A New Era in Digital Entertainment: From Backyard Battles to Global Stardom with Dude Perfect’s Garrett Hilbert. Part 2 of 2

Welcome to the excellence culture. I'm Matt Bros with locked in and I am really excited about the guests that we have today. He's become a good friend of mine. He's become a household name, actually, all through out the country. And if you know anything about Dude Perfect, you would be really excited about who we're talking to today. It's Garrett Hilbert, Garrett, thanks a lot for, being here. Thanks for having me. These people might know me as the purple hoser. I feel like they're there's a whole world from O nine nine to twenty twenty, twenty nineteen I could talk about. Yeah. But what's happened since twenty nineteen till now is I you wouldn't believe it. Yeah. So, I mean, it's like, it's like we started over and we launched a whole new thing, and it's even bigger. And that's only been the last one. Yeah. There's been so much. It seems like. I mean, just and I and I see it through my kids. Right? And so you've got everything that you're doing on the channel, but then the tour, I mean, just was the rocket. Yeah. Right? Our business manager at the time, Ty's dad, and Corey had a, you know, they always had this vision of a live tour. And I was like, I never see it. You know, I was like, I I just don't I mean, we we don't make it on the first try. Like, I know I know people know that, but maybe some people don't know that, but we don't. We don't make it on the first try, some we do. But Yeah. So I was like, I don't I don't wanna gonna do on, you know, on tour. And they come up with a really compelling energetic, like, tour. And we we went on our first one, and I or after the first san our first show was in San Diego. This was twenty nineteen? This was twenty nineteen. Okay. Our first show is San Diego. And we did our pre show VIP that day. That day, we still didn't have the show the show ironed out. It was it was pretty stressful. And a guy walked up and pre show VIP named Jeremy Camp. And he's a, Christian Christian. He's a Christian musician. It has a insane story. Yeah. He does. I mean, I don't know what happened in that. Like, I just felt like calming, like, sense of, like, okay. Like, god's, obviously, has this, and, like, we're gonna be okay. Dude, after that show was, like, he was like, wow. You know, that was, like, incredible. Yeah. Like, we really, it was, it was a lot, and we obviously have improved on it a lot. But, it, it really, it was a leap of faith, and it own sense of, like, you know, everything we do is behind the camera, you know, close doors kinda thing. And to, like, put it out in the public was it was a vulnerable thing, but it was, like, It was cool to, like, we we always talk about, we don't really get to see the impact that Duke Perfect has. Yeah. We hear about it, and it's, it's very humbling. Yeah. We, we love it, but we, we never get to really see it. Mhmm. But on tour, we get to see it. And it's, It's such a grounding experience, just knowing like, man, a lot of these kids look up to us. Like, we have We carry a burden, but it's a good one. You know, it's a it's a good one to share positivity and, you know, love in the world where, like, our world is so just kinda messed up right now. And, so it's fun. Letting your kids on YouTube is a carry thing. Right? And -- Yeah. -- and I don't know how the algorithms are, and I probably don't necessarily care to, but Well, none of us know how they algorithm. I don't even know. So I wish I did. But my kids have enjoyed watching you guys. There's maybe another a couple other things that we kinda keep track of it. And to be honest, I mean, them following you guys, I feel like has allowed YouTube to somewhat be safe because they don't get a whole lot of other, I guess maybe that's the way the algorithm works, but Yeah. I guess I'm saying that, but I'm also saying, kinda, thank you. Right? Yeah. Well, I understand it. It's, Yeah. You know, Like I, like, we were talking earlier, like, everyone has a device that they film, and can throw up on YouTube, and there's not really, like, a screening process. Per se. And so, yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of junk out on YouTube. And there are some other I mean, we're not the only, you know, good wholesome clean content on YouTube. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff out there. But, yeah, I mean, I was just watching YouTube the other day, and, you know, my kids are they dude perfect fan. So, you know, and there was, like, this, like, horror movie, right before a video. And it's just, like, it's an ad. You can't control them. We try to. Yeah. But, you know, at the end of the day, like, that content will get out there and, it's tough. But, like, yeah, we we Why didn't you why don't you sign up for the no ad version of YouTube? Yeah. You would think I did it for free. But I don't. Yeah. So, no, you know, we we actually have some big things in the works right now. We're actually launching, our own app in about a month. Wow. So when you log on, like Roku or Apple TV, there'll be a dude perfect app there. And, it's, all safe ads and, our content and some other content that we're gonna put on. And, That's great, man. Yeah. It's a big it's a big step for us. So we're pretty excited. Well, I'm kinda surprise that it's taken this long too. Yeah. You know what? I mean, I'm very grateful for YouTube. Always, you know, yeah, they they helped us get to where we are. I mean, I'm they'll never say a lot of bad things about YouTube. There are some things that, you know, I don't necessarily like. But that's how, you know, I don't there's a lot of people in world, so just because one person doesn't like it. But, no, they've they've been great to us, and we're still gonna put our content on YouTube. It's just it's is a it is a safer option on the app. So we because we can control it. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Okay. So excellence culture. We're talking about just the, you know, the idea of excellence. Right. And, for the more I get to know you, I I feel like you're someone who's drawn to things that are excellent, you know, whether that's an experience, whether that's food. I've just, and who's not at the same time. Right? So how how would you just in in your world. If you're thinking about people who are pursuing excellence, how would you kinda define that? I know it's kind of a loaded question, but Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, I feel like I I gotta, you know, give credit to the other four guys and and dude perfect when it comes to, you know, excellent culture that they have kind of helped shape at at dude perfect. I you know, there's there's a couple things that, you know, and that's what I was saying earlier, like, we are all so different. And we all bring such different vectives to do perfect, but they're they're not a difference that that doesn't gel. It it gels because there are some differences that don't kinda go together and -- Yeah. -- it doesn't work. But, you know, again, like, I can attribute that all to Christ because, you know, he breaks down those barriers. But, You know, those guys have really done a good job of just like, you know, even the minute things of, you know, Look, we're not the music in our videos has to be wholesome -- Yeah. -- to, you know, what we put out. I I will put our up against literally anybody's in the world. Yeah. The production of it. And, I think we got the best team. We we've we have a we we've built our whole company on, yeah, the small things. You know, it's all about the small things and that will make the big things excellent. And, you know, it's it's not just me who does it. It's it's our whole team. We've just built. We have twenty two guys now, and all, and every single of them has the same goal of that. And so it's really, it's really been cool to see because, you know, sometimes you wanna take the easy way out. Sometimes you wanna be like, Hey, the the excellent way might be, harder, you know, you're just going through mud and it's it's dirty sometimes, and it's stressful. But at the end of the day, you know the product's gonna be better. Mhmm. And the easy ways, you know, hey, you can do this minute video and get it out and just put it up, and people are still gonna like it. But it's like we always choose the hard way. Yeah. So how long does it take for you guys to fully produce use the video and get it out. It probably depends on the video. Yeah. It depends on video, but, like, like, we'll just take stereotype for instance. It takes us about a week to film it, and then it gives our editors about two weeks to edit it. Yeah. So if any of you haven't ever watched one of their stereotype videos, they are hilarious. And what's an example of a stereotype video? Right? So, like, right now, we're actually filming neighborhood stereotypes. Okay. So, what would be an example of Yeah. So, like, the perfect lawn guy, you know, or, you know, the the creepy neighbor is one we did. It's always like peeking over the fence or I mean, there's a bajillion of them. But Yeah. Those are hilarious videos. And I think I think they're my favorite too. Yeah. They're a lot of fun to film because, you know, yes, we are and since making fun of people, but we're all those people. You know? So it's just kind of, you're kind of making fun of yourself and poking fun of, like, man, I can't believe I actually do that, but I do. Yeah. So, yeah, it's it's been fun. But, yeah, like, those videos, like, I mean, I get so frustrated sometimes because we do, like, eighteen takes of one, like, stereotype. And I'm like, dude, we got it. And, like, you know, the editors just know, like, no, we don't have it yet. And it's just like kind of a grind, but they're, you know, I so, like, I you know, I wanna take credit for, like, the excellent culture that, like, I've kinda tend to, you know, be incorporated with, but, like, I mean, it's a team effort And. Yeah. Yeah, that kinda goes to my life a little bit and bleeds over. You know, sometimes a little too much. I respect a little too much excellence from my kids sometimes, you know, and I kinda have to be like, Hey, he's eight years old and, you know, he needs to have some grace. But So that's there's a little bit of that OCD part. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of OCD kinda kicks in sometimes perfectionism -- Yeah. -- kinda kicks in and But, yeah, you just kinda have to remind yourself, like, yeah. I wasn't like that when I was eight. So Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, man, I I mean, our team cultures Yeah. So, I mean, that's that's a perfect segue into talking about just your role as a leader. Right? Because it started out five guys just having a blast doing videos, and now all of a sudden you become the leader of an organization. Yep. And and but still highly involved in content, getting content out. But I would assume that you being looked at as a leader too. And and so, you know, I'd be interested just, just in that that idea of, you know, balancing that. I I mean, how are you guys doing in terms of balancing, leading an organization, but also still be in the personalities of the That's the way. I mean, honestly, what you what you just said is, like, it's it's probably our biggest struggle. You know, because we're talent, we're the bosses, you know, and