Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: And now, here's something we hope you really like.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: You're listening to creating daily.
All right, John Dispenza in the studio. What's up, man?
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Good to see you, Billy. It's always good to see you. But it also feels weird to do it with a microphone in front of me.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, normally we are. Well, I'm going to produce the show, too, so I'm like, there's no ernie over here.
You know, all these big podcast guys. Pull it up, pull it up.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Show to me on Google. You just go ahead and do that, billy.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, let me pull it up real quick.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Why do you have so many incognito windows open?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I just, you know. What? What are you doing? I was just starting my OnlyFans account and then gave up right before you came in. If you were going to do a no show, I was going to put on a different kind of show.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: So that was there. That explains why there was a tarp on the couch when we got here.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Oh, dude. Well, John, I appreciate you coming, man. This is gonna be a fun show. I'm just. No way I'm pushing these buttons the whole time. It's already distracting me. Maybe I'll put it over here.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: How many buttons do you have within your reach right now? You got, what, 24 on that stream deck? Plus another.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, 15. Plus a couple other. Plus a couple other.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: I can set it up different settings.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Probably alive right now if we wanted.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Am I realistically saying you've got the option to put a between that and your rodecaster? Like 100 different buttons within reach?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: And if the rodecaster is actually acting correct, I would go ahead and try to throw in a couple zingers. But since we barely got your mic working before the show, I'm gonna leave it alone.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: You are every grandparents nightmare right now, though. I just want to turn the volume up or down.
Why are there so many buttons?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Oh, dude. Well, man, it's been a while since I've done a podcast with anybody in studio. Probably five years. You and Harrison. I want to call him Harry for some reason, but Harrison? Is that his nickname?
[00:01:56] Speaker A: I've given him the nickname Harry. Probably others have as well, and he's never hit me.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Okay, well, you are his friend, so. But I guess if I said, hey, Harrison, I remember your great burritos, man. Like, you had really great burritos when we all worked. I say we worked together. You guys really worked together. I kind of came into your life for a very small season of my life.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah. You never really drank the cold water to stick around with us. But I think you were memorable. Like, you know, we had at that point in tech we were going through, we'd bring in 15 new faces, and we'd say goodbye to ten of them at the end of every month. So there was a. It was like working in a kitchen, almost.
And while you were only there for a limited amount of time, I think you're probably one of the more memorable of the, I don't know, 200 employees. I methadore my tenure there.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, I think you guys, I think that was, like, a burn and churn model of employees that I didn't really understand, but I'm like, it was a numbers game. And they were not shy about saying, hey, this is a numbers game.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And, I mean, to their credit or without trying to give too much credit to Capitalistic America, it was. It was exactly that. It was a system. If we do this, then we'll make enough money to keep doing this. And if you don't hit your numbers, then you. You don't work here.
I kind of, like, at the time of my life, I kind of respected that. I was like, all right, so no one tells me I can't work Saturday. No one tells me I can't work overtime. The more I grind, the more I get. Some of that was really. Was really good. And, you know, then after a couple of years go by, and your family's like, are you still alive? Cause we missed you the last two christmases. Then you start to kind of reevaluate, like, all right, I'm. What am I really doing this for? How ahead can I get?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: What you don't understand, nan, I just have to hit these eight metrics, and I can't be 5% lower. It's over for me.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Look, the whole country of Australia opens up after 08:00 p.m. over here. So I got. I got another 6 hours of work I can do if I turn through Sydney into Melbourne and stay late.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Dude, I love how many people, all one person, listening to this, which is probably me going, what are they talking about? But we're not going to say any names. But we did work together in a sales environment, which was really fun, man. I actually learned a lot that I took with me into other places of life. And in what I do now, I mean, I close a lot of deals every month now, they weren't as high a ticket as that, but probably not as hard of a sales process, but I still learned a lot, and I get to meet some really cool, creative people out of there, like you, Harrison. And then that's it. It's only two.
That's the only two I know doing creative stuff. Anybody else?
[00:04:46] Speaker A: There's probably one or two more. There's. I don't know if you remember Brian, but he's kind of. I don't know. He's kind of become, like, a vlogger, and he tries to do sales coaching, which, I mean, thinking back on, it's ironic, because he got let go from a sales team, and now he's a sales coach. But really, what better? Like, of course, if you're a sales coach, you've had that sort of experience. So I think there's also some good takeaways from that experience, like, into your point, Billy. Everybody there, you know, got worked. Uh, you were there to work and you were gonna hit your numbers. But the smart ones, the ones that I've kind of kept up with and stay in touch with, even if they're looking back on that employment, is bitter, or they kind of hated the way that things shaked out for them. The smart ones did find things to take away from that. Like, it was. It was a profitable company that really exploded quickly, and there were some valuable lessons in that. Like, to your point, closing deals later in life. Totally different process, totally different client base. But some of those things have helped you out. That's cool to hear.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think it's too, like, whatever sales process or system they use. I don't. Was it the Wolf of Wall street guy? Was it kind of some of that as well?
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we all kind of watch that movie. Those of us that were on the sales team were like, yeah, you know, we weren't. We weren't selling million dollar stock tickets to anyone. But was that, like, a little bit.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Of the process, like, the actual, like, guys coaching or. No. Or did I just hear that somewhere? Or maybe somebody lied to me and told me that.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Well, I think the guys that were running the sales team were very inspired by that methodology of sales, but we.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Did probably just more the cocaine possibilities.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: That part was also, you know, if you're on a sales team, you've probably fantasized about.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Oh, definitely cocaine.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Adderall definitions. If you're.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: I wasn't. I've never even fantasized about any of that until I was on that sales team. And I'm like, you know what? This whiskey shot at lunch isn't doing it anymore.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Helps. But if I had cocaine, I could stay up and hit Australia, too. Get here early and work through the Europe before they get off work.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it was pretty fun to hear other accents from different countries. And then you're like, I feel like a weirdo just calling you in the middle of your morning in the UK, talking about whatever we were talking about, so.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: And it was also like we were the determined tech startups is like, build it as you fly or something to that effect. Yeah, that was so common. And it, like, living through it, everything just kind of felt normal. Like, yeah, we're not a big company. We can pivot and we can change. And I remember when we first started calling overseas because it was like, this untapped market to call over there. Our products worked over there, so why not try selling them? But then you become aware very quickly that, like, an Italian doesn't kind of beat around the bush when you're trying to make a sales call.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: And he's not southern. He's not like a southern gentleman.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: No, there's no, like, oh, hope your petunias are growing. Well, anyways, I'm calling about this thing that might make you more money. Like, the Germans were very. So you started to get all these different versions of. No. And a lot of it was just culturally based. So I remember early on, like, actually spending time at work researching what is a english sales team look like? What does it look like for people to get a sales call when they're in Sweden?
