Transcript
Robert Greene and Kevin Kelly Quotes on Time
00:00:00 Amara Andrew
Trust the process. Time is the insec- Time is the essential ingredient of mastery. Use it to your advantage.
I normally do these intros. So, bad things can happen fast, but almost all good things happen slowly.
Welcome back, Explorers. This is Useful Not Famous, the show where we explore the topics we find most interesting and strive to be the most useful people you know. I'm Amara Andrew.
And today we have two quotes. So…
Yeah, we both had quotes that were related to each other that we wanted to talk about. Mine's from Kevin Kelly.
And mine is from Robert Greene.
Yeah, and Robert Greene is the author of 48 Laws of Power. Kevin Kelly is, the founder of Wired Magazine and just sort of a technologist and futurist. Since the 90s, he's been on the forefront of everything.
Yeah, and this is actually from The Daily Laws from Robert Greene.
Which I find it's a very nice little read every morning. They're super… So yeah, well you got me onto it.
It's 366 little daily…
Excerpts to read.
Yeah, they call them like meditations, but it's not meditation.
I know, I almost said devotionals, but I was like, that's not, it's non-religious! It is just a pure, sort of just investigating the human condition, I'll say. I know that sounds very grandiose, but each month is themed to a different topic.
So, the month of February is all about, like apprenticeships and mastery and things like that. So, I just read that a couple days ago and I was like, that is really good. And they're just like very quick little passages that you can read every single day.
And we have been since the beginning of the new year.
Yeah, and it's more of reminders. It's like all these things that we're always reading and learning and thinking about, but then it's like…
In such a bite-sized little packet, which is nice.
Yeah, and we've talked about it on here a lot that like it's really time sort of in-market that like matters. Like the longer you're doing something, the more inevi- the more inevitable it is you'll be successful at it.
Yeah, but it's so hard when you're in it, 'cause I find myself doing the same thing. When I tell people, like, no, it will work out, like everything always works out no matter what, but depending on what they want the perceived outcome to be, I'm always trying to be like, well, no, like it will work, it just, it takes a lot of time.
So, that's why we coupled both quotes together, because mine is all about the process, and then yours is sort of about maybe the feelings within the process, which is interesting.
Well, yeah, 'cause we can zoom out and not think about business, and just be like bad things can happen fast, which we can all think of many bad things that happen just in a blink of an eye…
But almost all good things happen slowly, because when is it, let's take us for example. Like, we met and hit it off quickly…
But in the scope of really being, like speaking about fast, we didn't hit it off and then the next day become a couple.
Like, we hit it off over some time, and then as a few months progressed, we just got closer and closer and closer, really quickly, but still we're talking on a scale of months, not a scale of instant, which, again, is patience. Like, people don't have, we find, a lot of people don't have months of patience for things, let alone years of patience to build something great.
Binge Watching TV Shows and Attention Span Limits
Well, yeah, patience especially today, like I hate the trite sort of, "Well, nobody has attention spans nowadays," or "Nobody has that," because it's not true. It's just it's such a different landscape. Like, specifically talking for social media, I'll watch a 10-minute vertical video and not even realize it was 10 minutes, and then just be like, "Whoa, where did I go?" But I'll see maybe something else that sucks and it's like 45 seconds, and then I'm like, "Ugh, okay," and then just swipe away.
So, the more saturated the market is, because you can make anything and everything, all day, every day…
I don't want to leave what you just said, though.
The attention span thing, we it'sably inaccurate, because how many people binge television shows, like television being like a series, not a movie, on Netflix? Like, that is a thing.
That's attention span. That is maybe eight episodes…
Eight hour-long episodes. And people like, "I spent all Sunday watching this show," and it's like, "Oh, how like what episode?" And it's like, "All of it." It's like, "What?"
Yeah, so that's a thing. So, to say that we don't have attention spans anymore is just verifiably false, but we don't have attention, we don't give our attention to things that aren't worth our time in our estimation.
Exactly. Yeah, it's almost like we have a daily credit limit of how much we can spend with our attention, or not, it's like it is true. 'Cause like with another platform you work on, Kidney Stone Diet, kidneystonediet.com, how Jill talks about you have like your debit card each day of oxalate, and you can have X amount of grams, milligrams, not grams, probably milligrams.
