The Complete AI Stack and Workflow for 100M+ Video Views
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This episode gave me goosebumps. Roberto Nixon, he is probably the greatest short form creator that exists on the internet. He's gotten millions of followers, hundreds of millions of views. And in today's episode, he gives a behind the scenes of his entire process, the nitty-gritty stuff of how he comes up with the most scrolltoppping short form video on the internet. He holds the keys to getting millions of views on his content. And he shows you how to do it. He shows you exactly which tools he uses. He gives you a behindthescenes look at his insane studio that he spent over $100,000 building and he teaches you how you can do it for less. This is the type of episode that people would spend thousands of dollars on. It is free on the Startup Ideas podcast. Not many episodes have given me goosebumps, but this one does, and it's for a reason. Enjoy the episode. >> Roberto Nixon, by the end of this episode, >> what are people going to get out of this? people are going to get out of this. First of all, like I think short form video is the bread and butter of the internet. It is the top of funnel for all attention. I'm such a big proponent of it. Um, and what they're going to get out of this is how to how they're going to they're going to see the behind the scenes of my workflow of how I go from idea to script to editing or to recording to editing to deployment. I think just as fast as anybody in the world because by this time it's muscle memory. And so they're going to get the behind the scenes of the tools that I use, how I streamline everything, how my gear is set up. Um, and I think it'll be super valuep packed and hopefully helpful to a lot of people out there. And you've you know, you're a humble guy, so I'll brag for you for a second. You know, you've got you get hundreds of millions of views on on your content. You know, you're you're you're you're hanging with the the Zucks of the world. Um, and you're kind of like the creator's creator. Um, so in the sense that like the top creators look up to you and I don't think you've ever shown your process end to end anywhere. Is that right? >> Never. Never. And I've been meaning to. So I appreciate the opportunity and the platform uh that you're giving me to do so because in perpetuity from now on I can send people to this video cuz this is the biggest question that I get is like yo what camera to use? What lights? What editing? What how do you you know? So I think this will be super helpful. >> All right let's get into it. All right. So, first what I what I really want to do here is I got Elijah Momi, the cameraman. I want to show people that I am in a garage. Like, this is not a professional studio. Elijah, go around. Maybe maybe go wide angle, as wide as you can, and give them the tour. Like, I didn't clean this. I didn't prepare this. I'm not trying to make this look good. This is my garage in my home. And it is very much a garage, a dusty garage, as you can see. Now, I am upgrading to a 2500 foot studio end of the year, which I'm really excited about. Greg, we're going to have to do this again when I get that placed out. It's going to be insane. Uh, but for now, this is uh this is it. And so, let me first show my equipment right before we get into the script writing and editing and recording and all that. So, right here, look at look at this setup. This is my main editing station, I would say. Again, we'll go through all this uh we'll go through all this gear and show you how like dial I have everything, but let's go through the recording. So, this is where I record uh all of my visuals, all my videos, narrative talking head. I also have like a cinematic storytelling, you know, uh format that's that's like on the field and, you know, we bring a lot of lights and lenses and equipment. But my bread and butter is this cinematic sort of talking head narrative style about things that happen in the emerging text space, AI, uh robotics, etc. And I break it down sort of an educational way. So, the way that I have it, I don't know how how long that cord can stretch, but let's uh let's figure this out. If you have any questions, Greg, just interrupt. The way that I have it, I have a laptop here. I have a teleprompter with a Canon R5C over there. Um I have a spotlight here. You sometimes have a gobo on it, and that's just like for a stylistic choice. So, I have like that little streak going on in the background. Um you'll see how it looks on video. Looks kind of nice. I have a What is this? An Amron? I think it's a 150C. And I have a soft box with a honeycomb, a grid on it. That way I can control the light. We're recording in the day. Usually I record at night. So all the lights are dialed. If you look above me, there's an F22C aman uh which is a top light. And everything is controlled through these little remotes. So I have it all dialed. I can turn it off, turn it on, all the lighting behind me, in front of me, above me, etc. Um now this is where I think I'm going to take my headphones off. Um Greg, if you have a question, hopefully we'll be able to hear you. But I'm just going to go through recording a process. Um I have written a script for uh agent kit which was just announced by OpenAI that I'm going to do a video on. Now the real script is like going to be 2 and a half minutes long. It's actually going to be a pretty substantial edit. So I have an a bridged script for this example. But here's what I do. Right. So Elijah, if you want to come over here. We should I guess be able to screen share. But my HQ man, everybody's like, "Do you use like what do you use?" I live by Apple Notes. like this is my so all these or let me go up. So I just wrote a script agent kit script right what I do is I I copy the script and then I open up an app called prompter pro and I paste the script. >> I've never heard of prompter pro. >> Yeah. You know what? And there's um there's a lot of different ones. I don't know if prompter pro is the you know like it's just the one that I found first and it's the one that um that serves me well. So, I haven't I've never changed. Um, but so I have my words up on a teleprompter over there. I don't know if y'all can see it. And I do this because of speed. Like otherwise, I might have to read a line at a time, look back at my phone, go back. Or if I'm memorizing something, it just becomes like I want to respect the audience's time. Like my videos are always dialed speed information and I'm out of there. So that's why I use a teleprompter. And then what I have here is OBS. And this is where I record audio to. The reason I don't do it straight to the camera is because I um maybe I should screen record this real quick. I'm gonna screen record this real quick to give you this footage, Greg. Um but the reason that I recorded the audio separately in case something gets corrupted, I have two uh two different files. Um good you had the headphones. Let me know if Greg says anything. So this is what we're going to do right now. We're going to go through a live reading of how I record my videos. So we're going to switch mics over here. Sam Alman, the co-founder of OpenAI, just said that it is the era of the idea guy and he is not wrong. I think that right now is an incredible