Tom Sega has a Zoom conversation with Myles Montplaisir, better known as Myles – The You Betcha Guy, the founder of the famous Midwest brand, You Betcha and persona of the brand, on this week’s episode of Leader of the Pack, a podcast by Duluth Pack. In this podcast episode, Myles talks to Tom and listeners about how he has quickly risen to stardom for his comedic videos about growing up in the Midwest and its down-home culture.

Background on Myles

Myles was raised in Fargo, North Dakota but spent his summers in the Detroit Lakes Area in Minnesota at his cabin. He grew up playing sports like basketball and football. In fact, Myles’ talents in football lead him to play D2 football at the University of Minnesota Moorhead. Tom asks Myles what his plan was during school and Myles talks about coming to the realization that he was not going to play football professionally after college, and that ultimately, he needed a new plan for his future. Myles had grown up working for his dad pouring concrete, but didn’t want to do that after he graduated as a long-term career decision. Myles finished school with an Exercise Science degree planning to become a Personal Trainer, but quickly discovered he did not want to pursue that as a professional endeavor.

Beginning of Career

Myles tells Tom about how his father always said, “I want you to go to college so that you don’t have to work for me for the rest of your life,” but upon graduating in 2016, Myles ended up working for his father for over a year, so he jokes that his father’s wish didn’t really work out. Pouring concrete up north is not a winter job, so Myles was put on seasonal unemployment and he decided that gave him three months to think of a plan on what he would do next professionally. It was then, that Myles and a friend started offering freelance marketing services and promotional videos for local businesses. Myles jokes that he really had no business doing this, and it was a struggle at times, but he was focused on learning about marketing and studying how to be a professional marketer. During this time, he realized that history repeats itself and Myles thought to himself that everything that you see on TV would be recreated on social media. This is when Myles decided that he wanted to create something on social media that would highlight the Midwest and the pride people feel about being from the area, because he didn’t really see that portrayed in media – especially in a positive light. This was the beginning of what would become the You Betcha page, brand, and business.

The You Betcha Brand Myles and Tom talk about his hesitancy to start producing content for the You Betcha page and how Myles’ friends pushed him to dive into the page and push past the “talk about it stage”. After about three months of posting content on Facebook and YouTube, Myles created his first viral video that hit 1 million views on Facebook and realized that this page could be something – and something impactful. This was a huge moment for Myles, but now he needed to recreate that success and grow from it. Tom asks Myles how he created the brand behind You Betcha, from the name, the content, and how Myles became the You Betcha Guy. Myles explains that he was trying to think of a name that embodied the feeling around the type of page he was trying to

create, which was a meme page about the Midwest that would have content of people doing Midwest-loving things. While trying to create a name and company identity, he dug down and thought of the iconic Midwest phrase, ‘You Betcha’. Ultimately, it felt right and fit well with his idea for the brand and the rest became history. Myles wasn’t planning on being the focal point originally, but as he was trying to create more content, he stepped in front of the camera and people connected with it, thus creating him as the focal point and the face of the brand.

Now the You Betcha brand is 3.5 years in and employs 18 people full-time. This growth has evolved so quickly for the business, as the You Betcha Facebook page has surpassed a cumulative 1 billion video views. Tom and Myles discuss how Myles has handled this growth and what types of challenges he sees moving forward. Myles jokes saying, “You try to keep the mental breakdowns at bay, you know? Just shove that deep down inside and have an extra beer and you’re good. You know?” Myles goes on to say that in all seriousness it isn’t really a grand plan but trying to see what works and pursuing that to grow with the changes to be successful. A major part of that growth is continuing to create content and stay creative. Myles goes on to talk about how he is lucky because the You Betcha page is about connecting to the Midwest and growing connections with people with a lighthearted and humorous way. Tom and Myles talk about how he stays creative and what advice he would give other content creators. Myles says that for their brand it is about doing everyday things and getting inspiration from that. He explains that you need to come at content creation from a variety of different viewpoints and think about how an audience will relate to the content. The audience doesn’t initially care about your content, so you need to give them a reason to grow, relate, and then have continued interest about it, he says. Another big piece of advice that Myles would give others is to understand that you are not going to make great content at first. It will be bad and that is just a part of it and the faster you can get past that stage the better! You ultimately learn from your missteps and grow from them to be better.

The big change that Myles is trying to make now is taking the brand from a “me” to a “we” as he doesn’t have the bandwidth to do it all and needs to let go of some control as the brand grows. This is a challenge for Myles, because he started the page alone and now, he has a great team that can do certain things faster, better, and more efficiently than him and on a schedule. Myles comments that he is learning now how to step back to focus on the vision of the company and allow his team to do what he has hired them to do.

Growing Partnership With Busch Light

Tom asks Myles about Busch Light and what the connection is between the two brands. “You know it started because that is what me and my buddies like to drink,” said Myles. The connection between them began when Myles wanted to poke some lighthearted fun at the Wisconsin craft beer brand, Spotted Cow and compare it to Busch Light and created some content comparing the two iconic beer brands. At the end of the video, Myles picked Busch Light, or as he also likes to refer to it as ‘Nectar of the Gods’ and created more content around the brand. Due to this, the partnership flourished and to this day, You Betcha has co-branded merchandise available for purchase in partnership with the beer company.

Overcoming COVID-19 Challenges

COVID19 has touched every industry and Tom and Myles discuss what challenges and positives it created for his company. Myles talks about how his business was extremely lucky to not have many challenges during pandemic outside of receiving the merchandise for the brand, and not being able to connect with others face to face. The pandemic did allow for different opportunities though as well. Myles mentions it has allowed him to connect with others over Zoom for podcasts, like the on hosted on Leader of the Pack, and with many people staying at home they were watching more content like You Betcha. Tom comments that the You Betcha page brings some much-needed comedic relief to many people and his content relates to a wide audience. “That’s what I kind of want out of the You Betcha pages,” says Myles, “For everyone to feel connected and to be able to do that.”

Tom and Myles discuss several of Myles’ successes in business and changes that he sees for the future of the You Betcha brand. They talk through advice for other young content creators and some of the highlights of the You Betcha pages thus far. You can find the You Betcha brand on social @ohhyoubetcha or online at OhhYouBetcha.com. They also have their own podcast called, You Betcha Radio. Thank you, Myles, for joining us on this week’s episode of Leader of the Pack and sharing the triumphs and struggles of starting your own business and becoming a brand icon and a friend of Duluth Pack.