I always mix it up, but like it's a hundred.
Well, I've been thinking of grams this whole time, because I just found out something absolutely mind-blowing about my diet.
It's not even remotely interesting for the podcast, but…
Oh, we can talk about it in a minute.
But you have this bank account of attention that you can draw upon each day. You only have so many hours, like literally only so many hours.
Our personal, our personal attention meaning focus, not others' attention.
Correct, yeah, how much attention we want to give to something. So, if something maybe isn't the best, we're not going to watch it. So I just find that endlessly fascinating.
Like, I guess going back to trusting the process, it's very difficult.
Here's why…
Oh, no, I had a thought before and I totally forgot what it was, 'cause mentally I already went down eight different rabbit holes in my mind.
Oh, no, it is hard. It's difficult. We can like talk about it, but also we, we might be some of the most patient people that a lot of people know…
But that doesn't mean that it's easy. Like, we struggle with patience because we want everything to happen faster, but we're also very patient in relation to the average.
Well, it's very ironic, 'cause like we've talked about in other episodes, I've started posting my own personal content again, only two videos a week just because I'm trying to at least get back in the flow of it, and I know…
And this is personal, not the hyper-local platform that is four a week?
Yeah, so this is in addition to…
Yeah, so all my energy is over there. In addition to then all of our clients. So, my personal is definitely suffering, but I'm trying to at least just be visible, because it's so easy for me to just be like, "Oh, well, I'll get to that when I get to that," and everyone else I put above, 'cause like the hyper-local platform, which I said the name twice last week, and we bleeped it out.
I almost said it again. I was like…
And again…
So, we have a hyper-local platform. The only reason we don't share it is because we are very, very deliberate in building the audience locally. So, we don't want anyone to follow who isn't local, because algorithmically, if, say, we were using that platform to look at stuff all over the country, then the algorithm's like, "Oh, well, they're interested in things in all different places." And then algorithmically, if people viewing the content are all over the country, then it's like, "Oh, people all over the country want it."
But if we have only people in our hyper-local market, then the algorithm knows it's only for people there. I'm not going to show it to anyone else, because why would I do that?
Yeah, as much as we can control, 'cause like I do have people that have told me where they're from, like across the planet. So, like things will just happen, but as much as we can control, I don't want to be broadcasting it like, "Hey, find this."
Exactly.
Yeah, we are nurturing our algorithm, our follower base, but we're also letting that organically happen. We're not booting people. We're not, we're not going to go on here, on a thing that has people that aren't in our area listening, and say, "It's this, check it out," and then suddenly just change our just the milieu of people and data points that it pulls from.
Right.
But yeah, so it's funny thinking about growing that platform versus my personal, because I've been spending all my time growing the hyper-local platform, and it's grown like well, I'm frustrated with my personal, because I'm like, "Grow already!" But like, for what purpose? I don't know, it's just a vanity thing, because I'm like, "Okay, well, I'm trying to put myself out there," but I'm getting in my head about it a lot, which then it's like, okay, well, is this the right content?
Blah, blah, blah. We can… That's like a whole other topic, but I feel that patience for it wearing thin, where I'm like, "Maybe I'll just stop again." And I know I fucking do this all the time.
How many videos have you posted since you restarted it?
I don't even think… I feel like it was six or seven.
No, it's it's at least double digits, I know that. Actually…
Social Media Content Creation and Dopamine Hits
Like this, and this isn't meant to be a dig towards you, it's that patience is difficult. If you don't get instant feedback, it's like, what am I doing this for?
Exactly, 'cause you get the little dopamine hit from it. Okay, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11.
I just crossed into double digits!
And now you're like, "Maybe I should throw it away," I think, which you said you're never going to do again…
But it's difficult, because patience.
It's so hard, because also if you're not getting that dopamine hit all the time of like, "I love you, this is great, blah, blah, blah, I like this, I like that."
Yeah, even minus the "I love you, this is great," just merely someone doing something.
Like anything, which, like, there are a couple people, but it's really not that many, and that's fine, but like it's hard to get out of that. It's almost like a comparison thing. Like, people who have been posting consistently for X amount of years, which, again, going back to our clients, like I completely understand where they're coming from when we start, because it'll be a couple months or a couple weeks, maybe a month, maybe two months, and it's like, "Hey, what the fuck?
