I have been getting a lot of negative feedback on our videos lately, for a variety of reasons. People have been commenting about my weight for all 11 years of my YouTube career, so those “genuine concerns” never bother me. That’s mostly because I know who wins in the end, and that the same people bashing me now will be first in line seeking help when they learn what I have been actually working towards all these years. Negative feedback on my own talking while filming food challenge videos has elevated significantly the past few weeks. What triggered me to write this article is all the feedback on a recently published video where I attempted the “Kick the Bucket” Burger Challenge at Burger Buckets in St Augustine, Florida. Watch that short video now if you haven’t already:
If you didn’t watch the video, in summary, I had to beat the previous time record to win the challenge, which was 16 minutes & 53 seconds. There was just a quadruple bacon cheeseburger plus a 1/2lb portion of battered fries. Anyone who has watched half of a video knew I would beat that time limit. There were comments about how it was too easy of a challenge, which could be discussed in a whole ‘nother blog article. The primary reason I attempted the challenge was because so many people in the St Augustine, FL area asked me to come back during the tour (Click here to watch my video from a few years ago). That was the only challenge available on short notice. It was great meeting everyone and I’m happy I tried it, since that was likely my final time in the area while a pro eater.
Most of the negative comments were about how my time would be much quicker if I didn’t talk so much. The funny thing is that all those people got caught as “video skippers” because I stated during the challenge that I was intentionally stalling so I wouldn’t finish too fast and all but ruin the challenge. The challenge was designed for normal people either from around the area, or tourists there on vacation. It took years for the record to get down to 16:53, so what kind of narcissistic a-hole would I be to just go in and cut the time record by half? The intended audience would no longer be interested in trying the challenge. It may have been cool for my ego or something, but would have hurt the restaurant, which is the exact opposite of what I am trying to do as a professional eater. In fact, I wasn’t happy with myself that I finished in 12:57. If I had taken longer though, it would have made the video really awkward.
I consider myself a professional eater and that’s what I label myself as, but I’m not. Winning food challenges alone does not make money or help achieve a significant goal. I’ve won a few thousand dollars from the food challenges themselves these past 11 years. I have saved all kinds of money though by getting almost all my meals free; plus, I’ve built up a pretty sweet t-shirt collection as well!! The only way to be a professional eater is to be a pro competitive eater, where you get paid for winning eating contests themselves against other people, no matter how many people watch (or don’t watch). I used to do some eating contests prior to 2015, but only local ones I could win. I’m not a fan of committing myself to anything I cannot eventually be the best at. I’ve never wanted to be the #1 competitive eater, and if you lined up all active eaters globally right now for a competition, I probably wouldn’t be in the top 20.
My label is “professional eater” because my mom wouldn’t like me calling myself a “male entertainer” (haha). Revenue is generated through my “entertainment” social media channels mainly, and through hosting events at restaurants. Atlas & Zeus Promotions was the name when I first started, because I knew I always wanted to focus on promotions and marketing. Eating restaurant challenges is what I do to entertain people watching, while simultaneously promoting the restaurants and marketing their products. Eating is the “tool” I’m using to build my following and produce revenue that will fund my future goals as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) where I’ll be helping people understand basic nutrition and weight management (health promotion and disease prevention).
That all leads up to the reason for this post, to explain my “priorities” while filming restaurant food challenge videos. Lots of viewers think they are priority #1, when in fact they are last on the list. Back in 2012 when I started my first RandySantel.com website, I listed myself as a professional eater and bodybuilder, because I won the 2010 nationally sponsored body transformation competition. I’ve never thought about entering a real bodybuilding competition, and just used bodybuilder because that was the most relatable term. Similarly, I have never identified myself as a “YouTuber” or “Facebooker.” If I did, I would vlog more and share more stuff personally, just like most “lifestyle vloggers” or even “mukbangers” do. YouTube and Facebook are the channels I post videos of our events on. I’m open to posting elsewhere, but those are most optimized for what I do now (entertain) and want to do in the future (educate).
Randy’s Priorities While Filming Food Challenge Videos
1) The Much Appreciated People Attending Our Events In Person – I most appreciate everyone who commits hours of their time to come watch me film / attempt the food challenges in person, and meet me beforehand or afterwards. Many people support my mission even further by purchasing store merchandise. It’s so awesome that there are people driving multiple hours to come to an event, and we often have people come to multiple consecutive events when I do a few different challenge events in the same area. Big shoutout and thank you to everyone who orders food and/or drinks when they attend events as well to support the restaurants and small businesses my team works with to promote. Hardworking small businesses need all the “love” they can get at this time!!
