Cerro Gordo's YouTube Pivot

A story about how Brent Underwood's failed luxury resort project unexpectedly transformed into a hugely successful YouTube channel.

Ryan Holiday recounts: "When Brent first told me about it, I thought it was a horrible idea. I came in at a very small level because I didn't think it was a good idea. Brent's initial plan was to buy this place, build a hotel on the site, and make it some luxury resort thing. They failed to do that for like 2-3 years. He had no intention of living up there and it was losing money hand over fist.

Then during the pandemic, he started making videos. He had experience from working on Daily Stoic's YouTube channel - we probably had 100,000 subscribers when he went to Cerro Gordo. He had taken our camera home to upload some stuff, and when he went to Cerro Gordo, he just took that same camera. Cerro Gordo was started with equipment he got for Daily Stoic and skills he developed there.

It ultimately blew up into this thing that I definitely wouldn't have predicted. People often underestimate how long you have to spend developing a baseline of skills before the man meets the moment."