[00:01]
Welcome to work unscripted. I'm your host, Savan. And today I've got my good friend Andy. Andy, what's up? How are you?
Wonderful, how are you?
You know, I live in the dream. It's like sunny here in the Pacific Northwest, which is a rarity, you know, this time of the year. And so I'll take it, man, for sure.
Yes, anytime we can get it right.
Yeah, for sure. Andy, we're going to talk a little bit about your business. But before we dive into that, tell the people who you are. Where do you live? What's your family situation like? What does that all look like?
Sure, so I'm Andy. I live also in the Pacific Northwest. I live out in the middle of the country. There's 1200 people in our little town. I'm a dad of four. Our kids are I've a 20 year old. My daughter is going to be 21 actually in like two weeks. 20 so almost 21. Thank you 17 year old and then those are my girls and then my boys twin 7 year old boys. And I'm married to a woman who's far too.
Nice.
Whoa, congrats.
good and good looking for me. So I'm kind of living the dream.
Yeah, I feel like we're living the same life here, man. It's, I've got kids that are very different in ages too. And it just feels like with that first set, you felt like you did everything you could, you ran out of steam. And then when you get that second set of kids where you're like, shit, now I'm in like, I'm middle age and I got to figure out how to parent again. It's a different story, man. It's a definitely different story.
Hahaha
You Yeah, my oldest, she always like, I would never have gotten away with that. was like, well, I'm a different parent now than I was with you. And, you you'll learn that some things as you get older aren't as big of a deal as you thought they were. But also the difference between having girls and then having boys, I didn't think it'd be a big difference and it completely is. The different toll, you know, physically over mentally with my girls.
Yeah!
Yeah, no, for sure. I feel you. I feel you. We could probably have a whole new podcast show just on men raising women, but we're not going to have that in this conversation. What we're going to talk about today is your business. If you had to me an elevator pitch, 60 second elevator pitch of what you do, Andy, what would that be?
sister.
Yeah, so first is what I what I don't do when I tell people I'm a content creator. They either think adult content or influencer and I'm neither of those. So I actually make content. Directly for brands that they post on their social media, so it is amateur content on items. You know whatever they're selling and I just give my testimonial, my feedback, whatever, and then they posted on their social media.
Got it, got it. I was reading up on this, you know, as we're, as I'm building up the podcast, I've been doing some research on various different types of marketing. Affiliate marketing was one of them, but the other one was influencer marketing, which Amazon, think, is doing a big, big push for that where people will, they'll buy something and then they'll, you can shoot a one minute video of it and put it up there and it's part of the review process.
Right? Yeah, basically.
Is that what you're doing on behalf of these companies is making it seem like it's something that you've bought and used and put it up there?
Yeah, basically. mean, some of them, I'd say 85 % are like that, where it's a product that is completely acting. It's no different than a commercial. It's just it's from a regular guy. So like, for example, I got this supplement I've been taking and here's what I like about it. You can check it out on Amazon. When in reality, I've never opened a supplement. It's just no different than me acting in a commercial. It's just you're
Yeah. Yeah.
Right. Right.
you're less likely to click away from an actual guy that's more trustworthy that even though you've never met me than a polished commercial.
Right? You know, I wonder what the psychology of that is, right? Like, because these companies spend millions of dollars polishing these product ads to get it almost to a scientific level where they're like, okay, we're going to convert you on these specific messages. Whereas with you, I would imagine it's more gut. Like you're looking at it, you probably read the specs, you probably fiddled around with it, and you're like, okay, this is the shot I'm going to do. What's the psychology around how you approach like, doing the marketing for these products or these services.
so half the time they'll kind of tell me what they want. And so I really am doing like I'm shooting commercial. The other half when it's, all on me. I do it based on what's going to be most believable. So I basically insert whatever that is into my life. because from what I've been told, I gets rehired so many times because I'm authentic. And so if I was telling you, I You know, I wear these every day in my office job. It would sound fake because I'm clearly lying. Whereas if I say, these are great because I get mud when I'm out in the pasture and they rinse off real good. I don't even have to actually do it, but if I put the product in my life, it seems to make more sense and come across more authentic.
Right.
Yeah, yeah, interesting, interesting. Have you ever had a product that conflicted with your values that you had to say no to?
