October 6, 2025 • 42 mins
EP296
In this episode of the Hard Parking Podcast, host Jhae Pfenning welcomes back Jonathon Rivers of Drive Culture, fresh off the NSXPO 2025 banquet in Tacoma, Washington. As a 15-year veteran at American Honda and a passionate YouTuber, Jonathon shares insights on the grind of building a YouTube channel, from battling monetization woes to navigating copyright claims and the importance of audience engagement over subscriber counts. The duo dives into the thrilling NSXPO experience, discussing the scenic group drive through Washington’s tight, twisty roads, a near-miss with a dead deer, and the challenges of leading a convoy of Acura NSXs. Jonathon reflects on the auto industry’s evolving landscape—electric, hybrid, and hydrogen powertrains—and the complexities of product planning amidst tariffs and consumer shifts. With heartfelt thanks to Acura’s support for NSXPO, this episode is a must-listen for car enthusiasts, YouTube creators, and anyone curious about the behind-the-scenes of automotive events and content creation.
You can find Jonathon Rivers at: @Drive_Culture
Main Show Sponsors:Right Honda:
https://righthonda.com/Right Toyota: https://www.righttoyota.com/Arcus Foundry: https://arcusfoundry.comAutocannon Official Gear: https://shop.autocannon.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I can feel the coolness in here,right?
I think this thing is ready. Is it rolling?
Ready? Whenever you're ready, man.
All right, man. This is Hard Parking brought to
(00:26):
you by right Honda and right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ.
I'm your host Jay Finning, recording from my home studio
here in Gilbert, AZ. Coming up on today's show, as
promised after the conclusion ofthe NS Expo banquet a couple
weeks ago, I sat down with the great Jonathan Rivers of Drive
Culture. He just also happens to work for
America Honda for 15 years. But we sit down as Jay and John
(00:49):
of the YouTube creators that we are.
I did ask him some industry questions, but not too many.
But once again, I struggled. I had one of my cameras, the
camera on me went out of focus after starting in focus.
You just got to deal with it. I ran it through some AI stuff.
It made me go from blurry to creey.
But fortunately the camera on John Rivers was perfect.
(01:10):
So you can look at his beautifulself the entire time or most of
the time, and then you'll just deal with me.
And if you're listening to this audibly, then none of that
matters anyway. So coming U after this word from
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John Rivers. What's up?
(02:17):
What's up brother? How you doing?
I'm doing great. We just got done within this
Expo 2025. Yes, Sir, we recorded last year
in Dallas and here we are. That is correct, Tacoma.
Right, Washington. Tacoma, WA Yeah, because we
always say Seatac, right? But, and it when we decided we
were going to come out here, we advertise Seattle because
(02:38):
Seattle is the popular thing. Because no one knows what
Tacoma, actually. Right.
No one knows anything about Tacoma.
OK, but I mean, what are your thoughts?
How was your event? It was great, you know, good
hats off to you. You know, I'm president of the
club, you know, and the rest of the team.
You guys did a great job. And you know, this is my third
(03:00):
NS Expo. So my very first one was
actually when I was still livingin Ohio working, you know, at
the R&D, you know, facility developing the car back in 2014.
So that was my first one. And then the second one was last
year at Texas. So this is only my third NSX but
I know those guys that have likea dozen.
Like they got like 20 of them orwhatever.
(03:21):
Yeah, so. Which is cool.
So my frame of reference is small, but it was a good event.
And you know, you said it best. You got up on stage and told
everybody it's the cars are fine, It's the people, right,
You know, and, and I feel like, you know, for my corporate job,
it's the same thing. It's like, it's why there's so
many people that have worked there for two dozen years
(03:43):
because, you know, at the end ofthe day, it's a family.
It's about the people that you work with day in and day out,
you know? What is your corporate job, by
the way? What is it?
What is it you do for a living? Is it the Drive Culture YouTube
channel? That is a passion project.
It's a side job, but you know, yeah, the YouTube channel's fun
day-to-day though. Yeah, I work at American Honda,
(04:06):
been there for been at the company for 15 years, so long
time and done a variety of jobs over the years.
So that's the the day job. But the the YouTube channels
have been growing. It's been fun.
So we'll see where it goes. Can we talk about YouTube for a
second? Of course it's a grind.
It's kind of a pain in the ass. It's.
