YouSaid · the spoken record

Brandon Stanton

lines on the record: 109
first: 2018-06-18
most recent: 2018-06-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Easy to kind of fall back into what everybody else is struggling with as well because you never truly escape it. And so one of the things that I do is I go back to that moment when I lost my job and I was walking in Chicago and I asked myself, you know, if nothing mattered but how I was spending my time, what would I be doing? What would be most nourishing for me in any given moment if nothing else mattered except for how I spent my time? I'm trying to remind myself of that, you know, the same thing I tell other people. And right now I want to go to the Philippines and I want to make a documentary and it might not be best for business and it might not be best for humans of New York, but it's what Brandon wants to do. And so... That is the North Star that I'm trying to follow.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On somebody because I love documentaries and I want to make a documentary that is very interesting so that might not be what's best for business or best for growing audience or best by social media metrics but that is that is what is exciting to me and it all comes back to that moment. It's like it's so funny and I think you're probably the same way as that we have these mantras and these things that we've learned that we stand on stage and we and we say and we think about, you know, don't wait for the perfect idea. You know, it's never going to seem perfect. You just got to go after it, choose what is nourishing in the moment, things like that. And if you're like me, I have to preach to myself a lot and tell myself the same thing that I'm telling other people because it's so easy.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From the daily output model, I want to work on things that have longer time frames that are more polished, that are maybe longer, but take longer to produce and more resources. But that in order to do that, that requires me to kind of pull back from the blog, which the golden rule of social media is keep engaging with your audience, keep connecting with your audience, you know, don't lose touch. Don't lose touch. Don't lose touch. But the artist in me wants to go disappear for a while. And go into a dark cave and come out with something. So I think that is the main push and pull in my mind right now. I'm going to be going to the Philippines next month to work on, I'm going to spend a month filming a documentary.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thank you. Having a baby in July, so beyond that, which is going to be new, for me right now, the biggest kind of artistic tension is knowing because of my experience on social media the past seven years knowing how social media works knowing the importance of output and content and daily content and engagement and things like that knowing how to build an audience on one hand and wanting to push myself as an artist on the other hand and you know what I really want to do as an artist is I kind of want to withdraw”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you're trying to get compensated for your work, the thing that you care about the most as an artist is often the thing that's held against you the most because people are risk averse and they want to see something comparable that has also done well.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, comparables. That fucking word. I mean, are you kidding me? Like, I just, like, in the same thing, you know, when I was making the television series, like the same thing. It's like, as an artist, I want this to be nothing else that's been, that's like the only thing I care about is making something that's really unlike anything else. Like that is, if it's like something else, it's, I don't really want to obsess over it for three years trying to make it. You know, my goal is to make something new and something fresh.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are things that people can peg to other past successes. And so when you walk in with something like what I thought was humans of New York's greatest value, which was there really wasn't anything else like it at the time.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, things that are not derivative. You know what I mean? Like in my mind, in my mind, like the most valuable idea is the one that nobody's ever seen before. Like that's when you've got the gold. But you've got a better chance of just choosing something else that's good and making something derivative on it. Because then when you go into these places and you pitch, you can say, oh, this is 50 shades of gray, but with furries. I don't know. It's just like it's funny that for me as an artist and as a creator, the last thing I ever want to do is be describing my work as it's this, but with a twist. You know what I mean? Like, I want to be creating something new. However, in the marketplace, the things that have most likely chance of getting”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because there's two types of books that have a history of not selling well. Well, there's a lot of types, but mine fit two categories. It was a photography book, photography's books don't sell based on conventional wisdom, and it was what they viewed as a regional book where it is a photography book centered on a single city, therefore nobody's going to want it. That was the argument against publishing humans of New York.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The first three dropped out. They didn't make an offer. There's still one that we haven't heard from yet. And I'm just like, oh my God. Because that book was my life raft because I didn't have any money at that time. I was hoping to get a little bit of a book deal so I could, you know, pay my bills. And I just remember I went to the YMCA and I just ran like five miles because I thought it was going to be the worst day of my life. And then when I got on the treadmill, I found out that McMillan had made a small but respectable offer. And that's how I got a book deal by the skin of my teeth, which I think...”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, oh, then I described it so well, I presented so well, they're all going to be very interested. And so we had an auction, and the bids were due by 12 o'clock noon on one day. And it's like at 11 o'clock I hadn't heard anything from my agent. And I was just like, what's going on? So I texted him and he goes, oh.