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: And trying to work that into, you know, because it's. It's very, like, templated. Here's your script, here's your talking points. Go make phone calls and make sales. But it didn't translate to especially countries where English wasn't a primary language. So figuring out, you know, like, when I call Germany, it's really just about. Here's what it costs. Here's where you're. Here's what you stand to gain. Now let's talk. And instead of in America, where you kind of work towards that.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Yeah. They're like, let me sell you the Ikea model, which is an Ikea couch, by the way.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: It's comfortable, man.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: You think so? Yeah, we hate it. That's why it's here in my office.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: I'm not mad at this couch.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: We're like, the arms are too low. You can't lay down on it. There's like, no, it's good for this environment.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess I wouldn't want to watch, like, a whole football game sitting here. But it's good for podcasting. It's good for my posture.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: We're very much like Taco Bell. Uncomfortable, so nobody stays that long. Yeah, that's the Taco Bell model? I think so.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: So you're the last time you've eaten inside a taco bell?
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Dude, I never. I don't know if I ever have. I mean, probably when I was a teenager, but I'll still. Don't tell my wife, but I'll still have to drive through every now and again.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's kind of a staple.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Okay. You tell me what you want. I'm going to judge you and potentially kick you out of here.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: I'll tell you what, the number one taco bell item for me is this cheesy Gordita crunch.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: I've never had that.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Wow. Wow.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: I'm like the supreme crunch guy. The crunchwrap.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: The crunchwrap.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: The crunchwrap is good.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: You like chicken or.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: I just like that weird quesadilla that's always, like, melts in your car everywhere, all over your car.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Whatever they do to their quesadilla has, like, a special flavor that's not found in nature, but it's also very addicting. Sometimes I crave a quesadilla. Then I get there and I'm like, I know I really need the cheesy Gordita crunch. And the reason is because, like, the outer PETA, it gives you that super plush, soft shell, but then there's a hard shell inside. So you get a hard shell, but it doesn't crack and crumble because the pita holds it all together. It's. It's tacos evolved.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: And this is the number one reason, John, that I love you. I miss you being around in the office. I met. Yeah. And for people who don't know, John and I worked together in the beginning of my Amazon business, and you came in and I think you're transitioning jobs, and you've done a lot of that or something. I can't remember. But anyway, you're like, hey, I got some free time. I come help you in and make videos and do all that stuff. And I didn't even know at that point. I don't think, like, I knew you from the sales role. I knew you as, like, a, you know, a dominant salesperson in this. In the space we were in. I didn't really even know. You're, like, into content creation or videos or any of that stuff. And then I don't know how we even started that conversation. I can't remember. It's been three years ago now. I was in Puerto Rico I think.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: When we first connected over, yep, I remember that. I think it was probably about, we probably started talking about camera equipment. Oh yeah, probably terrible fetish hobby of mine to just look up camera equipment and like fawn over the details. Like I'm on Pornhub except it's Best Buy or Reddit. And I'm like, man, I think I could probably swing this lens and use it twice.
So it was nice to talk to you about because you also nerd out about you have more cameras than your small podcast studio than I think a proper giant production house would even have.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Well, you know, I'm just trying to be actually, dude, I was gonna say Mister Beast, but that's actually, they have like 100 cameras per square inch of their building or something.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's an unfair, that's like he's at that level that you shouldn't even aspire to get to.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: So do. So we started off, we started working together on the Amazon influencer thing. You came in, you helped me build business, build brand. We did the stream team live thing for a while. Like that was kind of fun doing that, talking about products, nerding out and then just fast forward. Business was great. It was booming, it was awesome. And then came January and was like, I remember that. Hey, John, I'm really sorry, dude, but there's no more packages in the mailbox.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Not much we can do about this.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: And then, dude, I don't know what happened to you afterward. No, we haven't talked since actually. I guess you went to, I don't know. But take me through your process of content creation. Cause I know you guys have started a podcast now and you do your own creative projects and you do freelance for other people as well on the side. So take me through that journey after dillbilly HQ.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Oh man, I honestly, so I don't, I remember it was after Christmas and in like our deal, Billy HQ, the stream team, the deals were plummeting and I was like, okay, I can't like take half of Billy's money that he's now not making. So let's try and pivot to something else. I don't even really remember where I went next. I bounced around like going back to, I had a hospitality background years ago, so, and they're always hiring. So I was like, okay, generally my life has been ruled by some version of a nine to five. And then the creative work is like what I do to feel good, you know, like sometimes after you work in an office for 8 hours, you're like, I just want to get out and dig a ditch with my hands, and sometimes I'll try that, too. But doing something creative, it was really for me. It kind of began when we were working for that tech company. We were. I started a podcast with them, and.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Oh, dude, I forgot all about that.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Yep, that was like, that was my first, like, big podcast that actually had a good amount of exposure, and we were pivoting. At the time, video podcasts were more of a new thing. So we were trying to wrap our heads around how to add video content. And then Covid happened, and we started finding ways that we could use. Wow, this sounds bad. But, like, use Covid to make money for the company or increase brand awareness. So we started these live events and that for me, I remember the first live event we did, I was like, we should do, like, as a halftime show. It'd be fun if we did a game show where we had some, like, kind of celebrities in this space. Come on. I'll be, like, a game show host. It'll be funny. It'll be kind of interactive, and everybody ran with it. And then I realized, like, at best, I had used imovie a handful of times before. So I remember, like, it was like, the project was due at midnight, and I'm, like, downloading final cut, watching YouTube tutorials on how to use final cut. What is a transition?
But it was just. It was enrapturing. I was like, I want to understand how all of this works. And then the space just blew up. Like, okay, now how do I film the content that I want to edit and what is color grading and all that stuff was just really exciting to learn as opposed to, like, things that you have to learn. Like, John, here's the legal forms you have to fill out for a new. Okay, this is hell, but let me go nerd out about f stops and filming in the log and how to make this look a certain way.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Yeah, dude. Well, that's what I always intrigued me about. The way you think is, like, you're, like, real. I mean, if I had to put a label on you, like an engineer brain kind of, but. But you're like a mix. Like, you know, left brain, right. I don't know, whatever that I'm not going to get into something I don't know about, but I think you do. Or, like, very creative. But then you're very, like, systematic as well. It's like, yes. You're like a spreadsheet guy that can also create a logo. And I'm like, why? What is wrong with this guy. I cannot do a spreadsheet. I can barely create a logo. But I can sell cheap videos to chinese companies. Like, pretty good at that. But I've always admired that about you because, you know, when you're here, it's like. And, you know, just talking about the whole creative process. But then again, you're like, I'm like, man, I just can't organize this. And you're like, oh, dude, I think I can wizard up a system for you in a CRM. And I'm like, what? I thought you were, like, a creative guy. Now you're like, the CRM wizard. Like, what the heck? So I've always admired that about you, dude. So I love that you dive into those things, and not that I think they're necessary, obviously, I'm not going to color grade this. I don't even. I don't. I pray and color grade something. 20 years or 15 at least. Wait, ten. I've been married for ten years. I haven't done professional tv stuff in ten years. So there we go. So pretty. So post marriage, but, um. So. So, dude, so you and Harrison recently, I don't know how recently, 20 something episodes ago, started this really funny podcast, dude. It is. It has me in stitches, and I haven't kept up from the beginning, so I feel like I'm, like, missing some storylines occasionally, maybe some. You guys do catch. You do catch people up every episode.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: But, dude, tell me to walk me through this, because I think it's one of the funniest shows I've seen, and I watch a lot of comedy shows.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: That's kind. I appreciate hearing that. Yeah, it's funny, and I'll take it as a compliment. The engineer, creative brain. I think that's a good summary. Like, it stems from laziness. Billy. I want to spend my time doing what I enjoy, so I'll waste two days figuring out how to automate the dumb stuff that gets in the way.
