1
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:46,080
Well, welcome back to another episode of PianoPod. I am Clara Zhang.

2
00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,960
I am Yukimi Song.

3
00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,320
And I am Eric Hunter.

4
00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:52,800
And I'm Ray Mock.

5
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:54,600
Woohoo! Welcome!

6
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:58,560
Hi, welcome Ray!

7
00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:06,000
So, the PianoPod is a monthly podcast where we interview some of the brightest talents in the industry.

8
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:16,480
Each episode features a guest speaker who is making bold new innovations that may change the way we play or teach piano.

9
00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:24,800
Our guest last episode was Shantel Balestri, a world-class pianist, teacher, and a festival organizer.

10
00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:30,400
She spoke to us about the differences in music education between Europe and the United States.

11
00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:38,920
And she also mentioned about the Global Leaders Program and how she started her own music festival in Italy.

12
00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:44,880
And she also talked to us about what life is like in Italy right now during the pandemic.

13
00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:51,960
So, please check it out and to hear her interesting and valuable perspective.

14
00:01:51,960 --> 00:02:00,400
If you are new to the podcast and want to find out more about us, check out our introductory episode on YouTube or SoundCloud using the links in the description below.

15
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:05,720
Of course, you can also catch up on any episodes you've missed there.

16
00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:10,080
Today, our guest is the Malaysian YouTube sensation, Ray Mock!

17
00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:15,360
Yay! Welcome Ray!

18
00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:16,440
We have to do this.

19
00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,720
That's right! I have to learn from Ray! Oh my gosh!

20
00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:22,080
How are you doing, Ray? How is everything?

21
00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:28,120
Great, great! Now that I'm in Malaysia, I've become like the Malaysian YouTube sensation.

22
00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:33,760
But remember back then, about 12 years ago, I was in New York City.

23
00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:40,080
And I was like the New York City music sensation.

24
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:42,720
Back when YouTube was very new.

25
00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:47,560
Yeah. So what time is it over there in Malaysia right now?

26
00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:52,560
It is right now 10am. Like 10.03 to be precise.

27
00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,840
Oh wow. All right. It's 9pm here in New York City.

28
00:02:56,840 --> 00:03:00,120
And wow, how is the weather?

29
00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:01,920
It's always summer.

30
00:03:01,920 --> 00:03:04,040
It's always summer. Oh my gosh.

31
00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:04,880
That's so lucky.

32
00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:07,720
Oh really? Always? Oh, how nice.

33
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:08,560
It's getting clear here.

34
00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:15,760
I mean, come to think of it, even down lower than Taiwan, right? Malaysia is like...

35
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,920
We are like similar to Florida.

36
00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:23,680
So we are like always Florida, but we are wet.

37
00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:27,240
So over here it rains a lot, especially like in these three months.

38
00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,840
It's going to be a lot of rain, like everyday raining.

39
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,560
Wow. OK.

40
00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:39,720
Well, you know. So Ray, why don't we get into this podcast today?

41
00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,120
How do we know each other?

42
00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:43,760
You're my teacher.

43
00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:46,400
Oh my goodness. And how do you call me?

44
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:47,400
老师.

45
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:51,400
That's right. 好学生.

46
00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:56,800
So well, obviously Ray speaks multiple languages and he happened to be speaking Chinese.

47
00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:05,120
And when we were in Massachusetts, when I was doing my master's degree in piano performance,

48
00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,320
and Ray came and he was a sensation.

49
00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:12,760
Then, you know, everybody was just like, oh my gosh, all the girls were like,

50
00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:18,040
Ray, oh my gosh. Ray was like a list of piano.

51
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:19,640
And I was like, who is this kid?

52
00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,680
And he was like, 老师.

53
00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:23,440
Well, I can't read music.

54
00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,800
So can I join your class?

55
00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:28,960
OK, sure. Why not?

56
00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:37,400
So Ray, why don't you tell me how we met and how did you start this whole channel and become a musician?

57
00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:43,160
So like you say, we actually met in the class in Massachusetts.

58
00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:48,320
And then because we both speak Mandarin, like Chinese as well.

59
00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:50,000
So we click very easily.

60
00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:51,680
You speak so many.

61
00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,480
It's just one of the languages you happen to speak, right?

62
00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,800
And then of course, then we become like good friends.

63
00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:03,200
And then after that, even after college, we still keep in touch.

64
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:08,280
And you actually took me to your school in back in New York City.

65
00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:09,400
That's right.

66
00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,920
Yeah. And I met some of your very young students.

67
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,400
That's right. My first gig.

68
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:20,640
Yes. I can't remember what name was that school.

69
00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:24,400
It's called David Booty Middle School.

70
00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:28,880
It's the only middle school in New York City that had a full piano program.

71
00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:30,840
And I was hired on spot.

72
00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:34,560
And so our age was similar to them.

73
00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:40,400
At that point, we were still in our early 20s and they were in their mid-teen.

74
00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:46,200
And I had no idea how big you already were until you came to the school.

75
00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:49,920
And all these teenagers, like you said, the girls, what did they do?

76
00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:53,800
Tell us. The girls wore makeup.

77
00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:59,240
Oh, my gosh. And they were like, Ray, you're famous. Miss Clare, do you know?

78
00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:04,920
I was like, what do you mean? So that's the start of a remack.

79
00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:09,320
But right now, currently, you have like how many YouTube subscribers?

80
00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:11,560
Yeah, I just reached 300,000.

81
00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:20,120
So considering it is pretty slow because, you know, music is a very niche thing and piano is even more niche.

82
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:23,520
So it's not easy to gain subscribers.

83
00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:34,120
And then, like in the middle, like about 2012, 2013, I actually moved my entire account from New York City to Malaysia.

84
00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:38,760
And that actually kind of screwed up the algorithm a bit.

85
00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:44,240
So my views back then dropped instantly the very next day.

86
00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:49,680
And only until recently it started to go back up.

87
00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:55,480
So, Ray, can I just ask, it's because you changed your location because obviously it's on YouTube.

88
00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:57,120
So the channel stayed the same, right?

89
00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:01,440
But because you were broadcasting from a different place in the world, that screwed everything up.

90
00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:11,000
Yes. OK, you see. So in the past, there are like the front page of YouTube and there weren't any suggested videos, those kind of things.

91
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:18,960
So during my time when I was in New York City, my channel was the top 50 musician worldwide.

92
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:22,240
Because there were less than 50 musicians on YouTube.

93
00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:30,280
So I was like the top 50. And so YouTube always put me in the front page of YouTube.

94
00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:40,480
So whatever I post within a very short time, it will be like thousands or tens of thousands or even like 100,000 of views.

95
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:48,880
And then people who are in that time zone, in that time zone back in New York City, they know when I will be posting.

96
00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:52,160
OK, so they always see me in the front page.

97
00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:58,480
But then when I move my account, they're like, hey, where the hell is Ray Mak? Did he die?

98
00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:05,360
So in order for them to see me, they will actually have to search for my name, like Ray Mak.

99
00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:15,520
So I'm like, OK. So the views dropped from like 100,000 a day or like, let's say like a very high amount into like hundreds.

100
00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:20,200
I was like, oh, shit, I'm dying.

101
00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:25,960
So I have to rebuild my fans from the local community.

102
00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:32,720
And when comparatively in Malaysia, we only have 28 million people.

103
00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:36,080
And back then, not many people were on the Internet.

104
00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:43,920
And if you compare the Internet speed, when I was in America, it was 20 gigabytes.

105
00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:49,560
No, sorry, 20 megabytes per second of the Internet speed.

106
00:08:49,560 --> 00:08:53,800
But when I when I went back to Malaysia, it was zero point five.

107
00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,600
So so it is not much different to me. Yeah.

108
00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:04,960
So it took me like 40 times the amount of time to upload the same video.

109
00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,400
So I was like I was devastated.

110
00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:14,320
But only until recently, also in Malaysia, our Internet speed has increased a lot.

111
00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:18,880
And now we are actually on par with the with us.

112
00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:24,040
It's not faster. Yeah, we are actually on par.

113
00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:26,360
Well, you know what? I'm sorry. Can I say something?

114
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:30,680
Yeah, I am looking at this YouTube chat and hello.

115
00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:36,640
Hi, Ray Mak. And one person says three guys seriously.

116
00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:42,680
Like, yeah, it takes three of us to tackle this Ray Mag, this big figure.

117
00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:46,680
So go figure. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

118
00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:48,360
But we're very happy to have you. Right.

119
00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:56,000
So the reason we invited you here is you have such a very interesting stories to get to where you are.

120
00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:06,560
So I kind of want to know how you started playing the piano and how you ended up posting things on YouTube.

121
00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,200
So let's let's start from there. OK.

122
00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:17,800
So when I was little, OK, when I was little, like seven years old in about 1991, I still remember.

123
00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:32,200
So I was sent to this small music school called Piano Forte in Malaysia, which is in Kuala Lumpur, which is the capital of Malaysia.

124
00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,480
So I learned piano and like the do, do, do, re, mi and all those things.

125
00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,920
Then I started moving up the grades and all those.

126
00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:47,440
But the problem was I was every night I was reading comics, you know, comics.

127
00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,360
Back then, we don't have like YouTube or anything.

128
00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:57,480
So my my entertainment was comic like Doraemon, you know, like Dragon Ball and all those things.

129
00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:04,800
So I was reading comic, but I didn't want my dad to know that I was reading so much comic that I read it through the night.

130
00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:11,120
So I read it in the dark. So that screw up my eyesight.

131
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:21,320
So when my eyesight got screwed up and I start not to see things like I start to not see the blackboard or whiteboards in school.

