C. Suite Unfiltered: Tik Tok is Watching You, Gun Control, Fighting a Socialist

Welcome back to the Mike Andes Podcast, where we discuss the ins and outs of running a small business. If you're new here, the Mike Andes Podcast is all about taking your business to the next level. We're back with yet another episode of C Suite Unfiltered with Lee park and Mike Andes. They're talking about what it's like to be a content creator in an incredibly saturated market. Everything from getting into arguments with socialists, gun control, and the digital disease that is TikTok. As you can see, there is a lot to go over this time. We hope you enjoy. You can find all this and more over at the C Suite Unfiltered channel. Without further ado, here's SE Suite Unfiltered with Lee park and Mike Andes.

Boom.

Boom.

All right, dude, let's rock and roll.

Big CEO over there.

What's that?

Big CEO. He just got the emails and everything.

Is that what I was looking at?

I don't know. I don't know what you were doing. Oh, too busy, dude. How's it going? Busy, busy day.

Good, dude. You know what's funny is today I think I'm vlogging my day.

Oh, cool. How's that going to incorporate into this? Are we just going to take.

Well, I'll probably have Kramer, like, grab a piece of this.

Nice. Cool.

So basically we're trying to move him from short form to long form. Okay. And so we need, like, something for him to chew on, like, figure out. So I'm like, hey, I'll vlog a day.

I think people really liked your vlogs.

Some people did. It just didn't. Only my core audience did. Yeah, so they only get a few thousand, five thousand views. But, like, if you give. You do a good job on a long form video, like we did with chuck's stuff, like 60, 70,000 views.

So yeah, that's nuts. And your subs have gone up substantially because the shorts. Because the shorts. You guys are crushing the shorts game. You shared that graph on your public channel. So, like, what. What was the thought process there of shorts?

Shorts are important because, like, YouTube's pushing them so much and they're making it easier to subscribe from a short compared to a regular video. Like, it gets hard to subscribe to a video now from a video. You gotta, like, click on the channel and then subscribe. Where some shorts you can subscribe right away. So the objective is get a really good momentum on shorts and then you slowly bring it more towards business and still have a little bit of drama in there to where it hooks people in and so hopefully then a larger audience from the shorts converts into the long form.

Yeah, no, it's been cool seeing like your channel steadily climbs. I feel like recently it took a pretty quick jump.

We got like a thousand subs in one day.

Yeah, you guys took a really quick jump. It was awesome. It was fantastic.

One day.

We've had 6.7 million views in the past month.

Let's go. And that's all content, short and long form.

Yeah, all. All stuff. Usually we have 5.1. That's the usual. So it's just higher than normal. Everything's higher. We had 6.7000 subs in the past month, which is also higher than normal. So.

Nice. Dude, you're crushing it. Love it. I love it. We'll get there one day on this channel.

Well, it, it's like, it's. I'm glad we got something to show for it because we, we hired like two more media people. Right. And so I was like, it would be really discouraging if they wouldn't have anything to show for it. So it's been good that we've. We've kind of figured out the short game and now it's like we keep refining it and then hopefully just making it to where it gets closer to business related topics. Because like, we can make drama videos from all this stuff.

Totally.

Right. But they don't convert into lawn care, media landscape, business course, the franchise copilot. So like, actually we got to pay the bills.

Yeah.

And so how we do that, just like merge the content and people will see that. Now I say this like, they'll see us move it. And like, yeah, you gotta be careful because if you do it too fast, you're like, oh, this is not for me. Like, I'm out.

Yeah.

But if you do it a certain way, I think we can do it. So that. That's gonna be like the fine line we try to. We try to play with.

Yeah. So like phone calls, drama phone calls, complaints, yelling, you know, overhead recovery. Like it's like you just kind of slowly.

You know, it's funny you say that. So like for example, we took a clip of someone else. The guys do they find it all. I just spend 10 seconds looking at it. But like they found a clip of a guy that answered his phone in his office and the, the lady was like, you are not answering your phone. I've been trying to call you for two days. And we basically try to turn that around and into like, here's what you can do to avoid that. Right. And yeah, lots of different things we're trying to do. And then we like actually give advice. Overhead recovery. For example, the one day is like tmi, like too much information. Like don't give tmi. And in terms of like when a customer calls and she was like, it's $460. I want to break down of all my. All the costs. And so like I explain right after that, like why we don't break down all the way. So we'll see how much, how much we can keep doing this. Because the shorts are getting like one of them has like 3 million views now. That is like kind of off brand in terms of business. But like it's obviously lawn care related still. Right?

Yeah, yeah. I actually just went out to dinner with my friend Braden Shout Out Braden Bloom Creative. If anybody needs a marketing agency, he's not taking on new clients right now. But you know, eventually. But we were talking about that and we were talking about the podcast and he was, he was kind of asking me like next steps for us. And I was like, I think when we get to monetize it and obviously you're putting me in control of just kind of putting the content out, editing all that kind of stuff and then we'll just split when we can monetize 50. 50 is. I told them I would just take my 50% and I knew I'll be at a loss. But form an LLC and then just put it all into having someone do shorts for me and like the. The basic editing. What are your thoughts on that? Is that a good plan of action?

So we found when you cut up a regular talking head only it doesn't do much. What does well is other clips that are in entertaining.

Okay.

Right. Because so we took for example Dave Ramsey talked about. You sent me the clip. Actually you sent me the clip of him talking about. So that I found his. The long form video where he said that and found a couple others. We took his talking head. I noticed that and they.

I liked it. It was great.

Their short only got like 50, 000 views. We took his. His clip, showed him for the first one second just so it's like, hey, this is Dave Ramsey. And then we put our clips over it. Lawn Care Augusta, like entertaining stuff. And we got that one already has like 600,000. Yeah, 700,000 views on TikTok and like across all platforms, probably 2 million views. So it does better than his because it just. We just cut it up correctly. Right. So I feel like you can, but you need something more visually appealing. Unless the talking head is famous.

Right, right.

If you see an Alex Hormozi when you'll stop. Right, right, right. If you'll see a Grant Cardone when you'd stop. But if you don't have that, like, entertain, like a celebrity status in the business world, you're just a talking head. And no one's going to stop scrolling for that. So that's why we've found. I think we found a good thing and that is like, how to make a talking head entertaining enough for them to listen.

Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, the Dave Ramsey one was great. I was. It just stuck out to me because, like, one of the first things he said was he was talking to like a construction guy or home service guy and he just ripped on him for having exp trucks. Yeah. So I instantly was like, I gotta send this to Mike. I was like, this is perfect for your channel.

Yeah, yeah. So we, we've. We've started to get like. It's only been three weeks that we've. I feel like we're nailing shorts now. But we have a pretty good, like, kind of framework for it. Like it needs to either have a good story so people mad, sad, glad, screaming something story. Yep. Or it needs to be. It needs to have some sort of teaching value. And so, you know, then there's reactions. So those are the three. Right. So those are the three different type of shorts you can create. And if someone says something really crazy, outlandish like he said with the 85, 000 Raptors, blah, blah. Oh, no, the one like the person that shows up the. The construction site with the cheapest truck is the one that has all the profit, is making all the money. When he says something grab you like that, just the talking head like him. 50,000, 50,000 views. You take that same thing, cut it up to like funny stuff or our clips and you know, 10x it. Right, right. So that's kind of like what we've been figuring out. It's like either, you know, entertaining or. Sorry, not entertaining, educational. It is reaction or it is. There's got to be a story and that's what people follow.