So Harrison and I had done a couple of podcasts before. He worked with me on the big one with the tech company we were at, and I kind of, after enough of that, I was like, I don't want to do podcasts. It's actually quite a bit of work, especially if you add video and you want to edit out the pauses and the ums and the mistakes. Like, it's one of the most arduous. It's fun because you're in that creative space and, you know, you get to maybe apply some effects and help tell a story, but it's also arduous, boring sometimes, and you have a deadline if you really want to keep your listeners. So he came to me a couple of times asking would I want to help edit or produce a show? And I was like, nah, I don't have the bandwidth right now. I'm kind of focused on this nine to five. I really need to get insurance again. And eventually he came to me and he said, I have an idea for a show that's not going to require a lot of research ahead of time. We don't have to do much editing. I broke that rule right away, and I said, all right, here's a theme. We're going to set a deadline. We're going to do 50 episodes or something like that. So I know I've got an out at the end of this podcasting for eternity, and then finally getting burnt out or hoping that one day you get monetized. I was like, I don't care if we make money. We're going to do this for fun, but we're going to have, like, a hard stop built in where we can reevaluate and change directions or take a break. And that was what really brought me back in.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Okay, that's a good, I mean, that's pretty good, man. Cause I know I had a co host of the fishing show. Well, I had a co host of a different fishing show before we had no parameters. That was a train wreck, almost got in a fistfight, and this guy's house. That's a true story. And, you know, let's, you know, got out of that, sold my part to him, and then my second co host, dude, we lined it all out, and now we didn't have a stopping point, but it naturally kind of came up, especially with, you know, Amazon stuff and all this started taking over and. Yeah, so I was like, man, this doesn't make sense. Like, we're splitting the pie when you can just have the whole pie and I can have my whole pie. And so I think that's cool for, for people who might be, you know, listening to the show or watching going, man, I want to do a creative project like this with somebody. I love that. I love that you have that stopping point to it. I don't love it that you said you don't care about monetizing like that. I mean, John, I didn't want.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: I didn't want monetizing to be the goal because I felt like it always was.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Oh, that's true. Okay.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: In any creative project I had done, you know, the. It, it was fun. Another thing I've done for a long time is woodworking as, like, a creative outlet. Let me just build. Let me build a little monitor stand out of walnut and maple, because it'll look good, and it'll bring me joy, and I'd rather build it than buy one. And the minute you take that and you start doing it for something else, like, let me build 20 of these so I can sell them, the joy kind of gets stripped away from that. And I was feeling the same thing in my creative projects. Now, when I was doing video work or photography work for someone else, it was a paid job, and I could kind of view it in that way, and I was like, all right, I know how to use a camera. I will deliver you good photos. But it never brought the same joy as when I just take my camera into the woods and look for a cool bird or something.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: So the monetization thing, like, yeah, if it happens, that would be great, and I wouldn't turn it down, but I didn't want that to be the goal, because then you're just like, you know, how do we get more listeners, and how do we expand, and where should we be marketing and all these problems you create that are really hard to solve without money or celebrity endorsement.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: So, I mean, just have me on your show, dude.
I'll bring the crowd, man. I got four people I can swear we'll bring to the show.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Hey, plus four listeners is plus four.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Listeners, but, yeah, man, so, okay. So if anybody wants to check out the podcast, it's called beer me that movie.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: And, dude, it is fun. So tell us about the whole, like, how this came about. Like, because this is a funny concept. And, dude, you guys are hilarious now. And I watch it in jealousy, and I watch it, and I envy the chemistry and the free. I mean, dude, just the. I mean, Theo Vaughn's one of my favorite podcast to listen to. You guys are my second. Like, I mean, it's probably even better than his stuff.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Oh, don't say that.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: I'm saying the chemistry between the two people, because, like, normally, it's like, theo Vaughn, you know, throwing zingers that maybe people get. Maybe they don't get, but you guys were like, zingers.
It's like a ping pong table of zingers. I'm like, dude, this is so funny. Like, do you guys scripted? Is it really made up? Like, yeah, spill the tea.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: So, the. The logline of this podcast is Harrison and I'll sit down, and we go through. There's a social media platform called Untapped, where people log beers that they drink, and beers in the world today have insane names. So the idea is, we look at the beers you're drinking, and we find crazy names, and then we turn those into movie pitch ideas on the spot. And every week, we record that episode, and then the following week, we pick one of our favorites, and we turn that into, like, a fully thought out feature movie idea.
So far, Robert Zemeckis has not called us about these. But the main idea is, like, we've both got backgrounds in this. Like, Harrison's written scripts before.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: We've at least been close enough to this industry where we understand both the beer side and the movie side, and then we can just sit down and really have fun with it. And one of my favorite things is, like, I don't have to research where these hops came from and who grew the barley for this beer. It's just the beer's name is dump truck of doom. Wouldn't it be funny if we made this into a movie about a stripper that had an ass so fat you couldn't look away from it? Or, you know, like. And we'll riff like that. We'll kind of go back and forth for a couple of minutes.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, you got. I mean, it's funny. And if anybody hasn't checked it out, please, it's beer. It's beer me that way. Hold on. It's beer me that movie.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Beer me that movie.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Beer me that movie.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Very, very old millennial vibes, for sure. Harrison's full fledged a dad, so he brings that energy.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I could tell.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah, he brings. He loves puns, and we kind of keep each other off balance enough. Wherever. I. I think. I think, to your point, it does kind of work. Well, our humors are actually pretty different, but. But it's like, you know, it's like a good relationship where he's thinking about Taco Bell and I'm thinking about Chinese, and we end up having a general stow's taco. And it's good.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, dude, it's that. It's that interesting.
Yeah, I mean, that's what it. You know, it's like Theo Vaughn's brain split in half, you know, because I feel like he, like, puts it all together himself.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Yeah, he's brilliant. Like, he doesn't get enough. He maybe gets too much credit, but I think he's. He's an example of, like, a really good podcaster.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And, dude, I love the entertainment fact of it, too. And that's one thing that I've always fantasized about as a content creator is being very entertaining. And then I watch myself back, I watch the replay and go, oh, you're like really not that, like on the inside, I feel full of energy and I'm like, you know, I think it's a great show and it's funny. And then I watch back and I'm like, wow, dude, you're sticking them on. Like, you suck.
