This year, T.Rex Arms wants to do more with radio, maps, drones, and additional educational content on additional skills. To that end, we have just launched a new YouTube channel for this more technical material. T.Rex Labs, like the T.Rex Armory channel, will be a place for some more specific content, and will help us navigate the complexities of the YouTube algorithm a bit better. To start things off, we've uploaded three videos:
And as we continue to publish videos, we want your help prioritizing the types of content that we produce, so let us know what you want to see.
This year, T.Rex Arms wants to do more with radio, maps, drones, and additional educational content on additional skills. To that end, we have just launched a new YouTube channel for this more technical material. T.Rex Labs, like the T.Rex Armory channel, will be a place for some more specific content, and will help us navigate the complexities of the YouTube algorithm a bit better. To start things off, we've uploaded three videos:
And as we continue to publish videos, we want your help prioritizing the types of content that we produce, so let us know what you want to see.
We have a brand new YouTube channel and so of course we're going to tell you about it on the podcast. Welcome back to T-Rex Talk. You probably already know this, but we launched a new YouTube channel called T-Rex Labs on Friday so very, very recently and we told some folks about it on the newsletter and it's already had a pretty good response. So it is going to be a channel where we focus on some more of the technical stuff, some more of the behind-the-scenes stuff, some more of the nerd stuff. That's going to be the channel where the rest of the Drone Wars episodes are going to live. That's going to be the place where most of the radio programming stuff is going to live. There will still be political stuff, largely on the main T-Rex channel. There will still be some radio content, some move, shoot and communicate content on the main channel, but in the same way that the T-Rex Armory channel has. Let us branch out a little bit and do more product review kind of stuff. T-rex Labs is going to let us branch out and do a little bit more nerd stuff with maps, radios, drones etc. And, like I said, more of that behind-the-scenes stuff. We've tried to keep more of a I don't know a higher production value for the main channel, wanting to keep the production levels very high and the videos very tight and succinct and well-made, and I don't take this the wrong way. But the T-Rex Labs videos may be a little bit looser, a little bit more laid back, might see a little bit more of the testing process that goes into the making of the video, as opposed to just the final conclusions in that finished, polished video.
Isaac:Vloggy is not the word that I'm looking for, because I hate that word, but you kind of get what I'm saying and if you have a really good memory, you might have noticed that the T-Rex Labs logo that appeared in the new videos is almost identical to a T-Rex Labs logo that started appearing in regular T-Rex Arms YouTube channel videos back in 2017 or 2018. Actually, I can't remember myself, but it was a logo that I made and put on some random behind-the-scenes videos and then later some technical videos. Probably the night vision videos the digital versus analog night vision videos probably used that logo and I only made that logo because I was messing around with some 3D Glock models at the very beginning of our automation development process and they were just too cool looking not to make a logo out of. Even though there were no plans for the logo, it eventually got used and now it's its own YouTube channel. That's how a lot of stuff gets done in T-Rex Arms, believe it or not. So why are we talking about it on the podcast?
Isaac:Well, one of the reasons that we have this new channel is because YouTube's algorithm is constantly changing and, rather than rewarding people who throw up lots and lots and lots of content on the same channel, they actually reward new channels that are linked to old channels. Pretty well, we experimented with that with the T-Rex Armory channel and the T-Rex Lab channel also doing pretty well. We've been doing a lot of stuff since Friday and it already has a lot of subscribers and it already has a lot of views Not as many views as some of these videos probably would have gotten on the main channel, but certainly way, way, way more views than a random brand new, from the ground up 48-hour old YouTube channel should have. So YouTube does a very good job of connecting people who like channel A to channel B, as well as giving channel B some of the perks that they reserve for new channels. And the other thing that we'll probably do with T-Rex Labs is less firearm content and less political content, which means that there should be a little bit less shadow banning or reduced visibility of the T-Rex Lab channel. Although it's hard to say, youtube obviously has already figured out that T-Rex Labs is linked to T-Rex Arms in a bunch of different ways. So who knows? It's impossible to see into that opaque black box that is the YouTube algorithm, but having multiple channels will let us do a bunch of different things and hopefully, by focusing on some more technical content over on this other channel, we'll escape some of the limited visibility issues and we will find some new people.