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I barely did. The Macmillan, God bless them. So at the time, you know, I think when I sold the book, I had a few hundred thousand Facebook fans and it was growing so fast. You know, there was so much energy. Things were really taking off. And I just thought, oh my gosh, you know, everybody's going to want to publish this book. And there's six big publishers. I'm sure you know all this, or seven or something like that. And the goal is to get all of them interested. And then in the perfect world, all of them are interested and then they bid against each other, right? And so I only three of them would meet with me, or four of them maybe. And during those meetings, I thought that I killed it. You know, I thought, oh man.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm never going to get it back. So for seven years, I've never been compensated for a piece of content that I've posted on my blog. And that is the main delineation that I make between what can be monetized and what can't. And because of that, like I said, I'm not worrying about peanut butter and sandwiches anymore. But, you know, there is a little bit of an insecurity. Am I going to look back in 40 years if everything suddenly suddenly goes away on Facebook and Instagram, nobody are using anymore? Am I going to be like, oh man. I'm working the night shift now and I had 20 million followers 20 years ago. Maybe I should have tried a little harder to make some money, but that's how I view it now.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fake things that I'm making up right now, but resembled offers that have been made to me. Where I make the dividing line is that I'm willing to make money as Brandon Stanton, a big part of my income comes from speeches. You know, I give about 10 of these a year. And that is a big part of my income. I have sell books as Brandon Stanton. I don't sell the name Humans of New York to anyone. I don't rent my brand to anyone. And because I never want any piece of content that I share to have a single motive. I've never broken that seal. And, you know, it's been so tempting, but I just know if I break it one.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm very comfortable. With that being said, I will say that humans of New York has raised, I've made a fraction of the money with humans of New York that we have raised for charity, a small fraction of the money that we've raised for charity. I have turned down maybe more money than I've made from people who want to use my brand to partner with their brand. Big brands have offered me a lot of money to do humans of, and I'm just going to make up some names, you know what I mean? Like, humans of Mercedes-Benz, humans of, you know, humans of China sponsored by Virgin Airlines. These are all...”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, right now obviously so humans of New York, I think we sold a million and a half books. The television show, Facebook, there was more than one person interested in it and Facebook They compensated me well for the four years of work that I worked on the television series. So I'm very comfortable right now. I mean humans of New York has made me a, let's just say I'm not working about peanut butter and sandwiches.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There have been a handful, you know, but I can only say that those are the worst moments for me when humans of New York was a negative experience. They're the people who kind of had that moment with, you know, I spent an hour and a half with them and we got to that place. And I just, if they are hurt by it, you know what I mean? Or if it's like, especially if they were really kind of vulnerable, then that's when I feel the worst about myself because I know how much pressure that spotlight can be and I know, you know, how difficult to be under having 20 million people look at you. And so, you know, if I ever feel that I may be accidentally misrepresented it or that's when I feel the worst.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If after I've done the interview and before it's posted at any time you change your mind and you don't want me to share it, I give them my email address. And after the photo is up for any reason at any time if you become uncomfortable from all the attention and would like me to take the story down, I immediately will. And so people have control of it every step of the way. It's very important to me that nobody ever sees humans of New York as something that was done to them. I always want it to be seen as something that was done with them. And have I failed at that sometimes out of the ten thousand people have I interviewed? Have there been people who didn't expect me to share a certain part of their story or was surprised by it or it was a negative experience?”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that's one thing that I am very principled about. I give the person agency every step of the way. I tell them anything you don't want to answer. First of all, they don't have to talk to me. Okay? They have that decision. Once we start talking, I say any question you don't want to answer. You don't have to answer. If you tell me something during the course of this interview and you change your mind afterwards and don't want me to share it, that's fine. At the end of the interview, if you would like me to photograph your hands or your feet instead of your face, we can do that. In fact, if it's a very vulnerable story, I will normally insist on that to protect the person or protect somebody that they're talking about.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“if somebody's willing to be honest i mean everybody's got an interesting story and so it's like the i hit dead ends not because somebody's boring it's because somebody isn't comfortable with disclosing um and so that's that's kind of what defines you know the the humans of new york interview or what is usable of the humans of new york interview”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it can't really be concealed if somebody is really, really, really, really curious. You know what I mean? You can never get to the point. Humans in New York interviews don't work. I always say it's not because somebody doesn't have an interesting story. Humans of New York interviews don't work when I reach a place when somebody's uncomfortable with the process, which is absolutely fine. That's completely understandable. I'm a random person. I'm sharing these stories with 20 million people. It's 100% fine if you don't want to share. Like, that's nothing against you at all. But those are the interviews that don't make it on the blog. It's not that people aren't interesting. It's that humans of New York really kind of thrives on this kind of honesty.