Billy: In this present moment, you’re thinking from the end, not about the end. 

Spencer: When I am living in the moment, I am more joyful. 

Billy: How many likes is my life worth? Comparison is the death of joy. I mean, how do you crave? You’re always trying to be like somebody else. And if I’m coming from a place of how can I serve, not what’s in it for me, the videos are always more successful. 

Spencer: Welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut. I’m super excited for another episode. Today I’m here with Billy Mandarino. Billy, thanks for being on the show. 

Billy: Enter my honor. I’m inspired to serve your community and have a great conversation with you today. 

Spencer: Yeah. So like we always do, we like to get to know our guests. So why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and also about your channel and what kind of videos you make. 

Billy: My name is Billy Mandarino and I wrote a book that came out in 2018 called The Nowist. And it helps people live in the present moment as a way of life. I don’t know about you Spencer, but stress and overwhelming anxiety seems to be kind of at an all-time high. 

And back when 2018 occurred, you know, we have the pandemic. I’ve been incredibly busy helping people learn how to get out of overwhelmed stress and anxiety. So I think my channel has grown in the last couple of years so much because I think the world feels a lot of stress and anxiety and looking for ways to get out of it. And so my teaching is a simple teaching about how to use the present moment as the most powerful part of your day and how to use techniques within the present moment to bring more viewers and more subscribers and more attention to your channel. That’s my mission. 

Spencer: Yeah. That is definitely something we need today. I definitely know I feel the stress in the world today. So with everything going on. But that’s awesome. So your videos, are they like tutorials or like inspirational or like, I guess, what kind of videos are they? 

Billy: So our content is largely inspirational, but it’s also technical in a sense. It gives you strategic takeaways and strategies and modalities and ways of getting out of stress in your busy day. Most people have so many things to do. They have their to-do list. They have relationship issues. 

They have, you know, all kinds of stress that life brings you. So I’ve got, I did a series for a couple of years called One Minute in the Now. It was like one minute in the now. And that was really popular because it helped people in one minute. 

As you know, in this bite-sized community culture where we’re looking for kind of instant gratification or instant information. I was doing that way back in 2018 and 2019. Kind of before, I guess it became super trendy. But now the content that we are providing is more production-based videos that have like B-roll and a nice arc to the videos. And I think that’s why they’re also doing well is because people also want the content. They want to see a storytelling type of video. So we’re kind of a story. 

We tell a lot of stories within my life, other people’s life clients that I work with and how they’ve used the Nowist principles to help themselves get out of stress. 

Spencer: Gotcha. Cool. That’s awesome. So every YouTuber has kind of a different journey. But how did you actually get started into YouTube? Did someone kind of persuade you to do it? Or did you kind of have the idea yourself? Love to hear that story. 

Billy: That’s a great question because I know you serve YouTubers. And I think out of all the platforms, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, I think YouTube is the best platform. And you can just see the efficacy of it. Because now I think they’re allowing subscribers, YouTube channel, content creators to create series out of their content, like episodes, like a streaming service. And YouTube, I think, is going to continually grow in that. But what we have done is, I’ve inspired based on my book, when it came out in 2018, how am I going to serve people? When I was going around speaking, giving talks all over the world about this, the high school, middle schoolers, grade schoolers, corporate offices, real estate offices, I was giving these talks, but I thought I’ve really got to engage with people in a different way. So I started this one minute in the Now series on YouTube. 

It was my very first platform. And it was just an inspiration to try to give them an idea of what my life was about and giving them concepts about how, because the book, the Nowis is a spiritual memoir of how I found the present moment to be the most powerful part of our day, that we only spend a little bit of time in there. And think about it throughout the day, you’re usually caught up in what’s called linear or past future time, psychological time. The vertical is the Now. So were those two cross, you got linear time, then you got, you know, psycho, the vertical time, where you literally have presence and you’re thinking about nothing, but what’s happening in this moment, you have awareness. 

