Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I feel like followers don't even matter anymore. Trending. You're consistent. That's all that matters. If you use out the a SS every day, it's like, dude, why would you wanna work with someone?
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Check into an IUPUI basketball game. Believe you still are like banned from your alma
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: mater. Yeah. I'm still banned from, uh, all IU schools.
Nate Spangle: No way.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, Dave, exactly what you see on camera. He is no filter. He is raw. He tells you exactly what he feels. Him and Pat. Without them, I would not be here.
Nate Spangle: When you think back about everything that you've created, what are you the most proud of? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN. the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. We always love shouting out our partners, and one of those is Pence Media Group here in central Indiana. PMG is working to launch Indiana's first adventure Park, sky Lake Adventures a must visit spot for families looking to level up their summer plans. I'm most excited for the massive aquatic obstacle course and water slides where the kids or kids are can climb and splash their way across the onsite lake. If Relaxing's more your speed, you can rent one of the aqua cabanas or just chill on the white sand beaches. Sky Lake is a client taking full advantage of PMGs PR, marketing and social media offerings. For more information on how PMG can set your brand apart, visit pence mediagroup.com. Now let's get into today's episode. My guest today is Austin Taylor, but he's better known as Young Mantis. He's a 29-year-old viral content creator. From right here in Fishers, Indiana, he's known for videos that have generated over 1 billion views across social media. He previously worked for Barstool Sports before he was laid off during COVID, which pushed him to launch his own independent content brand. Today he creates videos across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram X, Facebook, and Snapchat while building an audience and helping, oh, businesses get more views, helping the state of Indiana get more views, helping so many people, so many interesting places, get more views. The man knows how social media works, and I'm really excited to dive into the story, the Journey of Young Mantis. Sir, welcome to the show.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That was killer. Thank you.
Nate Spangle: You know, uh, we have a little bit of prep here, man. Uh, I'm really, really excited. This is an interesting story. So I think you first stumbled across my Twitter feed back in 20. 18. Yeah. 2017 maybe. Like you've been creating videos for a long, long time and I would say in the past few years it feels like you started to really, really win when it comes to social media. But there is like five years of maybe more of grind before that. What I wanna know, what was the first video you put on the internet?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: When I was an intern for Pat McAfee at bars. Still indie? Yeah. It was a video called Ref Daddy. Okay. Where I went to the hood of Indianapolis and I put on a referee outfit and started calling pick up basketball games.
Nate Spangle: No way.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, that
Nate Spangle: was that the very, like you never, like when you were coming up through high school or anything like that, you never put anything like, you never put anything on YouTube.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I did like the a LS Ice Bucket Challenge. Ice was about it. I wasn't really, I had trouble videos of me in the basement, like shooting like a Nerf rocket launcher. So like my friends like. Private parts, they're balls, they're dudes, you know? And then other than that, not nothing like, you know, like a real, like official like yeah. Creator video.
Nate Spangle: And then how did you end up getting the gig with On Pat's show?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: So, just back to when I was back in high school, when I used to bus it to the dance, I was a, uh, manager for the football basketball team at Fisher's High School.
Nate Spangle: Oh.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: So I was a manager of four years of football, two years basketball. And, and then the college, I had three options. It was either go to Indiana State University, I'm like, hell no. It was either go to Ivy Tech. I'm like, hell no. Or it was go to IUPUI, I was like, you know what? Close enough to iu. IU rejected me. Ball of state, put me on a wait list. I didn't get in. So with IUPUI, I was doing, uh, exercise science, and I thought that I would like, be like an athletic trainer and all that. You know, two weeks in, I realized if someone says their ACL, like I'm, I'm gonna get sued. I don't know what I'm doing. So, but the second week, second week of my freshman year, IUPUI, there was a job listing for, um. Or so you can censor that word by the way. JOB And there was a listing for, uh, like opportunities to volunteer internships around the, in city of Indianapolis. And there was an opening to be a ball boy for the Colts. I was like, ah, I've been a ball boy. I'll, I'll apply for it. Got the position. So I worked as a ball boy from the Colts for 2015 to 2018, which was Pat's last two years. And so when Pat retired from the Colts in 2017, he joined Barstool Sports. He opened up, uh, Barstool Indianapolis. I shot him a DM saying, Hey, I'd love to be an intern for you. I didn't know what it entitled, but got an, uh, interview to be an intern. Pretty much just on
Nate Spangle: you sit down in Pat McAfee, like with Pat McAfee for an internship right. When he retired. Like what, what did that interview look like?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: We were in this big ass warehouse and there's like probably 40 people just waiting in the basement, like one at a time. Go into a big room. It was like the lights are on you It's almost like American Idol. Okay. Like just like Pat like, uh, judges who are just like his tour on the Pat show now like Tone Digs and all them sitting there. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Like, they'll ask you random questions. You gotta be like, you gotta, are you, you know, you gotta pretty much show your personality. Are you creative and funny? So you have some questions. there were funny answers. Gave me the internship.
Nate Spangle: Like, what were you doing?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Uh, I was just standing there like 40 pounds less than I am now.
Nate Spangle: No, like what was your job as an intern
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: creator. Really.
Nate Spangle: Oh, really? So it was like being like in the content piece right? From the, had had you had content experience before then.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Uh, no, not really. I did like three videos for him. I did the, the ref Daddy video. I did like a, we did a Tommy John sponsored video.
Nate Spangle: And Was it on your personal account or was it on Pat's account?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It was under at the time, Barstool Heartland.
Nate Spangle: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So you were helping create videos for Heartland?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. And
Nate Spangle: so you do that for like a summer?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That was for like, like two or three months. Yeah. Okay. I was like working on LA fitness at the time too, like, so we were, it, it wasn't a paid internship, but Pat, pat McAfee was a, is a huge piece of the domino to why I got to where I am now. So Pat really put my name out into the. Barstool universe and just, and the internet universe too. He, he wrote, he wrote a whole like blog about like how we met at the cults and then how I'm doing his video, how doing the ref daddy stuff. So he really,
Nate Spangle: yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Put a huge, uh, stamp of approval for me.
Nate Spangle: Dude, that, that's kind of cool. And it shows that some of it is just putting your, your name in the hat or your Yeah. Putting your name in the hat, right? Like showing up, taking, getting this internship. One you have to compete against 40 other people or 39 other people to get this spot for a free internship for a company that like, yes, they ended up, uh, working with Barstool, but it was kind of like, what is this Barstool Heartland thing? Like, is Pat McAfee, he this retired punter that, you know, had gotten in trouble jumping into the canal. Like he wasn't who he is today. This is. I mean, going almost a decade ago, like pretty close to it. Right? Like what year? This was probably your freshman year of college.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: 2017?
Nate Spangle: Yeah. So it's like nine years ago and it's like crazy how that ends up turning out. But you go and work for him for a summer. What was the biggest lesson that you learned from your time with Pat McAfee?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Show up on time before we did Inside I winning bars to light on all that?
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Pat had me, invited me on to his, uh, his Pat McAfee show after I won bars. Still Idol. And I did not show up on time. He was not happy Learn after that. Like it's a very, this is a profession, very professional job being a creator, whatever, entertainer, whatever it may be. Yeah. So, yeah. If someone, if you're not, if you're given in time to be at show up, you gotta fucking show up.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Thankfully I got that they, I'd have to go on and did NetSuite, but it just didn't really, like, he kinda lost like a sense he lost like, you know, trust in me and the like, you need to be more mature. I know you're 18 years old, 20. I was 21 when I was on that show. But show up when opportunities different to you.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, well I think a lot of people think that the job of creator is all just like fun and games and laughs and jokes and I think that the way that you guys have evolved over time has really shown that it's not all that. Like you have to be like kind of a professional in a way, like the way you're thinking about videos and sponsors and the whole nine yards. And I'm excited to get into that a little bit later in the journey. Um, I know a big piece is when you and Brandon really started to work together, um, and a lot of cool stuff ends up happening and we'll get to that later in the show As we're going on this journey though, you're interning for Pat for the summer. Is that where you met Liam?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Liam Panero, Ben Pulitz, Joey Moro,
Nate Spangle: like, it's kind of crazy. All these guys like got their kind of like creator start. This is well before Instagram reels. Like all of y'all were connected around kind of Pat McAfee and Barstool Harland.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: Wow. So you finish that and then do you start putting videos out? When do you start putting videos out for yourself?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Bars still internship the summer led into my junior year at IUPUI and none of us got, none of us re uh, got back to join Barstool and Pat. 'cause he, he pretty much hired, uh, other people. So
Nate Spangle: when was that when he left Barstool?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh no, he was still at Bar. He was still at Barstool. Uh, he, he's hired like full-time people.
Nate Spangle: Okay.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. At Barstool Heartland. And, um, I was just going into my junior year at EPUI, I decided I need to make my own YouTube channel. So I made Austin, it's still out there. Austin Taylor. It's on YouTube. I'd had like probably nine or 10 videos on there, but, uh, I. I made my on YouTube channel and I primarily made it about making fun of IEPU. I is, oh my God, bro, this, there's like content. Lord, there's so much to make fun of at school. It's so easy. There's like, there's like no sports atmosphere. Everyone who goes there just doesn't want to be there. There was one way streets, there was like just homeless people sleeping in like the hallways of like the electric hallways is, it was, you name it, they had it. It was incredible. So I started making, making fun of IUPUI and I built an IUPUI following 'cause we're all, we we're all suffering together. Might might as well laugh about it. Then I started going around Indianapolis was doing like indie 500 videos or like a random street and go on the Comic-Con around indie and kind of built more of a little indie following after that. But Pat definitely did put me on the map with the Barstool Indie Barstool Heartland stuff.