It's like good. You can bring a little bit of value to, you know, creators or whatever, but man, I love the show. I think it's awesome. I've always been a big fan of what you do because I do think you're that super dialed in like perfectionist, but creator that is will just like really okay, okay. It's like, like the other day I sent somebody to you. They called me, they said, hey, I want you to edit this, this YouTube channel for me. And I go, man, I'm way too busy. I know my friend John picks up some stuff like this. I'm going to send him to you. And so I just sent you the message and then you reach back out like a few days later with like a full like 1 minute walk through, like on screen. Here's these details. Here's what I would do. Here's the side by side audio comparison. Here's the side by side video. Here's how you can make this better. This better, this better. And the guy is literally like, john, you blew my mind. I'm calling tomorrow. And I just thought, okay, dude, this guy's skill set of editing, sales, wowing the customer presentation. I mean, as content creators, I feel like a lot of content creators don't think that way and they should because they can get a lot of business from there. So it's probably a no brainer that you and this guy are like, we're going to work together for a little bit and see what happens. And so I thought that was really cool to use your skillset to set yourself up for a job, you know, for a gig or whatever. But then also you have like this really creative, fun podcast that you can do. And I have trouble separating these two. Like, this is my fun podcast and listen to me, I'm still like, so anyway, let's talk about the business of podcasting. You know, it's like, dude, shut up and just have fun. And I have a hard time doing that. But you guys do a phenomenal job at it.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Well, you have to like is a podcast is effectively a discussion. It's a narrative of someone giving you information, or it's two people that are hopefully entertaining or exchanging information. And I think if it's not just a kitchen table conversation, you have to have some kind of guardrails set up. So the conversation remains enjoyable. If we were still riffing on Taco Bell, the listening experience is nothing now. Really degraded, you know, there's so much.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: So I think you're.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: We'll start with number one on the.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: I don't. I don't fault you at all. I think it's. I appreciate it, especially as a guest, having you kind of reframe where we're going next. I think it. It matches, like, to your point, when I saw the YouTube channel of the. Of the guy that you sent me, I was like, all right. I don't know if he's going to want to work with me, but I know what I could do to help him. And that's just. That's kind of my approach. Like doing the podcast with Harrison. I want to know, going into it, this is for fun. I'm going to spend some time editing it, and I'm going to have fun doing it. But it's not. The goal isn't to make money or sell anything. Now, when I saw that guy's YouTube video, I was like, I probably would have to make more money than he's going to think I'm worth. But for what it's worth, here's some things. Instantly I know that would help. So rather than try and waste his time, let me just spend a minute and show him so he gets a clear picture of what he's missing. And in the process, I'm showing him that I can do this for you as well. So if this is where you want to go, I would be a good service for you. And it worked out really well, which was one of my favorite moments, being kind of a hobbyist creator.
The worst part of that for me is going out and hustling for business. Like, you want to be a wedding photographer. God bless you. That is so much work just to get the clients and then keep the clients happy. It doesn't matter if you're a good photographer or not. There's so much extra work that goes into getting that client list, which is why creative for me has always been a second job. I don't have the capacity to get up every day with no income and go find someone and sell my service to them. I'd rather I approach it like, here's someone that needs some help, and I have a skill set that would help them. Can we reach a financial agreement that will benefit us both?
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Yeah, man. And I mean, I think that is a cool, well, one, I love that you in that particular situation.
Cause, you know, the whole sales process, I mean, you know, sales, like, you know, content creation probably, I mean, very equal or maybe even more at times. And it's like, you could have been like, okay, so, and so let's book a call. Let me show you four other channels that I worked on. Let me show you ten other projects that I've done. But it was like, instead of, like, letting you, you know, your potential client, take a guess at what is possible for him, you just showed him. And I was like, I was like, okay, that's pretty cool. I mean, in my business, I work with people and I create content, and I necessarily can't do that because I have to have their product, which you had his product, which was his YouTube channel, and you, like, ripped it and whatever and got the video. And. How'd you do that, by the way?
[00:30:47] Speaker A: John, technically you're not allowed to, you're not technically allowed to download someone's posted YouTube video. But I figured in this case, hopefully he'd give me a pass.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, night dude was super cool.
But I think it goes to this whole creator economy when we're thinking about, you know, we want to create something fun. We want to, we want to be able to sometimes even get compensated for it. And it is cool to separate these fun projects from, like, paid collaborations, you know. And it's like, you know, for me, my wife told me the other day, she was like, hey, you got to get a hobby. Like, you work, you wake up at 435 o'clock in the morning, you're at your office by 545 or six, you come home, you pick our son up around, you know, 2230. Then you're at home for the rest of the day like, you don't do anything else. And I'm like, okay, you're right. You know, I gotta, that's a good wife.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: I mean, it sucks to hear, but that's good advice.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: Well, then she's like, you know, you should go to the gym. I'm like, but she does crossfit, you know, so she's like, she's like, really into it. I honestly, I tried it, dude. I tried it. I mean, I went for three months. I think I did three sessions in that three month period.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: That's good. You got your money's worth. Sorta.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: I took all the classes, and I'm like, I'm 37. My spine is going to be severed if I make one wrong move. So it wasn't because I couldn't physically do it, I just couldn't mentally overcome that fear. But yeah, man, so I do. I love the journey. And you and our friends, we live in this town of Wilmington. And part of this podcast is like, I want to connect with other local people who are doing really cool stuff.
You and Harrison already have a gig, so I was going to see if you want to be my co host and make funny jokes. But you already have. It's okay. It's okay. We already did our.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: That's the guilt process of sales, Billy, that you're employing right now.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: I'm just kidding, dude. I would not. I mean, I love your guys show so much. Dude, it is so funny. It cracks me up. But you do more than that. So you do do some other stuff as well in the creative space. You know, you can go to your website, which is John. Like, tell me what it is.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Creating with John.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Creating with john.com. and yet you do your. I mean, you just have so many skills. Video, woodworking, and the woodworks. Good. You. I remember you made me some headphone holders.
I think I sold that a yard sale.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: You're the only person that's made money on one of my wood projects.
I think. Actually, no. One time I built a headboard for a boss of mine, and he insisted that he pay me. But like, to your wife's point, yeah, I could start an Etsy store. I could try doing some version of marketing woodworking. I could go to a new restaurant and tell them I'll build their tables for them. But for me, that's not where I get joy. And I guess because I'm fortunate enough to mostly maintain some sort of steady income through working for someone else, ive never felt like I have to go to that restaurant and try and sell my tables to them.
The way I approach woodworking, and to a lesser extent, editing and video and photography work, etcetera, is going to make me really happy. I see this brewery is offering flights and their flight boards are falling apart, or they dont have any branding on them. And I know that I could create something for them that would. That would represent their brand and make them proud. And it just make me feel good.