So when that crossification is the Now. So I taught a lot of concepts about how to get in that center, that sweet spot of the present moment, and then how to use it to attract financial abundance, emotional, spiritual, social, you know, abundance in your life, basically getting out of the linear time. And that has been my inspiration to start the YouTube channel. Gotcha. 

Spencer: That’s awesome. So I’m biased, but I completely agree. I think YouTube is the best platform. And you can obviously see that as, you know, YouTube is huge now from where it started. But so would you say right now, we are, we’re in that crosshair, the people watching this video, they’re right now in that crosshair. Is that kind of how that works? 

Billy: It works really in the sense that I use it as a technology, if you will. If you look at the cover of my, if you go to billymandorino.com, myname.com, you can look at all the Now’s content, the videos that links out to all my channels. But there’s also the Now is symbol. And that’s like, that is the crossification I’m talking about. It’s literally it’s a symbol that looks like a cross, a crossification. I call it a technology, because when you can take your awareness out of this linear past future time, and you can get in what I call the vertical, and the vertical is the present moment, you take yourself out of the linear time, and you into that that sweet spot of the present moment only happens when your awareness gets you kind of out of linear time. But to do that, you have to get this what’s called vertical time or divine time or eternal time, where those cross that crosshair you talk about, that’s the present moment. So when you look at the symbol, it kind of gives you this expression of, oh my gosh, my awareness is like an explosion of light, like where that cross hits a bunch of light explodes. It’s kind of a technology. 

And when people learn to do that, I have a simple meditation, it takes one minute, it teaches people on my channel how to get out of this stress, this stressor that we’ve got, which is physical time, and do it quickly with these different modalities and techniques living in the present moment as a nowist. 

Spencer: Gotcha, cool. That’s awesome. So this may be kind of ironic because you’re in the now, but do you ever look into the future, like what your YouTube channel will be like in the future? Or do you not even look into the future at all? 

Billy: It’s interesting you say that because what I’ve learned in teaching and being a spiritual teacher and teaching people all over the country all over the world, literally, how to get out of future traveling. When you think of future traveling, that’s it’s a common occurrence and it usually creates a lot of stress for people because they can be excited about the future, but mostly people I find in my works and travels are kind of stressed about the future. The worrying about that job not happening or that relationship not happening because they’re alone or, you know, they’re not really going to have the finance that they wanted to take, whatever, the next level of their life. 

And I find that future traveling gives people a lot of stress. So what I do, which is interesting because it’s kind of a mind-bending concept where you’re in the now, but you’re using your imagination, which I think is one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever been given. And your content creators would appreciate this because all these videos come from your imagination. 

They come from what can I do next? How can I create something that’s different and more inspiring and something that’s going to get more abused and subscribers? I get all that. But how I live and how I teach people to live is in this present moment, you’re thinking from the end, not about the end. Seems like a really simple concept, but it’s very distinct about the end is gosh, when I get to a million subscribers, right, I’m going to be happy. 

When I get videos that really transfer on people’s life and I really become this successful content creator, I’m going to be happy. The reality is with your imagination, you can do that right now. So what I do is think from the end. I mean, in this moment, when I wake up in the bed in the morning, when I go to sleep at night, if I have an inspiration or a goal, if you will, I kind of don’t believe in goals because I believe in the end it’s already happening. So before I go to sleep, before I wake up, I imagine it’s already done. If I want to do something, bring something into my life. 

So future traveling doesn’t happen when you’re in the magic of Spenser. If you’re in this moment right now, you want to bring something into your life. And with all five of your senses, you’re imagining that it’s happening right now. You wouldn’t need to go in the future to experience it. You could experience it now. 

It’s kind of a spiritual quantum physics type of quantum entanglement type of teaching. But that’s how I live. A living that way has brought avalanches of abundance into my life. And it’s happened not by accident. It’s happened because I really manifested, I believe, through this act of thinking from the end and not about the end. Does that make sense to you? I know it blows people’s mind. 