I've canceled a few. There's some I don't even take. for example, even though it's all acting, I don't take any dating ads. don't take anything hard against, anything hateful, period. I'll do some firearm stuff, but I won't do any AR-15 type stuff. So I usually weed that stuff out. beforehand. I will, however, though, once I'm working with a company, like I've had a company that I've done like shirts for, and then I saw their marketing after the fact, the way they're going, and I said, I don't want to be affiliated with you guys anymore. So I'm going to, you know, cut this, you know, I've never had any companies that I've had that have had an issue with me doing it either, you know.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, that's good. That's good. I mean, it also probably helps you define your the right market for you in terms of your services, right? and so like with that being known, how do you attract new customers for your service offering? Is it more word of mouth? Do do like a lot of online marketing? Like, what does that look like?
There's no, yeah.
So when I first started off, so maybe even to backtrack, when I first started off, I quit what most people would call their dream job to be a stay-at-home dad. And I was bored out of my mind. So I decided to create a company. And so I created a business and then I needed to hire people to put content online for me. I didn't know how to do it. And so I found people and it sucked and I thought I could do that better. So then I really
Yeah. Yep.
kind of looked at what other people were doing and copied them. So I started reaching out to brands saying I can do these things. And then it did start snowballing to where now I have marketing companies coming to me. I'm I get, you know, daily. I get different tasks from different marketing companies, because usually it's not directly through a brand unless they're a small business. And those I would reach out to directly just say, here's what I could do for you is, you know.
Mm-hmm. Right. I gotcha.
give it a try and then you for them. They own the content so they can. Cut it up into pieces or use it on different platforms.
Yeah. Do you have to ever try to justify your costs as a service provider doing this? Because I would imagine, like you said, it's probably cheaper than shooting a full blown commercial. But at the same time, going with something as tried and true like an ad agency versus you, it might be a little bit risky. How do you justify that with some of these media companies?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, weirdly I'm like as far as what I do on I've had a couple larger marketing companies tell me like I'm I get the best return on investment, which I don't understand.
Is there sort of a stretch for you, especially now that you're like pretty well known, probably in the industry?
What does that look like? What does that ROI look like? Like what are the numbers? Like break down the numbers for me or break down sort of like how that looks.
You know, for those companies, I honestly have no idea. I don't even ask on it because, I can give you some, know one company, I did an ad that they paid me just 100 bucks for. It was a quick little thing. Now what they put into their marketing cost on that, because they pay Reels or they pay Instagram, they pay TikTok to amplify it. So I don't know what they paid to amplify it, but there's one company that
wow, okay.
they did almost $400,000 in sales on my one video. So I'm sure they didn't put $400,000 into their marketing, but it just, it sometimes needs to take the right thing. know a lot of these brands though, let's say it's $10,000 to create a nice polished commercial, which obviously is probably more than that, so, or they can get a hundred,
Wow!
Yeah. Right.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah.
little content creator ads and blast that into your TikTok feed. Well, the one polished commercial, the second time you see it, you're know it's commercial and you're gonna pass through it. Now, if you have of those hundred, you see 10, 12 of those, you start going, everyone's talking about this thing. This actually is pretty, I've heard about that brand. And so the return, they do get better engagement that way over like Coca-Cola is not doing user generated content.
[10:12]
Yeah, for sure.
They can do big commercials because everyone knows it. So I'm not sure of the exact return on investment, but I do know it's more effective for especially newer brands that don't already have the need to advertise.
Yeah, I would love to circle back to this conversation towards the tail end of our interview because I want to get your prediction of the future of this market and what you think is going to be happening, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence and the creation of all these things using AI. But before we get to that, though, one of things you talked about was you worked in a corporate office, then you became a stay at home dad.
Mm-hmm.
What was life like for you in the corporate office before this new business that you had built? Like, what were you doing?
Yes, I worked for a travel company, a big travel company. I worked for booking.com. And my job was to travel three weeks out of every month. So which a lot of people like that's amazing. You get to go and I really my job was really to stay in hotels and resorts and then help them based on my experience, you know, help them with with what they would put on booking.com, you know, help market them, which is great. It's when my girls were
Okay, not bad. Yeah.
12 to 15 years old, it was wonderful. They could come with me and just hang out. But then my wife and I went through IVF to have our twins. She had a really rough pregnancy. She was on bed rest. And then once my boys were born, and it's not because they were my boys versus my girls, it was just that point in life. said, can't. And one of them had some little health issues when he was born. I can't be gone all the time. There's no way that I could leave my wife with twin infants and teen girls. So we just decided at that point, we're gonna be broke and we're gonna figure it out. And so it went from instantly going, yeah, we can afford these things. We can do these things to how are we going to afford these things? How are we gonna do anything? So there's a pretty stark change. we also, that's, we moved from.
