Up till 2016, it wouldn’t have taken a lot for Brian Kennedy to have dedicated himself to a lifetime of climbing the company ladder. As a lot as he fancied himself a dreamer who loved spending time open air, he’d additionally at all times been sensible. He was in his mid-30s, and an achievable path right into a administration position would’ve been a welcome portal into a snug future.
He had spent the last few years as a web based content material coordinator for a small newspaper in Northern California after which as an internet developer for a cookware retailer’s web site. At nearly any level throughout his time working these jobs, had Kennedy been given any motive to assume his abilities have been wanted in a grander position for the corporate, he would probably nonetheless be rolling his workplace chair in all places from the printer to the breakroom, like tens of millions of different working stiffs. He says he “would’ve been a devoted soldier.”
But by the top of 2016, Kennedy was rolling on different types of wheels full time, putting his inventive {and professional} vitality into ascending among the rockiest and most scenic mountain bike trails on the earth. He’s doing all of it for BKXC, his personal YouTube channel.
“The luckiest factor that ever occurred to me,” the 41-year-old Kennedy says over a video name from his Vallejo, California, house’s workshop, “is that none of my bosses or the individuals round me at any of my jobs thought I used to be something particular. I believed I used to be particular, and I figured I may put my coronary heart and exhausting work into one thing for myself. The best present I bought was that no person noticed sufficient of something in me to say ‘Hey, Brian, we actually need you to be right here.’”
With over 480,000 subscribers to his channel, Kennedy is likely one of the hottest influencers within the rising world of mountain bike YouTubing. That such a factor exists could also be a shock to some, so for the uninitiated, YouTube personalities have turn into a brand new kind of multimedia mogul lately. What as soon as appeared to be a website dominated by basement-dwelling video players and juvenile pranksters has turn into critical enterprise for not solely main nationwide advertisers looking for ingenious methods to succeed in customers but in addition budding entrepreneurs hellbent on authoring their very own rulebook.
“YouTube isn’t all that totally different from Netflix or Hulu, actually,” says Seth Alvo, 36, the net developer-turned-YouTuber behind Berm Peak, arguably the preferred mountain bike YouTube channel in existence, with greater than 2.3 million subscribers. “It’s now mainstream on-demand leisure.”
Primarily based close to the mountain bike-mad lands of the Pisgah Forest in North Carolina, Alvo’s a recognizable superstar round city, adored for his array of movies that includes bike opinions, torture assessments, yard path constructing and “bike hacks,” which supply inventive tips about tips on how to trick up a motorcycle, make repairs and extra.
“Folks recognize the creators who stick round, keep per producing content material,” Alvo says. “There are additionally lots of people who assume I simply stroll round with a digital camera all day after which click on ‘add’ after which I’m performed, however that’s so removed from the reality.”
New Frontiers
In Kennedy’s case, his BKXC movies are the results of taking what was being performed by others and crafting one thing new from it. He discovered inspiration in movies created from a couple of numerous creators, however he saved discovering himself feeling as if he would’ve performed issues in a different way, if not higher. However there was a course of. He didn’t turn into BKXC the second he created a YouTube account.
Earlier than he started recording his mountain biking exploits throughout the U.S.—in addition to in Africa, England and the Czech Republic—he tried his hand at reviewing good residential sprinkler programs and diverse garden-related tech, of all issues. He discovered that creating movies for high-dollar objects meant he may make first rate cash from affiliate hyperlinks: If a viewer clicks on a product hyperlink from the video, after which purchases that product, the video creator receives a share of the merchandise’s sale worth.
However his leisure pursuits have been additionally aligned with one other high-dollar merchandise, an merchandise he spent numerous hours on without cost. Softer a couple of months of sprinkler movies, Kennedy made the leap into filming mountain biking movies. There have been already some creators in that house, however nobody doing what he actually thought wanted to be on the market.
By utilizing a GoPro digital camera, a digital camera stabilizing accent often known as a gimbal to stop shaky video and his personal pleasant commentary to fill the time he’s using the paths, Kennedy created POV-style motion movies that many different mountain bikers clearly yearned for. He additionally neglected the corny inventory rock music clips many creators stuff their clips with. In consequence, his subscriber depend started to extend into the 1000’s after only some months of bike-related importing.