I kind of want to pivot here because I was thinking about your most recent upload that you did. You said, how would Warren Buffett view small business? And you kind of give like four core principles that he followed with investing and to make his wealth. And someone commented that that you. One of your negative comments was. Was essentially that like, you're just like using his content to like, you're just regurgitating his content. Even though Warren Buffett doesn't do content, but in a sense you're just regurgitating what he said and like come up with something original. Like who are you? Basically someone just, you know, an Internet hater from the rafters. My comment, yeah, your response was fantastic. I should pull it up. But I've, I've had personally like, issues with that and I feel like, because I'm now, you know, very early into the content game, but I think even thinking back to my senior's thesis when I was writing, you know, my 25 page defense paper, I sat down with my advisor and I just said like, I can't come up with anything new. And he was like, well, you're not supposed to come up with anything new, but you're supposed to create an idea and it could be someone else's idea, but form it in a way that you can argue and you can defend it from your perspective. From your perspective. Exactly. And do you feel like content, like, do you hate on the people that just like just suction off of other creators and just use their face, use their likeness, use their content to get big? Or are you fine with that?

Ultimately you can use people's faces or names to get clicks, but like actually finding an audience that's going to listen to your content, you have to have good content, right? So there's plenty of people that have like either no face channels or they just rip off like clips of other people essentially. Um, but there's no audience being formed around that. And if anything, it's simply. You're simply actually just promoting the other brand. So like, in this case, I'd be just promoting Warren Buffett by. If I was really using his stuff. The bottom line is the four principles I talked about has nothing to really do with Warren Buffett.

No, they're more generic.

Generic. And I was trying, my whole point was trying to take the stock market principles and use them in business. Right. And so.

You know, I think it's like there is no new thought, really. Right. There's different ways of phrasing it, different ways of packaging it. And, and it comes with almost any product. Unless you're literally creating something revolutionary like groundbreaking technology, it's not new. It's a different perspective, it's a different way of packaging it. And there are people who made billions of dollars doing that. And like my comment back to him.

Yeah.

Was that's what the news is, right. Is simply reacting to everything that's happening in the day. They don't have any original content. And if they were, then they called fake news. That' original content is called fake news. And so, yeah, I think, you know, the, the value is taking someone else's perspective or happenings or advice and then adding a perspective. So my, my philosophy, for me, when I'm doing business reaction is like, how do I take something that's not in business and then relate it to the small business owner? Right. So I was taking the stock market and trying to apply it to the small business owner.

Yeah, no, that's smart. I think that's just something that I feel like probably a lot of us struggle with, especially if you're not, like, naturally geared towards creativity. Like, I don't have to add. And it's almost like accepting the fact, like, there's nothing really new unless you're on that far, far edge of progress. Otherwise you are just regurgitating other things that have been said or repackaging or restructuring or adding your flavor to it. So I think that's something that, like, I've struggled with. And I know other people that I've talked to that like, want to get into content space are like, well, I don't have anything to add. Right. And it was like, I've always wanted to do this podcast with you, but I've also, in the back of my head had that thought of, like, well, like, why do people want to listen to me? You know, it's just like, it's. It's a weird, like, bridge to cross, I guess.

You have to add value, right? So, like, that's why it takes so long usually to. To figure out content is because you got to find your voice. Then you have to find what unique value you add to the conversation. Like, there's a gazillion how to start a long care business. Right. The unique value. Honestly, like, I've always just said this and it's like, I don't. Like, we obviously want to figure out content more and more, but the bigger my business gets, the more people will listen. It's just the straight facts. Yeah. And so by doing that, that is the value I'm creating is. The value I'm creating is the authority by which they will then listen.

Right.

So that's why I've always been like, the business comes number one. The content thing will figure itself out because you build a big enough business, everyone wants to come watch.

Totally.

And that will bring people around. Right. There's a reason why, you know, for Alex Hormozi, his First year of content, every single video started with I. I built a business to $100 million in revenue every single time. Yeah, like that, that was the message. Because he needed to create authority to be able then for people to be like, oh, I should listen to him because of that. And so, because all he's doing is adding his own perspective and spin on philosophy, business principles, and all those principles are generic ones packaged in a different way. Right.

So, yeah, that's good advice. I like that.

Like some people say, work hard. He says, like time under the bar. Yeah.

Let'S work hard. Yeah, work hard. Put your head down, grind. Like, it's all the same stuff. But repackaging it is what makes it so valuable. Because someone hearing tie on the bar makes a lot of sense to them versus just like, oh, you should work hard.

Yeah.

So it's not to say that it's less than or worthless. It's like extremely valuable to repackage and add your spin on things. And so it just. The fact of the matter is you have to have, why should someone listen to you? And then what value you add during the time that they spend on listening.

I think it's important to remember that everyone has their own perspective and that they're going to resonate with someone different than someone else. Like, I'm sure there are guys out there, like, love Keith Kielfus in Brian's Lawn Maintenance because they've decided they're going to be a solo operator forever or maybe one or two employees, and they think you're great, but they just don't connect with you. And then same thing. There are people that, like, connect with you and they're like, yeah, Keith and Brian are great, but, like, I don't connect with them. So it's just different strokes for different folks, right?

Yeah. And what they. What people sell. So when it comes to content, you, you don't make money on ads. Like, you do make a little bit, but not a lot. Like, what you make money on is all the other products and services you sell. Right. So what type of audience you're also attracting is important. Right. So someone watching a Keith or Brian's video.

They'Re not going to come buy a franchise from Keith o'. Brien. Right. They're not going to, you know, do a lot of what I require or ask of my audience. And so the level of expectation that I have, of confidence that they need in me needs to be reflected in my content. Right. And the businesses that I build and the authority that I bring, they don't need A lot of authority to sell, say a contract or a template or something like that. And nothing. Not bashing them.

No, no, no. Definitely not.

Need to build their business to a certain point to be able to do that. They can sell an e book or a course where there's just no way they're going to sell a franchise.

Totally.

Right. There's just no way they're going to convince someone to spend tens of thousands of dollars or do. And so I have to have the business acumen to make sure that people can have confidence. And that's why I've always told the media team, like, hey, what we're doing here is important, but like the business come first.

Right.

And so. Because people will listen if you build a big business. Yeah. Like there's some pretty stupid billionaires, but they'll say something and ever like, oh, my word, that's genius.

Fantastic.

And it's like, no, not really. Like, if you just took away the fact that his name and how much money he had, you'd be like, okay, whatever.

Yeah, it's all fugazi. Well, it doesn't make sense.

It's like the classic. I forget who said this. They said it's like someone you go, they're chattering away at like a, an event and talking or whatever, and you're like, man, they're just like so annoying. Or vice versa. They're not saying anything. That's kind of like reclusive. Whatever. And then someone leans over and says, hey, by the way, that guy's like worth 10 billion. And all of a sudden your mind just totally flips.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. They're a, okay, now I'm gonna listen. Or B, I wonder what he has and I got to listen. Like, what is he got? It's the same exact person. It's just simply now you have different data.

