TikTok is Watching You - Episode 019

Boom. Boom.

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

Big CEO over there.

What's that?

Big CEO. He's 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, 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 short 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's hard to subscribe to a video from a video. You got to 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. 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. It's been cool seeing, like, it's. Your channel steadily climbed. So 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.

I'll pull up this. 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 stuff. Usually a 5.1. That's the usual. So it's just higher than normal. Everything's higher. We had 6.7 thousand 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's like, I'm glad that we got something to show for it because we hired like two more media people. Right. And so I was like, it would be really discouraging if you 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 the stuff.

Totally.

Right. But they don't convert into lawn care, media landscape, business course, the franchise co pilot. So like, actually we got to pay the bills. Yeah. And so how we do that is 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 got to be careful because 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 like, for example, we took a clip of someone else. The guys, do they find it all. I just spent 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 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 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 Shadow. 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 gonna ask 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 him I would just take my 50 and I know 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 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.

They're 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, 7. 700,000 views on TikTok and like across all platforms, probably 2 million views. So it does better than his because it's 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.

So if you see an Alex Hormozi one, you'll stop. 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 expensive trucks. So I instantly was like, I got to send this to Mike. I was like, this is perfect for your channel.

Yeah, yeah. So we, we've, we 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, you have a good story. So people mad, sad, glad, screaming something story y. 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, 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. 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 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. Like come up with something original. Like who are you? Basically someone just, you know, an Internet hater from the rafters.

See my comment?

Yeah, your response was fantastic. I should pull it up. But I, I've, I've had personally like issues with that and I feel like, because I'm now 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 at the day. If 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.

It's simply reacting to everything that's happening in the day. They don't have any original content. And if they were, then it'd be 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 in the 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 lawn care business. Right. The unique value. Honestly, like, I've always just said this, and it's like, I don't. Like, we always 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 built a business to $100 million in revenue every single time. 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. He's like, oh, that's such a. Like, no, just 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 time 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 Kilfuss and 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 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. No, no, no. Definitely 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 to.

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 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 reclusive. Whatever. And then someone leans over and said, 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 going to listen. Or B, I wonder what he has and I got to listen. 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. This is 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. Just like so I don't know. 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 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. October almost. So that's fair. We got to 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 raise.

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. 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 are like, dude, I do my taxes. Like, you know, friends that are, like, married, like, my wife. And I like, no dependence. Like, dude, I do it on TurboTax for 70 bucks. And I'm like, guess what? I did it for 400. But I didn't stress for one second. The only stress I had was, oh, is his 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 spend 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. Like, 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. And I'm like, okay, cool. So, sure it helped.

So, I know we teased this last week because it was happening live while we were recording, but the CEO of Tick Tock 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 gonna 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. Like, that's, at the end of the day, what we're arguing about. But that aside, I found a New York Times article, tried to get a pretty generic, overarching article here, and I just want to hear your thoughts on TikTok. 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 conspiracy theorists. Same thing with AI. People are way over the top.

Yeah.

About what AI 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, like, the first question that they asked him, he just bombed it.

Yeah.

What was it again? 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. 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 going to say when, like, someone from the Senate 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 going to happen, they have to sell off 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, like, 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. 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 in US Lawns could tap into your computer and then I'd be okay with it. Like, no, I would, 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. 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 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 too at, 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 they can't just force a private company to just like sell. Or are they saying sell the North American? Right, yeah, that's what I figure. I'm just like, what did 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, but 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 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 Tick Tock 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, like 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 2.08 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 looking at 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 advertising. That's their monetization strategy. All right. Until you start playing, Talking about like $10, your subscription never know $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 if 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. Oh, 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 a 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. Like, this is what. No, that's bad. Like, cut this little part. 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 or long form video, it 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. And if they can read all your emails and like know that you're coming off 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. 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 her most recent YouTube video this morning and then I closed 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, buy. Buy 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. 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. And 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 if 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.