🧘 Hard Work & Naked Yoga

In this week's P.O. Box:

For the past few weeks I've been working on two long-form videos—one for the Fantasy Life channel and one for my Deposit Kingdom channel—and I forgot how much I enjoyed tackling bigger projects, even if they require an ungodly amount of time.

Last spring I launched that second YouTube channel, per the suggestion from content whiz Jordan Fiegleman, as a way to separate my live streams from the hyper-produced content. Previously, the latter was getting lost in the shuffle of the former (I'll spare you the inside baseball Youtube algo specifics) and I wanted a place where I could ensure that wouldn't happen going forward.

These videos, regardless of whether I'm learning how to become an engagement farmer or breaking down structural drafting strategies in best ball, take me forever to make. A quick overview of the process spanning multiple weeks looks something like this:

• Outline, research, and jot down chicken scratch ideas (e.g. chase pigs around while dressed up as an actual farmer)

• Script the entire video (I'm not a freak in the google sheets, but I'm a... jock in the google docs? idk, I'll workshop it)

• Conduct interviews, if needed

• Round up multimedia materials and tether them to specific moments in the script

• Carve out a few hours to record (this is surprisingly laborious without a proper teleprompter set up)

• Remove out all of the flubbed takes from the raw recording (to save the video editor time and save myself personal embarrassment)

• Ship off to editor and wait to review drafts

That's the stage I'm currently at with two videos. One is a breakdown of the top rookie prospects that leverages a lot of work from the dynasty team at Fantasy Life and the other is a dissection of two best ball lineups that won Kerrane and King Kappital a combined $3 million in BBM3.

I had cranked out seven of these long-form style videos last summer, but then everything screeched to a halt when I moved in August, the NFL season started, and April was born in December.

I really enjoy live streaming. I think it's probably my bread-and-butter, but in a lot of ways it can make you lazy. Outside of some very loose show prep, it's pretty easy to just show up, turn the cameras on, and vamp for 60-90 minutes, especially if you have a draft to lean on.

Hopefully I'm not veering into Uncle Rico territory with yet another improv comparison, but the same thing can happen with improv. It's very easy for improvisers to get lazy as creatives because all you have to do is show up. There's zero prep, partly by design (the entire point of improv, of course, is to make it up in real time). But even rehearsals, which are prep for shows, require nothing other than showing up.

The problem, though, is that even after years of performing improv you don't have a body of work to show for all of your time. Sure, you've become a more polished performer, a better actor, and a more confident public speaker—all of which have value—but there's nothing you can directly point people to as proof of work. Performances are immediately lost to the sands of time (which is often for the best, if we're being honest).

The best improvisers will take scenes and characters from shows and turn them into sketches, scripts, and podcasts, but it's also very easy to get stuck in a rut where you aren't ever creating something with a longer shelf life.

It was fun last year to see the Week 17 best ball stuff become such a polarizing topic and eventually turn into a meme:

It's exactly what you hope happens when you spend a significant amount of time working on a video. For as buzzy as the Week 17 topic was in the best ball streets last summer, the original video hilariously has relatively few views.

It can be demoralizing to pour tens and tens of hours into a video only for it to get less views than a random live stream that you jokingly titled "Shiba Coin, Naked Yoga, and Fish Gloves."

Please, for the love of God, do not YouTube search "naked yoga" by the way. Or maybe do? I dunno, different strokes for different folks.

I don't get discouraged by that, though. Those times I get into a true flow state working on a big project are among the best feelings to experience. And to create something that people can watch back weeks, months, and years later while still holding up is pretty rewarding.

The nearly two-hour Fantasyland episode we made about Chris Wesseling in 2018 is probably the project I'm most proud of making and that took us over six months to make.

There certainly is not a direct correlation between the amount of work I put into something and the amount of exposure it gets, but there has been a direct correlation between the amount of work I put in and the enjoyment I get from completing that process.

🍳 My favorite late-round QB targets in Superflex. I used to to enjoy Best Ball Breakfast, but this brutal snipe on Monday ruined it for me.

💪 NFL Draft predictions. Dan Back joined us on the Swolecast to fire off some hot taeks and discuss his viral tweet that he ended up deleting.

💡 Best Ball Tips. Why you should randomize your late-round stack fliers.

🥊 Spags vs. Pete Superflex battle. I'm clearly in Spags' head these days.

♨️ NFL hot stove. Tyreek Hill threatens retirement and Odell Beckham joins the Ravens.

🏀 High stakes NBA Playoff Best Ball drafts. The Club squared off against the Badge Bros this week and Jack went rogue with our shared entry.

🍆 What's your dream lineup for a $1,000,000 DFS contest? Bric and I spitballed on this week's LOLz.

I've never drafted a hockey best ball team in my life, but that all changes today...

Later tonight (9pm ET), I'm firing up another Best Ball After Dark stream for VIPs. I'll be joined by best ball sharp and budding Underdog streamer Hope Bishop for a couple drinks, best ball talk, and some drafts. Become a YouTube member here for access.

Friend and spreadsheet virgin Mike Leone is in the middle of an epic best ball data deep dive. If you play best ball, or plan to draft tournament teams this summer, I highly recommend reading his ongoing piece over at Establish The Run:

We had him on Ship Chasing on Wednesday and explored a bunch of the interesting findings, including the importance of ADP value, the power of game stacking in the playoffs, the sneaky upside of 3QB builds, when to draft, how to escape a WR avalanche, and this year's Josh Jacobs:

Do you need a video editor? I can't recommend my guy LouDog enough. He's been crushing the shorts for me:

Where my best ball data nerds at? Fantasy Data Pros is hosting a Best Ball Data bowl. More details to come, more info here.

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