time to be building a startup. And if you listen to this podcast, chances are you think so, too. Now, I think that you can look at trends uh to basically figure out uh what are the startup ideas you should be building. So, that's exactly why I built ideabser.com. Every single day you're going to get a free startup idea in your inbox and it's all backed by high quality data trends. How we do it? People always ask. We use AI agents to go and search what are people looking for and what are they screaming for in terms of products that you should be building and then we hand it on a you know silver platter for you to go check out. Um we do have a few paid plans that you know take it to the next level. uh give you more ideas, give you more AI agents and more almost like a chat GBT for ideas with it, but you can start for free ideabrows.com. And if you're listening to this, I highly recommend it. So again, it's on agent kit. I have the script written. We can go through my um scripting real quick. It's just generally like for videos like this where it's informative. Um what I try not to do is an information dump because I think that's going to be heavily commoditized by AI. there's going to be no point in having a human do it. Um, so what I try to do is like give my own opinion and angle. I try to explain to the audience why it's important. I try to bring in conflict early on in the script. So instead of like OpenAI just launched agent kit and you can build aentic workflows and it works like NAN like the second line always has to bring in some sort of conflict. So for this one it's like OpenAI just launched agent kit and I think it's important to understand what it is. That's not conflict in like the traditional storytelling term, but for this video, it keeps people it's it's conflict enough or pe keeps people watching because they need to understand the resolution, why it's so important, why they need to understand what it is. So, anyways, this is the next step of the video. So, let me stop that. So, I walk over here. Anybody I feel like that should have this dial, too. Like, I should uh bring the ISO down. So, I walk over here. >> Doesn't have your audio, >> huh? >> Doesn't have your audio. >> Oh, cuz I'm over there. My bad. >> Sorry. So, I walk over there and I hit record on the Canon R5C. And then this is what I do. Let's go. So, I'm going to use this mic cuz my main mic is being used for the podcast right now. and let's go through just a live recording and I'll show people how I kind of go and like sometimes I make mistakes and I usually read every line two or three times to pick like the very best uh take. Hopefully it's not too boring so far. Greg, what >> this is honestly the coolest this is the coolest episode of the podcast. >> This is OpenAI just launched agent kit and I think it's important to understand what it is because it lets anybody build agentic workflows without code for free. So that's like the first line. Again, sometimes I'll do it twice. So we'll go one more time. Open AAI. Oh, I make make sure I'm recording in OBS. Okay, cool. Open AAI just launched agent kit. And I think it's important to understand what it is because it lets anybody build agentic workflows without writing code for free. Boom. So we'll go to the next line. It works just like NAND, but it's much easier to use. You start with a template or create a workflow from scratch. Go to the next line. Where you can connect different AI models and tools using a node-based interface. Go to the next line. And it has an MCP node that lets you connect your own apps like Gmail or Dropbox. Once you're done, you can test and preview your workflow. And if you're happy with it, you can publish it. Boom. So, that was it. I did the recording. So, the audio recording goes to my desktop, which is automatically transferred to my Mac Studio editing workspace over there. I'm going to go grab the uh the memory card from the R5C. Boom. All right. And then this I think will be really interesting to people how I here. Let me just Sometimes this takes five minutes. Let me just airdrop it so it's quick. So I'm just going to airdrop this to my Mac Studio which is the audio file. So I have a video file and I have an audio file and I'll show you how I sync it. So that should be in my Mac Studio. Could be my phone. Let's see. >> What is the like what's the total cost of a studio like this, >> dude? So here here like I'll I'll tell everybody the total cost, but it's also like I've you don't need anything cuz when I go to hotel rooms and I just do it on my iPhone, it it looks the same. It performs the same. It does not matter. I do this because it's like authentic to me. I love cameras. I love production. I love lenses. So that's what I do it. So before I tell you the total cost, um I've done it many times on literally just an iPhone, no other equipment. It looks very good, especially with Apple log. Um, it sounds great, especially, you know, with like you can just use your AirPod 3s now and the microphone quality is incredible. But the >> Wait, don't don't even tell us by the end of the episode. Just tell us at the end of the episode. >> Okay, cool. And I'll have to That gives me time to like tabulate it. >> Yeah. >> And the total cost of my next studio is going to be absurd. And it's just because >> it's all overkill, but I like it. So, yeah, that's, you know what I mean? I'm gonna have like literally like uh I'm gonna have like jibs and robotic arms. And it's it's it's going to be really cool. Anyways, so let me share my screen and then trying to figure out a way that I can put this microphone and have access to my keyboard. There's cables all over the place. Um so now let me share my screen again. Apple Notes, my HQ. This is where all my scripting happens. Um but let me let's go through how I I generally do this. Um so usually I'll create a new folder. Well, let me let me first show you this. This is my This is my everything, right? Every year I have a a 4 terbte like Samsung T9 that I work out of. Some years I I go through two or three. Um this is where I have like all my client work. This is where I have all my reels, carousels. Like this is basically like my creative HQ. So I go to 2025 reels again. I have it I have it set up client work. I have um AI content culture, short films, tech, whatever it is that I'm working on. So, we're going to go to the AI folder because this is an AI video. So, I make a new folder and my naming convention is generally today's October 7th and I'll do uh OpenAI agent kit. That way I have like all the and then I color code it and that way I have just have all this stuff like super organized because I go back and reuse a lot of assets and templates and and whatnot from other projects. Um, so what I'll do here is first let me open my So this is the audio file right here. So first I'm going to drag the audio file into this folder. Then I'm going to grab the main video file. Let's call it the A-roll. And I bring it in from Canon R5C. >> By the way, most beautiful. I've never seen a file directory so beautiful. Look at all the colors. >> Oh, thank you. I need like organization otherwise I go crazy. Um, but generally this is how I will label the files. And then usually, we'll see how deep we get into here. I'll have a media kit or a media folder. I'll