I quit listening to music via headphones a few years ago because I felt like they were a disconnecting barrier between the audiences and I, keeping people from feeling open to talking, cheering, and interacting with me. If someone at a gym is wearing headphones, he or she probably doesn’t want to be bothered while working out. I don’t ever want to exude that vibe during my challenges. I have watched golf and full baseball games. I’ve painted and drywalled houses. I’ve waited in hour-long lines and I’ve been stuck in traffic for hours too. I’d rather do all those things twice and rack myself on a fence before watching someone eat for one full hour without interaction or anything else that can be considered the least bit engaging. I’d therefore never willingly subject other people to that.
I want the people in attendance to have fun and enjoy themselves. My role isn’t that much different than a live-music singer or band, as far as entertainment goes. I try to respect everyone’s time and I appreciate when people cheer and support me, especially during the times where I am full and really struggling. It’s a big motivator to have people there cheering. Losing in front of a crowd is super embarrassing, so I push myself harder to make sure I succeed!! I comment all throughout my challenges to keep everyone engaged, entertained, and updated on the time and other things going on. Sometimes I add in stories and other relatable thoughts. The funny thing is that when people comment on videos that I talk too much, that’s all just what made the video (lol)!! Arthur cuts a lot of it out.
During larger challenges with longer time limits, there are moments when my body needs time to digest food down, burp up air, and free up room so I can fit more food in. I could chew or pause and stare creepily at everyone to the point where people feel awkward, or I can talk and engage with people to fill that void. I’ve never met anyone that would prefer option #1. I’ve also never seen anyone bash me online saying they came to an event and would never come again due to boredom or other negative reasons. I’m often the first there and last to leave, making sure everyone feels welcomed and leaves knowing I valued them and their time. I especially love when people bring kids who interact and cheer. I’d rather take a minute extra (when possible) to reply to someone engaged, than to save a minute and have the person leave feeling invalidated. I care most that everyone in attendance has a memorable experience!!
2) People watching via Facebook Livestream – New professionally edited videos get posted each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around 3:45 to 4pm CST. Because of that, I don’t Facebook live-stream food challenges that take place on those days. Each Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday though, I livestream whenever I have reliable internet connection. Priority #2 is trying to keep those people watching “live” engaged, for similar reasons as above. We don’t keep a timer on the table for viewers to see because it makes things harder on Arthur my video editor while he is producing the video, always having to make sure the timer lines up with the time clock in our videos. Therefore, I try to let in-person and live viewers know the time and I try to engage people watching on Facebook when I can or know that it’s been a while since giving a time update. Nowadays, It’s easy to guess what comments are likely about, even without seeing them. I try to have fun and address those too, unless they are about someone cheering and talking excessively. That would be rude to the supportive person. If I just shut up and ate, most people would get bored and switch to something else.
3) The Restaurant(s) – Fans, friends, and supporters always come first, and then the restaurants we promote. Quite a bit of my talking during food challenges is to promote the restaurant along with their menu and culture. Every now and then, a beer or spirits brand wants to be involved, so I take a few seconds to promote them too. I try to comment on the foods (or drinks) throughout the experience while aggressively enjoying it all. Many viewers wonder what I think about the item I’m eating, dining vicariously through my experience, and some ask aloud. I try to keep everyone updated so they stay engaged and attentive. If there are special things to note about the food or restaurant establishment, or even the area I’m in, I try to note all that to be included in the video. Without all that, what is the point of me being there in the first place? I could have just prepared it all at home. A main goal of each video is to spark potential customers to want to visit the business I’m promoting. Most of all people at events are in fact first time customers!
4) Everyone Watching the Professionally Edited Videos – From 2010-2013 back in the beginning, I edited videos #6 to ~#130 myself because I couldn’t afford to have anyone helping me. “Magic” Mitch Dombrowski signed on to help edit videos back in 2013 and our friend Arthur Davis joined the team in 2016. Since Mitch started, I’ve maybe edited 2 or 3 videos. I despise editing lol I’d almost rather watch someone eat for an hour without any interaction or engagement. If I had to do all my own editing, I seriously think I’d still be in the construction industry, and would have quit creating food challenge videos back in the early days. I do think it would be fun to do a few voiceovers, which is what many people ask for, but that would be extremely complicated since I don’t do any editing. Beard Meats Food, Katina Eats Kilos, and Nathan Figueroa all do great voiceovers, and they also edit their own videos.