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's how we end up in those places is I just am just curious about what's going on in there. I'm just curious about what happened. I want to know the story and I just ask and I ask and I ask and if something's not quite making sense, I want to know why. And so I ask more and I ask more. And it's like, you can't, I mean, somebody can choose to eventually to not tell the truth by saying I'm uncomfortable with it”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“because when she was young her family split, and she was forced to go to the courthouse with her mom and her dad at the age of nine, and the judge made her choose which parent she wanted to go with And so I thought that was the story, and so I started asking questions about that. And then I learned that she ended up going with her mom and afterwards her mom remarried and she didn't like her new stepfather so she ran away and I thought that that was the story. So I started asking questions about that. And then I found out that the reason she ran away was because her stepfather was abusing her, and that she had never told a person in her life, including her mom, until that moment that it happened.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To that point. Oh, yeah. I mean, it can, well, let me give you another example. Since I already talked to in the Philippines a few weeks ago, same thing. I've traveled to 30 different countries now. I've done the exact same work. I've been to Pakistan. I've been to Iran. I've been to Iraq. And I work with interpreters. And the process is exactly the same. I just walk up to people, random people, and get into these conversations with them. There was a woman in a park in the Philippines and I started asking her, I think one of the first questions I asked her was, what is your biggest goal in life? And she said she wanted to have a good family life. And so I thought that that was the story. And I started asking about that. And I learned that she wanted to have a good family life.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's very subtle and hard to describe, but I think it's that energy and that presence and that being there. And it's something I had to earn. It's the same thing like public speaking. When do you really get good at public speaking? It's when you've done it so much that you can be yourself on the stage. And there's only one way to get there. And that's to be on stage scared as shit over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And I think the only way to get to that place where you can have that rapport with a stranger is not by studying interview techniques. It's by sitting with thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of strangers until nothing feels strange about it anymore. And you're able to be in that calm, present place. And what happens is your energy transfers to the other person”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And why it is that I think humans of New York is special, and I think humans of New York is something that is precious and may be difficult to replicate, is that I've spent seven years in these conversations with 10,000 people. And it's not necessarily that I have gotten so good at asking questions. It's just that I've gotten so comfortable in the presence of a stranger and so comfortable in the presence of somebody that I've just met that I can sit there with them without an ounce of self consciousness and just be and just be there with it and listen to them and be curious about them. And there's this energy that happens there that this doesn't feel like somebody that's interviewing you. It feels like somebody who knows you and cares about you is really interested in what's”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To get there. It's not the questions. I have about three or four entry questions that I use. What's your biggest struggle? How has your life turned out differently than you expected it to? What do you feel most guilty about? But really, the planned questions are just kind of springboards into a conversation. And how you get to that deep place with a person is absolute presence. It's being 100% there. You're not thinking in the framework of an interview. You're not looking at a list of questions. You're not thinking about your next question. You're not thinking about how this person fits into your idea of them and what you know about them. You're 100% there and you're 100% listening to them. And your questions are 100% coming back. Based on curiosity about what they are telling you and nothing else.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it really works because the people on the street that I meet are so thankful to have somebody really listen to them That in that bubble in an hour and a half where I'm sitting with a stranger on the street, this magic happens, where they're willing to kind of let me into a space and their mind or their soul or whatever it is that they don't really let other people into And it's that place that I think connects with so many people.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“that that's why people always share. And I tell people at the beginning of every interview that these questions are going to be hard and anything you don't want to answer you don't have to answer. And we talk about when they got molested as a child, we talk about them cheating on their husbands. We talk about their alcoholism. We talk about how they don't love their child as much as they expected they would. You know, we talk about all these things and almost never do people say I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to talk about that. And I think the reason humans of New York works isn't because the people who are reading it feel alone. That's a big part of it. That people, when they see somebody being vulnerable in a way that they're afraid to be vulnerable themselves they connect with that person.