How YouTube turned a passion into a career

“Ever since I was a little kid, it was just always amazing to me that you could walk through this door, sit down for a little while, then walk out the same door somewhere completely different. That just has always blown my mind. So, I began a career that involves travel in large part just because I wanted to travel more, and this YouTube thing has blossomed out of that – but I’ve always had a passion for aviation.”

While Jeb used to have another day job, he would rekindle his love of the skies after a chance event at a conference.

“I worked in consulting, and I remember I was at this conference in San Francisco many years ago. A speaker was about to go on, and I was like, I can’t do it. I cannot sit through another speaker,” he says. “So, I walked out, and the conference hotel was at the end of the runway in San Francisco, and the United 747s, trans-Pacific, were departing as I was on this break out of this meeting, and I was like, that’s what I want to do. I want to do that.”

Taking flight on YouTube

Jeb’s first video, flying first class in an Air France A380, was born out of his observation that none of his favourite aviation YouTubers had covered it yet – so he redeemed his frequent flyer miles and shot the video himself.

“I remember uploading it from the hotel room in Portugal, and I was sitting with a friend of mine … I’m like, ‘This is really radical. Who would have thought?’” he says. “So it was that video that really prompted it – but it was because I was watching the content. I had an opportunity to make a video, and then I had so much fun putting it out there and getting it out there for the world to see.”

The JebScore

A key feature of Jeb’s videos is what he labels his “unscientific JebScore” – a ranking out of 25 stars, five possible stars each for the lounge, seat, service, food, and in-flight entertainment on any given flight. Rather than being a definitive answer on what a trip will be like, the scores are formed from his subjective experience to help viewers decide whether the service is for them.

“What I think is really tough for anybody that’s creating content like we do is, it’s kind of unfair to judge an airline by one flight because we often forget when we’re travelling that, you know, we’re on just one in a long line of many flights … It’s really difficult to say that my experience is exactly like the experience you will have if you take this same flight on a different day, or different direction, or whatever.”

Jeb has had feedback from viewers telling him the score has helped them make their own travel decisions.

“A lot of the people who are watching the videos that we put out there are looking at them with the question, of ‘do I want to do this? Do I want to fly this airline? Do I want to upgrade? I’m getting ready for a very special trip, a honeymoon or anniversary or birthday …’. It’s just bias, but I have a good breadth of experiences that allow me to get a sense of how one trip might stack up against another – and so we wanted to provide some kind of a rating system … We think those five things, particularly when it comes to business and first-class flights, are pretty good factors.”

So, where do Australian carriers like Qantas and Virgin rank on the JebScore league tables? According to Jeb, they’re on good footing.

“I think Australian aviation is really quite a nice product. It occupies this space between, like European, and kind of the more full-service carriers,” he says. “For example, we flew Sydney to Adelaide, which is like an hour and change, two hours, and it was like a full service – and everybody on the plane was like, ‘Oh, yes, of course’ … That was a Virgin flight, and what they’re able to do in that period of time was just mind-blowing to me”.

Two keys to YouTube success

What advice does Jeb have for aspiring travel vloggers looking to make their mark? According to him, authenticity and consistency.

“… I think people miss this point – they see success, and so they try to emulate it. In other words, they’re playing a role on YouTube, and the people who I’ve seen do that through the years can’t do it consistently – because if you’re not just yourself on a platform like this, it’s really hard to keep up with it,” he says.

“That brings me to point number two of building a vibrant channel, and that is consistency. We’ve been doing this for years, and I would say for the last two or three years, we’ve been publishing pretty much weekly. That’s a hard schedule to keep up with, but if you’re doing that, your channel will grow, and you will find an audience.”

There are also plenty of niches to slot into within the aviation YouTube space, Jeb adds, from vlogs like his own to footage of entire flights from start to finish to pilots and flight attendants sharing their expertise with the community.

“The great thing about YouTube is, I don’t really think of it as a competitive environment. Like, I think most of us are friends with each other. And, you know, what happens is you find an audience of your own,” he says.

For those thinking of becoming an aviation YouTuber but unsure how (or if) they should take their first step, Jeb says just take the plunge.

“I would encourage people to just make that first video and then lean heavily into those other two components – authenticity and consistency.”

“That’s the best way to get started, and I really hope more people will,” he says. “It has been absolutely transformative [for me], and I just wish for everyone to have the opportunity to pursue something that they have so much passion for and gives them so much energy – and brings, frankly, I hope, some joy to the world.”