132
00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:28,360
And then I couldn't read music because the music start to appear like blurry to me.

133
00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,720
So I was like, oh, shit, I can't read music anymore.

134
00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:37,400
And I don't want to tell my parents that I'm actually short sighted.

135
00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:41,680
OK, so I kept it a secret for quite a few years.

136
00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:46,640
I kept it a secret for a few years and I lost the ability to read music.

137
00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:55,240
So I had to every time when there's like some music exam or whatever, I'll ask my dad, hey, dad, can you buy the tape?

138
00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:58,880
And you guys do remember what is tape?

139
00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:03,280
It's like maybe some of our listeners don't.

140
00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:07,560
So before before CDs, there was this thing called a tape.

141
00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:14,000
OK, so I was like taking the tapes of like whatever exam pieces, those kind of thing.

142
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:20,120
And I put it in a tape player and I listened to them and I had to find the notes one by one.

143
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:24,560
So you imagine it becomes like very, very difficult.

144
00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:32,600
And so there was one day one of my piano teachers, I asked, I told her that, hey, I can't read music.

145
00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:35,800
I don't think I'm going to do piano anymore. I'm not interested.

146
00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:41,720
So she's like, hey, then why don't you try listening using your ears?

147
00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:45,000
Like, but it's going to be very difficult for me.

148
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,840
Like, let's say I do it like on the classical music.

149
00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:53,880
So she she actually taught me a bit about pop music, which is like popular music today.

150
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:59,960
So back then, the first piece that I played on the piano by ear,

151
00:12:59,960 --> 00:13:06,760
it was Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John, which is the song from Lion King.

152
00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:11,080
So, yeah, exactly.

153
00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:16,200
And and and because I played by ear, I could control the emotions and all those.

154
00:13:16,200 --> 00:13:23,200
And I played so well that I got invited by my school to play at the school when I was like a little kid.

155
00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:30,360
So, yeah, so so then that kind of sparked my interest in music.

156
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:37,040
And then I slowly move up and I learned a few other things like languages and all those things.

157
00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:39,160
Then I go to college. OK.

158
00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:44,480
But when I go to college, my interest in music was actually just meh.

159
00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:52,360
It's not not much. But until there was one day in in my college, there was this hall.

160
00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,840
I think it's called the Student Union. I think Clara might know about it.

161
00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:58,760
So that's a very big hall called the Student Union.

162
00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:04,920
And there was a grand piano there at the site of the right side of the student union.

163
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:09,880
And every day I walk past it, no one actually plays it.

164
00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:13,240
So I was like, oh, my God, it's a Steinway piano.

165
00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,840
And every day I walk past it, no one plays it.

166
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,520
It's like kind of way. So I just go there and I simply play the song.

167
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:24,160
And after I played, I was kind of like surrounded by girls.

168
00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:31,200
I was like, whoa, music can get me girls.

169
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:33,200
About girls, right?

170
00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:36,320
I figured out the secret.

171
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:42,600
Yeah. So then then from then on, I became a little bit more interested in music again.

172
00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:48,920
And towards the last few the last year of my time in university,

173
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:54,280
I was looking for jazz music so that I can learn how to play.

174
00:14:54,280 --> 00:15:01,480
So it's either jazz music, some like an elective class so that I can learn how to play jazz.

175
00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:05,960
But then it wasn't available. So I was like, oh, there's no jazz music.

176
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:11,480
Then there's another class. Then it says Clara Zhang.

177
00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:16,240
And it's like, oh, I can learn how to read the notes again.

178
00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:19,760
And then I went in and then me and Clara became friends.

179
00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:24,560
So I was like, huh?

180
00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:28,320
But for the YouTube thing, it was a bit of an accident.

181
00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:33,920
OK, so when I was in college, so I have a lot of hard drive.

182
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:36,920
I don't know whether you have seen like, OK, these are hard drive.

183
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,240
And you can see on my. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

184
00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:41,840
For the youngsters, hard drive.

185
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:43,440
For the youngsters, hard drive.

186
00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:46,840
So, you know, I used to have this floppy disk.

187
00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:52,560
Yeah, I have and sometimes you the floppy disk gets stuck.

188
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:54,400
And you know what to do with.

189
00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:57,760
But and drive. But now, yes.

190
00:15:57,760 --> 00:15:59,720
So go ahead. I'm sorry.

191
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:06,480
Oh, what what happened was because hard drive, they they kind of like have a lifespan or they're pretty sensitive.

192
00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:12,680
Like, let's say if you if you have if you drop it a little or if there's a lot of movement.

193
00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:18,920
So what's going to happen is it will start to be like slightly broken.

194
00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:26,320
So I start to not be able to read the files in my hard drive, like pictures and videos.

195
00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:37,880
So I was trying to look for some online solution where I can put my pictures and videos onto the Internet so I can back up my data.

196
00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:40,240
So you were taking a lot of videos back then, right?

197
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,040
Yeah, I was taking a lot of videos back then because I was teaching martial arts.

198
00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:53,800
So I was back in UMass and I took a lot of videos and pictures of my friends and my students.

199
00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:59,840
So what I did is I start to lose those memories.

200
00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,520
OK, those those are like my precious memories.

201
00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:08,600
So for for pictures, I managed to put them up on two platforms.

202
00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:12,360
One is called Facebook, which is still running today.

203
00:17:12,360 --> 00:17:15,240
Another platform is called Multiply.

204
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:20,200
So Multiply is no longer available because they closed down.

205
00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:24,240
But then for videos, for videos, there was this platform called YouTube.

206
00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:25,920
I was like, what the hell is that?

207
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:34,520
And so I started posting a lot of my Taekwondo and martial arts videos on YouTube.

208
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:39,280
That's why if you have gone to my old videos, you may have seen some

209
00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:45,840
like irrelevant, like non-music stuff on my YouTube back then when I started YouTube.

210
00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:50,960
But I've removed some of them in the past because I was starting to gain weight

211
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:54,080
and other things I didn't want to show that that part of me.

212
00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:01,280
So, right. Sorry, but I got to jump in and ask, do you ever still put up martial arts videos

213
00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:05,200
because I think it'd be really fun to see one now about your fans?

214
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:07,840
And I bet all the fans are. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

215
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:14,960
I know. I if I manage to lose a little bit of weight, I may I may put up some martial arts stuff.

216
00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:17,720
I will ask a fan right now.

217
00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:22,320
Hey, hey, guys out there, listeners and viewers, if you want to see Ray Max

218
00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,440
video, just leave us a comment and I'll.

219
00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:30,200
Thumbs up if you want Taekwondo.

220
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,760
Yeah, thumbs up guys.

221
00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:41,440
Oh, by the way, if you like this video, guys, just thumbs up and subscribe to our channel, please.

222
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,000
And anyways, take it away, Ray.

223
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,160
So keep it going.

224
00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:50,600
Yeah, I don't even know if I can still fit in my black belt uniform.

225
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:54,920
See, it was a black belt. Don't you want to see this? Yeah.

226
00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:59,160
I usually definitely post your old old videos and stuff.

227
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,560
I know, right? Yeah.

228
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:05,080
So and then you started posting the music videos then?

229
00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,480
No, so I started posting martial arts videos.

230
00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:09,640
A martial arts first.

231
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:14,680
And then some martial arts videos and some of like some Asian Asian night

232
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:18,200
performances kind of thing. And and back then, the camera quality,

233
00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:19,800
they were really, really bad.

234
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,480
Like I I can't even see my face, you know what I mean?

235
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:24,520
So it was so bad.

236
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:29,360
And and then during one of the Asian night,

237
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,640
there was one of my friend, her name was June June.

238
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:36,320
June Chen. I don't know if you can remember her.

239
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,360
So she can.

240
00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:40,840
She was she was like recording

241
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:47,080
like my video of me playing for the Asian night.

242
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,360
So I was playing some Asian night.

243
00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:52,200
Yeah. Final Fantasy music, this kind of thing.

244
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:57,280
And then that video back in those days, it went kind of viral, you know,

245
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,800
back back back when YouTube only have like less than 10,000 users.

246
00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,000
That video had six thousand views, you know what I mean?

247
00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:09,400
So like 60 percent of the YouTube user has watched me.

248
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:17,160
So I asked June, hey, June, can I get your video and put it up on my YouTube?

249
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:19,360
And and she's like, yeah, sure.

250
00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:23,480
So I put it up and and that's when people start to know that, oh,

251
00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:26,960
this martial art guy can play music.

252
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:31,760
So so using martial art and music is something usually like very

253
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,160
it's a very big gap. It's a very right.

254
00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:35,200
It's very different.

255
00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:37,480
Like usually if you can do martial art, you can't do music.

256
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:39,120
If you can do music, you can't do martial arts.

257
00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,240
So I can do both. So

258
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:45,240
and people will start to be curious and all those things.

259
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:47,800
And they are like, hey, Ray, can you post more music stuff?

260
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:50,480
I'm like, oh, OK.

261
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,440
So I started posting a lot more like music.

262
00:20:54,680 --> 00:21:01,640
And then back then I I was playing different pianos in in in the school.

263
00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:07,080
And when I when I graduated, I also played in other schools,

264
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,560
like in UMass Boston and all those things.

265
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,400
And I managed to record those as well.

266
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:14,960
And I put it up on YouTube.

267
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:19,840
And I remember I remember you made one of the recordings like on my keyboard.

268
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:24,360
You know, like I remember hanging out, you know, and eating some sushi.

269
00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:27,840
I don't know. And you were like, oh, teacher, teacher, let me see.

270
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,640
You know, like let me show you this one little song.

271
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:32,560
Like I couldn't remember what it was.

272
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:35,320
But then, you know, so many people,

273
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,720
as soon as you upload that, you know, it was just like everybody.

