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I've been dealing with vestibular
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migraine, which is basically 24/7
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dizziness, vertigo. Some days are are so
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bad I can't even walk. You know, I've
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been getting a lot of questions about my
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health and stuff. Just know that I'm not
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I'm not dying. I'm not like deathly ill
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or anything, but I'm I'm making it
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through and uh it's bearable and and
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that's, you know, that's all I can ask
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for right now is is to be able to
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function. I think that it's it's even
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more complicated for someone that
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already has like depression and anxiety
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like myself. It's really isolating. I
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mean, I like being by myself, but it's
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not healthy. It's not good for me. All
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right, it's time to address the obvious
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question. Where the heck is Brad? And
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who the heck is this guy talking to us?
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Me. I'm referring to me. We've seen your
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comments and we love that you love Brad.
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Some of you have made that abundantly
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clear. Well, let me put your minds to
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ease and explain what's going on with
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Brad, where he's at, and of course,
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what's going on with the channel. So,
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Brad is very much alive and well. And
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no, he did not sell off the channel.
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Well, not exactly. It's a little bit
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more complicated than that. So, let me
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explain. Brad is still very much active
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and working on videos and courses. After
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all, it hasn't been that long since he's
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posted his last video. But, there are
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going to be some changes made to the
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channel that are going to be good for
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everybody who's been a supporter for
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some time, and of course, Brad himself.
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So, for nearly a decade, Brad has
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dedicated his life to putting out high
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quality videos. From in-depth series to
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crash courses and full-on projects on
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YouTube, totaling over 224 million views
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to date and also being one of the top
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Udemy instructors in the world with over
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500,000 students. All of this while
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raising a family and dealing with
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personal issues that Brad has been very
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open about. If you've been following the
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channel for some time, you've probably
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already noticed that Brad isn't posting
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as much as he used to with longer gaps
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in between these videos. And one of the
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things that people don't realize is that
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Brad has been a one-man operation for
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years. So it shouldn't come as a
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surprise to anyone that dealing with all
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these courses and having to work on the
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content, update them while managing
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hundreds of thousands of students and
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still maintaining a YouTube channel with
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all the production that goes into it
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would cause someone to burn out. So this
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has been the reason for the change over
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the last couple of years and the pace in
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production. The good news is that Brad
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has made impressive steps in his
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personal life and in his health and is
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doing much better. He's changed up his
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diet. He's hitting the gym and honestly
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looks like an entirely new Brad. But
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just because things got better doesn't
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mean that it's a good idea for him to go
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back to the same old schedule. And this
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is where I come in. If you haven't seen
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my videos on this channel, I've done
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several guest posts already here dating
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back to over 5 years now. And I also run
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a personal channel called Dennis Ivy
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where I make very similar content to
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what Brad is doing here. I also have
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Udemy courses. In fact, Brad and I have
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actually collaborated on a course
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together. And Brad was actually one of
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the main inspirations for me creating my
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personal channel, and this has been
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something that we've really bonded over
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from our first collaboration. Brad and I
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really just kind of hit it off and
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become good friends since that time.
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We've even met up in person one time
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when I flew out to Boston to visit him
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and we just went out for a couple of
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drinks, had a great time. But we've
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really got to know each other in this
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process. And over the last 2 to 3 years,
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we've constantly stayed in contact.
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We've always shared different things
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that we were working on and always
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discussed what's been going on in our
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life, our YouTube channels, and always
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just shared ideas along with personal
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struggles that we were both going
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through. It was during these
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conversations where Brad expressed the
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desire to change something and even
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floated the idea of potentially quitting
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YouTube altogether. And this was because
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it was getting unhealthy to constantly
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try to keep up with the latest YouTube
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algorithm changes while still trying to
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manage his courses. Well, we both
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realized that we actually shared a lot
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of the same challenges where we both
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loved making videos. We loved teaching,
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but it was just getting too much. For
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Brad, it was trying to keep up with
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YouTube and courses. And for me, well, I
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still have a full-time job that I have
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to maintain. As these conversations
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continued, we both realized that
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combining our efforts actually made a
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lot of sense and we got serious about
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the idea of partnering together and
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running the channel as a team and not
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just in a collaborative effort, but
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really strategizing and running it
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together. One of the things that made us
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nervous about this decision was the
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response that we would get from you, the
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viewers. After all, the channel doesn't
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exist without your support. And what
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made us more confident about this was
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looking back at my past collaborations
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on this channel, those videos that I've
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posted seem to be received quite well.