It's real, you know, I mean, I think people with the rest of
(04:28):
social media, they see somethingor they, or they look at someone
who has just the grandest success, right?
And that's the, the goal, that'sthe benchmark.
And then, you know, they, they think or believe that it's easy
to get there. And so I mean, that's the great
part because everybody has the ability to start a channel,
start an IG page, whatever it is.
But once you do and you commit and you start sharing with their
(04:52):
friends and family, hey, I'm doing this.
Like you said, the pressure's onand you're like trying to turn
it into something and you quickly realize it's a lot
harder than you might thought. So yeah, the grind's real.
It's funny because you know, I, I guess probably for 10 years
now, when you ask kids, some kids, you know, it's, it's a new
(05:14):
thing. Like what do you want to do?
I'm going to be a YouTube and it's like, it sounds great, but
it's such hard work and I think people won't realize it.
I mean, it's like podcasting. I mean, you don't do that.
I mean, you're a guest on this one.
But yeah, you have to wear all hats.
It's such hard work. And unless you just get that
lucky break, man, it's it's haveyou ever questioned?
(05:35):
You're like. You know what, for me, and it's
like not even about the lucky break because you know, I think
to minimize any pressure that I either put on myself or had I
never said I need this many Subs, I need this many views or
by within this time frame. I'm just doing it to do it.
It's still fun to do. I get to drive cool cars, you
(05:57):
know, and and now, not because the channel is big, but it's
kind of gotten to this very early point where now I've met
random people that have actuallywatched the channel.
So that's what's kind. I haven't had someone just run
up and be like, Hey, I watch thechannel, but like in
conversations and I'm like, hey,it's this channel.
And they're like, and then they go actually at this event, one
(06:19):
of the guys is like, I swear. And he's like, he pulled up his
YouTube history and he had already watched one of the
videos. And I was like, oh, OK, like
that's kind of cool. So like there's obviously, you
know, a lot of people out there.And so for me, it's like the
more people I can reach. And, you know, people like us
that are like, come to these events and they watch that.
Like that's, that's cool. So for now, and we'll see where
(06:41):
it goes. No, man, that's just hard, man.
You know, I finally hit monetization.
On Oh really? Congrats man.
Oh boy, thank you. But you know what happened to me
when I did that? So and it's a grind.
I'm not going to, you know, the I have another channel that's a
little better off, you know, than the podcast channel,
because I can't stay focused with anything.
(07:02):
And so it's so scattered, right.Car people want more car shit.
Non car people want anything butcars.
This is quite. True.
Yeah. And I'll talk about whatever I
want to talk about at the time. My wife doesn't even watch my
fucking podcast. I can, she says.
It's political. I I can relate.
I was like, it's not political. I can just, if I have an opinion
(07:23):
on something or I guess has an opinion on something, we're
going to talk about it. But I said, why don't you listen
to more episodes, you know, but you hear something you don't
like, then all of a sudden it's politics and whatnot.
But you know, So what happened was I got monetized.
I'm like, finally. So I turn on all monetization,
of course, you know, make sure Ihave all green.
Yeah, you know, dollar signs. Yeah.
(07:43):
Go to bed, wake up, check my phone.
And your YouTube page has been deleted.
The page. Went delete, not suspended.
No. Completely removed.
And I look at the e-mail and I'mlike, huh, All right, well, I'm
just going to keep laying here for a minute because I'm the
(08:03):
type of person where I could completely lose it, but there's
no point. I'm not going to change whatever
it is that happened. I just have to.
And so I started thinking to myself, OK, well, fuck, I guess
I have to start over. You know, thank God I have all
the videos. I got 400 and some videos so
thank God I have to wash your face.
Yeah, sorry. You get this on camera.
(08:24):
This is don't. Don't put that part on camera.
What's going on camera? Oh my God, so.
And I'm like, OK, well, I'm justlaying there in bed.
I'm like, all right, eventually I have to get up and get home on
my work day. Yeah, OK.
And then I'll just deal with it then, right.
So I'm, I'm reading the the e-mail and it's like, all right,
well, you have a chance to appeal.
I'm like, all right, there's an appeal process.
You know, I've heard of other people this happening and
(08:45):
they've appealed and got their pages back.
So I'm not going to panic yet, right.
So I get up and I do the drama thing and I post it on social
media. You were supposed to wait.