Nate Spangle: Austin Taylor. 9 4 9 7.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, the
Nate Spangle: 242 subs. Yeah. The Barstool Idol audition is your most viewed video on that channel. I mean, you have eight years ago, so you were building up this kind of like. Satirical, uh, IUPUI personality, like I remember there was one. Are you like interviewing pothole? Like you're out, like, I dunno, reporting live from all the potholes around Indianapolis.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. I hit all the potholes in Indianapolis. I was, I I made a whole documentary about Women's History Month. I was just a random stuff I thought I like.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. And I mean this is the what, 2018? Somewhere around that time. Where does Barstool Idol start to come into, because that's like another thing that takes you from Austin to the like persona of Mantis.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. So early 20 bar spring 2018, there was a, uh, Barstool Idol was announced where the, the season two of Barstool Idol where pretty much you gotta compete for a full-time. I, American Idol, you gotta compete just other people to win a full-time job at Barstool. So I made the audition video, sent it to the Barstool, got selected, I think like they had like, it, it was a three week process in the summer of 2018 where they would you have to go to New York and audition. For a job in front of Dave Portnoy? No, in front of his dad. Random people at bar. It was like random people every week. But you had a, um, it's three weeks of that. And then if you get selected, if you win that day, then it turned out to be a round two in August of 2018. Whereas 15 people, and you're all in Airbnbs together, competing every day to be funny through like vlogs through, uh, doing blogs on the spot, doing challenges and four day process. It was supposed to be a five day process, turned into a four. Um, I won a, I won that competition. I won a full-time job from him.
Nate Spangle: Okay, wait, so take me through. You go to New York for three weeks. To start,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: it was a three week first round thing, so
Nate Spangle: yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I was like week two when I went
Nate Spangle: there. Okay. So you go there for how many? For one. Like one,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: like one day.
Nate Spangle: One day. And what does the interview or the idol process look like? What do you do?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It's like a American Idol stuff. Like, that's like a hundred employees in the room. It's like Dave's in that little table on a judge table. Yeah. And like pretty much just ask you ran you. It's on, uh, YouTube too, like bars still. Um, obviously if you're listening or watching, you can look it up too. Like bars still idol. Season two, I was pretty, there was through all many questions. I was just being quirky on the fly, just trying to, saying what I felt.
Nate Spangle: Okay.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: And then,
Nate Spangle: and they just thought you were funny enough to get the gig or to get invited to the final 15?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, I think it was 5 15, 16, something
Nate Spangle: like that. Yeah. And like, had you always been funny or like, are you, do you think that humor and like being talented in videos is something you're born with? Or do you think it's something that you've worked on a lot over time?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: There's a mixture of my, like my appearance, my, I mean, yeah. Literally it's, it's the way, I way I look. And then the, like, how, uh, I have no filter. Uh, I'm very outgoing. I looked way different now than I was years ago. I had no beard. I was waist in no muscle. I was way more bent than I am now.
Nate Spangle: Way
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: more
Nate Spangle: bent.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. So I feel like drawing before doing videos, people always, people would always stare at me, but like in a way where it's like, like what? Like what's wrong with him? What is that? And that always made me insecure. But I feel like that's why I kind of made, made me want to be an attention whore where like, I, I wanna be like, I, I know I'm, I know I'm just a one-on-one.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: And I have no, I have no, I, I can't help that. I say that in a way, like with my, um, for those who don't know my, my physical condition, that there's no name for what I have.
Nate Spangle: There's no name.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: There's not, it's not like lumbars, scoliosis, none of that. That's an undiagnosed tradition.
Nate Spangle: Just like,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: but the real ones, no, I do suffer from BDS, which, you know,
Nate Spangle: yeah, yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: yeah. You can say it if you want.
Nate Spangle: We'll let you use that.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Big Dick syndrome is why one small reason why I'm, you know, outta shape.
Nate Spangle: One one. Small reason BDS
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Well, one big reason.
Nate Spangle: One big reason. And that's, well, I mean, the condition he says he just bent.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I'm just bent. Yeah. There's no name for what I have, so I, I, I am, but I am bent. So
Nate Spangle: yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: they went with that.
Nate Spangle: So, so you get sent out to the, like, legit season of Barstool Idol season two. Where they send you to a house for how long?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I a wait. You, you're in a house and you go back between the office site. They'll have you like, make a blog on the spot. They'll make you go out, make a video.
Nate Spangle: Were you a good writer?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: You are?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I just don't like it.
Nate Spangle: You just don't like it?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I hate riding.
Nate Spangle: So you go out there and who are you? Like, what does the competition look like? Is everyone like, uh, because I feel like everyone has their kind of like, niche. Like are they all like video creators or they're like jack dudes or they're hot girls? Like what does the makeup of who you're competing against look like?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I wish there were hot girls. There really weren't. There was a whole lot of men, but, uh, a whole lot. There was like stand up comedians. Yeah, there was like big Barstool diehard fans. There was like just people that just were just funny.
Nate Spangle: Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: they were on it.
Nate Spangle: And, and what was the, like, what was the key to win it? Like what did you have to do really
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: just stand out, be yourself. They have a very specific niche audience. You know, it's like just stools. Like for me, I didn't really, even during the bars, the intern relationship with Pat, I wasn't really a big bar stool fan or I did my research. I was just like, I know what's funny and what's not and I just wanna be myself. So I thought I stood as this bar stool. Didn't really have someone that was an outsider. And there were plenty of guys in that competition that were kind of, you know, didn't really, they were themselves.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But I just am what I am and that worked.
Nate Spangle: And, and so what did it come down to? Like was it you versus one other person to see
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: who there was there? There was a final five.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: And then they chose me to be like the full-time winner, but they, they also hired a couple other people like, uh, Marty Mush, he, like, he got hired from that competition too. But you know, he, uh, uh, Tate? Ohio's Tate?
Nate Spangle: Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Ohio's Tate. Like the first day he was like, honestly guys like I, I just wanna write for you guys. I don't wanna do videos. Trying to go home. And they're like, yeah, sure. So then, but now Tate's like one of the biggest bar stool employees here right now.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. He's like, blown up a little bit bit in the last like, uh, probably a year or so.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. So there's like three winners, but just like one, like official.
Nate Spangle: But you were the winner though.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. The winner of the competition.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. So you are go, this is your senior year, like this is like the fall of your
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: senior year. The Friday before my senior year started, IUPUI. So when I got that, when at that job I was like JOB, sorry. When I got that, I was like, wait, what do I do? Do I drop out? Do I stay in school? Like, I was like, I was so delusional.
Nate Spangle: So like, you get the job and they go, all right, yeah, we'd like to offer you a job. And Jean, if I call home to your family and say, Hey, by the way, I'm dropping outta college. I
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: called my mom right after I was crying. We couldn't believe it. But then on I, well then finished, I, I switched to online gen. I went from exercise science, sports management to online general studies. My senior year at IEP Wise, I was like, I don't even care about the degree anymore. I got this JOB. Like I just start my career, I guess. And
Nate Spangle: yeah, like did you feel like that when you won Barstool Idol, like winning that competition? My life is different now.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, totally. But I feel like it's nowhere near to what it is now.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Um, it was just another big step and just the, the whole domino effect.
Nate Spangle: So what does it look like being an an employee of Barstool Sports?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It was good and bad. Like, I think the good stuff was like the, I got my name out into the internet.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I learned.
Nate Spangle: Well, where did you get the name? Mantis.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh yeah. Young Mantis. So my freshman year, IUPUI was trying to be a rapper, you know, every other white freshman at IUPUI. Nothing else to do there. And, uh, I try to think of a, I made one song, but trying to think of a name for my, my rap name. So one day I was, uh, doing a boxing workout with my roommate. And so we do, I'm doing a workout, so I'm doing this right. Oh yeah, I'm doing this with the speed bag. And my, my roommate goes, dude, the way you're so fucked up looking, you, you have to pray in Mantis when you do that. I was like, young Mantis. And then only, only the people in my dorm room knew that name. But when I had to go to bars, still Ile, we all needed to make a, an alias stand to protect ourselves 'cause we don't win. So I was like, uh, my name's John Mantis. And then that's how it started.
Nate Spangle: No way.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah,
Nate Spangle: dude, young Mantis.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I was like, uh, young Mantis.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. That's wild. And so, and the name just stuck. Yeah. Because I feel like, I remember the video one, I remember a couple of them, I remember where Dave was talking about Young Mantis and then I remember like them on the spot where you're like, yeah, like, do I drop outta school? Like, can I call my mom? Yeah. Like there's a whole video where you're kinda like starstruck a little bit and you have to like, figure out what to do with, do I finish college or do I go work in New York for Barstool Sports?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That was a funny video 'cause that, that happened in 2018. But then I re I rett that video and like 2022 and re no, 2023. I re-edit into a short form reel and YouTube short. And then it did like more numbers. I drive 5 million views on YouTube. So in 2023 I was walking around, people would be like, yo, address, Barstool. I'm like, whatcha talking about they, you, you want competition, right? No, dude, that's like five years ago they got confused.
