Matt Harding became an internet sensation after a friend recorded his unique "stupid dance" on the streets of Hanoi. The decision earned him a sponsorship to travel the world connecting with locals.
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Amazing Nomad: Matt Harding
In this episode, we feature an Amazing Nomad and this time someone a little different. American Matthew Harding became an internet sensation after videos of him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in 39 countries, went viral.What's in this Episode
00:00 Language warning
00:32 Why does something go viral?
01:20 How it all started
03:20 So what happened after that first video?
06:10 Matt's friend's reaction 09:26
13:24 "Do all the things that you'll regret not doing later. 'Cause there's a lot that you can't, there's a lot you're going to miss out on in life if you're wandering the whole time." - Matt Harding
16:58 Phil's daughter
17:44 The latest dance craze
18:45 Next week
Who is in the Episode
Matthew Harding became an American internet sensation after videos showing him dancing went viral. Matt was picked up by a sponsor and was paid to dance across seven continents, discovering along the way that people are a whole lot more interesting than landmarks and monuments.
Matt believes travel is important. “It helps us learn what we’re capable of, that the path laid in front of us isn’t the only one we can choose, and that we don’t need to be so afraid of each other all the time.”
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Explore your boundaries and discover your next adventure with The World Nomads Podcast. Hosted by Podcast Producer Kim Napier and World Nomads Phil Sylvester, each episode will take you around the world with insights into destinations from travelers and experts. They’ll share the latest in travel news, answer your travel questions and fill you in on what World Nomads is up to, including the latest scholarships and guides.
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Speaker 1: The World Nomads Podcast bonus episode. Hear amazing nomads sharing their knowledge, stories
Speaker 2: Yes, another episode featuring an amazing nomad, and this time it's something a little bit different. We're meeting Matthew Hardy. He's an American internet sensation known as Dancing Matt. He's a sensation because his videos have gone viral showing him dancing.
Speaker 3: They say the basic elements of a successful online video, those that go viral, include the fundamental principles of human interaction, emotion
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's now a father of two young children, but let's check in and look back at how Matt's dancing videos ultimately secured a sponsor who paid him to travel the world. Thanks for being on the podcast, Matt.
Matt: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Tell us, did you get into this?
Matt: I don't know. I really backed into it I'd say. I was neither an expert at dancing or traveling, but I enjoyed doing both. In 2003, I was actually, I was living in Brisbane at the time, Australia, and I left my job there and had really gotten the bug for travel from my coworkers in Brisbane. And it's more of a, it's, you know, the gap year and all that, which is not something that I'd grown up
Matt: And I started traveling and then one of the guys who I worked with in Vietnam, he said, why don't you go stand over there on the curb and do that stupid dance you do at work? Which was just a thing that I would do when it was time to go to
Matt: And this was in the early, early days before YouTube, before digital cameras were really prevalent. Mobile phones didn't have cameras yet. So it was right at the beginning of it
Speaker 2: Just to explain. So you mate got you to do the dance on the corner, filmed it, put it up on YouTube, and then someone that became your sponsor sent you around the world to do this dance.
Matt: Right. So I made that first video and then found it on YouTube. And when I found it, it had 600 some thousand views. And I wanted to crawl under my bed and hide because I thought this was, you know, I was really embarrassed. Everybody's watching me dance like an idiot. And then as it turned out, that wasn't the response at all. And people were passing it around. And then yeah, the sponsors came along and it was right at the beginning of the term viral video had just become a thing that people were talking about it. Everybody wanted one, but nobody knew how to make one yet.
Matt: So they said, hey, this Cadbury at the time said, hey, we're making this new chewing gum called Stride Gum. We want a viral video for it. Would you travel around the world and make one? And I said, wait, are you going to pay for it? And they said yes. And I said, then sure. And so I spent a good chunk of the next year wandering all over the planet, just going everywhere. that was on my list of places I always wanted to go and never thought I'd get to. And all I had to do when I got there was
Speaker 2: Not like Fred Astaire either. It's a kind of weird running man snap thing, isn't it?
Speaker 3: We'll put a copy of the video on the show notes, but just for people listening right now, can you describe your lunchtime jig?
Matt: Oh jeez. Okay.
Speaker 3: And the essence of it is, it's so freaking annoying. It makes your
Matt: It's very difficult to finish what you're working on when I'm doing that dance.