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And one of them is this kind of fear of being exposed, this feeling of being vulnerable in discomfort. Who is this guy? Like, why is he asking me through these questions? And on the other hand, there is this appreciation of being heard that even though I don't know this guy, this is the first person who has taken such a focused and detailed interest in my problems And the feeling of having somebody focus so intensely, not on the sports teams you like or the music you like or any of the other kind of trivial things that we get asked on a daily basis. But these real things that you're struggling with, maybe not even on the top of your mind, but like in the back of your mind that you're not even really bringing to the surface, you know being heard like that is such a validating thing.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And like that sort of honesty and that sort of truth and that sort of rawness, I mean, I don't know if she even admitted that to herself before. And, you know, people ask me, and that happens all the time, Tim. Like, that's good humans of New York. I mean, some of it's just, you know, pictures of kids saying cute stuff, and some of it's cute couples, you know, talking about their relationship. But, you know, good humans of New York is when we get to that moment. You know, when me and somebody are thinking through something or talking through something that they might not have thought through before. And, you know, the way people say, how do you get there with a complete stranger? You know, I think that whenever I'm talking to somebody on the street, there are two threads running through their head at any given time.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, she had not heard of humans in New York. This is a perfect example. She was catching a train. She had 30 minutes. She had never heard of humans of New York. We start out with me kind of showing her the blog. And 30 minutes later, the place that we ended up at was she was in this purgatory where her husband was depressed in an alcoholic and he wasn't doing anything that was ultimately so bad he didn't beat her, he didn't cheat on her, but she wasn't getting fulfilled. And she was wondering if she was living her best life by staying with him for the kids. And she came to this place where she admitted that she was kind of secretly hoping that he would. Do something bad to make the decision easier on her”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, well, I mean, it's not even about stopping, you know? It's just like, I think humans of New York were, it's not about goals or mission or, you know, I had a goal and I had a mission, but people just feel alone, period. You know what I mean? It's like that's why humans of New York has succeeded. And I'm not even talking about the people reading it. I mean, the number one question that people ask me is how do you get people to share with you? And, you know, I think, you know, for For most people, and they're not just if you follow humans of New York, you know, like I was yesterday, I was talking with a woman who”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, yeah, you know, it's like it was just kind of this the same way I was obsessed with markets. I was obsessed with taking photos. And so that's kind of what carried me through it all.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Kept me from thinking about the possibility of failing was doing it, was just photographing. And so whenever I started to think, is this going to work? Is it not going to work? I just go out and photograph. That was my only way of keeping those wolves away of is this ultimately going to be a success? Am I wasting my time? Am I stupid? Like the only way to keep those away was to go out and work. And so that's what I would do just all day long and do it and do it and do it. And so these negative things, like the rejection of people and, you know, people saying no, then I was talking about all of the negative stuff, like the thing that was like counteracting that. All the time was just loving it so much. You know, I just loved it so much.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I remember I spent Christmas Eve alone at a diner. And then I just went out and photographed. It was just like the only thing. It was the only thing that could keep me from thinking about how unlikely it was and the weather, how stupid of an idea it might be. Like the only thing that I think”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was all. You know, like that was all, um... It was all like all of the doubt and all those not having any money and just nobody's paying attention. I'm just doing this all day long for months. All the tough shit was like loneliness too. Like, I didn't know anybody in New York. Like... There was, I knew like two people. And, you know, like there was a Christmas break where those two people went home. And like for two weeks, I didn't see anybody that I knew.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'd go out some days and 10 people in a row would make me feel like I'm some sort of freak. Like, do you know what city you're in? You can't be stopping random people. Like, get out of my way. What are you doing? Like, no, you can't take my photo. Get out of here. You know what I mean? During my formative and impressionable early days when I'm trying to figure this out, five reactions like that in a row when nobody's paying attention to your work and you've been trying for months and you can't figure it out. I mean psychologically was very tough. And there'd be days where that would happen. I just couldn't do it anymore and I would just go home and lay in bed Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was, I mean, especially when I got started in Humans of New York didn't have any fans. And it wasn't books. It wasn't made into any books. And my family didn't believe in it and my friends thought I was crazy. I had no photography experience. I'm in New York City stopping random people and asking them questions. And I'm feeling insecure. And when you walk up to somebody and you ask them if they can take your photo and they respond like you're some sort of freak or that you're weird, you know, it's hard to not internalize that because you're so insecure at the moment about whether or not what you're doing is weird. And if it's something that am I weird for asking these people for their photographs? And, you know, I”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of trial and error. Well, they were burned into me by being rejected so much. And, you know, some rejections on the streets of New York aren't always polite. You know what I mean? It was hard. In the early days, I mean, I remember there were days, I mean, the hardest part about it.