Why isn't why am I not getting a bajillion views?"
So, yeah, no one says that specifically, like. No, but I wanted to, if we just, you rewind to before they become clients, the question is, how many leads can I expect?
Well, how good is your business?
Yeah, the true answer, which is basically what we say without being like negative, is none.
Hyper-Local Brand Marketing and Lead Generation
Because this isn't going to get you direct leads, but it, this is marketing. This is hyper-local marketing. It's brand marketing, that when you have your systems in place, the machine of your business in place, it's going to feed that and elevate how a well-functioning machine works, but it's not in place of the work in the sales and the converting leads.
This is merely attention, and that sounds antithetical to Useful Not Famous, maybe, but again, think about our hyper-local platform.
But I think that's why we're even better qualified to understand the difference between useful, not famous.
Exactly, and that's what I mean, is it might sound on its face antithetical, like, "Well, no, you're saying you're getting attention," and it's like, no, we're saying you're getting the right attention from the right people who are most qualified to become a customer, to become a whatever you're after, like customer, client, partner, whatever you're looking for, that's what we're going for.
So, that's not being famous. That's being known by the right people, and that's it's, it might seem like a sort of a really fine distinction, but it is very important. Like, if we had a million people on our hyper-local platform, that'd be a huge failure because our addressable hyper-local market is not even remotely close to a million people.
So, that would mean we're reaching way too many of the wrong people.
Yeah, well, that's what I mean, and I don't want to give numbers 'cause it starts to skew. Oh, where could it be?
But that's, and that's very important for us, and like we had a conversation with someone that we've worked with now who he's really it's all clicking in a really good way for him, but again, hyper-locally. Like, there's a great number of followers. Like, it's a strong number to be proud of…
But what happens in person is what is so different. He's turned into a little again, not a celebrity, like influencer we think of big, but like a micro-influencer in that, "I turn to you for this, here."
That is a different thing than being like a Kardashian, where it's just like, "This is just a celebrity influencer." Very different things, and really what we're going for, and it's exciting 'cause it has clicked.
Yes, which is and it feels like it just keeps clicking in, which is really amazing and exciting. When you were talking about the social media, it just clicked for me. You were talking to another person that we work with, mostly you, who has a pretty big platform.
They You said something which was so interesting this morning, 'cause we literally just talk about this stuff all day every day, how websites, those are not necessarily the go-to anymore. So, when you are curious about something, or someone, a product, a business, whatever, or you're looking for something, the top search engines now, besides AI, are Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Social Media Profiles as Modern Discovery Platforms
And not in that order, just they are.
No, just in general. And like, still people use Google for search, but specifically looking at the new frontier, social media…
And I wonder if Instagram's actually on that list, but that's a different conversation. Okay.
It actually is. When you're looking for things, people are now going to those platforms. So, having a website is still important for right now, but viewing your social media profile sort of as your new webpage, as your new place for your brand, is 100% important.
And this sounds like so antiquated now, because like, yeah, duh, but I feel like some people still aren't quite capturing that, how important that actually is.
And I want to I want to put a finer detail on that. The website is as important as ever. However, it's not the first touch point anymore.
It used to be. That was the thing. Like there was a book, what was I…
Oh, yeah, Save the Cat, about screenwriting. And at the end of the book…
I read that and I was like,
Yeah, he wrote it in like 2004, and at the end of the book, he's like, "Yeah, I haven't tried this yet, but you could probably have a," he called it a "you.com" that's all about you and your screenwriting…
And I was like, does he mean YouTube?
And your screenwriting and the things you've done, and you could probably do that and do pretty well and reach new people. I have not tried that yet, but I should." And it's like, "Wow!"
This is, you forget how new everything, everything is. It's just like 20 years ago. Like, that's not that long.
Yeah, well, even for like someone like me, I've done this for so long. Like, 1997 is when I made…
You've done this for like more than half my life.
1997 is when I made my first client website.
But I didn't have my own website until like 2007, maybe. Like, I did it for other people and I built things, but I didn't actually like buy my like JeffSarris.com until then, even though it was my other like original agency name, but…
JS9 Design. Woo! I was doing branding.
