Over the last year, I feel as though there's few channels that have exploded to the same degree as Outdoor Boys. It's a channel that's been around for a long time, but only recently have so many people found and fell in love with its content. Wholesome, adventurous, fun. And now today, we have to say goodbye for good. I guess, okay, phrasing there is maybe a little misleading. It's not like we're saying goodbye because they've shed the mortal coil. Like, it's not a funeral service. No one's dead. It's Outdoor Boys has announced that he is going to be stepping away from content creation. Hey everyone, this is going to be my last video for a little while. No sugar coating it, no foreplay, just immediately popping a squat and hitting you with the cold water. Now, I know I've talked about YouTuber retirements quite a bit over the last year and some change because it's been happening quite a bit and it is always sad, but I do think that there's always something bittersweet about it. Demo Ranch is also another channel that recently announced his retirement. I talked about that quite a bit on stream. It's just one of those things where even though you love the content and you're going to be sad that it's over, you can't help but be happy for the person who's making this decision. Because what it means is that this person did what they loved for a long period of time and now it's put them in a position where they're able to step back and focus on other personal aspects of their life. Some very special things. The most important being family. You know, I've been making YouTube videos for 11 years now. First with the Catfishing Carp YouTube channel, then with this, the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel. And believe it or not, I've made 1,110 videos. It's been a wild ride. The amount of time and energy that I've dedicated to making YouTube videos is hard to communicate. Briefly reflecting on the amount of time and energy he's put into the platform and all that he's created, he talks about the wild ride and the unforgettable memories that he's formed with his family as a result of this journey that he's been on and shared with all of us. And I know a common lukewarm take you see every time a YouTuber announces they're stepping away is like, "Oh, it's such an easy job. I can't believe it. My heart really breaks world's smallest violin because a lot of people love to belittle the work that YouTubers do or what goes into it. But I feel like in this case it is undeniable the amount of passion and the amount of time and energy that he has spent making incredible content. Like what I do, you can easily shoot some spitballs at and make fun of. Just sitting here in my swamp blabbering and getting goofy every now and then for a little while as like the breadand butter content. Meanwhile, this [ __ ] trooper, this gladiator is out there in God's country, camping with pneumonia, building a five-star log cabin resort out of nothing but a box of scraps like Tony Stark, all for the sake of going on fun adventures with his family and entertaining his audience. So many late nights editing and packing and unpacking, camping with pneumonia, building log cabins while injured. But it's been a tremendous adventure and it's allowed me to provide for my family while making wonderful memories with my wife and kids. But even good things can be taken too far and I think I'm starting to reach that point. This is actually something kind of similar to what Demo Ranch said when he recently announced his retirement. There does come a point where the thing that you love, you want to stop doing it as much because now it's starting to take away from other things you love. And in this case with Outdoor Boys and in Demo Ranch's case, it's family. like you don't get time back. You will never get time back. And what they do is laborious. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of time. That is time that is now being taken away from what you could be spending with your family. So I think it's an extremely admirable decision to go out on top and say, you know what, I've reached a point where I'm financially comfortable, can provide for my family thanks to the support from the community here for all this work I've put in. Now I want to dial it back and be able to live in the moment with my family and grow with them. But I'm not just talking about the time and energy I spend making YouTube videos. I'm also talking about the attention it brings. In just the last 18 months, this YouTube channel has gained about 12 million subscribers. The sheer volume of fans trying to contact me, trying to take pictures with me, or just trying to come up and talk to me in public. It could be a bit overwhelming at times. And my wife and I, we both have real concerns about what this will do to our family if I keep growing my YouTube channel at this pace. And the time to stop is before this problem gets so out of hand that my family and I can't live normal lives. Now, as I mentioned, this is a channel that's [ __ ] smoked a neutron star cigarette when it comes to popularity. It has absolutely gone ballistic. It's gained so many subs and so many views. He also mentions tons of other views outside of the platform from people that have just stolen his content as well. So, his content, his family, like they've been viewed billions upon billions of times, and they have a concern for what that might look like in their lives going forward on like a day-to-day basis. They want to be able to live normal lives. That makes so much sense. And in order to ensure they can do that, he wants to step away from this so that way it's no longer just constantly putting them in the public perception, putting them in the public's eye. He wants them to just be able to be a family, a standard normal family. I think that [ __ ] deserves the strongest round of applause. It takes so much hutbah to come out and say and realize that because it's become so successful what he's doing, there is a chance it could have a negative effect on his family and he is doing what he can to make sure it doesn't. I've always said that I believe there's a lot of negatives that come from having your kids and your family in front of strangers so frequently. I feel like there's a lot of unhealthy things that are associated with that and that can arise from that. So for him to come forward and say, you know what, we do have concerns about this. So for the interest of my family, I'm going to, you know, call it here and, you know, ride off into the sunset. I think that takes a lot of strength and I think it makes a lot of sense. Now, there's more than one reason for making this decision and I still enjoy making videos and I still enjoy going on ventures. But it's time to start focusing on other things and that's what I'm going to be doing. For one thing, I've got three little boys who all want to be YouTubers, including my oldest son, Tom, who's got his own channel, the Outdoor Tom YouTube channel. But I want to spend more time helping him with his channel and preparing him to be an adult, which is going to be in less than six years. But I've spent so much time focusing on me and my family and growing my business. It's time to step back and focus on helping other people for a change. And I'm excited to see where that takes me. Again, I think that's great. Now, instead of focusing on his channel, his business, he's going to try and help others. He's going to focus on helping his kids fulfill their dreams. He just seems like a great dad. This guy just seems like such a good guy. He makes the coziest content. Absolutely blows up on YouTube. people love him, his family, the content they make. And he's like, "You know what, guys? Really appreciate that, but we want to ensure that we get to live normal lives. So, going to stop doing that so much on this channel. Instead, I'm going to focus on helping my family, helping my kids do what they want to do." That's so sweet. That is super sweet. He also does mention that he has some other half-finish videos in the pipeline, and he might film some other adventures, but if he does decide to do that, he will post them all at the end of the year. and that this video will still be his last video for a long while, an indefinite period of time. And the reason I wanted to talk about it is because we're seeing a lot of these over the last year and some change. It's becoming pretty common for YouTubers that have been around the platform for a long time to finally just make the decision to stop doing it as much or stop doing it altogether in some cases like this. And I think of course this will continue to happen as more and more YouTubers reach a point in their life where they have enough money that they don't need to grind as much as they were, even if it's something they love doing. And they'll eventually make the decision to step back from it to focus on other personal aspects of their life. In most cases, I would imagine it'll be family because that is the most important thing. So, I just think it's very sweet. And while it is sad to see the Outdoor Boys channel come to a conclusion, I'm still happy that he is happy and that this decision he makes is one that he's excited for. And he does finish the video with a positive message to everyone that I think is just very sweet. Now, I know there's some of you out there who've gotten more than just entertainment from my videos. If you feel my videos have helped you in some way, then go out and find someone you can help. I'll see you guys later. So yeah, wishing the best of luck to the outdoor boys whole family here and whatever they choose to do going forward. Just wanted to talk about it a bit because this is a channel that like a lot of other people I only recently started f like following and really enjoying the content of and now it's it's already at its end. So yeah, I just want to talk about it a bit. That's it. See you.