I Handed the Mic to the Man Who Runs My Show — What He Said Shocked Me

A Radio Spinoff Meets Studio Owner

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Okay, so welcome to our podcast. This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show. So I'm I'm glad to interview you because you are the guy that owns this whole studio, all these podcast studios, right? Yeah. And how many podcasts do you run out of this whole out of all this?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

So we run 40 shows. And um I also get uh called all the time by like 1% shows, and then I'll dive into their team for like a week or

What Top 1% Podcast Numbers Mean

SPEAKER_00 0:44

two. And like what does that mean? What do you mean 1% shows? Like that means they're a top 1% show. Like they have the numbers to equate to a top 1% podcast in the country? And and you get called to go help them? Yeah. So I'll do it. Like I'll so one percent shows have 10 to 15 people on their staff, and they get stuck too. So I'll dive into their team for like a week or two and then like make some adjustments with them. And then like usually it's like one or two things that we find, and then like it'll kick it back up a notch.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So when you say 1% shows, how many 1% shows are there out there in the that's a really good question.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So 1% shows based on data download audio. So the amount and and within the first seven days. So that's like the indicator. So 5% I know really easy off the top of my head. I haven't refreshed myself lately on a 1%, but 5% is 1,000 downloads within seven days. 1%, gosh. I want to say it's 5,000.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Are they well-known shows? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Yeah. So you go to there, do a deep dive, say change this, change that, and like change what? Like something in the algorithm or change something in the way they're posting?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Like it just depends. I see what their process is, what they're doing, where they could like improve. One show it was actually interesting because it's like they're a really good show. They do really well, but they actually had a disassociation with where their audience was and where they were launching. And so they were launching on humor me here, I don't remember all the details. This was like a little while ago, but like they were launching on like Monday at like Pacific time, you know, 7 a.m. or something like that. Turns out when you look at their data, their audience was almost all Eastern time. So it made it late launching in the East. So we switched that, and we actually noticed that like Sundays was a better day for them too. So we switched the time and the day and an exponential increase.

Release Timing And Clip Strategy

SPEAKER_01 2:32

So then let's talk about this podcast, the John J. Van Es podcast, which the highly successful John J. Van Es podcast, which by the way, I mean, quite frankly, your idea. So uh so when you drop these clips, like we drop a clip on a Friday, the first clip is usually on a Friday.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Right? That's because that's when our audience is ready for it. Yeah. And then you drop one on Monday, Tuesday. I mean, we drop a bunch uh after that.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That it's so the first clip is always the intro. So this show gets a hype clip or like a trailer clip. Right, right. So we drop the trailer clip day of the episode so they know who the guest is and like what's coming, and like a couple different clips of like some cool moments that you guys had throughout the podcast. So that intro is the podcast, and then it also launches that day too. Right. And then we'll traditionally put either another clip out that day or one Saturday, and then we'll do one Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday until we go back to the next show.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Because you've already done the analytics, and that's the best time for this podcast. Yeah, for this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

It can change over time too. Yeah. But people are also listening to used to listening to you during the week. Right. And then also Friday we made sense. So some of it you have to intuit too.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

I never thought about that. So what? I'm off the air Friday. Yeah. So now you drop it after I'm off the air. So it I never thought about it. So they can have John do 24-7. I always want to know why you here's the thing. I always I tell my wife and stuff. I'm like, it's Tyler knows what he's doing. I go, I don't know what I'm doing. I Tyler knows what you're doing. I probably believe that is this the first time you've been interviewed about this these studios.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yes. I'm actually pretty silent about the studios, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

No, I know you're a low-key dude.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

But like, like, for example, your your this podcast studio, I'm starting to see podcast studios pop up everywhere. Yeah. Right? It's almost like the new, like right now, you know, you see, you see these uh uh uh IV places popping up everywhere. It's like it's like now everyone wants to get a podcast studio. Yeah, and I feel you were way ahead. You might have been the first one or second one in the in town.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

This is the fourth business I've done that with, where I was way ahead of the curve.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