Well, here's it. I wasn't like, what the fuck My
page. I just like, I just posted the
screenshots. Yeah, that's, you know, and
then, but I was, I was updating people and it's like, OK, your
(09:06):
appeal process has been, you know, your process has been
submitted. It could take two business days.
I go, OK, well, I guess I just wait because at the end of the
day, if the page is gone, there's there's there's no
recourse. There's nothing you could do
about it. It is what it is.
But did they say why it was? Yeah, it was spam.
And another one was like, not really false advertising, but
(09:31):
like it's something like. So first thing I'm thinking
about is a conspiracy corner, which is a new segment I added.
OK, I'm like what? I got cancelled for a conspiracy
corner. What?
Maybe. Possible.
Wild. But then I rubbed a couple, you
know, brain cells together and Igo it's it's AIAI has scanned my
page. That was my thought and it saw
(09:52):
that I was using the RSS feed from the podcast.
There's ads in there all the time.
Sometimes there's the exact samead on everyone, so if AI is
reading that it might think it'sa spam page because I know
YouTube is trying to crack down on AI pages.
Yep, spam. Bots and stuff the faceless
pages spam bots because they hitmonetization and somebody
somewhere is getting rich for literally doing nothing but
(10:13):
stealing content. So I submitted the appeal, I
submitted the and then I posted the screenshot of that I'm
taking people to this roller coaster and within two minutes
your page has been brought back.So they came, they came back,
they came right back, they came right back.
That's that's yeah. And I go, there is no way
somebody reviewed that. They were just looking for an
(10:34):
appeal. No, yeah, they.
Read like a normal person, not arobot.
Then boom page came back. So not because of spam or
anything like that, but there was one no for me, for you, no,
no for me. This I, you know, so this was
like an early video of mine where to your point, when you go
to monetize it, it, well, sometimes I flag it if there's
(10:57):
like copyright issues or whatever else and music.
And that's what it was for me onthis one video I had it was like
music, but I actually had like aroyalty free song that I didn't
even need the license for. I mean that's why I use the, you
know, the song and the and the thing.
But to your point, I had to flagit back to YouTube and say like,
no, like you said, almost that appeal process, but it was just
(11:20):
to say that, no, this content's OK, the music's OK.
But that process took awhile. Like, it took like 2 days or so.
Yeah. So I like whatever.
I mean, you think about it, right?
The amount of views I got on that video in that time didn't
count towards monetization. And that was actually a popular
(11:41):
video. So it was actually like doing
really well. And I'm like, oh, this is this
is horrible, right? And then finally, you know, the
appeal or the judgement came back and it was flagged as OK.
And then the dollar sign came back and then whatever money was
made, it's fine. But I'm like, man, that that's
that's the thing. And I actually talked to, I
won't drop his name, but you know, big time car review
(12:03):
Youtubers got millions plus subscribers.
He was telling me in the beginning that was that happened
to him to the point where over his whole first year of doing
YouTube, he was either having some kind of copyright
violation. They suspended his channel, his
page, like it it like took away the monetization.
Just all this back and forth anddrama.
(12:24):
So I mean I know this isn't a rant session on YouTube but it's
like. It is right now.
Well, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's those things
though that unless you're doing it, you don't know, right.
So the, the, you know, and again, and everything looks easy
and people assume it's easy, right?
And so it's like, oh, I want to be a YouTube, I want to do this.
And then when you realize all these things behind the scenes
(12:48):
that could inevitably go wrong or whatever else, and a lot of
stuff's outside of your control,it is.
It's tough, it's frustrating. Yeah, it's, it's kind of a pain.
There's a website and they're not paying for this.
They're not sponsor, so they're going to drop their name.
But I've been using them for a while and I can get music, I can
get all sorts of stuff like editing tools and whatnot.
(13:08):
And so it's gotten so bad for I can go to my profile and go down
and they already have like for YouTube, there's two or three
companies that I guess like ZAP everything.
So if it's that company, then I just take the YouTube video and
I put the URL in there and I'd hit submit and then within like
20 or 30 minutes, the claim getsreleased.
(13:29):
OK, Yeah. So now I don't want to
necessarily cancel that account that I hardly ever use because I
think that feature is only available when I have an active
account, you know, so it so it kind of sucks.
It's tough man, and you know, I've been now, so I mean, you
know, right now it's almost October 2025, right?
(13:51):
And so I uploaded my first videoin January of 2024.
So it, you know, not quite two years yet.