Started really strong at branding, but…
But all that to say that you find someone on social media, that is still only step it's step one, which is so important, but if I then go and I'm like, "Oh, let me click on their link in their bio and see their website," and the domain name expired, or it says, "This person hasn't set this up yet," or it's all sample content, or the same exact thing everyone else has, it's like, "Wait a minute, is this actually a real person?
Are they just playing who they want to be on social media, but don't actually have a business? Don't They aren't the in real estate, say. They aren't the successful realtor they pretend, because clearly their domain name wouldn't be expired and canceled with like a for sale page." Like, if you if you don't renew your domain name, it'll usually go right to a for sale.
So, it'll be like, "This domain may be for sale." So, someone could go to your site and then be like, "Oh, they don't even exist anymore. What am I doing?" So, all these little markers matter, and every marker matters more than ever, because there's so much noise, but no one marker matters completely.
Right, yeah. Thank you for the clarity on that, but yeah, I'm I'm purely just thinking in an awareness phase.
Exactly, yeah, because we think websites are so important, but again, that's the machine after the attention.
100%. We have every domain possible for us.
Well, yeah, and we build all of these things. Like, this is what we do.
No, that is exceptionally important. When, oh, the other thing, too, besides having an expired domain in your profile is having, which I've shit on this so much time, but a Linktree. And I literally experienced this the other day.
It feels so desperate when you have 400 links, and let's say more than half of them are affiliate links. It's fine. Like, we completely believe in affiliate links.
I'm still earning money from my Etsy sticker shop videos on YouTube. Makes no sense.
Streamlining Linktree Bio Links for Real Estate Agents
And an affiliate link means you link to another product and they give you a small commission when someone buys that product.
Yes, because you're promoting it that it exists. And that's completely fine. Like, go for the gold, whatever, I don't give a shit.
But when it's like a hundred of these things, and it's like, okay, well, I don't know what this is. I don't know where I'm supposed to go.
I'm here to know who you are. I'm not here to buy garbage.
Exactly. Like, I need to just know like, we work with a lot of realtors. So, if it's a realtor, I've seen this on people's fucking profiles.
They've a Linktree. They don't even have their website at the top. It's all this shit that you can buy from them, and it's like, "Are you still in production?" Like, "I want to give you my money.
How does this work, exactly?" It's so incredibly misleading, and you're you're fucking yourself out of money.
Well, let's make a really simple one. It a mental sort of model for a simple Linktree. I'm a realtor.
You click on my Linktree. It says, "Buy a house with me." It says, "Sell a house with me." It says, "Buy my course to learn how to make more sales." It says, "Buy my course to learn how to become a realtor." It says, buy It's like, wait a minute, are you a realtor, or are you selling to realtors?
Yes. "Shop my Amazon storefront!"
Yeah! Like, even without the Amazon part, what are you? Are you a buyer and seller of Are you an operating realtor, or are you trying to sell to realtors because you think you can make money here, and you're not making money here?
Or, what I've seen, verbatim on somebody's, it was…
Buy or sell in area,…
Amazon storefront, what was the one that you just said?
Yeah, course, "Ask me about my brokerage!"
Who are you appealing to? Everyone on this fucking planet? No, you can't do that.
You need to have the one thing that you're going after.
And that is the thing, too, like it's a sort of a cliché now, but I think it's worth saying, like, when you appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one, which sounds antithetical, again, because we want to get as much attention and as big of a market as possible, but no, because you have nothing that actually explains what you do and what you're capable of doing for me.
Like, I'm the consumer, so you tell me what you have…
And make it abundantly clear that this is a ridiculous value, and you are ridiculously qualified to do this thing that I need right now, and then take my money.
Well, again, it goes to having too many options, and then you have the paradox of choice where it's like, okay, well, I could do any of these things, I guess, but now I'm not going to do any of them, and not even if it's a good or a bad choice for me, but just I literally didn't click on a single thing, because it's like, okay, there are a lot of options, I'm just going to go back, because it's so much easier to just be like, "Okay, I don't need any of this."
Yeah, the path of least resistance when we're given a lot of options is no choice. That's the easiest thing for us to do is take no choice, make no choice, because every option we give someone, there are pros and cons. There is the, "I do it, or I don't, and here's why." So, when there are multiple options, it's like, okay, so of this one, should I, should I not?