On

Why The Studio Exists And Monetizes

SPEAKER_01 4:30

like is your plan to sell this or just to grow this?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

You know, this was really more for like I started podcasts for bullied kids with my mixed martial arts training partner, Clifford. Uh-huh. And that podcast became a top 5% podcast uh in its first eight episodes. And then Cliff and I won an award for best co-hosts, and it really opened my eyes. I already knew the power of um organic marketing. I had grown my businesses from nothing because of it. And podcasting became like, where else can you sit down for an hour and create 55 pieces of content? So all of a sudden, like I did it for charity, but then my eyes were open for the business avenues that could happen from it. And so then organically, it just kind of like I started a technology company, and Backlot Studios was just supposed to be the media arm to the technology company. It's such a great name. Backlot? Yeah, I think it's such a great name. Yeah, I really I really like it.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So you sold the technology studio.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

No, still do the technology company.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

So you still have that. Yeah. So you sold some of the companies.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

And that's how you're able to fund this. Yeah. And now does this pay for itself? Yeah. Because now you got people. So where do you make most of your money from people renting the studio?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

You know, it's it's a little bit everything. So shows that I co-own, sponsorships, right? Um, there's also like people that come in and pay for a day. There's also people that want us to manage everything because they don't have their own team. Um, there's also like monetization through like YouTube and things like that, too. So there's a lot of ways that this studio actually gets monetized. So you're making bank. Like, I'm I work really hard. Oh, you know, there's no question, dude. So like no question. I've always been able to make things work, you know? And so like the studio does really well. But then at the same time, you have to weigh out your own opportunity

Free LLC Help And Small Biz Tools

SPEAKER_00 6:10

costs too. It's like the studio does really well. I mostly do it because I'd love to do it. Right. If I was smart, I'd pay way more attention to my technology company that is potentially a three billion dollar company as to what those studios will ever be. Wow. What is a technology company? It basically uh I like to say it lowers the barriers to entries for small businesses. So there's a company out there called um Zen Business. And so Zen Business, you just get online and you like it walks you through every step of the business process, right? And I really say that's like corporate down and we're bootstrap up. So we help you in the same ways, only like a little bit differently, and a lot of like what we do is pro bono. So, like for instance, LLC, I don't know if they're charging any more, but they definitely were charging. We charge nothing for an LLC. So you can come in, you can sit at our desk for free, you can get help for free, and we'll help you file an LLC. But Glaive's best day will eventually be where we're we're already building tools to make processes in small business easier.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So my son wants to start a company, he wants to get an LLC, he doesn't know how to do it, he can come here.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, for free.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

And for free and start an LLC, you'll help them start an LC for free.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

For free. So that desk space in the office, if you walk in there, anytime we're open, they can come sit in the desk space. I will help them with anything they need help with, including filing an LC for free, including tax issues, including like uh marketing stuff. I've had people build websites sitting there and like an LLC normally costs money, right? It's well online they'll charge you a thousand bucks, or a lawyer will charge you two thousand bucks, right? Uh it's fifty dollars to file with the state.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

And you show them how to do it. So they got to pay fifty dollars.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

They gotta pay the state, yeah. They pay us nothing.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Oh, I gotta tell my son about that.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

I even print the paperwork for them. Wow. And then like the thing is, it's like it's not that hard. I've done it thousands of times, but it's like it's really, and that's the thing. It's like there's so much policy that exists, and I don't know why it exists. The when you fill out forms for an LLC, you have to find three separate forms. And you actually, every single person, I always know which two they're gonna do wrong, you know? Member manager, manager managed, and they get lost in the stat agent, you know? I mean, you lost me already. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I don't even understand what an LLC is.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Yeah, I mean, like it's basically a way to have your company structure, you know, and so it has a lot to do with liabilities

Sets That Repeat And Design That Works

SPEAKER_00 8:20

and tax regulation. That's really what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Well, take me back. So let me get back to the podcast business. So each studio you have, how many studios do you have here?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