Isaac:But, that being said, the T-Rex Lab channel does not exist to go get new people. I think it'll happen, but that isn't really the purpose. We're not trying to turn this new YouTube channel into the new cool technical gear review Talk about the new iPhone channel that every other YouTuber is trying to start. The main goal of this channel is to create more of the types of educational content that our main followers, our main customers, our core audience really wants to hear, and that is you. We have lots and lots of YouTube subscribers. We have lots and lots of customers. We're deeply appreciative for both, but I would say that our core group of T-Rex folks are people who have subscribed to the newsletters and people who listen to the podcast. It's a pretty small number of very faithful folks who are really the most passionate about the stuff that we are doing. You are the guys that we want to serve the most and you are the guys that we want to hear from the most.
Isaac:So I am going to make a what T-Rex labs is video that is going to go on the T-Rex lab channel, because that's just something that YouTube channels should have. But I wanted to talk to you guys about it specifically here on the podcast, because I want to specifically hear from you guys what you want to see. I've already planned some radio videos, but I would love some more specificity from you guys on what you are looking for. Do you want, as was posted last week, a video on the most advanced digital mesh networking radios that cost $15,000 before you add any accessories? Or do you want mesh-tastic stuff? Do you want balfaying programming radios? Or do you want something that is more complicated, like how to build out an HF man pack and make regular contacts with people who live states away? All of these things sound interesting. All of these things sound fun. All of these things fit really easily under the T-Rex labs banner. It's just a question of what we have time to make and what can we do well and what's going to be the most helpful for you guys. There's going to be more messing with ATAC. There's going to be more stuff with maps, there's going to be messing around with thermal, but you guys can definitely help with the prioritization of some of these things.
Isaac:Change is probably going to affect the podcast a little bit too. There's a bunch of podcast episodes from the past that probably should have been videos. I have pretty clear recollection of recording a podcast about thermal scopes and thermal optics and describing exactly what certain modes look like and describing exactly what certain colors look like, and that really should have had visual representation. The only reason that it was a podcast is it was just so much faster, quicker, easier to knock out a podcast than create one of those large T-Rex arms. Many documentaries. T-rex labs should have a little bit lower production quality, a little bit more off the cuff type style, and we'll knock out a bunch more of that kind of content, which means that the podcast is probably going to lean a little more historical and a little bit more ideological and a little bit more interview heavy, as some of the stuff we've talked about in the past that relates to radios and relates to optics and relates to maps and really should have had a visual component, get switched over to a platform where you got that visual component.
Isaac:So I would love for you if you haven't heard about the T-Rex Labs channel for some reason I have a feeling that it's going to be kind of right up your alley and if you have any things that you want to see on that channel, I would like you to contact us directly. Team at trex-armscom is the best way to do so and I'm going to be paying very close attention. I know that I've asked you for input before input on this podcast but I also want to know what you would like to see, and then we'll kind of work from there and prioritize all of the stuff that we want to make. Over the next couple of weeks should be able to post some more stuff that will give everyone a good flavor, like the entire range of T-Rex Labs. There's already three videos up now. There's a drone wars episode. There's a shot show recap that talks specifically about radios. There's a how to de-google your phone video that talks a little bit about operational security and digital privacy. Yeah, there's a couple more things in the pipe and then then it should be pretty obvious what the flavor is. But you guys are really going to be the secret to optimizing this, because you guys are really the folks that we would like to serve.
