Does RVB have no interest in a more active social media presence outside of IG? The more YouTube content the better.

IMO, the YouTube content boosts my interest in professional triathlon tenfold... Thanks for being an integral part of this push, dude. Good job.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Who is RVB?

Rudy Von Berg

I am not sure. The hardest thing is finding a media guy/girl who is willing to invest sweat equity into creating content for you basically at a loss or break even until you can grow your channel or brand big enough where sponsors will pay the athletes more to afford a content creator. This is a big risk on the creators side. Athletes get paid so little. It's hard to come up with any money to afford one.

Once sponsors finally invest some money into the channel for the content creator than your fans/viewers complain that the episode was nothing but an ad. HAHA! So its just a hard business to get into. Thats why you see so many athletes come out singing and very few channels last.

I am going to give this a shot. I must be a snob because I have a hard time getting past things like, "Yo Yo Yo" or "Hello Trainiacs". Sam is super strong though and I appreciate his determination in becoming the best. Plus, he is proud to represent the USA. I'm all about supporting the USA athletes and friendly Country competition.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I think athletes over think "creating content." It's not that difficult to film some of your life, what IS difficult is editing it and making it remotely appealing. Editing takes hours, and it becomes a lot more difficult to rationalize doing that if there is no ROI.

That being said, some of the best YT channels (triathlon and otherwise, mostly otherwise) are just very simple filming and editing.

I never thought of it that way but it makes perfect sense. I heard an interview with Eric Langerstrom recently where he joked he makes "one thousandth of a penny" for every ad that plays in the youtube videos on his channel. With the amount of time that has to be invested in editing those videos, I can see where it would become more passion project than business strategy unless sponsors caught on. Credit to Sam for making the videos (or having them made, seems like a mix of both), I really enjoy all of the pros video channels.

The trash talk doesn’t bother me but I just can’t listen to this guy talk. I gave up after a couple minutes. In fact, he’s actually quite poor at trash talk which actually makes it more painful to listen to. Sorry, I just find the content and delivery very annoying.

To be honest he needs to start saying he's from Newport beach, his personality is straight surfer dude.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Talbot, great job on this. I find Sam incredibly entertaining. I was out there racing the Full on Saturday and my family, who was spectating, thought a girl had blown the field away because Sam was wearing pink. LOL. We then watched his race report as a family on YouTube and it was very fun. One because the race was such a surreal sufferfest but also because Sam is very entertaining and personable. Finally, we all thought your video skills are next level. Great job. I look forward to more videos from this kid.

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

Never do professional work for free, Tal-Bot!

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I am where I am today because I started doing things for free. :)

Now I don’t. I’m a lot better and more skilled. :)

Same here, couldn't make it past 60 seconds randomly scanning through the video. Good pro athlete, but agreed, he needs to learn how to trash talk.

Let's stick to keeping the guys who swim bike and run celebrities, and keeping the guys who hold the cameras anonymous.

haha you do understand without their sweat equity there is not such thing as a video or youtube correct?

Sam's videos, including this one, are done by Kenny Withrow.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

I did not know that. I thought Sam had invited Talbot to come out so I assumed that he had done the video. I believe Talbot did the PTO video and that seemed to be similar footage. In any case awesome job on the video.

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

Gonna need a lot of legal paperwork to make it worth it, you know like owning that pro's masters or something.

But seriously, I'm not in the youtube content creation game anymore (it was a hobby, but the time!). But I do work for a professional sporting organization and yes, internships (sweat equity) are ok, if you're pulling people from college.

But I think it's poor form for a professional athlete, especially in triathlon, to have their currency of trade be exposure. I got advice a few years ago from someone else which I've stuck to: never work for free for an organization that claims to be professional. Everything has value.

And your sweat equity all went on your channel, content you own.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Sam "Big Unit" Long is a sparkling diamond in the rough. Love his wins at Chattanooga last year, and I love all his YouTube videos. And for 23 (24?) years of age his trajectory is straight up!

I signed a petition to get him on the Wildcard to Daytona. Love to see him and Lionel side by side with 1k to go.

https://www.change.org/...t-25263227-en-us%3A4

Agree - I hope Sam makes it to Daytona. I signed the petition.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

I love Sam's YouTube videos just like I love Lionel's videos. The more the merrier. I'm grateful I can watch these guys and the content exists. It's way better than watching the 127,114 LBJ or Patrick Mahomes hype videos.

... fighting it out for like 6th place.

Had to listen to him at Victoria 70,3. Seems like there is a problem in the 21st.

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http://www.researchms.org/trifest/

There is no way he wouldnt get a wildcard. PTO is not stupid, bringing in Long vs Sanders would be one of the highlights of the event. So i am not worried.

This event is gonna be epic!