274
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,640
And I just, you know, did I really understand yet?

275
00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:45,280
You know, I was like, so what year was that again?

276
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,920
Let's remind our you know, that was at least 12, at least 12 years ago.

277
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,520
At least 12, so 2008, 2007.

278
00:21:53,800 --> 00:22:00,000
Yeah, 2007, 2008, back, back when I was living in New York City in Grand Street.

279
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:01,800
I was right. I remember.

280
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,320
I remember. Wow. Back in the days.

281
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,720
I mean, you were always a person of so many traits.

282
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,800
I mean, your your name, you speak how many languages do you speak?

283
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:12,960
Six languages. Oh, my God.

284
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,400
Yeah. They say hello in all these six languages.

285
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:18,640
What six languages, right?

286
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,360
OK, I OK.

287
00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:23,480
In Malaysia, we usually we speak Malay,

288
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,280
so which is our national language and of course English.

289
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:33,160
And my family, we speak Cantonese, which is the the the the language

290
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:36,080
they speak in like Guangdong and Hong Kong. That's right.

291
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:40,000
And then I also speak Mandarin, which is the the language

292
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,080
that I speak with Clara. That's right.

293
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:43,840
Speak Malay.

294
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:48,160
I've learned Japanese for six years when I was a teenager.

295
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:52,640
And then I've learned Korean for another six years before I got married.

296
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,040
Yeah, so. Wow.

297
00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,720
Oh, the Asian languages are difficult because they are very different.

298
00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:00,840
Yeah. Yeah.

299
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:05,920
And I often mix up Korean and Japanese because some of the things are so similar.

300
00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:08,000
Yeah. Yeah.

301
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,920
So for our fans that are watching, if you have any questions for Ray

302
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:17,080
or want him to speak in a language that you require.

303
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:19,880
You know, right.

304
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,920
And I'm reading some of the comments.

305
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:27,360
Epic Ray Mac, you're here.

306
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:31,240
You bring that. Hey, what's up?

307
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,400
Yeah, the best tech one, though.

308
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,280
Supreme leader, the by.

309
00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,320
So the by Mr. Worldwide.

310
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:41,360
Oh, my God.

311
00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:46,520
Anyway, so you guys, if you have any questions to Ray, just leave us a comment.

312
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:48,560
Leave them in the chat.

313
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:53,920
Hey, Ray, so I just wanted to point out that basically you started using YouTube

314
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,000
because this was before cloud storage.

315
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:58,360
So you're basically using it for backup. Right.

316
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:04,880
So we have your current YouTube fame because of essentially hardware failure.

317
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,280
Oh, yes. Right. Because of the hard drives.

318
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:09,400
That's hilarious. Yeah.

319
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,680
Wow. Incredible. Yeah.

320
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,680
So it's like kind of like a blessing in disguise, you know.

321
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,200
Otherwise, I would have just lost all my files and then.

322
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:20,360
Yeah, I really have to find somewhere.

323
00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,040
That's that's why if you notice on my Facebook alone,

324
00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:28,920
there are like more than 10000 pictures on my Facebook alone,

325
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:33,080
because I treat it I treat my Facebook as a hard drive

326
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:37,040
rather than as as like Facebook social media.

327
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,080
I was using Facebook as a hard drive.

328
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,360
So that's why there are there's so many like even on YouTube.

329
00:24:42,360 --> 00:24:46,120
They're like 800 videos, 900 videos now.

330
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:49,640
Yeah. All right.

331
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,800
So, well, you know, that's your beginning of your YouTube.

332
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:59,240
So as I was asking, you know, can we get to some like real secrets?

333
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,640
When did you start making money from YouTube?

334
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:08,960
OK, so so today and in the past, it's a bit different in the past.

335
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:17,640
There was no monetization like all the way until about 2010 ish about 2010 ish.

336
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:21,920
But there was no monetization, no ads, no nothing in YouTube.

337
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:27,200
So in around 2010, 2011 ish,

338
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:33,320
I got personally invited by Google when Google take over YouTube.

339
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:37,280
So YouTube used to be a platform by themselves.

340
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,200
They weren't owned by Google.

341
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:42,400
But then Google bought them with a lot of money.

342
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:47,480
So when Google bought them and they start to insert advertisements and all those things,

343
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:51,280
I got invited as one of the first few partners.

344
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,200
In fact, the first partner in my country.

345
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,200
Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

346
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,800
So back then, they would send me a snail mail.

347
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:05,600
You know what's a snail mail is like those, you know, like poster,

348
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,160
which takes like one week to reach me in Malaysia.

349
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:15,200
So I had to sign that snail mail and to activate this thing called the AdSense.

350
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:22,760
AdSense is where YouTubers make money. OK, so I signed it and I snail mail it back on.

351
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:26,200
I snail mail it back all the way to US.

352
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:33,200
And then they manually activated my channel for advertisement.

353
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,800
So that's how I start to make money.

354
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:42,120
And back then, the money, they can't even transfer it to our bank.

355
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:44,400
They have to put it in the Western Union.

356
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:52,280
So every month, I have to line up or queue up with a lot of people at Western Union

357
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,920
just to collect a little bit of money, like not a lot back then.

358
00:26:55,920 --> 00:27:02,040
So it was definitely an experience to experience that,

359
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:10,120
where all the new YouTubers, they don't get this kind of experience because that was back then.

360
00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:11,800
You know, right. It really makes me think.

361
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:16,040
I didn't realize that it took so long for us to get here from there.

362
00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:19,840
We're really much more connected globally now than we were before.

363
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,920
Yes, we are. Things have changed so much.

364
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,360
Like Google, they can actually directly bank into us.

365
00:27:26,360 --> 00:27:29,400
Everything can be communicated through emails and other things.

366
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,200
But back then, all official items are snail mail.

367
00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:39,040
Like today, you won't even be invited to make money on YouTube.

368
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,440
You have to register yourself.

369
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:46,760
And whether they let you monetize or not is another story.

370
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:51,320
But for me, I was invited. So it's a bit different.

371
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:57,560
And because of that, I also have two different verifications on YouTube.

372
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,080
One is called the 100,000 verification tick.

373
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,520
Another is YouTube official artist.

374
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:10,440
So that is the reason that made my channel stand out a bit as well.

375
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,680
That's very interesting.

376
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,760
You never really think about these things.

377
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:21,680
You know, our generation, I guess, we graduated from school.

378
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:24,960
And YouTube or FaceTime started.

379
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:27,160
And we're about the same age.

380
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,360
And YouTube started.

381
00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:34,680
But one thing I really want to ask you, where do you get the courage?

382
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:39,400
I remember back in the days, you were like, oh, teacher, teacher, you should post some too.

383
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:41,760
I was like, no, I'm a classical pianist.

384
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:43,920
Like, I'm not going to post anything.

385
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:45,280
It's too embarrassing.

386
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:48,320
And you're like, no, just so.

387
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,160
I mean, how did you get the courage to do it in the beginning?

388
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:56,320
So for me, I'm not really a perfectionist.

389
00:28:56,320 --> 00:29:03,040
So what a lot of classical musicians, as I understand, are pretty perfect.

390
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:08,400
OK, so let's say when a classical musician is playing in a concert,

391
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:14,040
when there is even the slightest mistake, which a layman can't hear,

392
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,440
the classical musician may even cry.

393
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,400
Yeah, it's the end of the world.

394
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:22,240
What are you talking about? I've never done that.

395
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,160
Never cry.

396
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:25,360
It's the end of the world.

397
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:33,040
But for Ray Mack, for me, I can play the worst thing and I still feel good because,

398
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,160
oh, I've done it, you know.

399
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:41,160
And I will only hear the mistake when I listen to my own videos again.

400
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:43,560
I'm like, oh, man, this is bad.

401
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,560
Yeah, but to me, it is kind of like a memory.

402
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:53,360
It's a piece of memory rather than like to make it perfect for other people.

403
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:57,440
To me, after I post, I listen.

404
00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:02,080
So I get to listen to my own music and enjoy my own music.

405
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:10,920
So that's why I don't really care when it is wrong or badly played or too fast, too loud.

406
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,960
Because there will be a lot of people who will be judging me.

407
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:17,240
Hey, Ray, that's not the way you put your fingers.

408
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:23,480
I'm like, OK, there is actually ways to put your fingers on the piano because they're like,

409
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:25,760
oh, Ray, your fingers are flat.

410
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,640
That's not the correct way. I'm like, oh, shit.

411
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:30,800
So I learn. I learn from that as well.

412
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:39,360
So when they give me commands, I take everything as constructive rather than, oh, shit, it's the end of the world.

413
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,600
So if they tell me, hey, Ray, that is wrong.

414
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:45,240
You should play that part louder or that part softer.

415
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:52,960
I'm like, OK. So in future, my life part, that means when I'm playing live or if there's another future recording,

416
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,840
I will do it a bit differently.

417
00:30:54,840 --> 00:31:00,280
Yeah, so that's how I kind of get the courage.

418
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:06,320
Because I understand that as human, we will never be perfect.

419
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:07,440
We will never be perfect.

420
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:12,240
So most of my songs, if you can hear on YouTube, it's never perfect.

421
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,200
It's quite bad.

422
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:20,720
Well, everybody check out Ray's channel and let us know.

423
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:22,880
So I have a question. Can I?

424
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:29,640
So when does the whole thing become more like your.

425
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,280
I don't want to say income, but the same career.

426
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:36,720
Yeah, career. And then also maybe source of.

427
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,840
Yeah, one of the. Yeah, OK, sure.

428
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:50,760
So, OK, well, and then also did that help you in terms of reaching your goal, you know, in your life?