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah.
our comfort zone in Arizona where we both lived for 30 years to a little town in Oregon all at the same time. So it was a big change all at once,
Mm-hmm. Wow. That's crazy. So what was the main factor for you to make all these life changes? Because each one of these changes independently is pretty huge. But to be like, okay, I'm not going to work in corporate. We're going to move to a different state where I would imagine you probably didn't have as much of a friend population in Oregon that you had in Arizona. Like, what were some of the driving forces for you guys? Was it more just so that you can be a tighter family unit?
Yeah.
new beginnings. does that look like?
All of the above, think. My wife and I. Both really got honest that our life looked really happy, but we weren't happy. You know we were the you know lived in the suburbs. Everything is nice and shiny, you know it. But we're our kids didn't play outside for an entire summer because it was Arizona. It was hot. And we realized well, if the.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Boys are going to be anything like I was as a boy. need outside. And we just I have a very type A sister who's way too good to us and she kind of gave us the push we needed. To help us find a place here and say hey, you guys are moving in two weeks and so we just decided if we're doing it, let's just do it big. We'll figure it out together because.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, being in this huge city in Phoenix, where what you do for fun is go out and spend money and you have to have a new car every year, because everyone has a new car every year, it just was not a sustainable thing for us. We weren't going to end up doing well if we were just pretending to be happy.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing, man. So what was your work situation like? Because the other show that I record is called Life Between Titles. I talk to people that are going through unemployment or layoffs, and it's a big change when you have the breadwinner or somebody who's making a majority of the income suddenly lose their job. And you've got to really sort of have a deep reflection of the important things in your life. for you and the family, what did that look like when you initially made this decision? Did you have to cut back on things? You know, was your wife still working? Like, what did that look like for you?
Yeah, so my wife is still working. And luckily when we moved here, she works from home. So that was nice. It did come down to, we cut everything back. We're gonna cut everything back and whatever we don't have money for, we're going to find a way. I mean, there were times where like, I don't know how to clean gutters. I was raised in Phoenix, but I was going around to people and going, I'll clean your gutters for 20 bucks. You know, just so I can, I was like, have a ladder and I have a scoop. Not knowing that people charge hundreds of dollars to clean gutters. I didn't know that. I was just like, I need 20 bucks to make this bill that is due today. So I was just doing odd jobs. Luckily moving here, my dad was still working and so he would have me help him in his shop, you know, cleaning up, get a carpentry shop that I knew nothing about doing carpentry. But, you know, just taking whatever odd little things I could find.
Yeah. Yeah.
Right?
we have to pay a bill. I'm going to go and drive for Uber until I make 100 bucks, which could be until tomorrow morning. I don't know. Just but we we made that decision together that it's going to be hard, but it's going to be worth it and it really has been.
Right. So what was that timeline then? So you had moved to Oregon. How long were you really hustling for the extra income until you eventually landed on the business that you have now?
Probably about a year. Yeah, probably about a year. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. But long enough, long enough. Interesting, interesting. Andy, I don't think I ever asked you, what's your business called?
It's actually just me. I do have an LLC, but it's just me. So though I have social media, I don't really have a social media presence. mean, on my TikTok, have like, I think just under 10,000 followers, but it's completely artificial. It was just for social proof for brands. So my TikTok is motivated father is the name. It's at motivated father. And my Instagram is at Andy reviews everything.
Okay. Yeah.
Right.
I
So sometimes I'll put stuff on there and then give brands access to it so then they can push it if they want to.
Right, right.
Yeah, it's just me as a person.
Okay, okay. What is a typical day look like for you? You wake up and then what happens?
So I'm still a stay at home dad while I do this. And now I'm making incomes better than I used to, but I'm still a stay at home dad. I get up, take care of my boys, get them ready for school, get them off to school, and then come back and I will go through everything that I, I have deadlines on everything that I film. because brands need them within a certain timeline. So I go through and I just start right away filming stuff.
Great.
And then I also chunk out in my afternoons time to get to follow up on deals on contracts with companies. See apply for any anything because a lot of these companies will put out we have this. Do you want to do it? And so I'll apply for you know things that they might want. And I do that basically just nonstop film until like I'm ready to pick up my kids.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
and then I pick up my boys and then I'll still do some filming around them, but I can't do as much because I'm dadding. Yeah, it's like today. Today before this I. Well, I did. I filmed for this supplement brand. I did some edits because anything I send to companies a lot of time they're able to send it back and I'm able to edit and make changes. So did some did some edits and and then this.
Yeah, yeah, you're juggling it. You're juggling it.
Okay. Okay.
The second part of what I do is because I get all these products for free. I don't use them usually. So then I'll resell them, whether it's on Poshmark or Amazon or whatever. So then I'll try to chunk out some of my day on listing stuff on Poshmark, Amazon, Facebook, things like that.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So you've got like really two businesses rolled up into one based on these opportunities. I want to touch on the the resale business because I'm I'm sort of like neck deep in that myself right now. You know, we had that that that toy store that brick and mortar toy store and I have this like excessive in of inventory of toys. And I've been trying to learn how to be a better better YouTube seller.
Mm.
and then getting into the Amazon marketplace and doing all those things. What's worked out well for you? Like what are some tips that you would give people if they were trying to resell right now?
have a teenage kid and give them half the money for them to do it. All honesty, a lot of that, I have my daughter, my daughter is starting to do my Poshmark now. Yeah, it's hard, honestly. I'm literally looking over here at a stack of stuff that's about four feet tall that I need to do because it takes a long time. And especially for stuff that isn't worth that much, you're kind of like, is it even worth my time doing it?
[20:02]
hahahaha Yeah.
Yeah, it's a grind.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
You know, it's difficult. So that's why it's for me. It's kind of the last thing I'll do in my day if I have time to put stuff on. Because, it's not it's not at all fun. mean, Amazon's probably the easiest one because you can you can just if it has a barcode, you can scan it. If it's already on Amazon, you can just put it in a box and send it to him and they'll you just set your price. So that way you don't have to do all of the packaging and all that yourself for shipping. But that's the part that I.
Right. Right.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah. Yeah.
once I hate, I like the least about what I do is the reselling afterwards.
Yeah, that's a grind. That's definitely a grind. I want to talk a little bit about some of the things that you've done to help you build skills to be successful in this business. Because like, I would imagine that the barriers to entry to do the things you're doing is somewhat low in that if you have a phone nowadays and you have internet connection, you could start videotaping any product and putting it on there. What are some skills or what are some things that you're doing that separates you from the people that are just trying to break into it? Like why would a business actually use you versus somebody else?
Yeah, so the first is there's, mean, you can look at politics. It's really hard to read a teleprompter. I'm super, so I'm actually, I'm really, really, really good on a teleprompter, which saves me a ton of time. So I can have a teleprompter app and I can just, I can go through a script without going, I forgot to say this and go back. And I'm able to make that really authentic. That takes a lot of practice.
Yeah, it is very hard for sure.
Yes.
It does,
And so that's number one. Yeah, the barrier is low. Anyone can do it. I would say the hardest thing for people that I've tried to help do, I probably tried to help about a dozen people and no one's really stuck with doing what I do. Because you have to, such a weird way to say it, but you have to not care. You have to not worry if it's perfect. So like my wife has done some videos.
Okay.
with me where, but it takes six hours to do a one minute video because she's worried about everything for, that was the hair out of place or, there was something on my shirt. I will literally stumble over my words and re-say something and I'll use it and it sells because it's authentic, because I'm messing up, because, you know, my hair was out of place, because a dog barked in the background. kind of weirdly not caring makes it
Yep.
Yeah.
better. And also on that too, you have to not care about what these terrible people on the internet are going to say if you come across one of your ads. I've had my brother gotten in not a physical, but a confrontation with someone in comments, like, because they were being mean to me and like, I don't care that you, you know, so you have to not care about a lot of things.
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah. Yeah.
And that's usually why people will stop, because they're like, oh, I can't take the comments. They were talking about, you know, how sleepy I looked, or that I was overweight, or that I was stupid. Just... Yeah.
Yeah, I was, I was listening to this podcast about publishing online and you know, one of the things that that this person had said was, you know, you have to build up this tolerance to just not give a fuck about things, right? And it's really the repetition, the consistency of being able to produce work of some caliber. It doesn't have to be perfect. And I, again, like I'm still going through that motion myself here.
Yeah.
and none of my stuff is perfect by any means. But, you know, from what you've done and from your experience, what are some things that people can do to start building up that thick skin and that tolerance so that they can be successful in the business that you're in?
you know, personally I I wish that I could carry the not giving a fuck about like the content and the internet into my actual life because I give so many fucks in the real world like it I am the most sensitive guy and It's you know, it's and and so it's a weird. I almost have to see myself as almost two different people because I
Yeah. Yeah, right. Yes!
I don't even know what advice I would really give to do that. It's a weird craziness in my head that there's only been one comment that I've read that has really like rubbed me the wrong way and I'll tell you and you'll laugh because it's stupid. But people say terrible things about me, about the way I look, about the way I speak. Well, the one that really got to me, I don't even remember what the product was, but the comment was so specific that
What was the product you were shooting?