have an SFX folder. I'll have music. For this kind of thing, I probably don't need anything too crazy. But like if I'm doing um and I'll pull one up, but if I'm doing like a short film, like right now I'm doing this thing on like Iron Mike. I'll have everything. I'll have audio clips, AI video. So like, but for this one, I think it'll be pretty simple. So, we just need a media music sfx folder. Okay. So, now that we got that in there, I can uh I can eject that. Where we at? And by the way, Elijah, if you want to show like real quick what I have here. I just have uh two Apple Studio displays. It's powered by Mac Studio. Still the M1. I need to upgrade desperately to the M3 because you're going to see like a little bit of lag now. Um and I also just like having the newest Um, other than that, I'm going into an Apollo solo for for audio video, and there's nothing really else to it. Um, so, all right, let's go back to the edit. So, I use uh Premiere. A lot of people have switched to Resolve. It's something that I definitely want to explore. I know Elijah over here uses Resolve, and all my editing friends use Resolve, but muscle memory is important to me. Uh, so I use Premiere. So, open up a new project. We're going to drop this project into uh the folder that we just created called agent kit. We're going to call it agent kit. And here we have a new project. I've never like showed this, so I like I might not be the best teacher, but let's walk through it. So then I drag my A-roll and my audio into the project. I do new sequence from clip from my A-roll. This is going to be a 1080 by 90 since it's going to be an Instagram reel/ Tik Tok. Um, this can for some reason has like three audio tracks. I got to fix that. And then what I do is I drag my um my audio track in and then I synchronize it. So the audio track is synced with the video track if that makes sense. So now I'm unlinking everything. I'm going to delete the video from the audio track and the audio from the video track. So So it all depends, right? So on these I just have it like dialed the audio treatment. And usually I just copy and paste from another template, but I want to go through it um manually to show the audience. Um I add a multiband compressor and I go to broadcast. I bring the output gain a little bit lower. And then I add a parametric equalizer. And then the uh sort of template preset that I really like is vocal enhancer. I bring the highs down a little bit and then move my lows a little bit to the left. And again, this is like trial and error, but for me, this sounds really really good and crispy on the audio. >> Open AAI just launched. >> Sometimes I'll add like a noise uh deninoiser. Um, and again, if I'm doing like a if I'm doing like a film, the audio treatment is going to be differently, right? But for these, this is how I do the audio treatment. Um, because I usually go split screen, I bring this down to about 46% like the scale. Um, and then again, this goes at the bottom tab there. If you're familiar with my videos, you know this is like the way that I just organize them. I cut the top off a little bit, like 5% off the top so it fits nicely into frame. And then that's how I kind of do that. And then the the visual treatment that I use, and again, there's no right way to do it. I have something called Magic Bullet. You can just use like a regular L, whatever you want. Um, but generally, I drag in this film preset of Magic Bullet. I bring that down to about like 40. That's looking good to me there. I bring in this little mojo thing and sometimes I color manually but generally this is like my default and then I go into the coloring uh module let's call it or or workspace of Premiere and then I can further edit from here. Sometimes just to keep the color consistent with the brand uh so to speak I'll come through this L that I created actually that emulated I I created it to emulate a Pulp Fiction look. I did it for this app that I have called Sinfecta, which makes like two grand a year. It's like peanuts. Um, and that looks pretty good to me. Elijah, you're a colorist. What do you think? >> That looks good. >> That looks good. Maybe a little bit on the cooler side. I'm So, whatever. I can go in there. For these kind of videos, I don't spend any time on this. For like my more creative videos that are like really storytelling and and full of depth, I'm going to spend a ton of time on coloring, sound, etc. So, I go back to the short form uh window space that I create. And from here, this is going to be a little bit boring, but I'll go through it really quickly. What I'm going to do is choose the best lines, cut each line up, and then I'm going to stitch it from there. And I'm going to show you how I do it. Um, that's kind of signature to me to keep the pace high. So, let me go through and pick the very best takes. All right. >> Openai just launched agent kit. And I think it's important to understand what it is because it lets anybody build agentic workflows without code. >> So for uh purposes of time, we'll just keep that one. We'll go to the next one. >> Open AAI just launched a line. >> It works just like Nuthentic Workflows without writing code. Go to the next line. It works just like N8, but it's much easier to use. You start with the template or create a workflow from scratch. go to the next >> where you can connect different AI models and tools using a nodebased interface >> and it has an MCP node that lets you connect your own apps like Gmail or Dropbox. >> Once you're done, you can test and preview with it. You can publish it. >> So that's how I did it. So like I just took the best takes. Usually I do like three or four takes for each line just so I have more to work with. Then I'm coming up here to uh sequence and I'm closing all of these gaps. So now this is sort of the um the body of our video. >> OpenAI just launched agent kit and I think it's important to understand. >> Um so the next step that I generally do just because I love my pacing and to be dialed. I'll come in here. >> You see there's like a little bit of like a millennial pause there. Like >> I don't like that pause. So what I do is I cut some of the video track. I cut into the next track a little bit even into the audio. I drop the audio down to another line and then I overlay it a little bit. So now you'll see how much punchier and quicker it is >> for free. >> And that's the style that I like for these kind of videos. Again, I respect the hell out of the audience. I don't want to waste their time. I want to get it through as quick as possible >> from scratch. >> So that one even quicker and I'll >> from scratch. That's fine for me. Even I'd like it quicker. Again, purposes of time. We're going to we're going to go through this quick. I like I'm liking all this. This is all sounding good. >> And you can see how I sort of doctor piece it together. >> Once you're done, you can test and preview your workflow and if you're happy with it, you can publish. >> And so we end it there. So um that's the video. So this would be like a 28 second video. Then I generally bring the video up a track because all the media um and B-roll and everything will probably go underneath. Um, in a video like this, what I would generally do next is I probably doctor it a little further where where um just to just