Good Work: Behind the Scenes of a Business Comedy Channel

Dan and Henry prioritize writing and humor over production quality, creating engaging content that resonates with their audience.

### The Creative Process Behind Good Work's Unique Comedy Style
* 🎤 Dan Toomey and Henry Stockwell co-created "Good Work," a business news channel that has gained popularity by **reshaping Morning Brew's YouTube presence**.
* 📈 Their approach emphasizes **simplicity and connection**, with a focus on writing, as they aim to create content **relatable to YouTube audiences**.
* 📱 Initially filming with iPhones, they prioritized humor and writing over high production values, believing that "**something that is good at its core**" can stand out amidst polished videos.
* 📝 They often experiment with their format, expressing concern about **becoming complacent** while emphasizing the importance of **audience comfort with change**.
* 🎨 Dan's graphics, often humorously low-quality, contribute to their unique style, demonstrating that the **effort put into comedic writing outweighs technical perfection**.
* 💡 The duo values feedback from peers, using group screenings to **gauge audience reactions and refine their comedic timing**, ensuring that their content remains **fresh and engaging**.
* 🤔 Ultimately, their creative process is driven by **instinctive humor and collaboration**, with both acknowledging the importance of **maintaining a fun and enjoyable work environment**.

### The Creative Process Behind Investment Banking Humor: Insights and Inspirations
* 💼 Investment banking is often symbolized by **blue shirts** and a **Gordon Gekko persona**, evoking a sense of **disdain for personal relationships** among bankers.
* 😂 The joke writing process involves **collaborative idea generation**, where one person contributes, another tags on, and then edits are made, culminating in a **humorous graphic**.
* 🎨 The creative team draws inspiration from various sources, including the **editing styles of shows like The Eric Andre Show**, to keep their content **engaging and humorous**.
* 📈 Investment banks like Goldman Sachs are prestigious yet notorious for their **demanding work culture**, filled with **long hours and high-pressure environments**.
* 🤔 The humor often stems from a **deep understanding of finance culture**, using memes and inside jokes to **resonate with the investment banking community**.
* 🎬 The production process includes research interviews that inform the script, with filming taking place in **various locations to capture authentic moments**.
* 🔄 Iterative cycles of feedback in the investment banking world mirror the creative process, where **multiple revisions lead to the final product**.
* 🌟 Ultimately, the success of their content hinges on **authenticity**, as they strive to create videos that **resonate with their audience** while maintaining their **comedic voice**.

- What have you done to just stay true to your artistic kind of voice? - Yeah, quaaludes. (group laughing) - Dan Toomey and his writing partner Henry Stockwell co-created this unhinged business news channel called Good Work. - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, all schools with students who could probably Venmo someone to have me killed. - They actually took over their employer Morning Brew's YouTube channel and totally reshaped it in January, skyrocketing its growth. - I want to make something that a YouTuber could make so people on YouTube connect with it. - There's something about something that is good at its core. - Gandhi had dreams of a free India. Greta Thunberg has dreams of a cleaner planet. And I have scary dreams of big monsters and going to the dentist. - And then everything else is a total shit bag around it. - Totally. - Talk about awesome traffic is.

- Dan spent so much time making these things. - I do. - But what makes their videos so funny is that 90% of their focus is spent on one thing. - We care the most about writing. - We're just gonna film this with iPhones. - It makes it so all the tech is not a part of the process as much as possible. - I sat down with Dan and Henry to analyze the nitty-gritty of their teamwork and the crap that they put into every joke, including their deliberately shitty photoshopped graphics. (uplifting music) What are we gonna watch here today? - So this is what do investment bankers actually do? - All right, here we go. - Perhaps no job better embodies the image of business than investment banking. It's got fancy offices, screen. - Okay, so like- (group laughing) - I spent so much time on that graphic and it was only there for two seconds.

- Do you do your own graphics? - Yeah. - All of them? - Yeah. - I would've never believed it. (chuckles) - Yeah. Yeah, I know. Pretty high-level stuff that we're working with there. - We're six seconds in and there have been three cuts. - Yeah. - So do you film the whole script in five different locations and then just choose what you will between the shots? Is that how you do it? - Yep. - Whole script? - Yep. And then we also throw in... We do the monologue in full a few times and then we take what we think are the funniest or notable lines, and we'll usually just, like, walking back to the office. Yeah. - So you get the, like, weird location by the construction site or whatever? - Yeah. - And then you also got the weird news guy walking slowly, like, to the camera. - Yeah, and the movement can be very, you know,

Sometimes it'll be like a rotation, which literally just looks like Henry holding an iPhone and then doing this. - Is it filmed on an iPhone? - Right now they are. - This was on an iPhone. We actually just switched to nicer cameras. Every episode up until our private equity video. So the first nine videos were all iPhone. - Yeah, we haven't put one out with the, like, nice cameras yet. - Why film on an iPhone instead of, like, a DSLR or, like? - We're always talking about this. - I have a very hot take about this. - Okay, I don't know, okay. - I do, too, so- - All right, go ahead. - So, like, the story kind of starts at when I was making videos for the Morning Brew YouTube channel, right? Because that's the company that we work for is Morning Brew. They're like the owners of Good Work.