Spencer: Yeah, no, I think that does make sense. I feel like, at least for me, I try to live that way. Sometimes it can be hard to always be living in the moment. But I feel like when I am living in the moment, I am more joyful. I feel happier because I’m actually experiencing it rather than wanting for the future. 

Billy: Yes, worrying, right? Obsessing, kind of, awfulizing about, oh gosh, I hope it happens. Or if it doesn’t happen, I’m going to feel this way. And with the problem with the dispensers, they feel all those emotions now. But they’re not helpful emotions that give you inspiration, give you a point of feeling like, oh, I can really do this. It’s kind of like, oh man, it’s going to be so hard. Usually, the self-talk is bad when you’re worrying about it. 

Spencer: Yeah, yeah. And I think that’s something that YouTubers right now could apply to their lives. Everyone wants to have, like you said, a million subscribers or a million views or whatever. But you need to focus in the now on your videos and the audience you have now so that way you can kind of reach out to them in the best way possible. 

Billy: And I know, Spencer, that’s really the intention of your channel. I know it’s going to be wildly successful because people are always looking for interviews like this or what’s Spencer teaching or how can I get my channel to really grab hold and become something that’s really making a difference in the world. But it happens without the stressing and the striving and the worrying or there’s this famous song by gosh, I forget the balance. It’s a song called Sick Boy. 

The chorus goes, feed yourself with my life’s work. How many likes is my life worth? And I think about everybody’s so concerned about how many likes is my life worth, right? Opposed to spending all your energy in the present moment thinking, well, how can I make the best content possible? How can I make the best video to serve the best people? But it comes from your inspiration, doesn’t come from the comparison of I got to have a channel like this guy, you’ve got to be your original self. 

And if I was going to give your subscribers and viewers and followers advice, it would be in the present moment, use your imagination to create the best contact from your authentic self. Don’t compare yourself to somebody else because Mark Twain, you’ve ever heard of Mark Twain Spencer? He says comparison is the death of joy. I’m going to say it again, because it’s so good for your followers, your subscribers, comparison is the death of joy. I mean, how do you create if you’re always trying to be like somebody else, be the best you, you will make the best contact because you’re meant to make that content. 

Spencer: I think a lot of YouTubers, you know, compare themselves to the biggest YouTubers out there. And if you look at that like linear timeline, you know, those big YouTubers started way before you and you started here, and you’re trying to compare yourself to where they are now. And it just doesn’t, that just doesn’t add up. So, right. 

Billy: If you focus on it, it makes you disappointed. It makes you feel like you’re less than you lose your power. So that quote, I think about actually have that quote on my calendar that comes up as an appointment every month. Just remind me like, don’t just be your best authentic self, great from your heart and your inspiration. Don’t try to be like another person you aspire to be like, just be your best self. And then you will arrive by using that technique. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely. I agree. So you kind of mentioned, you know, people always want to make the best content possible. So what is I guess your process for making the best content for you? How do you come up with ideas for videos? How do you actually make the videos like film and edit and stuff like that? Why don’t you tell us your process? 

Billy: Okay, well, I’m blessed. I’ll tell you a quick story. You have time for a quick story. Yeah. Okay, so I spent five years on my channel by myself. I have two years in a row. I did the one minute in the now with one minute videos. I every day I did not miss I post a video every day for a for two years. Oh, I posted a one minute video And I called it the one minute in the now and it was really successful a lot I shared it out in all the different, you know, Facebook Instagram tic-tac really was even going off back when I was doing this in 2017-18 and It was just my inspiration every day come up with an original video and I would shoot it myself with my 4k camera sometimes I get clever and put an iPhone and do a cut But I really just spoke to camera myself because I’ve been teaching people for you I’ve been a spiritual teacher for a decade, but when my book came out I realized I really want to serve people and you know YouTube and the Instagram and the social media platforms are the way to get it out If you are doing it well and people are following you you’re building your tribe Well, I just started myself five years ago and I got kind of burned out. I was like making all these one minute videos I think I need to do longer form content So I kind of prayed about it one night and a week later Honestly, God the weirdest story I’m a property manager in a realtor and I had this client and he lost his phone and I found the phone and I thought oh my gosh, we got to get this back to him So I get it to me comes up to where I live and he puts it in he’s in a motorcycle He puts it in his back pocket and he drives away. I’m thinking he’s gonna lose his phone again Drives away and and I don’t know later that day. 