we're also have young families. And we've kinda worked our way to a point where, like, you know, we could take time off. And so it it's, we take it pretty seriously. It's, we so like I said, we have seventeen guys, there's five of us and nineteen employees. And I, you know, these guys are starting most of the guys are either coming out that you're, you know, fairly young, and these guys are starting their career. It's not like they're on the latter half of it, and they're like, you know, this is it, and who cares happens. So we always we we do take that burden pretty seriously of just knowing like, Hey, we're here to, you know, we would love to know your goals, We wanna help achieve those goals. We wanna give you a runway at dude perfect to, like, maybe try to, like, some of those goals can be fulfilled But if they're not, we wanna help you, like, you know, go to that go get that next gig. And that's hard sometimes because we don't wanna lose those people, and we know there's such, you know, it'd be detrimental loss to our team, but, you know, we do a good job of knowing, like, hey, look, like, if there's a better job out there, with more leadership and whatever. Like, you, you know, we encourage you to go take that. And so, yeah, we are leaders of the company, like this week alone, like, you know, Tyne Cobier at Augusta, Corey's in New York, Cody's Montana. So it's really just me at the office this week. So, if we're not filming, you know, have have some obligations to take care of, but it's really just me going in and popping in to the team and just making sure, like -- Yeah. -- everything's good, you know, still giving them. I think we have the the most fun office in the world. You know, we got full size basketball court, pickleball court, weight room, you know. And and you let that be a part job. Right? Absolutely. You know, sometimes, sometimes, and they would even say this. You know, we we kinda joke around about it because, you know, at three PM, they're out there playing, you know, game of basketball and you're like, what are you what are you doing? Like, why are you? But, you know, they work, they work extra hard and they've, you know, they've never missed a deadline, and they're they're they're just they're solid employees, man. Like, we we really have bill Like, I don't really know how we did it, to be honest with you. Like, we just kinda hired, like, what I've thought has kinda just been, like, random people. Yeah. But they really have, like, all, like, just mesh so well together that, dude, we we are in need of a we are in need of, like, a, like, a president -- Yeah. -- to kinda just manage the day to day, mhmm, better. Yeah. And we we do a decent job of it, but we could be better. Yeah. Especially for those guys, given the more structure. Yeah. Because our our job is the most unstructured. Well, so far, I mean, because you've been doing this since two thousand nine. And so, you know, the when, you know, I'm an employee benefits consultant, and and the way that I look at my role is cost service and people. So Yeah. But on the people side of things, I really like to tell employers, like, don't under estimate the role that you have in the lives of your employees because they're probably spending more time with you than they're spending with their family. Absolutely. And so and so it's a really important role to really think about. And so until now, I mean, how have you five guys because five equal leaders is a complicated thing to work under. Yeah. You know, like, basically, everybody's got five bosses. How do you guys with differing opinions. Yeah. Yeah. So how do you how do you guys you five guys kind of steward them? Yeah. Like, Yeah. So we, we kinda have our own areas of the company. So, like, you know, Corey is production. He's over production. He's, you know, he was our video editor. He understands space. Like, he knows what level of excellence he wants and so he's there. Cody is over, like, the social channel. So he was, he was our social media, and now he we've hired that out, but he's kinda over those guys. Tye is head of creative, So he is, over the art team. He helps come up with video ideas, flush out video ideas, stuff like that. I'm over all the boring stuff, you know? Business stuff. Business busy stuff of financials and merchandise and stuff like that. And Kobe is really, you know, Kobe for the longest time was kind of our liaison between our manager and like Okay. You know, if he needed to, like, if our manager needed to get in front of us, Kobe would like so Kobe's kind of a nomad for right now. He's kinda the Swiss army knife right now. Yeah. He's kinda the Swiss army life. Yeah. So to your point of, like, how do people operate and know how to operate? Like, we have departments. And so, like, Yeah. But, yeah, if, like, Corey's not there this week, and there's, like, a problem, then it would be me. And I might give different advice and what Corey would have given. But, you know, there has been some sticky points there, you know, when it comes, like, you know, we'll have to get together. We do a owner's box We call it owner's box, every Monday morning first, first off, nine AM, kinda checking on each other, make sure everything's good. So that's between just us five owners. Yeah. Make sure if there's any grievances or, like, things that, you know, we need to air out before we go to our staff meeting, like, let's take care of. So usually in person or over the phone, in person. Okay. Then we do a staff meeting Monday mornings, kinda get ready for the week. And then we then then we go from there. But, I mean, yeah, to your point, like, having five bosses has been extremely challenging, and that's why we've always thought if we have that president, you know, that everyone reports to and that president reports to us. Yeah. It's, you know, it's a little bit better flow because You know, yeah, it's I could say something completely different than Cody. And the guys are like, wait, I but Cody just told me to do it this way. Yeah. So Yeah. So it's a challenge. It is a challenge. Is that one of your biggest challenges, anything? I would say that might be the biggest challenge. Okay. Okay. That that we face. Okay. But it's, never in my wildest dreams what I think, at the age of thirty six, was I, you know, leading, you know, seventeen people and, paying for their benefits and -- Yeah. -- their salaries, but it's, Yes. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. And then we also offer I mean, obviously, like, the culture itself, like, you know, the food. It's an exciting thing to be a part of. Yeah. And then, know, they they guys do a bible study together. That's great. That we have, one of our buddies comes and leads. So Okay. It's, you know, we try to offer as many things as we can offer to, you know, make it the best culture. So, you know, kind of get me into the future a little bit of dude perfect. You've mentioned a few things from, you know, the app and that that kind of stuff. But, what what's what would you say is kinda coming up in the future? And and then I would also you know, ask, you know, thinking five, ten years down the road, what -- Yeah. -- what's on your mind? Yeah. Future dude perfect is, I think pretty exciting. Obviously, we're gonna still be making content. We love doing it. It's just fun for us. But, we have, obviously, the due perfect world that we call. That we're still working with cities to hopefully bring to a city near you, you know, Yeah. We have a dude perfect traveling experience in the work. So, basically think of it as, like, a carnival, you know, that travels around and can go, but, like, imagine it being, like, athletic based that you can take your family to and go compete and they would go to city to city. That's cool. We really wanna get into, like a kids' book series like Hardy Boy's fiction. Just feel like the the animated show. A lot a lot of cool things, maybe being our own production company in a bigger scale. So as far as the five to ten year thing goes, I would hope that my, you know, on screen, like, number of times have to be on screen would decrease a little bit, and that we would that we would have other shows. Yeah. Well, I would I would affirm. I mean, you're a very busy percent. Yeah. You know, like, you know, if we're if we're looking to get together or something like that, there's a really good chance that you're not available because you're doing some some kind of obligation. Yeah. So as far as do we do we try to replace us five, you know? I don't know. I think it's more of, like, would rather have content brought under us at maybe maybe isn't due to, like, trick shots, but it's a funny group that does things. I mean, there's a lot of talented people out Yeah. Like, everyone always asks, like, you know, they always call us, like, the king of trick shots. And I'm just like, we're not the king's trick shots. There's, like, these kids called that's amazing out there that Yeah. They're absolutely insane, and they should be the king's church out. We're pioneers, though. We're pioneers. I would I and that's fine, but I'm not, you know, but, like, so there's a there's a bunch of different avenues that we could go with Du Perfect. And so we're kinda just trusting in God that Yeah. He would kinda show us that because right now, it's we kinda have an idea, but it could be might be completely different. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool. Any kinda kinda closing comments for you? I I would I would love to just hear, you know, what what kind of legacy I think you guys are as a group, would like to say that you've left. You know? Yeah. I'd say as far as the legacy play, we actually we got we've gone through some really, like, a a bunch of trials -- Mhmm. -- would do perfect. I mean, early stages onto moving moving on from Ty's dad as our manager, which was, you know, extremely challenging. And just navigating all that, I, we, we kind of came to, we never had a mission statement. Yeah. And so our mission statement is we wanna be the most trusted entertainment worldwide. And I think we've accomplished that. Yeah. I think you can trust is very synonymous with Duke Perfect. Like, we're very, you know, I wouldn't even go on a podcast if I didn't know the other stuff that was on that podcast, you know, it's like it's to that level of Yeah. Because people when they hear do perfect, they think, oh, hey, my, you know, my kid can listen this. Yeah. And so we take that very seriously. But, man, I would be, I'd be remiss not to say if our legacy wasn't to say that, you know, to spread Jesus' name throughout the world -- Hey, man. -- then we missed it. Yeah. So You know, I I would have want that to be our legacy. I don't know if we've done a good job of that, but I think, like, you know, in ten years, years, fifteen years when people here do perfect. I hope they said I came to Jesus from you. That's cool. Yeah. That's great, man. Well, I think I'm gonna get to see my first tour this year. I'm excited. I would love for you to come, man. Yeah. It's a fun time. It's a Yeah. That's the last show too. So Yeah. Well, maybe. I mean, you can come to anyone, but Fort Worth is less. So Yeah. Yeah. Love it, man. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate shade it. And, welcome to the Excellence culture, man. Yeah. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah.