The Joe Rogan Blueprint For Building A 1% Podcast

You need to meet Chris, a guy who's interviewing the top 1% of people in the world.

The goal is to go after the 1%. Ones in basketball or football or baseball or NASCAR, ones in business, ones in lobbying, ones in fighting. They're all the same person. They're all the 1%. We are go after the 1% because we are in an industry that only 1% makes it, whether it's music, fighting, or the business I do globally.

He joined my YouTube mastermind to figure out how to blow up his podcast.

We can have all the greatest guests, but if it's not getting out to the right people or in the right way, we're defeating the purpose.

The science of what's the intro going to be, what's the thumbnail going to be, what's the title going to be, really matters. Can make or break a video. We sit down and look at exactly what is working for massive shows like Joe Rogan and how Chris can use those same tactics. Rogan does a great job of, I think, one, extra long form wherever possible, right? Like 3-hour conversations, 4-hour conversations, right? That's how he blew up. Who doesn't want to have a big show and big podcast and great, great content? But like, can you have a conversation? Like, Joe Rogan is a fantastic conversationalist, right? He disarms people but still asks important questions. It's a skill. If you want to build a show that pulls in huge guests and millions of views, you have to nail the format and be culturally relevant right now. For a show like yours to take off, you want culturally relevant people talking about culturally relevant things, right? If all the guests are just people who kind of used to be culturally relevant, then okay, like it is a name. So then we definitely have to talk about cultural relevant things right now. But how it really blows up is like the combination. In this coaching session, I break down the exact steps to stop getting small views and start building a 1% brand. Okay, we got Chris here.

Awesome.

The new member of our mastermind group. Part of that, we're going to spend a couple of days together jamming. But why don't you tell everybody what you're up to and then how can I help?

Yeah. So thank you, Evan Carmichael, your team, Mary. Thank you very much for, for having me here. My first time in Toronto, Canada. It's been beautiful. We discussed that a little bit off camera. Great people, nothing like I expected. So it's been a thrill and an honor to be in this country and to be in the city of Toronto. So a little bit why I'm here, obviously to learn, uh, together some more information, to take some more content in a positive direction for our audience and our crowd, and to make sure our mission statement continues down that path with what we intended it on. So that's what kind of what we're here for. They'll tell them, tell them about the channel, and then, you know, how can I help Yeah, so the reality of it is this was an idea in about 2024, 2025. Some things that happened personally in a lot of our lives at the same time. And so when all that thing or things came to pass, we started the Why Be Normal show. When it was really roughly about our faith-based, being a man in today's society, you know, some of the demasculinity that we see within our own region, our own country for that fact of just being a man, doing what you're saying, you know, you're supposed to do, learning how to be, you know, work on cars, work outdoors, provide for a family. And then not only that, but to keep that faith and perspective and make sure that your family is really in tune with being yoked together. And we're trying to reach the young people along with people our own age and people who are older that just need that positive energy in their life to get them going for the next day.

You doing podcast style? You doing the solo content where you're—

Yeah, no, we're doing a podcast style. We're doing a podcast style. We reach every topic from sports to, you know, football, basketball, baseball, soccer, racing, along with world events, uh, geopolitical stuff. A lot of us do quite a bit of business abroad, myself being one, Joe Schilling being the other one, just fought abroad in Brussels 2 weeks ago. Pete Rickey, who's done concerts all over the world. So, and we're trying to bring those dynamics to the show. We've got a lot of amazing guests on that have fantastic worldly things they've accomplished, rather the Hall of Fame for some of them in their respective sports. So we're bringing that to light and letting the future, you know, the future generation know that these things are so plausible for them, that they just have to work hard to achieve their goals.

So how can I help? What's on your mind?

Well, you know, with you, I mean What better way to then ask somebody that's built this blueprint, how do we get there and how do we touch an audience in a way that you feel that is sustainable? Because I feel like the content we are putting out there is forever. You know, and that's what we're trying to achieve.

Is it always the same people on the show?

It's the same hosts on the show as always. Obviously the guests change, whatever topic it is. If it's a geopolitical topic, we'll go towards like a governor like we just did before I came to Toronto. Looks like he's going to end up winning California, which is fantastic. We need that. Or if it's a sports baseball, we have a couple coming on, Roy Bronson and Josh Beckett. They'll be on. From there to UFC to our own Joe Schilling to several different, you know, individuals within that sport, whether it's Evan Elder, whether it's, you know, a Sean Strickland. You know, guys that we're in tune with that we can go to to get their, their aspects on, on the fight game, to put more content out for, for those that maybe you're confused about. Kind of like Joe's issue in Brussels, he was headbutted and they should have stopped the fight immediately. That's a, that's a rule and they missed it.

So how many co-hosts are there?

There's 3 of us.

3 of you, and then there's always an extra guest?

And there's always an extra guest. Sometimes there'll be 2 depending on what the topic is or the discussion or what we're trying to get you know, that, that, that point across.

And we in person or Zoom?

Uh, we're going to start to move more towards the in-person. I would say right now it's roughly 80/20 Zoom versus in-person.

Okay. And the three of you are all in the same city, traveling, whatever?

We're all, uh, Pete is from Massachusetts, Joe is from Nevada, and I'm from California.

Oh, okay. So getting together is a thing.

It's, it's been a little bit of a feat, and we've had Tons of help from your group, Mary's help with that. We have a lot of in-house production that we're finding to be helpful in some aspects. Some other aspects we need to work on.

You know, another angle around it, what are the 3 cities?

Las Vegas, Nevada, Bakersfield, California, and just call it Boston, Massachusetts.

Another angle around it is to have, if you guys are, if you're all in person, it's great. It's always better. The energy is always better.

It also is going to depend on the guest.

100%. You could structure it so there's always one person in person with the guest and the other two are remote.

There's always a minimum of two of us in studio. Myself or Joe are always together. It's the only floater.

It's always in the same studio?

That's correct.

So it's in California?

Correct. Joe also has an office from my— or from our studio office. It's an hour and 45 minutes away.