Ugh.
And so here's what this person said. They said, that guy looks like the kind of person who wears expensive boots to an office job. And I don't know why that got me so much. Because, but there are people that call me terrible things and like, mean, humans are terrible. But that specific comment was the only one I was like, that's really pointed and I don't, I don't like the guy that wears.
Yeah. Humans are terrible.
expensive boots to an office job, so I don't want to be that guy. But yeah, don't I I see I have myself as Tuesday like when it's I just on my work. I just don't care about the comments. I I've had enough experience now that I don't care if I do something wrong if I mess it up. That's OK. I don't care if a brand doesn't want to work with me again. But you know that brands is like they whatever it's there's a million. There's a million opportunities out there.
See ya!
Whereas in my real life, like if I thought that I upset you in any way, I would obsess over it. I mean, there've been times where, mean, my friends have told me it's not a big deal, but they, you know, I thought I upset someone and I was literally like vomiting in the shower, because I care so much. So I don't know how to, I don't know how I separate the two. I just do. The work means this content creator that's online is a different human.
right?
That is so interesting. That is so interesting.
Yeah, that's so, that's so I'm sure there's some psychology that's beyond you or me of how that stuff works. And I'm, I'm, I'm again, like, I'm probably the same way. Although I haven't experienced too much negativity online. Albeit I probably haven't published long enough to get that amount of eyeballs and, and, and traction. But, Andy, I want to maybe pivot a little bit to talk about the type of person that would be successful, you know, as we're like looking at people from the younger generation or even people that are of the older generation that maybe have this second or third chapter in their lives. What type of person would be successful in growing a business like yours? Are there certain character traits that you think would work well?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, would. Someone who is. So to go back again, I've I've been the world's worst employee. never been a good employee ever ever, so I think it takes the kind of person who needs to be an entrepreneur that they are responsible directly. I do a to earn B. They have to be directly responsible in a way that they can drive be driven themselves to do because.
Right? Right? Right?
It's very easy to wake up and go, all that stuff's not due for three days. I'm just gonna come do anything today. And then all of a sudden it piles up and so then you lose clients and you lose trust. So it needs to be someone who's driven to be successful on their own for themselves. I am not a person who's driven to be successful for other people. I'm not good with having a boss. So I think if anything, maybe that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mmm, I see.
people who are able to adapt pretty easily because you're going to go from. It's like acting, like from being one character and then a minute later being someone else. So I might, this one minute be a gym bro who's talking about these lifting gloves. And then my next video, I have to talk about long-term care insurance for my parent who's dying. So just being able to kind of be adaptable and be open-minded to things, because you're not.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
If you are very picky on what you're filming, like what jobs you take, you're not going to make a ton of money unless you're famous, honestly. I'm not picky. And I also, I don't get embarrassed. there have been, I've been on literally on TV, the same ad was my, how about politics, like same ad. One of my family members saw on Fox News and the other saw on MSNBC. It was the same ad, but they both, and they're like,
Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah.
Hey, is your foot fungus okay? And I'm like, I don't have foot fungus. don't know. They're like, we saw this commercial. So you have to be okay with like being, knowing what you're acting, you know, and knowing that not taking it too seriously. Like I said, my wife, I love her to death. She would not be good at this. She takes things too seriously. Everything has to be too perfect. So I don't know, that's an answer at all.
[30:04]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's awesome. No, that's that's fantastic. How did you Initially start to build your client base? Was it was it like you because like you talking about, you know cleaning the gutters that was like, know Pretty much door-to-door around your neighborhood. But like for this business Did you just look up websites or were you on LinkedIn or tick-tock or Instagram and you said that's a business I'm gonna reach out to them. Like how did you start?
So there's a few different ways. So there's a few different companies out there that as like a brand you can go to to try to find influencers or content creators. So I first looked into what any of those are and what can I do to be a content creator on there. Even though I didn't have any followers, that's why I have a fake TikTok following because I was like, I need something out there so people can see it. And so I made a bunch of content videos for products just put out, just so I can be like, hey, here's something that I've done. And then I went on to things like, I haven't even been on them, like Fiverr. I'm not on any of those anymore, but you'll have brands on there that are going, hey, we need a video, but they're only gonna pay you 10 or 20 bucks. Like, I don't care, I'll do it. And so I would, as I built those up, then I would have more like marketing companies saying, hey,
Yep. Yep.
can we use you for ABC? And as more people reach out to me, I would start raising my prices. When I found like, okay, here's where my value point is, where I'm getting most of the work, where some's getting turned away, but I'm getting most of it, that's kind of where I stuck at.