And I started by making TikToks for them. And I'm a comedian outside of Morning Brew, and so most of my sketches that I would make for them were comedic. - Hi, Bob. Hi, Robert. - Hi. Sorry, we were just in diversity training. What's up? And so then they were like, All right, now we're gonna try and bring this to the next level. What do your TikToks look like on YouTube? So we were making, like, sketches. - Two months ago, we spent $20,000 on sandwiches. Does somebody want to explain to me what this was all about? - Feed the children, sir. - Seems unnecessary. - But they weren't hitting as well as we wanted them to. We knew we had something there, but I was like, I don't think that sketches like college humor era are what our value add is. I think other people do that,

and we're gonna have to find something that's completely different. So I basically thought like, Why don't we just strip it back as much as possible? We're just gonna film this with iPhones and then we're gonna do this, like, jump-cutty thing. I want to make something that, like, a YouTuber could make so people on YouTube connect with it. - Yeah, and for me, I think the thing that I loved about the iPhone era, which we still try to do as much as possible- - We refer to it as the iPhone era. - Yeah. And famously, other people call it the iPhone era. - Yeah. - It makes it so all the tech is, like, not a part of the process as much as possible. So, like, we care the most about writing, I think it's safe to say? - Yeah. - And, like, I think we also view editing as a form of writing.

It's really easy with a nice camera to get distracted by, like, Oh, that is really cool, or That looks really cool, but we want everything to be about the writing. - Okay, I wanna ask about the move out of the iPhone phase. Are you worried? - I am, yeah. But I'm worried in the sense of, like, we want the channel to evolve and our videos to evolve, too. And what I've noticed in our first three episodes is I was like, All right, we found this cool format that we know works, but how do we keep evolving from there? And one thing I don't want us to get is ever, like, complacent with a certain format. I think it's most interesting when you continue to experiment. And the biggest thing I feel like on YouTube is you want your audience to be okay with you experimenting with stuff. Like, I wouldn't want to get so entrenched into one format

where, you know, we do something different in a video, and everybody's like, Well, what is this? We came here for this one type of video, and you're not doing it anymore. I think if people are comfortable with the idea that things could change up periodically, then that's the most comfortable position we could be in as, like, people who enjoy making this stuff. - That's such a hard balance to achieve, is, like, how much do you go episodic versus how much do you break the mold? And I feel like it's a really hard thing to nail as a creator right now. - For sure. - It's like how much do you change things versus repeating the same thing every week? - Yeah. But again, I think a lot of that comes down to the idea of, like, if your audience is okay with you experimenting with stuff, then they can just expect that from you.

and then you're in a comfortable position, you know? Or at least, I don't know. And we're trying it, too. So it might not work, but it might work even better and really bring these videos to, like, another level, but that's kind of like the exciting part of trying it. - Yeah, I'll say that we don't really think about... We don't really think about this as having, like, a- - Any. - Yeah, first of all, we don't think. - We don't think. We don't really- - We do not. - We don't really think about this as having, like, a super set structure. - Yeah. - I would say we more focus on making each video as good as possible. And we have fallen into patterns that work, but I think we're always trying to push it. And it's more just like- - Isn't that a lot of pressure?

- Is the next video as good as possible? And not like we know what we're gonna do 10 episodes out, or whatever. - I think it would be a lot of pressure if we weren't so shocked that these videos have gotten as many views. And look, I mean, we're not getting like MrBeast numbers, right? I mean, if we were, I'm sure- - You guys are getting a 100,000 to a million views. - No, it's really cool. It's really cool. - Right, right, but if we... I think we don't try to think about that too much because at the end of the day, like, the most fun is when we're just in an editing booth watching the videos and thinking that this is funny and this is good. And Henry actually raised a really good point the other day where he was like, Whenever we feel like we're making this for an audience,

that's when we need to, like, rethink our whole plan. - Totally. - Yeah. - Because it really just comes down to these videos kind of came out of us just thinking this would be a fun format to try. And then it worked with some other idiots who also like this kind of stuff. - Yeah. - So we were like, you know, just make sure that we enjoy it, and that's the most important part. - Yeah, and we're like, it's amazing that people watch them. We're, like, really, really grateful for that. But in terms of the actual writing and making process, like, I try really hard to keep us like, it is only what we think is cool and good and funny and that's it. - Yeah. - So, then, is that the North Star for, like, whether you decide to leave something in or take something out or rewrite something or, like, do a certain edit?

Is it like your initial gut reaction to it? - Yeah, man. - I think so. - We've had to, Jack- - And us just arguing with each other. (laughs) - Yeah, a lot of arguing. - Do you disagree on that kind of stuff often? - There have been parts. We've had so many, like, special segments in videos that we thought would work out really well, but then they end up just not fitting with the overall narrative of the video. And we spend a lot of time on these extra parts, and these videos would be, like, 12 minutes with them. And then we both kind of look at each other. Like, I think it was... It was this video, I think, where we had this whole other segment of interviewing spouses of people who work in investment banking. - It was really funny. - It was really funny. - And we were both really excited about it.

- And it was like 10:30 on a Wednesday, and we were both in the office, and we were looking at it, and we were like, We have to cut that segment, don't we? And we were like, Yep. And neither of us wanted to admit it, I think, for, like, two hours. So we ended up finally cutting it. So I think our disagreements are becoming, like, faster. - Yeah. - Unfortunately, we're becoming the same person, if you couldn't tell by our overall sense of fashion. - Yeah, because we already... Yeah, we come across so differently. - (laughs) Yeah, I know, because we're such different people right here. - So one thing I think this graphic... (group laughing) - By the way, it's awesome to get this much airplay on this because Dan spends- - Talk about how awesome this graphic is. - No, Dan is an absolute maniac in Photoshop.

