229. Meet 12-Year Old Entrepreneur Luke Aberle

Susan Sly 00:02
Well, Hey, everyone, what's up? I have to tell you that I have been so excited about this interview because my guest today is a 12 year old entrepreneur from my home country of Canada. Canada still remains in the top five of our show listeners. So shout out to everyone in Canada. And check this out. He is passionate about helping people learn about cool products, and not just the cool products that you might think because there are other influencers in the space that are reviewing toys and things like that. We're gonna hear about that in a minute. But he is also extremely focused on getting the word out about entrepreneurship. And one of the things that inspires me about this young man is we have many, many friends in common. Mitzi Perdue was on his show, global bestseller, one of my dear friends, Mark Victor Hansen was on his show. And he is just crushing it at 12. So today on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, it is my privilege to introduce you all to Luke Aberle. So Luke, thanks for being here.

Luke Aberle 01:09
Thank you so much for having me on. I am so excited for today. Well, Luke,

Susan Sly 01:13
okay. I know you have like school, you've got school, you've got life, you've got family, you've got so many things going on. And you started Luke's View. And so you have a YouTube channel where you're doing reviews, you have your website, tell everyone what is Luke's View, and why did you start it?

Luke Aberle 01:32
That's a really good question. So really, it goes a long way back. When I was about one year old, we would go, me and my family would go camping all the time. And we go into the back country now actually, kind of where we live now, which is a blessing. And it's, I've loved camping forever. It's, it's just you disconnect from everything, nature's there and really, it's just really, really cool. And then at the age of four, I actually got my first point shoot camera, and I got it while I was camping. My dad actually gave it to me. And I take pictures of everything. I take pictures of animals and birds and even my family just doing camping stuff. And just, I really loved cameras and camping. They went really well together because I love taking photos whilst camping. And that's around the age of eight, I became obsessed with technology. Probably because I heard from everyone you know, if someone had a problem with a piece of tech, they'll be like, wow, you know a lot about that. And I'm like, I guess I kind of do, actually. And I was really passionate about that. I'm like, man, I really love that stuff. And so I'm like, I went on YouTube, and I loved watching tech reviewers and product reviewers reviewing different products. But I never really saw kids reviewing that kind of stuff. You'd always see them reviewing toys, and the traditional things. But now I started my own company called Luke's View. And now I review tech products, camping gear, photography equipment, to help adults and kids find the perfect product for their needs. So if you're going camping, I can help you find the perfect tent. If you're looking to take pictures and you want a first camera, I can help you find the first camera. And I really go through all of that. And I just want to help inspire other kids to start their businesses as well. And really help parents and adults find the perfect product. Luke,

Susan Sly 03:14
I love that. And I was super techie at your age too but that was like long, that was back in the 80s. So there were, there was no YouTube, there was no reviews, we were just kind of like diving in. I interview a lot of entrepreneurs, then we've had like, you know, Jesse Itzler's been on the show, Steve Sims, like all these amazing people. And we hear time and again, Luke about someone who had a passion and turn it into a business. But yet there are a lot of people out there, the vast majority of people out there, they have a passion, but they lack the courage to turn it into a business. What would you say to someone who's inspired right now, in terms of how do they find their courage to take a passion and actually start a business?

Luke Aberle 04:00
I would say the sense by two words that I always say to everyone, just start. And it's because you don't know what's gonna happen, you don't know what the outcome's gonna be, you don't know anything. Because unless you just start, you don't know. And I can guarantee you, it's probably going to be something, you're gonna probably get something out of that. Whether you learn how to make a website, whether you learn how to start a YouTube channel, whether you made money from it and start it into a business, you're going to learn something from it, and that's going to carry on for the rest of your life. And I say just start because that is the only thing and the best thing you can do to really take your passion to there. And you don't even have to spend a lot of time in it. You know, if you're working a nine to five job or you go to school, just put however much time you know, I hear a lot of people say well, I don't have enough time. Make time you know, you probably spend quite a few hours on your phone a day looking at Facebook and Instagram, checking out different things. Take a chunk of that, that time, go over,and put into a business that will make you happy and do it for the rest of your life.

