Josh Horton is a filmmaker and surf instructor from Michigan who teaches people to ride waves on the Great Lakes and, when he’s not on the water, is building No Sleep Club — a merch brand with a two-word philosophy at its core: keep going. He and Isaac connected through a mutual friend and had never spoken before this episode. What started as a conversation about film gear turned into one of the more honest conversations in the pod — about anxiety, gratitude, creative survival, and why the people around you might matter more than anything you’re actually making.
The Michigan Filmmaker Who Surfs the Great Lakes
Josh didn’t grow up near the ocean, but he teaches surf lessons anyway. Michigan’s Great Lakes aren’t Malibu — they’re freshwater, they’re cold, and they’re not what most people picture when they think of surfing. But they have real waves, real swells, and real wipeouts. Josh has been instructing there long enough to know them well.
It’s a detail that tells you something about how he operates: he doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. He works with what’s in front of him. If there’s a wave, you paddle.
That same approach runs through everything else in his life. His film program got shut down — merged with Calvin University, which at least came with half tuition — and he kept going. He landed his first wedding videography gig not through a job board or a cold email, but by showing up at a wedding, noticing the videographer working, and just talking to him.
“I just talked to him. That’s kind of how these things work.”
That conversation turned into a job. The job came with a learning curve. He figured it out as he went.
No Sleep Club: Two Words and Why They Work
No Sleep Club is a merch brand Josh built around a philosophy that sounds simple until you actually try to live it: keep going.
The name isn’t about glorifying burnout or grinding yourself into the ground. It’s more honest than that. It’s about the nights you’re up past midnight finishing something you care about — not because someone told you to, but because you can’t stop. The work is alive. You’re in it.
“The whole point of No Sleep Club is just… keep going. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.”
What makes it work as a brand is the same thing that makes it work as a philosophy: it’s specific enough to feel personal but universal enough to fit anyone building something. A filmmaker staying up to finish an edit. A student in at 2 a.m. A new business owner sitting with their fear. The shirt means the same thing to all of them.
The brand is still early. Josh is figuring out the operations, the logistics, the growth. But the mission is clear — and clarity like that is hard to fake.
How Josh Got the Wedding Gig
Josh’s path into wedding videography is a clean case study in how most creative opportunities actually happen — not through portfolios or formal applications, but through being present and willing to start a conversation.
He was at a wedding. He saw the videographer working. He walked over, introduced himself, and asked questions. That conversation led to a connection. The connection led to a job.
It’s not complicated, but it requires the thing most people skip: actually saying something. Josh didn’t wait until he had the perfect pitch or the right gear. He was curious, and he showed it.
“You just have to talk to people. That’s literally it.”
The job itself had a learning curve. Wedding videography runs on its own rhythms and pressures, different from anything he’d done before. But he said yes first and figured out the rest on the other side of it.
A Car Breakdown, a West Coast Trip, and the Gear That Came After
Before landing in his new place, Josh took a trip out West — the kind of trip you take when you’re between chapters and trying to figure out what the next one looks like. His car broke down mid-trip.
Most people dread that story. You’re far from home, nothing is settled, and now this. For Josh, it became something else — a forced stop, a moment to recalibrate before coming back.
He returned with new roommates, new plants, a new mic, and a better lighting setup. The car got fixed. The chapter moved forward. The breakdown didn’t end the trip — it just changed the route.
That rhythm — disruption followed by recalibration — is one of the quieter threads in this episode. Josh doesn’t dramatize the hard stretches. He acknowledges them and keeps moving.
Anxiety and Gratitude Can’t Coexist
The sharpest moment in this episode came out of a longer conversation about mental health and what it actually takes to stay level when creative work gets hard.
“Anxiety and gratitude can’t coexist. You literally can’t feel both at the same time.”
He’s not dismissing anxiety or pretending it doesn’t show up. He’s describing a tool — a way of interrupting a spiral before it takes over. When the anxiety gets loud, pivot to what you’re grateful for. Not as a platitude. As a real pattern break.
The context matters here. Josh talked at length about his new house and the people in it — spike ball with neighbors, dinners with roommates, the low-stakes communal stuff that turns out to be load-bearing for your mental health. He didn’t frame community as a nice bonus. He treated it as structural.
“The people are the whole point. Everything else is just what you make together.”
Isaac connected with this directly. Both of them have spent enough time in the creator world to notice what happens to people who try to go it alone — more output, usually, but at a cost. The people around you aren’t a distraction from the work. They’re what makes the work sustainable in the first place.
Key Takeaways
- Keep going is a complete philosophy. No Sleep Club isn’t a hustle brand — it’s about showing up for the work you actually care about, late nights and all. Two words, and they’re enough.
- Most opportunities start with a conversation. Josh landed his first wedding gig by talking to the videographer at a wedding. No pitch, no portfolio — just genuine curiosity and a willingness to say hello.
- Disruption is part of the route. Programs get shut down. Cars break down. The through-line isn’t smooth conditions — it’s a decision to keep moving anyway.
- Anxiety and gratitude can’t coexist. When the spiral starts, pivot to what you’re grateful for. It’s not spiritual bypassing — it’s a real cognitive interrupt.
- The people around you are structural. Community isn’t the soft part of building something — it’s what makes it sustainable. Don’t underestimate the spike ball games.
Follow Josh at instagram.com/joshdfilm. Connect with Isaac at isaacjarnagin.com or on Instagram.