Yeah.

And so the data point of like building a really big business for me is important. Simply do the fact that people will listen.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

Yeah.

And that's just want to be 100 clear. That's not a knock on Brian or Keith. Like, I've got. You've had multiple conversations with both those guys. I've gotten to meet Brian. Phenomenal guy. Brian and his wife had a conversation with them. Lifelong goal, though. I do want to do a podcast with Keith. Maybe without you. I feel like I've had, I've had multiple people tell me. They're like, dude, you and Keith on a pod.

I would love to just have a one on one with him. Keith just Let me know. I have a lot of respect for you.

Deep thoughts.

Yeah, dude, I learned a lot about estimating from Keith, honestly. Yeah, great estimate tips. Like, fantastic advice.

This is just a general reminder. I put it in my notes in case anyone forgot it's tax season, so, you know, just do your taxes. How's that. How's that looking for you? How's your tax bill? You. You getting or Owen?

Well, I don't know yet because we don't have. Haven't. I usually can't. Don't know till October almost, so that's fair. We gotta do the accelerated depreciation thing and the 1031. And so, yeah, it'll be end of this year, but I. I did my prepayments last year.

Nice.

For way too much.

What's your. Yeah. What's your tax bill look like to, like, the person who does your taxes? Would you care sharing or. I'll give you like a range.

I'll tell you what my prepayment was. So my prepayment for last year, I did two sets of 120 grand. So 240 grand for my taxes. I don't. I hope I don't have to spend all of that. Like, I hope I get some back after that because the 1031 accelerated depreciation I'm hoping to get back. Yeah. So, yeah, I just. Yeah, we'll see what happens. Yeah, I don't think about taxes a whole lot.

Totally.

Like, in the grand scheme, and it's so bad to say this, but, like, $100,000, it's not worth me thinking about it too much or trying to bend my brain around it. It's like you need to focus on top line and you focus on the team. And the problem is all that money I'm getting taxed on is basically just the working capital required to stay in the business as they grow. Right. So, yeah, it's just part of the game.

Yeah, I, you know, different strokes, different folks. I've gotten into some disagreements with people on this, and you. You may disagree with me, and that's fine. But taxes, how. How it works.

Okay.

I pay way too much. I don't have an llc. I don't have a business, but I go to a professional tax preparer because for me, it's that peace of mind. It's just, here's all my documents. Every year he sends me a folder and like, you know, 400 bucks or something. Yeah. And he just sends me a folder. Every. Every February, I get everything together and I just give it to him. I think about it, I just sign, sign a paper. Paper once a year. And it's like, so where, like, I've had that conversation. People like, dude, I do my taxes. Like, you know, friends that are like, married, like my wife and I like, no dependents are, dude, I do it on TurboTax for 70 bucks. And I'm like, guess what I did for 400. But I didn't stress for one second. The only stress I had was, oh, is this office open today or not? Yeah, like, that's my philosophy on taxes. Just give it to someone else. So I don't know, you know, I.

Spent tens of thousands.

Oh, totally.

That's stupid. Yeah, but you, you got to like, it's, it's more a matter of like, yeah, peace of mind. Knowing it's done right. Totally. If I try to do my own, I don't think I could do my own taxes now. I know. I don't think I could. So.

I mean, you could, you could. You probably just wouldn't get all the right breaks and Correct.

Yeah. Like, they just need to tell, you know, show me one thing and I can make it back.

Yeah.

So like, the accelerated depreciation, say, should save me 140,000 at least. So they had told me early last year, like, hey, you should do an Airbnb so you can claim that you. And I'm like, okay, cool. So sure it helped.

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So I know we teased this last week because it was happening live while we were recording, but the CEO of Tik Tok was testifying in front of Congress. It was like the commerce and something division of Congress. I don't even know. But anyways, he was testifying in front of Congress because on March 1, Biden was like, we're going to ban TikTok, essentially. And so now Congress had all these hearings and what I want to do is kind of go through it and I think I don't want to reduce it up front, but I've done a lot of research on this, watched a lot of YouTube videos, read a few articles, and I feel like the big argument here is capitalism versus national security. I think that's at the end of the day, what we're arguing about. But that aside, I found a New York Times article. Try to get a pretty generic, overarching article here. And I just want to hear your thoughts on Tik Tok. So generically, before I start this conversation or this article, what do you. What are your thoughts on Tik Tok? Obviously you post on it, so.

Yeah, so I'm in general just not concerned about my security, my privacy and that sort of thing. And like, I've been. Okay. I've never had, like, identity theft, you know, Like, I don't do anything crazy though either too. So, you know, if the gov. If the Chinese government wants to, you know, tap into my phone right now because I have tick tock. I say, hey, what's up, bro? Yeah, like, I don't know what to say. Like, you know, them listening to me go to the bathroom, is that going to, like, somehow put me in jeopardy? I don't know. The bottom line though is like, data is power. And so if they have all that information and your contacts and all that can be used against you. I guess. But I think in general, like, we're all just like conspiracy theorists. Same thing with AI. People are way over the top.

Yeah.

About what I can do. And, like, is this AGI and all the rest of it? So in general, I don't think it's a big issue. I think that. I think what's going to happen is they're going to have to have a subsidiary in the US that becomes where they can prove that everything is in the US in terms of the servers and the data stored here and it's not being tapped in by the Chinese. But the first question that they asked him, he just bombed it.

Yeah, what was it?

Talk to any member of the ccp. Ccp prior to getting on this panel, like, being talked to the day, and he like, could not give an answer. It was like, dude, you just bombed. You didn't have an answer for that.

Yeah.

Like, you could have at least had some sort of generic something. Like, they should have thought through all that.

There probably was a good amount of prep that went into that.

Yeah. But that question should have been thought about. Totally.

I agree.

So what are you gonna say when like, someone from the set asked if you Talk to us. Yeah, that should be a. Probably something to think about.

I agree with that.

That was dumb. So that was just a bad strategic move in the Chinese and the CCP and TikTok, and I think what's ended up happening, they have to sell off their. The US side, and then in the name of national security, we'll have a capitalistic monopoly on it. Yeah.

So this is a New York Times article. It's from one day ago, and it is why countries are trying to ban TikTok. Governments have expressed concerns that TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, may endanger sensitive user data. So essentially, the White House told federal agencies on February 27 that they had 30 days to delete the app from government devices. And then a bunch of states followed suit as well, and governing bodies across the US on March 1, a House committee backed an even more extreme step, voting to advance legislation that would allow President Biden to ban TikTok from all devices nationwide, private and public. On March 23, TikTok's chief executive officer, Mr. Chu, was grilled about the app's relationship to its parent company and all the blah, blah, blah, China, ccp, everything that you just said. So why are governments. Why are governments banning TikTok? New York Times explains that it all comes down to China. Lawmakers and regulators in the west have increasingly expressed concern that TikTok and its parent company may put sensitive user data like location information into the hands of the Chinese government. TikTok has long denied such allegations and has tried to distance itself from its parent company.

So here's the thing, though. So first and foremost, China has been this way for decades about U.S. companies.

