Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Edwards
Hi Jake, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I studied media production in school at UW-Madison, with a focus on film. I learned how to script, film, and edit videos thinking that at some point I would go to work for some in-house marketing team. That said, I’ve always had a fascination with YouTube and in my off time I learned a lot about how monetization works on the platform, what makes for engaging content, and how to manage a community. Most of it was by listening to some of the biggest names in the video game space, chiefly John Bane (TotalBiscuit who has since passed). To this day I credit him as one of my biggest inspirations. He blended humor and critique together with a level of honesty and transparency that was uncommon at the time.
When I moved down to Texas in 2016 after graduation I went to work for a Newmark Knight Frank (now just Newmark) producing 360 degree virtual tours for commercial clients like Sprint, Conn’s Home Plus, AT&T and others. I bought my first motorcycle, a Harley – Davidson Street 750, as a way to save money. I was parking in the garage on 5th and Brazos which cost me over $300 a month and I couldn’t expense it, motorcycles can park for free in Austin. The bike cost me $150 a month and at the end of the loan I’d own it. I bought that bike in December of 2016. I had never ridden before and I bought the bike before I even knew how to ride. I bundled in a Rider’s Academy course into the purchase of the bike and I think I paid somewhere around 13% interest at the time since I didn’t know what I was doing. It was the first vehicle I had ever purchased and looking back the dealership took me for a ride.
Motorcycling is a lot like a drug addiction. It starts with one ride, then it ends in spending thousands of dollars on new bikes, new gear and all sorts of events and I have a very addictive personality. I got into watching a ton of motorcycling content on YouTube from channels like Revzilla, Chase On Two Wheels, Shadetree Surgeon and Yammie Noob. I even joined Yammie Noob’s patreon and became a moderator on his discord server (which is where the moniker Spite comes from – had I known that it was going to become the name of my business later on down the line I would have thought about it a little harder). Eventually Yammie Noob relocated to Austin and needed some help editing, and I volunteered as a remote editor. After a few months of part time work while I was at Newmark, he brought me in to help film content for his various giveaway bikes. This was November of 2019.
When Covid hit, I got laid off from Newmark and Yammie Noob hired me on as his first W2 employee with full benefits. We moved out of his garage in the Northshore building on Cesar Chavez to a space up on Metric. I worked with him for three years producing a video a day. We grew from 300K subscribers to over a million, and during that time my responsibilities grew from just editing and helping produce the videos to scripting, scheduling, filming both behind and in front of the camera (often both at the same time), editing and managing a team of remote editors and on-site production personnel, uploading to the channel, creating titles and thumbnails, and doing analytical deep dives to see what made a video a success or a failure. During those three years I learned and honed all the skills needed to make not only a good YouTube video, but a good channel. We worked with manufacturers from Harley – Davidson, Ducati, Triumph, Royal Enfield, MV Agusta, and Zero as well as Motovation USA (now Motovation Accessories) located out in Pflugerville. They’re the US distributor for SC Project, a major Italian exhaust manufacturer. They also sell a variety of high end aftermarket parts.
I was laid off from Yammie Noob in September of 2022 and applied to a few positions while working on my own personal channel, which I had dabbled with a few times since producing my first videos in 2018. Most of those videos are set to private, but if you look, I made a handful of videos covering a game called Elite: Dangerous, a space flight simulator which actually saw moderate success. I made a few motorcycle videos but they didn’t see any traction until September 13th, when I made a video talking about Kawasaki’s hybrid bike. That coincided with a video we filmed on Yammie Noob talking about my departure, and an influx of 50,000 subscribers in less than 24 hours.
I hit the ground running, taking my skills and whatever gear I could cobble together to make some videos, but when I saw the channel starting to make real money, I invested nearly $10,000 in new cameras, gear, and tools to professionalize the channel. I hit 100K subscribers by December of 2022 and have been slowly growing month over month and I’ve grown my network of industry contacts. I’ve continued to work with Harley, I’ve done work with Honda Powersports, CFMOTO, and Royal Enfield. I’ve also worked closely with AF1 Racing, Aprilia and Moto Guzzi. My garage has grown from one Harley in 2016 to an eclectic collection of eight bikes including: 2006 Honda CBR600F4i, 2003 Honda CB900F, 1998 Yamaha Vmax, 2023 Solar E-clipse 2.0, 2013 Moto Guzzi Griso, 2023 KTM 690 Enduro R, 2022 Kawasaki KLR650, and a 2022 RPS Hawk 250 all of which I ride and make content with.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I had no idea how to run a business, and to a certain extent I still don’t. I usually solve problems when I encounter them.
