 What's going on everybody welcome back to a very special video today. We have Kenji on here Kenji is a youtuber extraordinaire data scientist entrepreneur inspire and a close personal friend He's one of the first content creators in this niche a pioneer in the space a potential America's next top model Everybody please welcome Kenji. Thank you for being here Thank you for having me Alex. Yeah You know, we're doing this like really unique thing where a bunch of the youtubers in this space are getting together Making videos doing interviews and you are like top of my list. I mean, I was just really excited to have you on I have a lot of I would say unique questions because I feel like most people know who you are most people have seen your channel. I Sent people to your channel as well. And so I feel like on the data side most people know who you are, right? But hopefully in this interview, I want to ask some more like personal very personal questions And just see what see where it goes see where it leads us If we only answer one question that leads us down a great rabbit hole. I'm ready to go for that journey Sounds great. I am hopefully an open book. So let's do it to it. Awesome So before we get started for anybody who does not know who Kenji is he's a great youtuber I'll let you speak to yourself for just a little you know a minute if you want to and then we'll get going Yeah, sure. So my name is Kenji I make data science related content on YouTube on LinkedIn on medium on across a bunch of these platforms My mission is to help make data science more accessible to everyone Whether that's through a talking head video through tutorial or through any type of fun goofy type of skit or other type of content like that Awesome. Yeah, and go check out his YouTube channel. It's fantastic. I'm sure you guys have already done that But if you haven't go check them out You know, I've seen so many of your videos I've seen videos with you with a lot of different people your dad like all these other people And so I'm I'm curious, you know, who has inspired you the most just like in your career and just in your life in general I'd have to say myself Okay, this is taking taking your turn, you know, it's interesting. I draw inspiration from Everyone that I interact with on a day-to-day basis so I see a lot of content like the like the content you produce like Tina produces like Forrest Knight over here produces and I think to me seeing what everyone else is doing helps me to innovate helps me to get up each day and want to Build and create more interesting stuff and educational stuff I also draw quite a lot of inspiration from the people who are tuning into my content Whether it's the podcast or whether it's my YouTube channel because they're the best feedback mechanism that I could possibly have They're telling me Essentially if the things that I'm doing are working if they're good If they're not so good if I'm making like a cringy thumbnail face and it's not a brand Yeah, they'll let me know and I've gotten really I'd like to think really good over time at Looking at all feedback whether it's criticism or whether it's praise and looking at it fairly objectively Yeah, and trying to integrate that into everything I do and saying is this something that would make the quality of What I produce better would it create more value for people and if not maybe I should stop doing some things and start doing others Sure. Well, okay, so like that's how you know, you find some inspiration through YouTube What about like outside of YouTube? Is there like a single person or or somebody in your life that's like, you know You feel like has helped you become who you are today So I am an avid reader. I've read quite a few books And I think if you're talking about like mentorship or individual inspiration you can get the Condensed work of someone's essentially entire life in a book that you can read in a couple hours and to me That's so powerful. So a couple that have been really valuable for me one I find really inspiring is Awaken the giant within by Tony Robbins. That was one that made a really big impact on my life Essentially, it makes you go through and audit your value system audit a lot of the the ways you approach things and it helps you to Reconcile any conflicts that you have between your values and so an example that would be I might value Freedom but I might also value family quite a bit right and those two in some sense are a little bit conflicting Right if I want ultimate freedom a family means you probably can't travel as much means you can't do some of these other things Right, but but you know like if I want both of those things I have to figure out how to work those together And if I don't think about how those things work together in my life that causes stress or conflict or some of those other things Yep Some other books. I thought really interesting or other I guess like people or figures. I thought really interesting so I went to the University of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson is like quite Quite relevant there he founded the school and I read his one of his biographies and I found it fascinating How well read ever like essentially the elites of that time period where they're always like Working on things. They knew so many different languages They had all these things and that was largely because there was absolutely nothing else to do aside from learn and read and think right and to me That's really inspiring. We're such a consumption culture where it's just like I'm gonna browse Instagram I'm gonna have all these things like talking at me It would be really cool to tap into that sort of like boredom that they used to have that would inspire you to be to like read or to learn or consume information because I feel like that's something we're like we're losing a little bit and I want to try to Steal back a little bit of that in my life. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, when you're talking about Tony Robbins The first thing that came to my mind is like he's he's it one. He's Really, he's a very neat person But to my wife is like a huge showing Robins fan Have you would you ever go to like one of his like seminars or one of his like? You know like two week long camps that he has Probably not no One of my friends did and he said it was like an awesome Life-changing everyone like the energy in the room those types of things. Yeah, my Personal development journey is a little bit more like private to me. I got I share the things I'm working I share what my aspirations and goals are but I really enjoy the process of introspection just like reading and thinking and journaling and going through and sort of Creating that map for myself, right? I don't I'm like very motivated to begin with I think and me being around other people isn't going to make me more likely to make a Change if I want to make a change. It's like I'm doing it today, right going at it Hardcore no that makes perfect sense Tony Robbins is definitely like it's an energy thing like you know He's like if you're around people and you motivate yourself and you make it happen like it's definitely I totally understand that The next one is a little slightly different which is You know who knows you the best out of anybody that you know and and how would they describe you? Who knows me the best I probably say my dad knows me the best. I talk with him quite a bit. He shares like Some sense of philosophy. I mean he's sort of beat into me from a young age that You want to work for yourself, right? I mean he was a he was a doctor or he's an oral surgeon I guess but he owned his own practice and that was like very freeing for him Right and that's something that for some reason always stuck with me with everything I do and in some sense I work for myself now. Yeah What would he say about me? Yeah, how would he how would he describe you? I know I'm trying to think I how he described me to my face for how he described me to totally different Totally different. I believe that because I've seen some of the videos that he's been on and he's got he's a personality I like him a lot. Yeah, my dad is a character Um, he'd probably say that I have Big dreams and I'm a little bit rash Um to my face in terms of like like fatherly judgment, right? I think to his friends he'd say that In some sense, he's proud of what I've created and that I'm very like I'm very much an independent thinker And if there's something I want I am very willing to go after it. Yeah Um, he'd also say that he would always tell me this like he's like When I would do something like dad, I want to get a tattoo, which I never did. He's like, I don't have to wear it And that's his philosophy and all these things like you can do it like it's not my life Yeah, it's your life, but I'm gonna make fun of you if it goes south That's that's a wise advice right there. Yeah, I always think it's interesting because the people who know you like the best You know, you can be a hundred people out there who are like watching it like I don't like Kenji I was one of those people But no, like the person knows you the best, you know, how they describe you That usually has like the biggest meaning or like has the most truth to it Yeah, but I mean that's great that you are an independent thinker and do that stuff because I mean It's hard to do that in today's world. Yeah, I can also go sometimes Yeah, well, you have to be very self-motivated for sure absolutely My next question and this is One that I've I I thought about myself a lot Because you know people watch our content, but that doesn't mean they necessarily know who we are And so what do you think is the thing that people misunderstand about you the most? I think Maybe it's around my content a lot of things I produce I do all these things because I enjoy them Right. I mean, yes, there is some some income and those types of things that come from it But I don't do anything that I don't have full interest in and full passion for So you think people think they have a misunderstanding that you're doing it for like either Money or fame or whatever. No, I think they might have a misconception that I'm doing it because I like have to do it Oh, right, right. Like I'm doing it because you reached a certain point. Yeah, this is a creative endeavor for me This is something where I want to experiment. I want to explore Um, and you know, there's some things that people ask me to do that. I just simply don't want to do and I'm not going to do it It's like, hey, make this type of video. I'm like, ah, it's like really boring for me. I'm not going to do that I'm not going to put it out there. I also do get immense joy out of creating value for people So there is that trade-off like I'll sometimes make a video or that I'm like, I'm okay excited about this But everyone else is super excited about this and I want to jump on that um And so I think that that's that's maybe something that Is a misconception about a lot of creators because I think everyone views it a little bit differently Yeah, yeah, I've gotten the same feedback of you know, people are like You know, he's just doing it now for this. I'm like, yeah, that's not true. So I've I've I've I can understand that Then you know that thought it kind of it sucks because you know, you don't want to go and make a video about it Like a post about it because nobody cares like nobody's gonna care about it. But um, yeah, super interesting All right next question Your channel has grown incredibly fast and people obviously like you and your content. Why do you think You've grown faster than other channels who create similar content So something I started out with when I was like really early in my youtube journey was that every video I would Try to work on one specific thing to improve upon so maybe it was When I would stop speaking I would just like cut and like I needed to add a little pause after to Make sure