If I don't, well, okay, let me look, should I, should I not, like? And the more we have these decisions we have to make, the less positively we feel about the decision we made, because there are a myriad other, there are a myriad other options we could have chosen that might have made it better. So, now we're critiquing our choice to do the thing.
Exactly. It's just human nature, where it's just like, okay, is this actually going to be as good as I think it is? Maybe it won't be, maybe I should just stop this whole thing.
Maybe I should go over here instead and do this thing. Okay, maybe I'll do that because that feels like it's safer, right? Well, maybe Uncle Bobby would like that better.
Like, you could just go anywhere and everywhere, 'cause I do that for sure. Almost every day.
And this is us talking about consumers, but again, rolling all the way back to patience, this is what we do as like creative people, business owners, and things. We're just like, we weigh all these options, and we're like, "Oh, I should have done that. Actually, I'll do this now.
Maybe I should do that. Let me go over here and try this. Oh, affiliate links and courses." And then, it's like we need patience with the things we're doing and confidence that I am doing this and taking stepping stones to then understand how the fog clears in front of me, and I'm like, "Ooh, now I could go this way."
And, and be confident and have the belief that what I have done so far got me to where I am, and I can always take another step in a slightly different direction every single time, and that's how we build something great.
This might sound a little self-aggrandizing, but that is why people work with us specifically…
Because, like, you don't see all of the hours of that, which is the beauty of it, like, as clients work with us, we weigh all of these options and all of these decisions so you don't get in your own way. Because I'm literally doing that right now with my content, not to bring it back to me, but just what I was saying is, I'm struggling with that, because I'm like, "I'm not getting this.
What should I create?" Like, you hear this all fucking day for me, where I'm like, "What should I do?" We take away all of those decisions for people, and we have consistently since we started, because that is so draining and exhausting, and by the time you hit record, you're like, "What the hell was I even doing? I don't remember." And that is exactly what is happening to me right now, so I need to hire us.
But I want to explain this one thing: why? Why is that happening if this is what we do? Why is it happening to you?
It's because…
No, the hyper-local platform, we have that on lock…
Because that's what we do for everyone. So, now you're injecting your personal side and now working on cracking that code. So, this is a it might sound like, "Oh, it's just the same thing.
Now, just do it for your personal stuff," but it's actually a completely different vertical.
So, like, this is this is why the hyper-local platform works so well, and why it's I'm going to say in terms of growth and progress on autopilot, you're still adjusting constantly, but you're not whole-cloth inventing it. We've been doing it for 5 years for people, for thousands and thousands, like 20,000 videos.
Yeah, it's systematized and refined.
It's very clear what it is.
And what works and why, like we have no question on that. So, it's merely doing it and patience and doing it. So, now your personal though introduces this new variable, which it's which then the question is, are you just running down, which is something I think we should talk about right now, is this you running down a new path when you shouldn't, and we should do more of what works?
Green Screen News Scoops and Local History Videos
Yeah, like in terms of, 'cause you brought up a good point yesterday when I brought this up, which was sort of taking what we do for the hyper-local platforms and somehow turning it into for me. So, we do scoops and out and abouts. Those are like the two big things that we do for short-form content.
For hyper-local, for our clients and for our platform.
Yeah, for the hyper-local, we work with a bunch of different people, so we have various different strategies for people, but this is for the hyper-local people, like people who need people in their immediate vicinity.
Scoops are green screen-style news videos. So, it's you have images or videos behind you, and then you have little, little you green screened out of your video, and you're just presenting the news. Whatever it is, you can make anything the news.
So, it's not just, "Here's what happened today." It's, "Are you looking for this thing and you don't know where to go? Here's where you should go." It could be anything.
Out and abouts, for me, specifically, it's history content, because that's what I find fascinating, and also highlighting local businesses and places to go. So, it's those two main types of content. So, you brought up a really good point yesterday, Mr.
Jeff…
About doing that just about me. Like, how can I make my own news about myself or do some sort of out and about me? And I struggle with my content more than anybody else.
I can have I am actually a very creative person, and again, it just sounds so weird and self-aggrandizing to say that, but like I know I can be very creative. I can't figure my shit out to save my life, and that is the weirdest thing. Like, I figure out your content, even though you don't want to post right now, and that's totally fine.
I could figure it out for anybody, and I can't figure it out for me!