And I mean, last I checked, you know, I've got like, I don't
4100 subscribers, whatever it is.
And no, and I mean, it's, it's not about a number, right?
Because you know, I've what I'vealso learned and talked to
people that have 10s of thousands or hundreds of
(14:13):
thousands of subscribers. They're like, sure, you want to
have more, right? Obviously, who wouldn't want
more? But it's really about how
engaged that audience to see there's a finger point.
Yeah. Now it's about engagement,
right? Like if you've got 5000 Subs,
but they're always watching yourvideos or liking your videos or
commenting, that inherently willdo well and advertisers will up
(14:37):
the CPM, thus giving you more revenue.
And you can do really well with a somewhat small subscriber
base. Now again, obviously if you have
more, the pool can be bigger, but if you've got 100,000 Subs
and knowing what and they don't actually come back and watch the
videos and aren't engaged and there's no community, then what
does that mean? So I think again, we always get
(14:57):
caught up in the numbers and themetrics and a lot of people
don't understand that it's not the subscribers are fine, it's
the views. It's how many, how much people
are watching your, your videos, how long they're watching them?
Are they clicking on the ads? Are they like purchasing
something once they click that affiliate link, like all that,
Are they using YouTube Premium? Like there's all those things
(15:19):
that actually dictate the monetization component out
there. Yeah, it's kind of a wild thing,
man. Should we talk about?
The car industry, this is your show in there.
All right. I mean, hey.
I just work here, yeah. So what are you drinking?
Do you know? You gave me the glass.
I mean I thought this was water at 1st and I was like this is
(15:40):
not water so it is it is clear liquid.
Well what? What am I drinking here?
We. Can call it water, all right?
It's a lalo, which is tequila. OK, yeah.
So it probably doesn't taste like water.
It does not. I'm not gonna really finish
this, but. No, it's fine.
I told you, you don't have to. Yeah, I'm sipping.
(16:01):
I'm sipping. I like to lace it from my guess,
you know? Yeah, to get him kind of loosen
up a little. Bit Oh yeah Oh yeah you know
yeah, tequila doesn't need to belike.
It's the It's the truth, Drake. Right, yes, the serum, yes, so.
So how, how are things going in your world as far as the car
industry, Acura, all public stuff, but sometimes people
(16:22):
don't really do their research. Like what are you excited about
that you guys are doing now? What are you excited about for
the future that you're allowed to actually talk about?
Well, yeah, I mean, I'll prefaceit with, you know, I'm not here
on the company. You are not.
You're just the guy that's getting drugged right now.
Yeah, So not, not, not here on the behalf.
This is not affiliated with the company, but no, just being a
(16:44):
car guy, right and a YouTube right and a YouTube.
No, I you know the industries ina crazy place, you know, because
you know, you've got a lot of stuff going on right.
I mean, you've got, you know, really this major shift and
strategy on what type of powertrains are available,
electric, hybrid, plug in gas, You know, no one has the Magic 8
(17:09):
ball, but we all have to play them very far ahead.
And so, no, I mean, you know, across the industry, it's a,
it's a tough time and, you know,everybody's trying to figure it
out. There's politics, there's taxes,
the tariffs, Everything you hearin the news is real.
And so, yeah. What news?
Well, stop all right, Not. Everything you hear in the news
is real. Not every well, you know,
(17:32):
related to this, related to thistopic, right?
Yes, yes, related to what we're talking.
No, I mean, I think, well, the problem is I think, you know,
when I I say that because, you know, I think when people hear
tariffs, they're like, oh, well,it's not going to impact me or I
haven't seen the different. I haven't seen the impact yet.
But it's kind of a downstream effect, right?
It doesn't, it's not necessarilya light switch, right.
(17:53):
And so, yeah, we're just kind ofstarting to see the impact of
it, right? And so, yeah, it'll be curious
to see, you know, how that shifts the types of products
that come out, you know, consumer sentiment, what they
want to do, what they want to buy.
So yeah, interesting time. Not going to name the car
company, but one car company continuously blames the tariffs
(18:15):
on their poor sales and then having to cancel stuff and they
had poor sales before the tariffs was even a thing.