Oh, yeah, 100%.

So it's not like we're doing anything weird or new to them. Right. So that's one side of the argument, by the way, is like, people don't realize that Google doesn't operate inside and Facebook. And it doesn't. It's closed off.

There's no meta. So no meta China.

This is Apple's, you know, we are like, you know, doing exactly what they do to us if this happens. The second thing is, like, if you're not in government, why would they care about what you're doing? Like, I totally get this for government.

Totally. Yeah.

Like, I would agree with 100% if any country could access the data of the phone outside of your country that you are working for. Like, that's a problem. It's literally as if, like grounds guys and us lawns could tap into your computer. And then I'd be okay with it. Like, no, I wouldn't 100%. But you work for me, so, like, I could say something about it. Whereas, like, some other joblo, they're gonna, like, who cares?

Yeah.

Right. So, like, I think if you work for the government. Yeah, it's a big deal tracking someone's location. Like, why is that important? Like, why is my location important to anybody? Yeah, who cares? Unless you're trying to, like, stalk me. But, like, why would you want to stalk me?

Yeah.

So I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, I've. I've thought the same thing. And you pose an interesting question, which the article says. Well, why have countries banned TikTok?

You can see your con. It really pushes you to. To your. To share contact. Like, every time you log in, it asks you to share your contacts. Yeah. There's a whole bunch of stuff. It can. It can see you across other platforms and other apps. It can. Yeah.

Yeah. So Congress is trying to ban tech talk. Some members would like to. In early March, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to approve a bill that could grant the President the authority to ban the platform entirely. Courts previously stopped this when the Trump administration tried to do this. So that's something that I think people are overlooking. It's like, well, we already kind of tried to do this to an extent with Trump, and now we can maybe, who knows? So the question is. Yeah. What is the Biden administration doing? TikTok said recently that the Biden administration wants its Chinese ownership to sell the app or face a possible ban. The administration has. Which, like, they can't just force a private company to just, like, sell or are they saying sell the North American rights? Yeah, that's what I figure. I'm just like, what are they?

Yeah, like sell. Yeah. You can either we're going to ban you or you have to sell. Yeah, right. So, like, then you got a company like Oracle or something like that would step in and potentially run that, you know, the North American division. And this is my philosophy, this is my hypothesis. There's no money being made on TikTok. That is my wild take. I think it's losing money.

But what would you say to the creators that are cash and checks?

They're not like, I know because I see the money. It's making a couple dollars to every 10,000 I make on YouTube.

Yeah, but your YouTube is way bigger than TikTok.

No, I'm not. I'm comparing CPMs, like, the cost per thousand.

Okay.

So, like, there's just no Money because no one clicks to ads from TikTok like it. There's, there's no way. I just think that if they do come North American and they have a public subsidiary and that that data becomes, comes public, the amount of money that is being made by that is gonna be so much lower than people think it's taking over. That doesn't mean that you have an audience click on ads. You don't go to TikTok like typically to learn, educate and find things and search for stuff. You go there to be entertained and waste 10 minutes. Totally right, 100. You go to YouTube, you go to Facebook, you go to Google to find things and to search for things. And that's where the real value from an advertising perspective is. And so not only do you have your demographic that's younger, which is, it's aging, whatever. And there's always going to be brands that want to do branding with direct marketing, like people clicking on things. That's when you start to make money. And that's what YouTube and Facebook and Google have figured out. And so just because the app is popular does not mean it's making money. And so I think with all the legal red tape that's going to come along with the package if it gets sold off to a US subsidiary, I think I personally believe it's not making money. I could be completely wrong because like I haven't looked into bytedance's finances and stuff. But I have a feeling it's like a, it's like one of the, like one of those massive startups, tons of growth and not making money. That's just my philosophy.

Yeah, see I saw a prominent TikToker and he does like more independent journalism and independent news. And he said like I, if I produce a story or if I get footage, I'll get paid scraps from like major news media outlets. But I can go and post my own stories on TikTok with my own narrative, my own footage. Like he'll do like breaking news type stuff or he'll like go to big, big scenes or big events. He lives in a major city and he said he'll make like 20 times more on TikTok than what he makes on other social media platforms. So is he just blatantly lying or would you.

I know for a fact that the actual thousand to a thousand, it's not even close.

Yeah. And so like maybe he just doesn't get interaction on other media platforms.

Well, it's short content, short form content in general. For example, we just made a video that had. Has 2.8 million views. I think something like that. Probably 3 million by now.

On TikTok.

Nope, this one's on YouTube. Okay. I'm just talking about short form now.

Yep.

It's a short form video. It's like 50 seconds or whatever. We made, I want to say $200. Okay. Another video that we did that's long form, that has less than half of that made $5,000. Right.

On YouTube.

On YouTube. And so long form versus short term. The bottom line is like, advertisers are not willing to put their money behind the short term content because it doesn't drive engage. Like, people are not clicking on ads when they're scrolling through short form. They're just not. And so I watched a video the other day and I was like, all these companies are trying to copy TikTok and they're finding out there's no money there. So for example, Instagram said they're going to be focusing back on pictures now because they've realized that short form video content, when you're scrolling like that, no one clicks on ads and then there's no money there. And that's how these social media platforms make money, is clicking on advertisements. That's their monetization strategy. All right. Until you start playing, Talking about like $10 per month for your subscription, $5 for creeping on people. Like, that's how they make money. And if it doesn't make money, they're not gonna do it. And so, and they don't make money, they can't share it with creators. For example, Facebook.

Was it Facebook. Sick Facebook. Facebook stopped their creator fund.

Snap. I just, just read this. I think it's. Facebook just stopped one of their biggest creator funds for short form content. I get paid for long form content on Facebook. Do not get it. Like less than a couple dollars a month from short form. Millions of views. There's just not enough people clicking on ads.

Yeah.

And so my philosophy is that because TikTok only has that now they are getting the longer form video. And I've been surprised at how many views we get from long form videos on TikTok. So if they can pivot to more of a YouTube side of things, I think they'll do great. Like the money, like the amount of money in YouTube in long form content, that's where it's at.

And I saw, I am not an avid TikTok user. I do have it and I'm subscribed to you and that's it. I don't watch anything on TikTok and then my wife will send me TikToks or my friends, right. And so I have, I have an account strictly to do that. And my profile is like user1278, you.

Know, and I feel like I had to like download it to learn what was working.

Right.

And that's why I feel like I've done for the past two years is like I've, I've educated myself enough to now when, like, we bring on new media teams. Like, I have a pretty good idea of, like, this is what. No, that's bad. Like, cut this little apart. Like, I'm pretty like in the weeds when it comes to the editing side because, like, I understand what the algorithm wants, but.

Yeah, but what I was going to say is one of those more longer form videos and I don't know because I don't use TikTok on a regular basis. I saw something cool. It said, hit this to go full screen, right? And I hit it and then boom, it flips it sideways. And I was like, oh, they're straight competition with YouTube right there.

Yeah.

The fact that you can flip sideways and go full screen and still see comments.

The difference is it is.

It is not based upon your social graph, it is based upon your interest graph. So when you get to a TikTok, it's playing a video, there is no user input as to what video you're going to watch.

