Daily Inspiration: Meet Bret Ballast

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bret Ballast. 

Hi Bret, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I worked first as a videographer at WZZM TV 13 in Grand Rapids, and it was there that I discovered my passion for interviewing people from all walks of life. I loved learning their stories about who they were and what they were thinking. I later used these skills to create the YouTube channel ‘Should We Live Here’. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
As we make the ‘Should We Live Here’ videos we are still struggling to discover what our viewers would like to see. We try to differentiate ourselves by giving the true story about the pros and cons of each place, to give a true picture of a place they may move to. However, our favorite video so far was the one we made about all the great things happening in Detroit, instead of focusing on the negative aspects of the city. So far, it’s been trial and error, and comments from viewers have been a great help. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My wife and I are searching the world for the best place to live either full-time or part-time as snowbirds. To help us remember what we like and don’t like about each place we are making videos about each place we visit. We decided to make a YouTube channel to help others who are also trying to decide where to live or where to visit. 

When we visited Detroit, we were very shocked by how nice it was. We decided to make a video about the ten reasons why we love Detroit. I think a lot of people only hear about the crime and decaying buildings and don’t realize all the great things Detroit has going for it. We even bought annual passes to the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Henry Ford Museum as we want to come back in other seasons to see the progress of all the revitalization projects. 

We also hope to visit Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Traverse City in 2023 as people have suggested they are places we should consider. 

It’s exciting for my wife and me to travel to towns and cities around the world to explore the pros and cons of living in each place. Visiting neighborhoods and discovering the history of the area is interesting. Also, we like comparing the cost of living between places so as to show which may a better deal. And interviewing the locals really gives us a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live in these areas so as to give our viewers the best information possible about vacationing or moving there. 

Other YouTubers will visit a place and just show the highlights, but we like to find out what makes each city or town unique. For example, the Grand Rapids downtown area has become a hip haven as old furniture buildings have become new apartments and over 80 breweries have opened to serve award-winning craft beer there. And the medical mile stands out with multiple hospitals lining the street downtown with researchers there constantly creating new medical technology to save lives. The people we met and interviewed love living there. 

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
As always good luck plays a large part in creating stories for our YouTube channel. My wife and I will go to a city with an outline of what we need to shoot and who we should interview, but we end up finding some amazing places to shoot and friendly people that we didn’t expect to meet. As for bad luck, recently we got a flat tire while visiting Detroit. We discovered while our car was being repaired that there aren’t sidewalks in some areas as it’s the Motor city where cars rule for transportation. We ended up putting that in one of our videos. So, I think good and bad luck will always happen, it’s just how you use it creatively for your YouTube stories. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shouldwelivehere.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shouldwelivehere
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shouldwelivehere