for pattern interrupt, I'll go full screen on some of the stuff that I say in between lines. So, without code. >> So, this one I might actually bring it back up. And then what I have and what I recommend to anybody creating videos or if you have editors and editors on your team, they should know this, but make sure that they have everything preset, templatized, etc. to waste no time. So, I have and I'll shout it out. I don't know the guy, Peter. Peter Taka something, Tzinski. He's got these uh essential motion presets for Premiere, Resolve, all the editing platforms that I really like. And these are the ones that I just use instead of key framing them individually um for speed. Again, on the projects that I really care about that are like the storytelling uh meteor videos, I will go through and key frame things manually if it requires. Generally, I'll grab one of these like clip zoom in and I'll add a another zoom in. And so when I go full screen workflows without code >> so I get a little bit of that movement and again it's important just to keep people's attention >> a workflow from scratch where you can connect a workflow from scratch where you can connect different AI nodebased interface >> and it has an MCP. >> So maybe for this little and I'll do the same thing. I'll remove attributes and then I'll paste the attributes from the previous one that I just copied. and that and it has an MCP node that lets you connect your own apps like Gmail. >> Okay, so now in a video like this where I'm not generally creating assets. We will create an asset to show you how I build like AI generated visuals um using like freepic as an example. Sora 2 just came out publicly so I'll probably switch from Nano Banana Cling workflow to Sora 2, but we can go through that. Um so in order to get some videos for this again these are videos that are going to be on the internet already. So, let's pull in my browser and we'll go to OpenAI's uh channel. So, they have like an intro to >> de devel. >> Now, something that I really recommend to anybody who values speed is this app called Downey. And you can just literally paste in a video and it'll download it for you. So, you paste in a video and it'll download this for you automatically. >> Dude, I need you know what I usually do for that? I I Google like or >> YouTube MP4 Yeah, exactly. And I get viruses all day long. >> That's what I used to do, too. So, this app is huge, bro, because if if I'm getting your videos from YouTube or Twitter, I'm using Downey. So, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, anywhere on the internet, like you can download videos using this tool. And it, man, it just saves so much time, which is what I'm all about. Um, so now I go back to my media tab, and from my downloads, I'm going to drag this intro to agent builder into the media tab. So, now I have that. For this example, I'm just going to use this video. Usually, I go in and get like four or five different ones so I have more choices to be able to present visuals that are in context to what I'm saying. Now, if I can't find anything, that's when I'll go generate something. I never use like stock footage anymore. Everything's generated to for like perfect uh to to be in perfect context of what I'm saying and just to be a little bit more visual compelling. So, let me minimize the browser. And now I'm back to the project. Um, I'm going to drag this into the project again. I'm going to unlink their sound because I don't need it. I just need their visuals. And then this is where I'm like piecing things through. >> Opening up. >> So, I'll go through and look for like, you know, for for the purposes of this because it does take some time to like find the right visuals, you know, match them up, make sure that they're aesthetically like they contrast well. I even go through and make sure things contrast well. Um, another thing that I do guys in the recording process is sometimes the back my monitors in the background and the lights all and like the way that I'm dressed all are colorcoded to the brand that sometimes I'm working for. So, I just did a a video for Perplexity and like I made sure that the aesthetics all matched like their world that they've built, right? Like their whole brand and and like signature brand and visuals and sound and and and like sort of like this classy sophisticated ambiance that they're trying to build for their brand. Um, and so that's another thing that I do and why I have like all these lights the way that I do and everything dialed so I can switch the colors, etc., etc. So, again, I'll go through and I'll make my own, you know, again, I I'll this one's not going to be perfect cuz usually I'll download three to four videos, but for the sake of this video, let's just say I I've built my clips. However, I'm missing some. Okay, so let's say, well, I need to go through actually and I need to screen record something. So, I'm going to go to the agent builder here. uh um OpenAI and in order to screen record my process, this is another app that I recommend for everybody and anybody. I love this app. You can use Loom as well or OBS. I like uh screen studio and I'll show you the reason why. So now I need to record me building a an agent um using agent kit agent builder from OpenAI. You know, say I I say something about MCP server. So let's go show how that works. I can record my whole display window or an area. So, I'm just going to drag an area from my screen to show my process. I'm going to hit start recording. And I say something about you can start with a template or you can create from scratch. So, I'm going to go hit create from scratch. All right. Here's my new agent flow. I said that you can add an uh an MCP node. Um, and from here, I can add different tools. I think I mentioned Gmail and Dropbox. So, I'll, you know, I'll I'll hover over them again for that for that context. Boom. Okay. So, let me hit stop there. So, the reason that I like Screen Studio over some of these other tools is because it has Let me bring it over. Um, so I can mess around with the padding, the rounded corners, etc. Um, but it has like these nice little animations. So, when I'm dragging in an MCP folder, boom. I like how that looks, right? So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to export uh MP4 4K studio max file size. uh least compression. Um where are we? I'm going to go again to to the corresponding folder, add it to media, and I'm just going to type SS for screen record. And I'll let that export. So, if you're somebody who's presenting like different workflows and tools, people use Loom, people use OBS. This is another tool that I suggest, Screen Studio, that I love. I don't know the developers. I got, you know, I I don't get anything for saying that, but so this is just the tool that I use. Um so, now I go back to my edit. I'll let that export. And generally what I'm doing is now I'm adding the media underneath kind of like that again in context to what I'm saying. >> OpenAI just launched agent kit. >> Um so just to just to mention it again like for the for the purposes of speed we're just going to go through none of these visuals are really in context to what I'm saying. So generally I take my time to uh you know find something that's a lot more appealing. And then let's bring in the screen