Hi friends and travelers!
This โ12 About 12โ series is simply 12 facts about 12 people who have managed to make a life of travel. Each story is broken down into four parts:
Origin: how did they start traveling?
Grind: what did they sacrifice?
Breakthrough: when did they go big?
Scale: what are they making of it now?
At the end of each email, I compress my takeaways from the traveler into one thing to remember.
Have an amazing week!
~ Atom
P.S. 12 About 12 on 12.12??? Absolutely the reason I chose 12 facts and 12 travelers.
#11
Meet adventurer, storyteller, and filmmaker Thomas Brag. ๐ซ๐ท๐ซ๐ท๐ซ๐ท
Thomas is the co-creator of Yes Theory and their clothing brand, Seek Discomfort. You may know Yes Theory as a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers (8.15M to be exact) but itโs far more than that. Itโs a full-scale digital media brand, a movement, a community, a philosophy, and ultimately, a way of life. While Thomas grew the brand up with his buddies Matt, Ammar, and Derin, Thomas is the groupโs chief traveler starring in episodes like Travelling to the Least Visited Country in the World, Dark Secrets of the Worldโs Most Isolated Island, and I Hitchhiked the World's Deadliest Train (20hrs across the Sahara)
Origins
Thomas was born in Paris, France with dyslexia that hampered his education. Up until the age of 8, he struggled to write his own name.
Nevertheless, by the grace of model teachers in his formative years, Thomas was accepted into McGill University in 2011 and eventually founded his own startup called Passion Snack in 2013.
In his final semester, Thomas took what would be a life-changing class called Marketing and Society. Two critical things happened here. First, this class taught Thomas the foundations of a YouTube channel. Second, this class introduced Thomas to The Buried Life, a reality show about four friends crossing out a list of โ100 things to do before they dieโ and helping strangers do the same.
Grind
In June 2015, an inspired and restless Thomas came up with Project 30. His idea was simple: do 30 things his friends and family strongly advised him not to do. . . in 30 days. In the process, he met Matt, Ammar, and Derin who all decided to drop everything to finish the challenge.
Day 1: you canโt be an artist (make a painting and sell it to an art gallery)
Day 6: youโll never be a superhero (walked around in superhero costumes)
Day 8: men donโt get waxed (got waxed)
Day 11: you canโt raise $500 in a day (raised $500 in 24 hours)
Day 21: Mondays suck (gave roses on Monday)
Day 22: the mayor is too busy to meet you (create a secret handshake with the Mayor)
By the end of the month, the group managed to round up 2,000 subscribers. They changed their name to 'Generation Y Not,โ turned down $100,000 in seed funding for their start-up, and fully committed to the cause.
The group shared a one-bedroom apartment with other friends, did odd side jobs, and created videos in their spare time.
After โ4 months of pure financial struggle,โ the group received a pitch from Snapchat to leave Montreal to make videos in Venice Beach California. With a budget for only one video, the group approached the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, for a Christmas card, which they sold for charity with proceeds going to Syrian refugees.
The video went viral and Yes Theory was awarded a budget extension to make 30 more videos, which they created by โchasing the summerโ in the Caribbean. Between 2016 and 2017, the groupโs time was spent making videos for Brother and their own channel.
Breakthrough
But 2018 was their year. They hit one million subscribers on YouTube, ended their contract with Brother, launched an apparel line called Seek Discomfort, and celebrated Will Smithโs 50th birthday by bungee jumping out of a helicopter with him.
Scale
In February 2019, their first feature-length documentary called Frozen Alive was released. The film followed a 4-day visit to Poland with endurance athlete Wim Hof.
Since then Thomas has expanded the brandโs content to include even more long-form documentaries in the form of 96 Hours Inside Afghanistan in 2020 and Hunting Nepalโs Mad Honey That Makes You Hallucinate - HONEY HUNTERS.
In December 2022, Project Iceman, a documentary about Anders Hofman attempting to complete the first Ironman Triathlon in Antarctica, was released. What makes this unique? Well, not only was it their first film to be released in theaters but it was also funded entirely by NFTs (the group turned down a $1.25 million investment offer in order to maintain creative freedom over the film).
THE ONE THING
Say no so you can say yes to yourself.
โIf you say yes to everything, youโre not actually saying yes to anything. Because youโre not prioritizing anythingโฆ [When you put up your hand to say no] you say no here [to whatโs in front of you], but you say yes to yourself. . .
I think thatโs a powerful thing to remember. . . Making sure thereโs a deep sense of integrity to every decision. . .
Saying no doesnโt mean itโs the end of your career or the end of your life. . . Youโre just showing you respect yourself and your own intuition.โ
โ Thomas Brag
Wait what?
Yet the more I think about it the more sense it makes. Itโs the ultimate irony coming from the โYes Guys,โ but who better a messenger?
Thomas himself turned down $100,000 to spend 4 months living in his friendโs one-bedroom apartment chasing down this dream. They werenโt mentioned too much here but co-founderes Ammar, Matt, and Derin turned down just as much too to complete Project 30. Saying yes to what matters requires saying no to what doesnโt. (Obviously). (Think Iโm dumb?).
I hate to sound cliche but Iโm repeating this more for myself than anyone else. At the moment, Iโm sending this email out at another incredibly late time because I failed to exercise my nos earlier this week.
Looking forward to my goal to visit 81 provinces before I leave for Australia in 2024 I see that a life of travel is a life of perfectly-timed, generously-allocated, polite nos. To travel means means to say no to parties all your friends will be at, to the luxury of having a wardrobe of clothes to choose from, and to the security of a predictable work-life routine.
If you want more from Thomas then you may check out Yes Theory on YouTube.
Other sources:
FROM DYSLEXIA TO 7M - THE STORY OF THOMAS BRAG, Drew Binsky
Finally telling the story of HOW WE MET, Yes Theory
A Very Honest Conversation with Yes Theory, Colin and Samir
About, Yes Theory
Travelerโs Corner
(โTravelerโs Cornerโ is a compilation of photos from other folks subscribed to this newsletter. In Travel Notes 000 I asked for photos from your own reckless adventures and got amazing responses. I promised to start this week with one of my own but weโll work our way through your photos over the months. This is a crazy group and Iโm immensely grateful to be on this journey with you. Feel free to send one in if you havenโt already.)
Want to make my own โ100 things to do before they dieโ too!!! this is so cool!!