So at some point it's about the cars that they're trying to push
the price point. Like what's something that your
average consumer doesn't really understand when it comes to
product planning because you guys have to look out multiple
years when things actually, actually change, they're
(18:36):
unexpected and causes you to completely shift, you know, in
your planning, you know, how disruptive is that potentially
or how disruptive can that actually be that maybe you've
seen you? Know, I mean, look, I mean at
the end of the day, you know, I think every company, every
department in the company, whether it's a planning team,
the sales team, the PR team, everybody has to try to react as
(18:58):
quickly as possible. And especially given the
environment today, things decisions happen really quickly.
You know that, that do have that, like I said, kind of
downstream effect. And so along that way, you kind
of got to keep up with things and, and see where see how it's
directly going to impact your, your given business and, and
(19:19):
part of the business, right. And so no, I mean, like I said,
I'm, I've kind of moved on. I'm in marketing and things that
the country, but no, but like I said, you know, I think every
department has to no matter whatbusiness it is, they have to
look at things and go, wait a minute, like this is really
challenging. How do we, how's this going to
affect the plans that we alreadyhad in place?
And then maybe how do you pivot and do stuff like that?
(19:40):
So yeah, it's it's challenging for sure.
Not speaking on behalf of your employer, but just speaking as a
YouTube, you know, what have youseen or in looking out at that
shift, right. I mean, reading the writing on
the wall, I mean, it seems to make sense that manufacturers
(20:03):
maybe say, OK, well. We don't know where we're going
to be in 10 years because we don't have the capacity to
support it right now anyway. Maybe we should just kind of
shift angles for now and keep some of that stuff on the back
burner. I mean, is that what you're kind
of thinking at Drive Culture? No, I mean, it's look, I like I
said, it's whether you're a car guy or or however you want to
(20:24):
like, you know, if you're just an enthusiast or if you're just
someone that is trying to keep up with industry news.
I mean, no one has the the magic8 ball and tell you where things
are going to go. I mean, you know, to your point
about the YouTube channel, the one good thing is I get to drive
a lot of different cars obviously, and try them out.
And so, you know, I think that'salways inherently been the
problem with something, some newtech, new features, you know,
(20:49):
come into the marketplace until actual customers get to use
them, get to drive them, get to try them out.
You know, formulating opinions is tough, right?
Which is why they go to YouTube to hear other people's opinions.
But you know, I'm not here to sway anybody or so you know,
right. But no, I mean, for me it's
like, again, I think, you know, when you go back to like
(21:09):
fundamentally what people wanted, right people.
And it didn't matter if you wanted a sports car or a luxury
car or an SUV or sedan, people always wanted good looking cars.
They wanted cars that went pretty fast.
That was like always a, a bonus.And they always wanted something
that, you know, again, made their drive, their commute
(21:32):
either easier, more convenient or more fun.
They're like that as a transportation device.
I mean, that's what people are searching for, right?
And I think whether the car's electric, you can get all those
things cars. Hybrid.
More of those things actually, for most people.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, you know, for, and
(21:55):
so again, I think the powertraincomponent of it is, is, is very
flexible, right? It depends on what customers
want. And it's great to have the
different options out there. It's great that customers get to
experience the different options.
Certain parts of the country right now have better
infrastructure than others. Long term, we'll see where that
goes, right? But I mean, I think that it's
(22:17):
great that people can go out andsay, hey, look, you know, for me
and EV works because of this, because I live close to the
office, I can commute. There's charges where I live in
my state and in my office place and tar, you know, these other
stores and places that you go to, they have EV chargers.
Then there's going to be certainparts of the country where it
(22:38):
doesn't exist. Doesn't make sense.
Weather may impact it, the driving distance the person has
to do the commute. So look, I mean for them it's
not about saying all together, get rid of that powertrain then
go look at a different option that works better for you,
right? And maybe it's hybrid, maybe
it's gas, you know, so. Maybe it's some hydrogen thing
(22:58):
that the people are trying to work.
On Hey, hydrogen fuel cells are I have AI have a hydrogen fuel
cell on the on the channel. It's a real thing.
And I mean, but that, but again,that is an entire infrastructure
play as well, right? You know, so again, if you live
in a place that has hydrogen fuel stations that are up and
running, it might actually be a great alternative for it, right?
(23:18):
So, but clearly that's a very small part of the country right
now, so it's not going to work for everybody, so.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's more that we don't we the the country
just flat out does not produce enough to support it.
It just the the the the grid. It just doesn't like you said,
you don't no one has the magic 8ball.
Yeah, you know, whatever is coming is coming.
(23:40):
You know, articles, people have said certain things.