So we have, well, everything is a set in itself, too. So every wall is different in almost all of Backlot Studios. Okay. So, but technically we have two factory style sets, I like to call them. I'm very much operational guy. I want repeatable processes and product, right? So by leaving this studio this way all the time, I know exactly what we're gonna get with camera angles, audio, video, all that sort of stuff. I know what your show is gonna look like each and every time. So we have two sets like that. People also pay us to come do heavy production stuff, right? So you know we had the moon set set up over there. We do our own stuff too. So we had Studio Two was the moon for like three months, right? Right. But we also have like the we call it the Cine step set upstairs. We have um another one of our shows is called the Um Draft Network. There, they have the corner upstairs. Um, they come film every Sunday and Monday night. Uh, so then we have the influencer studio that's in the corner upstairs. We have the feminine bar set that's in the corner upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah, for for this set, like sometimes I see other podcasts here and I get all pissed.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah. Like, what do you do? That's my set. Bastard. There's like at the end of the people really worry about set design and that sort of stuff. And like, what is important is depth, right? Like, we'll have depth when we're seen on social media clips because of the lights in the background. And it's not like we're in love with the trees, we don't put trees in here because I love them. We put trees in here for depth of field. So it makes you appear more visually to have depth in the media, right? That's why we do it. And so by having like the same space operating all the time in the same way, we know what to expect as the product, right? And really the content is the most important part, and then having good audio and video, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

So, what is the key to a successful podcast? Which I was gonna pitch you something to, but what is the key? What is the key? Because I was gonna send you something that I read about, I heard about something,

Passion Consistency And Why Podcasts Quit

SPEAKER_01 10:20

but I was gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

The biggest key, I think, is passion for the topic, hands down. Really? Yeah. Because, you know, I'll like I get asked to go speak about podcasting, even though I like try to distance myself from podcasting professionally, like sometimes. Uh, but I will talk for the first 45 minutes of an hour on how much it'll change your life if it if you'll let it, right? It's a little bit different for you. I'm sure it does like impact you, but you've been on the radio for 20, 30 years. Right. You know, it's like imagine somebody just starting and they're just starting into a subject that they absolutely love. And all of a sudden they do a couple interviews and they're like into knitting. You know, how how many interviews do you think you are away from the Michael Jordan of knitting? How many? If you're if you're a knitter, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

How many interviews are you away from Michael? From the Michael Jordan of dinner. Yeah. Wait, from interviewing the Michael Jordan of knitting? Yeah. Uh I don't know, a hundred. I would say ten. Oh, before you get the okay, because there's not a lot of people knitting. Is that why?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Or yeah, I mean, and my point is if you're a nerd for something you absolutely love it, it's your chance to get your Michael Jordan of whatever you're in in the room. It's your chance to face a fear. Most people are afraid of this. Right. You know, it's like it's your chance to like build your business through it, collect content that's near impossible and responsible. All of them are successful. Define success.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Well, I I don't know because I keep, you know, I I I saw uh somebody said the other day, everybody's got a podcast. Everybody's got a podcast. Yeah. And, you know, you and I have been doing this for for a while now, so I feel like we're ahead of the game and we got some pretty good consistency. Yeah. And if we keep going, you know, who knows what could happen to this podcast. I I really enjoy coming here doing it. Yeah, but I've seen so many people start a podcast and it just goes away because it's it's hard to be consistent, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

99% of podcasts quit in the first uh 21 episodes. Wow. Yeah. So podcasting is saturated in quitting podcasts, right? Now some people are like finally coming up with consistency to it, but you also have to keep a lot of people start a podcast just to start a podcast. That's where we stop people all the time here. They're like, yeah, I just have this business, I'm just gonna open a podcast. And we're like, you haven't thought anything about like what it's gonna be about, what kind of uh clients or people you're gonna interview? You haven't thought about the target audience, the target persona, you haven't thought about SWOT analysis, you haven't thought about like what what other shows exist in the marketplace that you could take inspiration from or not be like, you know, it's like you have to think about it. I always say it this way too. If you're gonna put the time, energy, and resources into something, why wouldn't you take your best shot at it? Right. This is the way I get it across all the time. Would NBC just start a show to just start a show?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