Nate Spangle: It's crazy. The, when that the algorithm started to push YouTube shorts, like you can go back and get old footage and like, they'll rock and roll.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. Crazy.
Nate Spangle: Okay, so day one, you're a full-time employee at Barstool. Like, what does the first day look like?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Uh, walked in, there's like 80 people crammed and like, each floor is like just blogging. Everyone's trying to mind their own business. Like, everyone's like, it's pretty quiet.
Nate Spangle: And like, what is your job like as a career? Like what do, who's like your boss?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: There's Dave who has, he would like approve everything that you would do or everything would be run by him, but
Nate Spangle: like every piece of content you created
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: for videos. Yeah, it is like if you're making a series and he, whether he likes it or not. That's how it gets approved, but it's also like a, uh, head of production
Nate Spangle: and like, how were they measuring success?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: The main goal when you're at Barstool, at least when I was there, it was like, you wanna sell your, you wanna sell to ads and sponsorships and companies, so you wanna make videos where you can bring revenue into Barstool.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That was the main goal. But they like, they like clicks views too. Off of videos, blogs,
Nate Spangle: but it's like, yeah. Your goal is to build up these profiles, like, you know, assets, you know, whether it's blogs or newsletters or, you know, creators so that, you know, uh, Coors Light or whoever can do videos together. Yeah. Or DraftKings or whoever it might be. Yeah. Okay. So what was your first kind of creative project that you brought to Barstool?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I was in Indie from August, 2018 to November, 2018. Just the Barstool eventually bought out my apartment to move to New York. But, but when I was in Indie, I tried out for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants basketball team. That was a good one. Uh, I did some like IUPUI regatta videos. I say my big one, first big one was like trying out for the G League for Fort Wayne. Mad Ants
Nate Spangle: Okay. So you go up to there and you try out for the, the G League team. I remember seeing this video as well and it's pretty funny. Like basketball's always somehow been a part of your identity, you know? Uh, you were only a manager for two years, but somehow, I mean, you have a clip when it comes to shooting free throws
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: clip from the hip.
Nate Spangle: Dude, it's wild. If anyone's ever seen him shoot, you literally hold it at your hip and just like shot, put the thing in and it works. I mean, you hit what, 110 in a row?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: 151.
Nate Spangle: 151 in a row. But at the 100 was blindfolded.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: The nine. The nine nine shot was blindfolded. And the last one we did, the 130 fourth shot was blindfolded.
Nate Spangle: You hit, wait, you hit two blindfolded shots in your run to 150?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Well, no, I missed the blindfold twice and I had to redo it,
Nate Spangle: dude. It,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: so yeah, I locked myself in a gym until I made a certain amount of free throws in a row. But the, the target score I have to hit the last one shot has, I have to make it blindfolded. If I missed, I just restart.
Nate Spangle: I mean, how long the first time you did it, you were locked in there forever?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: 82 hours my body gave out. So seven, one was 74 hours, got to a hundred, and the last one was 17 hours. Got to 1
Nate Spangle: 51 17. I mean, are you practicing?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Not really.
Nate Spangle: Not very often. No. No. That's crazy. Maybe,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: maybe once a week now. But when I get into the stream mode, I'll, I'll start doing like three, two or three times a week. Just, I prepare for it.
Nate Spangle: That's wild.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: Okay. Well, I wanna get back on, you end up moving out to New York and you, you're like creating, are you blogging or are you making videos? Like what do you, what does your. Time at Barstool look like,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: pretty much trying to figure out, put up something every day, but like
Nate Spangle: a video or a blog,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: any, any of that. But there were days where I, I couldn't think I had like writer's block Nothing was hitting. I remember going like two weeks without putting out something, but I could be editing something, but it's like nothing sticking. There's definitely pressure at Barstool 'cause you wanna be, know, one of the top dogs every day. But it's like,
Nate Spangle: yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: you don't wanna lose the momentum of,
Nate Spangle: and how do you know, like, are they, are there like meetings where they're like, okay, you know, mantis got 1 million views and so and so got 15 million views?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Not really, no. There wasn't really meetings. Like, I remember like when TikTok was starting to blow up, there'd be like, maybe like monthly like emails, like of the numbers everyone's doing. Yeah. But nothing like, not really, no. There was, it's, it's really barstow's really not what, uh, like the average company, they got their own little blueprint and it's kind like, yeah, it's really, it. It's very. In a way you can do whatever you want, but you're still like, you have to do approval, if that makes sense.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: If I wanna do, if I wanna go out and shoot a video by myself around New York or whatever, I can go, but it's like I have have like write off on like a, a videographer to have, for me to film. If I film someone in my video, I gotta have them sign a consent form and that shit just took too much time, bro. So now it's like I can go out and do a shred beef poster or have my iPhone post it. I had no
Nate Spangle: permission either. Wait, so why, why did you have to get consent forms? Like do you think bars, does bars stores get consent forms for all their videos?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, they're so bad and like just someone can just go after them and sue them. They don't wanna get hit with lawsuits and be in trouble. Does there's there that, that bait of a name.
Nate Spangle: Wow.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Definitely in the past too. I mean, I mean, any companies, like if a sports center post someone without permission, then they can, you know, they can get hit, but it's like gotta protect themselves to their
Nate Spangle: Wow. So you would go out there and you'd have to get like waivers from
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: everyone. Yeah. That was the worst part. If I'm going out doing a man on the street, like even like, let's say, let's say the Pacers went beat the Knicks right after Dan. I'm like interviewing people and I doubt you. Like all of them consent, like off an iPad or some shit right after it slows down, you know, how it goes to the next person in the film. Like that is, that was horrible.
Nate Spangle: Wow.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Hate that.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Any big time people do that just fine.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Like prankster, like I feel like that part, it's like a lot of things like consent with, that's important. Like how do, how do you navigate that where maybe there are moments where you're like being funnier. Like, I mean, think about the. The IUPY. So one of the videos that went absolutely berserk was when you tried to check into an IUPUI basketball game, and I believe you still are like banned from your alma mater.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, I'm still banned from, uh, all IU schools, all IU owned property and sporting events.
Nate Spangle: Wow.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. And we still lost that game.
Nate Spangle: Take me through that of one where you had the idea to check into a game and dressed as LeBron James. Like, kind of like the repercussions that came from that.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: We did a video prior to that where we went, I went to a Colts game and it was, we made the title like sneaked into an NFL stadium, but we had a a, I had a credential the whole time, so I wasn't brewing it. I wasn't doing it wrong. I was making the storyline that I was sneaking in all the shots. So after that we thought about like,
Nate Spangle: did the Colts get upset about that?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, they did too. Of course they did. Oh, that's, that's another outside you that in the second. Oh no. Fuck it. So like, I did hit my most viewed YouTube short is, uh, sneaking into an NFL stadium. I got a credential to literally do content on the sidelines. So I thought, so I was like, okay, let's do a, let's let's storyline where I sneak into the stadium, make it look like I did. And then after that they were just like, this is not like we didn't approve this, blah, blah, blah. And it was so well, and I looked at the end of the video, I made it clear that I had a credential.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. So then they got upset.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh yeah. Only at me. No one else. There's three triggers with us. We were all doing our own videos, but I was the one that got in trouble.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But, uh, I don't even care anymore. So you
Nate Spangle: went, so you go from that to then.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. The next idea is, okay, that one did so well. How about we try to sneak, sneak court side into a college game? But then Brandon Ames, the goat, he said, instead of that you should try to check into a basketball, just check into the game. So we're like, oh, I have that old Miami Heat LeBron fit, same colors as the IUPUI uniform. Let's do that. So then when I got that ticket for $10 and the IUPUI, no one goes to the games, right? So it was like 10 people in the, in the stands. So I was like, this is easy, bro. Now security doesn't do anything. They're just sitting there. I just touched something on their thumbs. I draw on my little sweat soup, take it off, run to the bench during a type before I put the ball in, put the ball in before I blow the whistle, the, the game going. And I just, I did it pretty professionally. I put my hand on the buzzer. Like, I wasn't like going in the court, I was waiting the sub in. They didn't like that?
Nate Spangle: No. Like what did the guy at the, the table say?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: He, oh, they were just confused. They were like, what the heck? Just looked at me all weird.
Nate Spangle: And then after, do you like get a, a shoot off the property?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. The head coach thought I was a Make-A-Wish kid, so he was like, Hey, listen buddy, well next time we'll get you in the game, you know? Nice to me. I was like, but coach, I wanna hit a three. But yeah, uh, Thanos the, uh, cherry guy walked me out. I was like, just go get some cops coming out here to arrest you. You don't do that. I walk outta the building and there's just like. Just like wind and like air, just like no one in sight. So I'd like go home.
Nate Spangle: That was like, yeah, the, I would say the beginning of your tumultuous relationship with
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: iu, it's free publicity for the school. If they were smart, they would've had me come out to the net stand and do like a halftime show that bring in more fans that did in more revenue. But hey, that's just, what do I know? Right?