Susan Sly 05:05
Wow, just start. And were you, were you ever nervous about getting things wrong? Because a lot of times people worry about criticism, right? And, and I know being a mom of five kids, I know my kids have faced criticism, I get criticism, I'll put a new YouTube video out and somewhat like, lots of people love it, then there's that one person, right? Were you ever afraid of people criticizing, especially your early, your early content you put out? To be

Luke Aberle 05:34
honest, like no one likes hearing a thing that this video wasn't nice, or they hated it. But for me personally, it never really bothered me too much. There was something that kind of, my dad was really good about it. Because when I first started my business he already had his business and he came up to me and he's like, you know, this is what's gonna happen, you're gonna get some haters out there, you're not, you know, you're going to get some criticism that you're not going to like, and that's just the truth. So if you want to start a business, you're gonna have to learn how to overcome that. And for me, that was really powerful. And now, you know, for me, if I see a comment, I just laugh at it now. I find it funny. I'm like, yeah, you know, I do have a space between my teeth, or my hair looks funnier, whatever it is, but you got to just brush it off. And some, for some people, it can be hard. But you know, it's just once you can overcome that, that's when you'll be living your true self and really being passionate about what you love. Because you don't care what any criticism you get.

Susan Sly 06:31
Yeah, it's huge. It's so true, though. Like, there are times when someone will write something. And, you know, my first like, I call them WKMs, Luke. Wall Kicking Moments. It's like that wall kicking moment. I always remember my critics don't pay my bills, right? And people remember the people who do great things in history, they rarely remember the name of critics. And there was one guy on my channel, he wrote something that had a ton of profanity, and I'm like, I started to type a response and it was like, whatever women hurt you, I feel so bad for you that you're carrying so much pain that you would have to say all that stuff. Do you ever respond to the critics?

Luke Aberle 07:15
To be honest, sometimes I do. And sometimes I'll be like, and sometimes they'll just come up with something that I think is funny, or whatever. And then the critics come back, and they're, and they're still mad about it. Because the thing is, is that the critics, they, all they're doing is, they're probably having a bad day, or whatever it is. And they probably don't mean it at their fullest deep down. It's just they, someone probably did to them and so they probably did it, because they just want to get their anger out. And so for me, you know, I don't really, most of the time I don't really bother responding back. But if it's something that's really funny, sometimes I might just say, lol or something like that back to them. Just because, you know, why not? You know, and then they might be like, Well, actually, maybe that was a little rude. But he didn't take it personally. So you know, just.

Susan Sly 08:00
Yeah. And you have to, right? And, and sometimes the people responding, they're using fake accounts and things like that. And, and you, and you shouldn't, what I'm hearing is you shouldn't allow the fear of someone else's criticism to prevent you from just taking that first step and putting yourself out there. Let's talk about your production schedule. So, um, one of the things that I know our listeners always want to hear is, how do you produce your content? Start with, you know, where do you get the ideas? And then and then, you know, how do you do it? And what tools do you use? I'm so curious that you review tech.

Luke Aberle 08:38
I do. So I mean, like, as you can see my little box, a wall behind me, there's another one over on the other side of this window over here. And it's just, it's all the products that me and my family, my household view, and it's products that I've enjoyed. There's some products that over in a box in the basement, they are products I didn't enjoy, and so they're not up here on the wall. But, you know, for me, it's, I really love just creating content that really I love, not what someone else's loves. And so for me, like, for me coming up with idea, sometimes it was coming to me in a weird moment. Maybe I'll just be working on my desk, or I'll be going to sleep. I have a little app on my phone, where I keep all my ideas for video ideas from like, what video do I need for this week, then I can put that out. Most of the time I already have lots of videos back film, whether that's interviews, or reviews, or whatever it is, there's normally lots of different things. But for me, I just do that. And then I go to my computer, I start editing, I use an app called Final Cut Pro for Mac. It's a editing software. And I've been editing for three, four years now. And you know, that's what I do. And then I go over. And I find good hashtags for all my content, making sure that they're related to keywords specially for posting photos on Instagram or Tiktok or whatever that is. Finding keywords for YouTube, and then I go over, post it, share it to my, on my platforms, and then redo that cycle over again.

Susan Sly 09:59
Wow. And so for each video, just to give everyone perspective, how much time is it including shooting, editing, and promoting?

Luke Aberle 10:12
It can really vary. Like one video I did, you know, it took a little longer, it was about six hours of doing it. Sometimes some videos, sometimes an interview where it was just a clean interview, and there's no cuts, sometimes it only takes me like an hour to get it all, put some effects in and export it out and publish it to YouTube and all total time. And so it really depends for me, it can really change. Lots of the time unboxings take the longest to do because you got to, cuz I just did an unboxing the other day, 17 minutes long. And I don't think anyone wants to watch a video that's 17 minutes long. So I cut it down to eight minutes. And that's just you know, watching it through like five times being like, okay, I can cut out this little 45 second piece here, because that isn't really important, or just speeding up little clips to make it speed up and all that stuff. And so, you know, I think you have to have a really, making, make sure that your workflow's efficient as well, because you know, if you're, if it's not efficient, I have different commands on my keyboards. So instead of dragging my mouse over to click the cut button, I just do command B and my, the cut button comes up. And it's like, saves point five seconds, but it's after a while it starts to speed it up. And so just having different workflows and things that you can go to make that really help.