recording. Take the sound file out. And let's say when I say the MCP part, I want I want that part when I add an MCP node. All right. So there I am grabbing the MCP node. I think somewhere in here I say it. >> But it's much easier to use. You can connect different AI models and tools using a nodebased interface. And it has an MCP node that lets you connect. >> And it has an MCP node. an MCP node that lets you connect your own apps like >> and then I'll cut it there. And then the part where I'm looking at Gmail and Dropbox. Again, you see that nice little motion that that Screen Studio does for you. That's another reason I like it. So I don't have to sit there and key frame that let you So I'll put that underneath. Sometimes like say say this doesn't fit that well because I want the sidebar. So no problem. What I will do is um just make sure it does fit well and then I'll bring in my video from down below and then modify it uh so it fits the screen nice and tidy >> that lets you connect your own apps like Gmail. >> And then maybe I want this one full screen, you know, just to break it up. Again, pattern interrupt super important for what I do. Just keep the audience guessing >> Gmail or Dropbox. Once you're done, you can node that lets you connect your own apps like Gmail or Dropbox. Um, let's just again bring some arbitrary visuals underneath just for the purposes of completing this video. Uh, generally captions. Actually, let's show something else real quick for people. Even though I know your audience is super dialed and they already know how to use it. Um, but let's say and these are like all my previous visuals for Let me let me show this too actually while we're here. I run like a bunch of pages and again I still run them just because I'm so freaking quick with it. Um, let me see. Okay, so let me open Figma. So I have like all these pages, RPN tech, aluminum, metaverse, and this is kind of like the HQ for that. Um, and it's it's it's um, you know, like the my last post was about Sora 2 breaking the brains out of everybody. But I think the previous post was about Elon Musk hitting like a 400 or$500 billion net worth, whatever it was. I didn't want to use like just like another stock image, Getty image of Elon Musk. So, I went in here to Freepick and I um I created an image. Anyway, so this is like my whole HQ like newsletter, RPN, carousels, everything. It's all here templatized in Figma, which also allows me to go quick. Um so, but for example, if I if say I wanted to make I don't know like Sam Alman building an agent on a MacBook Pro. I'm going to use Nano Banana still. I don't think anything beats that. So, we're going to go uh Google Nano Banana. Say I wanted um a one to one square aspect ratio. Let's see. I don't I don't think they have any um any restrictions. So they should let me generate Samman. >> No reference image. >> Oh yeah. So I can I can also show that because I use that all the time. And I also use like this is why I have midjourney up here. I'm making like this Mike Tyson video. Um like this micro do and I needed some visuals that I couldn't find in the internet. So I'm doing the same thing. But I'm always going here and using reference image and and um omni reference from open AAI uh sorry omnire reference from midjourney. But now more and more I'm actually using nab banana. So I will need I will need a reference image because it's not recognizing Sam Alman. Maybe they're you know it's Google maybe they're salty. Um so let me try to find one of of just his face. All right there he goes Mr. Sam. So I'll save that image. I'll come back to Freepick, hit him with a reference image, and now I can And now I can uh reference the actual image itself. So, image one, building an agent on a MacBook Pro. Let's see how that goes. I'm surprised I don't recognize Samman. That's a weird one. I guess it's like a legal thing. Um, >> it's a sensitive subject. >> Yeah, exactly. And so, this is why I love Nano Banana Man. It's so quick. Like I used to use chat for for image generation. It's just so absurdly slow. So this looks great, right? So if I needed an image that I couldn't find on the internet of Samman on his laptop, I can go here and I don't like static images. I'll use them if I have to, but generally I will turn this into a video. Now that Sora 2 is out, I'm probably going to use Sora 2. don't think sor 2 from the API which this is running on I don't think it'll allow me to use people so my guess is let's just generate that but my guess is that's not going to work so the next best thing to me I use I mean Juan 2.5 Haluo Chinese models are great generally I'm using cling another Chinese model and um you know we'll just instead of a close-up shot let's say um uh I don't know the camera uh orbits around the focus individual on a laptop. Da da da. So, I'll just generate that video for like a couple seconds of B-roll. That's cued. I'll let that do its thing for now. Let's go back to uh Premiere. So, now I can create my captions. I'll just This is what I do. I create my captions uh from scratch. I generally bring maximum length in characters and maximum duration in seconds down. and I go single line because I like my captions like appearing on screen almost like one word at a time. I just think it's like it's like a slot machine. It just sort of psyche hacks the brain kind of like how it works. Um my fonts are generally aic uh semibold. I think I paid like 600 bucks for this font and it's probably not worth it but that's uh that's what it is. I usually bring it to around a 60 size. >> OpenI just >> and then you have to go through and modify the captions if if accuracy is important to you. Some people don't care. >> Open AI. >> I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but this is what I would do is just modify the captions so they're accurate. >> Agent kit. And I think it's important now at the beginning. There's probably a better way to do this, but I'm just so fast at doing it this way that this is the way that I do it. I usually I usually give it like a little bit better treatment with the with the captions at the beginning. So, let me like let me open up Photoshop. >> Again, you can do this all in Premiere. You can open up After Effects, uh, which works nicely with Premiere and do this, but I generally like building out my own. So, I'll be like, I don't know, let's go through and design like a quick typography thing. Open AAI usually I'll see like all right where where does this fit nicely? Let's actually so the other font that I use generally I usually kind of try to stick to two fonts and then I have some other ones just to try to keep that brand consistency but I'll use another font called ROI. Again an expensive font I paid for it but you know I got to I got to support the the fellow designers and and creatives. So OpenAI just launched. Man, I you know, again, I'd usually take my time in this to make it all beautiful and symmetrical and but let's just go agent. Okay. All right. So, let's just say actually this doesn't look good. What can we do here? You know, I just try to like add some emphasis to typography. Look, this doesn't look all that good, but we're just going to go again. Take your time. We're going to go like that. All right. >> To you doesn't look all that good, but >> Okay. I'm All right. Fine. Fine. I