I was just like, it's just not a, it's just a whatever video and that's not what I want to do. I want to make sure that as soon as you see a Vegan Cyclist video posted there's no hesitation that it's not going to be worth your time. No matter what I'm talking about or what I'm doing, the video is going to be worth your time.

Tyler Pearce:

So I've had a lot of people that want to make... They're like, dude, you could be way more successful if you just followed these steps and did these things and is all about putting out a video every day and it's just... Dude, I'm not going to be proud of that. I don't want to just put out something that you blankly stare at and then when it's over, it was just a waste of time. I'm a content consumer just as I'm a creator. I watch YouTube and I hate when I'm like, it's a sick thumbnail, it's a sick title. I'm like, oh yeah, dude, give me a sick video. I invest 12 minutes of my life. Then afterwards I'm just like... dumb.

Trevor:

Well yeah, no ones going to remember the watered down content.

Tyler Pearce:

Right. So with Instagram, that gives me that opportunity to sort of, well especially Instagram story to not overproduce or not have to worry about it so much. I really enjoy having Instagram story as this other window. I try not to... Sometimes if you follow someone on YouTube, what they'll end up doing is it's the same post on every platform. They'll post a YouTube video, a Twitter post, a Facebook post, an Instagram post, all telling you to watch the YouTube video. It's like, bro, I saw it. You know what I mean? I'm not here on Instagram for you to tell me to go to YouTube. I want to see behind the scenes, I want to see what you're doing when you're not making videos. Like I want to see other aspects to your life so that's what I really try to incorporate with the Instagram, which I've had a lot of fun with.

Tyler Pearce:

I try to answer every single message I get on Instagram, which is just so cool. The conversations that I've had with people over this time, I would have never been able to do that. I mean, you asked me, what's something that this has brought that would have never happened, which is that I could on any day talk to some guy in Ireland, you know what I mean? Just him be like, "Oh, that's funny" and I'm like "Yeah" then we were just chatting and that's crazy. So then I have these connections with these people. Even though, we may [inaudible 01:37:31] we probably will never meet up in real life. It's just about having a connection with someone halfway around the world.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Tyler Pearce:

You know which is nuts.

Sheldon:

So I know that there aren't a lot of events or adventures to be had in the near future but is there anything that you have already participated that's being edited currently that we can look forward to?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. So the two big videos that I'm working on right now is Season 2 Episode 1 of The Making of a Team. Last year, I did four episodes of how we put together a cycling team. I've got. Episode 1 of Season 2 working on that. That goes through the first three months of our new race team. That's cool. Then The Train like a Pro Challenge, which was, crazy, doing 20 hours a week. The first week, all indoors. That's, another good one. I just put up one of me and my boy ride motos at a Supercross track.

Sheldon:

I saw that.

Tyler Pearce:

I've got a couple other things sort of just floating around, but it's good because what happens sometimes, like I had already had all these plans, like Sea Otter, Belgium Waffle,[inaudible 00:18:04] Dirty Kanza, my cycling camp. This was all so much stuff. What's hard sometimes is to make new content before I've edited old content. Then sometimes videos just get pushed to the side and it's like, well, this is eight months old, this isn't relevant anymore. I can't tell this story, it's too old. This is giving me time to catch up a little bit on some of this old stuff that I haven't put out or didn't want to mess with.

Trevor:

Yeah. Kind of on the flip side, this gives Sheldon and I a chance to reach out to people like you and people that may have a little more time on their hands then they usually do and get a conversation going, you know? So this is, I think there are a lot of positives that can be taken out of this time of doing.

Tyler Pearce:

I mean, I imagine there is no other time where you can sort of take a couple months, the world take a couple of months. I could take a couple months off anytime I want, but the world's not going to stop.

Trevor:

Right.

Tyler Pearce:

You know what I mean? My mortgage is still going to be due. This is such an opportune time to sort of reevaluate where your life is, where you want to go and if you've been really busy to sort of take a few steps back and recalibrate and regroup and head into when everything opens back up, but I'm excited for all the new stuff. All the fall cycling season is going to be ripping. You know? I mean, you're going to have Fondo after Fondo after event after race. I mean, you're just going to be, just going to be so much?

Sheldon:

Were are you signed up for BWR this year?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah.

Sheldon:

Are you going to do it in the, what's it now in October or something like that, or September?