My first tax year was a nightmare, and my second was only marginally better. I’m hoping that 2024 will be a little smoother, but being the only person involved in filming and scheduling makes some of the long-term business stuff hard for me to manage.
I will happily admit to being a decent video maker and a horrible business owner.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My main focus is on motorcycles. I have lived, ate, and breathed bikes for the last eight years and in that time I’ve ridden hundreds of bikes. I keep a spreadsheet of all the bike’s I’ve ridden and at this point I have ridden almost every street motorcycle from every manufacturer that are currently in production.
My channel covers everything on two wheels meaning I don’t focus on one aspect of motorcycling. I cover street bikes, off-road and adventure riding, grand touring, track day riding, as well as industry news and rumors. I like to keep things fresh, which often means that some of the videos perform worse than I would like, as my audience is mostly a 25-40 year old street focused rider. However, regardless of the context I make videos that I would want to watch. My favorite video that I have ever produced for the channel: https://youtu.be/d_XAhPhK6bc was a five day single track ride through some of the hardest trails in Canada. It was a grueling experience, but I had so much fun filming and riding, and I hired a remote editor who could bring the vision to reality. It represents the kind of video I’d love to make more of going forward, but time will tell.
I think what sets me apart from others is how wide I cast my net. Most other channels find a niche and stick to it. For example Dork In The Road, who has become a great friend this last year, focuses entirely on Adventure riding, and specifically tailors his content towards beginners. Shadetree Surgeon, another great friend I’ve made, represents the chaotic neutral in motovlogging community, and is a real character. His content is more lifestyle stuff with a motorcycling theme. Her Two Wheels and I have worked together a lot and her main focus is on Harley touring content. Jake the Garden Snake is one of the original motorcycle content creators from back before the ad-pocalypse, and he makes a lot of videos working on bikes in his garage. I do all of that and no matter what I try to have fun and make the best possible piece of content for the audience.
My tentpole content would be my review series which I call “A Day In The Saddle” where I get my hands on a motorcycle, ride it for a day and give my thoughts on it. They’re the most popular videos, and I try to cover as many different kinds of bikes as possible.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I got my start in a very odd way. I never had to build a channel from the ground up. I had the audience before I had videos ready for them. Usually it’s the other way around.
What I would say is, for every day you spend filming, editing, planning, etc. you need to spend a day working on the business. Managing expenses, thinking about the future, and not getting so stuck in the weeds of day to day work. That’s my biggest struggle. I usually can’t see past the next video, let alone to FY25. As a result I spend a lot of time scrambling to catch up with myself.
As far as making videos, I would say just jump in and do it. Take what you love from the videos you watch and put your own spin on it. I took TotalBiscuit’s WTF Is? concept and applied it to bikes which became the Day In The Saddle series, and with YouTube in particular, don’t be afraid to follow a trend. If you see a title or thumbnail style preforming well for other channels, try it on your own. Keep evolving your presentation without abandoning what your audience loves.
Lastly, the biggest piece of advice I received from Shadetree Surgeon that has become a guiding principle of how I make my videos is “make a video you want to watch.” I watch every single video that goes live on the channel from my own personal account and look for mistakes or ways to change but also because I enjoy them. I will occasionally go back and watch some of my old content just for fun, to relive some experiences that I had.
Pricing:
- Content is free on YouTube
- Optional crowd funding is available on patreon
- Members on patreon receive early access to videos as well as exclusive content only available there
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spites_corner/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@spitescorner
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/spitescorner
Image Credits
The shot of me on the blue bike in the white race suit is from Hart Photography.
The shot of me on the red sport bike was provided by Honda Powersports USA
All others are mine.