Nate Spangle: I think it takes you into the part of like when you play jokes and do that part and like have videos like that, how do you balance building a brand and a business with also, like at some point people are the butts of the jokes. So how do you think about that when it comes to, you know, whether it be saving Red Lobster or Shrek beef or whatever that is. How, like, how do you balance that?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Edgier content always does way better because there's so many just people that are just are scared to make that jump. They want like brand safe videos do never, ever perform well, but they have the higher budget so it makes sense. But like even like they say like. The Red Lobster wasn't bad at all. It was, it was a trendy topic where Red Lobster was going out of business. It's like, okay, yeah, let me save it. Like,
Nate Spangle: yeah. Well I think that, okay. Your videos and kind of your trajectory went from like pretty well known to like absolutely skyrocketed on YouTube when you put up a poster at Arby's and went and dressed as Shrek and ordered the Shrek beef, right? Was that like the first
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, that month. The month, the fall of 2023, I think in the one or two month span we put out the Shrek beef, pranked the RA Supreme pranked, sneaking into an NFL stadium and then checked into an, I checked into a college basketball game. Those four got my YouTube from 2000 subs to like a hundred thousand, like a month and a half.
Nate Spangle: Holy shit.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But yeah, that was a huge for us. And then the TikTok and I Instagram reels were. We're all going up too.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But YouTube shorts definitely changed our, really jumped our whole new career.
Nate Spangle: You, you started like really making those videos for YouTube shorts like, 'cause I think after that, was that when you tried to save Red Lobster?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah, it was really, we just made those videos just for like every short Instagram reel. Started doing shorts. Even Snapchat had Spotlight, which is like a reels, Twitter's kind of going short form now. Pushing that Facebook reels was starting to go. We, I mean everyone.
Nate Spangle: What's your biggest platform?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: YouTube. YouTube. 282,000 subs.
Nate Spangle: 282,000 subs. Which like getting subs on YouTube is so hard.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It is. But also why I feel like now I don't feel, I feel like followers don't even matter anymore because I know people, there's people who have like 2 million followers in IG and they're getting 3000 views of video. There's people now like 25 KI, my GR shaped account, GR shaped four 20 on TikTok. It's not 20 2K followers versus averaging like 130,000 views of post. I think it's just, if you're just trending, you're consistent. That's all that matters. Even there's. I don't think followers matter anymore.
Nate Spangle: You don't think it matters?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I think it is. If you have a lot of followers, it's easier to like sell to a brand and partner, but it's like, if you're getting views out the, out the a SS every day, it's like, dude, why wouldn't you wanna work with someone?
Nate Spangle: How did you make the jump from comedy creator to actually start getting in revenue and making this, uh, a business that supports, you know, making money? All,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: all through Brandon Ames. Ames Create, he's my right hand man, my best friend from college, and we just do everything together. We plan all the ideas. He definitely does. He's not really on camera as much. Yeah. Although I think he's, he's hilarious and he gotta do cameos too, but he's like, he's doing the business side. He's like, he's reaching out to companies to be partnerships, sponsorships, all of that. Yeah. He's helping really. Brand, brand, young mantis. Uh, without him, I would not be here i's I would probably still like be door dashing, honestly.
Nate Spangle: Okay.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Door dashing full time. Sorry.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's the interesting piece, right? Is like you were door dashing and also making videos, and then you turned that into a persona. Like you've just crafted these personas, whether it's like the, the lights out, free throw shooter, whether it's, oh my gosh, am like thinking through like most recently is the, the DoorDash or like a hundred thousand Ride or, uh, deliveries complete
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: our work. Piss off.
Nate Spangle: What, what was one before that?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: So the weekend kind of how, like characters I do like, oh, I like a new album every other year. So does different characters. Yeah. I'm, I'm inspired by the weekend. I can't sing like them, but like these personas. Hard, like from our authentic 'cause. Like I've always, I've always grown up shooting in the driveway. I've always grown up playing basketball and not, and not being picked to play a picked up basketball is the way I looked. So that, that made me so mad. I would shoot all the time and that's why I've really practiced a lot.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: And then when I got laid off from Barstool in 2020, I immediately started DoorDash and I even made a video about that too, like a day in the life of that. And then Brandon's idea was to uh, like how can we just, how can we troll the internet again? So he is like, dude, just put like a DoorDash logo on the Nike Tech and then make the fake PR box and just just post it. And then it just went neutral. So we ran with that and I still went running with that. It's fun. Like I love
Nate Spangle: Yeah, I mean there's like you pulling up the inn out getting an an order and like, oh yeah, I'm taking us back to Indiana.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Flew to Vegas and picked up an inn out order for my customer and then flew back to here. Davidson,
Nate Spangle: where in this journey did you feel like you really became well-known? Like you really got notoriety?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I mean, when I was at bars, Barstool, if I'm outta college or at a bar, that's. You know, some of their demographics. So I always,
Nate Spangle: I mean, it's not hard to pick you out of a crowd. Like you don't, you don't necessarily blend in super well. I say that with love,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: don't, that's why my friend always says like, what I, my condition, whatever I have, it's a blessing and a curse, a blessing. Just like, it really stands out along with, you know, my personality and what I do. A curse of it is like, dude, I can't do a full pushup. I can't do like a pull up. I can't like sprint fast like that. I've always wondered like, what that would feel like. Like I can't, I can't dunk like you milk. I feel like, yeah, no, yeah, clearly that's, that's the worst part. But, uh, the whole standing out when I, when I feel like I started to recognize a lot more either the 2023 with those like shred beef videos in the fall, just the, the whole YouTube shorts and all his views brought in a whole like, younger audience. No, Diddy for me, like, it used to be just like Barstool fans, you know, like the college kids. So like late twenties now, it's like I, I'll meet like, like six year olds, so like. 65 year olds is like, now we're hitting like, you know, the Facebook demographic
Nate Spangle: that think you're funny. Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. But people my age will like, have parents watching me. They're like, or 40 year olds will have like their parents and like, they'll just see me and it's like recognizable. We're, we're hitting all the demographics and we post on every platform, so we go hit everything.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I know some creators that will only post on one platform like TikTok and it won't do anything else. The way I see it, bro, if you're at a Carnival, you have seven, you, you have seven shots that hit a target, why not try and hit all of them, see which one hits.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Do you feel like different types of content perform better on different platforms?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, for sure. Yeah. There's definitely like, there's, there's TikTok like trends that will definitely hit on TikTok. But if you put on Facebook, you won't get many views, but, but you never know, like anything can hit.
Nate Spangle: When was the moment that you didn't have to DoorDash. Like, where was the moment where you were like, Hey, I actually have a, like a career here and I don't have to like, ever think about getting a JOB,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: but thank you for answering that. Honestly, I, I door dashed October, 2020 till like maybe January, 2021 because I, I got a gig to, uh, I, I worked for a lot of like sports betting companies, like behind the scenes, I, I worked for better than Vegas. And then, uh, wow. I actually forget the second one. It's been Better Sports Network. I would like just edit, uh, like interviews and like podcasts, like behind the scenes for like okay. Months. And that was really a little bit of content for better than Vegas. But like I just, I wrote to like the whole freelancing gig for like two or three years. Okay. I also made two years also major, my own content, but it wasn't hitting, it wasn't as good as it was now. And then Brandon sat with me in 2023 in the summer. Like we got, like, we just gotta go like. Uh, go hard on the shorts algorithm, and we just changed up the whole editing and the ideas. We made 'em so much better. We, we were
Nate Spangle: How did you do that? Like, what were the thought processes you were going through? Like if there's kids out there or anyone that like, wants to be a creator but is like sitting on the sideline, like what was the advice and like the, the reframe of your guys' mind that helped really take you to the next level?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It started with just looking at, looking at all the popular creators to see what the ideas they're doing and then just like putting our own twist to it. And then once you're, once those are doing well, then the idea is trying to start like just coming to you naturally. Yeah. I think at least I like to think, I mean. I don't think I'm, I'm as successful as I can be or want to be. I think I'm always hard on myself. Yeah, in a good way. 'cause you driving like you are too. You want more, you want more. You wanna probably want a bigger studio. You want more followers. You want, you want be the best podcast and creator ever, right? Yeah. It's never, it's never enough.
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Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: Like we have like, you know, I'm closing on a hundred thousand followers, or, you know, 200,000 streams, the bi, whatever it might be. It's like it's, but there could be, it could be 500,000. Like if Joe Rogan can figure out how to get millions and millions of streams, like why can't we figure out to get millions and millions of streams?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Exactly. Yeah. Well my, my biggest, my biggest advice is, uh, being able to adapt. I think when I was from 20 20, 20, 20 23, I was posting the same skits. There were, there's like, they weren't, I looking back at 'em now, I cringe. They're not funny. How, how they can't appeal to like anyone rather than like maybe like a certain demographic. And then 20, 23, like since then we're adapting. We're like, we're looking at what performed well for us. I think it's so easy now to be a creator than it ever was. All because it was shorts and reels. 'cause we didn't have that in like 20 15, 20 12, 20 20 by 2023. Like anyone I someone to walk down the street right now and take that video of like something and it like a million views.
Nate Spangle: Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I think it's so easy. Navigate views. What
Nate Spangle: do you think the key was to go from like getting tens and hundreds of thousands of views to millions of views?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Definitely just consistency,
Nate Spangle: really
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: consistency, great ideas, and just great editing.