I get a call from this person I didn’t know saying I you’re I see your number on the screen And it’s like the he didn’t lock his and I can see it just I called the last number on this phone It was me so keep in mind a week prior. I was saying God, please send me someone to help me do longer form videos You know, I’m I don’t know how to really do the great videos of B-roll and great music and editing and make them really look Important and like they’re polished So this guy shows up I walk across the street because he happened to work across the street I live in Santa Barbara hundred thousand people he worked across the street from where I live I walk over there and he gives me this guy’s phone. I said, oh his name is Alejo. I said, oh my gosh Thank you so much I gave him I got some money to thank him because this guy’s his he was a business owner that phone as everybody knows your phones You’re live so I say what would you do? 

It goes well? I work over here But really what I want to do is I’ve been a videographer and I want to make content I really wanted to make long-form videos Exactly what I had prayed for showed up a week later and his name is Alejo Jerkovich and he for the last four years has been my Collaborator he and I come up with videos together and he understands my mission and the now is teachings and how we can impact the world So if you look at our videos that really polished that way music that B-roll they have a kind of three-act arc to them And he and I create these videos together. 

Spencer: That’s awesome. 

Billy: That’s a great story Isn’t it it still blows my mind like you know be careful what you asked for because I think God the universe is listening So yeah, make sure you put you’re clear about what you want and you chances are you’re gonna get it 

Spencer: Yeah, I don’t think every youtuber has the same experience with finding someone to to work with them and help them make videos So that’s awesome. 

Billy: You got to ask though. I asked I asked for it and I didn’t have the doubt. I think doubt kills a lot of people I find that your imagination is the sharpest knife to cut that fear and doubt out of your life So your imagination is a very powerful place to live. 

Spencer: Yeah, so You work you mentioned he’s like a collaborator So does he like do you like come up with ideas together? And then like do you sit together in like the editing room to like make make the video or do you kind of like come up with the Idea and then kind of give it to Alejo to kind of run the show. 

Billy: Do you know what a synchronicity is? 

Spencer: I may have heard the word but I’m 

Billy: not Carl Jung Carl Jung’s a famous One of the most famous like the psychologists in the world he died like But he coined this phrase called synchronicity which means random occurrences people think there happenstances and accidents and coincidences They just randomly has it. No, he says there’s synchronicities like for me I put the thought out that I wanted to attractive someone to create videos with me and for me And then it’s not an accident that I dropped this guy loses phone I gave it to him and this guy brings me the phone with exactly what my wish was it’s called a synchronicity a sign It’s I call him spiritual breadcrumbs and so this synchronicity helped me Create these videos and so as a love it leo and I come up with these ideas I kind of let them just come to me and they come to him and we don’t he edits them all he puts the music together But I shoot him and in the moment I don’t use a script he gives me a concept and I just go Because when you when you’ve done this for long enough, you know, you know, it’s nice You just get good at it and you quit getting in your way by overthinking I think if I could give advice to your you know, it’s your subscribers would be don’t overthink so much Inspiration over, you know, your thinking mind is kind of the liar and your inspiration your gut and your intuition is the truth So don’t outthink yourself out of good ideas and feelings like this is what I’m really passionate about But I don’t know if people are gonna watch it. 

You got to go with your inspiration And that’s a leo and I’ve ever done so you work together. It’s just that inspiration has helped us create great videos That’s awesome. 

Spencer: Cool. I I’m always curious because I know every youtuber has a different process So that’s really fascinating. Thanks for sharing that story and speaking of stories Besides the one that you just shared. Have you had any other? I guess Synchronicities is that the word Yeah Synchronicities have you had any other synchronicities in terms of YouTube like with a Commenter or a subscriber or anything like that by chance. 