appreciate I'm like this is a Picasso right here, you know. >> All right, dope. I appreciate that. So then we're going to export that. Um again, we're going to bring it to We're just working on Salesforce video. How exciting. Um going to bring it back to that same folder. I have everything like dialed. Um which makes it easy. Now look, I know editors are going to laugh at me, but I I just I don't think there's a faster way to do this. So this is what I do. >> OpenAI just launched agent kit. Um, >> so I'm gonna cut at every word. Just launch. >> Just launched. >> And then what I'm going to do is just actually have these uh words appear on screen, right? And so it's as easy as just masking out. And again, there's there's better ways to do this, I'm sure, but I don't think anybody can match my speed doing it this way. >> OpenI. And then I go through and I'll usually I zoom in to make it perfect, but let's just go through and I'm masking everything out like this. So the words appear one at a time and then I'll show you why I do it this way. >> Launched agent kit and I think OpenAI just >> again. So for pattern pattern interrupt, I'm probably going to go through here and do the full screen again. >> Open AAI just launched agent kit. >> So boom, I'm I'm like happy with this video right now. Generally, what I'm going to do is I have a ton of um sound effects. I have like different folders that I love. My buddy Jeff Ning hooked me up with his that are killer. Um so, I might do some sort of riser. I'm not I'm not even going to audition them. I'm just going to throw them in. >> OpenI just launched agent. >> Kind of a long uh riser at my door. >> OpenI just launched agent. >> I wanted to cut before >> whatever. Right. And I'm going to add a um uh what's that called? Elijah the what's this called? A fade. I'm I'm going to add a fade. I'm going to go to audio controls and I'm going to bring this all the way down. >> Open AI just launched. >> I I would normally take a little bit more time with these sounds, of course. >> And then I might download like some clicks, some mouse clicks, some whatever for when each word hits. Again, this stuff people underrate it, but it it keeps the audience like hooked. I don't know. Maybe I'll go use I'm doing this Tyson video, so I I got this guy's sound hit with all these like punches. >> And explain to people why why it matters that why it matters to keep people hooked. Like explain to them, >> man. >> Yeah. In short, so so for short form, it's really just it in its essence, it's really basic. It is capture attention, maintain attention, reward attention. the the first part is probably most important obviously the hook the vis now it's like it used to just be like a a verbal hook but now it's like a verbal hook visual hook it's like a whole game now it's not just sometimes good enough to have just like that strong verbal hook um so obviously capturing that attention is the most important because if people don't you know if you don't capture their attention in the first two seconds they're not going to stick around I always say like Christopher Nolan could upload the Dark Knight but if it didn't have a good hook nobody's sticking around it's like a little bit of a tragedy but that's the game we play in short form whereas long form the game that you play, Greg, is more about the packaging, uh, the combination, title, thumbnail, etc. So, most important, capture that attention. Then, you have to obviously reward that attention. The way that we do that is generally, and I always quote Callaway, our buddy, I love his quote here. Um, it's generally a dance between the conflict and the context. And so, these are just like basic storytelling um um, you know, like devices where it's like, okay, how do we do that? You add in conflict, resolve that conflict, go to the next conflict, resolve that conflict, etc. That's how you uh maintain attention. But I would argue that rewarding attention is is like increasingly becoming more and more important because that's what's going to give you all of the signals from the audience that makes an algorithm happy. So if somebody sticks around for 60 seconds watching my agent kit video, if if they're not educated or inspired, they're not going to hit me with a like, a comment, a share, a um a a save, a a screenshot, a follow, etc. Um, but if they do feel like, damn, I got a lot from this guy. I really appreciated that. Then they're going to hit me with all the signals and make the algorithm happy. And so, like my whole thing when I do these these, you know, captioning and animations and sounds, it just helps that much more to keep people hooked, engaged. That's why I do the pattern interrupts. It has to feel like it's there's just like a whole art to it. Um, now for some videos, it's like for me it's I just sit down and I talk and it's more mellow. It really depends on the context, but for these kind of videos, the reason that they work really really well for me and brands desire them so much is because of the way that I kind of piece them together. So, this is like kind of a behind the scenes of that. And I might even like I don't know, I might this one I might reverse and and make it a little bit slower just to give like a different sonic feel. And I would go through and I have all my go-to sounds, but I wanted to do this manually to show you how it goes. >> Open AAI just launched agent. And then maybe here I'd have like a ding >> agent kit. And I think it's important to understand what it is. And then for music, now this is the thing when I'm when I'm just doing an organic video, you can use whatever you want, which is great, you know, or sometimes I keep it barren like this. >> Openai just launched. >> And then I'll when I'm uploading to Instagram or Tik Tok, etc., I will add a soundtrack. But generally, I like a version with the soundtrack already there. So I can upload it to threads X and LinkedIn, sometimes Reddit, Snapchat, etc., which don't have like the audio the built-in audio tools of look at Tik Tok, Instagram. So, usually I'll try to go find a sound again because this is not a commercial project. I don't have like when I do work with a brand, I'm going to go to like Epidemic Sounds usually sometimes art list. I know what do you use. >> Epidemic uses Epidemic as well. And then I'll go search for, you know, for music, sound effects, etc. Here, by the way, our Sam Alman video is done. Look at that. That's a nice video. >> Thank you, Nana Banana Cling. Boom. and and Sora did market it as inappropriate. So, right now using the Sora API, which is amazing. It's like 10 cents a generation. It's I mean like man, you know, Greg, like there's going to be millionaires, many many millionaires minted, multi-millionaires uh over the next few weeks with uh messing around with Sora, too. Um but the API doesn't allow it's very very restrictive. That's the only problem. Um so I don't use it because of it. So um there we go. We got Sam Alman orbiting. So, I can bring that into my uh media folder. And I don't know, let's say it >> for free. >> That That's where I want it. And I I want it I want it full screen. And bang. Now I have something in context to what I'm saying instead of some boring stock footage. Okay. Um so for music, I have like a folder of like my go-to music that I use