Isaac:There's a temptation for me to go either very high level or very low level, because they're both fascinating. High level is interesting and then low level is sometimes easier and sometimes more difficult. I had a fascinating conversation with a guy at shot show I didn't mention this in the previous podcast because didn't really fit in, but he's a really interesting guy who has worked at a very high level in his military career. But now that he is out and working with regular folks, he finds that what most of us actually need is pretty low level, like entry level stuff, and then his non-military extracurricular stuff that he's been doing. That is also super high level, and yet he is also seeing that there is a tremendous need for entry level communications and entry level materials in that field. So he is torn trying to figure out what is the best use of his time creating the high level content for people who have already mastered a whole bunch of areas in these different fields, or helping people get into these fields with that bunny slope beginner level stuff.
Isaac:And I'd love to know from you guys what you would like to see T-Rex Arms Labs do when this is not something that I can do. I cannot always do high level stuff. I can only be the expert in like two things computer animation and well, the other one's probably also computer animation. But T-Rex Arms has grown to the point where we can find the experts and we can talk to them and that can be something that we can do more of. But, that being said, as we reach into all these new fields and we find out from different people which skill sets are actually useful, there is an awful lot of complicated stuff that doesn't have really good entry level materials.
Isaac:Part of the reason that we haven't made a super complicated video on exactly how ceramic armor works from a really high level, sophisticated scientific point of view is none of us are really there. That isn't really the decision making metric that we need for selecting our armor. The pure availability, cost and just basic functionality is all that we needed to know. I had a really interesting conversation with a guy who sources germanium and other really exotic materials for thermal manufacturers and he went into a huge amount of detail on how you actually build the breeder forges and then the purifying forges and how that process actually works as you grow these crystals. But most of us don't need to know that. I didn't need to know that. I just wanted to know that. The most important thing for me to know is actually how you use thermals in different situations. I know that there's a resolution thing and I know that there's a magnification thing and I know that there's a refresh rate thing, and I need to figure these things out. But how exactly you grow germanium crystals before you turn them into lenses, it's fascinating, it's cool.
Isaac:I think that it would be a great YouTube video to watch, but it might not be the thing that we all need the most. So I am really looking forward to your comments as you send those into the customer service guys the team at Threx-Armscom but I also want to see you on the channel as well. I will look at your comments. I'm trying to keep track of YouTube comments, but I will say YouTube comments are not great. I rank Instagram comments higher than YouTube comments. But emails from podcast listeners, those kind of, sit at the very top of the inbox. You guys get a little bit more say everything that I hear from you guys. There's more weight behind it. So we will see how things develop over time and we'll try to prioritize the stuff that you need the most and we're going to keep the podcast running just with a little bit less of the stuff which, technically speaking, probably shouldn't have been podcasts anyway. Probably should have been videos. I hadn't anticipated that episode 201 would begin essentially a new season of the podcast with a brand new season of an entirely new YouTube channel. But that is kind of where we have landed.
Isaac:And meanwhile it is an election year, as we've talked about before. There's a bunch of stuff happening in the political sphere nationally, there's a bunch of stuff happening in the political sphere here in Tennessee A lot of different gun we got firearm legislation, we also have sort of gun adjacent legislation being discussed and kicked around and of course there's all kinds of business stuff that needs doing as well. Election years tend to be kind of interesting from a sales perspective and very, very curious to see what happens this year across other businesses, but specifically, specifically, t-rex. Are we going to make a gazillion holsters this year? Is there going to be something else In 2020, it was body armor.
Isaac:Body armor was the surprise hit. Body armor was the thing that flew off the shelves like nobody's business, like nobody expected. That was a game changing year for privately owned body armor across the entire industry, but it was also a game changer for T-Rex arms. Who knows what the rest of this year will entail? It's going to be fascinating to watch. We're probably going to be incredibly busy, but we'll make some more videos. We'll definitely be making some more videos this year. So thank you so much for listening to the podcast, a couple hundred episodes in. Thank you so much for watching all the technical videos, including the old classic T-Rex Labs videos that we didn't know were actually going to be sort of classic, I guess, and looking forward to doing stuff with you guys directly through the podcast and also with you guys on the new YouTube channel. Thanks so much for all the support that you have given us in so many different ways and thank you so much for the input. It really has shaped us as a company as well as people. I appreciate it tremendously.