No, they I mean they'd probably try to get it'd be a concept, they want to do 12 episodes, they want to, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

You gotta have a beginning, middle, end, storyline, research, yeah, who's the audience we're gonna go to, you know, all these interesting.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So a lot of people come in and don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

No, most of them start a podcast to start a podcast. Right. They have no idea who that and then their target audience? Everybody, Tyler. My target audience is everybody.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

That's how I feel. I don't know who the hell we're targeting. I think we're still trying to figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

You have a pretty broad audience, right? But we have a lot of analytics around who that audience is. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

You know, and so like I like how you don't share anything with me.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah. You know, at the end of the day, it's just like so. You just had a guest on, and he he told you what? We collect data on the athletes and then we formulate things behind the scenes because otherwise they get head messed up over the data.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

I am completely like, you take the reins. I do whatever you say on this podcast. I enjoy the guests we get.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

I enjoy, I bring some guests, you bring some guests. Yeah. I don't know, like, I mean, I I interview, I'll interview anybody if they have some right now. I'm kind of going through the health, wellness, longevity kick, but also celebrities. You know, we have that movie director in here.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

We get, you know, all I feel like I I could say whatever's interesting to us.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Right? Totally. I think it's it's good.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

And your show gets to be different that way because the common conduit to your show that's different than a lot of shows, if you've been doing this 30 years and people like your take and your questions, your natural curiosity, the things, and the thing, the way you ask things that most people wouldn't ask, that's what people like. It's your interviewing genius, right? You've been able to find that over 30 years. Most people that just start don't have that. So they really have to niche in way more, right? They have to start the knitting podcast. They have to start the, they don't come with a packed-in following either. You know, so

Beards Rebellion And A 1000th Episode Bet

SPEAKER_00 14:32

there's a lot of things people want to think about when it comes to that. When was the last time you shaved your beard? Oh gosh. Totally bald. Friend that was getting uh married, his wife insisted that it shaved the beard. And you did? I did. And how long ago was that? That was 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

I wonder what you'd look like without a beard. Um I don't even recognize it. When we do our 1000 episodes, you could shave your beard on the podcast. Deal. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

We'll we'll have to raise money for charity or something to like make it worth it. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

You've had the beard for how long and right now it's overall like 17 years or something. Do you love it? You know, like do you have a do you have a weird chin or something? Is there a real reason you have a beard?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

I at first it started with rebellion. Oh, really? Yeah. It's a guy thing. You just want to know, like, I love growing a beard. It was more like, so I had to work horrible jobs throughout my life where people told me how to dress and what to look like and what to shave and things like that. And then finally, when I worked for myself, I said I'm gonna do exactly what I want. So I grew a beard, you know, and I think that's good on you. Thank you. I haven't changed outfits since. You know, it's like so it like really the beard is not like, oh, because I think I'm pretty with it, or you know, I'm like more masculine. It's literally rebellion because then I get to be what I want to be. Well, you gotta get it shaped and stuff like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Or do you do it yourself and you go somewhere to get it done?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, I go somewhere to get it done, but probably not as often as they should. You know, like when we first started this podcast, I had a beard.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Remember? In fact, all our press photos I'm gonna be probably because I've only had the beard for like a three months. Yeah, I'd love it. I'd love to grow a beard back.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

I often like let it go too crazy, and I like people start handing me change out in front of the studio.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Did you just get it trimmed? Because you look, it looks good. No, it looks really good.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Yeah, do you ever let it get longer, or is that you you keep it at a certain before my barber doesn't listen to me, he cuts it off anyways, but it used to be for like 10 years it'd be here at least. That's dope.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, well, let's talk about your farm, your ranch, your ranch.

The Ranch Plan And Foster Kid Jobs

SPEAKER_01 16:20

I love talking about because you how long have you had the ranch?

