One month, one penny, a confident mindset, and millions of viewers tagging along, YouTube creator, Ryan Trahan set out to travel across the United States with just the profits from a penny. For some, this may be a ridiculous or an impossible challenge, but for Trahan, his motivation stemmed from his goal to raise a million meals for the charity Feeding America. Specifically, every dollar donated equals 10 meals that can be provided to families struggling with hunger and food insecurity in the United States. After 30 days, Trahan raised over 1.4 million dollars, or a total of about 14 million meals for the non-profit organization.
In the series, there are 30 videos of Trahan’s month-long journey in the summer of 2022 for viewers to watch, and I was able to watch the series as it was being posted live. To this day, it still stands out as one of the best series I have watched on YouTube and I would recommend others to give it a watch. It was entertaining, funny, creative, and overall for a good cause; so here is a summary of the first 10 days of Trahan’s journey:
Trahan started off the challenge, day 1, in Venice Beach, California, with — you guessed it — a penny. By asking random strangers, Trahan was able to buy a pen for a penny, which he sold for a dollar, to buy a water bottle, and sell for 2 dollars. This tactic, though simple, takes a lot of courage and determination because it’s not easy to always find people who are willing to make a purchase. Trahan would sometimes go through long periods without making any sales, but every so often, out of the goodness of someone’s heart, strangers would contribute and give even more than what Trahan asked for.
In addition, Trahan had to get creative to diversify his strategies to make money. He started simply, by selling packs of water and then sodas, which involved investments like a cooler and a sign to attract people on the streets to buy. He took the money he earned in the first two days to buy a hammock for sleep, and other living essentials like a toothbrush, deodorant, etc. On day 2, he bought a bike from a Facebook market, allowing him to do deliveries with DoorDash starting day 3. He even attempted to make money off of picking plastic trash on the streets; it wasn’t very profitable but the service he did was just as significant. It was a tiring process but by day 5, Trahan had enough money for him to take a tour bus to Las Vegas, Nevada– one step closer to his goal.
What is special about this series, as mentioned already, is that each “episode” of the series was posted live while Trahan was completing the challenge, though he had about a 5-day head start. His day 1 was posted on June 1st, 2022, and viewers had to go back to his channel daily to find out what would happen next. The team who made these videos was just Trahan, his cameraman Preston, and his editor Zach– they worked diligently in real time to get the videos posted in time for viewers to follow along with the journey. Unlike other series online that are typically made under a big production, the team was small which maximized teamwork and independence, making the series even more authentic and an outcome of hard work and dedication.
With this vigorous posting schedule, it was able to attract millions of viewers, and watching the Penny Series became a part of many people’s daily routines. A simple subscription to Trahan’s channel during the 30 days would count as a penny donation. Any donation would bring a big contribution, but people who donated $1000 would get an “on-screen” shout-out, and $5000 donations would get a verbal shout-out from Trahan on the day he saw the donation. On top of that, there was an even more special catch, where donations of $50,000 would activate “The Great Reset”. To explain, their profits of Trahan don’t just stay with him overtime in the 30 days: Trahan could easily lose all his profits and get rebooted back to one penny if a person donates that specific quantity. Thus, Trahan was constantly planning, where purchases like his hotel room he got for days 5, 6, and 7, gift cards for McDonald’s and an Uber, as well as future traveling tickets, would be protected in case he lost all his money. “The Great Reset” made the challenge much more difficult for Trahan, but was a strategic incentive to get donations.
On day 6, Trahan would go and wipe a spa business’s windows and eventually spend his night telling jokes on the bustling streets at the Las Vegas Strip, where he bet that he could make people laugh for $1. He met so many different groups of people and made a lot of people laugh. It was awkward at times, but Trahan radiated confidence and all jokes aside, he put a lot of smiles on people’s faces and spread positivity. After a few more days of collecting up money, Trahan arrived in Denver, Colorado, on day 9, where he rented a car to do Uber-eat deliveries, but finally got reset on day 10.
Eventually, making his way to Austin, Texas, where he walked dogs and mowed people’s lawns, as well as to Nashville, Tennessee where he did 60-second caricatures, and even worked on a farm. Trahan successfully made it to North Carolina on day 30, to ultimately deliver a penny to another Youtube creator; it was a dramatic yet bittersweet ending to the series. As Trahan made his way to the finish line, he reflected upon how he was able to travel to many states, learn so many new things about himself, meet many new people, share laughter with others, and receive the kindness of random strangers.
Throughout this series, Trahan was able to tell a story that anything can become possible as long as you stay committed to your goal. At the same time, your actions, no matter how big or small, can change someone’s course in life, even if it doesn’t appear to be at first. From the efforts of Trahan, the people he met, and the YouTube community, hundreds of families in the United States are now provided with food. As Dennis, a stranger Trahan met at the beginning of the challenge said, “You don’t know where you’ll end up and you don’t know if you’ll succeed. You won’t know until you do it”, and Trahan indeed did make it happen– starting with just a single penny.
All photos were retrieved from The Penny Series/ Youtube- Ryan Trahan