that there's like a gap in the video, right? Right, and so it doesn't it looks like a clean cut rather than a messy cut Or maybe I'd try a different camera angle or I'd try to like set up the background differently Or I would try to say um one last time when I'm talking something things only those There's a steady Improvement cycle that I would try to make and I think that that paid dividends early on I would also say that not that many people were making the style of content that I was making early on And I had a massive advantage then so I mean now everyone's making really good content There's a lot of people in the space. Yeah, and I think it's a lot harder to break in with the content that I was making back then Like it just wouldn't cut it. It's just not good compared to what other people are doing, right? Yeah, I hear you For sure. And so I think that that's something that you know a combination of luck and and some some good things um I would also say that I really enjoy community. I enjoy collaboration I've I work really hard to bring people together and try and work with as many people in the space as possible Yeah, and I think that that That helps perpetuate any of the things that I produce. Yeah, I don't do it because of that But it's a really nice positive Outcome from connecting with people and and helping like promote their content and getting them out there as well Yeah, I I see this domain of content or or any business really In the digital space I don't look at as cannibalistic, right? If if my name is on someone else's show and their name is on my show We both reach each other's audience and it's like one plus one equals three Rather than just like, you know, I'm not taking anything from them It's an additive space and I think that that's like one of the coolest things and that's one of the reasons why You know, we started these trips We started the learn media agencies because we can bring people together Together we have sort of collecting collective bargaining power to work with sponsors. We also have this sort of Like launchpad to to come together and work on ideas work on content work on a lot of these other things And to me, that's that's something that Like that's unbelievably rewarding I gotta be a part of all this other content even if i'm not directly involved That makes me really happy. Yeah, you were like one of the first people that I ever connected with my channel is really small like 30,000 40,000 subscribers So I remember that was like two years ago when we probably like connected and so Yeah, I mean the community aspects. I totally agree with I also think that, you know, what you were saying about making improvements That's well, that's one area I need to work on but I think, you know, it's an area that A lot of people Don't take as much time in they're like, hey, I'm doing it. I'm at least putting something out there But yeah, it's to kind of scale it and make it better and make those those steady improvements You know, you kind of have to do if you want to excel and continue to get better Yeah, oh, I think something that was really valuable to me was those small incremental ones It's like I'm gonna work on one thing this video. Yeah, and I'm trying to get better at that I see a lot of people they spend so much time just like Absolutely working so hard on everything on a video trying to make it perfect And like the fact of the matter is, you know, I have what like 200 videos on youtube more than that If I put like that much stress on myself on each video, I probably wouldn't have that many And that's okay. I mean some people make a video a month and absolutely crush it That's not, you know, I guess I made one video in the last month But you know, that wasn't how I really used to like to do things Now I'm kind of really trying to hone in on making the highest quality content possible and sort of Focus on just like making fewer videos that are a little bit more meaningful to me But, you know, everyone has to find their own their own Their own mode of operation So Something I think a lot of people have asked me. I'm sure have asked you is Are you considering or thought about quitting your like full-time job because you still have a full-time job Like I do have you thought about quitting and doing youtube or content full-time and or like starting your own Business or something surrounding like the data world So I've never been asked that you've never been I was I was like, come on So honestly, no, I love my like more full-time work minutes in sports I get an unprecedented level of access and just really cool experiences from that And it's something I think I'll always do. I mean to be honest. I don't always work like full full time doing that It's something that Fortunately, I have a ton of flexibility Sometimes of the year it's really busy. Sometimes of the year it's fairly light right now It's very busy and that's why I haven't been producing a ton of content But at the same time I also think it helps me keep Sharp and helps me to have some additional credibility when I do produce content Like I don't have any vision or dreams of being a youtuber. Right. I think that that's a part of what I do It's a part of the portfolio of things that that I have out there but I would like youtube to be a fundamental component of Being like a entrepreneur or a business person. Yeah that is putting stuff out there And I you know, I've started a couple of businesses related to you know, I have some courses I obviously have just normal youtube content taking sponsors We've started learn media, which is where we have brought a lot of these creators together and we're able to serve them A lot of sponsorship opportunities. Yeah, we're looking to get into events. We're also hosting things like this and I'd like to see that Continue to grow to be honest though I've been off more than I could chew this year and I'm trying to dial it back a little bit next year trying to catch up Yeah, I'm next year. I