429
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:56,320
OK, you see, I believe that goals in life changes all the time.

430
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,880
When when we reach one goal, then there will be a newer goal.

431
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:03,520
When when we have bought this car, there will be a better car.

432
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:05,600
When we have bought a house, there will be a better house.

433
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:07,440
So goals changes all the time.

434
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:13,560
But with YouTube, I'm able to achieve a lot because of the leverage.

435
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:23,040
OK, so if let's say I I were to choose music as a path, OK, I can be either a performer

436
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:27,680
or I can perform in hotels or I can perform live music.

437
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,360
If let's say music as a career, you know what I mean?

438
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:34,880
I can teach music. I can't even teach. I can't read notes. OK, so that that is our the picture.

439
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:41,520
Learn some. Sure, a lot of people would be willing to learn what you do.

440
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:49,600
Yeah. So the power of leverage means instead of me physically going there to perform a song

441
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,880
or three songs for like, let's say 50 bucks, 100 bucks.

442
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:56,240
I put it up on YouTube.

443
00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:59,760
The money that is generated may be very little.

444
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:04,640
It's like it's like having a pipe with very little money.

445
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:09,920
But when you are going to play in like a hotel or a performance,

446
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:16,040
it could be a whole pail, a whole bucket of water, which is a lot of money.

447
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:25,040
But in YouTube, every song that you post up is like a pipe with very little water flowing.

448
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:29,880
But I have 900 pipes. You get what I mean?

449
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:34,960
I have 900 pipes, so 900 pipes with very little water flowing.

450
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,040
And some of the pipe, they may have so much water they burst.

451
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,520
OK, so it depends on what video goes viral.

452
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:43,400
So some of the video they go viral.

453
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:47,680
Some of the video, they just remain there until one day they go viral again.

454
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:54,280
So that pipe is like a pipeline, you know, rather than me physically going.

455
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:56,600
Because what if something happened to me?

456
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:59,920
You know, what if like something chop off my hands?

457
00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:01,080
Then I can't perform anymore.

458
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,720
Or what if I happen to like break up or have a bad day?

459
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:09,560
I can't perform. But on YouTube, I'm immortalized.

460
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:15,400
I have immortalized my 19 year old self on YouTube.

461
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:20,040
You know what I mean? So people will be like, oh my God, Ray used to be so skinny.

462
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,040
Look at him. He's like a fat ass now.

463
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:26,920
They eat that up, don't they?

464
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:30,480
Well, you know, one thing I just heard you said, that's really true.

465
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:35,920
That, you know, I feel like I haven't learned to really enjoy my own playing

466
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:39,400
until I start maybe studying with my current teacher,

467
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:44,960
which, you know, I'm 30, 32 years into my training now.

468
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,960
I won't tell anybody about my age, but and my teacher was like, you know what?

469
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:54,200
It's just you record yourself and you listen back and then you just really enjoy.

470
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:56,400
So what? You make a mistake or two.

471
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:57,720
You know, we're all human.

472
00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:02,640
And when you can get to that level and you, I feel like you actually got there

473
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:06,600
much earlier than a lot of people, you know, you kind of just took it lightly

474
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:10,040
and you didn't take things too personally.

475
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:14,080
And later on, we want to, you know, ask you how people,

476
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:15,920
all your fans treat you on YouTube.

477
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:21,640
I know so many people love you and that's how many people hate me as well.

478
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:23,360
That's how it's going to be haters.

479
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,800
Yeah. So about the career thing.

480
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,640
So on YouTube, aside from the money from AdSense,

481
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:34,240
actually about amount of the money comes from our sponsors.

482
00:35:34,240 --> 00:35:40,600
For example, everything that I'm wearing and everything that I'm using

483
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:47,480
is kind of like sponsored, like maybe my headphones, my mouse, my speakers,

484
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:49,560
my everything is sponsored.

485
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:50,880
I just need to talk about it.

486
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,760
Even my hard drives today are sponsored.

487
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,840
OK, because I told them I always have bad hard drive.

488
00:35:56,840 --> 00:36:00,520
My hard drive always break down, you know, sponsor me the best hard drive

489
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:01,960
that will not break down.

490
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:03,560
So they sponsor me.

491
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:08,320
So I'm a part of like Seagate and other things that I get sponsors.

492
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,720
Everything that I use is also sponsored.

493
00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:16,200
So I get to use things not only for free, but I get paid to use things.

494
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:17,000
You get what I mean.

495
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:22,600
So and then I'm also the ambassador for Yamaha Music for now.

496
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,280
So I get to use this nice.

497
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:30,640
This is a flagship Yamaha montage.

498
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,240
That is a lot of buttons.

499
00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:33,880
That's right.

500
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:37,560
So how many sponsors do you have?

501
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,320
How many sponsors?

502
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,400
I lost count.

503
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:47,920
I have a lot of sponsors, but some of them are one time.

504
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,160
Some of them are more.

505
00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:50,640
Some of them are long term.

506
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,120
So like the shirt that I'm wearing, this is long term.

507
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,080
It belongs to my friend.

508
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,120
Then, yeah, so this kind of thing.

509
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,400
So that contributes to a part of the money.

510
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:05,440
And then on YouTube, we also have when you become a bit famous,

511
00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:09,520
when you have a little bit of fame, not like to be super famous,

512
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,240
then you have a little bit of fame, you actually can help businesses.

513
00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:17,680
So when you have business, for example, you appear in like a store or something.

514
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:21,080
So there's an appearance fee.

515
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:25,080
So for me to appear somewhere, there can be some appearance fee.

516
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:30,080
So those are like maybe a thousand to three thousand US per appearance, you know,

517
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,080
to appear.

518
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,680
Wow, that's a big deal.

519
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:38,920
Yeah, but I don't get that a lot because I'm not good looking, you know what I mean?

520
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,000
Oh, come on, Ray.

521
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:44,760
I bet a lot of your fans would disagree.

522
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,840
Ray, we have a request from the chat.

523
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:55,560
Melvin Wong asked, could we get Ray to say good morning, handsome in Cantonese?

524
00:37:55,560 --> 00:38:00,320
Good morning, handsome.

525
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,440
I understood that one more.

526
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,240
All right, Melvin, I hope you got that.

527
00:38:06,240 --> 00:38:08,360
All right, Ray.

528
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,520
Right.

529
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,480
But Ray, I wanted to ask you, I would say probably the number one question

530
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:19,680
that people are going to have is there's a lot of people, a lot of musicians out there

531
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:24,480
with YouTube channels that want to blow up big the way you did,

532
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:28,240
but are having trouble getting started, they're having trouble attracting viewers,

533
00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:32,000
getting new subscribers, getting stuff to go viral.

534
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,160
What would your advice for them be?

535
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:38,000
OK, there are a few things that you have to follow.

536
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,360
OK, for example, first is persistence.

537
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:46,040
OK, that means no matter what happened, no matter what people say and no matter how much

538
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:53,600
hate you get, you just persist, you know, and persevere, persevere.

539
00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:58,760
So no matter what happened to you, you just do it.

540
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:04,520
Don't think too much, because a lot of musicians are perfectionists.

541
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:08,200
Musicians are perfectionists because music is like perfect, you know what I mean?

542
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:09,680
So they are perfectionists.

543
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:13,080
They want things, the beat to be on the exact point.

544
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:17,880
You know, so it makes it very difficult for them because every time

545
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:22,400
a musician would play halfway and there's a small little mistake

546
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:24,000
and that's the end of the video.

547
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,600
They only want to continue recording, you know what I mean?

548
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:31,560
And to go back and play again, it could be quite difficult.

549
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:32,720
You know what I mean?

550
00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:34,560
So don't think too much.

551
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:36,480
If you make a mistake, just continue.

552
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,000
You know, it's like imagine you are playing a concert.

553
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:41,640
Imagine you are playing a concert.

554
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:45,920
So and of course, on YouTube, consistency is very important

555
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,720
because, like, for example, if you are playing a music,

556
00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:53,560
if let's say you have a schedule to post on every Friday,

557
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:55,720
you post every Friday, OK?

558
00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:57,000
Is that what you do?

559
00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:58,440
Yeah, that's what I do.

560
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,200
For me, it's every week.

561
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:08,120
So every week, no matter what day, I would make a song and I'll post it up.

562
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:12,760
So that kind of consistency is very, very important.

563
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:14,600
Right, just to jump in for one second.

564
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:18,480
So you put up a video on Friday.

565
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:19,680
Every single week.

566
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:22,480
And for how many years have you been doing this?

567
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,720
I put it, I don't only put up on Friday.

568
00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:29,440
If let's say on that week I have more time, I'll put up two videos.

569
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:35,240
So it could be one on Tuesday, one on Thursday or one on Wednesday, Friday, you know.

570
00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:41,840
So I've been consistently doing that since at least 2008.

571
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:43,000
Wow.

572
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:44,760
So that's it.

573
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,280
That is the difference that makes the Ray Mack.

574
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:48,400
That's a commitment.

575
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:50,800
That's really a commitment.

576
00:40:50,800 --> 00:41:00,080
But also engaging audience is not part of the deal.

577
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:00,600
Right.

578
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,120
So tell us the secrets.

579
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,800
On YouTube, I believe communication is very important.

580
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:12,760
So I've actually lost quite a lot of my views and subscribers when I moved my account

581
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,800
from New York City to Kuala Lumpur, OK?

582
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:17,960
Because of the algorithm changes.

583
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:26,320
So when the algorithm changed, I can't keep in touch as usual when I was back then in back in the States.

584
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,520
So I have to rebuild again.

585
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:35,120
So when I have to rebuild, I have to start communicating with my fans all the way back in the States

586
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:40,760
in their time zone rather than in my time zone, because time zone is super important.