Okay?

The difference is on YouTube, you click on something and watch it. That is the massive change between these two platforms, regardless of you short, long form video, doesn't matter. When you go on TikTok, you do not know the next video coming up, right? And so what it leads to is the scroll. That's why, in my opinion, till they.

Think about it that way, yeah, it's.

It'S feeding you algorithmically what to watch. And that's why everyone's freaked out about it. Because, like, if people knew how much AI is behind that, they'd be freaked out of their mind. Like, the reason that you should be freaked out about how the videos are so enhanced, like so awesome, is that they're tracking across all the other apps to know exactly what you like. If they can read all your emails and like know that you're coming up on vacation, guess what they're gonna be showing more of, right? And that. Do you think that's gonna increase your retention? Yeah, 100%. So that's their power. That's why everyone's been trying to copy that, Right. Reels came out massively, just huge amounts of investment YouTube shorts. Now it's monetized. Like they're really pouring themselves into it and I feel like what's going to happen over the next like two, three years, it's going to go really deep. And then these companies are like, wait a second, we aren't making money on this stuff and they're going to pull back. And Instagram literally just came out last week and said, we're going to be, we're focusing back on images. We went too, they literally said we went too far towards video.

Yeah.

Which I, I thought about that and I feel like in one of our early pods we talked about that, where I talked about from the user experience, I was annoyed that Instagram had changed much because I think during my college days I used Instagram a ton of. And then I've switched more to Twitter because it's the same thing every single time and has been for the last like 12 years. I've been using it. Right. It's the characters. That's it. People can attach a two minute video or an image. That's it. On Twitter. And then Instagram turned into basically a weird obscure version of Facebook. And I was like, okay, I'm not using this anymore. But it's an interesting point that you made. I guess I've never thought that that was a light bulb moment for me, that there's almost like this built anticipation of a never ending. I could find another cool video or I could really see something that I like. Because for me, when I watch YouTube, I'll watch a video I want and then I turn it off. Like I watched Your most recent YouTube video this morning and then I close the tab because I was like, I'm done. I watched the one I wanted. But on TikTok, if someone sends me a TikTok 99% of the time, I scroll and at least just see what's next.

And that's why the value of a click or an impression or a view on YouTube is higher. Because you have intent to buy. Right. Intent to click on, versus it is very much by osmosis. Like, what's next? And you're very quick to swipe. Like the retention graph on our TikToks is like down and then across because people are just in the habit of scrolling. Totally. Right.

It's interesting. Yeah. So the question that they posed in this New York Times article, kind of getting back to more the grand scheme of why we're trying to ban TikTok is, well, can the government ban an app? Can they just ban it and so most of the existing TikTok bans have been implemented at governments and universities that have the power to keep an app off, off of the their devices and networks.

Right.

Broader government imposed ban that stops Americans from using an app that allows them to share their views and art could face legal challenges on first amendment grounds. And let's see. After all, large numbers of Americans including elected officials and major news organizations like the New York Times and Washington Post now produce videos on Tic Tacs. TikTok, excuse me. And then they had an expert, like social media expert quoted here in the article and they said in democratic governments the government can't just ban free speech or expression without very strong and tailored grounds to do so. And it's just not clear that we have that yet. Like we don't have the clear grounds to say blanket ban on this app. And I feel like I generally lean that direction because I'm like, well I'm. And I don't. I hate saying this term because it's so like hot button in politics. But it feels slippery slope to me. It's like, oh, we just ban that app. Well let's ban this app. Well, let's ban that app. Well, let's ban this video form. And it's like whoa. Like whoa.

Yeah, I only think you should get involved.

Yeah.

Like look, if you really know and believe that there's actual.

Risks of the American population, make us aware, just give us the information, just tell us about it. Right. That should be, you know, by, by the front newspaper. Put a public thing out there doing a state of the union that Tick tock is this is the thing that they're doing. We can prove it by X, Y and Z. Here's the footage of the CEO basically saying he talked to the ccp. If you don't want the CCP looking at you throughout your device and all your don't download it. Otherwise here it's available. It's up to you. We live in a free country. I think that's what we should be able to do.

Yeah, but that, that would be nice. But I feel like you haven't met you living in the US for the last three years. I know, I mean that's like, I mean that's Covid restrictions. Right. It was like, well just give us the data, like tell us how bad it actually is. And then you were getting all these different articles and positions and doctors and institutes all disagreeing with each other and you're like no, just let us make a decision. They're like no, everyone's getting the vaccine.

And now we get to see how well those Covid restrictions worked.

Right. So same thing with Tick Tock. Tick Tock is. Is technological Covid also from China.

Let it run like. Like, yeah. It's just a matter of, like, hey, if you actually have the proof and the data, show it to us and let us make a decision. The problem is we don't believe them anymore. Right. Because they don't give us the data and they don't give us all the information. It's all politically charged.

Yeah.

Like, the reason that this is such a hot topic, honestly, is because both sides of the aisle can make this a political talk and make a big issue of it.

Yeah. So, yeah, they're like, not enough's going on.

Yeah.

We gotta have something to fight about. Yeah. There was one congressman, I want to say, from North Carolina or South Carolina. Have you heard about him? He's been doing Tick Tocks. He's been doing weekly. He'll do like a live stream on Tick Tock. He gets great retention. And people have loosely compared it to, like, Roosevelt's fireside chats where he was like, all right, Great depression. I'm hopping on the radio and just telling Americans the facts. And so when they had their emergency meeting on banning Tick Tock Tok, he went on TikTok Live at 2am and he was like, here's what just happened, Let me tell you. And you can go watch it. It's the video supposed on TikTok. And I watched it and I was like, that's a really cool approach to government. Like. And he's like, I'm pro TikTok because, like, it gives me access to my constituents. It gives me access to the whole United States. I'm live right now at 2:00am like, this is very important way for us to disseminate information to the average American. So I thought that was kind of cool.

Honestly. The free market just fixes everything. I think that's why government needs to stay everything. Because, like, for example, if there's not being money made on this platform, it will eventually not be able to compete. Right. If.

If people are. There really are risk doing risky things. People's data, people eventually find out and stop using it the same way that advertisers stopped using Facebook after, like, Cambridge Analytica and all this Facebook stuff. Right? So, like, the truth always wins and comes out. And I think that, like, the government need to shut up and, like, let us do our thing and give us information. Right. Like, in the perfect world, you have Open book management, the government. Let us make our decisions and you give us all the information. Tell us what Covid is, tell us what the harms are, tell us what the percentage of us dying is and let us make a decision as to whether or not we get a jab. Don't give us a passport and tell us we have to do it to keep our job.

Right.

That's not your business.

Yeah, so I would have to loosely agree with that one. Yeah, that's tick tock, man. I don't know, I think it's a cool app. I think what I said at the beginning, the preface of it's like capitalism versus national security. I think to an extent. Yeah. If we are can prove that they are mining data, taking data from government devices and government facilities, 100% let's ban it. National security. Like I like being safe in my own country but like for me and the average user, like who cares?

Yeah.