And he spends so much time and drinks so much coffee making these things. - I do. - And they're always on screen for, like, one second. And it's part of why the videos are so good. - How much time could you have spent on that? - So this one I- - Dude. (laughs) - So this one, I knew that the... I was like, All right, what's gonna be funny for investment bankers is that they lose money, right? Or trading loses money. I always think of investment bankers with all those screens, right? And then I thought of this meme where the dad, you know, walks in on his kid, but I've put those screens on top of the kid's computer. I can hear you sighing. I put these screens on top of the kid's computer and then I was like, Well, the dad wouldn't come in, 'cause normally he says, Are you winning, son?

But then I was like, Well, he wouldn't say that. He would need to say some jargony stuff. 'Cause it's fun to slip in, like, some inside baseball for people who work in these industries. - Totally. That's one of the things that stands out about your videos. You've nailed workplace jargon. - That's what- - Yeah. - I don't know if you can tell by my haircut, but I got a few friends who work in investment banking. - Yeah, through exposure. - And so I texted one of my buddies and I was like, Hey, what could a dad be saying here? And he was like, Oh, capacity for another staffing. And I was like, Great. And so then that came up there, and it's onscreen for maybe a second. - He does this, like, depending on the length of the video, like, I mean, there are like 30 to 80 of these.

- I mean, in our private equity video that we did, which is about, like, 20 minutes, there's over 200 graphics in that one that we made for it.  
- Oh my god.  
- So I think, though, that it seems like it comes from the same place as the filming with an iPhone thing, which is like, you have so many options for making overlays now. You could go the hi-fi route, you could punch up.  
- Well, to be clear, we couldn't. Which is another part of the-  
- Hi-fi is not-  
- Lo-fi thing.  
- Yeah.  
- Is like, we're also just playing to our strengths.  
- Yeah. (laughs)  
- But I think that's what made... Like, oh, like that's the same. So my band Pomplamoose, we started in like 2007 or '08 uploading videos.  
- Yeah.  
- We would spend so much time on the music

and we would, like, I would mix the fuck out of the music, and, you know, I made good-sounding music. And then our videos were like Sony Handycam Hi8, bedroom, pajama pants. But the music sounded really good, but it was clearly two 20-year-olds, like, in their bedroom with fish blankets on the walls for sound dampening. ♪ These are a few of my favorite things ♪ - And there's something about, like, something that is good at its core, like the writing and the humor, and then everything else is a total shit bag around it. - Totally. - And it makes it... I don't know, it catches your attention 'cause there's something, like, really just stark about that contrast. - Well, I mean, I'm glad that you said that because we were talking about this the other day where the hope for the channel was... There are a whole lot of inspirations

that go into making this, and one thing that we just wanted people to kind of come across is, like, when they click on the video, they're like, What is this? - Yes. - Yes. - That's the feeling I get. - Yeah. - And part of the... Sorry, I'm, like, nerding out right now. - Is this like- - No, by the way, the whole point of this is to nerd out on these. - This is fine. - This is it. - We've only got seven seconds into the video. - (laughs) I know. That's what always happens. - But what I really like about kind of the format that we've developed is that even if you're not listening, which most people don't, but even if you're not listening to me, what I'm saying, the eye is just kind of naturally curious about, like, What the hell? Like, Who's this? - Right.

- And what is this? And then, you know, you pause, you go back, and so it just, like, keeps you interested the entire time.  
- Totally. - And you're literally holding the script. (group laughing) - Yeah. - But that's what news anchors do. - Do they really?  
- Sometimes. - Like in the field, sometimes they'll have notes, they'll look down. - Like, there are shots where you're actually looking down and reading it. You don't even cut those out. You're just, like, literally reading the script.  
- No, it's great, because it doesn't matter. - Yeah, why would it matter?  
- No, I know. It kind of makes it seem more authentic for some reason. - Yeah, because it's like, what, is anybody gonna comment and be like, You didn't memorize this? Like, no, it's eight pages. Why would I memorize it?

- We have found that people being like, He didn't memorize it, the type of comment of like, Oh, the sound's clipping, or, That's overexposed, or, He didn't memorize the script, maybe a small percentage of people care and we apologize, but, like, the vast majority of people do not give a shit. - So the other thing that it does for you guys it gives me the impression that you are on the edge looking in at all the bullshit. Like the fact there's no production value, that literally the microphone is clipping, like, all the time. - Yeah, all the time. - Like it makes it- - The audio pass is such a rough time for us. It's really that hard. - Do you know what I mean? Like it makes you guys seem like you're outside of the fishbowl observing the disaster of YouTube. - Oh, that's cool. - And, like, commenting on it.