for reals. And again, this stuff is not um you know, it's not it's like commercial free because I'm not making money out of it. But if this was like a brand deal, I wouldn't be able to use them. Um so I like this like little Steve Jobs from the Steve Jobs OST. I like this little sound for for tech videos. And then this is kind of the final product. >> OpenAI just launched agent kit and I think it's important to understand what it is because it lets anybody build agentic workflows without code for free. >> I think that's pretty interesting. I think I think I'll probably again redo this with a big and better script and and more compelling, but I think this would keep people's attention. >> Open AI just launched. >> There's a big launch that just happened. >> And I think it's important to understand what it is. >> People really need to understand what this is because things are about to change and I want you to be educated because this represents the future. That's boom. Okay, that's a video. People are going to stick around now and then I'm going to resolve it because I'm going to show them exactly what it can be used for, some use cases, some examples, how they could use it in their business as an entrepreneur, as a creator, da da da da da. They're going to really like that because they've learned something. They feel like now they're, you know, they're they're like in the game and they're updated and they're going to like it. They're going to share with a friend. They're going to save it and it's going to do 500,000 views. Everybody's happy. And that's basically the process and how I think about like putting these videos together and how I can I can really they usually take 45 minutes maximum. Um, and trying to think if there's anything else, but that's that's basically the gist. So, hope hopefully that was helpful. >> Dude, I I I actually have goosebumps watching you do this. Um, >> it's muscle memory at this point, man. >> Well, I have so much respect like I I just see the final product, right? And I never >> I never really noticed the fades. I really I never really noticed the text on screen. I never really noticed how nuanced what was on, you know, what was on screen. Um, but when you put it all together, it just feels like a stairway to heaven. You know, it feels like the acoustic guitar with the drums and then the, you know, the solo. just putting it all together like seeing you do this just is uh a it's it's watching someone who's world class do what they do and to you you're like this is so simple dude to you you're like >> you know why that's interesting and you've probably uh first of all I really appreciate that but you've probably felt this phenomenon sometimes in anything that I do right and like we're going to be building that community like I was telling you about and like I'm like but this stuff is it's just logical It's like, but then I realized it's like, no, no, this is like 10 years of muscle memory just being in the game and picking up like little tricks and all these little nuances. Um, but you're probably the same way. Like you just have like all these talents from all of your experiences building startups, building different companies, doing 20 million different things with incredible people, and it's for you it probably feels natural, but for somebody else it's like, "Oh my god, Greg, you just blew my mind." Um and so so sometimes like when you've been doing something for so long and it feels like second nature, you forget how useful it can be for other people um to see. So it's the classic Picasso. I don't know if you heard the story where you know someone goes up to Picasso and says, "Hey, I'd like a um a painting." And and he goes, "Sure." So he does the painting. It takes him like 5 seconds and he's like, "Okay, it's going to be $500." >> And then the customer goes, "$500? that took you 5 seconds. You know, that doesn't make any sense. And he was like, "Yeah, but it took me my entire life to get to the point." >> 50 years. >> Yeah, exactly. It took him 50 years. >> Yeah, man. I mean, the thing what I you know, it's funny that you mentioned like these things you didn't notice. And that's actually what it is in content. It's it's such a subconscious experiment experience sometimes. The thing that I relate it most to is a slot machine. And I know it's kind of like messed up cuz slot machines are just psyche hacking. They're hacking your brain. It's like, you know, preying on that dopamine release. It's kind of the same in in content where like sometimes you sit in the slot machine for like an hour and you don't realize what just happened because you're like addicted to the visuals and the sounds and it's all just very there's a real psychology behind it to the point where like a lot of these casinos or like a lot of these micro games like the Clash Royale games of the world people don't realize they actually have more um like data engineers and like psychologists on staff sometimes and like engineers and and designers because that is the whole game that they're playing. It's not really like there's not, you know, the design and engineering is okay, but it's like the psychologybacked component to it that is like the true magic of these games. I kind of think it's similar with content where it's like there's a real art to it. There's a real science to it. It changes. It's like ever changing because it's always evolving and um it it changes also from context to context where like depending on the video that I'm making, depending on the product, the c like what it whatever it is that I'm saying, I'm going to approach it differently. And so I love that about it, man. That's why like I'm hiring editors now. Um, but it's been historically difficult because I'll hire an editor, they're like, "Okay, I'll have this done in the next 48 hours." I'm like, "Man, I could just do this in the next 30 minutes and it's going to be better." It's hard for me to like uh reconcile that. But need to scale next year and uh I'm just so busy now that finally I feel like I'm going to be giving up the reigns. And so I'm glad that I have this video because now all the prospective editors out there I actually think Greg like this video I don't know how it'll do in the at the beginning but I think over time it'll be like a sleeper that's just super evergreen cuz I've also every time I talk to an editor they're like oh man like all my clients give you as a reference of what they want their stuff to look like. So now like all the editors in the world can go and and uh and and see how I do it. So >> so go work for Roberto. Join join the empire. If you're a world-class editor, I will hire you tomorrow. I am in desperate need. I've been auditioning like 20 different editors. I can't find somebody who is dialed, who has the quality that I'm looking for, and most importantly, the speed because a lot of my stuff is time-sensitive, and if I were to upload an OpenAI agent kit video in 3 days, nobody cares. It's got to go out ASAP. Um, so thank you for that PSA, Greg. In this episode, I am going to include basically as many products that you've mentioned here in the show notes so people can actually go and try it. >> Um, but you still owe me an answer to a question which is >> Yes. >> How much money did it does it you know approximately how much money to create a Roberto Nixon like studio? >> Okay. Um, my what would you say Elijah in this studio? So, there's I don't know, maybe like a h 100red grand worth of gear north. >> Maybe a little north. In my next studio, there's probably going to be 300 grand worth. I mean, like, um, but if you wanted to build this setup without all the gear, you know, you could go with a used M1 Mac studio. I don't know, for like a,000 bucks. You can use whatever monitor you want. Um, all of these lights are very cheap versions of because I think you can build a a studio just like this for the same visuals as me for under 5K probably. I mean, you know, um, but again, you can just do it with your iPhone. But I like overkill. That's my game. >> Well, you're a nerd like me, too, right? Like you nerd out. >> I love this stuff, dude. I have every camera, every lens. I just something comes out, I buy it. I don't, you know, um, but believe it or not, I actually use, I would say everything I have at least like once a year for a project. So, >> right, >> it it comes in handy. >> Also, quick PSA. Uh, if anyone's in the South Florida Miami area, I need help with my studio. So, I'm looking to hire someone just to come for like a few days to set up my studio. >> Well, here's the thing about what I would say for your content, Greg. The fact that your studio is like in between lowfi and super high-end actually kind of works because I feel like if it was too lowfi, people might not take you seriously, but if it was like too highly stylized, you lose some of that because like the Greg Eisenberg brand is like that nitty-gritty startup hustle, you know? It's like it's scrappiness. >> So, I could get like I I already have 10 things that I can say to make your studio look look like 10 times higher production value just with the equipment that you have. But I wonder if that fits the brand like the startup hustle Greg Eisenberg. >> The camera is not good. The camera is not good. I need Don't I need multiple c like you know multiple cameras and better lighting. >> What camera do you have? >> Right now I'm literally using an Apple Studio Display camera. >> Oh, love it. Love it. Love it. Look, if if I I would just say like get a camera like a full-frame or whatever that that um where you could put like a nice little 35 millimeter 50 millimeter um shallow depth of field lens that already will look twice as good. Then if you angle your light, so in like right now you're very evenly lit. >> Yeah. If you if like you want the light coming more harshly from one side to to give you that shadow side to give you that depth and then what I would do is I would put a honeycomb on all the lights so they don't bleed into your background. It just lit onto you cuz you have the nice recess lighting in the background which looks good. I would actually probably open your windows and put an ND filter on so we can see what's out what's in the background and then you know bring your key lights really bright so we can see you as well. that alone, like with whatever you got going on, that alone would make it look like spectacular. But, um, I'll come down to Miami and I'll and I'll help you with anything you need, man, because I, again, I love this stuff. >> You're the best. Uh, Roberto, before we before we, I guess, part ways, which makes me sad because I just love talking to you. Anything Anything you want to leave the audience with? >> Um, yeah, you know, if there's any way that I can help, just just hit me up, RPN. like these days, honestly, like it's it's a good problem to have, but I've just been uh so blessed with so much abundance. I'm I'm I I actually don't have time for anything, but I will try my best to to get to your message if there's anything that I can help you with. Um and I'd also say this is the greatest time in the world. Like Greg parrots this all the time. This is the greatest time in the world to be a builder. I truly believe that if you're listening today, you can productize yourself. just literally take your expertise, your knowledge, your interests, your passions, what you know what you're good at, what you love, and you can package that up into a really, really lucrative, you know, sevenf figureure internet business. And I don't think it takes longer than like 24 months now if you're really passionate about this stuff. It is just like the most amazing time to be a builder, to make content, to to create startups. Um, and AI gets a lot of hate. I love it because I truly truly think it it just democratizes building and creativity and like man I I just get goosebumps like we live in the greatest time in history. There will never be another wealth creation event like AI. I think maybe personal uh humanoid robotics. But what an amazing amazing time to be alive. I I I can't be more excited for like the next 24 months. Subscribe to this podcast because if you're just here for this episode, trust me, like the value that Greg has, just just go to his videos and binge. you spend 24 hours doing that, you're going to be three times smarter, more fulfilled, and more motivated overnight. So, I appreciate you, Greg, and thank you for the time. Um, and it was just an honor to, you know, that you gave me this platform to be able to do this. >> I appreciate you, Roberto. I'll include Roberto's X, Instagram, and Beehive where you can go and subscribe and follow along. It's a no-brainer. >> And, uh, I'll see you next time. >> All right, man. Appreciate it, Greg. Later.
Summary
Roberto Nixon shares his complete AI-powered short-form video creation workflow, from idea to final edit, revealing the tools, techniques, and mindset behind his millions of views.
Key Points
- Roberto Nixon, a top short-form creator, reveals his end-to-end process for creating high-impact videos.
- He uses a home garage setup with professional gear including a Canon R5C, multiple lights, and a Mac Studio for editing.
- The workflow includes using Apple Notes for scripting, Prompter Pro for teleprompting, and OBS for separate audio recording.
- Editing is done in Premiere Pro with a focus on speed, high pace, and pattern interrupts to maintain attention.
- He uses AI tools like Freepick and Sora for generating custom visuals, avoiding stock footage.
- Roberto emphasizes the importance of audio treatment, captions, sound effects, and music to reward audience attention.
- He uses Screen Studio for screen recordings with animations and exports to add context to his content.
- The process is optimized for speed, taking around 45 minutes, with a focus on muscle memory and efficiency.
- He recommends specific tools like Downey for downloading videos and essential motion presets for faster editing.
- Roberto shares that while a high-end studio costs $300k, a functional setup can be built for under $5k.
Key Takeaways
- Use a teleprompter and separate audio recording to ensure high-quality, fast-paced delivery.
- Organize your creative process with a structured file system and color-coded folders for efficiency.
- Leverage AI tools like Freepick and Sora to generate context-specific visuals and avoid generic stock footage.
- Prioritize audio quality and use sound effects, music, and pattern interrupts to maintain viewer engagement.
- Optimize your editing workflow with presets and templates to achieve speed and consistency.