Speaker 2: So these workmates, let's go back to Brizzy in Australia, Brisbane in Australia. Did they get wind that you were working for Stride Gum or Stride Gum had picked you up on the basis of this annoying dance and you were subsequently going to 39 countries in seven
Matt: I don't know if I can say it. I'm tempted to try an accent and I should not do that.
Speaker 3: Oh No, please do.
Speaker 2: Please.
Speaker 3: Go on.
Matt: Oh, for
Speaker 2: That's exactly what we said.
Speaker 3: So where did you go? You went to 39 countries. Which ones did you put on your list?
Speaker 2: Okay, that one. That was
Speaker 2: Let's see. Myanmar, Mongolia, Laos. I mean it's a laundry of, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa. Namibia was amazing and I didn't get a good clip I could use in Namibia. It was always hard because I had about three days in each country and I had to get something, I had to get six seconds somewhere really, really interesting and distinct. And I was going so fast and I was actually all by myself for a good chunk of it. I didn't always manage to get a usable clip in each country.
Speaker 3: Hang on. But they kept sending you on to the next one. How do you get that gig?
Matt: The sponsor, they didn't know where I was and they didn't particularly care. I tried saying, okay, I'm going to be here and then here. And they were just like, look, we don't care. Just go do it. Just have it done on this day.
Speaker 2: How did they use the videos? Stride Gum, how did they use them?
Matt: They didn't really, they had me upload it to my YouTube page and I put the Stride logo at the end of it. I
Speaker 2: Now when you were there in the Galapagos, you said you went diving or you said you were somewhere and went diving. Was this again all covered by this sponsor?
Matt: Well, they just gave me a budget. They just said here and I went to the places that I wanted to go and spent what I had to spend to do it. So yeah, and you know when you're going fast and it's just you and I brought my girlfriend at the time and so it didn't cost a whole lot.
Speaker 2: That's a great story. You also did Rwanda and Petra and then you would put a call out, explain that, on social media for people to come and do it with you.
Matt: That's right. That was step two. So the first video I put out, it was just me dancing by myself. And as I was doing it day after day, you know, today I'm in Egypt dancing,
Matt: So I came home thinking that's what I should have done. I had this kind of idea that I was going to go to
Matt: So that led to the 2008 video where I, and after I put the video up, every single response was the same thing. It was, you forgot to dance where I live. You didn't dance in South Korea, you didn't dance in Sweden, you didn't dance in Brazil. So I just kept all those emails and I wrote back to them and I said, okay, I'm coming to Brazil. Here's where I'll be, come out and dance. And so everywhere I went there'd be thousands of people coming out to dance. And that was a lot more fun.
Speaker 2: They laugh at
Matt: Did they laugh at my dance. They couldn't see my dance. It was just a big, everybody was doing their own dance and I was just kind of in the crowd. So it was a lot easier 'cause I actually would get
Speaker 3: Do you recall how many views the YouTube videos have had, all of them in total?
Matt: Over a hundred million.
Speaker 3: And you don't like making an idiot of yourself in front of people. Wow.
Speaker 2: Matt. What a story. So this woman, this girlfriend you took with you was at the time, you've obviously got a new one now. She missed out big time.
Matt: No, I worded that poorly. She's upstairs giving the kid a bath.
Speaker 3: Ah, awesome.
Speaker 2: So she was your girlfriend at the time and became your wife?
Matt: [inaudible 00:11:57] we never got married. So I guess technically she's still my girlfriend. It's just we have a house and a family.
Speaker 2: Is that boring in comparison to the life that you were leading, you know.
Speaker 3: Come on, you're a mother. You know how intriguing.
Speaker 2: Of course, it must be very depressing, Matt.
Matt: I don't know how to answer that without sounding cliche. No, it's not.
Speaker 3: Well, we did in our little preamble moment where we're chatting to you. I did say there's such a [inaudible 00:12:24], aren't they?
Matt: No. You know, I kind of feel like what I'm really, really grateful for, again, I'm going to try really hard not to sound corny, but if I hadn't gotten to go and do all that, then it would nag me all the time when I was stuck at home doing mundane things that you have to do when you're a parent. I would be thinking, I never got to do all these things. But I got to do enough that I got to the point where it's like, all right, I'm done doing this. I've wandered the planet for years. I'm ready to stop. So it's great, no regrets. And I'm super grateful for that.