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And at this point, one of the top videos
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on the channel is still my 7-hour Django
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course from over 3 years ago now, I
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think. And we've read the comments, we
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see how those are received, and it seems
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like a natural fit. The style that I
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teach in, I try to keep as similar as
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Brad as possible. After all, I did learn
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from him a lot. So, I try to keep that
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same format, and it seems like the right
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fit. So, the decision was made to
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officially partner up and take the
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channel to the next level. And that's
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where we're at now. So, what's changed
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and where do we go from here? Well, for
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starters, Brad is still going to be
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posting videos on the YouTube channel,
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so don't worry about him going away
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anytime soon. What we decided on was to
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hire a few people to help out with the
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daily workload here at Traversy Media.
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So for starters, we added Soloma as a
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developer advocate and community
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manager. And her job will be to follow
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along with courses, see where the common
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issues are, and provide support to the
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community, and also make sure that she's
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watching the Discord server and staying
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engaged there. So, we're going to see a
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lot more involvement in the community.
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With that, we're also going to hire a
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couple of developers and a few interns
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to make sure that production goes a lot
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faster with the project. So, anytime
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Brad makes a video of some sort or if
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I'm making that, it takes a lot of
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effort to build a demo and we're going
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to get some assistance with that. So,
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the production could be much faster,
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course content can be written faster and
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we can speed up the entire production
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process. So, the result of this is going
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to be a massive reduction in workload
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for myself and Brad and of course less
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stress in making videos. Now, on the
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channel, you're going to see a
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collaborative effort between myself and
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Brad. We'll both be posting videos and
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we're even going to collaborate on some
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courses together. So that means that
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future courses will be produced by
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myself and Brad. We'll both work on the
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content, decide on what's good, and then
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modules will be shared between the both
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of us and we'll see what the response is
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like. In a future course, you might see
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Brad teach one module, then I'll jump in
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and teach the next section, and we'll
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just alternate between us. And this way,
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it's going to take a lot of the stress
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off of both of us and hopefully get the
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production done a lot faster. In some
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cases, one of us will go a little bit
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quieter on the channel when we're
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working on a course or maybe making some
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updates. For example, over the last two
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months, Brad has been working on the
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modern React course, which is going to
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launch within the next few days here of
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posting this video. So, me making videos
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here and filling in this gap on YouTube
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has allowed him to dedicate 100% of his
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effort to that specific course. So,
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that'll be linked up in the video
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description, by the way. Make sure to
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check that out. Another big change that
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you're going to see is bringing back the
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guest creator series that was so popular
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in 2020 and 2021. So, for those of you
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that weren't following the channel at
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that point, this is where we had a lot
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of other tech YouTubers and just experts
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in their space join the channel and
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teach on their relative topics. So, we
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want to go ahead and kick things off,
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bring that series back on. And I'm
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hoping to have Aaron Francis come on
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here as the database expert and teach
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about Postgress. And I'm also talking to
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Danny Thompson, hopefully getting a
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video out of him about interviewing in
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the age of AI. So, I want to kick things
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off with those two and then hopefully
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bring on a lot of other creators. So, if
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you have creators you want to recommend
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and topics you want them to talk about,
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make sure to leave that down in the
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comment section. I would love to see
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what your recommendations are. So,
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that's the new direction of the channel.
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More videos, improved courses, a slight
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change in style, but you'll still have
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the same old Brad. Now, I know some of
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you won't like this, but I hope you
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understand this is a change that needed
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to be made in order to first of all keep
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Brad healthy and also keep the channel
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thriving. I know some of you will
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unsubscribe. Totally get it. This is not
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what you maybe originally subscribed
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for, but I hope to keep the channel
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thriving. And with that being said,
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we'll see you all in the next