Billy: Oh my gosh. Yeah, so being a spiritual teacher I kind of live in a mystical world, right? That’s Most of my followers are people that believe in the kind of thing that I’m talking about that there’s this, you know Objective world, but there’s also the subjective attention we have which I call living kind of in your imagination Or living in your intuition and living in that world people Constantly comment all the time on why especially when I put a synchronicity video like the the Alejo video that I put up I call him as a joke. I call him synchro bro like short for synchronicity Bro, that’s like that’s my nickname for him now and he’s actually right now in New Zealand on a boat for four months Shooting whales as they migrate from New Zealand to Tahiti They just they’re going through all of the Pacific right now. So he sends me videos and updates He’s on this is incredible bow because he’s a filmmaker. He’s also a documentary filmmaker Super talented guy. He does commercials. 

Of course. He does my content But he’s high in demand because he’s so talented and he’s kind of coming up in the world But you know, I’ve had people comment on videos because when I’ll send out a story like I just sent you like there’s a video on that Exactual exact our first video was that story together Oh, how we met the guy lost his phone and then it was about synchronicity How can you synchronistically think there’s a chapter in my book called? Synchronic thinking which is you can actually think your way into synchronicities if you have the eyes to see them Which might help your followers because if you literally put this intention out this idea out in the world You’re thinking man like to me like I wanted to attract a content creator a videographer Someone who is so much better at than I was a week later it appeared Well, maybe you’re trying to sub you know to attract more followers more subscribers Maybe you have a new idea that you can come up with don’t be so clever They just you lock into your phone let your own inspiration come through and then people have commented on well I had a synchronicity of this happened. I was you know a trying to meet somebody and I knew his name was like Johnny Someone said some mystics. Hey, his name is Johnny and then I see this this School bus going by with like Johnny swim on it and they thought hey that was kind of random said no you that’s a sign Like you’re on the right track. It’s like a wink from the universe. Just pay attention That’s awesome. 

Spencer: Well, I’ve got just a couple more questions for you This conversation has been great and I hope our our listeners and watchers kind of take something from this But this these last two questions are kind of more about advice From you which you’ve already given some great advice, but the first question is is From your your start of YouTube to now has there been any mistakes that you’ve made that you wish you would have Known beforehand that you’ve learned from that you think our Viewers could benefit from 

Billy: that is a great question And I think what I have to say is From my heart in the sense that if I knew this now, I think I’ve been you I think I’ve been on for seven years I’ve been on my channel started seven years ago If I would have known this now back because back then I really was caught up even in a spiritual teaching community Connop and had to be the next Eckhart Tolle the next Wayne Dyer the next D-Pot Chopra like I felt like Like stuff is good. Why is it not? Why don’t have 200 subscribers after like four years and I’m putting out all this content working so hard And I really was working from a place of comparison. I was there are comparisons to death of joy I was working from a place of man the video got like 20 views like it’s amazing I’ve taught this to people in person It was one of the most powerful concepts that I taught an individual coaching session yet It just didn’t land and I learned back then I mean I learned now what I was missing back then I understand SEO I didn’t understand tags. I didn’t understand thumbnails How important a thumbnail is like I had these terrible graphics and they just no one can read them like simple fundamentals Everybody who’s a youtuber knows now that the algorithm is science not art, right? And I thought well my art and inspiration is what is good enough But the algorithm won’t show you showed the world your art and your inspiration till teachings if you don’t play at their game at their level You understand it obviously. Yeah, but if I knew that now I would have not I Wouldn’t have brought the content out the way I did I would have been more strategic clever I would understand I now understand the algorithm and Alejo is great at it and Just just kind of ignorant to it I just went into it with without knowing that you can’t just jump on the platform and expect it’s just gonna blow up Algorithm will not you know the algorithm just you can have the best video in the world And it won’t get shown if it doesn’t have the right 

Spencer: optimization The right packaging Yeah, we’ve talked a lot about this on the podcast and you know It’s arguable that the the thumbnail and the title are the most important thing because that’s what gets them in the door To watching your video and then hopefully they watch your video and like it enough that they’ll subscribe and Yeah, yeah, yeah to continue from there. 