And it's so weird, 'cause I'm too close to it, and I'm like, "Well, who am I?" And then it's like, "Okay, well, let's not go down that fucking rabbit hole."
We fall in the trap of what's the right thing to do, and spoiler alert…
Yeah, 'cause I know what to do.
Yeah, spoiler alert, there is no right thing to do, so that's the challenge. Like, the hyper-local, we know it works, we know how to make it work, but you could do it in an infinite number of ways. So, if you're watching, Amara has a drinking problem, meaning when she drinks, it dribbles down her face like probably five times out of nine.
Five times out of nine, does that sound about right? A little more than 50%? I chose I chose five and then I was like, "Where do I go from here?" I didn't want to be five out of 10, they're like one out of two.
It's like, fine. 23 out of 46, it's like, okay, whatever. Not much.
But yeah, so, again, the paradox of choice, we can do anything. You have un- this is, okay, this is the answer. We already said it.
Your optionality for your personal content is endless, so you're weighing the pros and cons of every single thing forever, and that's why it's debilitating. The paradox of choice, again, if you don't know the paradox of choice, it is written a book by Barry Schwartz, all based on science and psychology of giving too many options when innately like a lot of business owners, especially brand new ones, will want to give a lot of options, because we're like, "No, I want it to be as grand and as great as possible," when you look at I just used this example this week.
Look at a three-star Michelin restaurant, Eleven Madison, or Alinea, or all of these, there's I think 14 total three-star Michelin restaurants in the world. Look at them. They are the best restaurants in the world, and what do they do?
You go to the Alinea website, it's like size of party, date. That's it, you have no qu- you have no other decisions, because they're like, "We are giving you the experience of a lifetime." I don't They don't want to know what you want for your appetizer. They don't want There is no choice.
They give you a like 14-part tasting menu or some crazy thing, but that's what you're paying for. That's the thing that makes it great and phenomenal, because they have crafted every single thing, and I'm not comparing us to a three-star Michelin restaurant, but this is why if you go to whatismaven.com, scroll down to our like "Let's get started" section, you'll see there's one option.
It tells you what we do, and it's "Let's do this" is the button. All you do is pay. There is you there's no choices, because we don't offer any choices.
We have created your tasting menu for you. This is perfect and precise, and the best experience you'll ever have making hyper-local content.
So, why are would we give you choices? So, that's an elevated experience versus the optionality, which we innately sort of we might turn towards, not realizing that diminishes the experience. So, all of that to say, paradox of choice is what you were running into with your own content, because you can do anything.
Like physically, like you could create anything you wanted to: a documentary, a whatever, a fictional thing. Like, you can You're capable of doing that, and you could choose from anything to do. So, the it is completely limitless.
You just need to decide, but now you can decide from everything.
That is very true. Holy shit! Because the easiest thing to do is nothing.
I am posting right now, but I do weigh out what's going to be the most beneficial for me in the long term. I'm trying to not think short term anymore, because my history content has always and will always outperform anything I've ever done, by far, because it's inherently very interesting. But I struggle with making really boring stuff interesting, or maybe things I'm not as passionate about.
That is very difficult, but I know focusing on certain things will have more long-term return, possibly. But I struggle with the…
You got to explore, though. We talk about this.
I know, well, but you saying like, "Well, yeah, you could do a fiction thing, you can do a documentary." We talked about possibly doing a documentary, and then I've wanted to do fictional, really weird videos, because I like those. Like, there's a TV show I really love called The Mighty Boosh. Do not watch it.
It is the weirdest thing on this planet. I love it. I want to make stuff like that, because I just find it so bizarre, but like funny.
So, but it takes time to make that stuff, because it would be like a whole production, and it's something so different. So, the easiest thing to do right now is just nothing.
Well, no, you have to decide what you want, and that's the hardest thing to decide.
Elvis Presley and the 1957 Hamilton Ventura Watch
I know! I want to be famous, not useful.
Yeah? Okay, perfect. So, welcome back to the new show: Famous, Not Useful.
No, I just I realized this morning, too, the things that I really like are the "why". Why did Elvis wear this one watch in this one movie? There's literally a video that I'm working on right now.
I'm trying to find what the story is for it, 'cause there kind of isn't one, so how do I make the story about it?
So, again, let's go back to last week, or the week before, whatever it was. It's you. The story is you.
'Cause it's my favorite Elvis movie.
Find So, right here. Explain.
My new favorite watch! So, the movie is Blue Hawaii.
No, explain what you were just saying, 'cause now you're you're disassociating you. You're telling your story right now, so let's tell it.
Well, yeah, it's like I stumbled upon this movie randomly one night when I was pretty tipsy, and it's the worst Elvis movie possible, and I love it. It's like so stupid, but it's like it's from a bygone era, like it's a time capsule, and I love Elvis. In the movie, and I didn't realize this until I was looking at specific watches, he is wearing a Ventura from Hamilton.
That is like one of my new favorite watches, because it's so unique. Like, you don't see this style of watch ever. It's…
You have to look it up, because…
Hearing her say that doesn't make sense.
Yeah, it's a triangle dial. So, instead of like a watch where it typically has a round dial, this is a triangle on its side, so the pointy side is facing I forget which side.
Actually, I don't know, maybe the left.
Probably the left.
See, I don't know. Yeah, I think to the left. It is such a unique watch, and it's very much of its time.
It came out in 1957, and it is the first ever digital watch in the world. So, out of all of the watches in Elvis's collection, that's probably one of the most visually unique ones besides his, King Midas watch that he had, which was just solid gold. It's like hideous, but I love it.
So anyway, I was just thinking of that as a video concept, 'cause I was like, "That's so fascinating." It's like these two things that I love.
So, so, you said, you're struggling to find the story, but that's the story. It's you, again, this is meta, but it's you learning about the thing that you love, and why you love it, and what makes it special.
See, I don't feel like that's interesting.
But, see, that is! That's all we care about. Like, we don't It's no teaching, it's exploring.
Like, we want to follow you as you explore. Like, Casey Neistat videos, especially his early ones, like his first really viral video was like 2008, or something, and it was bike lanes, and it was…
Oh, yeah! I used to love that video.
Him riding his bike around town, plowing into police cars and things, and flying off his bike, because he's he's trying to make a point that, "This is my experience every day, and if I ride my bike in the street, they will try to give me a ticket because it's illegal, but they block my path." And like he made this It's about me.
But it's a he's sharing he's showing his experience through example. He's not telling.
And he just did that, too, this past week, yeah.
Yeah. So, like, 20 years later, he did a new video, not about bike lanes, but about New York City and things that it's like, "I love New York, but let me show you what I get to see and experience every single day."
Yeah, that is a good point, 'cause now I'm actually storyboarding it in my head. And I'm like, well, yeah, if I did it almost like a docu-sort of YouTube video, where I'm like, I can see how it would work, where it's sort of a voiceover, but then it's also still me talking to camera, 'cause then I get wrapped up in, "Well, what's it going to look like?" I'm like, "Okay, well, yeah, if it's it starts with me watching Blue Hawaii and being like, "What the hell is that on his wrist?" And then I can see myself sitting on the couch and just being like this." I can I can see the what it looks like already.
Like, I know exactly, beat for beat, what it would look like, which is very helpful for editing over 15,000 videos. I might need to try that today.
But see, this is the thing, also. I think you're making it even more difficult. You're like, "I'll be watching the movie and go, "."" Where I think it's like, "I love this watch.
I don't even know why. Let's figure out why." And you're like, "First, I found it here." You know what I mean? Like, you can just…
It's too simple. I need it to be endlessly complicated and make me hate my life.
We make it simple We make it simple for everyone else, but for you…
I want to feel something.
Why do you make everything so simple? I want to cry in frustration…
And then never post it, and edit it, because it's a pain in the ass.
I know! I Those videos that I just recorded the other day, I was like, I can't put these out.
They didn't come across as I had hoped, and I missed a very key part of one of them, so.
Storytelling Transformations and Sales Page Messaging
No, that's fine, but so, story. Like, injecting you, talking about you, taking people on the journey, and having you be transformed from the beginning to the end, that was the big thing that it's just stuck with me now, and now I understand so much more about story and movies and fiction and non-fiction. It's like, if there's two documentaries about the same topic, one of them, you love, and it's so good, and the other, you just can't relate to, and it's the same exact content, just done in a different way, I could almost guarantee that it's because the main character and supporting characters aren't transformed.
If they're not transformed in the end, all it was data. They need to be transformed in any way, like, any way. They could…
Have a new pair of shoes.
It's like, "My hair could be different by the end, but it's a transformation, because my hair mattered to me at the beginning." That's something.
But when you're like, "This just felt like nothing," I bet you can't find a single transformation. It was just, this hero, it's a struggle with Superman. Superman is an infallible hero, so they've struggled for a long time to make something feel like something.
Like, the Marvel stuff works. They're all They all have their own voice, metaphorically and literally. They all have their own style and how they do things, so there's so much to work with.
Superman is, "I'm perfect and no one can stop me."
But, you know what I mean, like? And literally no one could stop him, so they had to create ways to be to make him fallible. So, that's why like, one of the recent, what was the recent one?
There was a recent Superman movie that was really good, like…
Was it the one that we watched?
I definitely watched it, I don't know if you did, but it was like after watching Peacemaker, I watched it, 'cause it's the same guy who did Peacemaker.
I think we watched it together.
Okay, and it was so good, like, in a way that I've never liked Superman movies, and they finally like cracked the code.
Yeah, 'cause he had his little ice fortress. Yeah, we watched that together. That was really good.
Yeah, and because the guy, James Gunn, I think maybe, he figured out how to make Superman interesting.
And that changed everything.
Yeah, 'cause he wasn't he was fallible in that. Like, he had a lot of weaknesses, which was good.
Very much so. He struggled a lot, and even though it didn't take away from him being super…
Like, in every way, but there were cracks. There were little ways that he could be made weaker, and not just like kryptonite. Like, that's that's the one thing that they ever had in Superman was kryptonite.
Yeah, that was just one of the things.
Yeah. It's much more nuanced and it's so much more. So, then, by the end, he can be transformed in a way.
He can't just be perfect, defeat the villains, and still be perfect. It doesn't work that way. So, yeah, anyway, that's the thing.
Just, I find that really interesting now, just thinking about things through that lens.
Thinking about one of the TV shows that we just watched, 'cause we watch one TV show, at night before we go to bed. Yeah, one episode.
No, just one episode before bed.
The TV show that we just watched, which we liked, and we love the person that was in it, but the characters didn't change at all, like at least two of them didn't. Only two did. The two grown-ups did, but the kids didn't at all.
Are we talking about yesterday?
A different show, the show before.
I don't want to shit on it.
No, I know. I'm trying to think what the show was. So, grown-ups, kids…
It was, multiple episodes.
Yes.
It was someone that we like.
Oh, oh, oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, like, the adults changed, kind of.
Yeah, the main character changed, the supporting cast did not.
So, then, that becomes an issue. You're the only one who can't have a transformation is the villain. Or, they could, but they don't need one, because they're the villain, they're bad, they're going to be bad.
But then also, the villain was sort of nebulous, because they weren't the villain, but they were, but then different people were villains. It was very like everywhere.
Yeah, it's just missing the transformation. But, to bring it back to business just for a second, that's how we sell.
What is the Who's the villain? What I have for you, so, this is how I think about a sales page. What I have for you.
Really simple. So, when we were doing when we were focusing more on realtors, now it's hyper-local, but MAVEN was video for realtors made simple. What I have for you.
Okay, cool. I need video, I'm a realtor, simple. Right now, it's hyper-local video, or hyper-local marketing made simple.
So, it's just a little different, but that's what I have for you. Now, what it'll do for you, this is transformation. You are a local business.
You struggle because nobody knows you're there. They just don't come in the door. I need people in town to know I'm here.
With hyper-local video marketing, you your business is now known. People come from all around because they love you and your story, and they want to be a part of this. Like, I'm not giving a great transformation story here, but that is a transformation of what we're like we're selling that transformation.
"I'm poor, I want to be rich." We always talk about get paid, get laid, lose weight. There's three ways to make money. Sell any of those as the transformation.
You're not getting that, now you are. That's how you make that sales. That's just how you do sales.
Yeah, this transformation's so important.
It is, like 100% for anything you do.
Yeah. But, yeah, I think we should probably wrap here. We're at 42 minutes.
I like the "next". I think the next episodes will be, on the road, because we are away all…
We're we're away a lot.
My body hurts.
Your body hurts from being away?
Yeah, from working out. But, yeah.
I think we'll be on the road next week, so see you then.
