The speaker, MatPat, shares his personal experiences from 2018, which he describes as the most challenging year of his life. He starts by highlighting the high points, such as reaching 10 million subscribers on YouTube, the birth of his son Oliver, and raising $200,000 for mental health research. However, he also shares the lows, including the California wildfires that threatened his home, the struggles of raising a child while running a business, and the loss of his partner, Ronnie Edwards, to suicide.
MatPat's story takes a dark turn when he reveals that he and 49 other creators were victims of a significant financial scam. He explains that DEFY Media, a multi-channel network (MCN) they were part of, stole $1.7 million from them. MatPat was a former employee of DEFY Media and felt betrayed by the company's questionable business practices. He expresses his anger and frustration with the situation, emphasizing the need for creators to demand a hundred percent pass-through of their ad revenue and for contracts to include penalties for late payments.
MatPat's story serves as a call to action for other creators to be aware of the potential pitfalls of partnering with MCNs and to demand more protection for their earnings. He urges his audience to share his story and help spread awareness about the issue.
s not all of the 50 channels that were affected", metadata={}), Document(page_coment="00:19:42.22: It was taken out of our pockets\n00:19:44.37: it was money that was used to pay our employees, to run our businesses, because guess what unlike DEFY we\n00:19:51.24: actually care about building sustainable businessers and providing people livelihoods.\n00:19:56.44: And you may be thinking to yourself Oh this is just big YouTuber problems,\n00:19:59.37: but it's not all of the 50 channels that were affected", metadata={})]
1. The speaker had 2018 as the hardest year of their life.
2. The high point of 2018 was reaching 10 million subscribers on YouTube.
3. The low point of 2018 was the California wildfires that came close to burning down the speaker's house.
4. The birth of their son Oliver was a high point of the year.
5. The low point of the year was dealing with morning sickness, the recovery period after giving birth, and running a business while dealing with a newborn.
6. The speaker raised $200,000 to support mental health research, which they described as one of the proudest days in their seven years of doing YouTube.
7. The low point of 2018 was the loss of their partner, Ronnie Edwards, to suicide.
8. There was another low point in 2018 that the speaker has not been able to discuss on the channel due to legal reasons.
9. The speaker worked at an MCN (Multi-Channel Network) called Big Frame.
10. The speaker became the head of audience development at DEFY media, a company that worked with and owned some of the biggest channels on the platform.
11. The speaker left DEFY to do YouTube full-time when their channel, Game Theory, had 3 million subscribers.
12. MCNs, including DEFY, took advantage of the system where YouTube sends ad revenue checks to the MCNs who then take their cut and send the remaining amount to the creators.
13. The speaker's money was stolen from them, along with $1.7 million from 49 other creators, by DEFY.
14. The speaker believes that the money taken from them doesn't belong to DEFY and was used to pay employees and run businesses.
15. The speaker is calling for Ally Bank, which is handling the distribution of the money that DEFY once had, to recognize that the money doesn't belong to DEFY and should be returned to the creators.