Maybe I'll spend like $50 on wood, and maybe they'll give me a free beer. At the end of the day, it's kind of a wash. Because the idea is, if I bring you. These flight boards, it just makes. It makes me feel good more than them compensating me. Like, $400 is going to make me feel good. Right. I'm proud of that for a year afterwards. So, like, that hobby, part of being creative allows me, and I'm not. I'm not beholden to them. They didn't get to say, I want maple inlays and I want the logo over here. And then you need to remake trees and make them an inch higher. I'm just making something that I think is best for you, and if you like it, great. Not. I had fun making it, and. And that's it. I don't, I don't have to, like, go back and edit your wedding photos to make the sun brighter.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Yeah, for the mother in law, I'm.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Sure, like, part of that, I think, actually, now that I've said that out loud, it's a lot of, like, selfishness or vanity.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: But, like, I did two weddings, and one of them was great, and the other one was kind of a nightmare. And what I learned is, like, I've developed an eye for the way I want my photos to look, and I personally think this is a good look for my photos. That's why I do it that way.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: And if I'm taking your. If you see, I showed you what I do and you said, I like this, and I take your photos and I spend time and I call the bad ones and I edit them, and here you go. And then you're like, nah, could we. These are, like, too warm looking, or I don't like the dark. And I'm like, all right, now, now I'm not working for you anymore. Like, I want you to be happy, but I don't want this. Isn't this taking the joy out of my creative hobby right now?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Well, dude, I do think that, like, with wedding photography, I don't know that much about it, but I do have a friend of mine who is, like, a phenomenal. He still is, like, just a phenomenal photographer. And people, you know, if people are really, I mean, somebody out there, mother in laws, who are looking for a photographer hire because of the style. Because that's the style of it. You know, it's like, people hire me to do videos for their products on Amazon because of the style that I bring to the table, and that's what I put on there. I'm like, I'm a productized service. Like, if you want me to do it, this is what you're getting, and this is what it costs, and I'm not budging from that. You know, I'll take your suggestions and, quote, unquote, retirements or requirements. I'm trying to retire, but requirements, I'm.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Going to retire you after this.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. If you try to make me do a revision, I will retire a relationship like no revision. So. But I do think it's a fine line of balance between, you know, that freelance, working hourly, lots of revisions, that type of thing, versus, here's what I'm good at as a creator, as a content creator in, and, dude, I always, and I say this out loud because I'm like an entrepreneur first. Content creator second. Yeah, my wife is a content creator first, entrepreneur second. She's very, like, if she could just, like, lay out in the sun and paint and get paid for it somehow.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: And she's very good.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: And take her, like, art in general. Yeah, she, dude, she's great. I mean, she's like a great phenomenon. I mean, everything she does, very much like you. Very detailed, meticulous. It's got to be done. It's got to be done right. And I'm just like, how quick can I get it done?
You know, I'm like the burn and churn, almost like the metric model of the place we worked at.
I can't fire myself.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: You know your numbers. You know what you want to hit. And that's like, I think that I, I don't want to say I'm jealous, but surely there's a part of me that's jealous that you found a way to do something you're good at and do it for yourself, and you've paved your own path and found your own clients and built your, like, you built your own number system. But the thing that I think your wife would agree with me on is, like, you're beholden to that to an extent. If someone sends you products, you have to hit the brand, the style that you've created, and it doesn't give you the freedom to play around, which is that's where, like, you have a gorgeous setup in your equipment in this office. And that's where I would, I would also challenge you to say, like, all right, in the next six months, I'm going to write and film a five minute short video and go through that process just for fun, beholden to no rules. And just see, like, maybe you take something away from it that then affects the way you do your videos professionally and offers you a chance to upsell people. Or maybe it's just fun. Like, maybe it just allows you to live in the tech that you love, but do it in a way that you haven't done before.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, man. I do think that's important in it. And it is one of those things, like. And like you said, like, you have. You work, you have your job, you get your thing and you love that, and you do that, and that's what pays the bills, and then you can do the fun thing. And I feel like over the last couple years, it's like, okay, man, I've built that. I've built that, like, economy for myself in my own business. And now I'm like, okay. That's kind of, like, on autopilot a little bit. Not as much. Because the thing that sucks about my job is, like, if I don't show up, I don't make money. So this business is like this. Yeah.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: You can take off any day that you want. It just won't eat that day.
[00:39:38] Speaker B: Yeah, no Taco Bell for me. You know what? Meanwhile, where you're like, yeah, baby, I'm eating taco bell every day. Because. But I think it is that balance, but also things a lot to do with, like, personality. And, I mean, I'm just not a good employee unless it's, like, a chaotic job. If there's like. And I've worked two jobs in my life where it was just like, there's a lot of responsibilities. Nothing is consistent. You don't stay still for longer than ten minutes, and it just feels like chaos. And for whatever reason, I thrive in those moments. I'm like, this is what I'm doing. You know? It's like when I'm in here and I get to shoot 64 product videos in a day, and then, like, nine people are texting me, calling me, emailing me, trying to book me on a podcast, I'm like, this is the dream. And my wife is like, I don't want anyone texting me all day while I work on this PDF.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Exactly. I need focus time. I'm putting on some instrumental music. I'm closing the door. The lights are going dim. I'm gonna zone in. Whereas, yes, Bill, you're like, light everything on fire. And I will manage all of that.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Yeah, well, what happened, and that's what happened with his studio space was like, I'm in there. I get. I'm sort of cleaning my office, and I'm just cleaning, I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning. All of a sudden I have, like, this little mental snap. I'm like, I got this whole room in here. What do I do with this whole room. What am I going to do with it? And then I start going nuts and start setting up equipment and everything. And my wife's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't know.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: I'm seeing building it.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: They'll come. I post on Instagram, like, here's my new podcast. A little studio set up. Like, no, I'm not going to book you. You can't book time here. I'm not doing it.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: This is for you.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: This is just for me. I'm showing off.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: You're like that old italian grandma with plastic covering her couch. That's not for sitting on. You sit on the floor.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, I could do that with this couch.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, then we could eat taco Bell on it then.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: We. Yeah, for sure. We could eat Taco Bell on it now. Because I think how the Germans built this is we can rip all this off and throw in a washer.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: Oh, actually, that's really cool.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And you can, like, switch them out some on Amazon links in the bio.
If you've enjoyed this video up to this point, you haven't subscribed. Hit that.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Subscribe product review. Billy is done yet. We barely mentioned the couch. We were making you jealous of it the whole time.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: He's got Taco Bell stains all over it already.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: But you throw in the washing machine.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: Yeah, just throw the whole thing in the washing machine. Yeah, yeah, this thing's. Well, anyway, I'm not going to talk about the couch. This is degrading, as we talked about, or whatever. Whatever we said.
Well, dude, anything else you want to talk about before we. We dip? I know you got speaking woodworking. You got a woodworking project that's drying right now.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. Some of the.
Well, you set me up for this. We're not here to talk about woodworking, but I'll try and tie this in. So woodworking, for me, has been something that I've kept very sacred. I knew nothing about it. And my wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to buy a house that came with a garage. And the guy that lived there left a couple of crappy wood tools behind. And I. I was like, this is it.