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah. Well, so one thing is that I was able to get on an athlete deal with Canyon this year, which is like just insane. I am on a similar contract as Peter Stetina. Maybe we can end it on this, which is, I'm not an athlete. I have never been good at sports, but in this, in this new world of content creation, that's not everything, that's not the whole bag of tricks.

Tyler Pearce:

You can't just be good at something. Even with pro athletes, you can't just be awesome and not have any sort of social media or content side to you. That is almost sometimes more valuable than what you can do in the sport physically. Obviously I am nowhere near Peter Stetina's caliber, but with the hard work that I've put in elsewhere, like he's putting in a ton of work on the bike, I put in a ton of work on YouTube and we're kind of on the same page, you know what I mean with that aspect? With Canyon in that contract is a few select events that I sort of have to be at and B- the whole BWR. So BWR, the Asheville and then the other one in Colorado, I think.

Sheldon:

Utah.

Tyler Pearce:

Right? Yeah. Then there was, anyway, there was like eight events that I'm sort of contracted to be at, which sounds weird to say, but that's, they're going to help me get there and go make some videos.

Trevor:

I'm planning to be an Asheville if, I mean, hopefully it's like end of August. So hopefully we'll be able to go to Asheville. Maybe I'll see you in Asheville. Also, Michigan has a couple great races that might not be on your calendar this year, but I would look out for some of these races in Michigan and if you head over to Michigan, know that you have a crew that you could hang with and crash with and Barry-Roubaix is a huge gravel event that has like 3 or 4 or 5,000 participants. Just incredible. How many years Sheldon?

Sheldon:

This is going to be the, it was supposed to be, I think the 12th year.

Trevor:

Yeah. It's been around for a bit. Then Iceman Cometh Challenge, which is in Traverse City is like a huge mountain bike race. It's been around for 30 years. They would be incredible events for you to come and experience. But anyways, if you find yourself in Michigan, make sure you holler and we'll probably be at these for sure.

Tyler Pearce:

Yeah, man. I want to go race bikes wherever. I think it's super cool and meeting people face to face is always just, it's unbelievable. It's always really, really cool to meet people that have watched my videos and like put a face, cause when I upload a video from the middle of the forest, it doesn't feel any different than it did the first video I uploaded. Other than the number in the bottom screen. I don't upload a video and then everyone's around clapping. It's just there on the internet and I don't see anyone actually interacting with it. So it just feels very lonely. But when I go to an event and I have people come up and talk to me, it's so crazy that you're a human and you watched a thing I made, its so gratifying.

Tyler Pearce:

Again, so Canyon has given me a small budget to get around to events. I just got to try to find what events, will fit into that schedule. Then the other big thing is my family. Leaving my wife with two kids for a week, it's hard to justify and then to do that back to back to back. I got to make sure that if I can at any moment, bring my wife or bring my family or again, it goes back to that priority. I can't make cycling my A priority all year long. I have to make my family an A priority just as much because they're the support. My wife, I wouldn't be able to do what I do without her because she mans down the house. I mean, she's got my daughter, my son, and she cooks dinner all the time. She just rocks! So I need to make sure she continues to be stoked on me or else I won't be able to ride bikes.

Sheldon:

I think that's great, perfect, let's end it there. That's awesome, man. Thank you. Thank you, Tyler.

Trevor:

Tyler, it was nice to meet you and hopefully we'll see us some races this year, whenever this starts easing up a little bit.

Tyler Pearce:

Absolutely.

Sheldon:

The Dirty Chain Podcast is a Michigan Midpack Media production in partnership with KOM Cycling, the source for your bike accessories and necessities.

Trevor:

Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook at Dirty Chain Podcast, email dirtychainpodcast@gmail.com or call our hotline at (616) 522-2641.

Sheldon:

If you are enjoying the podcast, please leave us a rating and review on whatever platform you use to listen.

Trevor:

Audio editing and original music by Trevor Gibney,

Sheldon:

Sheldon Little handles the social media graphic design, and of course bad decisions. Thank you again to Todd Poquette for joining us to tell us a little bit more about the details of this year's Crusher. And of course thank you to Tyler Pearce, The Vegan Cyclist for joining us for this episode and thank you all for listening to the Dirty Chain Podcast and as always keep your chain clean

Trevor:

But get your chain dirty and we'll see you in the midpack, bro.


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