You guys are close enough. Boston.

So we're good.

Yeah, it's the kind of thing, like, so many people come through Vegas, as an example, that you could have it that one person is with the guests and the other two are online. It's not as ideal as everybody, but if there's somebody flying through Boston, or somebody local obviously, but these people travel so much, and often when they're touring, if they're coming in doing a comedy show in Vegas or whatever, like, they're already there, they're they're already in the mindset of like, I'm going on tour, so to cop it into a podcast is a lot easier because they also don't want to waste their trip, right?

It'll probably be easier just to get them in studio or to have them in a specific spot. We'll be in studio, then we can have them on the guest with the other member that can't make it. Yeah, as a representative.

What's the closest convention center to you?

Oh, we have tons. I mean, we have acts going through both, all three of us, all the time.

But to the studio, what's the closest convention center to the studio?

Oh, a mile.

Which one is it?

Uh, it'd be Mechanics Bank now.

Because even looking at who was coming into town—

tons. Old Dominion, Gavin Adcox coming, who's a rising star. Um, you name them, they come. AC/DC's played there. KISS. Uh, every comedy actor you can imagine. Joe Koy just— he just played there before he went on his tour overseas.

Are you paying attention to what's happening?

These are all people we know as well. Korn's in Latin America tour right now on the largest tour going on in music. They're from my hometown.

They're already coming to town. It's so much easier to piggyback on a show.

That's what we're trying to accomplish is, let's say if Pete can't make it or he's in Boston, he's in Nashville, let's schedule somebody in Nashville or somebody that they're touring with, with Aaron, because there's 3 or 4 acts every night.

Yeah.

And they're all very popular bands. So with that being said, he's always able to jump with us. We've just got to find a specific spot for him to go to. Joe and I can always be in the studio.

It's usually whatever, whatever is easy for the guest. That's a close— you can rent out a studio by the hour, whatever. Just something— where is the guest staying? What hotel? What can they— they're usually staying at the convention center, like super close by, right? So what's the closest studio for them that it's like 5 minutes, 10 minutes to get to? Okay, because if they're already coming to town, they're already thinking promotion. And so let's hop on a, a podcast and do it.

Well, we've thought about moving the whole thing to Los Angeles as well.

Everybody flies through LA.

That's our biggest thing is a lot of our friends are through there all the time.

Yeah.

And they're like, it's an hour and a half to get to you, can you guys come here? And it's like, we've really waited out, like, let's look it up. But when I was offline with Mary, we're in the plans of building a 3,600 square foot facility in LA and where we're currently at in Bakersfield.

Okay, an hour and a half's a journey though.

I know it is, and unfortunately we're in the convenience business when it comes to podcasts, for sure.

But, but even having a, a mobile studio or like going— and by the way, there's like, you have a place in LA that can put your branding on it and just rent it out. There's lots of options in LA.

Just like something we're gonna have to look into deeply because I do feel like that LA should be home.

15 minutes versus an hour and a half is a world of difference.

Yes.

If it's easy for them, you get a limo, pick them up, drive them to the place, drop them back off, it's super convenient.

And these are all friends, so it's not like we're, we're asking a lot. They're more than willing. The issue is the convenience factor.

Yeah. And like, you also want to be able to branch out beyond your friends, correct? Right?

Because there's always gonna be somebody new, right?

And bigger names. So like, and you know a lot of people, and like, I don't know who your dream list of, but it's people who you want to have on, I'm sure, that you don't know yet, right? Absolutely. And they're flying through LA, which everybody does, right? Like, Boston's a little harder, but it's still a major city. But everybody flies through LA and Vegas. Yeah, those are super easy. It's just about timing and matching their schedules and having a, a podcast studio you can rent out that puts your branding on. Right, that you just show up to.

I love the idea a lot.

Some guys just go, like, you know, look at, um, Lex Friedman. I mean, Lex doesn't do any branding really, or like the Impulsive guys, they just have a, uh, banner that says Impulsive and they'll fly out to wherever they are. So like when they had Dana White on, Dana's on a schedule. Like Dana's not flying an hour and a half to— right, he's on a schedule, right? It's at his hotel. Go to this room. He's just got to go up 3 flights. There on the couch, Impulsive in the background.

That's it.

See ya. I'm back. I'm off. Yeah, like, convenience is the whole thing.

I think Mary and I had talked about that too, a lot, on, uh, us doing what's called— what we're trying to create is pop-up podcasts. So not only can you just go to like a major city, but we can go follow, let's say, a tour for a month. We can go do this for— and then we can bounce around during sports season. Football, tons of different things where we can knock out content at a rate that would— that's where the monetizing comes in massively. Because now you're— once again, there's a massive big picture, Evan, to paint it into one right here. And this is impossible to do because we're still organically learning. You know, I love the idea of moving it to Los Angeles. I think we're all three 100% on board with that. I think it's going to stop a lot of our other issues.

But even if you don't have your own place, like you just have a studio that you rent out and go to—

as long as we get it on a schedule, that's it.

Yeah. And like a lot of times it's on their schedule, right? Like, I mean, at this time I have this 2-hour window open. Do you want it?

Right.

We'll be there. Right. Like, that's the— the higher up you go. Like when I had whoever, like Tony Robbins on or Matthew McConaughey on, and it's like, okay, I've got this time. Do you want it? I'll take it. Right, right. Let's go. In person is always better than Zoom. They all know how to do Zoom stuff too, but like in person, just— and just the connections, the connections, the referrals, uh, leads somewhere else. You get invited to place, you meet somebody else, like that ends up being the whole game.

Yeah, we, we— the Zoom's been great, but we, we've definitely seen in studio, it just, it feels different. The energy is different. I'm not saying the questions are necessarily No, we go into more depth on him. It's just the guest is more apt, I guess, just to give more insight of that story than he would if he's on Zoom, 'cause he feels like he's rushed. Where there he's like, we're not looking at time.

Yeah, well, they're not as present too. Right. Fair enough. Are we trying to use it to then grow your business? Is it just, this is a standalone thing? What's the goal?