Susan Sly 11:27
I love that you said workflows. Like that's my love language, right there, Luke. Anything that's gonna make you more productive, more organized. It's huge. So how did you learn how to edit?

Luke Aberle 11:37
To be honest, it was mostly self taught. I saw a few youtubers on YouTube that kind of inspired me. But I just kind of picked up my first video editing software, I started with this software called Movavi. My dad first got for me when I first started my business. It did everything you need, you could cut and you could add green screen effects to it. And it was really good. I used that for about a year. And then I went on to Premiere Pro from Adobe, which was really awesome. That's what kind of started my pro editing software. And then, but the problem is I didn't really like my software crashing when I needed it. So I went over to Final Cut Pro because I'm a Mac guy, and you know, and just kind of went over. And I, there's so many different video editing software's out there, it doesn't matter as long as it does what you need it to. For example, like iMovie, it's on iPhone, it's on your phone, for example, I can edit the video on my phone, for example. And you know, it works great. It does everything you need to. It has some music effects in there already, does cutting it, you can add little things to it. It works great, but you know, whatever works for you, as long as it works and you know how to use it. Use that.

Susan Sly 12:46
That's huge. That's gold right now. Everyone, okay, self taught. Try out different things until you find out what works for you. One of my favorite sayings, Luke is version one is better than version none. Right? Don't procrastinate. Just get in there and do it. If anyone listening, watching, hasn't seen my interview with Jeffrey from JR Garage, we have a conversation about that. So JR Garage I think has like over 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube. And those guys started their channel when they were just a bit older than Luke. And they were doing all of the edits and everything themselves. And now obviously, it's a highly monetized channel. They have an editing crew and stuff like that. But we all have to start somewhere. So Luke, let me ask you this, what does your day look like? Because you've got school, you've got production, you're running a business, like what does your day look like?

Luke Aberle 13:39
So I am now homeschooled from home, which makes it a little easier for me to do that. So I mean, really, whenever I wake up in the morning, the first thing I used to do, and now not do, is look at my phone, because I'm already gonna be looking at my computer, my phone, for the whole day. So you might as well just take 30 minutes and not look for it when you wake up in the morning. Have a tea, look outside, do whatever, you know, unless I'm getting a phone call, it's super important, whatever I'm going to answer it. But other than that, you know, I don't really like to look at my phone or you know, right wait 30 minutes. And then I normally go sometimes if it's, if I'm not feeling it, sometimes I won't have breakfast. I'll just have you know, a little vitamin shake that I have. It has like five grams of sugar in it, has probiotics and I like it but, and then I'll just have a bigger lunch. But you know, for me, I really just whatever the day has, for me, I'll have tasks, I have a little mini notebook that I carry with me most of the time. And I put in the top four tasks or more that I need to get done that day. Not little tasks, like watering the plants or whatever. Tasks like you know, you need to get this video done something like that. And I think that's really important. That's what I do. And so you know, sometimes I'll have calls with some of my clients that I go on for and they're going to be like, Hey, we need this by Friday and I'll be like, Okay, how about I do some of it today and then I'll do some of it on like Thursday or whatever. Then just kind of spacing it out, you know, plan out your day, you know, some people will schedule every five minutes of their day to be precise. But for me, I find that cannot be always efficient. Because sometimes, you know, a different project comes up that you need to get done that day, and you schedule already every five minutes of your day, you know, that might not work out the best. That's, that doesn't work for me. For other people, it might work better. But I think that's really important. I really just, you know, I'm normally just editing and doing calls and, you know, hopefully, just hustling to hopefully inspire and grow.