Right. Right.
Yeah, that's awesome. What's the hardest part about your day?
I don't know, my days are super easy, I'm not even gonna lie.
What caused, okay maybe reframe the question, what causes you the amount of thought during your day? Or takes up the most amount of thought for you during the day?
Okay.
prioritizing, you know, especially if I have something like, this is actually happening. So next week I'm going on vacation and so. For me, I don't have vacation time and I can't, know, so I so I have to extra prioritize everything to get it done and sometimes I have to work around the weather. You know, I live in the Pacific Northwest, but if I have stuff that has to film outside, I might have to jump that forward. So I've.
Right, right.
Mm-hmm.
you know, just prioritizing and changing things on the fly probably is the most thought process I have to do because I have to go well. I have to do this one video, but it has to be outside. I have to put it together if it's something and so I need so much time, but I still have to get these other things done. But luckily. Being that I'm not paying myself hourly, you know there's some nights I can stay up until midnight and do stuff. The. Some of the harder things are when companies want trends that I don't know about yet or I'm not good at yet. So if they say, hey, can you do this TikTok trend of this? I'll immediately say yes. And then Google real quick, what is that trend? And then I have to try to figure it out, figure it out on the fly. But it's fun to figure stuff out on the fly.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that just takes so much time to do. Like, you know, I'm not a big TikTok person, but even keeping up with the trends, I mean, like the last trend I really knew about was the dude skateboarding listening to Fleetwood Mac, right? Like drinking like, was it like a Capri Sun or a cranberry? I don't even know who he was drinking anymore. But just things like that, like, how do you stay up to date on that then? Because that's a lot of time, right? Just like looking at all that stuff.
yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it is a lot of time and and so and that's some of it too that I I have to tell myself that What you're doing is work because I tell my kids all the time like hey be present Don't be sitting on social media, but I actually have to do that and so sometimes I feel like an ass when I'm around other people because it's I'm like, you know, I'm actually working like, know
Right.
My mother-in-law lives with us too, and so she'll come in and start having a conversation. I'm like, I'm sorry, I feel like I'm being an asshole, but I actually have to be on Instagram right now with this hashtag figuring this out, because I'm working. it is a lot of time, and a lot of it's annoying, because lot of trends are not fun to watch. So yeah, that's.
Right. Right.
No. It feels like a never ending race. know, like I've gotten into, I've gotten into TikTok a little bit and then I'm using things like vidIQ for YouTube. And you know, they have, break down all these trends and statistics and, you know, ways to optimize whatever it is that you're publishing. And at some point it just gets overwhelming, especially like we're almost the same age. And I think like in your forties, you're not sort of like on that
Mm-hmm.
bleeding edge of knowing the latest things, you've got to really catch up on those things. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of technology and the pace of things that's happening right now?
Now.
Yeah, but luckily I have kids too who can help me. Honestly, I have a 17 year old and a 20 year old that can help me with things. And then my seven year olds will even help me with stuff. So yeah, it does get overwhelming, but I just try to do the best that I can. And if it's not good enough, it's not good enough.
Right.
yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I feel you. I feel you. feel you. If somebody were to break in today, I sat down in front of you and I said, Andy, I'm trying to break into the business that you're doing. What are the first three things I need to do? What would that be?
that's funny. I actually had my wife's friend who his business is slowing and I talked to him day before yesterday about this because he was asking. So the first is just start. Just start like well, you don't. It's what for me is what it doesn't look like. You don't have to go out and buy this lighting and buy this microphone and buy this tripod like you have a phone. Just start so. My my there's a couple.
Okay, what's the cheat sheet of that? Yeah. Okay, what does that look like? What is that?
There's a couple of apps that you can do on your phone to start and they don't pay much, like literally five bucks, right? But there's one called Join Brands that you can go on and you can do a video for them and they'll pay you five bucks. So just starting, because a lot of people will in anything in life will say, well, I was almost to this. I was gonna start that last year. Like just do something, even make videos, make 10 videos.