Billy: It’s frustrating I was in it because like you really want to get on this amazing platform But there’s so much competition for those eyeballs and for people’s attention That is just it is it’s kind of a competition in a strange way I just once again when I start feeling that way I don’t create it the same kind of content I would if I would just think about what am I from my authentic inspired self What do I want to share and in this platform? What do I want to share with the world instead of thinking how clever can I be to try and get this many views? But are you really adding value like whoever adds the most value wins? 

Spencer: Yeah, I we’ve also talked about this on the podcast and those who are more passionate about the content They’re creating are more successful Whereas like if you’re just making the videos because you want to get views and make money like it’s not it’s not gonna 

Billy: happen They call that the vanity metric, right? 

Spencer: Yeah, yeah, and people like make really Let’s work clickbait titles and thumbnails even though it may not really apply to the video So like you said, that’s not really adding value 

Billy: and they’ll and spend some time about you But the only way I’ve learned to add values if I’m being my full authentic self If I’m coming up with something that affected my life or I’ve served somebody with this concept or this video or this topic And if I’m coming from a place of how can I serve? Not what’s in it for me. The videos are always more successful. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely I agree, you know with this podcast we do edit it a little bit, but for the most part we leave pretty much Everything in it so that way people can see really like the authentic youtubers behind their videos And their experiences so Yeah, I’ve got I’ve got one more question for you And this is one we ask all of our guests and it’s about YouTube and myths Are there any myths about YouTube that you think need to be busted any misconceptions out there? 

Billy: I think the misconception is people think that it’s easy and that you know everybody’s doing it So I can I could do that or like I can make I can make better videos than that But they go they don’t go on with being informed, you know, I believe in information but not inundation A lot of people get inundated and they just get overwhelmed Even though they have a wonderful idea or concept or teaching or service to people or great content where it’s funny But they just get caught up and they got in the weeds of like wow It seems so complex and it’s not that difficult, but the problem is you just don’t you haven’t informed yourself Don’t in it inform yourself by the basics I just I kind of went in it with with my eyes Not completely wide open and aware of what the platform is you should definitely, you know follow People like you Everything on you. I don’t know about you, but when you need to find something I usually look to YouTube as the most powerful search engine For how to videos about anything, but also it’s just so creative and entertaining and I think it’s going to take over a lot of the other platforms as they rate rule out this episodic type of You know these at least subscribe episodes of their seasons. I have so many videos. I think I have 570 videos or something I could easily make these into seasons. So maybe as AI Evolves they’ll probably have this algorithm. It’s going to help you do that easily. 

Spencer: Oh, yeah That would be really cool. Actually. It just automatically kind of like, you know makes a playlist or something 

Billy: Right, like I just put it on top of like I’m gonna teach about getting out of stress living in the present moment through breath It could scrub all my videos and then package them into a 45 minute episode edit cut it put it together And then put it out and create a flim now and throw it out. That’s common. 

Spencer: That would be crazy That’s that’s awesome. So Well, billy. Thanks, sir again for being on the show your channel remind me. 

Billy: It’s the nowist So it’s it’s billy mandorino the nowist. Got my name and the now is billy mandorino the nowist Or just usually if you look up the nowist on anything it’s going to point back to my website Which is billy mandorino.com that I’ll call my website my main website links out to all my social But on youtube, we had billy mandorino the nowist 

Spencer: gotcha and you’re you’re on all of the Major social media talk instagram linkedin facebook. 

Billy: Yeah, all of them. 

Spencer: Gotcha. Cool. Well to our listeners and watchers make sure to check out billy on all of his platforms and Uh, thanks for checking out this episode. We hope that you found it helpful Um for your own channel And if you’d like to check out more make sure to like and subscribe And if you need help with any videos make sure to check us out at creatorluxe.com and we’ll see you in the next one. Thank you. 

Billy: Spencer you’re the best brother.