No, I would say it is to grow a business. It's grow my business. I'm already global. With two of my companies. Joe's global with his brand. Pete's global with obviously the music industry. Me personally, I'm here for to grow my personal brand. So whatever I'm attached to comes with it. So right now I have 15 different companies to go with that. This will be another one. It'll also attach them to, you know, the Joe Schillings, the Pete Rickys of the world, along with other individuals I have business with.

So are you trying to be like a super angel and have a whole portfolio companies underneath you that then anything you attach yourself to builds and grows? Or like, how does Kris benefit?

A little bit, a little bit to that. I would use it more of the, the mailbox money analogy, but in a much more aggressive global play.

Like, you look at Mark Cuban or whatever, you go to Mark or Mr. Wonderful with his portfolio of all these things, right? They use the Shark Tank opportunity.

Yeah, that's other people's money though. That's what people don't know.

Sure. But like perception versus the actual reality, right? When you go to Mark Cuban's website, there's a list of all of the portfolio companies that he's invested into. But then the more he builds his brand, the more—

it's exactly the same thing I do within my business globally, from my manufacturers. I do with the being a manufacturer myself, everything I'm— I touch or I have my hands a part of, it shows the affiliation.

So the main thing, do we want to source deals from the show? Source investors from the show? Just build branding credibility?

I would say there's so many. I would say for me, there's like a 25-punch list of step by step. I think we're on step probably 3 for me right now. Mary knows I'm very, very— I don't have a lot of time to waste. I am extremely busy with work. This is something we want to turn into that platform that will then catapult the other subsidiaries. That are attached to us, which we feel will happen, right?

So, but are you trying to— like, are there companies that you would— you want to get to know because you want to have a private stake in that business?

Not a private so much a stake, but as far as possibly a partnership, a business partnership, a true business partnership.

So then it's less about like the celebrity status of the person, more—

right, that's just more going to be more content for the people at home to tune in, right? That gives them Here's who they're connected to. Then behind the scenes, okay, this is what they're now doing. We're in town, like with Jeff Steele, we just did him. He's partners with Tony Hawk, who's a massive brand. Okay, so we're gonna jump to that. That opens up a massive, not only business opportunities or things we could be affiliated with, with 501s, which I have one for autism with my son. There's just a lot of doors that open up.

Are you trying to raise a fund to then go buy bigger companies and make bigger plays? Investment partners, or you're just going to self-fund it? Like the deals that you're looking to do?

Depends. There's, there's, I mean, there's vast differences between a $20 million deal and a half a billion dollar deal, right? There's companies out there like that. Yes, we're looking at both of those.

Okay, well, it all, it all plays into the content, right? So like if you have a bunch of sports people on, it's like, oh, okay, they're like a sports channel, right? Um, but if you mix in the deals that you're trying to create or share some of the mission of, okay, like Hey, I'm fine taking these $20 million deals, but I wanna swing for the half a billion deals. And I'm not BlackRock. So who do we need to have on to make the partnerships that you need to go after those bigger swings? And so the show, like those content pieces are less about how many views and it's the relationship that you're developing with the right people, right?

And we're trying to do that with the guests on this show, just the identifier. They're just the elephant in the room. And then behind the scenes is where we really want to—

well, then like the in-person becomes the whole thing because then you go to dinner, you go to the game, you go like whatever, right? That it's the relationship. Even if you have to fly to Colorado to go meet them, whatever, like you're going because that's a billion-dollar relationship as opposed to— right.

Or, you know, for instance, myself, I live in California, so it— there's a lot that matters in my industry on the way You know, the geopolitical, like, lobbying side. Tons. It's the biggest in the world.

Yeah, it's California.

That's why we have the most regulations. But, um, you know, it's, it's trying to get companies to come back to California for that and to get that out. So we were able to have both of those people that can make the impact. So either way, we win. And that's what we're figuring out. No matter who that guy picked or who that girl picked, either way, we're— we got both on They both got to get heard.

Is there a show format you like?

Uh, there's a couple things we're going to change. I was talking to Mayor a little bit about it outside. We're going to try to give ourselves 4 to 5 different options. So one will be more of a sitting couch setting, one will be like this with 4 to 5 chairs, one will be one massive desk, um, and then one we have our graphic guy kind of drawing it up right now per the square footage of what we're intending to buy. That doesn't mean even if we build it there that we're not going to do things in LA. But there's a lot of bigger sort right now. Is it's, it's booming.

Is there a style that is like, like you love how Rogan does his thing? You love how Big David does his thing?

I would say I like, I like parts of Joe's.

Okay.

I like the way it's formatted. I think Jimmy does a good job of really slowing it down for Joe for the right questions to be asked. I would like to see more interactions from both, but that's up to the editing team. They obviously know what they're doing, so they know when to edit, not to edit. I think Theo Vaughn's is really good. Sometimes it's really heartfelt. It's that one-on-one, something I think that we should all do. We did talk about that. If they both are on the road or if I'm in studio or if they feel the need, they need to be able to get that out, a message or something that happens immediately or effectively that would go to the platforms and then maybe people within those groups that we do business with, you know, we'd be able to talk to them directly. So, I mean, there's several different ways. I do like the fact of having a hub. I do like that. That's one thing, like I said, Mary and I have talked about, but we were thinking more of— it's a lot of stuff to do on the West Coast.

A lot.

There's something Monday through Sunday and there's always somebody that one of us knows that we do business with or whatever. So they can have us at a function or event where we can do a 30-minute, 45-minute pop-up podcast with one person there that's moving the needle. Now, I don't know if that would be effective, but I think it's something we want to try and almost run it as a test and not put it out there and just see what we think.

It just depends on the goal. Like, what are we trying to accomplish? Because there's different goals, different stakeholders, different things you're trying to accomplish under the same roof.

It seems like there's a lot of different goals, Evan, but it's all these same kind of people. They're all involved. It's just one's in basketball or football or baseball or NASCAR, one's in business, one's in lobbying, one's in fighting. They're all the same person. They're all the 1%. At the end of the day, they're all the 1%, and that's all we deal with.

