Why We Document Everything (And Why You Should Too)

It Started Long Before the Channel Did

The vision really came into focus in 2020. I had always captured moments the way any parent does, but something shifted around that time. Something more intentional. A real way to document our family, tell our story, and share what we were actually experiencing. We shot some things around the house just to get started. But the spark that truly lit everything up came in 2022 when our whole family packed up and moved to South Carolina for about five months.

Those months away from Florida were transformative. Ashly and I were watching a ton of theme park content on YouTube, and The Frugal Brit was always on. That channel is actually how we discovered the Disney Boardwalk for the first time. We had lived in Florida for years and somehow never really explored it. Watching that video, we both thought, wait, this place is incredible. A whole little world right on the water, like a mini Disney Springs but with a completely different feel. We were discovering our own backyard through someone else's lens and it fired us up. That is exactly what great content does. It makes you want to go experience something yourself!

When we came back to Florida to visit, I brought the camera. Something happened at Universal that I did not expect. People kept stopping us. Not because of how many kids we had, but because we had four at the time, a newborn in tow, and our Wonderfold Wagon rolling through the park. People were genuinely drawn to us, stopping to say how incredible it was to see a big family just out there doing it. That is when I turned to Ashly and said, I think we have something here. The kids are naturally happy. They love these parks. We are already capturing this anyway. Why not turn it into a channel? That is exactly where Meet The Robersons was born.

Then I Found the Pugh Two and Everything Changed

Deep in that South Carolina content rabbit hole, I stumbled across some incredibly cinematic Chuck E. Cheese videos. Drone shots, real production value, genuine storytelling at a Chuck E. Cheese. Something cracked open in my brain. The ceiling for this kind of content was way higher than I had imagined.

Then I found the Pugh Two and everything shifted. Universal has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. YouTube too. My very first video ever posted was of Rock n Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios back in 2007. The fire was always there. But watching what Tyler was doing at Universal, breaking through the typical vlog format and making it look genuinely cinematic at a park where that style had never really been done, that was it. He became my creative north star.

The Pugh Two commented on our second video ever posted. Our SECOND video! That moment alone is ninety percent of the reason we decided to fully commit to this channel. A few months later we packed up and moved back to Florida to go all in. Tyler has been like a big brother to me from the start, pushing me as a videographer and helping us level up faster than we ever would have on our own. We would not be here without him and the Pugh Two, and we will say that every single chance we get.

Photos Are Great. But Videos Put You Right Back There.

People ask what moment from our early footage made us know we had to keep going. It was never one single thing. I have always filmed candidly. Roll the camera, let life happen, no posing, no performing. Just real life. And that is exactly what makes going back and watching old footage so powerful.

A photo freezes a moment. A video puts you back inside it. When we watch footage from even a year ago, we are not just seeing what happened. We are hearing the voices, feeling the energy, right back in the middle of that day in a way a photo simply cannot replicate. Song selection is where I spend the most time on every edit. Hours sometimes. Because the right song does not just play behind a video. It captures the emotional temperature of that day. It is what makes you actually feel something when you watch it back months later. We are literally our own favorite YouTube channel. The kids go absolutely crazy every time a new video drops.

Dad First. Camera Second. Always.

I want to be clear about something. We do not consider ourselves influencers. That word implies the camera is driving your decisions, and for us it is always the opposite. If the kids are not getting what they need, if I can feel the day shifting from family time toward content, the camera goes away. Full stop. We go through long stretches without uploading because being present parents comes first, and we are completely at peace with that.

When we first started, Ashly was not a camera person at all. Most people are not! But because it never felt performative, because it was always just about capturing real life, it eventually stopped feeling weird for her. Our kids genuinely do not notice the camera anymore because it never interrupts their day. Filming one handed while holding a baby with the other arm is basically a skill at this point, because that is just what theme park parenting actually looks like. We are a family first. The channel exists because of that, not in spite of it.

The Community That Showed Up

We had no idea if anyone would watch. Just a family from Orlando, going to theme parks with a camera. But people found us, and the people who found us have meant everything.

Viewers like Metallic Knoll showed up early and stayed consistent, which means more when you are just getting started than most people realize. Kevin Heimbach and Kyle Pallo both gave me advice early that I still carry today. And Kristen from Wright Down Main Street was one of our first hundred subscribers and has supported this channel from day one. She is one of the warmest people in this entire space and we love her and her whole crew.

Then there was Adam the Woo. I have been watching him since middle school. Early on, while filming the opening of Moana Journey of Water at EPCOT, I ran into him. I told him what his channel had meant to me growing up. He was warm, genuine, completely present in that conversation. He put us in his video, gave us a shoutout on Instagram, and we gained over a hundred subscribers overnight from that one moment. When you are grinding with almost no audience and someone with a real platform does not have to do anything for you but does it anyway, that is something you never forget. Grateful for Adam every time I think about that day.

The theme park creator space is more collaborative than I ever expected. Competition exists, sure. But the people who have poured into this channel have given us far more than we could have hoped for, and we try to pay that forward every chance we get.

The Best Advice I Ever Got

The theme park content space is saturated. There are a lot of people doing what we do, especially on the Disney side. When you first start out, you obsess over the analytics. You refresh the dashboard. You spend 40 hours on a video and it gets 200 views, then throw something together and it gets 2,000. It will absolutely drive you crazy if you let it.

Kevin Heimbach told me early on: do not look at the analytics. Just keep uploading. That is the whole advice. You cannot control the algorithm. You cannot force a video to go viral. What you can control is showing up, putting out work, and giving the platform more chances to put your content in front of people. More videos means more at bats, and eventually one connects! We put out one to two videos a month and know that more consistency would help us grow faster. But every single video we put out, we stand behind completely. That is what keeps us going.

What We Are Actually Building

At the core of all of this is a legacy project. That is truly what this is. We are recording our children growing up, documenting what it looks like to be this family, right now, doing the things we love together. When our kids are grown and start families of their own, they are going to have this entire library of themselves as children. They will see how happy they were. How loved they were. What this season of life actually looked like. You cannot recreate that. You either captured it or you did not.

But beyond the legacy, there are families we have not met yet that this channel is for. Over forty percent of theme park attendance at Disney World is adults without children. We never want a family to feel like these parks are not for them. We want to reach the parent who thinks they cannot afford it, or does not know how to navigate Magic Kingdom with three kids under five. We want to partner with companies that can help make those experiences possible for families who otherwise would not have them. Becoming a parent does not mean your sense of adventure disappears. Life should not slow down when your children are born. It should just change shape.

That is what Meet The Robersons is all about. It is the memories, yes. But it is also the message. Come on in. Bring your kids. There is absolutely room for all of us out here.