Who really cares? Like if they're doing something right, the product works. But my, my last, last thought on this. Sorry I was going to bring this up earlier, I forgot. People do say though this, I have heard this. I think it's proven that under 18 in the US you get pushed like just dumb, stupid content, less educational. And then in China and other countries it's more educational and science and math and reading and like literacy and where in the US it's like fights and sports and like cars. So I do, I don't like that. But I mean hey, they're. They can do what they want. A private company.

But again like you can reinforce the algorithm. Right? Because like it's only feeding what we like and enjoy. Right. And so over there, if. If they were feeding them content like math and science that they did not enjoy, people would log off. So here we just happen to love cars and sports and stupid stuff. So like I think it's a whole different systemic like they get pushed into education from their parents and like that is something that is so ingrained in that culture. It is very generic. Whatever. But.

So I guess I should feel good about myself that Dave Ramsey pops up on my TikTok. I'm in the right algorithm.

Boomer channel know.

Yeah, let's. Yeah, seriously. That's me, dude. I have someone do my taxes. I use E trade. I'm basically a boomer. Let's switch it up. I know on your main channel you did an update video, but maybe you got some more details for the C suite Unfiltered audience the headquarters hq Augusta hq. So you recently went by we got a ton of building material stacked up. They built an access road to the well. So we're, we're, we're breaking ground. Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, I'll be when that's happening. But yeah, no, we're just waiting the main building permit now.

Okay.

So I think it'll go up really fast once it once is up. Knock on wood. Or once it gets going. But we'll see what happens.

Yeah. So when's expected move in date?

I've stopped thinking.

I expected move in month.

I would love quarter.

Give me expected moving quarter.

Honestly, I think Q2 2024. Realistically. Cool.

It was like. What was it? Q4 of 2022 was the expected.

Yeah.

That's fun. Sorry, I'm not trying to like, I'm not trying. I know it's a tough topic, but people want to know.

You know, you just got to think about a second building already or like something else. Right. Yeah.

So we'll get there, figure it out.

Because we'll be filling it up like our square footage of the current facility is equivalent if not greater than command center at the headquarters. So because we have training facility, studio, all the other stuff there as well. So we'll. Yeah, it'll just be like full from basically day one.

Can we do like bunk desks? Like bunk beds and you just stack them up? Yeah, like planes have been working with that concept. Like if I can put like a passenger here and then a passenger here.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's kind of like double decker style. Without double decker.

We could try fly in the office.

Yeah, it'd be great. Dude, office drama non existent. Everyone gets along. It's a perfect world.

I love it.

Gotta love it. All right.

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I mean that's really all I got. You wanted to just throw a little non financial advice out there.

I thought you wanted to talk about guns.

Well, I mean, or we could just save it till next week.

Just want to throw this episode under the bus. Well, talk about China and guns.

All right. I mean if you want to.

I was looking at buying a semi automatic the other day.

Oh this guy.

I don't have one.

It's basically illegal now in Washington. It's almost. It's like on the verge.

It's actually harder to get a concealed permit than it is to buy one. Semi autom automatic.

Yeah. Concealed permits now in Washington state you have to do a course. State registered course.

I got all that stuff.

Like a couple hundred bucks or something.

I got that stuff. But like it's somehow easier to buy a semi automatic rifle.

Yeah. Yeah.

The problem with me is I don't have anywhere to really shoot it. Yeah.

Property.

Yeah. I'll go up to Baker potentially like once a year.

Yeah.

But I think it's important to have one. Yeah. Fair. I gotta flex the second amendment. Right. So we got.

So you want to talk about that. And not. Not necessarily in light of recent events, but that is why I did have it on the show sheet was unfortunately, you know, I'm sure everyone's heard the news and there was. And I hate saying another, but there was another school shooting down in Nashville. Three adults, three kids were killed and still getting details right. So I don't have all the specifics but potentially a former student, ties to the community came back and that's all we know. And then the officer responded and took out the shooter on site. So which is. That is. I'm just gonna throw this out there first and then we can get into act the actual issues. The fact that like all officers have body cams now is mildly concerning because I already saw the body cam footage on every social media platform. I'm like, I guess it's good we're releasing as a public. But I think there's a lot of people that shouldn't see that. Like it's very like I watched it because it sucks you in. And I was like this. Why did I watch that? So sad. So your thoughts on. Because every now it's going to turn political, right?

Yeah. I generally just think the government should stay out of everything. Like there's so many issues that we've. We face because the government gets involved. Like Covid would have been a less of an issue if we didn't shut the economy down. We let people just either work or not. The government prints money, creates inflation. Because of that, now we have banking crisis.

Now, when it comes to guns, for example, it's like, okay, look, in the jaded world that we could live in, you're basically trying to take away our power. So that way you. You can. You can tell us whatever you want us to do. And I would. I would typically say that's a jaded point of view, but that's what you did during COVID You came and said, we cannot open up our businesses. You said, we cannot work if we don't get a shot. You told us all these things, and you were willing to force us. And I was threatened to go to jail because I opened up my gym. So if you're going to do that, you can't expect me to just somehow relinquish the one thing I have against you, which is a gun.

Yeah.

And so if you're gonna strip your. Your citizens of all legal power to. To come against you, you better believe they're gonna stick to their guns.

Yeah, I mean, I think. I generally agree with you. I think it's. It's a horrible situation. And I don't want to speak for you, but I think it's. Would you agree to the statement that. Because I think. I don't want to characterize you too holistically, but I know you lean more conservative, if you will. So do you feel like, with gun rights and education on firearms, does that come down to. Would you say, like, a family unit at that point? Or like, who regulates guns, who educates on guns? So obviously, you said you believe in second amendment. Cool. Check that box. But who regulates who educates?

It's like. It's like, in my opinion, this is like, I'm not super educated on this perspective, but I just think, in general, the government should get involved. However, cars kill more people than guns. But we are. We do require. Have a driver's license, and that driver's license can be revoked if you drive under the influence. If you crash into somebody, you're. You're doing stupid stuff like it can be revoked. Right. And there should be certain agreed upon principles that require someone to have that license revoked as a driver.

Mm.

And so if we're gonna ban guns because of how many people it kills, we better go ban cars and. And soda pop and potato chips. So I think it's just simply a matter of there's a license, and there are agreed upon rules as to how that license can be revoked. The same way you have you go to driver's ed, you take a hest, you're registered, you have a license number. All that should carry over. And yes, there's gonna be. Pool that drive without a license and do stupid stuff. Yes, there's people that take a gun and do stupid stuff with it. But the. I feel the downside of not having a gun and banning our citizens from. From having guns is far greater than.

The country as a whole. The patriotism of what we stand for. And it's horrible to think that there's going to be hundreds, if not thousands of people shot and killed. But I promise you, the people that are. Are doing that are going to get guns or some other mode of killing people. Like, I'm sorry, there's other ways to kill people with guns, and some of them are worse. So, like, if someone has that kind of evil in their heart, they're gonna do something stupid no matter what. And so we can restrict guns all we want. And I. But, like, I just can't help but think this is depowering citizens so that when we tell them they have to do something now, they don't have anything to do. Right? And I. I got my gun during COVID when it was like, okay, so they're gonna convince me that I'm gonna go to jail. They're gonna threaten me with lawsuits, they're going to show up at my door, they're gonna call me, they're gonna harass me, they're gonna tell my employees not to show up to work, they're gonna do all this other stuff. And yet I'm not supposed to have, like, any power whatsoever. And I'm sorry. Like, I don't believe the founding fathers of the United States would agree with that. Yeah, okay, Lee, you jumped in the hot water now.