587
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:46,800
Like right now is your 9.41pm, but it's my 10.41am.

588
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:53,640
So that kind of time difference actually makes a lot of difference in the time that we are posting

589
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,040
and in the time that we are communicating.

590
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:04,680
So what I did is I always, whether it's on my comment section or on other people's comment section,

591
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,960
I try my best to communicate with the fans.

592
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:15,760
And for some reason, because my account is double verified, OK?

593
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:20,040
So when your account is double verified, a few things can happen.

594
00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:24,960
People will get curious because my account, sometimes it can be a music note,

595
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,600
but sometimes it can be a verification tick.

596
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:35,720
So when they get curious, no matter what I say, even if I go to some other people's channel and I say hi,

597
00:42:35,720 --> 00:42:40,480
if that video blows up, my comment will blow up together.

598
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:43,480
You get what I mean? And people will be liking that comment.

599
00:42:43,480 --> 00:42:51,960
And because of that, my comments tend to appear on top of almost every single video.

600
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,080
OK, almost every single video.

601
00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:58,480
Yeah, so I find it really fun to do that.

602
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:05,640
So on a daily basis, I'll go to some of my recommendations and I just say hi or I watch a video.

603
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:07,320
I'll comment a little.

604
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:13,440
And for some reason, every comment that I put will be on the top.

605
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:18,920
And the people get more and more curious, like, who the hell is this fella?

606
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,320
You know, who the hell is this very mad guy?

607
00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:22,760
Why is he always at the top?

608
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:27,520
But they don't know that I'm always at the top because when people like my comments,

609
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:28,960
they will appear on the top.

610
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:32,400
And why people like my comments is because I'm double verified.

611
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:37,160
Like, they'll be like, hey, sometimes Ray is on a verification.

612
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:41,600
He has a verification take and sometimes he has an official artist take.

613
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,640
What the hell is happening? You know, is he two different person?

614
00:43:44,640 --> 00:43:48,320
So because of the curiosity, they start to like my thing.

615
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:53,640
And when they come over to my channel, there will be some people who will be sending hate

616
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,480
and some people who will be sending love.

617
00:43:56,480 --> 00:44:01,600
So I will respond to both hate and love.

618
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,640
If they hate me, how do you respond? Haters?

619
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,400
OK, how do I respond? Yeah, I'm curious.

620
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:15,120
I always believe there's goodness in everyone, no matter how much hate they can portray.

621
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:17,480
OK, there's always goodness in everyone.

622
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:25,280
So when they send me hate, instead of giving back hate, I tell them at least you drop by.

623
00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:30,520
I'm very appreciative and I really thank you for dropping by.

624
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:35,360
Even though you hate me and that would change how they look at me.

625
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:40,000
They'll be like, oh, shit, I think I said the wrong stuff.

626
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:46,120
So from hating, they would apologize after and they become very like strong fans.

627
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:52,880
You know, so instead of replying hate with hate, why can't we just reply with love?

628
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:53,960
You know what I mean?

629
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:59,600
Because that's one of the reasons I dread myself to be on YouTube and post things,

630
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:01,080
because of the haters.

631
00:45:01,080 --> 00:45:07,760
But the way you're approaching them is actually quite positive.

632
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:13,400
Yes, yes. And sometimes like all these haters or lovers, I would even go to their channel

633
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,760
because I know some of these haters, why do they hate me?

634
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:22,040
Because they may be trying to do the same thing, but they don't see the result.

635
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:28,840
So but when they see me doing the same thing and I see the result, they don't feel so comfortable.

636
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:30,320
It's human nature.

637
00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:34,480
When you see someone else successful, you don't feel so good.

638
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:39,800
So what I do is instead of having them having a miserable day,

639
00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:44,760
I actually go to their channel personally and watch their videos, subscribe to them.

640
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:48,680
And I tell them, hey, not bad.

641
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:50,240
You're actually doing a very good job.

642
00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:51,520
It's going to take time.

643
00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:53,040
You know, don't give up.

644
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:57,920
So instead of telling them hate stuff, hey, get the fuck out.

645
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:02,040
I'll just tell them, hey, you're doing a very good job.

646
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:05,200
I know you are feeling this because of this kind of frustration.

647
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:08,080
You know, so I'm just going to come and support you.

648
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:12,440
I'm dropping by to support a bro or a sis.

649
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:15,320
Then they will change totally.

650
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:19,960
Like they will be like, oh, my God.

651
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:21,560
Well, that's really amazing.

652
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:26,080
You know, I think for the younger generation, especially, I mean,

653
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:29,560
they probably think of you as like a big brother, you know, forever a big brother,

654
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:32,960
even though you're a father now.

655
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,920
But I know a lot of my students always talk about, oh, my gosh, you know,

656
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,320
some of them met you quite a few different generations of my students.

657
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:43,040
Right. Like Maya, I saw that little video.

658
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:44,920
I mean, she's still playing.

659
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:49,960
And when I said that you were going to be on, you know, I think just

660
00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:52,120
what you were talking about, the persistence, right.

661
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:54,760
Like, and then not reacting negatively,

662
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:59,480
even when things not so pleasant happen.

663
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:01,520
Right. Yeah.

664
00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:05,800
Yeah. Like so it's kind of like the saying when life throws you lemon,

665
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:07,520
you make lemonade.

666
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:08,520
You know what I mean?

667
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,360
So for me, instead of making lemonade, I make lemon cakes, lemonade,

668
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,600
everything, you know, from whatever that is given to me.

669
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:19,000
So it all turns out positive.

670
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,600
Well, on that note,

671
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:26,680
me and Eric, you two, you know, maybe we should ask a question.

672
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:29,120
Oh, yeah, I got a question.

673
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:31,040
Hang on one second. Where was it?

674
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,440
Oh, yeah. So I thought of this just now while you were talking, right.

675
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,480
So how does one make a viral video?

676
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:43,840
Or can you predict when a video is going to go viral?

677
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:49,800
OK, we can never predict when a video is going viral,

678
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,920
but we can kind of know if, let's say,

679
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:57,920
our videos can get on the recommendation tab.

680
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:02,040
OK, so on YouTube, in the past, there was nothing like this.

681
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:07,080
But recently, YouTube has changed the algorithm

682
00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:13,120
in a way that the algorithm follow the fans instead of follow your keywords.

683
00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:16,960
OK, so in the past, it's all about SEO optimization.

684
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:20,480
And I'm an expert in SEO optimization.

685
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:24,040
But because I'm an expert in SEO optimization,

686
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:29,400
I can't really switch to following the fans because I'm not a celebrity.

687
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:33,360
You know what I mean? I was not a celebrity.

688
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:34,920
You are now.

689
00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:42,680
So what happened is I used to do a lot like SEO, like search engine optimization things.

690
00:48:43,120 --> 00:48:44,600
But it helps.

691
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:47,000
It helped me a lot on Google search.

692
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:51,920
So if you Google Ray Mac on Google,

693
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:57,120
you will see all the pictures, all the videos and everything is my face.

694
00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:00,080
OK, that is called SEO optimization,

695
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:03,200
because I put myself on top of all search engines.

696
00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:09,160
But Google algorithm on YouTube algorithm is different from Google algorithm.

697
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:13,360
Google algorithm is actually following more of SEO and advertisement.

698
00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:15,840
But YouTube algorithm follow your fans.

699
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:20,000
So if you are able to please your fans, you fly.

700
00:49:20,240 --> 00:49:21,480
You know what I mean?

701
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:26,200
So I know that if I can please my fans,

702
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:28,920
I can personally make them very happy.

703
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:30,720
They will support me.

704
00:49:30,720 --> 00:49:33,040
So that's that's what I strive to do.

705
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:37,040
And I know a lot of my fans are thriving new YouTubers.

706
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:41,600
So that's why I do my best to support all these new YouTubers

707
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:43,800
and help them to fly.

708
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:46,360
If I can help them to get like 100 subscribers,

709
00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:49,520
I can tell you they'll be so happy that they can't even sleep.

710
00:49:49,720 --> 00:49:50,920
You know what I mean?

711
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:52,760
How do you do that?

712
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:58,760
Nowadays, I can just go and comment on them or let's say I share their channel

713
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:03,160
on my channel, then they will start to see some traction,

714
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:08,360
even though they don't fly to 100 subscribers in in in like split second.

715
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:10,920
But they will see a bit of traction

716
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,480
and they will see if they go on the analytics,

717
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:17,280
they will see like a big spike over there when I talk about them.

718
00:50:17,720 --> 00:50:22,000
OK. And when they talk about me, they will also see a big spike

719
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:25,880
because now my name is sparks a lot of curiosity on YouTube.

720
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,600
Like why this array guy is everywhere?

721
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:32,920
You know, they didn't know that is because of my double verification.

722
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:36,840
And and I've been doing this for a pretty long time.

723
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:42,520
OK, so to get on the recommendation tab,

724
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:46,200
you just need to know what your fans like to watch.

725
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:50,040
OK, so it's less if let's say when I go to my analytics,

726
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:56,480
I notice that a lot of my fans are guys and they are age 16 to 23,

727
00:50:56,480 --> 00:50:58,480
for example, or actually they're younger.

728
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:03,480
They may be just nine. OK, let's say they are age nine to 23.

729
00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:07,280
I will see what do people of that age like?

730
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:11,040
OK, for some of these people will be liking like anime.

731
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:18,720
They may be liking some game music or they may be ex Minecraft players,

732
00:51:18,720 --> 00:51:24,920
you know, so I will be playing a few of the Minecraft game and the Minecraft songs.

733
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:27,880
And when I see a little bit of traction, I'll play a few more.