And the, and the theme is the goal is to go after the 1%.

Yeah.

Okay.

Period. The 1% as far as our co-branding. The rest, we're hoping to be inspirational for the younger generation that will lead for our mission statement that we set out to. That's on our own dollar. We understand that. We don't care about that. We're passionate about that. Yeah. The other things are the business aspect. We are going after the 1%ers because we are in an industry that only 1% makes it, whether it's music, fighting, or the business I do globally. 1% of the population do it in the whole world.

Once a week? How often are you making content?

We're making it once a week. We're trying to possibly go to 2 to 3. Depending on what happens and how comfortable I get back with the guys. Joe's been gone for about 10 to 12 days, but we, we have to start putting out more content. Yeah, we know.

I mean, you have options. Like, if there's 3 hosts, you don't all necessarily need to be in every episode too.

And these are all things that we're here to learn.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's all possible. It's all like just ties back into the vision what you're trying to create. So you could have just you with a guest, it could be just the guy in Boston with the guests. Like, you can, if you can make it awesome, but The having 3 co-hosts, as long as there's a regular rhythm to it so that people know who the people are. Another option is if there's people on team or companies that we're trying to put on, like, why would somebody work with you? Well, the investment, the knowledge, the mentorship, everything else, but also like you can put them on like the spotlight as you build and grow. So is there even— part of the portfolio companies that you're working on, do they do something once a month?

They do. There's actually an individual— I just got a text message from him. He's got my phone by him, but he's got a podcast. He's in the millions of followers and all that. It's called The 19th Hole. And anyhow, it's a bunch of business guys that get together. They're exclusive VIP to 19 of the most exclusive golf courses in the world. And they go there for one mission, to do business, understand each other, create a mission, create business models. And about half of them have very, very successful podcasts.

So the people who already have an audience, awesome. For the portfolio companies that you have who don't have an audience, right, can you put them on? Are there key connections?

Yes, there are.

Does it always need to be the three of you, or—

No, it doesn't. It can be more site-specific. I would say that we're trying to gain a greater aspect of that. For instance, where our strengths and weaknesses are. There's greater advice coming from Joe when we're talking about the fight world. Pete, obviously, the music industry, the contractual industry, the reason why their song's called, you know, A Penny for a Song. There's some artists still make one penny for every time a song's played. And then myself, just oil and gas, agriculture, food. Important issues that press the world, not just Canada or America. So we're trying to figure that out, who to get on that can not only be insightful to our audience but is well known, respected in the industry, and has a brand, i.e., contractual with federal governments, state agencies, things like that, that can really move the needle behind the scenes to get you into those other rooms that we possibly can't open up ourselves. Because there are those rooms.

Oh, for sure. I mean, who's your dream bucket list people and what's the path to go get them?

I would say our dream bucket list people right now at this specific time. I mean, for what's going on right now. That's a rough— that's a tough question. I mean, it'd be I don't know if I'd want it in strife, that conversation, or harmony. But I think right now it'd be the president, obviously, of the United States on what's going on. And I mean, to be the most powerful country, there's a lot of things going on right now that are out of whack. And I think the world needs answers. And if you're going to act like the world police, then we need to talk to the person making the decisions.

So what's the path? I mean, he's done a bunch of podcasts before.

I mean, more. I mean, he has. Obviously, that's at their own discretion. Those questions are teed up pretty heavily. I have a lot of friends that are senators and congresspeople. Myself, I'm an ex-Iraqi veteran. I was in a hot unit overseas from '03 to '05. So back then, the President was W and our Vice President was Dick Cheney. And so I've been in the same building, same room, had these same conversations, not with the President, but with his senior leadership and cabinet group. And so that now being out of that in retrospect and seeing war the way I seen it in real time would be, do we truly understand what the cost of it is? Is it really— if it's about regulation, then we need to stop the regulation altogether if it's costing people's lives. Because now we found out there are a lot of things that it's been a lot of false allegations of things over the last 6 years that are coming to light.

Yeah. So just the path to get there, right?

Like if you had your list, you're going to have to ask tough questions to get there to that because he's the kind of guy that I don't think he's a bullshit guy.

Trump.

I know people that know him personally and he's not that guy.

People that have hung with Trump's done a lot of stuff, right? I mean, it was more during the election. I haven't seen anything new that's not like media where he's gone and done podcasts. But, you know, he went and spoke at Grant's thing, spoke on Colin Coward, which was one of his first interviews, which was crazy on the sports radio. Yeah. So he's like, he's one of the most media savvy.

For sure.

Like new media savvy.

For sure. He was, I think, before his time when it came to a lot that we see today.

Yeah.

But even him or a world leader, somebody that has really moved the needle in their country, you know, that has done— taken a horrible situation and turned it into a positive. I mean, a Mandela would be anybody's dream, right?

So like those people could be like, hey, everybody flies in and you guys do that in person, wherever is the most convenient for them and like hire a local team. Whatever, and the three of you are doing it, right? For the other people who are like, this relation is really valuable for you or one of your partners, then those could be a solo episode or like two of you together. It allows you to get more content out with the same mission around the 1%, but just you don't always all three have to be in the same room, right? A lot of it becomes convenience, uh, and it honestly be like going to them in their hotel room or like whatever venue they're at, you book a room in there and that's where you do it and you just have a guy and LA and Vegas.

I think that would be, you know, we definitely— the formatting would have to be correct because right now when we walk in the studio, everything's perfect. We don't touch nothing. It's changed batteries, we're done, we're plug and play. We're— it's like that every time. So we're trying to give ourselves more options. I love the fact of doing it. It would just have to be, you know, with the curtains, you know. I understand the signage and all that. They do a couple of those in LA.

Again, like, if you're getting Dana White on, he's probably not even going 15 minutes to go to your studio.

You ain't leaving Las Vegas, brother.