Nate Spangle: What makes a great idea?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Something that no one else would ever think of that's not even posted yet. Something that, well, it it to be something has already posted, but it'd be just like another step forward to it. Yeah. Like
Nate Spangle: your own spin on it.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Like it is like, it's like how it is like when Brandon was like, you should just, I was like, I should sneak courtside into a college basketball game. No, you should check into the dam. Like another level into it.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. What are some of the other ideas, what does that even say about views, but from ideas like that are just some of the best ideas you guys have ever had?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: We were doing a TickPick video, at a Colts game months ago where I, I, I'll pretty much, I know what
Nate Spangle: video this is,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I'll compare like the worst seats to the best seats of my desk of a sporting event or any event. So we did a, I was, we were filming. Throughout the whole game just to make a one minute video. But one of the scenes was me at the very top of the bleachers with like my feet out and a corn dog. And that only took like 12 seconds of our time. We posted the one minute video to like 1.4 million views on like Instagram, the me of the corn dog, 12 seconds of my time, 130 million views and my most viewed reel short ever of all time.
Nate Spangle: I mean, 'cause it's just like you have to stop and stare when a guy's got his dogs out.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah,
Nate Spangle: And he's waving his corn dog.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: And the simpler, the better. Like we, I just put like, we just shot that on an iPhone, put a little bit of text, posted it like nothing crazy. I would spend so many hours of my life back in the baral days, like editing, like long form videos. I hate long form bro. It's just too, not short enough. I'm getting like 1000 views per short. Just the wave right
Nate Spangle: now. Yeah, they're definitely, they're definitely hot When you talk about working with a partner, working with businesses, a video of you with your feet out and a corn dog. In the name of Tick pic, like are they pumped up? I mean, obvious to 130 million views, but it doesn't say anything about Tick Pick or their business. Like talk to me about how you balance, like just getting views, but also being able to monetize and work with brands.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Tick Pic said the exact same thing. They love the views, but they're like, well, just for, just for them from now. We had, we, we collab posted with them. Yeah, so their name's right there. But like you says, like, how can we get the Tpic logo door or any brand into the video? So now that's why we have to start incorporating like, uh, we now we did the DoorDash, Nike Tech uniform. Yeah. Now maybe like if I'm playing basketball, I a tpic, like Nike arm sleeve or like a headband. So I'm doing another corn dog and yeah, I probably should be wearing like a shirt or just like,
Nate Spangle: yeah. Well even for that one though, it's still like the, the fact that they have 130 million view.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh yeah. It's still on their page.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, like on their page is insane.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh. It's, it's nuts.
Nate Spangle: It's a little like obscure. You like go to get your ticket and you see mantis feet
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: and it's tip pitch. Most viewed video ever too.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, so like when you were in like a debrief meeting with them, were they excited?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. They, it's, they're excited, but I think they're pushing us to the just be even just get not only their name out too, but just all of us to just get more of our names of Visa. Yeah.
Nate Spangle: What's been some of the coolest businesses you've got to work with?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: We're coming up, we have one more month left on our trial, uh, trial deal with cia.
Nate Spangle: Oh, yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Roy Laroy led Kaci. I,
Nate Spangle: I mean, they're crazy. They're like, are super modern.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. They're, they're blowing up. They're they're they're killing it right now.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I love working with them. You can trade on anything.
Nate Spangle: Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: you can trade on the weather.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. It's, it's nuts. And it's a little bit above my pay grade of like all the stuff with, uh, prediction markets and
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: whatnot.
Nate Spangle: Oh yeah. But like you can. Content about? About basically anything.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Literally anything.
Nate Spangle: Because weren't you just, 'cause you started traveling a lot more, like you've been in Vegas twice in the last month or two.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I'm going third time next month.
Nate Spangle: What, like how are you getting the hookup in Vegas?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Well, two of them are bachelor parties.
Nate Spangle: Oh,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: that's high. And one was a, um, I had, I had someone, someone asshole order in and out, so I had to go pick it up.
Nate Spangle: And you had a DoorDash
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: across the country? Yeah, I, I do my JOB.
Nate Spangle: What do you think the next wave, like if you wanted to get out in front and be even bigger, what do you have to do? How do you have to keep innovating? What comes next for mantis, mantis industries?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I ask myself that every day. Then I feel like it just, it just comes naturally. Like. I auditioned, you know ti
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: So Drew's a comedian. He has a show called, could have been records where he like auditioned, like pretty much like be part his label. But like, that hasn't even come out yet. I auditioned like a month ago. And I think that that, I think that had a really good segment on that. So
Nate Spangle: yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: maybe that will be another, uh, step to my trajectory.
Nate Spangle: Did you, were you wearing the, the DoorDash, Nike Tech? Yeah, of course. You were
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: always on the job. You'll be,
Nate Spangle: yeah. Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: yeah. And I mean, there's that.
Nate Spangle: Who's been the most interesting person you've met along this journey?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Danny Duncan. He's an OG YouTuber. Yeah. Um, I love him. 'cause he is, there's a lot, there's some creators who are like, act on camera and they're not good people. He is like one of people, like he is exactly who you see on camera. Dave Portnoy. He is, no, Dave Portnoy is the most interesting guy. 'cause he is, people always always ask me like, yo, was David Dick bro? Is he the worst guy? Like he, Dave's exactly what you see on camera. And what I love about him is he's, he's, he has no filter. He is raw. He tells you exactly what he feels. He's, he's no like acting or anything at all. He's a straight businessman. And he is one of the biggest hearted people that I know. Really one for, he gave me a platform that no one else gave. He him and Pat both of those guys, like without them I would not be here.
Nate Spangle: Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: and a lot of triggers too. No, like he's, he's just a bad rep. I can see why from like, anyone that has like, you know, says or does whatever that's on public, but like he's, no, he's the man.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. And I mean, even though you're, you know, it doesn't end up working out with Barstool. Like, you end up, you know, getting laid off and moving back to Indiana. Like there's no bad blood there.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: No, when I got laid off, I. I texted them saying like, thank you for these two years. And then like, this was incredible. He was like, he was like, thank you. Like whatever you need, let me know. And then I ran into him like last couple days ago. Then that last year at the WNBA game, we were hanging out.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Then we did that free throw stream in 2024, like with Pat Bev
Nate Spangle: and Yeah. You like pulled up
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: With your, your twin?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. Twin ball. Yeah. No bad. No, no bad blood at all. it was just business.
Nate Spangle: I just don't even know how he has enough time in the day to like figure out all the stuff that, that has to get done.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: He's got, he's got a big team.
Nate Spangle: Yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: but I don't know how he does either. He, he is never not busy and I lo I, I have so much happier not being at Barstool. Like, I love, I love the networking. I love getting my foot, my name into the internet world and learning other videographers and like companies and shit. But like, dude, I. I could not, I could never work for someone ever again in my life. I love being, I like trying, me and Brandon calling our own shots, like we are the brand. I love partnering, working with, like, working with people. I can't like have someone just like dictate or not something that dictates, I like have the final say when I, when I know confidently someone's gonna hit or nots, like,
Nate Spangle: yeah,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I'm trying, let it rip.
Nate Spangle: What do you think the future looks like? Like what do you do when you're 45? Like how, how does this continue to evolve for you?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Hopefully be like a investor or own some product has nothing to do with mantis. I looked at like the Knelt boys, you know, they had like happy dad. You look at what Alex Earl has that one drink
Nate Spangle: the makeup well, and yeah. Was it Poppy? That what,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: yeah, poppy. Yeah.
Nate Spangle: Something
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: like that. Really?
Nate Spangle: And well, now she has the makeup thing that just came out too. Yeah, like create, I mean, we're launching skin
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Kardashian,
Nate Spangle: like Yeah. We're launching two flavors of Indiana ice cream. Uh oh, yeah. Yeah. We have a Hoosier pothole and we have Indiana sugar cream pie. Pothole. Might be
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Hoosier Pothole.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Right. But it's a, that's perfect. Chocolate and peanut butter. Like chocolate chunks. Yeah, peanut butter. It's gonna be peanut butter chips. It's gonna be awesome. But like, yeah, you're talking about you get this platform, you build up an audience and then if you can create good products, like not just sell people stuff they don't need, but like good products that people actually want, that they, it's like both, you get to use your channel as like a marketing engine, but you're also giving them something that they want slash need. That's, I don't know the, the ticket, I would say,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I don't wanna be doing videos forever. I feel like I'm 29. Sometimes I feel like I'm like 40 or 45 when I go out. It's like, I just wanna like, I love it. But, or
Nate Spangle: make or like, make videos about what you want to make videos about, you know? Yeah. Um,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I don't think, I don't think they'll ever retire from doing anything. I try, I'll, I, I'm at a point if I'm sitting on the bed for 20 minutes, I'm like, I gotta do something.
Nate Spangle: Like how long does it take from idea to execution to post for you? Like if, if we sat in here and thought of a video right now, how long would it take you guys to get it out to the world?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It varies. 'cause I look at, like, I was making that corn do video. Literally, it's a 12 sec, maybe a minute, you know, to shoot it, then look at it, post it, make like a, we want make a banner video, like a banner short. That could be a day, it could be a week just from like re-editing multiple drafts or just thinking of like how to execute it. Maybe we want a certain person to be in a certain shot or cameo. It really varies.