“I discovered that there was room within the mountain bike YouTube house for storytelling and journey, and simply being a good friend,” he says. “That’s an enormous a part of YouTube for me. Is the individual you’re watching somebody you need to hearken to and hang around with day-after-day or each week?”
However leaving a gentle job with advantages for the unpredictable wild west that’s the influencer financial system isn’t so simple as simply deciding to take action, is it? Kennedy admits that as a single man on the time (he’s married now) who had lengthy held quick to dwelling inside his means, he was well-suited for such a tectonic-plate-shifting transition. However he additionally did one thing many individuals simply don’t have the interior fortitude to do: He simply did it.
“It’s not as sophisticated as we make it out to be,” he says. “I had made this purpose of quitting my job solely once I hit 50,000 followers, however as I bought nearer to that quantity, I simply felt like I used to be prepared then. I assumed, Why not simply get began with touring round and making the movies I actually need to make? So I did that.”
Whether or not it’s rolling alongside probably the most daunting slick rock formations in Moab or braving the famously daring mountains in British Columbia and Japan, Kennedy wears a smile and isn’t afraid to point out off his goofy facet or the occasional crash, whereas bringing viewers alongside for the experience.
He’s discovered that the advert income from his channel would must be supplemented for sustainability, no matter what number of 1000’s of viewers tuned in. He arrange a Patreon web page, a typical avenue for YouTube and podcast creators. By providing perks similar to early video releases, extended-cut movies and podcasts for $3 per 30 days, Kennedy has constructed a dependable base revenue that’s grown with every year his channel has been working. Plus, for the previous couple of years, Kennedy has been a paid spokesman for Ibis Cycles, a deal that additionally offers him with complimentary high-dollar bikes to experience.
Totally different Trails
This yr, Kennedy’s bought extra than simply adrenaline-pumping, bucket-list treks on the horizon. He lately launched his viewers to a pair of recent ventures made attainable by his YouTube success. With the assistance of MTBing Adventures, one other YouTube channel, he’s constructing Everstoke, a mountain bike park on a wooded piece of mountain land in California. And his partnership on a brand new line of motorcycle elements, Path One, continues to roll out contemporary merchandise, together with handlebars, fenders and valve stems.
Nearly any mountain biker fantasizes about constructing their very own trails or designing their very own elements. However for Kennedy, these latest endeavors are calculated steps towards constructing a future that’s much less depending on quantities of video streams. He isn’t but anyplace close to able to cease filming movies, however Kennedy’s practicality means he thinks about life after the filming stops.
“If you consider leisure, TV reveals come and go,” he says. “And I consider myself as a TV present on the web, and that kind of leisure might be fleeting. There’s a razor’s edge to steadiness on and so many potentialities that may occur and make all of it collapse. What occurs if immediately, I’m out?”
With sponsorships from Diamondback Bikes and Field Parts below his belt, Alvo has been diversifying his choices as properly. He lately opened the Berm Peak Ranger Station, a trip rental house in Brevard, North Carolina, that he bought then renovated throughout a painstaking, monthslong course of documented on his channel.
Berm Park in close by Canton is a free public bike park he raised cash for and oversaw the constructing of in 2021. There’s extra to come back from Alvo, however viewers might want to keep tuned in to seek out out.
After all, an keen mountain biker looking for content material will uncover much more on-line than simply Kennedy’s and Alvo’s productions. Together with a plethora of YouTubers adopting an identical method as BKXC and Berm Peak, fashionable retailers similar to Pinkbike and World Mountain Bike Community occupy a separate, extra formal and corporately backed nook of the mountain bike leisure house.
In different phrases, there’s room for all of it. So long as it’s adequate to attach.
“The world has an infinite urge for food for stuff that’s entertaining,” Kennedy says. “Whether or not it’s standup comedy or strikes or mountain bike movies. If it’s good, and also you make individuals really feel one thing, individuals will discover it, individuals will watch it. Hundreds of thousands and tens of millions of individuals are on the market, and you possibly can attain them if you happen to’re enjoyable sufficient.”
This text initially appeared within the September/October 2022 Problem of SUCCESS journal. Pictures by Trevor Might/courtesy Brian Kennedy.