Yeah, like you're getting a room above his and that's where you're filming, right? And so it's just as you get higher up, that's what— until you get the big audience, right? Which then like, okay, Rogan has people fly out to him, but of course, right? And cool, like that's the ambition to, right, have that size of an audience. But until then, like, you're like getting the yes for that interview is way more valuable than like, hey, like, come out to whatever studio or an hour and a half away, right?

It's probably no different than, you know, flying to Toronto. I'm going to learn a million things here that I would never learn from California. Yeah, because the knowledge is here. It's where the energy is, and Mary stressed that, and I think you stress that with your team. So you got to be around the energy, and, uh, you can feel it when you get here, and it's great. You know, I'm excited to dive in and, and to learn. You know, we're still at the very infant stage of this. You know, we can have all the greatest guests, but if it's not getting out to the right people or in the right way, we're defeating the purpose.

I mean, Rogan does a great job of, I think, one extra long form wherever possible, right? Like 3-hour conversations, 4-hour conversations. Right. But that's how he blew up.

Mm-hmm.

And that's sometimes possible and sometimes not. Like, you may not get that amount of time, but.

Right.

You always want to get as much as you can because the long— for the ultra long form, is incredibly successful.

I've noticed with, with Rogan, because I think he does the best when it comes to long-form stuff. There's a lot that Jamie does to control that room, a lot more about Joe Schilling. Arkoz has been on that show several times. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in the background where that room is very— it slows down on purpose because they know it's 3 hours. Yeah, it's like when you're a kid, you know, you're in class, it's 45 minutes, it seems like 2 hours.

Yeah.

But as we've gone, we've done now a couple that are an hour and 45 minutes. It's like, that was it?

Yeah.

That was nothing.

Yeah.

We missed so many questions. So it's us getting that better to format it correctly and to stay on that topic.

And then getting them to talk about something that is in culture right now.

Correct.

That what's awesome is when it's a little bit off of their— like they have an expertise, but it may not be their story, but they're commenting on something that's happening. It's like, oh, I've never heard this person comment on that topic before.

We have found that to kind of be some of the funny comments. We'll be like, what does he know? He's a football player. What's he know? He's a UFC guy. What would he know about this? But it is, nevertheless, it's dialogue, and it starts that conversation. We're like, you think that's all he does is just UFC thing? He just fights 24 hours a day? He's also a dad. He also goes to church. Guy knows how to build a house. He knows how to cut granite. He's sat in world leaders, you know. There's a lot more to the show. We just have to understand how to bring the individuals that we have that are our friends. We have to stop the friendship and just go straight to their personal. Because if we had it our way, we'd be sitting there the whole time talking about what we do 2 years ago at this concert. So now we've got to get down to truly what their substance is, how much they have done in their industry, and who they have impacted or who they played in front of. Yeah, those are the stories people want to hear. And I think Mary would allude to this. We switched one thumbnail and it received 7,000. Now it's at, Mary, almost 11,000 hits with just us changing one thing. So us getting inside and internalizing everything, I'm starting to see a massive, massive paradigm shift.

There's a science and the art, right? Like the art is your— like if you ask crappy questions, it's hard to save. Like if you're not interesting, you can't— you don't have any connections and you ask bad questions. That's really hard to fix, right? Right. Like, okay, get smarter and be better.

Yeah, be better.

Uh, well, it's legit. Who doesn't want to have a big show and big podcast and great— but like, can you have a conversation? Like, Joe Rogan is a fantastic conversationalist, right? Right. He disarms people but still asks important questions. That's a skill. And he's well connected.

Absolutely.

Uh, but the science of What's the intro going to be? What's the thumbnail going to be? What's the title going to be? Really matters. Can make it, make or break a video.

I think just to start it, I've realized just to start it on the right foot, that's got to be very, very importantly crafted and done. So when the show comes on, they understand a lot more. And I feel like we're getting better at that because some of them are being created now. Now when I watch a show, I go, ah, Now it's way better because it ties in better.

I mean, Mary will dive into all the stats and everything with you, but like it shows you second by second where people are falling off in your video. And if you lose them in the now, in the first minute, it doesn't matter that it's an hour or 2 hours, right? They're gone. They're gone. They're not coming back. So if you're just talking about concerts or whatever and like people don't care, you might touch on some really deep—

man, that's not vague like that. It's a lot of like some of the older guys we put on, like Tim Sylvia is retired. Jeffrey Still, a lot of people don't know him. You know, hopefully a lot of people Googled him. I can tell after the last one, obviously people have done their homework because it's jumped up massively. I think what we're seeing, you know, the TikTok's an inflated number for one. Anybody can do that. I've got kids down the street that got 2 million views on a TikTok as a joke. But the reality of it is, like I said, with YouTube and talking to Mary about it, our main brand is us. Now it's getting the people that are a little bit maybe our age or older to then remember those days, to take them back in the days, let them paint the picture of what the world looked like. Another day I think I told maybe Mary this or the cab guy on the way here, Toronto looked just like California 40 years ago when I was a kid. It's exactly what California looked like just 40 years ago. It looks nothing like this now.

So I guess that, like, for me, that comes back to the intention of the show, because for a show like yours to take off, you want culturally relevant people talking about culturally relevant things, right? If all the guests are just people who kind of used to be culturally relevant, right, then okay, like, it is a name. So then we definitely have to talk about cultural relevant things right now, right? But how it really blows up is like the combination. It's not somebody who used to be popular 20 years ago who like has some name brand recognition, but like who's hot right now and how do they share their story and like what's, what's the unique angle? You're going to give them a space to talk about it where they don't get it somewhere else. Right. So I mean, at the beginning it might be easier what you're doing now because you already know these people and their friends and yada, yada, yada.

But we have to separate that. It definitely needs to be a separation.

I mean, you'll run out of friends. I mean, I'm sure you got lots of friends, but like people who are known quantities. And just if you want the show to do better, it's who are people who are known quantities right now, not just 10 years ago.

