We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Max Hockley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Max, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Like the famous quote from Comedian Steve Martin, it took me 10 years to become an overnight success. I started making YouTube videos in 2011 and I didn’t make any money until about 2014. In 2014-2018 I made an average of $100 per month, not at all worth the time I was investing. That said, I wasn’t in it for the money. In 2019 I decided that I wanted to quit my job and pursue life as an independent businessman and content creator. I knew that if I really wanted to monetize my YouTube channel I needed to treat it like a job. Up until that point I had just made videos whenever I felt like it. In early 2019 I decided to start making a video every single week. I have continued that with the exception of taking one summer off, through today. In 2019 i covered my rent with YouTube. In 2020, I covered my rent, utilities and groceries, in 2021 I covered all of my expenses, and in 2022 for the first time I made enough to cover all of my expenses and even save money each month. This year I’m on track to double what I did in 2022.

I could have sped up the process had I started making videos consistently from the start. Even if it was just 1 per month instead of 1 per week.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into this business when one of my college roommates taught me about the business of buying and selling scrap gold and silver. Instead of getting a “normal” summer job like my friends, I spent my weekends going to garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets buying up scrap gold and silver jewelry and other items to resell. From there I started buying coins and then started making videos about my experiences. Thus the Silverpicker YouTube channel was born!

The thing I’m most proud of is the community I’ve created. Hundreds of thousands of people watch my videos, I get hundreds of emails each month, and dozens of physical fan mail. I love interacting with my fans. I even have a special Discord group that my Patreon patrons get access to. It’s basically a couple hundred people who all get together to talk about coins, precious metals, and just goof around and have a good time.

I’m also proud of making quality videos that promote healthy involvement in the hobby of coin collecting and precious metals investing. There’s a lot of bad info out there and I’m glad that I’m combatting it.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

As a collector and a techie, I love the idea of NFTs and I actually own several myself. That said, I think the NFT ecosystem isn’t quite “there” yet. First of all, there was way too much hype at the beginning which created an obvious bubble and attracted a lot of bad actors. It was doomed to come crashing down. I think that once the dust has settled, the best use-cases for NFTs will be really successful. I think digital one-of-a-kind souvenirs, collectibles, and video-game items will be very popular down the road.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Most people only look at the end results and don’t have an appreciation for the hard work that goes into creating it. They see success and they assume it came easily. I don’t know why that is, but that’s been my experience. They don’t realize how many thousands of hours I’ve put into building Silverpicker. How many things I’ve tried and failed at before finding something that sticks. Even more-so, for every viral video I create even now, I probably make 5 or 6 that are total duds. It’s incredibly hard work to consistently churn out a high quality video on an engaging topic every week for 4 years straight. On top of answering emails, making instagram and TikTok posts, working out brand deals, and much more. Sometimes one of my 10 minute videos can take 10 hours to produce and I wish people could appreciate that a bit more.

Contact Info:

• Website: thesilverpicker.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesilverpicker
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesilverpicker/
• Youtube: youtube.com/silverpicker
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@silverpicker