Today we’d like to introduce you to Keon Marcell and Nathaniel Strange.
Keon and Nathaniel, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We are honored to be featured in your publication. Our story begins at the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Peachcrest in Decatur, Georgia. Nathaniel was a teenager and Keon was the teen director. We didn’t get along AT ALL during those times until one day something happened. Nathaniel began to ask me (Keon) if he could help me out around the club. I saw a change happening and I asked Nathaniel’s mom if I could mentor him outside of the club and she agreed. We began our mentor/mentee relationship and over time grew an unbreakable bond. As brothers, we could talk openly about anything, always laughing and joking. In August 2018, I (Keon) got an idea to start a podcast talking about the newest foods that were coming out, and I need a co-host. I needed someone I could talk to for extended periods of time and not get bored. So I asked Nathaniel if he would do the podcast with me and he agreed. Even though I (Nathaniel) was not an entertainment type person, I figured no one would see me only hear me, but that soon changed. Keon decided that he wanted to film us talking and put it on youtube instead of a podcast. I wasn’t down with that because again that wasn’t my personality. I was hesitant about having my face our there like that, but because Keon is my brother I trusted him and agreed to do it. Now, all we needed was a name for it. I (Keon) was driving Uber at the time, and I was sitting in a McDonald’s parking lot.
In front of me was a sign that “Curbside Pickup”, and a lightbulb went off. That was going to be the name for our show, “Curbside Pickup”. To be completely honest, things were really tough in the beginning. Neither of us had no clue as to what we were doing. We didn’t know how to start, where to start, or when to start, We had no experience with youtube, filming or editing. Keon had experience doing theater, but that was the gist of our knowledge when it came to entertainment. We just said let’s do it and see what happens. Keon began contacting different restaurants to see if they would come and let us film, All except one said no. The one yes came from a restaurant called “4 Rivers Smokehouse” (Which is no longer open in the city). We asked our friend Corey if he would film us using my cellphone and it was set. Shoot day comes around and we are both nervous, but Nathaniel was EXTREMELY nervous because this was way out of his element. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. The staff and the management treated us with nothing but love and respect. The food was amazing the vide was great. Now for the bad. The video was extremely long, the intro was long, we were super stiff, and the editing was horrible. We now look back at it and laugh because we see how green we were. We started doing one video per week, and now three years later, we are up to four videos per week. Our channel saw an extremely slow growth because of our lack of youtube knowledge. Things took a change for the better when the pandemic hit. Before the pandemic, we would only do local restaurants. As we know most restaurants were closed so we started to do mainstream restaurants, and that’s when our channel really began to grow. We were more experienced on camera, and the videos got shorter. That same year we were asked to join a youtube food clique called “The Review Crew”, and our channel got an even more bump in growth.
We now had the support of others in the crew, as well as we were able to learn and take advice from them. That summer of 2020, we got asked by Google if they could use one of our videos in their commercial. That was huge for us, but they ended up not using it. Still, it let us know that we were doing something right. Then in 2022, we got the biggest news yet. We were asked to be in a national television commercial for Del Taco! We flew to California to film and it was one of the best experiences of our lives. It further lets us know that we are on the right track. Now we are being interviewed for Voyage Publication! We are loving the journey. It’s been tiresome, sometimes difficult and stressful, but we love what we do. So many times we’d be out in the streets and people would recognize us from the show. This makes us feel really good because it’s the connections with the people that are important. At the end of each show, we leave you with a message of positivity. You are reminded to “Stay Safe, Stay Positive, and Stay Beautiful”, and Also that “The most important thing is love”… Through our show, we aim to inspire, inform, entertain, and educate. And according to the people, we are doing a great job of that.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This journey has been anything but smooth, but not so bad either. The tough part was learning how youtube worked. Learning how to make better content and trying to figure out how to get people to watch. It was frustrating for a while because we weren’t growing and we just could figure out why. We had to take a little break because honestly I (Keon) wanted to quit. Yea, I (Nathaniel) was at that point too. It was like what’s the point? We weren’t growing and it felt like a waste of time. But we pushed through it and we are now able to appreciate the journey. Also scheduling was a huge issue. We had and still have to find ways to film around our work schedules. I (Keon) do the editing and sometimes I don’t get to bet until after midnight. However, we enjoy the moment and keep pushing forward because we want to and will be a million sub-channel. That takes hard work and sacrifice.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are content creators with our main focus being Youtube. Our content is based around everything food. We review new food products that are released from major restaurant chains, local restaurants, and grocery stores. The base of our show was and is to spotlight local businesses. We review these products in the car or in the house using green screen. We do food and travel Vlogs as well as cook on the show. We also do food challenges to test our limits. There are many food review channels on Youtube, but what really sets us apart is our approach to food reviewing. We always wanted to be honest, but most importantly we wanted to make you laugh. That’s what people love about us most is the humor that we bring to our videos. Plus, our use of jump cut edits are very different from others. Most people use jump cuts to accent their videos, where we make them a part of our videos to get the maximum laugh. Overall our content is about having fun, making people laugh, enjoying good or bad food, and inspiring change.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson we’ve learned is patience. When you are content creating you want to see growth happen fast, but it just doesn’t work that way. Sure it happens from time to time for some people, but they are the exception not the rule. We tweaked and adjusted our videos so many different ways to get our channel to grow, and we feel like we’ve hit that sweet spot. You can’t rush things that you have no control over. We don’t have control over what people choose to watch or who they subscribe to. What we do have control over is ourselves and our content. So learning to just be cool and patient is the biggest thing that we have learned.
Contact Info:
- Email: curbsidepickup2go@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curbsidepickup2go/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curbsidepickup
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/curbsidepickup
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CurbsidePickup2go/featured