No, I, you know, no. What? I was. I didn't. Like I said, I wasn't trying to characterize you or.

You know, explain your belief, but I think what I said is it comes into the family unit to educate when it comes to firearms and anything that involves public safety. Like, and even saying that to me, I'm like, firearms don't involve public safety. Like a private citizen. Owning a private firearm does not impact public safety, only the outer extremes of those people that get firearms illegally and legally, then that impacts public safety. But I think for me, you know, growing up with lots of military men in my family, and firearms were just kind of part of, like, the culture, which I know people. Some people hate hearing that, but it's like, no, firearms are part of The American culture, you can hate it, but it is, it's ingrained in the culture of America.

And everyone's like, well, what about in Europe and all these other stupid countries? And they're like, oh, like they don't have any gun violence or whatever. It's like, okay, let's. Does this stop? If we take all the cars in the U.S. guess what? There's gonna be less deaths of cars. Yeah, right. Also, I don't want to have anything to do with those. What those countries do. I'm a. I'm from America. I'm proud of it. I think we've done a pretty good job. I got. Did I tell you about my debate with a socialist the other day? No. Oh yeah, dude, I wish I would have recorded it. All right, so I was down in Fairhaven.

Okay.

They have this little stand set up and little prop up stand with a banner. It says join the revolution. Like the name of the website was Socialist Revolution. I think is. Okay, cool dot com.

What's up, comrades?

So I'm like, oh man, I gotta talk to these guys. So I go up and talk to them. So it was a good little debate we had. It was great. And by the end of it, they packed up their thing and left. I got debated like combative. Yeah, right. And they're like, why are you so unhappy? I'm like, I'm not happy. I'm just debating with you. And they're like, why are you debating? I'm like, because that's what we have in a democracy is like two opinions that collide and somewhere in the middle there's, there's like the. Probably the right answer.

The Socratic method.

Yeah. And like we should debate these opinions and ideas like, because if he can't be debated, then it doesn't have much value. Right. And so we. So for example, this is the one that I really drill on because he was just horrible at debating. And I'm used to going to Westerns. Like I went to Western Washington University. Liberal to the max, blue to the max, right. I went to the most part like. So inside of Western is Fairhaven College. You create your own major. It is where all of that world comes from. And every liberal thought that goes through your brain is literally born out of this element of Western Washington University. Every single like. Like I remember I was, I was going to college throughout the. What's it called? Do you remember the very first, like gun violence? The black thing? I forget his name. I'm blanking on his name.

T started with a TT Trayvon Martin.

Trayvon Martin. That happened when I was going to college. And that was a big deal, man. Like, I'm telling you, people screaming in some of my classes because we had, like debate classes and stuff, and it was intense. Anyways, all that to say, I know where all this stuff comes from. And I've now being outside of college and outside of that group think mentality have and being able to challenge those ideas and like, hold. Figure out that they don't hold a lot of weight, some of them. So socialism. They're like, so. He's like, you know what? There's. The technology is already there. We should all be driving electric cars. And I said, I agree with you. We should all be driving electric cars. I said, here's the problem number one. How are we going to create the batteries? He's like, oh, no. Like the technology. I'm like, no, no. You have to create lithium. Like, lithium batteries. And it creates way more popular pollution and way more child labor and issues mining lithium than fracking in the United States for oil. And then I said, okay, let's just assume that everyone today, the government's like, we're going to buy you all electric cars. I'm like, guess what's going to happen? Electric cars, they're all going to triple in price. Just like we've seen. The government gave everyone money and everything went up in price. I'm like, what's the inflation from right now? He's like, well, all these greedy companies raising their prices. I'm like, no, it's not. Is because the government told them they had to shut down and we all got back 12 months behind. And then at the same time, they gave people money and said, oh, go buy stuff that is not being created. Like, let's increase demand, reduce supply artificially. That's gonna jack the prices up. Yeah. So I had a little fun time with them. By the end, they literally packed up their table and left. I was so happy. So happy.

We got a little animated and that's political discourse with Mike Andes.

Yeah. So all of that to say. They were like, so you think like, the current system is good? I said, no system is perfect. I said, there's no socialist. And they. So I said, show me one socialist country that's like succeeding financially and their citizens are happy. Saturday.

And they went Scandinavian.

No, they said, there's no true socialist company.

Oh, well, that's the second option.

So I said. I said, why do you think that is? I think why? I said, why do you think that is? They're like, well, because, you know, there's never, like, there's never attainment. We're always trying to go for it. I'm like, maybe there's a good reason why capitalism has worked for hundreds of years, and yet you can't find one instance where socialism has even worked or even is relevant or has been demonstrated in your mind. Because they think, like, everything should be shared. There should be. No, not like, everyone just works for each other and all that stuff. And so it was a great time. And the day I basically said you all, I was pretty. I was pretty hardcore. But I was like, you guys do not recognize. Because I asked how many of you have been outside the country? First of all, three of them had never even been to Canada. Out of the four, all of. All of them were mostly just in the US that's all I said. You always haven't even been to Europe. You haven't been to Africa. You haven't even been to Asia. You don't even know. It's, like, outside of America. So you've been in your little bubble, and you're gonna find every issue that you can find inside of our bubble without realizing it's really, really good. And that's why for someone like myself, after going to college and then going to Africa and then going to Europe and doing all this is like, oh, everyone that's like squab cobbling has never been outside of our country.

Yeah.

And they know how great it is. And so when people start trying to tear apart the things that made America.

Oh, no, no, no.

Like, when they start trying to tear those things down, whether that be freedom of speech, whether that be freedom of the press, whether that be able to bear arms. Like, when they start tearing that stuff apart, it's like, that's what makes me mad.

Yeah.

It's like you're trying to default us and compare us to the Europeans. I don't want to be like, the European countries.

I have trains, bro, and I don't.

Want to do it. So.

Their train system's so cool, man. That's like their big thing.

And healthcare, like, there's. There's. There's always pros and cons of every system, of course. But I look at the results, baby. Like, before COVID there was negative interest rates in Europe, negative interest rates, deflation. Yeah. We were like, so anyways, people listen to get out of their bubble, dude, they need to figure out bigger problems than the stupidity that we try to boil up and conjure up when we're worried about tick tock in the U.S. like, seriously, there's bigger problems than out there, man.

Yeah, I agree with that. I think you. You need to get outside the bubble for sure. Even just you can go and see different parts of the country. Because that's the thing where as soon as you have a gun debate, kind of going back to what we talked about, as soon as you have the right to bear arms debate, it's like, well, you have these big cities making laws, and they don't even realize that in, like, Montana, it's like culture to just have guns because you deer hunt and you turkey hunt and you, you know, and you go pheasant hunting, like, whatever kind of hunting. It's just, like, ingrained in the culture. Like, when you're of age, like, you get a gun and you go hunting with your dad in those parts of the country, and then you have people in major metropolitan cities that. And I have friends. Like, I moved to Chicago, and they were like, no, like, I hate guns. Because, like, I think of, like, friends that I know that have gotten killed in gun violence, and I'm like, like, okay, let me hear your perspective. Like, that is valid. Like, you clearly have experience with guns that I don't. And people don't get outside of their bubble.