I'm like, all right, cool, whatever, but for, for something
that's out now, you know, I think the last time you were on,
we talked about your, your Integra, your Integra project.
The cool thing about working at a OEM or working in the industry
is, yes, you are Privy to futurestuff.
(24:00):
You obviously have to work on it.
Somebody's got to be working on stuff for it to come out.
So clearly people know future stuff, but of course we can't
talk about it. Fair.
With that said though. But I wouldn't, you know, I'm
not, I wouldn't ask you to to, you know, I'm not Barbara
Walters, you know, I'm not trying to get you on a gotcha.
No, the the good thing is is I still love my car.
I mean, my car is great. Drink more of your drink and
(24:21):
thank you. I was gonna say that all of a
sudden he no, no great things. I've been still enjoying my car.
I've had it for two years now. Don't drive it enough.
I've literally got like less than 5000 miles on it and so.
I have a miniature of it, yeah, that you gave me.
Yeah, I mean you. Yeah, of course.
No, man, it's it's awesome. Yeah, it's it's fun.
It's it's still such a fun car to drive.
(24:44):
Yeah. Lucky to have worked on it.
Lucky to own 1 now and drive it.And yeah, it's been good.
What's 1 of the biggest things that people don't understand
that goes into the vehicles thatyou guys are rolling out?
It's a very vague question, I was going to say.
I mean, like I said, I mean I think across the industry, you
(25:05):
know, most people don't actuallyknow how the sausage gives me,
as I say so. So Guinness Expo.
There you go. Yeah, behind the scenes there,
all the stuff that you guys haveto do to put on, You know, at
the end of the day, people come here and they go, oh, it's a
great event. And, you know, they look at all
the cars and then they go home and, you know, hang out with
people and go home. But you know, but yeah, I mean,
(25:27):
my, you know, the planning, the,the years of planning for today
and the event and all the peoplebehind the scenes and all the
activities and the complexities behind that, Most of the
attendees here that don't know about it.
So it's the same thing in our end in the auto industry or
anything, anything else, you know, I mean, the work, the
time, the investment, the blood,sweat and tears, all the stuff
(25:50):
that you know, goes behind the scenes is unbelievable.
So especially something like as complex as like the automobile,
right? You know, a device that has to,
you know, get someone safely, you know, from point A to point
B and, and last 30 years and 200,000 miles and, you know,
(26:11):
still be really high quality andnot fall apart and, you know,
provide long lasting joy and excitement.
I mean, think about, I mean, there's not many other products
that you buy in your lifetime that have to live up to that
standard, right? So, I mean, our phones, they
don't last that long. My mind did a lot more not no, I
(26:33):
had to replace mine, you know, so I mean, so that's The thing
is, and, and I mean, even your, your phones, our phones are
great no matter what brand or product you have.
I mean, phones are great, but you know, you get a new phone
every year, you know, you're always upgrading, you're always
getting the newest model doesn'thave to last for 20 years, you
know, doesn't have to, you know,go to the the same safety and
(26:54):
reliability. And you know, I mean it's so
it's just a different level of complexity in in that industry.
What do you think of Ted's speech?
It was good. I worked with Ted for a long
time, I know. Yeah.
Yeah, no, he was good. Like that's when I first, I
didn't know you at the time, like we talked about last year,
but you know, that's when we hadthat first encounter in
(27:16):
Columbus. So you were there.
Yeah. Yeah, you were there, yeah, for
sure. Got pictures?
Yeah. I I thought his speech was was
good, but it is. I watch him because I love the
guy. Love you too.
Thank you. You're welcome.
I love the guy. Just watch him.
I go that's he's passionate. You could tell he's from, you
(27:38):
know, the engineering side. You know the equation when you
look at the presentation. So we had to give him like a
little, little little signs. It's too funny.
He missed every sign of that stuff, but he did.
That's all of them, Yes, but that's yeah, you know, look, I
mean, he's, he's great, man. I the one thing I, you know, I
have so much respect for him is that like, you know, because now
(27:59):
he's not tied to the company, right?
He's, you know, he's moved on. He retired, right?
And so he's not here on the company's behalf.
As he said, he's not saying things in the company's behalf.
He's literally here is like everybody else.
And then, you know, all the regular attendees, he's here as
an enthusiast, as a car guy, as someone that's passionate.
