“Man, imagine just waking up every day you’re Ned Fulmer.”
Those are the words that left Ned Fulmer’s mouth as he spoke on his panel at “F*ckups, Fixes, and Lessons Learned” at VidCon on June 25. He was quoting a comment that came across his feed in the aftermath of his 2022 cheating scandal that resulted in his exit from the Try Guys.
Fulmer, who wasn’t originally on the lineup for the panel, announced via Instagram on June 23 he’d be speaking on his mistakes at VidCon.
“When I heard I was invited to be a panel for f***-ups, I was like ‘Oh my god, I’m perfect,” Fulmer shared to laughs from the audience.
For the first 20 minutes of the 50 minute panel, Fulmer spoke about his story one-on-one with Phil Ranta, CEO and co-founder of Stealth Talent. He shared the story that changed his life and the Try Guys forever, and was met with a loud gasp from the audience.
“Oh, that person didn’t know,” Fulmer said. “That was their first time hearing it.”
The tone of the conversation, while not exactly tense, was decidedly different from last year’s panel of the same name, which featured three content creators talking about the business errors they made. Despite his mistake being based in his personal life, Fulmer did talk about how the personal and business can be so intertwined in a creator’s line of work, pointing to his reputation as a wife guy.
“It increasingly became a role that I was playing that was more and more diverging from my sense of self,” Fulmer said, speaking in relation to how emphasizing that persona on-screen can be particularly lucrative and brand-friendly.
Ned Fulmer on his controversial comeback
Ranta and Fulmer also discussed Fulmer’s rebrand with his podcast, Rock Bottom. On the first episode of the show, Fulmer interviews his ex-wife.
Mashable Trend Report
“I think I f***ed up a second time,” Fulmer joked. He went on to discuss that he knew launching a podcast with Ariel would garner a lot of eyeballs and a lot of controversy from folks online. “[It] was sort of the point, but I think also maybe [it] wasn’t the right strategy.”
The episode has 1.4 million views on YouTube, eclipsing the 56,000 views of the second-most popular video on the podcast’s channel. The show is under the umbrella of the media company, Fulmer Media, of which Fulmer is CEO.
When Ranta asked about how Fulmer conceptualized his re-brand, Fulmer answered that he didn’t know, but that his guiding force has been putting his internal point of view and public performance in stronger alignment than it was during his wife guy days.
“If you don’t have resilience to say I’m making this because I like it, or I’m working on this project because I think it’s an important point of view, and I hope it can affect people, change the world in the way that I want to change the world — you’re toast,” Fulmer said.
Panelists praised Fulmer’s vulnerability
For the last 30 minutes of the panel, the remaining three panelists and moderator, VidCon CEO Jim Louderback, joined Fulmer and Ranta on the stage to talk their mistakes.
The full panel lineup of F*ckups, Fixes, and Lessons Learned. From left to right: Phil Ranta, Ned Fulmer, Josh Zimmerman, Ali Spagnola, Leslie Morgan, and Jim Louderback.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable
There were echoes of a sentiment Ranta shared at the beginning of the one-on-one conversation: admiration for Fulmer’s vulnerability and courage in sharing his mistakes in front of a room of people.
When business and personal collide
While the remainder of the panel’s mistakes focused on their business decisions, or interpersonal business relationships, that presented challenges, Fulmer returned repeatedly to the personal nature of his situation.
When Louderback asked panelists to reflect on any early warning signs of their mistakes, Ned said,”Obviously when you are kind of starting a love affair, it starts kind of slowly and then builds and builds in ways that you aren’t ignoring,” which earned some scattered laughter before continuing, “But that is easy to imagine and not that relevant for the industry panel.”
He did go on to talk about the more professional side of the situation, saying of his time in the Try Guys: “I noticed my performances getting increasingly hollow and feeling increasingly negative.”
As it pertains to the content he makes today, Fulmer said he accepts if people don’t want to watch his content anymore, especially in a competitive entertainment landscape.
“Why should someone choose me when I make them feel uncomfortable and they have to confront these messy, complex ideas of rehabilitation or reinvention or redemption? Maybe they don’t want to do that,” he said. “Maybe they just want to view someone that makes them feel happy because they had a long day.”