Well, and I think too, to maybe give a different aspect, maybe if it's Pete one-on-one with a guest, or Joe one-on-one with a guest, or myself one-on-one with a guest, no matter what, it's still the show, right? And I think those questions, that person, you know, whoever that one of us brings in, they would get more aggressive or differently or maybe uncomfortable with some comfortable questions or uncomfortable questions having to be answered. But like you said, in that Rogan type where they feel comfortable, you know, you're giving them enough to where they can maybe say the wrong thing, but they think about it. So, you know, it's understanding that too. And we don't want negative light on anything either. That's one thing we're big on. A lot of us have taken years to build our own brand. So, and our brands were something, each individually one of us. So we want to make sure we protect that brand and how it's looked at. You know, we just don't go after likes and views for some reason. Yeah, yeah, it's not, it's not, uh, we're not going to sacrifice our personal brand already. We want to improve it.

You're not trying to get gotcha moments and like make them look bad. Exactly. A lot of people do that and like that's the intention. It's not, it's not what you're trying to do because then that just destroys your whole Everything. Reputation.

Yeah, 40 years. Yeah, 40 years.

There's still a big difference between like getting the former governor of California versus like the current or whatever, like people who used to be big. And it's great to get the perspective. Like, what does De La Hoya think about the fight? You know, it's different. Like, he's a name. He's still known, you know, not active, but like his opinion means something, but not as big as he used to be back in the day.

Yeah, right.

So that's great. And like, they're easier to get because a lot of those people are not as—

get shelved a little bit.

Yeah. Like they were— they had the limelight, they had all the attention, and now they don't.

It is like that too.

It's gone. And so you're making them relevant again. You're asking for their opinion again.

And they're probably more excited and they have the expertise and professionalism to talk about that specific instance.

Yeah. Like a lot of people still remember them, but the further away you get, the less— totally, you know, so like, but— and that's fine as a starting point.

And it's amazing only 4 years can erase somebody now.

Oh, for sure.

I mean, I guess 4 Days can now, but—

and then the ambition becomes, okay, like, who ends up being really popular now that we want to have on later? And, and that's part of building up the brand. And at the beginning, people will come on because they know you, right? And you have some connections or you're friends of, right? And so you make it happen. And the ambition then becomes, okay, what— we can't only talk to people we know. We have to be able to reach—

well, we need to be outside of our box too with somebody that's in that same situation where we've got to have our stuff together. Yeah. You know, that they're in the proper light. I think we did that with Jeff a lot, talking about his 501 with Tony Hawk. I know Tony sent us a personal thank you for that, which was great because that's something that's going on. I know he just jumped into the UFC side of things that we're getting ready to talk about. So there's a lot of exciting stuff coming out. But he's another guy, my era, Tony older, but still, you say Tony Hawk, I don't care if you're 8 or you're 55, man, you know who Tony Hawk is.

Yeah. So Tony's coming on, or he came on?

Well, we're working.

You're working on it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, let's say the last day.

But if you look at, uh, a 13-year-old now is into skateboarding, like, maybe knows Tony Hawk, but it's not like— he's not—

we got to find out who's the kid riding that Tony Hawk sponsoring. Who's the next you? We need that kid. And then you talk about that kid.

You're like, who is the person now? Not even like the next, but who is taking over? Exactly. Yeah, that becomes the ambition.

I mean, really, your content's there every single day because there's always something new happening or the new best thing or the new best athlete or the new best product or whatever.

Yeah. Are you following the news a lot? Sounds like you are all the time.

Yeah.

And your partners too?

Yes. One of the co-hosts was the biggest Google thing 10, 12 days ago. We haven't got to talk about the show yet. What's the biggest Google search? Joe Schilling's fight. Oh, so we haven't got to speak about that. He's— we've been called up by everybody yet on the show to do it. We're waiting to do ours the proper way.

Do you do a boys-only episode?

It's gonna be boys only, but there's gonna be two other special guests there that are UFC— once a world champion and one fought for the world championship.

But as a general, like, do you ever do boys only or updates or news?

Not really as far as like an update segment just specifically for the news. We kind of talk about the news of what's going on or story within that day of what's happening.

Always with a guest, not a solo or boys only?

No, but I've thought about the solo. It's just I need to see what it would look like so I wouldn't get that mentally in my head to go, this looks good or it doesn't look good or it feels good or it doesn't feel good. Like, I don't think anything longer than a 10-minute bite a day.

Oh, length doesn't matter. Like, if you have stuff to say, it could be an hour a day. That's, that's not, uh, an issue. It's more how do you want to be presented? What does the brand look like? I don't even know Peter Diamandis. He wins X Prize, one of the biggest prizes for huge competitions for trying to Human Achievement podcast popping. Uh, it's all AI, tech, health, longevity, and a lot of them are— it's just him and like some killer experts talking about AI, but they're in wherever. Like, they're always traveling, they're always speaking, they're always traveling, they're never together. So they always join from whatever time. I'm in Dubai, I'm in Australia, I'm in LA.

Just get on there, give their—

it's just always Zoom, but you're there for the content and the personality. They're not the most like— they're not funny. They're not— they're— they're—

I mean, they're speaking science.

Yeah, super nerdy, like geeking out.

I get it. I'd love to have those guys too because I don't know about it.

But they're okay with the— like, it's the— it's a conversation, and their perspective on the content of the news, like, is great. Is real. If you care about that, like, you want to watch that show.

Yeah.

So how well it's, uh, produced and the location is— it doesn't matter because the timeliness is the most important thing. They need to capture it today and wherever they are in the world, it's just like their schedules never line up, like almost never. And it's not, I'm not forcing the idea, it's just like if there are things that you care about that you wanna build a brand as a thoughtful, like this stuff matters to me and there's something that comes out, that is a format that could work exceptionally well, whether it's a solo episode, whether it's the three of you talking about it, whether it's a special guest, but not like an actual full sit-down episode. You're just talking about this thing that came up, more thematic than like the person and their story. But like this thing just happened in California and it's ridiculous or whatever.

Almost within 24-hour period.