- Well, again, I mean, when we started it, I was like, I want this to be as stripped back as possible, because you could go on YouTube and see a video that looks nice pretty much at will. You could see a very well-produced video from like- - Right, all the stuff there is, yeah, it's now super produced stuff. - And so it's just how do you stand out? I mean, again, the impetus for this style was, the thing I wanted to write about management consultants. And standalone it would work as a script, but then it was like, okay, how do we find an interesting way to basically package the writing? And at the time I had been experimenting with this, like, little format of just popping around through a monologue because I wanted to figure out, okay, how do I make a short humor piece work as an Instagram video? - Hello, women. - The New York Times recently declared

there's never been a better time to be short. And as a man who is five foot (beep) and a half, that's literally the best news I've ever heard in my entire life. - That ended up working so I was like, All right, that can be a YouTube video, and then that's where this kind of idea came from initially. And then, yeah, then we got to make our consulting video. But, yeah, let's keep watching. - Yes. - And those dress shirts where the collar is a different color than the rest of the shirt. You see a fellow wearing one of those and you just know he's got kids he doesn't talk to. (group laughing) - God. Okay, so I wanna ask about the writing process and also these shitty transitions, which is like, whoa. - They're our favorites. - Whoa. - Fantastic transitions. - Thank you. - They work really well.

- This comes straight out of iMovie. - Wonderful. Are you editing on iMovie? - No, those aren't iMovie. Those are Premiere plugins. - Okay, did you have to buy a pack of shitty transitions? - Oh, no. No, we actually- - We didn't spend a dime on this. (chuckles) - But actually, for real, we went to, like, there are other people at Morning Brew who are professionals and know what they're doing, technically. And we, like, went to them and were like, Can we take the iMovie transitions and use them in Premiere? - And they said no. - And they were like, Not only no, no one has ever asked that question before. (group laughing) But I remember the first time we did... 'Cause, again, it was like, how do we make the writing just more entertaining to watch, right? So we can feed you.

It's like medicine with a dog. You're like, What if we package this in something else? And I remember when we were editing that first consulting video, we're going through these clips, and then we were like, What if we just put this transition here? And then as soon as that happened, everyone in the room laughed at it. And then we're like, All right, cool, that works. - It's a good example of- - Wait, so you show the videos to, like, groups of people before you publish? - Sometimes. - Yeah, sometimes at the office. - Yeah, sometimes. - We work on it a lot before we release it to a wider viewing, but we'll do, like, a wider viewing with our friends who are like on the social team or working on other videos and just see where people laugh or whatever. - Yeah, and I think that's actually a really important part of the process, too.

because, like, sometimes for writing comedy, you'll think it's funny and we'll think it's funny, but it's also good to, like, test it with a group because sometimes something won't land and you're like, Oh, I guess that joke really wasn't worth it. (laughs) - It is a fine line, though, because sometimes something won't land and we'll still be like- - Yeah, we don't care whether it's going to land. - Yeah. (laughs) - So it's a matter of just balance. - Yeah. - Yeah. - But the transitions to the writing question, the transitions, I think, are a good example of the best and funniest parts of the writing process where, like, Dan is like, What about a cube transition? And we're sitting around and I'm just like, Ha-ha, yeah, and then that never changes. - Yeah.

- And I think the funniest writing jokes are also similar where it's like, What if you said it's that shirt with the other collar? And we're like, Ha-ha, and then that never changes. - Yeah. - Like it's a very quick thing and then we keep it. - So just, like, the gut impulses and that kind of stuff is what we're hearing in the script a lot of the time. - Silly gut impulse. - And by the eighth time that we're watching this, look, we're not laughing at any of this, you know? 'Cause we know the joke's coming up. But we remember that it was funny when we initially wrote it. So we try to keep it- - Silly. - That's funny. - Silly, yeah. - Daniel Thrasher says like... - My rule is, if it's funny to you once, then it's funny.

In comedy anyway. After that, your critical voice comes in, it's like, Well, wouldn't it be better if da, da, da, da? And then you're like, Ah, shit, ah, and then you throw it out there and people dig it because they're hearing it the first time, you know? - He sounds smart. - Yeah. - He, like, doesn't revisit it on time eight and he's like, Ah, this isn't funny anymore, we're gonna take it out. - Yeah. - No, he just had an initial reaction, for sure. - So, okay, so then, like, can we talk about just the writing process for that joke? Because that particular joke is just so brutal and hilarious. - You see a fellow wearing one of those and you just know he's got kids he doesn't talk to. - We all are expecting something,

and then you pause 'cause you know we're expecting something, but then it still delivers. Do you have multiple options for, like, what you're gonna say there and do you try a couple different things and see what lands best? Or how do you actually write that? - Yeah. Well, I think you came up with the collar shirt thing. - The other thing is that we don't remember. Genuinely don't. I think that I did? - I take credit when I write the joke. I take credit when I write the joke. - I would say a normal joke writing process for it. - Normal. - And I write most of the jokes because I'm the funny one. - Yep. - Henry's just over here looking like the rat from Flushed Away. Everything's Oh, he's the funny guy. Nope, it's me. I'm sorry, continue? You were talking? - Yeah. Yeah, so anyway,

Dan is funny, and I'm a loser, and I cut everything, and, yeah. - Sorry, we're wasting so much of Patreon's time right now. - Do you actually cut everything? Do you edit? - No. I would say that I'm more an editing brain than Dan is, like, in terms of writing. But in terms of actual video editing, the kind of manic style that everybody loves about it is 100% that comes from Dan. - It was. I mean, but in terms of writing, you know, I have not worked with a better editor for writing than Henry. He's, like, amazing at it. It's like the perfect person for an editing brain knows how to punch up a script or see the potential of an idea and say, Okay, how can we pull this further? and doesn't like, you know, pull you away from any jokes. And Henry's excellent at that. So with this joke, I think we knew that we wanted.