SPEAKER_00 16:22

I've had the ranch, eight months. Okay, what made you get a ranch? It's been a dream. I thought it was 10 years out. Um, I came across an opportunity. Um, and uh I eventually want to do way more with AJR Farser kids, which we do a little bit already. Um, huge animal lover, just like you guys. I think that's like one of our kindred spirits together. It's like I love the way you guys um charge the world for animals. Like, that's great. I've always wanted to do something like that. But when you say ranch, is there a house on the ranch? Like several. Oh, you have several houses on the ranch? There's guest houses and stuff, yeah. But you only live there by yourself. I don't even technically live there really. I'm there like three days a week. Is there somebody that lives on the property? There's somebody that lives like next door property that I inherited as a tenant, and she kind of went, well, we have 22 peacocks right now. Right. So she feeds the birds every day and things like that. So you get along with her. Yeah. Thanks, Maddie.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

I appreciate you feeding the birds. So you you bought a ranch with other homes on the ranch and they pay you rent.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah.

unknown 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Well, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Yeah. I mean, my plan eventually, this is like my plan eventually was to have like a hundred acres, and I want a movie production studio so we can film like different sorts. I'm already in that background, right? Um, I also had invented in college, uh, my undergrad was in biochemistry, and so I vented a hard cider in college. And like that is gonna be a product for us at some point. And then uh I also invented a natural sleep aid. We sold that company actually about three, four years ago. It did well in Europe. So all based of uh and it like the common denominator with all that stuff is I use cactus. So and it works? Is it sleep aid? Yeah, is it natural sleep aid? I have sleeping issues, I don't own it anymore. But you but I do have a couple bottles left great stuff, yeah. It works really well. It's not like to put you, there's nothing that's gonna hit you and fall you to sleep, but it helps you naturally progress towards sleep. So it's a drink? It was a pill. Oh, gel cap. And you just created it? Yeah. I invented it. How? How do you do that? Um, I just thought it like I put a bunch of things together that made sense from a formulaic standpoint. And like what's weird to me, so my undergrad is in biochemistry. You have so many people now that make supplements that have no degrees in chemistry. Right. I don't even know how they do it. Because, like, basically, when it comes to this is the way I do it. I'm not saying this is the way that everybody should do it. Like, I my mind works a different way than most people. But if you draw chemical structures out, you can see where the bonds will change, right? Based on another chemical structure. So I used to always think about things that would go together and I'd draw them out and I'd see if there was going to cause any sort of bond change or anything like that. Like, for instance, one thing that's in every single product that drives me nuts these days is um, I always forget about it when I'm gonna put it on the spot. It's in every single supplement and it's actually toxic when heated. It's uh sucralose. Oh, yeah. Sucralose should not be in anything. Why we have it in anything, I have no idea. But it's actually toxic when it's heated. Find me a supplement that doesn't

Inventing A Sleep Aid And The Bezos Email

SPEAKER_00 19:10

have it in it, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Well, so then, but who will who heats their supplements? Or do they'd be have to be heated to make the supplement?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

We're in Arizona.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Oh, just in just what happens if you leave it in the car.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Oh, just even still, it's like it's a manufactured sweetener, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Wait, so you grabbed a bunch of stuff that helps you sleep melatonin, magnesium, and you put it into a pill, mixed it with cactus, and sold the company.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I basically found a cactus byproduct that helped slightly thin your blood that acted like a driving mechanism for the sleep aid products. And it's funny, I we years ago in my first company, we had a lot of interesting people that came into that business. I worked I had the number one sleep doctor in the world come in, and uh I was talking to him about it, I showed it to him, he loved it. He said the only thing he would change is he'd put it in liquid form instead.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

And it wasn't the guy one of the first guests I had was the sleep doctor.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Wasn't it was it him? No, uh-uh. Dr. Bruce? Yeah, this guy is a different guy. Who knows? They're changing their title, who's the best in the world, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

So is that product still available that you invented?

SPEAKER_00 20:09

No, we sold the formula to somebody, and I think they I didn't know I don't think they went much further further with it.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Did you make a lot of money selling that formula?

SPEAKER_00 20:16

I may I did decent, like I was running three other businesses at the same time. But how did you market? How did people find you?

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Well, how'd you know it was for sale?