Nate Spangle: How do you handle when the internet doesn't like what you post? Like I always think like sometimes there's like an art form and it's like, you know, sometimes the views don't relate, but like it can still be a good, I dunno, for us how I think about it. It can still be a good video even if it doesn't get views. But I know some other creators are like, no, if it doesn't get views, it's not a good video.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It used to, it used to eat me up, especially when I was at bars store, which is a lot of people like, there's a lot of like people that always just the bar store demographic, those tear you down no matter what. Don't wanna get in your head.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But now, I mean, really humbly, not even the last video's been posted for a while. I rarely get any hate. There's always someone that's like, this guy's, this guy fucking sucks. Or, sorry, this guy freaking sucks. Or like, this person, it's like, this is not, there's always, there's always someone says, it's not funny. Real. I was like, it should be like a burner account. It could be someone, but it's like, I rarely
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Just,
Nate Spangle: well, what if it just doesn't get views? Like, what if you put a lot of effort and time into a video that you're like, really, you like and you're proud of. Uh, but it doesn't, the internet doesn't like it. Like, is it still, is it a fail if it, is it all about the views or is some part about like, enjoying making the video
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: onto the next one?
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Gotta forget about it.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Even if it's real. Even if it does really good too, like when the door dash video pops off, I'm like, I gotta get to the next one. Yeah. I did so well. I got, but this one didn't do well. All right. Forget next one.
Nate Spangle: When you think back about everything that you've created, what are you the most proud of?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I'm proud to be making this my career. I've never worked a, a full-time, nine to five. The, the only nine to five I've worked was a ditch Sporting goods. I worked at eight a am to 4:00 PM cash register shift. I never, ever, ever wanna do that again in my life.
Nate Spangle: How, for how long?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, I went to a ditch for like, maybe like four months, but I, one shift, bro. I did not like it because around like 11:00 AM there was no one in the building and I had to use the restroom. So I called the log talk, I called the little headphone, like, Hey, does someone come by? I gotta use the restroom. Like, do you really have to use the restroom? I'm like, yeah. Why do you think I'm asking? Like after that I'm like, I'm done. I'm never do this again.
Nate Spangle: So wait, you literally worked one shift?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, no, no. I worked one 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM shift. I worked part-time. Oh. That one shift
Nate Spangle: was like, but you have one eight hour shift.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. I said,
Nate Spangle: and he, he wouldn't
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: to hell with this. But if I need a shit, I need a shit. Like, like right now, I, I took away go poop right now and come back here like, we're good.
Nate Spangle: We, we'd be all
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: right. We're good. Yeah. And that's, that's content. That's a clip right there. You what? I I'm gonna do a shit. Hold on.
Nate Spangle: We're back after those messages. Uh, mantis is back in the building. You know, sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Right. Um, I had
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: some Sam square pie last night. Oh my God,
Nate Spangle: dude. Okay. Well th we've come to the end of the show where we're gonna talk more about all Indiana things. Um, I do wanna know, when you think about specific videos, what is the video that you're just blown away by? Like, I can't believe we created this.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I still can't believe the Corn Dog video did that Well.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, that is crazy. Like sometimes this is stuff you don't expect. Um, this next question's brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're are leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out home is jc hart.com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Well, I was born here,
Nate Spangle: but I mean, you probably could go live somewhere different if you wanted to.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I never want, when I was in New York for two years, I hated living in New York, but now. I still don't wanna move anywhere. 'cause I've, I've built such a big following in Indiana. I want to keep dominating. And also if I, if I have an idea in LA or New York or Nevada or South Dakota, I just fly there for whenever I need to. Then Indiana's relatively cheap for most states. Yeah. I mean, I, I feel, I feel at home. I got a lot of people support me. It makes me feel great. So taught as a home base.
Nate Spangle: Oh. All right. We have some rapid fire questions for you. The question of the day, like, do you, are there any videos that you put out that you feel remorse about?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I regret there's a video posted during COVID. Was, I think it's still up actually, but, uh, it's not, it's not even a bad video. It's just that when I was at Barstool, uh, it was guy named Big Cat. He, uh, he had a, he had a whole idea, do a video, but I, I had a skit that he didn't want me to post. He wanted me to save it till after his video. But this is when I was like, I had like two weeks of no content. I had nothing. I knew this video was so funny, so I posted it and burnt a bridge with him. And thankfully now he we're friends. Like I, I thought we'd never be friends again. Wait,
Nate Spangle: okay. Wait. So he give us some more context
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: here. I pretty much, I, uh, I was impersonating a bar store guy named Brandon Walker. I, my, I sound, I, I did a really good impersonation of him. Okay. I did video did really well, but Big Kat told me twice not to post it. Just wait. He said, trust me. Like, we'll do this one video, then it'll make sense. But I was like, in my head, like, dude, if I, I don't, I didn't wanna get fired. I was like so stressed from not having to post anything in two weeks. Like I know it's gonna hit, it hit, but Big Kat. I got burnt a bridge with him.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: And I thought I would never, ever, he would never like me again. But then I ran to him four years later and then he was really happy to see me. And then I think,
Nate Spangle: was that when you came in and, and hit the free throws to help on the stream?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. That was it.
Nate Spangle: They like call in the ace to go up to Chicago and nail a bunch of free throws with them all.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah,
Nate Spangle: because what was the challenge for that one?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It had to hit, had to hit 41 free throws in a row as a collective. Um, and you learned to not leave until, how
Nate Spangle: many did you hit of their four one?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: All I had to do was five in a row.
Nate Spangle: Oh. As, because
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: looking back to that, it's like, that's it,
Nate Spangle: that's Yeah. From the guy who hit 151 in a row. Yeah. If budget didn't matter, if logistics didn't matter, what would the craziest video ever, what would you post?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: What would you do? Lemme ask you first, I gotta think about this.
Nate Spangle: Mm. I would buy a town in Indiana. A guy would buy a full town and just like recreate it into whatever I wanted it to be.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I feel like Mr. Beast is doing everything. He, he's buying land, he's buying like everything.
Nate Spangle: Giving out like the craziest, giving away an island, giving away the,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I've, I still wanna give away a car.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I, I still wanna do that, but I
Nate Spangle: mean, we could buy like a, like a 98 Honda Civic and give that away.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I was saying like a 2018 Hellcat, but
Nate Spangle: bro,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: that here too.
Nate Spangle: That might have, it could have been records. That could be the move, give away a Hellcat.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Who wouldn't want one? I never, no. I would give away a hundred Hellcats. That would be sick.
Nate Spangle: That would be
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: something. No, it said no budget, right?
Nate Spangle: No budget.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: A thousand. A thousand.
Nate Spangle: Hellcats.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: There you go. Um, what would the best like your dream collab be?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Well, I think it just happened, bro, when they, Spain, don't get in.
Nate Spangle: Yeah, buddy, come on now.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I didn't really do podcasts that often. Just like at the last four I did, three of them didn't post it, so I got tired of doing podcasts.
Nate Spangle: No way.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. One was like, one didn't even hit record. Second one was like,
Nate Spangle: oh God, I just got like panicked there.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Second one was like, oh, well I don't know if our sponsors are like you being yourself trying to get brands. And the third one was just like, just so you didn't even know how to edit. Oh, the clips were horrible. I don't even if I'm on a podcast, I don't care how many subs or followers it has. I, I've seen how you edit and you made your clips hit. Yeah. If anyone who like knows how to edit shorts, that's all I care about.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. For real. Well, I mean, getting to tell the story a little bit, like I think, um, people get to see a lot of like the. A production that goes into making a, you know, a hundred and a hundred million view video. Like that one doesn't have a ton of production, but what goes into that versus when you get to sit down and talk for 60 minutes and really learn like the effort that goes into being a creator. Like what do you think the biggest misconception about being young Mantis?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I guess people think that I'm always having fun when reality. Like there's days where I'm stressed as hell.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It's so awesome to be at a point where if I go out, I'll get, I, I'll get bombarded by people, by fans and supporters and that's an awesome feeling.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But this challenge, I will go for hours and hours. I'm just trying to like. I saw like Justin Bieber, whatever, I can't even, like everywhere I go out, I get recognized. Yeah. Sometimes I just wanna like sit in a corner and eat food and people will like still like, like go up to me and like try and talk to me when I'm eating. And I, I'll always take the photo or wanna say what's up, but like, I'm like, if I see someone eating, I'm not gonna bother. I'll, I'll wait till like after, you know, I'd love do his thing.
Nate Spangle: Weren't we down at uh, St. Elmo that one day?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh yeah.
Nate Spangle: For, were you there the night before Pizza Fest?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah,
Nate Spangle: yeah, yeah, yeah. And the guy just like came up to him and just like was rolling his camera. He's like, I don't know. The guy literally said, I don't know who you are, but I'm supposed to record you. Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I
Nate Spangle: was just like, bro, that's a little weird.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I was, we were trying to walk to the table and eat and he was like, okay, well, I was like, nice to meet you man.
Nate Spangle: It, when people think of Austin, when they think of Young Mantis three decades from now, what do you hope they remember?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That I was as genuine as I seem.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: As I am. I see. I mean, like people, one, people, people, people. I, I've gotten that like, you are a, you're a genuine nice guy. And I, I always, always try and deliver that. Since I know people, I, as I remember when I was younger and I'm seeing like, you know, athletes or YouTubers, whoever it may be, like, I see them on camera and like, I hope that when I meet them, they're just like that. And I know some of them might, everyone has bad days or bad moments, so like, they might, you know, have their head low or like, you know, but you gotta, like, I think about when people are, are watching my stuff all the time. They wanna see how I am and I want, I want to give them the best like interaction.
