Teen podcaster travels the world

Nico Perez visits Machu Picchu in Peru. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Nico Perez is getting a lifetime of experiences before leaving his teens. He went from a podcaster interviewing top executives to traveling the globe.

“Around four years ago, I started a podcast where I became the world's youngest podcaster,” he said. “I interviewed the biggest influencers on YouTube, CEOs of companies, people like Yes Theory, IShowSpeed, Ali Abdaal. I've done almost 100 interviews.”

Now, Nico, 16, is covering his trip around the world, which may take longer than Phileas Fogg’s 180 days.

“I recently I'm doing this new project,” he said. “It's called Project Goat. I left school. I'm doing online now. We're traveling the world one month per country. Right now, my content is revolving around documenting that trip.”

Nico started out in his home base of Mexico.

“We went to Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende,” he said. “Then we went to Costa Rica. We went to various parts, including Nosara, Manuel Antonio, San Jose and Monteverde.”

Nico, who made it to the Big Apple in America before heading to India, said the itinerary is subject to change.

“The original plan was to start in Turkey,” he said. “While we were still in Mexico, we thought we were going to El Salvador, Alaska, and Guatemala, but we ended up in Costa Rica and India. But that's what makes this trip fun, and it's what Project Goat is about: going with the flow and seeing where life takes you. We need to let go of fixed plans, live more fluidly, embrace spontaneity and reject rigid schedules. This all creates space for life to surprise you.”

Nico researches the places he visits.

“It's very important because it helps you stay informed on where you are going and it helps you pick the best places to stay and to go,” he said. “Researching the places is mostly just watching YouTube videos and going through Google Earth and researching places that look interesting.”

Nico shifted gears with his channel since the trip was happening regardless.

“It was going to happen anyway,” he said. “That's a good opportunity to put the podcast on hold for a while and focus on this. Go all in.”

Nico still is establishing what the content will be in the long run.

“I'm still finding out what I want to do,” he said. “For now, it's day in the life. What's it like to live around the world in different countries, cities that other people don't get the chance to go to. What I eat, what I do, what I work. It'll probably evolve over time while I travel because I'll discover new things and new styles.”

While Nico is winging it somewhat during his travel, he extensively prepared for the Nicocast.

“I would watch all of the person’s YouTube videos,” he said. “Most of the people I watch, I look up to in a way. So I already had council questions in mind. First, I would write all the questions I have in mind for the person, go through all of their YouTube videos and make questions out of that.”

Nico sees the sights of Costa Rica.

Nico credits his youth for helping him gain access to so many big shots.

“My age definitely helped because they probably never had a 12-year-old or 13-year-old asking them for an interview,” he said. “It obviously intrigued them. I also got really good at cold emailing, so I know how to send a good cold email that would get a reply. Over time when you interview more people, you gain social proof. The person you're interviewing knows from an interview in the past and establishes you as legit. Those three definitely helped.”

Some interviews stand out more to Nico.

“I love all of my interviews with Yes Theory,” he said. “I've interviewed three of their members. I've interviewed Amar, Matt and their editor Tommy. All those three interviews are some of my best because I watched a ton of their videos. I was prepared for them.”

Nico also likes the interview with a YouTuber who posts educational videos and now has well over 2.5 million followers.

“My interview with Henry Belcaster was really good because we got off track for 30 minutes, talked about cancel culture,” he said. “I enjoy that a lot. Those are some of my favorites. There definitely are more that are considered favorites. I haven't had a bad experience with a guest or podcasting. I think they're all great.”

Nico said since many of the people he interviewed had experience answering questions, they all gave good responses to his queries.

“I'm lucky that the people I interviewed have had an interview in the past, so they kind of know how an interview goes,” he said. “They know the back and forth, what it's like. Many people are bad interviewees their first time.”

Nico enjoys time in Cancun, Mexico.

However, Nico said even those he interviewed who had no experience fielding questions did fine.

“Those people still did pretty good,” he said.

Nico never was too shy to talk to people.

“I'm naturally extroverted, so I have no problem going out to a random person on the street and talking to them,” he said. “Podcasting was amazing for me because I was getting to interview people. I love asking questions.”

Nico said a significant portion of people, especially with large followings, aren’t going to agree or respond to interview requests.

“Let's say I sent 500 emails, probably 300 of those were no,” he said. “And being ignored, that's the natural way doing outreach for podcasts. Tons of people are going to say no. Most of them are going to ignore you. Only a handful are going to say yes, so I don't worry about that.”

Nico still is doing the occasional interview while on the trip.

“I will continue doing the podcast, but not as a priority,” he said.

Nico enjoys the interview process.

“What I like about it most is learning about people, learning about their craft or what they do and just meeting the new person in general is always fun to me,” he said. “I enjoy the process of preparing a lot.”

Nico takes a boat ride in Cancun.

Nico derives his questions from a person’s content.

“Since the people I interview are people I watch frequently, I would usually start from where I watch them the most,” he said. “Let's say they're a TikToker, YouTuber. I start on that platform, and then I'd move on to their secondary platform and watch all their content from that. Make the questions. Something else I do is I watch if they've been interviewed before, watching their other interviews, because sometimes they mentioned little things that the other interviews didn't catch.”

Nico asks both the expected and unexpected questions.

“It really depends what stuff they're doing, like what their company's about, what their channel is about,” he said. “But most of the time, I try to ask questions not related to what they're doing because I feel like they probably got tired of talking about their company or their channel or maybe the people watching want to see another side of them. I try to balance it out, asking questions of what they do and some other questions not related to what they do.”

Nico is a veteran YouTuber, starting as a tyke.

“Over time, my content has evolved a lot,” he said. “I've been doing YouTube since I was 6 years old. It's almost 10 years making YouTube videos. It started off as Minecraft videos.”

Nico’s long-term goals include continuing to be a content creator.

“Even in 20 years, I’ll still be making YouTube videos because I enjoy it,” he said. “Whatever I'm doing, I'll probably still make YouTube videos. It's not really for the money. If I make money, then good. If not, then I really don't care. I'll just continue doing it anyway because it's for fun.”

Nico and his brother Valentin fly over New York in a helicopter during a 2023 trip.

Nico also would like to make films or enter the technology industry.

“I would want to be a movie director,” he said. “Make movies or maybe a tech startup, something like that. I've made little apps that you can download from the app store.”

Nico doesn’t need to seek motivation to keep producing content.

“Since I do it for passion, for fun, I don't need motivation to do it,” he said. “Sometimes, I will go on periods where I don't upload for a while. But that was because I couldn't make the content I wanted because I want to make travel videos and I was still in my house. I couldn't do that. Passion motivates me.”

Nico poses in front of Costa Rica's colorful sky.

Nico said aspiring YouTubers should just start posting content.

“Upload your first video and learn everything along the way,” he said. “You don't have to buy a course to learn or anything like that. Just start and while you do it, learn. That's the best way to learn. I found for me, the easiest way and fastest way and the best way to learn is not through sitting down, taking notes, but taking action and learning along the way from your mistakes. It's also good if you learn from other people's mistakes.”

Nico dispensed advice to people who want to start conducting interviews.

“Just do it and learn along the way,” he said. “That's my advice. Do it and learn along the way. For my podcast, I came up with my name on the spot. I did my first interview on the same day I came up with the idea, so it's all quick action. That's how I do most things.”

Nico’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Nicocun25

Nico’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicocun25/

Nico commiserates with a giraffe in Puebla, Mexico.