734
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:31,720
You know what I mean? So that's kind of like how we predict

735
00:51:31,720 --> 00:51:35,240
and and and think of what to post.

736
00:51:35,680 --> 00:51:41,280
But a lot of times I also try to post on whatever that my fans like.

737
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:46,400
So I noticed I recently have a spike in fans from India.

738
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:50,280
OK, and I listen to a lot of Indian music.

739
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:53,160
So might as well I listen to them a lot.

740
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:55,040
Might as well just play them on the piano.

741
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:58,880
But Indian music is very difficult to play because Indian music is

742
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:03,960
is played with a variety of instruments that have like trills, you know,

743
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:05,680
which is not easy to do on piano.

744
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:07,640
It's like Indians like, you know.

745
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:12,640
So when I'm able to make a version that is.

746
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:18,160
As similar to the original music like that,

747
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:21,120
that means when you listen to my piano version, you know, it's Indian.

748
00:52:21,600 --> 00:52:24,960
Even if you close your eyes, you know that, oh, this is an Indian music.

749
00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:28,240
Then they would really appreciate.

750
00:52:28,240 --> 00:52:33,200
And the thing about Indian fans is that when they appreciate, they show it

751
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:36,680
like Chinese, Chinese people, Asian, Korean.

752
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:38,840
When they appreciate, they don't show it.

753
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:41,720
They're like, OK, OK, this good.

754
00:52:41,720 --> 00:52:44,560
They won't even press the like button.

755
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,440
That's that's that's how Chinese are.

756
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:48,840
Yeah.

757
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:51,520
Competitive, right? Sometimes competitive.

758
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:53,280
Yes, competitive is the word.

759
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:55,440
But Indian fans, they're different.

760
00:52:55,440 --> 00:53:00,440
They would go all out, you know, and really promote your thing.

761
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:03,040
So that's that's that's what I like about Indian people.

762
00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:08,880
They they they would when they support you, they they would really go all out to support you.

763
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:12,560
So that's why, like, especially in the recent few videos,

764
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:16,720
I played a few songs that my Indian fans requested.

765
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:20,440
Yeah. Wow. Yes. Hey, hey, hey.

766
00:53:20,720 --> 00:53:22,840
Yes, speaking of that, I have a question.

767
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:25,680
So how do you deal with copyright?

768
00:53:25,680 --> 00:53:29,200
You know, sometimes you have arrangement of pop songs and things.

769
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:36,080
So because I can kind of play a little bit of famous pop tunes here and there.

770
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,360
But I'm always afraid of the copyright issues.

771
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:41,160
So how do you deal with that? Tell us.

772
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:46,480
So the amazing thing about YouTube is copyright is shareable.

773
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:51,440
So, for example, when I play a song that is created by Alan Walker,

774
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:55,400
YouTube would automatically detect that this is a cover song

775
00:53:55,680 --> 00:54:01,640
and whatever monetization that they receive will be automatically shared

776
00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:05,000
to Alan Walker's company.

777
00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:09,400
So I don't have to do anything because the copyright is shared.

778
00:54:09,960 --> 00:54:15,400
The only thing is that when the company did not apply for the sharing,

779
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:19,160
like, for example, a lot of Chinese songs, so a lot of Chinese songs,

780
00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:26,600
they didn't apply for the copyright sharing function.

781
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:28,360
That kind of function.

782
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:33,760
When I post, they would just detect it as a copyrighted music.

783
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:37,000
And sometimes they may attack by

784
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:42,040
by striking your account, which is very dangerous.

785
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:46,600
OK, so what I do is if I play a Chinese song before I play,

786
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,520
I would inform the company first that I'll be playing a song.

787
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:54,560
But English song, Japanese and Korean, especially Korean,

788
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:58,960
they are really good with the copyright sharing thing.

789
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:03,160
So no matter how we play it, the YouTube algorithm

790
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:05,840
would automatically detect the song as a cover song.

791
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:08,320
And it will know that this song is that song.

792
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:11,040
YouTube is so good.

793
00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:14,280
When they hear a tune, they would automatically detect

794
00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:16,600
that this song is that song.

795
00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:18,400
That's crazy. I did not know that.

796
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:21,120
It's kind of like facial recognition.

797
00:55:21,640 --> 00:55:27,520
Wow. So can I? Yeah, no wonder, because I posted some of my students,

798
00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:32,920
the students recital and then some of my students played a famous pop tune,

799
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:34,680
but it was unlisted.

800
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:38,720
But there was like a warning that I got from YouTube.

801
00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:45,520
There are a few pieces and a few songs in the program where violets

802
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:50,440
or if it's not your channel is not monetized and that's OK.

803
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:53,920
Kind of a message. I was like, how do they know this?

804
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:59,200
So the YouTube system can they can actually detect videos.

805
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:03,240
They can also detect like, let's say if you are taking video from someone else

806
00:56:03,560 --> 00:56:06,440
or you are taking a music from someone else,

807
00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:08,720
even if the tune is similar,

808
00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:12,440
so they would know that all his song is actually Gangnam style.

809
00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:15,000
For example, it's super amazing.

810
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:17,680
The is artificial intelligence.

811
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:23,680
Wow. This is the age we are living in, right?

812
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:26,040
I know. I live in the future.

813
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:28,800
I used to listen to tape.

814
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:34,760
Wow. Yes. And how are you doing this year with the pandemic and everything?

815
00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:38,720
OK, actually, to me, the pandemic is like a blessing in disguise.

816
00:56:38,720 --> 00:56:45,120
Oh, wow. Because the pandemic has caused me to do.

817
00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:50,280
First of all, rent like I my family have some rental properties

818
00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:53,960
which we rent out and but rental collection has been difficult

819
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:55,680
because businesses are not doing well.

820
00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:59,640
So we are not doing very well as well on rental part.

821
00:56:59,960 --> 00:57:02,720
But that that forces me to change.

822
00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:05,360
So if I'll be like looking at my businesses,

823
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:09,320
oh, now I can't go out to meet people for you, Sana, for example.

824
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:11,080
OK, I can't go out to meet people.

825
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:15,440
So when I go can't go to meet people, especially for a period of time,

826
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:18,040
is it's not very good for my business in the long term.

827
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:24,160
OK, so I was I was like, I have to change the style now that I'm doing business.

828
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:28,440
So for you, Sana, I would be having an online live stream.

829
00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:32,440
And I teach instead of one to one, I teach online.

830
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:35,000
One to one, I teach one to one hundred people,

831
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:37,400
so which is a blessing in disguise.

832
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:41,520
And then I got on to I got on to Spotify.

833
00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:43,680
I got into YouTube music and all those things.

834
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:48,040
And and each of them generate a little bit of income

835
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:53,040
to replace the income loss that I have in in this.

836
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:57,840
What do you call it? The rental income losses and you, Sana income losses.

837
00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:01,840
And because of doing that and because of the pandemic,

838
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:04,720
in in the past, I used to travel a lot.

839
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:06,520
OK, in the past, I used to travel a lot.

840
00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:09,600
But now with the pandemic, I'm stuck at home.

841
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:11,040
I'm doing nothing, you know.

842
00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:12,800
So I'll be watching YouTube videos.

843
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:15,600
So the difference between me watching YouTube videos

844
00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:18,680
and other people watching YouTube videos is I'm quite verbal.

845
00:58:19,040 --> 00:58:22,400
That means I watch a video, I'll comment on it.

846
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:24,920
Oh, it's quite nice. I like it.

847
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:27,320
I would say it out, you know, a lot of people, if they like it,

848
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:30,720
like typical Asian society, they when they like something,

849
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,120
they won't say it, especially Asian people.

850
00:58:33,120 --> 00:58:35,840
They see a girl. Oh, my gosh.

851
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:40,320
But they would just be standing there and not approaching the girl.

852
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:43,760
But I'm that type that I'll approach the girl.

853
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:47,000
And I'll say, hey, I'm Ray.

854
00:58:48,440 --> 00:58:50,960
And she'll be my girlfriend or something.

855
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:54,280
It's that fast.

856
00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:56,400
Back in the days, right? Back in the days.

857
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:58,880
Your teacher won't take out all your secrets.

858
00:58:58,880 --> 00:59:01,520
Well, so that really explains, you know, so this year,

859
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:06,680
when everybody's struggling, you're actually doing, you know,

860
00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:09,720
doing well, right? Like, more people are watching your videos.

861
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:11,440
Three times better. Oh, my gosh.

862
00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:13,240
Wow. It's amazing.

863
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:16,520
So can I just read a few things from the comments?

864
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:17,880
And one of the...

865
00:59:17,880 --> 00:59:19,480
Viron says,

866
00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:25,280
Ray Mak is my inspiration and why I am on YouTube now posting music.

867
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:26,280
Thanks, Ray.

868
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:31,680
And another person says, hee hee, I'm in class sneaking just to watch the stream.

869
00:59:31,680 --> 00:59:33,680
Share with your friends.

870
00:59:35,680 --> 00:59:41,240
And then some people are saying, I see his comments like 10 times per day.

871
00:59:41,240 --> 00:59:43,240
Oh, my God.

872
00:59:43,240 --> 00:59:45,240
People know, yeah.

873
00:59:45,240 --> 00:59:48,840
But I'm just... I know it's almost an hour.

874
00:59:48,840 --> 00:59:52,840
We have to go a few minutes over, but I hope you have the time.

875
00:59:52,840 --> 00:59:54,840
I have the time.

876
00:59:54,840 --> 00:59:58,840
OK, what equipment and software do you use when you record?

877
00:59:58,840 --> 01:00:03,840
Because I saw the videos and it was really pretty good, actually,

878
01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:05,840
and excellent quality.