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Um, so that everything's a funny story, but uh so Jeff Bezos personally uh put it on Amazon. Now that's not why we had success, but like we went basically through this rigamarole of stuff. And Amazon's like, if you go out and get the FDA approval, we'll put you on. And so we go out and get the FDA approval, and they're like, Well, if you have the right copacker, we'll put you on. We need a certificate for that. And they put us through like 12 loot hoops, and then they're like, Nope, denied. And so I had just read the book, The Everything Store, um, that was about Jeff Bezos. His email was in it. I emailed him, and uh, he forwarded um my email to the his assistant, and it was online the next day. What? So one of the ways we sold it was Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Why did he have his email? Did he want his email in that book?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah. He Jeff Bezos is like, you can't hate the guy because I don't he works hard and he cares about customers on a small level, right? Look at that. One complaint from this peon customer, and he took care of it. It was wild, but he always had that uh approach to business.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

So he put it on Amazon and then people found it. Yeah. And then some company wanted to buy it.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

We did we did decent on Amazon, but where we really did well is like we went through uh I met a um uh distributor and they distributed it all over the world. They liked the product, they sold it in Europe, and that's where it did really well. What was the name of it? Desert Doz. Desert Doz. Yeah. They changed the name and everything after we sold it. Honestly, I would I never loved the name either. So, but it was a throwback. I mean, our own we have superfoods here, just like anywhere else in the world. The desert, the um Sonoran Desert is the only living desert in the world. And we have things here that nobody else has, you know. Including our own superfoods. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah. Did you find that one guy we interviewed really interesting? The guy, um, what was his name? The plant guy?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

What was his name?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yeah, I can't the garden nerd. The garden nerd, he was great. I thought, well, especially we have trees at the ranch, and I'm constantly wrestling with the trees these days, trying to figure things out. And so yeah, I loved the garden nerd because I'm trying to figure that stuff out these days.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Is your ranch like a more of a western ranch or is it like a yeah, yep. So you just got to analyze there, are there fences? Like do you get on horses and go and like on Yellowstone and hammer out the barbed wire and stuff?

SPEAKER_00 22:32

So it's not that huge, it's just the start. And like I said, eventually we'll have like more and more stores. How many acres is now? It's a couple acres. And then I'm looking at 30 more right now. In the same area, so it's all connected. And but what's really cool about it and why it caught my eye is like it's uh it's right on um government land, and you're allowed to use that government land. So it's thousands of acres right out my back door. Oh, that's great, and nobody's back there. So if you can if you have that, then why do you want to buy more if you have access to thousands of acres? Because I have a huge plan. So like and I just can't build on it, but I can use it, I can go on to it, all these different things. So it's great for that because you have all this nature out your back door. And uh, but I eventually want to put more buildings out. Our our plan is to eventually employ age out foster kids. But when you say our plan, who's our you and who? You know, I mouse in my pocket. I was gonna say I've gotten so used to like I never want to think it's just me doing things. I mean, even with the studio, Madison basically runs the studio these days, so it's not me, you know, or like anything I'm involved with. I have like some people that are like pulling. I guess the ranch isn't really anybody else, but you know, like I I want to give credit. Like, I don't want to accidentally forget to give credit either if there is some to be had.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

So have you won awards for podcasting? Well, you think you won a I've won an uh award for best co-host with Cliff. And what what like what publication? What gave that out?

SPEAKER_00 23:53

That was the gosh, I don't remember the name of it. It's basically a um podcasting that that's all they do in life is they give rewards for podcasting. Um, I wish I could remember off the top of my head, Yogi won an award too. Um Yogi? Yogi, yeah. It was like a humanitarian style award. I'm not gonna remember because I'm on the spot here, but it was a big deal. Like the people that were there getting fellow awards. He he does a podcast for bullied kids too. Oh and so the people that were like getting fellow awards were like big name people, you know, like two for like doing that.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

You're not planning on selling this stuff, is it, the studio, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Because I no all right, no. My plan with I got into this area of business, number one, because I saw it as a useful tool for small business. Um, and number two, like I like empowering good voices in the world. Like, I actually get really mad about like all the bad stuff that's put in the world. And so I feel by like our 40 shows that we put out in the world, we're putting good stuff out in the world.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

What let's say right now, let's say you look into the camera and give like three the if you're gonna start a podcast, you need these three things.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah. What are they? Passion, consistency, and gosh, you just need those two. A niche? A niche? A niche would be a good idea. I mean, then I could get in the weeds and they really need to have a target persona, you know. They really need to uh to like do skill, you know how you gotta know how to how to interview. I mean, anybody can be even quirky in their own world, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

It's like I mean what about the podcast set?