Nate Spangle: What's been your craziest fan experience?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Uh, I got stalked outta Kroger recently. I was like, just walking around and, well, I was walking around Kroger and there's these little, these little chi that were like, you're badass, like, through the whole like, building. And I was like, oh, what's up? And then I was, you know, taught and photos. Their mom was like, who are you? I'm like, I create like, okay, and then took a photo, then I'm might walked into the vegetable, I get my broccoli. And they were still following me. They were like, well, they were, you were naming all my videos. I'm like, yo, that I was like, I was impressed. And they knew like every video, every line from the video, I was like, oh, this, this is sick. I was like, yo, I'm gonna, I'm gonna head out. It's so nice to meet you guys. And I, uh, but then I was like walking out and like, they were like literally following me to my house. It was, I was like, I walked out. As I walked, I was walking to my house from Kroger, and then they just kept following me and I was like, looking for the mom. Like, they're like, oh, we lost our mom. Why do you know where she is? They're like, they're, they're lying. Keep following me. So then I see the mom like miles away. They're like, get your ass back here. I'm like, play them alone.
Nate Spangle: That's crazy.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I was scared, bro. I was like, I'm trying. Being followed.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I, another 8-year-old was like, still, like, I was like, what the heck?
Nate Spangle: That is the interesting piece of,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I had one guy, you know, give me a
Nate Spangle: Oh,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: a blackjack.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. I've had one guy I wish it could never be drills. Um, what else have I had?
Nate Spangle: That's, that's a wild one.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I just, some cool interactions like I've been offering like court side seats and all that. That's, that's where,
Nate Spangle: yeah. I mean, you got a PJ out to Oklahoma City, right?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: A what?
Nate Spangle: Didn't Oh,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: oh, pj.
Nate Spangle: Pj, uh,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: yeah, I got a PJ out there.
Nate Spangle: P as in Paul. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Were those just like indie people that said they had an extra spot?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Those are my shout out. Shout out Keith and Eric Davidson. This is my friend. Uh, I was Keith sr's water boy for the fifth grade football team, like recreational. And then they're, they're like, if you can get us post game passes to like game two of the NBA final, we'll get you on the jet. And I was like, deal.
Nate Spangle: How did you get 'em? Post game passes.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Uh, shout out to my guys, to the Pacers.
Nate Spangle: Oh, the
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: homies. See, shout to my guy, Michael Hornback, bro. Yeah, he got me a, he uh, got post posting passes and then my teeth and them met Stephen A. Smith and Mike Raymond, all of them.
Nate Spangle: That's wild, dude. Okay, so if you think about all the crazy places you found yourself at, like where's been a moment where you just look around and say like, how is this my life?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Like when I did the bars still free, throw stream with Pat Bev, I went to a Milwaukee bust game two weeks later and I. I had like a line of like 25 people like waiting for me to like leave my seat to meet me. That was really cool. Uh, I think, oh, when I did the, uh, the tic pic giveaway, like if you beat me one v one basketball, I'll give you like seats, tickets to the NBA finals game. I think like 80 people showed up on like a Tuesday afternoon. That was really like, holy crap. How
Nate Spangle: long did it take for someone to beat you?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Dude, the first kid to beat me. I'm so bad at one v once I'm, so I'm just gonna shooting
Nate Spangle: hate. Stop the first kid you there, like there's an 80th person. Yeah. That's like, oh, mantis is gonna have the clip. You get sauced by the first
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: kid. Dude, he was so quick, so I felt bad. Everyone wait. People were waiting until like at 8:00 PM the la night before 5:30 AM the morning of. So I made sure I played, I, whether I played or just hung out with everyone in that line, even if they
Nate Spangle: didn't get, didn't get,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I made, I made it worth it. Yeah. I felt horrible. Yeah. I, I didn't lose on purpose. I would've got cooked. I lost three to one.
Nate Spangle: He did
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: get, I couldn't hit shit. He was like, just, I trying to steal. I
Nate Spangle: mean, I mean he was the first one in line. He had to be legit.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I mean, looking back at it, I, I probably, I should have destroyed him, but like he is, he was, he was. I he was. Alright.
Nate Spangle: That's hilarious. Um, when you're not creating what is fun for you, what do you do for fun?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Working out playing video games, cold tubs. That's what I do,
Nate Spangle: bro. I, I saw you in, uh, sweat house. Is that, are you like always in sweat house? Dude, I had to like, take a moment and double clicking,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: dude. Oh, it wasn't ai, bro.
Nate Spangle: Dude, I thought that was ai. That was,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: everyone thought that was a fake girl. No, that was a real deal.
Nate Spangle: That's hilarious, dude. Uh,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: real human.
Nate Spangle: Who, who is someone you obviously talked about Dave earlier, who's someone that you've met that you look up to that I mean, that most people would think is super famous that you just die hard love.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, Jack Harlow. Jack Carlo was one of the greatest people I ever met in my life.
Nate Spangle: Why is that? '
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: cause when I met, I met him in an airport. I got a great story about him. I met him in an airport in New York, 2019, early 20 January, 2019. Two months before that, my friend also named Jack Berki, put me onto his, you know Jack? Yeah, I know
Nate Spangle: Jack.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: We shot that Bon on Bell video. Bel on Bell? Yeah. Yeah. On Bell. I saw Avon Bell Bon on Bell. Uh, shot that he put me on Jack Harlow two months before that. Then I ran into him by the airport. At this time when I met Jack Harlow, he had, he had less Twitter followers than me, maybe like, probably a few thousands. But I was like, he was the one person where I was like, fan boy. I trying to believe. I was like shaking him, but like, I just loved his music and then met him really just so down to earth and took a selfie with him. Uh, we built a friendship just from like, is it, so Jack Harlow's best friend, urban Wyatt. Shout out urban. He wanted Jack to do a pizza review with both Dave Portnoy. So I tried to get that happening, but they came back to New York for some more shows. So I kept going to the shows, seeing all of them, trying to build like a, like a friendship. And then, yeah, and
Nate Spangle: they're from Louisville. So like just down the road from here?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. Literally. That's the first thing I said was like, are you from Indiana? Where we're neighbors? Yeah. But uh, I brought Jack into Barstool August t, September, 2019 to promote his album Confetti. And I got in trouble for it. You know what I wanna say, bro? Jen Simons and Kelly Martin, these two girls, they did not let me bring in Jack Harlow. They told me that I can't be bringing in these light SoundCloud wrappers to use us for clout. 4 0 1 slayer comes, what's popping comes out. The rest is history. Right.
Nate Spangle: Wow.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But at the time I brought in Jack 'cause. He was, he had my Bryson tillers, uh, co-signing him. And then no one at bars still wanted to like, do any videos with him besides, uh, I made him do, uh, the show of Kayla Presley. It was like, it was called like, did you know, like you said, interesting facts and then say whatever after that. Yeah,
Nate Spangle: yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But I brought him in, got yelled at for told, don't do that again. And then I think Jack really appreciated me, uh, just helping. He appreciated me to bring him in and be genuine and everyone else trying to like, there's like four other people in the office that liked Jack, but everyone else, like, who's this guy? So
Nate Spangle: w was there ever like a follow up? Like Dang Mantis was early on Jack Harlow.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh yeah. I made, I made a whole Ted talk about it. Uh, Dave, they brought up a Dave in a podcast. He was like, we should bring Jack Harlow in. They're like, uh, yeah, about that. You guys trying to mess that up Relationship.
Nate Spangle: That's crazy.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: But since then, like Jack's been the same person. I've seen how he's grinded. He's the same genuine person. That's someone who I look up to.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Man,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: that is, and Ty and Tyre's. Halliburton
Nate Spangle: bro. You's like FaceTimeing. Tyrese, like on the regular.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: He's so nice. He's so cool.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Yeah. A
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: lot of people who are what they seem like.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. That that is the truth. As you get. To meet more people, especially people that are known, uh, to a lot of people just through screens, you know, or just through your earbuds. Like when you get to meet those people in person and when they follow through on that and are who they say they are or are who they appear to be. Like, those are the best interactions I'd say.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Who's yours?
Nate Spangle: Uh, from an indie car perspective, Tony Canon.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Okay.
Nate Spangle: Like he is an Indie 500 champion, an absolute legend. And online and in like on online, you think that he is just like the nicest guy and then in person he's even nicer. Like he remembers who you are. Even before we had like followers or anything, like he is just the most genuine dude. Like that's a cool one. And the fact that he is won the 500 is awesome. I feel like IndyCar is like, those guys are just pretty authentic, but I feel like racing in general Yeah. In IndyCar is pretty much like that from like, I would say, like you're the same person that people see online. Like,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I hope,
Nate Spangle: I mean, and I think that's a good thing. Like I, I hope, I mean, people should know that's a good thing where. Like, I don't know, respectfully, like you're a little goofy, but like that's good. Like I'm a little goofy. That's good. Like we are who Wes like I make dad jokes and I'm like that kind of person when it's just my friends and there's no cameras. Or when, you know, we're on a podcast and people are watching, like, I, I don't know. I just respect people that are you like the same, like very steady like that. What's the best piece of advice you've received about being a creator
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: from Danny Duncan? You always gotta be able to adapt. Uh, you can't be making the same content for a year or two as doing the same amount of views and expected to somehow just jump. You gotta adapt. That's why I think from that 20 20, 20 23 was pretty shit. Yeah. Uh, maybe had 14 K followers and ig from what, the same just dumb videos, in my opinion, to them doing Shrek B or sneaking in and el elevated. So adapt.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Adapt. Hidden desk. You gotta switch someone up.