Susan Sly 15:36
I love it. And it's, it's so interesting, you say that Luke about the first 30 minutes, because I'm the exact same way and all of the fans, followers, they know. Like the first, I, when I wake up, it's like, you know, black coffee, prayer and meditation. Then I come in my office, I look at my schedule, and if there's something that isn't in alignment with what I say I want, I cancel it, I get rid of it. I just you know, and before I go. And I used to be that person who scheduled every five minutes. And then what I realized is there was no space for great opportunities to come into flow, right? And I know you had Mitzi Perdue on your show, and Mitzi is an amazing friend of mine. And so, you know, when Mitzi and I want to talk about, you know, how we're going to liberate kids from child trafficking, or we're going to do this, you know, big coding thing, or whatever, I want to make sure I have space in my day that I can say yes to great things, right? So what do you do for fun, when you're not hustling and doing schoolwork or building business?

Luke Aberle 16:39
Normally, like, for me, when I take my time off, I really try to not do very much work on the weekends. So I can be the most productive during the week. Because if I worked really hard during the week, then I know I can relax during the weekend and hang out with my family and all that stuff. And so, you know, I love, I love going for bike rides, I like going on hikes with my family. I have a little radio controlled car that I saved up for the money earned from my business that I like to play around with. And you know, really just, you know, sometimes I love, I'm a big photographer. So even though that's kind of in my business, I still take photos and all that stuff, because it's something that I really enjoy doing. And you know, it's just really incredible. And I think it's very important to have some sort of hobby, or something that isn't your business, because that's how you burn out faster. So make sure you have time off. Even if you're super busy, make sure to have even like a day off on the weekend, like Sunday off or whatever. We can hang out with people like, that you really like you know, friends, family, all that stuff. And I think it's really important to have something that isn't work.

Susan Sly 17:42
That is, I hope everyone's listening to this and taking note of that. Luke, you've mentioned your family a lot. And clearly, they're super supportive. What would you want to say to someone who maybe doesn't have a supportive family?

Luke Aberle 17:55
Find supportive friends. My dad always says, you know, surround yourself with people that you want to be like, I think that's very important. Because you know, if you're surrounding yourself with people who aren't the best, maybe, you know, you've known them since third grade, and you're now 35, but they're just not being very supportive of you, might be time to get rid of them. And it's really sad and harsh. But, you know, they're, if they're not supporting you, they're not doing you any good. And you really just got to make sure you're surrounding yourself with people you want to be like. I have friends who you know, that are better than me in filmmaking and editing, and I can go to them, and we can inspire each other, and I'm better at things than them. And you really have to have a supportive group that you can go to, so you can connect and give value to each other. Have a little circle, you know, lots of people I've interviewed are now in this tight circle of one. And you know, I think that's a very important thing you have to do. Just have people that you can rely on, that you can talk to, that you can collaborate with. And I think that's very important.

Susan Sly 18:57
I love that, Luke, that is such great wisdom. And it's, it's so true. I mean, the people who might be with us to one level of our career, not necessarily the people who are going to be with us at that next level. Let me ask you this, what's been the hardest thing for you so far in building your business?

Luke Aberle 19:16
That's a tough one. I would say the toughest thing is sometimes, you know, when you're trying to review products for other companies or collaborate with other people, they might not look at you as the same as an adult because you're a kid. And that can be a little challenging sometimes, but that also kind of gives you I mean, it kind of makes sense sometimes too but, you know, I really think it's really important that you learn those life lessons because there might be bumps down the road or things that really aren't the best that are going on. And those can teach you life long lessons, you know. Sometimes it just, it's difficult to you know, social media for example, you may be not the right age for it, so you got to put your birthday is like 1894 or something like that. But, but you know, it's really, it's just, you know, and it's true, though, you know, but for me, I haven't had a ton. You know, my business has really taught me a lot, but I haven't had things that have really put me to the ground yet. But yeah.

Susan Sly 20:19
Well it also sounds like you have such an amazing support system too, right? And that you're, going back to that, you're going to have those wall kicking moments, right? And having those people around you who, who will say, Okay, yeah, okay, that happened, but you know, let it go or let's focus somewhere else, right? Like, I think, I think you're gonna be just fine. So let's have a little fun, right? So we're, I don't do this with everyone, but we're from the same country. So we're gonna do rapid fire Canada questions. I haven't prepared anything, are you ready? Yes. Okay, here we go. Favorite Canadian rock band, go. Oh, man, I don't know any Canadian rock bands. What? I don't know.

Luke Aberle 21:01
I just, I'm not very good with naming musicians. I just like the song and then I don't know. Okay, well,

Susan Sly 21:08
we'll just pretend you said the Tragically Hip. Oh Okay, okay. Well, yeah, that's a pretty good band. I like that, then. Yeah, that's a good answer. Because they used to be by clients. So we'll we'll keep that one. Okay. Favorite Canadian Food?