[00:42:39] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:42:40] Speaker A: I'm gonna. This is it. I'm gonna. And I was picking up the plane and a chisel, and I was just mangling pieces of two x four, and I'm like, this is how they build cool stuff. It'll come together. And fortunately, I've had a lot of time to learn. YouTube's a great place to go for that if you don't have a woodshop teacher nearby.
So I was able to learn, and it was just every time I went out there and touched the wood, please don't take that out of context.
It just. It felt good. It felt like I was doing something solely for me, and most of that was just learning the process, which, for me, is very enjoyable.
[00:43:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: So starting from butchering two by fours to building, like, hardwood spice holders for friends as a gift, it's always felt good.
And that's. That's the. That's the thing that I'm taking away from this is I need to be a better friend and push Billy to find your woodworking. Like, it doesn't even have to involve pine. Maybe it's like, you know, maybe it's something that you're. Is adjacent to what you do professionally.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: Which is, like, an impossible hustle and do so, like, find that thing that requires you to say, hold on, I'm putting my headphones on, and I'm just gonna zen into this for a moment. And not even for the act of, like, getting good at editing audio better, but for the journey and what that brings to you professionally. Right. Even if it's just going for a walk on the beach and looking for rocks. Sometimes that little walk and getting away from work makes you more productive when you come back. Like, you process better.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, so I typically like to go outside, pop in the headphones, and clean up dog poop.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: But then what happens is, to my brain is I'm cleaning up dog poop. I'm like, man, I probably charge somebody to do this. I could probably charge my neighbor. He's got dogs. I bet he'd pay me $20. Come over there right now.
That's how my brain.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: Maybe the hustle is just your hobby.
So here's another. You were talking earlier how you appreciate the chaos of a place to work. And I was, again, fortunate enough to be at a place in my life where I was getting out for a while. I was working in banks and, like, finance and software, and that wasn't fun. But, you know, I bounced back and forth to Billy's point. I think I do kind of live in two worlds, where the idea of a steady nine to five where I know what I'm going to do day after day was appealing because it would give. I didn't, wouldn't be a mental drain. And then after a couple of years, I'm like, this is dumb. I know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. And I transitioned, and I ended up becoming a cook and spent ten years in restaurants feeling comfortable enough to call myself a chef. And the reason I was able to do that for ten years isn't because I was great at it. It was just because I didn't know what was coming next day. And I had the freedom where work was like, okay, we're going to do a new special. I'm going to go to the farmer's market, and I'm going to think about food, and I'm going to think about flavor, and then I'm going to come to work, and I don't know who's going to order it and whose birthday it'll be and who's going to have a special. So, like, all that chaos was very comfortable. And maybe that, Billy, maybe I'm not asking you to get another job, but.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: They need to be a chef.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: Maybe you would find some enjoyment even just being like. Like, try bartending at a tap room that's, like, relatively easy to pick up.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: That would be fun.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: And see how much. See if you actually enjoy the chaos behind the bar. Not to make extra money, but, like, to kind of get some of that creative juices flowing or, like, just task management.
[00:46:22] Speaker B: And then I would be like, john, guess what? Starting a food truck.
[00:46:26] Speaker A: There we go. That's the business we need.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: The mobile bar. Dude, how come nobody has that?
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Probably because we're in North Carolina. They would just immediately come shut you down or make it impossible to do, I guess.
[00:46:37] Speaker B: You can't roll up on your neighbor's yard and start selling beer.
[00:46:40] Speaker A: Oh, man. That's the freedom that I crave. Though food trucks have become pretty popular in the city we're in, beer trucks would destroy.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Dude, they would be good.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: And you wouldn't even have to come up with your own beer. You just serve everyone else's and buy some coolers. It'd be so cheap.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Sell it for $90.
[00:47:00] Speaker B: I do that on the back of my element. Just open the hatch, put a couple coolers.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: Just get two buckets full of ice and throw some kegs in there.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You don't even need cuffs. Just open up with spray. From a distance, it's like we charge by the shot of beer into your face per second.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: It flows. We'll follow your whole bachelorette party downtown.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: Oh, my God, dude. Okay, so this is a little off topic, but speaking of a bachelor party, a buddy of mine not too long ago, I don't know how many years ago was like, hey, we're going to the bachelor party over here at the japanese restaurant right off of college.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Okay, hero.
[00:47:39] Speaker B: I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so.
You know, they cook it in front of you and all that stuff. Well, they come around, they get this little spray bottle.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:49] Speaker B: You know, they're spraying in people's mouths. I don't even know what it is. I'm like, yeah, open your mouth. They're just spraying it. And everybody. I mean, I'm talking around the whole table. I'm talking over and over and over, just like rounds and rounds, and I'm like, ah, you know, I think it's like some kind of, like, sauce or something that we're, you know, I'm like, I don't know.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: I feel like it's just like salted rice water.
[00:48:09] Speaker B: Yeah, but no, it was definitely more than that, because when I. Yeah, it was like, I stood up. I'm like, what was in that bottle?
My buddy's like, that's like a wine. Rye or like, it's like some wine or something.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: I'm like, you just chug three glasses of wine.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: But, dude, it was insane. And I was like, how are you guys just walking around squirting people in the face with this? And, you know, one of our friends was like, really going for.
And, dude, I got up, and I'm like, I gotta go home. Like, I don't. This is not good.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: I drove here, man. I didn't know they were just gonna be squirting random in my mouth. The shrimp was fun. Yeah, I caught the shrimp.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
Anyway, that reminded me of that, of the keg idea. That's what I should do. Just start a brainstorming idea entrepreneur. We just sit here and riff all day about the weird businesses that you could start and make money.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: That was. I can't remember the name of it offhand, but that was one of my favorite podcasts that I'd ever listened to. I don't think they're still producing content, but if I remember mostly correct, it was two guys, and they would kind of come with a couple of business ideas, and then they would workshop them, and at the end of the podcast, they'd be like, all right, so here's our business idea. It's whatever. Taking old people to Chili's on free wing Wednesday and charging them $5 or whatever their kind of random idea ended up being. They ran this podcast for, like, 100 episodes.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: And within there, there's probably some good ideas to turn a business into. One of them is Billy, creating a business generator podcast.
[00:49:52] Speaker B: That's a good idea. That'd be fun.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: I think technically be allowed to be a hobby for you. I mean, you're basically still at work right now, but you're in a different room.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: I'm a different room. That's. Yeah, that's my own.
[00:50:06] Speaker A: I think one of the keys is, like, doing it with the intention of doing it for free and maybe I.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: Could put on my podcast. I don't have sponsors because I don't want to waste your time.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: So you have listened to a couple episodes, huh?
[00:50:22] Speaker B: As somebody who has a mastermind group that I teach people how to make money with content, I was just so like, good for you, John. Good for you.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:31] Speaker B: I mean, honestly, I'm not offended.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: It feels good every time I say that because I also consume a lot of podcasts and YouTube content is probably is aware by now, and what happens the minute you're like, oh, great, so and so released a new episode. I'm going to learn about roman history play.