We were like, All right, what's the symbolism of investment banking? And then everybody always thinks of those blue shirts, 'cause you don't see that anywhere else, and then, you know, Gordon Gecko type. Like, you know, you see a guy wearing one of those and you just know, like, oh, he hates his family. Like, his family hates him. - But to try to give you something... I'm trying to think, 'cause it's really hard to describe what the process is to try to give you something useful about, like, the joke writing process or prescriptive. I think that every good joke probably goes through, like, one of us has an idea and then the other one kind of tags something onto it and then the other person edits it a little bit and then maybe tags something else onto it, and then Dan does a really funny graphic. Like, it's hilarious

that this is the Amazon basic shirt versus, like, if you went and got a beautiful designer shirt. That's funny. So there were probably like five or six little add-ons and edits in it, and that's probably a good template for how the best jokes come about. - It's similar to like how babies are made, right? - You gotta try. - Right? - You gotta try a few times. - Yeah, everybody contributes. - Multiple people throwing in different stuff. - Put it all in a soup pot. - Yep. - And then you upload to YouTube. - Right. - For content. - Love it. - Yep. - Investment banking is common knowledge. The function is much less common of knowledge. So what the hell do these guys really do? (dramatic music) - How did you arrive at the... This is like a format thing now. - Yeah, it is. - Like the music, the titles that come up.

Even the... What is that called, that effect? - Posterize? (laughs) - Posterize. - Posterize, level three, baby. - We love posterize. - Level three. - It's like everything is stuff that I did when I was in high school learning- (group laughing) Learning how to make, like, videos for the first time. - That's funny. - We are learning, too. - We're looking at this and we're like, Oh, it's pretty good. Well, I mean, one of us is learning. I've been video editing for six years. - No, no, but I mean, generally speaking, we're still both at the beginning of this. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - This I'm directly ripping from The Eric Andre Show here. That was like... I remember when we were first editing these videos, I was like, What is a funny intro to do? And I know Eric Andre always did, like, the pause at the end

and there's a little bit of posterizing effect. And then I don't think it's the... It's not a similar font to what his show did. I just like the big yellow letters. Initially, they were white, and I was like, That's not interesting enough. Made them yellow. And then the music was kind of off of our only resources. We use Epidemic. - Oh. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that song is called A Journalist's Dream. And we found it off of like newscasts. - Serious piece. - Yeah. So that was our theme song for fiance. - It sounds like something important's about to be investigated. - And it is. - And it is. - Yeah. - Look at that face. - Yeah, totally. Yeah, shifty business. (dramatic music) - I'm here outside the offices of Goldman Sachs. Just behind these very doors, dozens of my high school bullies

are chained to ergonomic chairs, staring at Excel, and cracked out on prescription stimulants. Investment banks like these have long been some of the most prestigious places to work on Wall Street. Landing spots for young- Okay, so that's the other thing. It's like it's full of these little Easter eggs. - Yeah, dude. - It makes me wanna, like- - Investment banks like these have long been some of the most- (group laughing) - Like Credit Suisse, dude. - You, like, wanna pay more attention and you wanna go back and watch it again because you know that there's gonna be, like, all these little wonderful things in there. Where does that come in the process? Does that come in editing? Does that come in script writing? How are you coming up with those? - I think a few things. One is we just get really bored when we're editing these,

and you want to keep yourself laughing through the process. You're like, All right, what's funny here? I mean, I know that everybody makes fun of Credit Suisse and, like, the finance world, and so it would be funny to, like, make fun of them here. And then at the same time, I remember when I was making TikToks, I had a family friend say, Ugh, your videos are so chaotic, I have to go and watch them twice. And I was like, That's awesome. Good. Like, So you keep watching it again so you can see everything. And what's great about that one is that so many people called that joke out in the comments. And even if you watch the video and you didn't catch that, you're like, Oh, I gotta go back and watch it now, and then you start to see all the other Easter eggs.

So it just encourages you to, like, pay attention a bit more and re-watch it. - How are you so deep in this? Is it the research phase where you know that Credit Suisse is a joke? Or, like, how did you even know that? And I had the same question for you about, like, work culture. You seem to, like, have a deep understanding of the shit that happens in the workplace. Where does all that come from? - Dan kind of was Morning Brew's kind of first TikTok, TikTok, the news man. - TikTok lackey. - And for a while Dan was kind of synonymous with Morning Brew's TikTok account. So he was making a TikTok a day, basically, for a couple of years. - Based on business news. - All based on business news. So a lot of the knowledge of, like, what bank bankers think would be fun to rip on

comes from Dan. And then the research phase is more about, like, actually learning about the story. But we also, like, working at Morning Brew, everybody's constantly finding these stories of, like, you can make fun of this element of the corporate workplace. So, like, it is also a function of just being around the office and seeing what other people are covering. - Finance has such a culture on the internet that's uniquely finance internet culture and a lot of people find it funny. I mean, one of the biggest sources for humor now is just meme pages, right? And so when you're researching something like this where it's such a community of investment bankers, you go, All right, well, what are the meme pages talking about? And a lot of them dunk on Credit Suisse. And so I was like, All right, then that's like an opportunity for a joke here. And, again, the inside baseball stuff,