Yeah.
for yourself, just go into the bathroom and tell me why you like Colgate toothpaste, know? Just so you have something to then start rolling forward with, okay, what am gonna do with these videos now? Am I gonna reach out to small businesses in my area that I see that they're trying their social media and be like, hey, I'd love to make an ad for you. And I'll just do it in exchange for the hat that you guys sell and then I'm gonna sell that on eBay, you know? All of those.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
Yeah, that's great.
just start, that's all it really boils down to is the first thing. The second would be just find or ask some people what software they use because I think that's also been a big thing that people have had a hard time with. So for my editing, since it's mostly on my phone, I just use, an app called InShot. It's super easy. It's cheap. You can get it for free. You have to watch an ad.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Okay.
for every video if you want it for free, if you don't want to pay for it, but, play around with it. That way you have some skills and, and yeah, the third is just start reaching out to companies and be okay with getting a bunch of nos. Eventually, eventually you'll find somebody, you know, that it might not be for a lot, but it's a start. And all of these things, when you start your own business, have to start from somewhere.
Yeah, that's gonna happen.
Yeah, yeah, I love that. Andy, are you comfortable talking numbers? Like, are your business doing? Right now if people were in, we don't have to get to your exact numbers, but at the stage of the company that you're in, what are you looking at in terms of, you know, yearly revenue for that? Like how much can somebody expect to bring in?
if you are. As if you can make much more than me, I if you are not the don't have the lifestyle I have, I do a lot of, know, I probably only hard work 4 to 6 hours a day. For me, you could just did my taxes. You can get to six figures. That's. It's and more if you actually if I didn't have this pile of stuff over here that I should be selling that I'm not.
Family things, all the things.
I just haven't had time to get to it. But yeah, you can you can definitely earn a living. My wife has a big kid job and I earn as much as her. And that's not always.
Right.
[40:08]
Yeah, yeah. You're are you are you getting you're probably getting the medical benefits from your wife then I would imagine like, okay, okay. So you're you guys are offsetting some of that. And so what you're bringing in is essentially your revenue plus whatever she's making on salary and then the health care stuff, the retirement stuff. It's probably falling under that umbrella in some capacity. Okay. What's
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
I would imagine this is like a very high margin business. I don't know anything about it. What's typical margin for, would, and I think like what you are is really a one man agency to supply these services. What's typical margin like for a business like yours and what can people expect?
It's. So I nearly make. I nearly earn 100 % of what comes in because pretty much every. Yeah, because I do. If there's anything I need to purchase. I mean, that's that is the nice thing about this is because basically my life is my job. I get to write off a ton. So the thing that's hard is so we we bought a condo.
Right, I would imagine it's pretty fucking high. Yeah.
and buying the condo, talking to the loan officer, she's like, we're not using your income. Because you, on paper, don't really make anything. Because I spend, you because if I have to film while traveling or whatever, but it's just part of my life. But yeah, I mean, I, you really just need your iPhone. I maybe buy a new tripod every three months when they, because I use them so much, they break. But there's not really a lot, unless it's something that I, really just want, I don't need.
Right. Do you spend a ton on marketing? Like do you run ads? Do you hire out external contractors, anything like that?
Nope, no. When I first started, like I said, my social media was inflated. I straight up bought my followers. So I bought like 10,000 followers on Instagram, 10,000 followers on TikTok. Just so when I put my ads out, like the ones I made that weren't for anybody that I just put out, just to then show other brands, here's what I do. Here's one of mine. Because in my mind, I was thinking, well, if they...
Mm-hmm.
If they go to my TikTok and I have 32 followers, they're not really gonna take me serious. Even though I'm not hugely posting stuff on mine, I'm like, I'm gonna make it and give it to you. So I did spend some money for social media, but yeah, not really.
Yeah. Yeah. And that,
Yeah, much. Those are like, those are like one time costs for you, like an investment to get it to that next stage. Yeah, that's super interesting. I want to spend maybe the last few minutes of our conversation, Andy, and look forward and maybe get some of your predictions on what this market, your market looks like moving forward here, especially with AI coming in and, you know, the investments that people are making in AI produce things.
Yeah, yeah.
In the next five years, how do you see your business shifting or do you even see yourself in this business in the next five years?
I think I'm probably going to age out. Because you know the demographic is what it is and I am. I'm not a stranger to the fact that I have quite a bit of privilege being told I look like every guy in America. It shows you what corporations think every guy in America is. They think every guy in America's mid 40s white guy. You know it it's I'm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know what that is, what it is. So I know I'm going to age out of that. and we have, you my wife and I have plans for that, but like, as far as the future for this, I already see AI is, there's a ton that's going on, you know, with these ads right now. And right now you can kind of tell, you know, you can kind of still see it's a stagnant face. The mouth doesn't quite look right, but there's, it's because of how,
Right. Right.
Right.