So it's fresh in people's mind immediately. Yeah, it could even just be a screen share of CNN.com, whatever, and like something happened, then you are— I mean, you have to be emotional about it. He's like, yeah, it's an okay idea. Like, then that's— that video is dead. But something that you think is either amazingly great or terribly wrong and sharing your perspective on it as it's happening, almost. It works if you're a news junkie and you deeply care about like, this has to change, right?

For people who aren't like that, I'm gonna have to take the news and segments in because when I read it, it's like this, jot it for 10 minutes. Read it, jot it to make sure everything correlates with my business back here. So what the paper's saying, what all that's happening, I want to make sure that what I'm hearing from the people making those calls is right.

Fair enough. And like, to the extent that—

If you ever wonder why our content is a week late, and I'm sure Mary's always wondered this, because most of what happens in my world, it's all lies. Takes about 7 days for those lies to fester.

There are things that are happening that is front page news that you have a perspective on that you don't need to wait 7 days on.

Right now, like, hopefully before I leave here, I'll have one in the books, right?

It's favela. I'm in Toronto and I'm like, this just happened and I'm pissed and like, here's why.

And yeah, so for instance, so the Strait of Hormuz, right, right, that we've got shut down.

Yeah.

So the money that's being spent there versus, you know, the lifting costs and, and what it's doing from the geopolitical spectrum. And for instance, me now being in Canada It's way different. Like a liter, $1.90 a liter. Yeah, it's insane. Like, I say this with all due respect, the nicest people I've ever met in my life live in Toronto, Canada. Cannot make this up. Beautiful landscape, gorgeous. I've heard nothing but your politics being horrible here, and you see people still happy, smiling, working their butt off. And I think you see that kind of across the globe, at least I do. So when I hear things in the paper like those Stray of Hormuz. These are things, these are weeks, months in advance, but yet Iran was a massive issue in this. Now, however, does anybody remember what happened in North Korea just 7, 8 years ago when he was launching missiles off and all that stopped and it never happened again, right? Well, that's the difference in diplomatic way of doing business and why Iran's not being diplomatic. So to broaden that to where when people think this person's starting the war, it's no different. We went in there with an idea, this guy can't have nuclear weapons, he stopped it. We then gave them more infrastructure to help them understand life better than just fighting.

So, so there's two opportunities in there, and you could choose either of them or neither of them too, right?

Right. The one is like something is happening right now and you have a perspective on it that people are pissed off about, but I didn't hear all this when North Korea was doing this. None of it, right?

So like something happens, you're reacting almost live to it because— and that, that matters. And then people come to you as, I don't know what to think, there's lies everywhere, and Chris seems to know his stuff, and so I align with him, and now I care about how, like, what's happening next. And that's part of why they're, right, connecting to the channel.

Well, that's why I need to get it out, because what happens in oil in California right now is impacting the world.

Right. And so there could be something that's happening live right now that you have a perspective on that you share.

I have to get it out because I just got it when I got off there.

Right. And so that's like, that could be screen share, a CNN article, and you're there. And like, the production doesn't matter because I'm not there for the lights and the B-roll. I'm there because you're teaching me something that it, that may not be true.

Right.

A broader opportunity within that is there may be some things that do require more thoughtful consideration and more phone calls and more like— but you have a connection network.

Well, I was going to ask you about that in a minute, Evan. It's funny you went to that because I have a whistleblower that's—

that you're not going to out, right?

That knows—

you have a connection network that people do not have access to, right? And so there are some more thoughtful things that are more not happening in the moment but more macro that play out over time. Like, Hormuz is not just solved tomorrow.

Correct.

And so you can be a little more thoughtful with it and, and make some phone calls and get perspective that will be a very different perspective than what I might be hearing on CNBC.

Yeah, the, the reality is we're not leaving ever.

Well, even that is a— that's, uh, that is a fact.

We've never done it in 250 years. We're never leaving. Once we go somewhere, put our flag up, we do not leave.

That is an opinion that would be very— in the face of what, right? It's like people You ask most Americans, that would probably not be a common belief that we're going to be there forever.

And the facts I could back that up being me in the war and me being in the most highly decorated unit of all time in the history of the government. So I could speak about my unit alone and what we've done. We've been fighting since 1814.

There's the immediate Chris reaction to something, plus the broader—

And here's the facts.

Let me make some call— let me not react to this one yet because it's a broader thing that we need some perspective on. That I'm going to give a more thoughtful response to, but still timely, than that, like, right, straight up, our moves next week, we're still talking about.

Yeah, no, that won't happen.

We're not going to talk about straight up our moves.

No, we, we're going to talk about, but like, I knew weeks in advance, right?

So, so like, the point, I can't drop that. Well, to the extent that you can drop something, right?

I can't, but very—

it's like you said, you have an extra perspective on things that most people don't have, and the extent that you can share that, that requires more thoughtful consideration behind the scenes phone calls compared to a live reaction to something that you already have an opinion on, right? Because Newsom just said this and you think it's ridiculous, you don't have to fact check or call because you already have enough media, right? Versus ones where it's a little more thought out and reacting to it a week later is fine because it's an ongoing— you're reacting to the situation, not just this one little micro thing that happened, right? Both are options or neither, right? But like, you have an opportunity because you think differently, you process differently, you aren't fooled by as much things as other people are, you have access to network of people that most people don't have. And so it gives— it allows for different perspective that can be shared to the extent, obviously not naming names and you can't say everything, right? But it's what you can share is still a much different perspective than what most people are listening to.

You know, we want— like, I think Evan, I mean, you put it in the best light. You know, we just want to be very cautious of how when we get that information, how it's distributed, because there's some information we've had now for a couple— I'd say about 6 weeks that we wanted to share. One was Joe's fight. We knew about that, obviously. The Hormuz, I've been one for a while now. The Colombian stuff, I knew about it.

It's— Rogan has a bunch of stuff that he's not saying.

Like, everybody, you know, but I have to let it pop off a little bit because when I say it, it's, it's not hard, man, to know where I'm getting my information from.