like even if you aren't up on the news, it could even encourage you to look up the news. But then investment bankers watching this, like, they think it's really funny, too, so yeah. - I forgot who it was. Maybe Try Guys. Yeah, it was Try Guys. They were talking about... - You don't see videos that are problems everybody understands. You see videos that are problems that people with curly hair understand. So by attacking a very narrower thing, you'll actually find you'll get a broader success. - Reaching deep into one particular community and really understanding that community and then making a video that made a member of that community feel understood as a member of that community. - Yeah. Yeah, we're extremely empathetic with the investment banker. (group laughing) - We're allies to them. Yeah. No, we've had a lot of people come up to us and be like, Yo, I work for JP Morgan, dude.

- I thought you guys do the opposite, but yeah. (group laughing) - Yeah, for sure. - Prestigious places to work on Wall Street. Landing spots for young people to make fuck you vest money, coupled with long hours and taking loud phone calls in restaurants. An entire culture has been crafted around investment banking, yet the question remains. - Okay, question about that. Those little zoom pops that you do? Are those in camera? Are those in the edit? - Edit. - Edit. - Yeah. - How are you actually doing that? Just in Premiere? - Keyframes, baby. - Really? - Keyframes, ease in, ease out. I go in, you keyframe it, and then you push it in a little bit so it gets a little slope going. - Why? Why are you doing that? - I love what you said a couple minutes ago about the- - Thanks. - Yeah, generally speaking, I have to say that to him every two or three minutes.

- Flicks a treat. - I love what you said about, like, the answer of it just comes out of boredom, which is kind of an interesting... It's not disagreeing with what you brought up earlier about if I thought something was funny once. Maybe like a twist on that is like, if you try to keep yourself thinking things are funny. Up until the morning that we publish, we are adding stuff because we're bored 'cause we've been making the video for, like, a month. - That's the one thing, we're so ridiculous. (chuckles) - We are less like, Oh, it was funny once, it's fine that it's not funny now, and more, Can we make it funny again? - And keep adding layers. - The push zooms are a good example of like, Jesus, we're still in the editing room. Can you please just do something to make us laugh?

- Yeah. - Do you find yourselves thinking about it in your time where you're not working on it? (group laughing) Does it take up your life? - We're laughing, we're laughing. I mean, we work really hard on this, but I would say that... I mean, Dan and I started working together on this, like, in January, like, less than a year ago. - Yeah. - That's crazy, bro. - Yeah, well, this is also brand new. - Congratulations. - This could all go downhill immediately. - Which is not to say, like, oh, we've done all this and whatever. Just most say that... Dan works really, really hard. And he's laughing because I also will constantly be like, Time to go to dinner. Or like, Did you sleep last night? And I came more from an angle of, like, probably working less hard. And I think that now we are...

I wonder if you feel this, too, but I think that we're kind of meeting each other a little bit. Like, from the perspectives that we started with. And we work a lot on it all the time. Like, we'll randomly text each other like, Oh, this would be funny, or, like, thinking about this. But I think we have it pretty good. - Yeah, I think- - There's not that much work-life balance, but we really like the work, so it feels balanced. - No, I think we're a good partnership. 'Cause I'm a handsome man, ambitious, and Henry agrees. (group laughing) That's a very good partnership to have. - He was practicing that in the hotel this morning. - (chuckles) But again, like, I would keep tinkering with this; but as a very good editor, Henry knows when something is done. And I feel like a lot of people who have just only been in the mode of creating

are just on that flywheel where they're like, Well, I just need to keep making stuff 'cause that's all I do, you know? And so that's why it's good to have an editor to say, like, No, this is good. Like, You're done. 'Cause it's very hard to be in the process. I mean, I'm sure you know. It's like you want to just keep working on stuff 'cause you're like, oh, there's potential for more that you could do, but it's helpful to have somebody else tell you when you're done, you know? - Yeah. - A typical day would be wake up between six and seven, roll out of bed, and immediately head to the office. 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., make sure that you have your inbox at zero. Overnight, you're probably gonna be getting anywhere from 10 to 100 emails.

- This is gonna take (beep) forever. Okay. (tape garbling) - Around 10 is when the senior bankers usually come in. (tape garbling) The VPs tend to get stressed out about 11 a.m. (tape garbling) There is a gym in the building. (group laughing) (tape garbling) You lose a lot of control over your time. And I mean time like the time you have to go get dinner with your friends on Saturday. - iBanking is famous for its- - Okay. Very respectful of our guests. - It's very respectful. - This is an interesting moment. - We've never seen a talk show fast forward through their guest segment to save time. (group laughing) - This is an interesting moment to hone in on, though, 'cause Liam does have a public social media presence where this is part of his vibe. Like, he makes fun of this stuff. So he was, like, down to clown for this and we knew that,

which is partly why we felt okay doing this. - You know, it's funny, 'cause I do think there's something that you do that kind of makes it work. Probably two things. One is like, you give these really awful lower thirds that are, like, hilarious. - That's us having fun 'cause we're bored. - Anyway, just bored. - And honestly, the voice in this where I go like, Oh, it's gonna take forever, that's literally how we felt in the moment editing this. We were just like... - Well, we were standing at Dan's computer and we did the fast-forward and we were like, Oh, we need something. And then Dan literally took his phone out and just went, Oh, it's gonna take forever. - Yeah, that's a voice memo that we just put into the video. - But then you do the same for yourselves. - We're gonna make more fun of ourselves