879
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:08,840
So I was wondering if you ever use Keyscape.

880
01:00:08,840 --> 01:00:10,840
You know what I mean by Keyscape?

881
01:00:10,840 --> 01:00:12,840
No, I don't know what's Keyscape.

882
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:14,840
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what that is.

883
01:00:14,840 --> 01:00:19,840
But sometimes I watch Instagram or something and then pianist,

884
01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:22,840
you know, record himself from home or something.

885
01:00:22,840 --> 01:00:26,840
They use the software to make it sound very professional.

886
01:00:26,840 --> 01:00:29,840
But it costs like $500, I think.

887
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:31,840
Yeah, no, I don't have $500 to spend.

888
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:35,840
Maybe we get... we mentioned this name, so we may get the sponsorship.

889
01:00:35,840 --> 01:00:37,840
Sponsorship, sponsor us.

890
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:39,840
Yeah, maybe.

891
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:42,840
Yeah, we have a lot of subtly drinking water.

892
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:46,840
All the way from our 80s.

893
01:00:46,840 --> 01:00:52,840
Anyway, so what kind of software or equipment do you use or recommend?

894
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:56,840
So for me, if you actually watch my YouTube videos,

895
01:00:56,840 --> 01:00:58,840
you'll notice that it's an evolution.

896
01:00:58,840 --> 01:01:01,840
So in the beginning, like many, many years ago,

897
01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:05,840
I used like a cheap ass camera, which like I can't even see my face.

898
01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:06,840
You know what I mean?

899
01:01:06,840 --> 01:01:07,840
It was like so bad.

900
01:01:07,840 --> 01:01:12,840
And then slowly I evolved to like a slightly better camera.

901
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:14,840
It was this one.

902
01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:16,840
I'll just show you real quick.

903
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:20,840
So this was like what they call the handy cam.

904
01:01:20,840 --> 01:01:23,840
So this was DVD quality.

905
01:01:23,840 --> 01:01:26,840
That means the quality was a little bit better.

906
01:01:26,840 --> 01:01:32,840
And then over the years, my dad got me this HD camera.

907
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:34,840
You see the word HD over there?

908
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:40,840
And then, but back then, it was all like poor quality

909
01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:43,840
because especially audio quality was very bad.

910
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:47,840
So people would be complaining, hey, Ray, you play too loud.

911
01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:49,840
It's not because I play too loud.

912
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:53,840
It is because that microphone captures the sound

913
01:01:53,840 --> 01:01:59,840
and it captures the pitch a little bit too treble, too high.

914
01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:02,840
And it pierces people's ears when they listen.

915
01:02:02,840 --> 01:02:05,840
So it is really, really bad quality.

916
01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:08,840
So when I reached a hundred thousand subscribers,

917
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:12,840
and being the first hundred thousand subscribers in my country,

918
01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:18,840
YouTube actually gave me something special.

919
01:02:18,840 --> 01:02:22,840
I have the budget to buy equipment.

920
01:02:22,840 --> 01:02:26,840
So when normal people get a hundred thousand subscribers,

921
01:02:26,840 --> 01:02:30,840
they would just get a sewer play button like this.

922
01:02:30,840 --> 01:02:34,840
All right, Ray. Oh my gosh, the famous button.

923
01:02:34,840 --> 01:02:36,840
Yeah, the famous button.

924
01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:38,840
I'm going to take a photo.

925
01:02:38,840 --> 01:02:39,840
Okay, come.

926
01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:43,840
All right, fans ask more questions.

927
01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:49,840
So typical YouTubers, when they reach a hundred thousand subscribers,

928
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:51,840
they would just get this play button.

929
01:02:51,840 --> 01:02:57,840
But for me, I get a budget from YouTube where I can spend on my equipment.

930
01:02:57,840 --> 01:03:01,840
So the first thing that I bought was a microphone.

931
01:03:01,840 --> 01:03:07,840
So from then on, my audio quality for my YouTube start to improve.

932
01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:10,840
Because now I have a proper microphone,

933
01:03:10,840 --> 01:03:16,840
but the piano starts to become a bit old.

934
01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:20,840
My piano has been with me for the past 30 years.

935
01:03:20,840 --> 01:03:25,840
So the sound is not as good as when it was in the beginning.

936
01:03:25,840 --> 01:03:30,840
So then I start to switch to digital.

937
01:03:30,840 --> 01:03:33,840
There are also another reason that I switched to digital.

938
01:03:33,840 --> 01:03:40,840
My neighbor, they start to renovate their house a lot.

939
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:44,840
So when there's a lot of renovations, I can't be recording.

940
01:03:44,840 --> 01:03:50,840
Every time I'm like, ting ting ting, and then there's a lot of renovation going on.

941
01:03:50,840 --> 01:03:52,840
I couldn't record live anymore.

942
01:03:52,840 --> 01:03:59,840
So luckily, in the past, I have an old keyboard that my dad bought for me.

943
01:03:59,840 --> 01:04:02,840
So I connect that keyboard straight to the camera,

944
01:04:02,840 --> 01:04:05,840
and then I start playing.

945
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:08,840
So there was a lot of sound quality issues back then.

946
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:11,840
And then Sony noticed the sound quality issue.

947
01:04:11,840 --> 01:04:15,840
Sony was like, what the hell? Your sound quality is so bad.

948
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:24,840
Let us sponsor you a Sony video camera that you can connect your keyboard directly.

949
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:28,840
So I got sponsored by Sony, that camera,

950
01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:32,840
and then my sound quality becomes better because now it's directly from YouTube,

951
01:04:32,840 --> 01:04:35,840
not from the keyboard.

952
01:04:35,840 --> 01:04:42,840
But then in around 2016, I got myself a computer.

953
01:04:42,840 --> 01:04:51,840
So instead of recording live and shooting live, I get to record in a MIDI form.

954
01:04:51,840 --> 01:04:54,840
And because my fans have been asking for notes,

955
01:04:54,840 --> 01:05:00,840
I managed to record my things in MIDI form, and then I post it as notes for my fans

956
01:05:00,840 --> 01:05:04,840
so that they can play the music as well.

957
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:10,840
So I collaborate with this musicnotes.com and then flowkey.com

958
01:05:10,840 --> 01:05:14,840
so that they can have my music, copyrighted music,

959
01:05:14,840 --> 01:05:19,840
post under their platforms to be sold to fans for a very low price.

960
01:05:19,840 --> 01:05:24,840
So I made a little bit of money as well.

961
01:05:24,840 --> 01:05:33,840
And then nowadays, Yamaha, because now I'm the ambassador of Yamaha,

962
01:05:33,840 --> 01:05:41,840
so my sound quality is even much better because now I have all the equipment that I require.

963
01:05:41,840 --> 01:05:43,840
So I can make MIDI.

964
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:52,840
So I have this software called Studio One. So I actually use Studio One to record my keyboard,

965
01:05:52,840 --> 01:05:56,840
which is this Montage keyboard.

966
01:05:56,840 --> 01:05:57,840
Oh, wow.

967
01:05:57,840 --> 01:06:01,840
So I'll record, and then I'll pre-record some of my videos,

968
01:06:01,840 --> 01:06:08,840
and then I will just sync it with my video that I record.

969
01:06:08,840 --> 01:06:11,840
So that's why the quality is a lot better now.

970
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:13,840
Oh, right. You're giving away all your secrets.

971
01:06:13,840 --> 01:06:15,840
That's right.

972
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:21,840
And when you played in Yamaha, didn't Richard Claytonman come to see you or something at one time?

973
01:06:21,840 --> 01:06:24,840
I remember he's very popular in Asia, right?

974
01:06:24,840 --> 01:06:28,840
I was the only one who got to meet Richard Claytonman.

975
01:06:28,840 --> 01:06:33,840
Not anyone else. They can't even stand near.

976
01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:36,840
For us Asian viewers, that's a big, big deal, right?

977
01:06:36,840 --> 01:06:38,840
It's a big deal.

978
01:06:38,840 --> 01:06:44,840
I see on comment here, it was like this is a really rare conversation.

979
01:06:44,840 --> 01:06:50,840
Wow, 900 views, every video, you know, raise my inspiration. Oh my gosh.

980
01:06:50,840 --> 01:06:52,840
So ask more questions.

981
01:06:52,840 --> 01:06:58,840
Speaking of that, so Ray, where does this Ray, is your name Ray Mag?

982
01:06:58,840 --> 01:07:00,840
Is that real name or is that stage name?

983
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:06,840
Okay, so Ray is actually my real name, okay, my real name, but it's not an official kind of name.

984
01:07:06,840 --> 01:07:10,840
So my official name, my surname is Mark.

985
01:07:10,840 --> 01:07:13,840
Okay, surname means family name. So my family name is Mark.

986
01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:15,840
In Chinese is Mai.

987
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:17,840
That's right, Mai.

988
01:07:17,840 --> 01:07:21,840
McDonald's, okay, like McDonald's. So Mark.

989
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:23,840
So like the McDonald's, the Mac, okay.

990
01:07:23,840 --> 01:07:25,840
It's the same Mac in Chinese.

991
01:07:25,840 --> 01:07:27,840
Okay, Mark.

992
01:07:27,840 --> 01:07:32,840
And then my first name, official first name is Hon Kit.

993
01:07:32,840 --> 01:07:34,840
H-O-N-K-I-T.

994
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:42,840
Okay, so if you notice on my username of all my accounts, it's the same username, Mark Hon Kit.

995
01:07:42,840 --> 01:07:45,840
Okay, but how did I get this Ray?

996
01:07:45,840 --> 01:07:55,840
So when I was flying to America, okay, on my way to America, and I was with my ex girlfriend back then, who is now also still my good friend.

