#860: Daredevil Michelle Khare — How to Become a YouTube Superstar, Open Impossible Doors (FBI, Secret Service, etc.), Craft Jedi-Level Cold Emails, and Use Fear-Setting to Change Your Life

“At this point in 2026, 2025, we release eight to 10 episodes per year. That's my upload cadence. And so every opportunity is a big bet, but what I have found is that when I did that, something even more special happened. It created something unique. And I have found that defining something unique can be even more valuable than consistency or mass viewership. We ironically have on the channel a scarcity mindset for advertisers, that if you want to be in an episode of Challenge Accepted, there are 10. The train's going. Are you getting on or are you getting off? Because we only have so much inventory to sell.”

“Part of our defensive strategy was how do we do something that is so crazy? No one would be crazy enough, I don't think, to run seven marathons on all seven continents in one week and make a documentary about it and go through all of the production headache of that. Or call the FAA 300 times to get permission to hang off the side of a military plane to recreate the Mission Impossible stunt. It's almost like the things that feel so untouchable instantly become opportunities for story, because it's a great story to try and overcome that. And also, the second mover scenario will at least take them so long to catch up to us to get there.”

“My default recommendation is, do not start a company right after school. Go get an MBA or a master's degree in X where you get to do every job where someone else is paying you for it. So that you are learning, learn, make all your dumb mistakes or make your first massive round of dumb mistakes on someone else's dime. And if you immediately start your own company, you're also not necessarily going to get the breadth of experience in a more mature—by mature, that could be 10 or 20 or 30 employees. It doesn't have to be a gigantic company. But get that experience first and then increase the odds of your own success.”

“My dream is to leave my job, start a YouTube channel, somehow succeed, own my ideas, and start a company where I can grow as a storyteller and help other storytellers grow without traditional barriers to entry. Define my nightmare was going broke, never figuring out what I'm best at since I find the most joy in trying everything rather than specializing... I've continually found success in other people's rubric of success. But I've actually never found happiness. I've never designed my own rubric of success. And that's because I don't trust myself to define success. I'm scared to assume that responsibility.”

“I decided, I'm going to train myself for the worst possible outcome. So I moved into a studio apartment with a roommate. I financially stripped down, I mean, I didn't have much anyways, but stripped as much as I could to simulate, if I'm truly failing at this and having to live in a Hollywood apartment with a bunch of roommates, I'm just going to get used to that. I'm going to get used to it right now. I'm going to cancel all of my memberships and figure out how to stay healthy, with just myself, just myself in this small place. I am also going to commit to working on my own stories after work, on the weekends, because if I can't do it now with stability, I need to prove to myself that I actually give a shit about this.”

“And with that 20-20 hindsight, I think it comes down to having three people on your Formula One team. And it doesn't need to be fancy. It's really a coach, a mentor and a cheerleader. In a specific episode of Challenge Accepted, the coach is the most important person that I want to find before we pursue an episode... The second person is a mentor who is different from the coach. This is a person who has most recently done the thing you're trying to do... And then the third person is a cheerleader, which is someone who is completely detached from the outcome. Someone who is going to root for you and love you no matter whether you succeed or fail.”

“The body of the email is three paragraphs. Very short paragraphs. In fact, three blocks of two sentences each. I wouldn't even call it a paragraph. The first paragraph is one sentence about who you are and your legitimacy has to be encompassed in one sentence... Second sentence of that first paragraph. What are you asking for or offering to the other person? Paragraph 2 is two sentences or less of what you want to do... It's an opportunity to flatter them and to put them at ease. We speak the same language. Paragraph three is the call to action. Two sentences or less. We'd love to hop on the phone, let me know a good time. Here's my phone number, text me anytime.”

“I am shocked by how many emails I get that are actually somewhat interesting, that get surfaced by my team, because I have people who triage my email, that do not have a phone number. And I'm like, I don't have time to have a bunch of back and forth to figure out a time to talk, even though you didn't even offer a time to talk. Archive. I just don't have time for it. This seems interesting, but it's not definitively interesting. If you gave a cell phone, I would figure out a way to maybe call you, and in five minutes, I'd be like, I have three quick questions. Interesting, but this is it, five minutes.”