Luke Aberle 21:21
Poutine's always good. And what do you like to have on your poutine? Yeah, those are my favorites.

Susan Sly 21:29
Pineapple pizza, did you say? Yeah. Yeah, that's-- I think that's Canadian. It's totally Canadian. Yeah, I've not seen that anywhere else. I mean, poutine is another thing. If you don't know what routine is, because we're in so many countries, it's like French fries with gravy and cheese curds. It sounds disgusting. But it is delicious.

Luke Aberle 21:49
It's messy. But just like the best thing ever. Yes. The best. I already smell it.

Susan Sly 21:55
Yeah, I know. Now I want to eat poutine, Luke. I know. Because we're all over the world, people listening to this, what something you think people might think about Canada, but it's a misperception? That we,

Luke Aberle 22:13
think that were, well, I was actually gonna say something but it actually is true. Maybe that we drink maple syrup instead of water. You know, we do drink maple syrup very heavily. But we do have some water from, we go up to the mountains every morning and we grab some water. But yeah, you know

Susan Sly 22:36
that we say eh after everything. Yeah,

Luke Aberle 22:38
I mean, I was gonna say, I was gonna say that we don't do that. But then it's like, when you're talking to an American friend you're like, man, do I say eh lot?

Susan Sly 22:46
Yeah. And they'll say something like, Oh, I hear your accent. You're like, what accent are you talking about? And we say about differently too, right? There are these different words, right, that are you know, totally you know, very Canadian, very local. Favorite Canadian city and why?

Luke Aberle 23:06
Man, I love Calgary. It's, it's where I live. But you know, it's a very, I'd love to go to Toronto someday. And that's another place I'd love to go too. But for me right now, one of my favorite Canadian cities is Calgary.

Susan Sly 23:21
Calgary is a beautiful city. My cousin just lays in the symphony there.

Luke Aberle 23:26
That's really cool. It's just there's so much architecture and people are always so nice there. And it's just, it's just really, really awesome.

Susan Sly 23:34
And it's good when you get a chinook because other than that, it's minus 40 Celsius in the winter time.

Luke Aberle 23:42
Cool. That's like the only thing I wish, like, does it have to be minus 40? Like, do we have to be like, we're armed to just like this the whole time as we're like bundled in different jackets.

Susan Sly 23:54
Yeah, and that's not in the summertime. Because I know some of you are thinking that Canada's freezing all year round. It's not true. But

Luke Aberle 24:00
it's, sometimes it does snow in Calgary in September, so well, I will just disclaim that. It was like snowing, like I don't know, like 100 kilometers away from me. Just like, some like literally not even that far. Just somewhere like yeah, days ago.

Susan Sly 24:14
This is not for the Canadian Tourist Board to repost as part of the interview. Final question to you. And I want to encourage everyone to go to loose website Lukesview.com, and Luke, you know, someday maybe we'll do an entrepreneurial conference in Toronto, my hometown, which is beautiful. I love Toronto. So that would be a lot of fun, and that will get you Toronto. So the final question I have for you, for that person listening, whether they're 11 years old or whether they're 91 years old, we have a huge diversity of ages of people listening. What is on your heart to say to that person who's thinking about starting a business but hasn't taken action yet?

Luke Aberle 24:59
Like I said, just start, but also, you know, but I always say that all the time because it's just so powerful. But also, you know, have like, like I've said here, have a good support group. That's going to, that's also going to say, you know, that might not be the best idea, not in a hateful way, but in a supportive way. And also having people say, you know, that's a great idea. Those are the two most important things and you know, just make sure you know, you don't know what's gonna happen. I see a lot of people who are doing things, not because they don't want to turn to a business, but sometimes they're just doing it to see if they like it. And you don't have to, you don't have to think I have to turn this into a profitable business. You can just think of it as, I'm just creating my first business, and I don't know if it's gonna make any money or not. But as long as, as long as you like doing it, that's what matters.

Susan Sly 25:49
That is beautiful, Luke. Just start. All right, I love it. So Luke Aberle, thank you so much for being here. Check out Luke's website, Lukesview, and on YouTube. Thank you so much. So watch, and make sure you subscribe to Luke's channel, hit the like button, hit the notification button, and comment, but only nice comments. Because we're Canadians, and we are very nice people. So Luke, again, thanks so much for being here. And to everyone listening, just remember entrepreneurship is tough at times, stay the course. God bless. Go rock your day, and I will see you next time. Thank you, everyone.