The point is not to break news, right? The point is to share perspective, right? That's what I'm trying to— yeah, so you're not saying— you're not saying like, according to my whistleblower, yada yada yada, and then like you lose that, you ruin that relationship, you ruin your credibility, nobody tells you anything anymore, right? So we're not trying to break news and be CNN, right? It's giving extra perspective afterwards. I'm like, okay, you're hearing all these things, 20% of it is true, and here are the areas that are not, to the extent that you can actually share details. But at least you're giving extra perspective that they're not hearing anywhere else, right?

I think if we really focused on that 25 to 20 minutes of the show with just us three, no matter where we're at together, to start it off, to talk about a lot of these events or our perspective or those clips or headlines. Yeah, and then we could do that, then go into the guest. So we start with kind of what's, what's happening right now, real time, whether it's a trade like yesterday with Miles Garrett going to the Rams that impacts LA. What's that going to do to his pay? He's used to paying.

It's probably a different show or you bring your guest into.

Right. Well, I bring my finance guy in there and be like, hey, just for—

oh, sure. Okay.

But you're like, hey, you got 22% tax in, in, in Ohio. Welcome to 51%.

If the goal is to get big guests, then like they don't want to come on a show where like you spend half an hour talking amongst yourself.

No, it wouldn't be that guest, would be the finance guy. Of what I'm getting at, it's, it's trying to paint the light again.

Yeah.

Into what's reality and what's not.

Yeah. And so like that might be a 3-person show, that might be a solo show. Like if you do something ridiculous, you're in your hotel room in Toronto and you like, you make a video and put it up. Same thing for your 2 partners. They may have, like, maybe there's something happening in the MMA world that he thinks is ridiculous that you don't, I don't know, you know a little bit about, but like he knows, knows, knows, and has connections and has perspective on it that you can ask questions of, but maybe don't have, you don't have the deep well of knowledge, right? But it's important to him, and so he's gonna share that, right? And so it allows you to get a more frequent content cadence out there, provided you have a valuable point of view on what's happening in the news in your different industries that are not just specific to one tiny, like, niche, but that America cares about?

I think what we've done is just really get the big names on, big names on right now, or not big names, just very easily friend phone calls come on, no big deal, 30, 45 minutes, not a problem. Now I do like the fact of if we're not together, somebody being able to have access to the studio wherever it's at. I do think the 25 to 30 minutes of us talking amongst each other about what's going on in every single aspect of sports or politically or whatever, economically. Yeah, that we can discuss that amongst each other. That keeps people there. This is what they're talking about. And then guest comes on in 15 minutes. We start that to keep the guests there. I think once I've noticed this, once I see anything that's got a clock or a time on it, People wait for that thing. They wait for it to run out to wait for it to happen. So different here at the movies, 2 minutes, you're gonna wait all 2 minutes. When you're at Disneyland, says 15 minutes, you got that ticket in your line, you're taking your 15 minutes.

If you're bringing on a guy like your finance guy—

But it's gonna have to be somebody very, very, you know—

If you have a big name on, I would not wait 35 minutes to bring them into the episode.

Just go straight—

You're gonna kill your retention in your video. Okay. Yeah, for sure. I mean, if you're bringing on your finance guy halfway through the shares per sec, cool. I'm not coming for the finance guy, I'm coming for you. And now this guy brings some extra perspective to the thing, right? But if you're gonna have Trump on or W—

well, no, that would never— that would never be—

or whoever.

Like, that would be an exclusive, just one-on-one.

So that's the top of the top, whoever you're like A-minus guest or B-plus, or, you know, I'm just saying to fill the show correctly.

Yeah, to try to check all the boxes.

If I'm coming for the guest, take me to the guest. Don't make me wait through 35 minutes of you guys doing your thing.

We'll end it like that, then we can end it like that.

It's a separate show for the guest, and then you guys have your thing, or involve the guest in the whole conversation. If I'm not coming for the guest and he's just a buddy of yours who's filling perspective because he knows things that adds extra context, then whatever, then sure, you guys jam. I'm coming for you now, and this is just a buddy of yours who knows something extra that can bring it in.

I was trying to correlate it, uh, when you kind of preference the fact of, you know, having whoever that artist is, kind of get talking about today's discussion going on. You know, when you were around doing this, you didn't have to deal with this or these record labels or, you know, being— yeah.

And you want— when you have those friends on Everybody Else, you want to have it be as culturally relevant, cultural people to cultural topics right now, right? Whoever AC/DC did 20 years ago is, is fine for like the people who love AC/DC, but what do they think about Right.

Whatever. Right.

Whatever the most— no, I, I think in music is—

I'm seeing that.

I can start with them.

Yeah.

And then I think, I think you have a real opportunity between the three of you to have a separate show or, or separate shows talking about—

I honestly think it's now three separate shows in one, essentially. I feel like a little bit, maybe not, but I kind of feel like that's where we could go with it, which could be a lot of room for growth.

Yeah, as long as the guest has their own show, if I'm coming for the guest. Yes. Or you flip it, that the guest starts and you guys continue afterwards, but don't put the guest 35 minutes into the show. You'll just kill the retention.

Yeah, no, no, that's— I was just saying from the little sentiments when you're saying if there was a world event happen, you know, that 15 minutes, whatever, go on right then. Yeah, one of us, so we get all three films separate different spots and then they all go out.

And so the studio sessions with the guests is like highly produced, as much as possible, right? The, the Sessions that are news that are breaking is more— it doesn't have— I'm there for the content, so it doesn't have to be right. Exactly. Well produced.

Yeah.

Well, that's cool.

I'm excited. Yeah, no, I am too.

People want to learn more. Where are you going to send them? Where are they going?

Thank you, Evan, for your time. So when you guys are done, please subscribe to the YBNORMAL Show or podcast on YouTube. You can find us on all social media platforms. Come check us out.

To turn your YouTube channel into a sales machine, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe and I'll see you there. You need to hear this coaching session with Drew if you want to turn your YouTube channel into a sales machine. Drew runs Moon Audio and sells incredible stereo gear to serious music lovers all over the world. He already has a 50% return customer rate.