(28:20):
And obviously given his role andwhat he worked on, I mean,
everybody here is, you know, very excited for him to be here
and appreciative of him to be here.
But for him, it's just easier toparticipate kind of like anyone
else. I thought, I thought somebody's
just like, oh man, I was out on the track and I got to drive a
car and I was like, and you literally did that for your
entire 30 plus year career. Like you just drove cars on the
(28:41):
track and yet you're here and you're excited to be driving the
cars on the track. You know what I'm saying?
So like, so that to me is, is pretty special.
So anyone that you know, loves their job, loves their career,
loves their company as much as that.
I mean, that's that's Freak's volumes.
So I rode with him in the track like because we did the same
thing in 2017 at Rd. America.
(29:03):
Yep, Yep. And it's funny because since NS
Expo is always kind of around the same time of year, give or
take a few weeks, the Facebook memories popped up a picture of
me doing a selfie with with Ted.You know, he probably owes me
either a drink or a hot dog because every time I see him, I
mean, they're buying him a drinkor food.
(29:24):
But I was we went around the Ridge twice and I was glad he
took a lap to cool off, cool thebrakes off.
Yeah, wait, this is in your car?No, this was in the Integra Type
S, the gold car. Yeah, the gold car.
And yeah, I don't think I've been right since.
Oh yeah. Yeah, I was.
I was ready. In fact, we were the third lap,
(29:45):
we were going around and just kind of talking like, you know,
how the kids, how's the family and how things going.
And I'm like, I'd have to cut mysentences short because I felt I
was like, yeah, everything's going good, yeah.
No, no, it's a thing. I mean, when you get and then
along, I mean nothing recently because I, I didn't participate
(30:06):
in the track stuff this week, but way back in the day again
during development and throughout that whole process,
yeah. I mean, I went right seat with
him and other, you know, very skilled drivers and stuff.
And when you do that, you go right seat with someone that
really knows what they're doing and like changes your whole
perspective. You're like, wait, the car can
do that. And it's like.
(30:30):
So going back to the first time we were there together without
knowing each other, that's the first time I met Peter.
And he was taking his like Toyota Tercel or something like
that around the your, your guys little test track out there.
And so he was pulling up and allfour doors would open.
Well, three doors would open because he was a driver and
everyone would just hop into thecar.
(30:51):
And I had that exact thought going around that track with
him. At the time, I didn't really
know Peter. Like I had just met him.
Like, he's like my boy now, right?
Just a regular ass car can do that, to your point, because
those people know what they're doing behind the wheel.
I wouldn't do that, but I know Ican.
I know the car can. Well, yeah, You know what the
(31:12):
car, you know, might be capable of, right?
And so at some level, yeah, it just changes your whole
perspective, right? Because you know, you, you, the
way we drive on the street, no matter What Car you have,
whether it's a really fast supercar or just a, you know,
average, you know, econo car, the way you drive in the street
(31:34):
is totally different than how you drive on the track.
As it should be. Well, as it should be, but I
think, but I, but I think what happens, especially with someone
that's a beginner that goes out on a track day for the first
time, they're still driving likethey're on the street.
And So what I mean by that is like they're not looking far
enough ahead. You know, they're not braking
hard enough, right? In normal driving, you don't
(31:57):
brake actually, you're, you're modulating and just kind of be
slowly, you know, decelerating and trying to bring the vehicle
to a stop on the track. You're like waiting to the
absolute last minute and then, you know, stab the brakes as
hard as humanly possible, right?It's like, is this instant kind
of like on off And I remember one of the first times I got to
(32:19):
go right see was like a professional driver.
It was that more than the speed,more than maybe even a cornering
grip and stuff like that. It was the braking that threw me
for a loop because you're like they're waiting till the avenue
like dude, when are you going tobreak?
Like we're we're right at the turn.
When are you going to break? And then like how hard that that
you know that breaking G force, right?
(32:40):
It's just, and it kind of like pushes you forward and now you
know what a seat belt is really for and you're like, oh, please
hold me, you know, because you're just being thrown
forward. And that is such an amazing
experience, but it's you have toexperience it And, and quite
frankly, most people don't get achance to go ride to see what
Peter Cunningham or someone might kill us or to ride so.
(33:03):
For John Rivers. I'm not that good, but I can
drive. I mean, you know, but I mean,
it's no, I mean, I, I take people for drives and do that
stuff and always try to behave myself.