The thing is, like, when you tell your citizens and I went to Seattle during the whole, like, you must have a jab, or you cannot, literally, cannot get to a restaurant.

Yeah, yeah, I was. I went to try to go to a restaurant.

It went too far. When you say you can't eat because of something we're telling you to do. I'm sorry. I go, I'm gonna be a little bit revolting against that. And then when you tell everyone to do something and it turns out after the fact, it wasn't the best interest of your. Of the people, and shutting down the economy wasn't. And the thing that you told everyone was going to, like, create immunity and, like, fix everything and be a vaccine, which a vaccine solves the problem.

It's not. And now the companies that made that vaccine, it's been proven now they've just been made rich, and they've just been pumping this. This thought because they can keep pumping these bad boys out. I'm sorry, I have no trust in what you're saying. And so if you want to take my gun, all of a sudden, I want my gun.

Yeah.

If you want to paint my car white, guess what. I'm paying black.

Yeah.

Simply because you. What you've told me now, I can't believe You. And that's unfortunate, very sad. And I think it's a healthy distrust that we have and that's what makes America like very special. And I think we, if we lose that, we become like, like everyone else.

Yeah. I think people are like, and this is going to sound really reductive and not, I'm not trying to be insulting, but I don't think people realize that like government, America was built on like ha, yeah, dude. And now we're like, oh no, the government's great. Because America, we were founded on this government. No, no, we were founded on like anti government principles.

And I'm a big fan of organization. I think, you know, anarchy and like, like that's not good. And every civilization has to have organization. That's why a company needs organization. The thing is like the openness and transparency of that information is the part that government needs to improve at. And that's where I think any organization that has trans. Clear transparent and decision making processes are open, they'll do well. And that will continue to be the case. That's why like we try to open book management. I try to, I try to run as many of the decisions through the team. Like even today, like we're making a big pivot and testing some of the command center, like I give it before we make decision. Like there's videos they're going to explaining why, explain the ramifications. I call out what potentially the worst case scenario they're thinking. I'm making decision, I call it out and I just talk about it. Right. Instead of just like all the other stuff that's done behind closed doors and you just start to just doubt everything. Like it's not right that I'm like, if someone tells me something, I do it differently. That's weird. That's dumb. And that's what, you know, people on both extremes of the aisle have been cast as when like, you know, because, because if they're, if you're red and you say them, I'll do the opposite. And if you're blue and I'm opposite, like we're just gonna do the opposite. Like that's not right. There's always a middle ground. And like that's why unfortunately, it's just weird that like bearing arms has become political. Why in the world, Right?

It's sad.

Yeah.

Because people don't know what we have in the U.S. dude, it's awesome.

It's pretty cool.

There's no other country in the world that has what we have. And so when that it starts to degrade towards what every other country does have. I just get concerned. It's like, ah, sick. We had something really cool going. Yeah.

Well, you know what other countries don't have Major League Baseball.

Oh, baseball.

Starting baseball, baby. Great pivot.

Well, they do, they do have baseball.

They don't have Major League Baseball. Clarified now. Japan won the World Baseball Classic, so they're, they're in charge now. They get to decide how the roles go. But yeah, no, let's, let's, we'll, we'll end with some not financial pod. It's a good pod.

Okay, let's wrap it up.

Yeah, let's wrap it up.

I was non financial.

I wore the Mariners jersey.

MLB game.

Yeah. Well, theoretically no opening days. In a couple of days. You know, at time of recording. My, my in laws bought me some Mariners tickets for this weekend. I'm very excited. A big Mariners guy. But my not financial advice is, is this. And I'm going to preface. So I'm just going to really drag this out, but I was recently asked by my sister to officiate her wedding.

Oh yeah. Because in Washington state you can just like get it.

Yeah. Online. All right. I have a degree. I'm not ordained, but I have a degree.

But in Washington state, anyone can.

100. It's like 20 bucks. You go online, you just say yes.

So I got asked to officiate, which is be an officiant of a wedding, my sister's wedding. Very excited about that. And, and then, you know.

That's kind of cool, dude.

Yeah, I'm very excited for you. Yeah. Yeah, it was very cool. I'm very, I'm honored, to say the least. Very honored. And I gave them homework like right away. I was like, well, here's a book. I'm gonna read this if I'm gon officiate your wedding.

Here's a book. You want a good track record, bro, you got to have a good batting.

Average when you're doing officiating. We'll see.

That's what they should do for officiants is like you should have to wear your batting average.

Oh, nice.

Or like average. You know, like we talk about attrition.

Yeah.

You have to wear or like advertise what your, your average like marriage lifespan is.

That's good. Yeah, my, I got. This is my debut percentage divorced. This is my debut. It's a zero average.

Like I'm going to go with someone that has a better average than 5%.

Have you, have you married anyone? Have you been an officiant? Yeah, I'M excited. I mean, I know, you know, both of us have spoken at funerals, but, yeah, officiating, it's cool. So anyways, my not financial advice, I promise, is all coming together. So my sister asked me to. Asked. Asked me to be the officiant at her wedding. Very excited about that. Opening days coming up. I love baseball. Mariners. Favorite sports team of all time. Felix Hernandez, favorite athlete of all time. Love it. And my wife and I created a tradition that I got from a family friend.

Dude, this is a long story.

I'm getting there. My not financial advice, it all ties together, okay?

Is.

Is make the mundane. If you're in a relationship, you got to make the mundane fun.

Okay.

And you got to pick little things to make special in your marriage, in your daily life.

Right?

And so this is a piece of advice I got from a family friend because he and his wife love baseball. Every opening day, when he comes home from work, he grills hot dogs. She makes an apple pie, and they watch opening day together. And so that's what my wife and I are gonna do on Thursday. She's gonna make an apple pie. I'm gonna come home and grill hot dogs. And that is what makes America so awesome. This is another reason that makes America so awesome, because we have.

We have apple pie.

Yeah. Apple pie, baseball, hot dogs. Dude, let's go. Stoked. So that's why not financial advice.

Okay, well, mine's not that exciting.

Thank you all for indulging me. I know it was very.

4.4% rate of return. Robinhood. You can just put your money into the brokerage account.

Oh, really?

Don't do any stocks. 4.4% return compounding, get your money right away in terms of daily, so you don't have to keep it in there long. If you're fearful that something will change, you can pull the money out and get this interest. 4.4%.

That's cool.

I do talk about companies that sell.

People'S data up to 1.5%. FDIC insurance. 1.5 million.

That's not bad.

Yeah. Which. There's some fine print to that, but that's fine. Yeah. 4.4%. All right. That a long pod, dude. That's like, over an hour.

Yeah, like. And subscribe.

This has been the Mike Candice podcast. Now you have some ideas on how to take your business to the next level. And if you liked what you heard, we have tons of lectures, interviews, and more over at the MikeAndYs YouTube channel that'll be right up your alley. But that's all we have for you today. We'll see you next time.

Sam.