would really like to start to like dial it back. I really want to focus on the podcast That's one of my favorite things to do I get to have an hour hour and a half long conversation with an incredibly interesting person every week sometimes more than one person each week, right And I would do that even if I wasn't recording it But the nice thing is I get to record it and other people can listen to it and I can also In some sense make a little bit of income from that And I like what more would you want like connecting with people Like learning something asking people who are interesting really specific questions that you care about Um, I went down that rabbit hole a long way, but obviously I'm pretty passionate about it. No, that's great. I I feel like And maybe you don't have the exact same viewpoint for me It's like if I quit and I don't if I do youtube full-time I kind of would feel somewhat out of touch if I didn't have I need I need something to like root me a little bit in The data world in some way whether I quit my full-time job or I stay in it Like I need something to root me in that world because if I get out of it and just do youtube It would be like I'd fall behind. I feel like I'd fall behind Yeah, I I think it can be done And I have a couple friends who have 100% done that And I think the way to to stay rooted is to work on things to have projects to do part-time work I mean, you know, I look at my main work, you know, it's full-time part-time And so if I need to dial it back, I can if I need to start Um You know picking up more of that I can as well And so I like I don't look at it as like a real job because I have a lot of control over my hours And the stuff that I work on. Yeah And I think a situation like that is kind of ideal Yeah, that's super nice though because the flexibility is if you don't have that type of flexibility You can't really do this type of stuff. Yeah, like it's super important. All right. So I only have two more questions And the last one's really serious Kind of and then the other one's not so serious. Okay. The first one, which is more serious one is in 10 years you look back and you know You've seen everything that you've created in the next 10 years even on top of what you've already done What do you want people to remember you by what do you want people to see you as at that time? So I'd like people to see me as someone who created value in a community And Created much more value than I actually got out of it. I would like to get a lot of value out of it but I would still like to Be able to produce so much more than than any of those things I mean I started all of this on youtube, which is completely free platform I've worked really hard for any of the educational content that I produce that's paid To be at a price point that it should be accessible to almost anyone. I also give away a ton of those things I have the podcast where people are coming in and Talking about their experience giving these really unique case studies about their work or their life experience To help people maybe digest some of the things they're going through Whether it's with happiness, whether it's with their job, whether it's if they want to break into a career like this And so to me a lot of that is focused on like free or low cost education On the other side of that. I obviously want to live comfortably. There are things I want I don't have any like super lavish taste. I don't really like my car. I like baby food I love to eat like some crazy stuff. Sure. I'd love to have like maybe like a Farm or orchard somewhere. Yeah, so I'll be sipping Some tea at my orchard looking back thinking about wow, I hope You know people gotten to data through some of the things that I've created. Yeah, and they've made incredible advancements that I wasn't capable of Right, I mean I'll be the first to tell you I'm not like the greatest data scientist in the world Like maybe like 75th percentile at best But hopefully, you know, there's a possibility that some of the things that I produce Inspire someone who might be that like 99th percentile data scientist So it's like advancing advancing data science as a whole Helping people get into it who maybe wouldn't have had had access to it without or might not even known about it Or any of those types of things and you know, to me, I think data and and this This space is going to be something that transforms the world In the short term, it's kind of been negatively with a bunch of social media stuff But in the long term, I think it is something that can have a tremendous positive effect And if I can play a small role through the education process of that, that would be very meaningful to me Or a big process I mean a big part of it because who knows in like 10 years in the history books will be like, you know This guy named Kenji like sparked this fight You know, you never know, right? But in 10 years, you know, that's I think that's a really good Outlook to have right just giving back to the community so that the community can grow And be better through your content and and your community that you've built I like that. You know, one thing I want to say is I'm pretty clear about this Um, a lot of people are like, oh, I'm doing this just for the good of people and whatever Like it's selfish like like it makes me feel good To know that that might be a possibility, right? And I I I always want to remind people that it's okay To say that it's okay to be like that. I mean, obviously I like I want to create value and do those other things But why do I want to do that? It's not because I inherently care about all this humanity It's because Like me contributing You know, it scratches the edge inside of me and and like that's an okay motivation for a lot of these things Yeah, I'm on the same boat. It's like it just feels good to make the content and and help You know, it definitely feels good for for me. I mean, that's not a bad thing, right? Yeah, exactly But you know, I