On June 20th, 2024, Ömer Sastim better known as Master Oogway, tried to log into his YouTube account and couldn't. Five years of building a total of 27 million subscriber channels, gone overnight.

He built one of the biggest channels in his category by voicing the Kung Fu Panda character and turning small moments of wisdom into viral shorts. Then he released a song that crossed a line he now openly regrets, and YouTube pulled everything. In this episode we sit with the honest reckoning of what that day actually felt like, what he'd do differently, and how he's rebuilding two years on.

We also talk about the rage baiting economy that's currently reshaping social media, where he thinks it all leads, why he genuinely believes people take the internet too seriously. Plus how he actually copes with hate, what it takes to be a real creator today, and the next chapter he's quietly building around POV content and brand partnerships.

Chapters:

00:00 Doom's day

00:52 27 million subscribers gone overnight

04:53 Why YouTube goes after big creators

11:51 The rage baiting content industry and where it leads

18:32 Have you forgiven yourself for the video that got you banned

24:57 The shift toward more positive content

34:53 The economics of controversial content

40:15 What it actually takes to be a content creator today

42:38 The financial pressure and the next move

45:56 How Master Oogway was born

49:47 Chasing morality versus chasing views

54:40 How he copes with negativity

58:46 Being himself now, not hiding behind the character

61:21 What's next, POV content and brand partnerships

68:12 A new leaf

68:37 A laugh a day will push the hardships away

Follow me: https://www.instagram.com/themarcusengel/

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Leyla Afshonkar built one of the biggest viral moments in Instagram history, a video with Neymar that reached hundreds of millions of views. She could have kept riding that wave forever. Instead she quietly walked away from it and switched, completely, to music.

Leyla is now building an artist career from scratch. She released her album Juicy earlier this year and is treating everything before this as a previous chapter. In this episode we get into what happened, why she made the switch, and what the last two years of internal work looked like as she stopped chasing views and started chasing a childhood dream she'd been ignoring since she was a kid.

We also talk about what actually makes something go viral, why she thinks the hook is everything, how a spiritual awakening two years ago rewired the way she creates, and the boring reality of being a beginner in the music industry after being one of the most watched people on the internet. Plus her honest take on comfort zones, discipline, ADHD, and the songwriting process that only happens when she's half asleep in the middle of the night.

In this episode:

- Why she completely walked away from the viral content that made her famous

- The full switch from entertainer to artist and why she made it

- What actually makes something go viral and why the hook is everything

- The spiritual awakening two years ago that changed how she creates

- Her album Juicy and the sushi meal that inspired it

- Why she thinks ADHD is a superpower, not a curse

- What discipline actually looks like when you're rebuilding from zero

- Why the music industry has been much harder than she expected

- Why comfort zones are dangerous even when they're successful

- Her advice for anyone who wants to reinvent themselves and doesn't know how

Chapters:

(00:00) What actually makes something go viral

(01:42) Why she's not afraid to show her real self on camera

(03:01) Can confidence actually be trained

(04:04) Growing up struggling with beauty standards

(05:50) COVID, Arabic comedy, and going viral for the first time

(06:56) The complete shift, why she walked away from what was working

(08:01) Joe Dispenza, meditation, and the spiritual awakening

(09:22) Why ADHD is a superpower

(10:18) Why chasing views stopped being fulfilling

(11:31) Wanting to be an artist, not an entertainer

(13:34) The album Juicy and the music dream she carries

(15:48) How to actually shift your personality

(17:38) Discipline, atomic habits, and the boring reality

(19:40) The unseen work behind a single song release

(21:39) Why criticism of her music hits harder

(25:00) The version of Leyla in the studio when the camera is off

(26:50) The New Year's sushi meal that became a song

(28:17) Why her best songs come in the middle of the night

(31:05) How she actually rests in Amsterdam

(32:05) The music industry has been harder than she expected

(33:22) Why she refuses to commit to a single genre

(37:26) Why comfort zones are dangerous even when they're successful

(43:54) Don't forget to breathe

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Olivier Momma didn't pay Messi's €1.5 million endorsement fee. He found the back door. In this conversation we get into how he actually landed one of the most unreachable people on earth, then went on to land Steven Bartlett and Diary of a CEO for the 1% TravelPack. Both without the standard playbook.

Olivier is the founder of Ekster, the Amsterdam brand that started as a Kickstarter smart wallet in 2016 and now heads past $50 million a year across wallets, travel gear, and accessories. In this episode he breaks down the exact story of how Ekster landed Messi (through a broken merch website), how the Bartlett deal came together (starting with a single high risk podcast sponsorship), and the 1% mindset that's been baked into every Ekster product for a decade.

We also get into why life is still chaos after ten years, what he'd tell any founder starting today, why he still hasn't felt the "I made it" moment, what home actually means to someone who moved every three years, and the SMS he'd send to every phone in the world.

In this episode:

• The full Messi story, including the broken web store back door
• How the Steven Bartlett and Diary of a CEO collaboration actually happened
• Designing the 1% TravelPack with the DOAC team
• Why the modular wallet decision was the marginal gain that changed everything
• The Hong Kong 2016 QR code moment that started Ekster
• His sister's €500 Kickstarter video that raised $350,000
• The failed first venture (Delhi Scouts) nobody hears about
• The secret sauce for building a brand in 2026
• Why he's still not settled, and what home actually means to him

Chapters:

00:00 The Messi backdoor (cold open) 00:30 How the Steven Bartlett collaboration actually happened 06:00 Designing the 1% TravelPack together 10:00 The 1% mindset has always been Ekster 13:00 The modular wallet decision that changed everything 15:00 Hong Kong 2016: the QR code moment 17:00 Kickstarter, his sister's video, and the first $350K 21:00 What he misses about the early days 24:00 The secret sauce for starting a brand today 30:00 The storytelling framework every brand should steal 35:00 Why life is still chaos after ten years 39:00 Behind the scenes versus the Instagram life 50:00 The full Messi story: how the deal actually closed 57:00 The World Cup viral moment 1:00:00 What home means when you've moved every three years 1:02:00 The price of the entrepreneur life 1:03:15 How he finally learned to switch off in Cape Town 1:05:47 Rapid fire: Own the Unknown