than we make fun of anybody else. What we tell every guest is, Look, we're idiots, so treat us like idiots. And they will make fun of us, and we make fun of ourselves. Like we don't want to be just dunking on people when I'm over here wearing a trench coat. (group laughing) Like, come on, man. Like, we don't have a leg to stand on. So, yeah, if we're gonna make fun of anybody, we also make fun of ourselves at the same time. So we're all in it together. - Yeah. Yeah, everybody's getting dunked on at once. - Reading all that, it's time to stop beating around the bush and go straight to the source. Someone, a real-life person, who actually investment banked. - On a high-level, investment bankers advise companies when they're either trying to raise money, either debt or they're selling shares.

- And then on the day-to-day, what does that look like? - A lot of Excel financial modeling and a lot of PowerPoint presentations. A lot of that is sitting around and waiting for comments from your bosses and your bosses' bosses. - Sounds electric. Steph Moy is the founder of the Financial- - So then, okay, clearly, what you do is you do these interviews first before you even write the script? Or do you have a sense of... Where do the interviews and the... How does that? - Research interviews and then- - Happen at the same time. - Yeah, research interviews happen at the same time, and then we write the script, based off of the polls from the interviews. - Yeah, okay. - Research interviews to outline, to script. - And then production is like, when you actually film it, it's one morning or something? - Yeah, we just go out there and then film this in, like, four different locations.

with the whole script, print it out, as you can see there, and then, yeah, read it, and that's pretty much it. - Is that microphone real? - Yes. Why do you ask, Jack? - And what is it recording into? - Oh, oh, it's- - A Bluetooth hookup to an iPhone? - Yeah. (chuckles) - Beautiful. - Any time you want to do anything in investment banking, it goes through iterative cycles. Your boss sees your work and then he gives you comments, and then your boss's boss sees your work and then your boss has to approve it and then he gives it to you. And so it just goes in circles. I just don't think it's that interesting of a job. And it's such a small piece of what you hear about in the news. - Hold your horses. I thought investment banking (group laughing) was the pinnacle of America's financial system. A variable-

- So that clearly just happened. - Yeah. - Mmhmm. - Does that stuff happen all the time? - Mmhmm. - It's happening more now that people... When we first filmed these videos, people had no idea. The first one we filmed was the consulting video, and we went outside of the offices of BCG. I'm here in front of 10 Hudson Yards, which houses the offices of BCG. But this kid knew who we were, and we try to stay, like, in... It's game time when we're filming these. So he came up and he was like, Oh, I know you guys. And I was like, Thank you, sir. And he was like, Can I take a selfie? And I was like, Well, I gotta do my job here, but go ahead. And so I kept reading as he took the selfie. And as you can see, I don't interact with him anymore.

when he walks away. So I try to stay in game time. (chuckles) - So can we get a little bit into the relationship with Morning Brew? How does that work? - Yeah. So I had been making TikToks for Morning Brew for about two years and they wanted to figure out, okay, we're building out this YouTube channel. - So you started it as an employee of Morning Brew? - Correct. - Okay. - Yeah. When they hired me, they didn't make videos. And I basically sent them in this audition tape for a podcast, and then they were like, Oh, you didn't need to give us a video for this, but do you just wanna make videos for us now? I said, Sure. So then I did that for two years, making their TikToks and Instagrams. As the kids call it, Instagrams. And then when they were building out their YouTube channel,

I was a part of that. I was like a host, but since they also knew that I did comedy, they're like, What if we did sketch videos? And then the sketch videos weren't popping off as much as we wanted to. But then at one point, YouTube was, like, tweaking their Shorts algorithm. - When they started Shorts and they were randomly pumping, right? - Or our perception was that they were randomly pumping. - Everywhere. - That happened to coincide with the same exact time that we had our most viral TikTok ever in Morning Brew, which got like 11 million views or something like that. - Wow. - Hey, Evan, would you rather take this bonus or double it and give it to a coworker? - I'll double it. Give it to a coworker. (cash register dings) - Okay. Would you rather take this bonus or double it and give it to a coworker?

- Let's double it and give it- (cash register dings) (employee crying) - Yeah, so we all decided to just continue to double it and we're all gonna split it in the end. - So that video got like 11 million views. On Shorts it got over like 20 million. - And this was right when YouTube launched Shorts. And then that got the Morning Brew channel, like, 180,000 subscribers from that one video. - It was literally in, like, two months we had a string of viral videos that got us 180K and then- - But isn't this a totally separate channel? - Totally separate. - It worked. - So what happened was, they basically turned around and said, Hey, we have this YouTube channel here, but we have 180,000 subscribers who are just here for your dumb comedy videos and not, like, business educational videos, which is what we do as a company.