Unless Katina is there, I do all my own filming on set, the day of the challenge. I video all the b-footage and keep my camcorder set up on a tripod. I get all the photos needed too for the video and my social media posts, with help from restaurant staff or friends in attendance. Afterwards, I download everything into a folder and then it all gets sent to Arthur to be edited and posted once it comes up in our chronological order. I never touch the files again, other than to back them up later on. With that all said, keeping in mind my initial priorities during the event, Arthur just takes what I give him and does the best he can to produce an entertaining video for you all to watch, positively promoting the restaurant. He cuts out the “fluff” (trims the fat) and keeps in all the important stuff. Note: I only say Arthur now because Mitch retired and finished up with us at the end of last month (May). Mitch always did a great job too!!
5) People Watching the Facebook Livestream After It’s Finished – After finishing up a live-streamed food challenge, I publish the video just for anyone who does want to check it out afterwards. Mostly, I do it to further promote the restaurant and challenge to people who didn’t see notifications while I was live. I don’t expect people to watch it all, and just hope some click through to watch the parts they want (a few minutes at most). From what I can tell, Facebook doesn’t do a great job of labeling live-streamed videos, which are unedited and boring to watch since no longer live in real time. I get lots of negativity about talking on the live-streamed videos from people watching after-the-fact, but I think they watch with the same expectations as while watching our edited videos. With those expectations, they’ll of course be disappointed. At least they’ve become aware of the restaurant and challenge though!!
6) The Audience of Other Video Creators I’m Collaborating With – This blog post got a bit longer than intended, so BIG thanks to anyone still reading!! Our videos can be different than other food challenge videos, since most other “professional eaters” don’t host bigger events. When Katina Eats Kilos and I first collaborated in Alaska together last year, I received lots of negative feedback in her comment section for being too loud and overbearing. That was her first time filming as part of an event with lots of people watching. Normally, she films her videos alone at home or in a quiet corner at a restaurant. She just talks to her camera. During the events, I was talking loud enough for all the social distanced people in attendance to hear me, which was being filmed. That is much different and expectedly could be off-putting to someone unaware of my priorities while filming videos. We’ve since taken care of that issue.
I take lots of heat in the comments sections when I collaborate with Raina Huang, Joel Hansen, and other video creating eaters too (excluding Nathan Figueroa). I admittingly don’t really comment on their videos with me anymore since more than 50% of comments with my name in them tend to be negative. Everybody I collab with has my “okay” to use as much of my intro & other talking as they want in their own video. Some people sometimes use the whole thing! They are welcome to post their video when they want as well, usually well before mine falls in line to publish. With that said, everything I do and film is for my own video on my channels. I don’t do anything different when I know I’ll be featured in other videos. If you prefer videos by creators who focus on speed, without much talking, and then watch a collaboration with me who talks a lot more, nothing else can be expected other than for you to be upset.
People in categories 5 or 6 expecting to be #1 aren’t likely to enjoy the videos. Similarly, many people in slot #4 might not be happy about all the talking I do during videos. A lot of the talking wasn’t spoken with them in mind. Arthur does his best to cut the boring, unnecessary stuff out and keep all the good stuff in. In 2022, I’ll be over 120lbs lighter and I’ll be able to eat more food faster than I can now at my elevated weight. There will be less talking because challenges will take less time to finish. My goal has always been to make my transition to nutrition and weight management while towards the top of my professional eating career – not the bottom.
My hope is that my final 50-100 food challenges will be performed while wearing the cut-off “These Aren’t Guns, They’re Cannons!!” shirts I wore during my first 200 challenge victories. We will see how everything goes. Hopefully this blog post has helped clear up a few things for some people. I appreciate all support, and understand when people are upset about some things. I do what I can to make as many people happy as possible, but I cannot make everyone happy, so I keep the above priorities in mind throughout each video. There are many more upcoming and please feel free to comment your thoughts on any of my videos or social media posts.
To go back and check out other Randy’s Blog posts, please click here!!