Speaker 2: That's one of the questions that we ask a lot of the couples that are traveling and don't have children or nor do they have a house. At some time will you feel like settling down and every answer is always yes, of
Matt: The settle down. I would say that they're doing it right. I mean it really worked for me. Do all the things that you'll regret not doing later. 'Cause there's a lot that you can't, there's a lot you're going to miss out on in life if you're wandering the whole time. You got to sort of stay put and build a foundation and I think that they're doing it in the right order, if they kind of go through their list and do everything and say, all right, I did that, now what's next? And then there'll be time for it again. And I'm getting to the point now where they're able to travel now finally. It's really easy. I've gone to Iceland with them. We went to London last year, we're planning a trip to Singapore and they're great travelers.
Matt: So you just got to go through a couple of difficult years with just changing diapers all the time and then you can get back to it.
Speaker 3: Are they old enough to have seen the videos? Have they seen Dad's funny dance?
Matt: The videos are, what they became is toenail clipping videos. So when you have little kids you got to clip their fingers and their toes all the time. Very difficult to get them to sit still. And for some reason those videos, I recommend this to any parent, has a magical power to get kids to sit still while you clip their nails. So that's how they know.
Speaker 2: It just sounds like a bizarre story, but it's also very true.
Matt: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You could think about doing a family dance.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Matt: It has occurred to me. I have one. So you know the thought occurred me when before they were born. And then you have them and then they are who they are, and you don't get to say come on, we're doing this. One of them is pretty shy and then the other one I think would be up for it. So I haven't figured out to navigate that yet.
Speaker 3: Just don't tell them about the hundred million views.
Matt: Well yeah there's that, that's the other thing of like man, no kids ready for that. I was really glad that that whole experience, the blowing up on YouTube and then it's hot for a day and then it's over. That whole emotional roller coaster happened when I was in my 30s and I was prepared to deal with it. But I met a bunch of these other YouTube stars over the years 'cause there is a secret underground network of us, and a lot of them had much harder times of it than I did. It was something, it was a little more controlled and planned in my case. Sometimes it's just like, you know, you film your kid in the backseat of your car and he's just been to the dentist and he's drugged and that whole weird thing happens, and then you're known for that forever and it can be painful and destructive, so I wouldn't want to sign my kids on for that.
Speaker 3: I've actually got a little of the home video of my daughter when she was about five doing, she was using the photo booth. She was using
Speaker 2: It's a big call. I get that.
Speaker 3: Mind you, if I do release the video, if it gets me to travel the world with her singing The Lion Sleeps, you know, ah-
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: Fantastic to talk to you. I love the story.
Matt: Thanks so
Speaker 2: Okay, we don't have to show it, but can we at least just take a little listen to your daughter from that video.
Speaker 3: Okay, here you go.
Speaker 5: And I'm going to sing a song for you. The lion sleeps tonight. Ah-ooh. The lion sleeps tonight. Ah-ooh.
Speaker 2: Very cute. Very, very cute.
Speaker 3: It goes on for six and a half minutes, exactly like that.
Speaker 2: So it was allowed to go on for six and a half minutes.
Speaker 3: No, we were trying to shut it down, I promise you.
Speaker 2: Well, by the way, when asked about other dances that have gone viral, Matt says, all Fortnite dancers are banned from the house, flossing and dabbing are forbidden. The kids can do it at school, but they can't bring it home. But I didn't ask about the latest craze, the triangle dance.
Speaker 3: So the triangle, that's three people stand in a triangle with their hands on each other's shoulders and then you jump forward, sidestep left, sidestep right, jump forward again in unison. So there's always somebody jumping forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay. We had a go at it here at World Nomads headquarters in Sydney, as our dads did our office in Cork. I think they've got an advantage
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: We'll put that and Matt's efforts in the show notes. Have a look.
Speaker 2: Now if you're an amazing or if you know, actually nominate yourself. We've had someone nominate themselves as an amazing, nomad.
Speaker 3: Don't hold back. It's okay.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Or if you know an amazing nomad who demonstrates discovery, transformation, love feel, or like Matt connection email podcast at worldnomads.com.
Speaker 3: You can get the World Nomads podcast on iTunes or download the Google podcast app. Look, can you please subscribe
Speaker 1: Amazing nomads. Be inspired.
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