Nate Spangle: What's the next trend you're seeing on social media?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Well feel the new trend every day. Like is anything like, like what, what months ago that people were like yelling like, that's my man during free throws. Yeah, that was like huge for a week or two and now it's like. You go to it now, it's like going to the very top of a sporting event, being like, it's like a wide angel shot being like, thanks whoever for this seats. Like,
Nate Spangle: yeah, no, I saw the one, uh, from the past weekend at Final Four. It was like, this is what a $400 ticket looks like at Final Four. And they were zoomed all the way in, so you look really close and then it like zooms out like 17 times and you're like, at literal the top row. It's like, that's crazy.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: There's, there's a new trend every day.
Nate Spangle: How much time do you spend consuming social media versus creating on social media?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Uh, way too much consuming. Yeah. I, that's why I do cold tubs, just like I, my head will, so clady and I headaches. I know I plunge like reactivate almost. Yeah. How much I spend time on making content daily. Not as much consuming. Just, it's almost like you a study for a test, I guess.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. I, I would say that you're watching film.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. But sometimes I might be shooting for like. Maybe like 30 minutes. I'd be shooting for like hours and then I be, yeah. But I could be editing for hours all night. Yeah. So wait,
Nate Spangle: do you spend a lot of time, like, like watching videos?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, for sure.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That's all I,
Nate Spangle: I, I feel like you gotta like, watch the film and see what's trending and figure out how to, you know, win on social media.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah. I don't watch movies. I don't do podcasts. I just like watch YouTube and just shorts.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I'm so brain rotted. I really am.
Nate Spangle: I feel like you have to be, I feel like people can sense when you're not, when you don't speak the internet.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: You know, like people, like I know when. It's like Rich. Uh, I say,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I thought gonna say Riz. See, that's not
Nate Spangle: right. No. But like, when a rich person's like, Hey, make me a podcast and make me famous on Instagram, I can tell, like, I can tell if you speak internet or not.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Yeah.
Nate Spangle: Like, it's a weird thing, but it's true. Uh, who are some of your favorite creators that you, that you get inspiration from or that you're just love what they're creating?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I love Mind Squire. They're also indie guys too.
Nate Spangle: Those, uh, we're we're, I think we're gonna do an episode with them coming up soon. They are hilarious.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: They're so, they're,
Nate Spangle: dude, I don't know how they keep a straight face.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, they're just genius. They're made for it, bro. They, they literally just love just the inner, they're just straight actors, like in a great way. They're so talented. I looked up to them for three years now. Danny Duncan, he's just an OG YouTuber.
Nate Spangle: Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: He paved away and pranks. I mean, Danny Duncan became him just like a hundred millionaire just from doing, like, from making. Prank videos in the past and then making like a ice cream like partnership and like I ice cream, like investments. And then so I make on clothing brands
Nate Spangle: talk about adapting from, you know, pranking on YouTube and growing. Because at some point I feel like it's tough to work with brands when you burn bridges. Like you talk about even with like Big Cat or you talk about, you know, if, if everything is straight pranking, it's tough to work with brands. I feel like
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: that, that's why adaptability comes in is like, I, my, I would, I would say that the videos I made, I'm very versatile. I, I I, I have different ways of showing. I, I have so many different ways of entertaining people, whether it's like edgy, whether it's like just. I just normal, whether it's brand friendly, like there's just so many avenues and I just have different, like different weapons to shoot. I don't know how that's crazy how I just said that, but yeah.
Nate Spangle: I mean, dude, you, he's from Fishers. People forget. I'm
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: from
Nate Spangle: Fire
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Act, man.
Nate Spangle: Oh, man. All right. We've come to the final three questions. You the same ones. We ask everyone who comes on the show. First thing, you lived in New York, you've been going out to Vegas, you've been on a lot of different places shooting content. If you could scream it from the rooftops, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That's cliche to say, but the hospitality here is unmatched. I mean, the whole Midwest is great, but just being in Indiana, it's such a great sports town. Everyone's really nice for the most part. And, uh. I can't, I, I still haven't had a glass of milk better than outside of Indiana than here.
Nate Spangle: Hey, come on now.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: That's n 10 to one sandwiches. Are you kidding me? In Indy 500, if you have not been to Indy 500, I don't care who you are. You have to, you have to do it.
Nate Spangle: You don't even have to like racing.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: No, you don't. No,
Nate Spangle: no. It's almost like, it's like one third racing, one third tailgate, one third music festival one, and then whatever the rest is, is just like interesting people watching.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: You could be deaf. I say that because I went to, at a 10 roof party during the 500 weekend, there was like a, there were like 20 deaf people, like at 10 roof at party, and they were like throwing ass, like twerking. I was like, yo, this, this is how lit the 500 is.
Nate Spangle: That's,
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: you can be blind still. This is the greatest thing ever. But yeah, shout to the deaf.
Nate Spangle: Bro, you're wild for that. Uh, next, this is your opportunity to shed some light on part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Indie City Barbell.
Nate Spangle: Where's Indie City Barbell at?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: It's right after Zo
Nate Spangle: Meadow. Zoa. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You go down and work out there.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, yeah. I love Indy City Barbo because it is, there's a lot of meathead in there. I mean, I'm talking like big, big dogs and like, you know, boy and girl. I mean, none of them are neutered either. And like, you go in there, like you get intimidated at first, but then it's just like, it's like no air conditioning. The windows are open. Sometimes it's, it's like, it's not like real, like, it's not like Gold's Gym, you know, back in the day. Like, it's gritty. It's gritty. They got everything you need too. They got a Sauna nail. I, like I said, when I'm not doing videos and such, I love to just play video games, play basketball, work out. That's like my, teach me the same, somewhat. And uh, and. Indy City Barbell is a great gym.
Nate Spangle: That's a good one. Uh, what, what were you down between, you were between Indie City Barbell and what was the other one?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: There was Nap Town Thrift.
Nate Spangle: Oh, that's a good spot
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: too. Yeah. That's a great spot. It's, they're not really like, I wouldn't say they're hidden. Like, I'm trying to like, what's one place that no one really knows about or
Nate Spangle: I would say Indie City Barbell is a good one. I have never got that one before.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Okay. Yeah. I love a NCAA barbell.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. Okay. Final question for you. This is where we get new guest recommendations and learn about other people across the state that are doing interesting things. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: popcorn with Tom
Nate Spangle: bro.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: A k Luka. Dante
Nate Spangle: dude. Popcorn with Tom is hilarious. He just commented on one of my most recent videos. Shout out to you. What? What? I don't even, is it Tom? Yeah. Stop. I don't know what his name. I only know him as Popcorn with time.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Luca.
Nate Spangle: Luca, because you guys have been putting out a bunch of collabs. Yeah, he is hilarious.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: We're going to el, sorry, we're going to LA this weekend to go to Lakers games. We're gonna do our like luta LeBron stuff.
Nate Spangle: No way. Yeah.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Can't wait,
Nate Spangle: dude. Hilarious. He's so, he's so funny. He's all about like high test, high high T.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Nate Spangle: That's his whole shtick. It's great. He commented on one of my most recent videos and said, list of top Hoosiers of all time. Said Nate s Spanel. Tyree Halliburton, Peyton Manning. And I was honored Popcorn with Tom. I'm honored, man. What a guy.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: All noer.
Nate Spangle: That's heck what we're to get him on. We'll talk about like the most high t places in Indiana.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Oh, that's, that's gonna be a banner.
Nate Spangle: Yeah. I love it, man. Austin, I mean, mantis.
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: I don't care.
Nate Spangle: Thanks for coming on, brother. Uh, I think that you have an interesting story in the fact that I think a lot of people look at it and it's like, okay, he just makes jokes on YouTube and at first that's what it was, right? You were starting out doing that, but being able to take it to the next level. To really make it a career, to find out how to work with brands to get a billion views and to just like really know the art of, and the business of social media. It's incredible, man. Uh, I think that we are lucky in the state of Indiana to have people that create videos that billions of people, a billion people have seen your content. And a lot of it is shot right here in Indiana. I mean, dude, it's, it's incredible. Well, I'm sure we'll see you around at the 500. We'll be out there doing our tailgate again. Hope you stop by. But, um, if people don't follow, which would be crazy, where can they find you at?
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: Young Mantis too. Because the original one got took in years ago, so I put two at the end
Nate Spangle: Young Mantis too, look for on all social media on Snapchat, the whole nine yards. I think actually if you check, um, on one of your early videos, uh, if you check my LinkedIn, I think that Austin wrote me a recommendation and it was like if you liked one of his videos or left a comment, he was picking random people to leave recommendations on LinkedIn. So you could even find 'em on LinkedIn if you go through my recommendations and then follow it back to him. So there you go, man. I appreciate you stopping by and we'll
Austin "Young Mantis" Taylor: talk soon.
Nate Spangle: This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get In.