think some people are they look at creators and they look at people in a space and they're like Oh, they're like, you know, they're they're so um, oh my goodness. What's what's the word for? for charity they're so giving giving or they're so Um, I can't remember philanthropic philanthropic. That's the one I was looking for And I don't think that that has to be the case for you to create value or to do good things in the world And you know, people get wrapped in this this trap of like am I a good person or am I a bad person? because I don't have these motives um and You know, it's just not how the world works like inherently It bothers me when people are just like, I'm doing it for the good of the world. Like, I mean nothing I will sacrifice the least things Like you're doing it because it makes you feel good and you're not talking about that. Um, and so I don't know why I went on that No, I mean, it's good. I mean that that is as a on a broader sense very true because You know for most people It's a good thing to feel good when you're doing something good for other people Because then it motivates you to do it more and and it gives you a drive and a passion to do more of it Because if it was always for other people and then you felt like empty inside, I mean, they would not be fun. Yeah Why would you continue to do it? so my very last question and If you haven't seen ken's channel, you should check it out, but there's There's something that I always see on the channel. I'm always I To be honest, I'm confused by it because I don't know the background I haven't seen the episode where you talked about it. But like What's with the papayas? Like, is there a backstory to this? What papaya? You know the papayas i'm talking about I just I I've seen it so many times and you'll like put it as little snippets in your videos I'm like there has to be some story or Something behind it that I'm missing because I still don't understand it. I live in hawaii. They're papayas everywhere. They're delicious Well, yes, that's and that's it. No all this so the hawaii uh The hawaii sunrise papaya Is significantly better than any other papaya like in in like the continental us Yeah, so most of the papayas in the continental us come from mexico or the mexican red papaya. Okay, and they're sort of like They're not good. They have sort of like a funky smell and taste. Okay. The the hawaii sunrise papaya Has it's like very sweet. There's no like funkiness. It's almost Similar to like a cantaloupe almost but a little bit more tender a little bit more sweet It's quite delicious. Okay, so you like you like the fruit, but why why isn't on the channel all the time? Oh, you have to spread awareness It's like a really important thing. It's just it's just um, you know, you're putting it out there for people to learn about Yeah, I mean it's it's a very important thing that no one is talking about. Is it like an endangered? Are you doing like donations to like charities for papayas? I think that that's part of the fun though, right? Like I make these videos I get a half creative control. I get to put like every warm in it, right? Yeah, papayas Why not and so like it's also I mean if you think about it It also has some like subculture It also adds like this weird context that people like asking about it like me and yeah, if people know they know, right? and so it's it's like You know a fun way to to create a more tight-knit community and and to like To inspire people to ask or to be confused or you know, it's a little it's a little mysterious almost exactly What is he doing? Why is he doing this? See? I need something like that on my channel I just I don't have anything like that. I need like something I eat. I'm just gonna take um an orange And then you'll have to watch this exactly eat it with the peel on just Well, so you know kiwis with the peel on messes with people and the thing is That it's actually healthier to eat kiwis with the peel on. I've never done it. It's a little bit sour The texture is good. You think it's going to be fuzzy and weird, but it's not interesting I in grad school. I would just sit in the front row of class and just Like I don't know why I thought it's funny to like intimidate the professors Because I was also that's a power trip right now. Yeah, one of like I was like one of the best students in the class I don't know. I'm like some weird psychological issues But I would sit there and I would just like eat an entire apple including the core and just have a look at them in their eyes You stare at them Yeah, and then like yeah exactly and then like I'm like you're like Because I you know I teach now and I'm like what what would I do if the kid is doing this in the front row of the lecture What I like lose my would I like lose it laughing or but Yeah, I just want to make it like a lighter or like make people think and it's funny I mean it is funny because every time I watch I'm like that is so stupid. Like I don't get it Like what is going on? Oh now it makes sense. Yeah, all right. I I for the lower Yeah, exactly. We need we need to other people outside of just your channel need to learn the context of this and then they get Invested in it and then when they watch it, they're like, I know what that's from I'm one of the few Well, thank you so much for doing this of you super appreciate you are just a huge inspiration to a lot of people out there Including myself like when I was first starting I I tried to mimic some of your like style But uh, now I have my own style. I don't need your inspiration to me too. Yeah So I mean, I guess the takeaway from this is I just don't need you anymore Later All right guys. Well, thank you guys so much for watching go and check out ken's channel he has tons of videos and interviews on his KNN podcast as well as just kenji on his youtube channel, so Go and check him out. Thank you guys so much for watching Ken, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. All right Bright data