Yeah.
how quickly it's growing, that's going to be, it's gonna look like it's me as soon as anything. Right now, what I can see, and I think people are going to do more, and then people are gonna catch on to, is people using AI to write their, whether it's their ads or their content. Going into OpenAI or we're saying, or chat GPT, and saying, I need a five minute. about this blah blah blah and I think people are going to start picking up to that guy is talking like chat GPT and so there'll be a big swing of people doing that because it's going to save a bunch of time and it's easier and everyone's lazy. But then I think there'll be a swing back to well more authentic content in general. You know.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. Yep.
Right, right, right. What are some tools that you're using right now that you think would benefit people that want to get into this game?
I know I just said it, but yeah, some people that might want to use chat GPT to help them to start off. To be honest, like say hey, I need a 30 second script about whatever. Can you help me right? Just so they get used to their style and their flow. Really, my God, there's not a lot of tools that you really have to use, which is nice. You have. Phone, you know if if you're outside and the weather having a decent microphone.
Yeah. Yeah.
But besides that, it's really just the want to do it.
Yeah, yeah, that's great. Great. Low barrier, high margins. ask for anything better. All right, Andy, last question for you.
Yeah. Yeah, as long as you don't mind people laughing at you, you know.
Last question I have for you my friend and I've appreciated this. What are some things right now that inspire you? Poetry, literature, movies, magazines, animation, websites, music. What are they?
Well, inspires me every. Every day is wow. Seeing my kids where they're at right now in life is. Crazy inspiring like. You know.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree.
these babies that are now adults and just these dynamic, incredible women.
Again, sorry, my whole life, it's why I leave everything. In addition to that, music is so huge for me, it always has been. So that's really, really big. And I get to share that with my daughters. I take them to concerts all the time and I've been lucky enough to know some really cool musicians. So a lot of the music that's coming out right now, just because of the culture,
No, it's okay. Yeah, yeah.
That's fantastic.
of the world that we live in. If anyone's been really big into music and more than just like, I like shaking my booty, which don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're like really deep into like, what are these people saying? There's some incredible music coming out right now that is just like world changing. And to me, I always have something playing no matter what.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
that inspires me and makes me want to be better, makes me want to be a better human, makes me want to be kinder, makes me want to care more, makes me angrier. And so that's probably the type of art that's inspiring me right now is music from real people, you know, with real struggles. It's pretty amazing.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, we had this conversation in the past and we were talking about concerts we took our daughters to. I think I told you, we made sure when my daughter was, I think she was eight or nine, she went to her first concert. And my wife and I, when we started dating, we were talking about our first concerts. And I was like, you know, whenever Sammy gets old enough, we're going to take her to that first concert. It's going to be a good one. So we were able to take her to see Stevie Nicks. at the Gorge versus when I was a kid and I still love UB40 but UB40 over at Bumbershoot in Seattle, that was my first concert. I still love that experience. But every time you tell somebody that, UB40 doesn't have as much staying power as they did back in the 90s. But it's just experiences like that that I enjoy as well, man. You can't beat it.
amazing.
It's live music in particular is a shared experience that you only get that one moment and you get to share with that group of people. And I don't know that I've ever been to a concert or a show that hasn't been special somehow. There's something very special. Those people, even if like, oh, this wasn't the biggest radio band, you're getting someone's soul from them. you know, when they're playing live, it's amazing. and I've told people that my favorite, I've been to, and I'm not exaggerating this, thousands of concerts and shows. I was at live music from when I was 15 years old all the way into my mid-20s every single day. And my favorite band is to see live.
Right. Wow.
it's this band Goldfinger and it's just because the amount of energy that they put out you feel it in your chest. And so yeah, it's. And.
[50:01]
Yeah, that's awesome, man. Yeah, Goldfinger is a great choice. My favorite show, since we're on the topic of shows, my favorite show, and it's not even my favorite band. Like, I like their music. But Prodigy, that show, holy smokes, man. That's hands down probably the best show I've ever been to. And it was just a different level. Like, I like their music. I work out to it. I hang out to it.
Well, yeah.
But when you go to that show and you feel that energy that they bring, holy smokes, that's a different level.
Oh yeah. I was lucky enough and believe I was 19, I don't know if I 99, but I saw them at Lollapalooza. Huge crowd, just wild. Yeah, and again, not even really the style of music I like, but there's something about, you get inspired and then when you hear that now, it takes you back to that feeling that you had then. It's just amazing.
yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. yes. Absolutely. I love that. And I love ending the conversation off on that, Andy. I appreciate you, sir. I'll put your link of whatever you want to market in the descriptions. But I wish you well, man. Thanks for having this conversation with me. All right. I'll talk to you later. All right. See you.
Well, I'll talk to you later my friend. Bye.
