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- $11.5 million. 177 million views. 1 iPhone.
$11.5 million. 177 million views. 1 iPhone.
Jordan Schwarzenberger
August 04, 2025
$11.5 million. 177 million views. One iPhone.
Click here to watch it on Ryan’s channel
Ryan Trahan just pulled off an audacious charity stunt.
For those who don't know Ryan - he's the guy who turned a penny into a Tesla, built a candy brand called Joyride that's probably sitting in your local corner shop, and has this weird superpower of making the most ridiculous challenges feel completely normal.
His latest project?
Travel to all 50 US states in 50 consecutive days while raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
The brief: 50 states, 50 days, raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
The result: Over $11.5 million raised, 177 million views, and brands literally queuing up to throw money at charity just to be part of the movement.
Most of it filmed on his phone, by himself.
I'm sorry, what?
Compare this to some productions that need three meetings just to decide what font to use.
Ryan casually travelled across an entire continent creating daily content with basically two editors and his phone.
That's the kind of thing that makes traditional TV executives wake up in cold sweats.
Think about the logistics here.
Fifty different locations, fifty different Airbnbs (including a nuclear bunker and an acorn treehouse), daily uploads, consistent storytelling, all while maintaining enough energy to actually, you know, raise money.
Most production companies would need six months of planning, a budget that could fund a small space program, and at least fourteen different people whose job title includes the word "coordinator."
Ryan did it with the setup most of us use to film our kids' birthday parties.
Instead of traditional brand partnerships - those soul-crushing "But first, let me tell you about today's sponsor" moments - Ryan completely flipped the entire industry on its head.
Want to work with Ryan? Cool. Donate to charity.
That's it. That's the deal.
Any donation over $50,000 triggers the "Wheel of Doom" - basically Ryan gets tortured with increasingly ridiculous challenges for our entertainment.
Drop $100,000? You get to personally destroy his day by setting your own challenge.
Suddenly, brands aren't interrupting the story to sell us stuff we don't need.
They're becoming heroes by funding stuff we genuinely care about.
The absolute genius of this:
Dollar Shave Club didn't get some boring "Use code RYAN20 for 20% off" integration.
They got Ryan to grow increasingly questionable facial hair throughout the entire series, basically turning his face into a 50-day advertisement for why their razors exist.
T-Mobile and Shopify threw six-figure donations and got "golden tickets" - immunity from certain challenges.
Essentially paying money to watch Ryan suffer slightly less, which is either very kind or mildly sociopathic depending on your perspective.
Every brand partnership advanced both the story AND the cause.
It's like product placement, but if product placement actually made the world better instead of just making us buy things we'll regret in three months.
But this model obviously only works with a great content strat, and theirs was honestly flawless if you ask me.
Daily uploads created appointment viewing (remember when we used to schedule our lives around TV shows instead of just watching everything at 2am in our pyjamas?)
Each episode had structure but felt like controlled chaos
The "Wheel of Doom" turned charity donations into audience entertainment
Real stories from St. Jude families kept everyone grounded in reality
Travel disasters made it relatable (we've all been lost in a rental car arguing about GPS directions)
It felt like peak YouTube - that golden era when every vlog was an event and Casey Neistat made us all think we could be interesting if we just ran everywhere with a camera.
Why I believe this matters for literally everyone:
Most brand collaborations fail because they feel like that friend who only calls when they need to borrow money.
Ryan showed us that the best partnerships can feel like that friend who shows up with pizza when you're having a bad day.
Instead of "Here's our product, please buy it while we count our money," it becomes "Here's how we're contributing to something that matters to us, and also our product exists if you want it."
The audience doesn't feel sold to - they feel invited to join something bigger.
content doesn't need to cost more than your mortgage to be effective - it needs to be authentic (and maybe a little unhinged)
gamification works when it serves the audience instead of just making marketers feel clever
people will still tune in daily if you give them a reason to care (and maybe some mild concern for your wellbeing)
purpose-driven content performs better than whatever that thing was where everyone pretended to care about NFTs
What’s profound for me at least is the fact Ryan invented a new business model where doing good IS the business model.
Every brand got massive exposure, positive association, and genuine audience love.
Every viewer got daily entertainment, inspiration, and the warm fuzzy feeling of contributing to something meaningful.
St. Jude got $11.5 million and the kind of awareness that usually requires Super Bowl commercials.
That's not just ‘good’ content - that's capitalism with a conscience.
Could Ryan have pulled this off without his existing audience? Probably not.
But the principles work at any scale if you're not completely terrible at execution.
Looking ahead:
Ryan just set a new standard for what's possible when creators stop thinking like content machines and start thinking like... well, humans who give a damn about something.
This wasn't a YouTube series with a charitable component tacked on.
This was a charitable mission that happened to create incredible content as a beautiful side effect.
The difference matters.
For any business wondering how to authentically connect with audiences who are increasingly allergic to being sold to, here's your blueprint:
Find a purpose bigger than your profit margins.
Make your customers the heroes, not your product.
Create experiences that people want to participate in.
Document the journey instead of announcing the destination like a corporate town crier.
Ryan Trahan might have just showed us what the future of marketing looks like.
$11.5 million raised (his original goal was $1 million - they smashed that 1 week)
177 million views across 50 episodes
1,786 minutes of content
And it's filmed on a device that fits in your pocket by someone who genuinely cares about making the world slightly less terrible.
Honestly, hats off to Ryan and his team.
This is what peak creator economy content looks like.
Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱
P.S. When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help out:
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