Now, it used to be like maybe a half an hour or a host read ad, which a lot of times was, was acceptable or even enjoyable. Now it's like three to four minutes of dynamic inserted, kind of crappy ads. And then I get to the content that I signed up for, and I'm like, man, you took the one place that I really enjoyed and you turned it almost into instagram.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: That's true. Yeah.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: I will say vehemently, I'm kind of against dynamic inserted ads and podcasts, but if you're doing a podcast and you want to, and you're my host, and I'm trusting you, and you want to tell me why Sony camera systems are the best and they give you a kickback, I might even buy one because I do trust you. But if I just get a random commercial, I'm like, yeah, I've lived through these.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's why I tell people too. I'm like, man, if you're just going to one, to really make money off of dynamically inserted ads is like, impossible.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: I think you gotta have a lot of distribution.
[00:51:48] Speaker B: I think there's like a big hosting company called Lipson, and somebody was just telling me the other day, you have to have 20,000 downloads per episode to even get any kind of compensation whatsoever. And I'm like, that's a lot of downloads per episode for the average.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: You're talking about like the top five, maybe.
[00:52:11] Speaker B: Yeah, you know this stuff. Yeah, we didn't get into that.
[00:52:13] Speaker A: This is my nine to five.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: But, you know, yeah, you know, this world.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: You're, you're this. That's not an obtainable number. Unless you, unless you have a way to market your show, you either the, in the perfect world, your content is entertaining and engaging. And I like, to your point, Billy, how you want your content to be entertaining. I'm not right here, but I feel like that's the way to approach content. Don't just make me a makeup video because someone paid you to make up video. Like, I'm not interested in.
[00:52:44] Speaker B: That makes sense.
[00:52:45] Speaker A: I want to be entertained when you're selling me stuff or when you're teaching me stuff. So, like, I think that's the approach.
And for that, it makes it very hard because a lot of us are not entertaining enough to randomly recruit 20,000 people to come back and listen every week or day or month. So then what happens? So you need to get rain Wilson or Burt Kreischer or someone to co host your podcast.
[00:53:11] Speaker B: Act like Burke. Take that shirt off.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: So you're kind of like, you're limited. You have the, you have like, the idea that you'd be able to achieve that success. Like, I compare it to when I was growing up playing high school football, and I'm like, yeah, I'm a person and so is Barry Sanders. So by proxy, if I try hard enough, I could be in the NFL like Barry Sanders. No, no, no. Absolutely no. There's certain, there's certain gifts and discipline that he had that I did not have. And you can, you can kind of do that with professional sports. Like, you can spend 12 hours a day shooting hoops and you might get good enough to join the NBA. With podcasting, you have to do this. You have to take the same approach and you have to polish your content enough where someone's going to listen and want to keep listening. And that's, yeah, that's not like, oh, me and my friends started a show where we talk about NASCAR and we think it's great. Good. I bet you're going to find 100 people that also think it's great. And you're never going to get money on dynamic ad insertion, but you might find a local donut shop that wants your NASCAR people buying their donuts so you could actually sell. There's other ways to make money.
[00:54:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I agree, man. I think there's a, and that's the thing, too. It's like people got to keep in mind. It's like, it is a skill set you got to build over time. You know, it's like, oh, I want to be, you know, I've created, as of this week, as of recording this video, I've created 3333 product videos on the Amazon platform. So you were part of that? My wife is a little bit of part of that as well. And so that's a ton of freaking videos. And so even with that, I'm like, I put in a lot of work. So the person who just signed up yesterday emails me, hey, I want to be like, I want to do what you do. I'm like, if you want to do what I've, what I'm doing, you got to do what I did. And show up every day. Every day. Wake up at midnight to check your email to make sure you're the first guy that gets the deal from the chinese company to build this trust with those companies to where when they send you a two dollar pair of fingernail clippers that you're going to make no commission on Amazon, they can trust you show up and do that now, two years later, those same people now send me a $3,000 product and just be like, cool, man. Well, thanks for the video. Here's your money.
But I, but I think a lot of times people will hit the record button and then wonder, like, why is no one listen to my show?
[00:55:46] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:55:46] Speaker B: I'm like, well, you can't show up. When are you gonna show up to work three times and then expect to get paid for the life? Like, are we kidding? Content creators. Think about that. I mean, I'm like, dude, just because you've made a viral video, I have an 18 pound coffee mug actually holding up this mic stand right now because I didn't have any sandbags to do it appropriately. And that thing got 2.9 million views on TikTok, but, and gave me 1400 followers on that platform. However, I made a lot of money off that video night, one from the brand because I was doing the commission deal. I've made money since then, but I also haven't made another mug video since then. And so it's kind of that thing, you know, it's like, so I do think there is that weird thing in this content world where it's like, well, I'm just going to show up and just be myself and people will come and I'm like, you got a plan for that? When I monetize the fishing show within five episodes, it was a business plan. It was not a, we're going to try to get famous and have local people shout at us at a tackle shop. Now, that happened but it wasn't our goal setting out. Our goal was, we want to make money with this. This is a business. And so I definitely think there's like a, it's possible, but like you said, it's like you got to go build the plan and spend a lot of time just like a business to do it.
[00:57:09] Speaker A: In my opinion, that's a, that's a really good point to bring up in, in the creator space in general, I think, which involves, like, influencers and, you know, all the social media content creators, podcast content creators and woodworkers, all of us together, you can approach it as a hobby and creative and be like, I have this funny joke and I'm going to film it and I'm going to post it on TikTok and hopefully it goes viral. Well, you're going to fail. I mean, over 99% of the time, you're going to fail. And I don't want to be a downer because you see, beat them up, John.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: Beat them up.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: Right. Oh, Hawk Tua was nothing then. She was everywhere. And all this stuff happened for how many videos, what, like 6 million hour a day get uploaded to YouTube and one hot Tua girl made it into some sort of viral stardom, seemingly random. Right. So.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: And the poor guy who shot the video, I don't even know his.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: No, he got nothing.
He might have got, like, a good job from his friends, and they probably still don't buy him drinks at the bar.
[00:58:22] Speaker B: He should have been the agent or something. Like, I discovered you.
[00:58:25] Speaker A: Wait a minute.
Sorry. Hawk two is the champ here? Like, just to show, like, you couldn't, maybe you could plan for that. There's probably some algorithm where, you know, like, if you're starting an Instagram reel, you're going to get more views. If you pose a question in the beginning, sure. Like, there's ways you can try and gamify your I content, but at the end of the day, if you approach this like, it's just your fun passion project, it's very likely going to stay there. If you open a food truck, like, it's your fun passion project and you make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with no jelly, people aren't going to like that, and you're not going to make a lot of money. You need to also, if your goal is to monetize, you need to also, even if it's nothing fun and creative, approach it and think about it or meet with someone like Billy that can kind of give you some guidance on. Okay, great. Your jokes are funny. We love your videos. But here's the things you're going to have to think about if you want to manage this like a business and build trust with your clients or the people that sponsor you, etcetera.
