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I Quit

2023-10-06 · announcement · Hank · 9:36 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal update · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, community lore, heavy topic

On the last day of Pizzamas, Hank announces that, recovering from cancer treatment, he is stepping back from running DFTBA and Complexly: LJ Joukovski now leads DFTBA and Julie is acting CEO of Complexly; he then plugs the Vlogbrothers educational grants and discounted leftover Pizzamas items.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Final day of Pizzamas; Pizzamas is a challenge while recovering from cancer treatment

  • ★★ Hank says Pizzamas is a challenge: the brothers have more demands on their time than in 2007, and he always tries one or two ambitious Pizzamas videos. — 00:00:00 · Pizzamas
  • ★★★ Hank says he has not been working at full capacity while transitioning out of cancer treatment into recovery; he doesn't always feel as well as he looks, and recovery takes time. — 00:00:00 · cancer

00:00:29 — Hank won't return to his CEO jobs: the CEO search during his diagnosis, hiring LJ, letting go, Julie as acting CEO of Complexly

  • ★★★ Hank says he is not going back to his jobs as they were before he got sick; for over ten years he has been CEO of two companies, for a while of three. — 00:00:29 · DFTBA Records, Complexly
  • ★★ Hank says he has never been a full-time CEO: in that time he also wrote two novels, made countless TikToks and spent far too much time on Twitter. (playful) — 00:01:01 · TikTok, Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank credits people who believe in the companies' missions and leadership from others, especially two best friends, Dave at DFTBA and Julie at Complexly, for how far the companies have come. — 00:01:31 · DFTBA Records, Complexly
  • ★★★ Hank says that before he got sick it was clear the growing companies' setup wasn't sustainable long term, so they started looking for a CEO before the need was immediate. — 00:02:00
  • ★★ Hank says the CEO interviews ran alongside finding a lymph node, a biopsy and his diagnosis on May 4, the day before his birthday; on his birthday he went to work for a long meeting about recruiting the CEO. — 00:02:00 · cancer
  • ★★★ Hank says the person they hired, LJ Joukovski, is amazing; she has had a crash course in Pizza John and has embraced the weird. — 00:02:29 · Pizza John, DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank says LJ could make much more money elsewhere: DFTBA is not built to grow fast, maximize profit and sell, so they needed someone more interested in the interesting and weird. — 00:02:58 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank says professionally he doesn't really know what he is doing: no business training, no goals he chases, just following what looks interesting. — 00:03:27
  • ★★★ Hank says his identity is tied up in the companies and he cares and worries about them, so letting go of leadership has been weird, though he thought it right and wanted to do it. — 00:03:27
  • ★★ Hank says his fear at root was that the new leader would decide differently than he would, but that is how it will work, and good, since LJ knows much more than he does. — 00:04:24
  • ★★ Hank says LJ comforted him early on by saying she didn't want the job if he would check out, since part of the appeal was working with him. — 00:04:24
  • ★ Hank says he knows much of this is about feelings and how he imagines himself and wants to be imagined. — 00:04:24
  • ★★ Hank says he is still very involved in DFTBA, which does lots of cool, weird things and is surprisingly big. — 00:04:54 · DFTBA Records
  • ★ Hank says they will probably eventually settle on an actual job title for him at DFTBA. (hedged) — 00:04:54 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank recalls that during his cancer treatment John took over as CEO of DFTBA and Complexly before LJ started. — 00:04:54 · John Green, DFTBA Records, Complexly
  • ★★ Hank says he expected to resume as CEO after treatment, not realizing that recovery from cancer treatment takes time. — 00:05:23 · cancer
  • ★★★ Hank says Julie, who has long run Complexly day to day, has been promoted to acting CEO, 'acting' in case Hank comes back. — 00:05:23 · Complexly
  • ★★ Hank says he is not leaving Complexly; he may take special projects and smaller things, and stop being a bottleneck when sick or busy talking about worms on TikTok. (hedged) — 00:05:52 · Complexly, TikTok

00:06:21 — Hank on the outsized support he has had, the community behind the companies, and Katherine's reaction

  • ★★ Hank says he will fill the time: he had two bizarre but not terrible business ideas during chemotherapy and did cancer stand-up comedy before finishing radiation. — 00:06:21 · cancer
  • ★★★ Hank says he has received a wildly outsized amount of support and opportunity over the years and is really lucky, odd as that is to say months after getting cancer. — 00:06:21
  • ★★★ Hank says both companies thrived despite, and he hopes partly because of, his part-time leadership, largely thanks to the community, without which neither they nor VidCon could exist. — 00:06:51 · Nerdfighteria, VidCon, DFTBA Records, Complexly
  • ★★ Hank says that when he told Katherine he was stepping down from executive leadership at both companies, you should have seen her eyes: the best anniversary present ever. (playful) — 00:06:51 · Katherine Green

00:07:20 — Mustache aside; Vlogbrothers educational grants and how to apply

  • ★★ Hank says he told Katherine this was his last Pizzamas video so he could shave his mustache, and she said he didn't have to. (playful) — 00:07:20 · Katherine Green, Pizzamas
  • ★★★ Hank says that for over ten years half of the Vlogbrothers channel's ad revenue has gone to grants for small educational internet creators, since getting started is harder than it used to be. — 00:07:20 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank names past grant recipients: Alexis Nikole, Answer in Progress, The Financial Diet, Wendover Productions, Real Engineering, and Kurzgesagt in the first year. — 00:07:20 · The Financial Diet

00:07:58 — Discounted leftover Pizzamas items, thanks to John and Drawfee, last days of Pizza John shirts; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank invites people making mostly long- or short-form educational video, or who know someone who is, to apply via the description link; grants are usually $1,000 to $3,000. — 00:07:58
  • ★★ Hank says they over-ordered some Pizzamas items, as every year, and with LJ solving problems they have steeply discounted the rug (now $50), Chizza John, the earrings and the oven mitt. — 00:08:28 · Pizzamas
  • ★★★ Hank offers the code HANKSENTME for an extra $5 off the discounted items, for those who want to commit to the bit; this year's (2023) Pizza John shirts are available only a couple more days. — 00:08:28 · Pizzamas, commit to the bit, Pizza John
  • ★★ Hank thanks John for being his brother, a temporary CEO, and for helping and supporting him. — 00:08:57 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank thanks Drawfee for its Pizza John shirt, his personal favourite; the Teamwork shirt is the top seller, which he did not predict. — 00:08:57 · Pizza John

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank stopped talking publicly about his businesses' inner workings because that always shares other people's stories without permission; a 'DON'T TWEET ABOUT WORK' sign reminds him. — video description
  • ★★ The description links bosses who tweet about being good bosses with the 'wife guy'; Hank says he is not a great boss either, which is hard when easily distracted. — video description
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank says they actually sold out of the rugs. — creator comment · Pizzamas
  • ★ In a channel comment Hank says 'full time' is not a concept that makes much sense for the way he works. — creator comment
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank says he got the news he was in remission and immediately hurt himself at the gym. (playful) — creator comment · cancer

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Complexly · DFTBA Records · Laura Joukovski

Also: People: Alexis Nikole · Julie · Katherine Green

Projects: Pizzamas · The Financial Diet · VidCon

Organizations: Answer in Progress · Kurzgesagt · Real Engineering · TikTok · Twitter · Wendover Productions

Terms: Pizza John

Concepts: cancer · moustache

Memes: commit to the bit

Only in the description or credits: Dave (staff, mentioned from 2014) · Drawfee

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