997
01:07:55,840 --> 01:08:02,840
Okay, so she was like telling me, if you go to America and if you use Hon Kit,

998
01:08:02,840 --> 01:08:10,840
people would be calling you, hey Hon, hey Hon, hey Hon, who's that? Hey Hon. Oh my God, I don't want to be called Hon.

999
01:08:10,840 --> 01:08:14,840
So I was like, what's a good English name for me?

1000
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:19,840
Then she was like reminding me, hey, you can't read music, right? You can't read music notes.

1001
01:08:19,840 --> 01:08:25,840
So since I can't read music, who is the pianist that is blind? Ray Charles.

1002
01:08:25,840 --> 01:08:27,840
Oh, that's right.

1003
01:08:27,840 --> 01:08:32,840
So the blind pianist is Ray Charles, and I got the Ray from there. So Ray Mack.

1004
01:08:32,840 --> 01:08:36,840
Perfect.

1005
01:08:36,840 --> 01:08:47,840
So I have to ask you this question because I know we have to wrap it up, but because it was specifically from Instagram post.

1006
01:08:47,840 --> 01:08:58,840
She says, what are two key successful tips to share from modern.woman?

1007
01:08:58,840 --> 01:09:07,840
Oh, okay. Modern woman. She's big.

1008
01:09:07,840 --> 01:09:10,840
Two key successful tips.

1009
01:09:10,840 --> 01:09:18,840
First of all, I've mentioned a bit earlier. So the two P's, actually I follow a lot of P's,

1010
01:09:18,840 --> 01:09:24,840
but the two main P's that I follow are persistence and perseverance.

1011
01:09:24,840 --> 01:09:31,840
That means no matter what happened, the word give up wouldn't even come across my mind.

1012
01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:38,840
Because the moment you let that word come across your mind, you will really feel like giving up, you know.

1013
01:09:38,840 --> 01:09:49,840
Because especially when we talk about all this kind of social media thing, my son's account, which is he's two years old now.

1014
01:09:49,840 --> 01:09:58,840
So my son's YouTube account, he had like less than 10 subscribers and all 10 of them are my family.

1015
01:09:58,840 --> 01:10:08,840
It's like nothing at all. We just post to see him grow. We want to see, oh, this is my son's first haircut.

1016
01:10:08,840 --> 01:10:13,840
This is my son's first time walking, you know, this kind of thing.

1017
01:10:13,840 --> 01:10:19,840
And now he has over 2000 subscribers and over a million views.

1018
01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:28,840
It's because we didn't even think of giving up. And we never thought of really monetizing his thing.

1019
01:10:28,840 --> 01:10:36,840
It's just that we want to keep it as a memory to us. And one of his videos went viral, you know.

1020
01:10:36,840 --> 01:10:46,840
So YouTube is a very strange place. Let's say you have, let's say a hundred videos and your 101th video goes viral.

1021
01:10:46,840 --> 01:10:55,840
The fans would look at all your previous hundred videos and your whole account will fly. You get what I mean?

1022
01:10:55,840 --> 01:11:02,840
A true fan would do that. So for example, like my account, it used to be OK-ish, you know.

1023
01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:11,840
But then when I play Gangnam Style, so people who look at my Gangnam Style, they actually look at maybe at least 50 of my other videos.

1024
01:11:11,840 --> 01:11:19,840
So it is because I persevered and the word give up never came across my mind.

1025
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:26,840
But another thing that is very good is because I don't rely on YouTube as a main source of income.

1026
01:11:26,840 --> 01:11:37,840
Because when I rely on that, I'll be damn desperate. It's like in the past, there was a period of time that I tried to rely on stock market as my main source of income.

1027
01:11:37,840 --> 01:11:45,840
And if you would remember, I came to the house and I cried. That's right. And playing the piano and cry.

1028
01:11:45,840 --> 01:11:53,840
Yeah, playing the piano and cry. So I lost like six figures within a night. You know what I mean?

1029
01:11:53,840 --> 01:12:03,840
So when you are very, when you try to rely on something as your main source of bread and butter, you will become very desperate.

1030
01:12:03,840 --> 01:12:11,840
So don't do that. Make YouTube and social media as a hobby.

1031
01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:15,840
You post it not because you want to show other people your life.

1032
01:12:15,840 --> 01:12:23,840
It's because when you know that in the next five years and 10 years, you look back, oh, yeah, this was me five years ago. Oh, I was so cute.

1033
01:12:23,840 --> 01:12:31,840
You know what I mean? So it's like I go back and watch my video. If you have seen this Richard Klederman Ballad for Adeline.

1034
01:12:31,840 --> 01:12:37,840
Sure. Yes, super famous song. Everyone knows Richard Klederman for that song.

1035
01:12:37,840 --> 01:12:43,840
So 12 years ago, when I started playing ballet for Adeline, it was horrible.

1036
01:12:43,840 --> 01:12:52,840
The quality, the sound quality, recording quality, everything was horrible. But then fast forward 10 years later, I got Yamaha sponsorship.

1037
01:12:52,840 --> 01:13:02,840
I became the ambassador. I played on the most expensive CFX concert grand piano for the same song.

1038
01:13:02,840 --> 01:13:08,840
And it sounds ridiculously good. So and I get to meet Richard Klederman.

1039
01:13:08,840 --> 01:13:16,840
Wow, I love that piano CFX. Oh, yeah. Gorgeous. Oh, delicious. Gorgeous.

1040
01:13:16,840 --> 01:13:25,840
When I get to compare my 12 years ago and like fast forward like 10, 12 years later, it's like it's a very nice comparison.

1041
01:13:25,840 --> 01:13:33,840
Oh, last time I was like this, you know, now I'm like this. So you don't take social media too seriously.

1042
01:13:33,840 --> 01:13:39,840
As in when we take things too seriously, we will try to be too perfect. No, don't do that.

1043
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:47,840
Just whatever shit that comes out, just post it up. Don't take it too seriously. Make it a fun thing.

1044
01:13:47,840 --> 01:13:53,840
So the two piece persevere no matter what happens. And like I mentioned earlier as well, consistency.

1045
01:13:53,840 --> 01:14:00,840
That means if you're already posting something that your fans like, and then don't go and change like too much.

1046
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:05,840
Fans will follow you for who you are, but make them happy.

1047
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:13,840
That is another key to become pretty successful.

1048
01:14:13,840 --> 01:14:18,840
Right. I think we're going to have to wrap up pretty soon, but I wanted to ask you one more question.

1049
01:14:18,840 --> 01:14:23,840
OK, because I'm sure just like anybody else, you've got to have your off days.

1050
01:14:23,840 --> 01:14:32,840
And one of your users, Nova X, asked what inspires you and how do you stay motivated?

1051
01:14:32,840 --> 01:14:41,840
OK, so the commands inspire me. So people would come to my channel and they're like, hey, Ray, you're good.

1052
01:14:41,840 --> 01:14:46,840
Don't give up. Ignore the haters and all those things. But I never ignore the haters.

1053
01:14:46,840 --> 01:14:52,840
I always address the haters nicely. With love. I will never ignore them.

1054
01:14:52,840 --> 01:14:57,840
And because I know haters hate me when they have self esteem issues.

1055
01:14:57,840 --> 01:15:02,840
So I will help them boost their self esteem. And from haters, I turn them into lovers.

1056
01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:10,840
So that kind of thing keeps me going rather than the monetary benefit.

1057
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:16,840
So it is actually the fans keep me going. Great answer.

1058
01:15:16,840 --> 01:15:24,840
Such a beautiful answer and just inspiration for everybody for the young generation.

1059
01:15:24,840 --> 01:15:30,840
Yeah, I was. Yeah, I actually had a great time talking to you today.

1060
01:15:30,840 --> 01:15:36,840
Yeah, this is actually our piano pods for very first live show.

1061
01:15:36,840 --> 01:15:41,840
So I've been so nervous the entire week. That's right.

1062
01:15:41,840 --> 01:15:45,840
We kind of decided to do this the last moment and it was exactly.

1063
01:15:45,840 --> 01:15:52,840
But it's great. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you, Ray. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

1064
01:15:52,840 --> 01:15:58,840
Keep on inspiring everyone in the world, especially during this difficult year. Right.

1065
01:15:58,840 --> 01:16:05,840
And everyone follow Ray. And so that concludes this episode of the piano pod.

1066
01:16:05,840 --> 01:16:08,840
Thank you, Ray, for coming on. And please follow the piano pod.

1067
01:16:08,840 --> 01:16:13,840
Oh, thank you so much. Yes, yes, yes. We all have to do this. That's right.

1068
01:16:13,840 --> 01:16:19,840
Thank you for our audience for listening and your questions. Yes.

1069
01:16:19,840 --> 01:16:25,840
All right. OK. And then if you enjoy today's episode, please hit the thumbs up button below.

1070
01:16:25,840 --> 01:16:35,840
Be sure to subscribe our channel and Facebook page and so forth and our new podcast and need your help getting the word out.

1071
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:39,840
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, using the links in.

1072
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:47,840
I don't know if it's going to be in description, but you'll find it in YouTube. Our channel description.

1073
01:16:47,840 --> 01:16:53,840
And of course, if you have any feedback for us, we are happy to receive it.

1074
01:16:53,840 --> 01:17:01,840
You can leave us a comment or a DM by social media and you can email us at the piano pod NYC at Gmail dot com.

1075
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:17,840
Hope to see you next time on the piano pod. Good night and good morning, everyone. Good night and good morning. Have a good day. Good morning. All right. Thank you.

1076
01:17:31,840 --> 01:17:35,840
No, no, no, no, no.