[00:59:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And like you said, there's so many ways to. It's not necessarily even sponsorship deals. I mean, there's so many. It's like, I have a membership group now, so it's like, I can promote that. I can promote my. If I built websites or whatever, maybe I started in that niche and just use it for a marketing strategy rather than trying to make money direct from the podcast. So. Or the piece of content, which I think is so funny because I see this, like, creator world and people are like, what do you do? And I can't think of. I'm just like, I create content. I don't like, oh, it's an easy grandma Thanksgiving.
If I really want to get detailed, I'm like, I create product demo videos for e commerce sellers. Like, that's a lot.
[01:00:16] Speaker A: That's the LinkedIn answer.
[01:00:17] Speaker B: That's the LinkedIn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. LinkedIn people, for sure. Yeah, grandma, I shoot videos of myself. I'm weird.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: People pay you for that?
[01:00:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: You know, it's an honest living.
[01:00:29] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I'm working hard, I'm sweating, but it is possible. And, I mean, I do think the world that we live in is like, dude, if you think about it, I'm almost 38 next month. And, dude, when we were growing up, like, there was no cell phone.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: Like, there was no. I remember the first time the landlord of the trailer park I lived in had the bag phone, and we went outside to see it. My parents were like, get out here now. There's a cell phone in the middle.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: Of the driveway in the trailer. Cardinal.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: You know, all the trailer park people out there, like, look at that. I mean, that's what we were doing, you know, so I remember that dude, I remember that phone. And I was like, wow. And then my grandfather, like, he was, you know, I remember him having a bag phone in his car, and I was like, wait, you can call people from anywhere on that thing. He's like, yeah, $18 a minute, whatever it was. Yeah.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: This is also back when a phone call with something you did. I have had a new iPhone since the last generation. I might have made twelve phone calls on it.
[01:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It's why, it's when we bought Internet and it came on a disc.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: And movies came on a disc, too. You know, it was like.
And, I mean, Netflix was sending disc in the mail. And I remember thinking like, that is crazy.
[01:01:49] Speaker A: So did Blockbuster.
[01:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, they did.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: No thanks. You crazy Internet people.
[01:01:54] Speaker B: Blockbuster, remember them?
[01:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good point. Like that I lived in a world where the closest thing to an influencer would have been like the guy on the cable access news channel showing people how to do potted gardens or whatever, like the terrible local tv was. Outside of that, it was like going to see a live show at a bar or something.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it was crazy. And dude, I think it's so crazy. People are like, man, I just don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can do something. It's the easiest as it has ever been. And this is going to keep getting easier to create content. I mean, unfortunately, I think there might just be a day where we don't. We just own an AI bot that creates all the content that's coming.
[01:02:37] Speaker A: There's going to be a lot of unlonely men soon.
[01:02:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just like, all right, well, this is weird, but here we are and we'll see what happens. But, but, yeah, I don't know. My whole point saying that. I guess I was just saying like, it's so much easier, you know, now than it ever has been. I mean, the first live streaming computer I remember, it was like you had to have a guy built, you had to have some guy like put all the stuff together and like charge you ten grand or whatever just to live stream to one domain. Maybe it might have worked. And now it's like, dude, I can live stream to ten platforms on ecamm.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: Live at a time without really being anything.
[01:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah, as long as you don't have puerto rican Internet and you're like, in the States.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: True. A reliable Wi Fi connection or ethernet.
[01:03:23] Speaker B: Ethernet really helps.
[01:03:25] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's like, that's accessible to 85% of Americans. Yeah, and that's all you need. Whereas if you go back to when we were kids, you need approval from a local tv channel. You need the proper recording equipment and gear, 50 grand. You need like someone that says they're a director and a sound guy with a boom mic.
[01:03:48] Speaker B: And now you're all those things. I mean, look, dude, I've been producing a whole show while we've been sitting here.
[01:03:52] Speaker A: True. Your mobile phone is a better production studio than existed in most.
[01:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that's crazy.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: Houses 20 years ago.
[01:03:59] Speaker B: And the weird thing, we were at the museum the other day, and this is really gonna put us one of those rotary phones right in there.
I remember using one.
I remember being at my grandma's house. I remember when the plastic piece on the rotary front would break. You just chop a pencil and put it in there.
[01:04:18] Speaker A: Yep, yep.
[01:04:19] Speaker B: That was the fix. And my grandmother would have the, you know, because people slam it on there or whatever and break the phone and, you know, it's like the cord was attached to the wall that went 19,000ft through your whole entire house.
[01:04:30] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:04:30] Speaker B: You know, dial up Internet where it's like when you hear your mom cussing through the modem, get off the computer.
[01:04:36] Speaker A: I'm expecting a call.
[01:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember my buddy Lance in middle school. He had a direct line of his own in his bedroom.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: Rich kid, dude.
[01:04:45] Speaker B: I was like, dude, your dad either really loves you or really hates you, but it's one of the other.
[01:04:49] Speaker A: One way or the other, you got hooked up.
[01:04:51] Speaker B: Who cares? Like, you got the whole thing right here, so.
Well, dude, it's been fun. Jon, I appreciate you, man. First episode back, you're like, helping me be the Jesus Christ of this podcast and resurrected from the dead.
[01:05:05] Speaker A: When I wasted, you were carrying me. Something along those lines of.
[01:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that.
[01:05:11] Speaker A: We should go to the beach together. Yeah, you carry me around, maybe I.
[01:05:15] Speaker B: Could pull you on those little sleds we don't have. We don't get snow here, so we could just do that at the beach.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: The beach snow. That's about as close as we get now. This was. I appreciate you having me back. It like, it feels great. I like this couch. The mic's in a good position. The k. I didn't have to do anything.
[01:05:33] Speaker B: Well, I want to talk to you about is coming back and working at Dillbilly HQ for a fraction of what you make now, currently with no insurance.
[01:05:42] Speaker A: Love it.
[01:05:42] Speaker B: But this couch can be your chair. And I'll just slide this over and you don't even have to shoot a video. You can just repurpose all the 3300 I've made.
[01:05:51] Speaker A: Just remake them.
[01:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:53] Speaker A: Translate them to polish, and it's probably.
[01:05:55] Speaker B: Going to be about $25 to video. That's how your salary will break down.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: So I cap out at like $950 the most I can make. You got to make more videos. Really?
[01:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, there's very small margins around here.
Oh, man. Well, John, appreciate you, man. It's been awesome.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: Always a pleasure, Billy.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: And I'm sure I'll edit this. No, I won't. I'll just put it out. It'll be good.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: We did good. I think we did good.
[01:06:20] Speaker B: But you can rip it from YouTube and edit if you want to.
[01:06:23] Speaker A: If I have to, I will.
[01:06:24] Speaker B: All right. Thanks, Mandy.