What Podcasting Looks Like Next

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Do you think that's gonna change for people? It's gonna change exponentially. It is like to what do you think's next? Because I this set you see. I mean, the thing is, I feel like we're ahead of the game, we were kind of grandfathered in, but now I think now if you follow this podcast already, you're into it, you get it. But now I think it's tired. People are gonna be like, I don't want to see two guys on a couch, I want to see something else. And I don't know what that something else is. Is it your backyard? Is it your car?

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Is it uh is it the bathroom? No, it's gonna be more and more shows in the real world. Think of podcasting, go to more and more towards shows. That's what it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

You mean it's gonna go back into like the tonight show because now you because like we've done a couple live podcasts, yeah. We have a studio audience, and I'm like, this is taking the show, our radio show on remote. This is and now you got bands coming in.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Yeah, that or and and depending on the concept for the show, or like out in the world, right? You know, it's like you're you know, at a restaurant, you know, having a conversation, or you're in a uh place somewhere in the uh like Kenya, you know, having a conversation. It's gonna turn more show like, right? It's gonna be less podcasting. The set really is like a point of diminishing return. You're right, right. You know, it's like if the content is good, the audio needs to be especially good. The audio can't be bad, the video needs to be good, the audio is more important, right? And then, but like really the point of diminishing returns in a set is like there is a point where it impacts and adds value. And here's where it is. So there, and this is actually not even mine. This comes from a girl, she was the pop clip queen, right? She was known on YouTube for putting those like things on the back of her phone. She made a million videos on it. She went highly viral over the pop clips. And she's like, Well, I can't keep making pop clip videos forever. So she was a lawyer and she enjoyed murder mystery stuff. So she opened a murder mystery podcast, right? And they started out with a really nice set where she was in her home office and they had some pretty stuff on the wall, and she did well enough that she had more money and they dumped a bunch of money into the set. Now she was in a spooky mansion, right? That did have value. Up until then, nice camera angles. You know, if you like specifically custom design towards that, and that's more of a show, then that finally has value. Up until then, it's good camera angles, good audio, you know, that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Speaking of camera angles, yeah. Do you have you have one, two, three, four, five, five cameras in here? Do you have uh are these same cameras you move to other studios, or you got cameras in there too? We got cameras in there too. And I mean, these look like expensive cameras. Yeah, they are so you've invested in the quality of the cameras, so you're yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Like this honestly overboard too.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

You know, it's like we have FX series cameras upstairs, they're way overkill for podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Really? Yeah. So when you when you think about competition, you outperform and have better equipment than anybody.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Let's say someone's watching this wants to start a podcast and wants to hire

How To Reach The Studio Team

SPEAKER_01 28:05

you for a podcast. Where do they go?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Um, they can go back lots studios or az pod studio. Shoot a DM. Yep. Message DMs. Yeah, they can shoot an email or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

I think you guys are top-notch, man. You have quite a crew. Yeah, it's awesome. I'm I love, you know, uh, I you've heard me before in interviews where I talk about my goals, I talk about things I'm grateful for. And every morning I talk about how grateful I am for you and this podcast and your team. Oh, I really enjoy being here. I think it's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Yeah, thank you. We love it. We have to do them every day. Yeah, yeah. Well, we can at some point. We just need more guests. Yeah. Guest strategy and self is a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

All right. So, how was this podcast?

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Now you gotta do that thing you do. Yeah, I think it was good. How was it for you?

SPEAKER_01 28:43

No, I like it. Here. All right. Okay, so welcome to our podcast. This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show.