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, God. I mean, there's tons of them. But, I mean, again, these aren't things that I like. These aren't things that, you know, I planned or read about, you know, it's not that I...”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me, but you know, to be honest, you know, in the early days my success, the amount of people who let me take their photo wasn't that much less. Except back then I wasn't a best-selling author. I was just a kid who was trying to make an art project and people wanted to help. And so the I think a lot of people think that one of the reasons so many people are willing to talk to me is because humans of New York is so well known, especially in New York now. But the...”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If I was trying to give you actually the pitch that I used to give in the early days, now I pull out my cell phone, two number one New York Times bestselling books, 20 million followers on Facebook. And the whole reason of that, even though it kind of sounds like boastful and braggy, is that especially if somebody hasn't heard of Hums of New York, you know, I want to convince them in as short amount of time as possible that it's something real one that's important and that it's something that a lot of people know about and a lot of people follow. It's not a joke. It's not a prank. You're not going to be embarrassed. You're not going to, you know, my goal is as short amount of time as possible to kind of, you know, make the person feel comfortable. And these days, a big part of that is kind of explaining how big the blog is because then it's like, oh, this person is not trying to hustle me. This person isn't trying to scam.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Little bit about everyone I photograph. And so I was just wondering if I could take your photo and ask you a few questions.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First thing always is do you mind if I take your photograph? That was the first thing. And I mean, these are all little things I learned is you don't walk up to somebody and ask, do you have a minute? Because that immediately puts somebody on defensive. Because especially in New York City, people are walking up to you all day long trying to sell you something, asking for money. So people are naturally very defensive. So I don't want, my goal is to get into it as soon as possible so people realize that this is something a little bit different. And I'm not looking for their money. That's the main thing. You know, I'm not looking for their money. So I normally walk up and I say, do you mind if I take your photograph? I run a website called Humans of New York. And basically what I do is over the past several years, I photographed about 10,000 people on the streets of New York City and around the world. And I just learn a lot.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Rich is a really important thing. I've spent the entire, I feel guilty because I spent the entire, if you look, I have not posted a picture of myself on humans of New York in years. I don't do it. I find that humans of New York is best when I'm the most invisible. I feel that the less humans of New York is about Brandon Stanton, the more influential humans of New York has become. So yeah, it's... It feels very unnatural to have spent an hour talking already and talk nothing about myself. Ask about the work.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it doesn't really bother me because I stopped viewing myself as a photographer a long time ago. The photography is really secondary to humans of New York. You know, humans of New York is my effort in a short of time as possible to make a random person on the street comfortable enough and seem like somebody's interested enough in their lives that they'll share their story with me and they'll share something deep and vulnerable and real and honest about their lives so that I can share that with millions of people every single night. And humans of New York over the past six years has been my effort to get as good at that as possible.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“so that I can share a little bit about this person with other people who might be curious of the people around them, but haven't been able to overcome that fear of talking to strangers. And it turned out that the audience for that, the amount of people who were curious of the lives of the people around them but were too afraid to ask ended up being hundreds and thousands and then tens of thousands and millions and then now tens of millions. And from that moment on, humans of New York stopped being a photography project. I don't even view myself as a photographer. You can write a three-page essay about why I'm a horrible photographer and it's been done many times.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it really was kind of a eureka moment because it really made sense that in this, during these months and almost a year of doing nothing but approaching random people in the street and asking for their photograph, the thing that strangely I had gotten to be an expert at. Wasn't the photography, but it was the approaching strangers and the walking up to random people getting rejected a lot of times and not letting that affect my mood. And then once meeting somebody in a very short amount of time making that person comfortable. And kind of the Eureka moment was If that is what I've become good at, if that is what I have to offer the world Shouldn't I, now that I've gotten over this fear of approaching a stranger use that opportunity to learn a little bit about this person?”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And she had green hair and green makeup. And I remember it was a photo that I didn't like. I thought it was a very bad photo. And I wasn't even going to really post it on the blog. But then I remembered that she had said something to me. She had said, I used to be a different color every single day, but then one day I was green, and that was a great day. And so I've been green for fifteen years. And I remember thinking to myself, well, I don't really like the photograph, but I'm going to try putting this quote above it that she said. And I posted it onto Facebook. And suddenly it was the most engaged with photo that I'd ever posted. I think we're talking like 67 likes at this time. There was not a lot of people following my page.”
2018-06-18 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #321: Brandon Stanton — The Story of Humans of New York and 25M+ Fans · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT