Today we’d like to introduce you to Forrest Jones.
Forrest, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Well because of my faith, I want to first give credit to the reason I personally feel I have had success. My faith in Jesus Christ has allowed so much favor to happen in my life. I didn’t plan on doing YouTube mainly because I never thought I had the capability to so. It basically stated with my selling cars and making walk arounds to send to customers. The video files got too big to send to customers so I make a full video, put it on YouTube as a holding site and would shoot the links to potential clients. About 1 month later, my video had well over 100,000 views! That’s what opened the door to doing what I do now!
Has it been a smooth road?
No, not at all. It takes a lot to keep up with the car industry as well as pitching myself to manufacturers in attempts to make connections & gain access to new vehicles. It can also have strange hours that cut into my marriage & personal time. It was also tough to gain enough credibility to drive vehicles over $30,000.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Forrest’s Auto Reviews story. Tell us more about the business.
What I do is film walk-around videos of new cars, unique cars, fast cars, etc. New cars are my main bread & butter but I will occasionally do customized or tuned vehicles. My goal is simple: Give people a casual, yet informative look around a car and film it in such a way that it makes the viewer feel like they are experiencing the car with me. There are lots of channels that focus on hardcore specs and comparisons but I’m not that person. I love to appreciate cars for what they are and I always talk about the vehicle as if I’m talking to a friend. Very casual, cool facts here & there with tons of B-roll footage that captures the full essence of the subject.
I am most proud of my diversity. At the end of the day, I need to make sure that I am happy with what I am doing. That means changing it up often. Most channels have a set formula that they repeat with every video but after a while, that becomes boring and repetitive. As a creator, I always want to have a love and passion for what I do. the moment it starts to feel like work, that genuine passion goes away. I also think this is what sets me apart from other mainstream car reviewers.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
My dream is to travel with my wife filming cars in different countries for at least a few years. After that, I’m not really sure? YouTube definitely won’t be around forever so finding a way to future proof what I do is definitely paramount. I can say that electric vehicles seem to be a fast-growing trend with many automakers and since most people can look at electric vehicles as “tech products”, I can see myself starting a separate channel dedicated to electric cars and other technology. Just a thought but I’ll definitely have to wait & see.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJla13cU_l6Itg8yEtOiAqQ?view_as=subscriber
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forrestsautoreviews/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forrestsautoreviews/
Image Credit:
All picture were taken by me aside from the picture of me in the Jeep Wrangler! That was taken by Eric Ewing (instagram-Ewingeric) He works for a company called BowTie Media in Fort Worth.
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