What if we let you run this channel as a comedy thing, or whatever you want it to be, and we will start the Morning Brew YouTube channel separately. But since there already are subscribers for this specific type of content, you just make whatever you wanna make. And then that's where- - So they renamed it Good Work and hired me. - Yeah. And that's how that came to be. - Oh, so it's a renamed Morning Brew channel. - Yeah. - It is, yeah, in a past life. - Morning Brew has another YouTube channel that they're getting off the ground now, too, which is awesome. - That's the way to do it. You follow the natural progression of the channel and let it become what it wants to become. - Which is exactly what these videos are, too. - Yeah. - The first video was not like a we-have-a-series idea. - It was just one.

- Yeah, it was like, Let's just try this video, and then it popped off. 
- Yeah, we still relatively pop off, then. 
- I love that because it's, like, emergent. I've found that, like, a lot of the time you have a picture in your head of how you want something to go and then it becomes something else, and the something else is often better than what you thought. 
- And you have to listen. 
- And you gotta listen. 
- Yeah, yeah. 
- I really do think that people are so media literate now on the internet. I have this firm belief that people can tell when you've made something for an audience or for what you think will do well versus you've made something that you really like and you want to show people, you know? 
- Or even for a preset idea that you had in your head. Like, basically, people can tell if something is inauthentic for any reason.

And it could be because you're catering to people. Could be because you're catering to an idea you had that- - Publishing schedule, too. - Yeah, it could be you're catering to a... So we try to not do any of that. - How have you stayed true to that impulse? 'Cause there's so much pressure, especially working in a company, any media company. - Yeah. - There's gonna be pressure to make for the audience, to reach a demo, to hit the company goals. You know, there's pressure. What have you done to just stay true to your artistic kind of voice? - Yeah, quaaludes. (group laughing) - Other than drugs, the quickest two answers, the quickest two answers are we just keep it tight. Like we keep it between us, what we think is really interesting and good. And that's kind of the only thing that matters. And then also we get a great leash from Morning Brew.

- We get a great leash. And I would say the biggest thing, too, is that we have, like, evidence that it works as well. Morning Brew was very encouraging. Throughout my whole time there, they've been very encouraging of, Look, we're down to try whatever, but we only wanna repeat what works, right? So with these videos, I was literally, Let's just make this one weird type of video and see if it works. And initially, it didn't. For the first two weeks, it didn't get that many views. The comments were really positive. And so we were gonna go back to making sketches. But then, like, by the third week, it was like, (whistles). - I forgot about that. - And we were like, Oh, what? And so then we kept copying that. But so Morning Brew was like, Oh, keep doing that then since that works, and we have fun making them.

So it helps that it does resonate with people as well. So, yeah. - Amazing. Well, that's a good place to stop. - What did we make it? We made it two minutes and 20 seconds. Is that a record? - Not even. I think we fast-forwarded. (laughs) - Yeah, I mean, we've been here for eight hours. (uplifting music)

The Duo Behind the FUNNIEST Business News on the Internet

Digital Spaghetti

The Creative Process Behind Good Work's Success

Dan Toomey and Henry Stockwell co-created Good Work, an unconventional business news channel, by reshaping Morning Brew's YouTube presence.

Their unique approach, using iPhones for filming and focusing on writing, has driven their rapid growth.

The duo emphasizes the importance of experimenting with content and evolving their format to keep their audience engaged.

The creators focus on making each video as good as possible, without a strict structure or long-term plan.

They are grateful for the views they receive and prioritize enjoying the process over catering to an audience.

Disagreements on content and editing decisions are common, but they are becoming more efficient in making those choices together.

The creators of a private equity video used over 200 graphics, embracing a lo-fi style that contrasts with their high-quality music.

They aim to capture viewers' attention through a curious and authentic presentation, even using script reading as a natural part of the format.

Their stripped-back production value and rough audio add to the impression of observing the chaos of YouTube, while their unique style and humor help them stand out in a sea of well-produced content.

The Creative Process Behind Video Editing and Comedy Writing

The team uses Premiere plugins and iMovie transitions, but they didn't spend any money on them.

They test their videos with groups before publishing to gauge audience reactions and refine their comedy writing.

The writing process involves gut impulses and quick decisions, with a focus on delivering funny jokes that resonate with the audience.

The Creative Process Behind Investment Banking Jokes

The symbolism of investment banking is often associated with blue shirts and a Gordon Gecko vibe.

The joke writing process involves collaboration, with each person adding and editing ideas, similar to making a baby.

The video's format and humor are influenced by past experiences and the desire to keep the audience engaged with Easter eggs and chaotic editing.

The Creative Process Behind Making Funny Videos for Investment Bankers

The team at Morning Brew finds humor in the corporate workplace, particularly through meme pages that target investment bankers.

They focus on understanding the unique culture of investment banking and aim to make videos that resonate with that community.

The creative process involves constant tinkering, adding layers of humor, and collaborating closely to find the right balance between work and fun.

Behind the Scenes of Investment Banking and Video Production

Investment banking is known for its demanding hours and stress, with senior bankers arriving around 10 a.

The video production team uses a fun and self-deprecating approach, with research interviews and scriptwriting happening simultaneously.

The relationship with Morning Brew started with TikTok content, leading to a role in building their YouTube channel.

The speaker initially hosted and created sketch videos, but they struggled until YouTube's Shorts algorithm changed, coinciding with their viral TikTok.

This led to 180,000 subscribers for their comedy content, prompting a channel rebranding and the speaker's hiring.

The success of their videos was driven by authenticity and a supportive environment from Morning Brew, allowing them to experiment and replicate what worked.