But again, if they're not used to it or like, or at least have
the confidence in you that you know, you know what you're doing
or that you're going to stop or turn, whatever, it's a big
(33:23):
thing. So.
So we'll get you out of here on a couple more of these little
things. So we did the group drive, you
guys, you drove the was it the casino white?
Yep, a casino white NSX type SI.Was a yeah NC one just a regular
NC? 10 regular NC 10 I mean yeah 4
fold. Just for clarification.
(33:45):
Yeah, it just was, Yeah. So. 4 fold.
Drove that, yeah. How was it?
How did? How did you like the drive?
Was it incident free? Yeah, no problems, No problems,
no problems. The route that you guys had
planned was really good. Well.
That wasn't me. Well, I mean, but it just just
the route that everybody was taking was really good because
yeah, I mean, you know, inherently everybody kind of
(34:06):
broke up and so. And then there's people stopping
off to take pictures and then there's, you know, then
obviously there was a big lunch break in between.
So the, you know, the route was good.
It was scenic. I mean, it was really beautiful
the the trees, the water that we.
Northwest is beautiful. Yeah, I mean just a gorgeous
backdrop to be driving and you know, so cool again to see all
(34:29):
the passionate owners, enthusiasts and the all of the
cars, all the different colors, the first Gen., the second Gen.
Type S, everything mixed in together.
So. So yeah, no issues.
I don't. And I mean, you know, what do I
know? I don't know the entire event,
but I didn't see or hear really of any other major incidents so.
Did I tell you about my drive? No.
(34:50):
What? What happened?
Oh, no. Yeah.
Something went down. So I was voluntold to be a drive
leader. OK.
And so I take off with the groupand I'm, I'm chatting with my,
my, my copilot, you know, a guy from from back in Arizona who
needed a, a ride. You know, I had an open seat, so
we're chatting. So he has a route on his phone.
I have it up on the car play. We're just talking, talking.
(35:13):
We missed one of the first turns.
I'm like, all right, we'll find a place.
He goes. We miss turning the people on
the radio. Hey, I think we're supposed to
turn back there. I'm like, all right, I saw it.
I'm going to turn around. Whatever, it's good.
And then, you know, I'm always checking to see who's who's who
actually are still following me instead of cut off.
Everyone was still following me.I was like, all right, because
they're like, El Presidente is up there driving.
(35:33):
We're good, right? So then I'm kind of checking up,
checking the rear, checking the side, checking the rear, and I
look up and there's this dead baby deer in the middle of the
road. Well, I thought it was like half
a deer. It was something dead in red,
right? And by then it was too late.
It was like right in front of the car.
I was like, oh shit. It's like, OK, nothing to do
(35:54):
about it. I'll have to check the car
later, right? So I'm looking for a spot to
turn around. And you know what?
These are all private drives, whatnot.
So I finally find this a street that kind of dips off to the
left and goes down. So I'm like, all right, let me
just bust AU turn like right here.
So as I busted AU turn, the street kind of pitched down and
I scraped the bottom of the car pretty hard.
(36:15):
As I do U-turn is like I'm like,oh, beep.
So we get back on the route and we're driving and one of my good
friends from Arizona is on me. Like he is on my ass on the he's
on my ass on those roads. I'm thinking I go, who the hell
is behind me? Will that beep, beep, beep like,
all right, well, Jay Tug, it's not that he's a sacred name or
(36:36):
anything. So now I'm worried about him on
my ass on these roads that I've never driven on.
And you saw the route. It was like this.
And then we come up to the firstgravel pit.
Everyone was talking about the there's two gravel pits.
You come to the first one and bythen I'm going like, I don't
know, 45. And I see at the last minute I'm
like, oh, shit. And then I got the back end of
(36:57):
the NSX like this. Yeah, just kicked out.
Yeah, kicked out. I was like, and of course that
was the last crazy thing that happened, but I'm getting shit
the whole time by my friends in the back, like he's throwing
dirt and dust. Who's who's kicking up dust?
I'm like. When you're at the front, it's
a. It's a different.
(37:17):
Don't have this much notification.
You don't. I've never driven on that
fucking Rd. before. Now that's that's too bad.
I mean, well, look, you're OK. They were tight.
You remember? They mean tell, tell the people
how tight some of those, especially when it got down like
1 1/2 lanes wide. Yeah.
No, there was basically no splitin the lanes.
It was just. Yeah, it was like a golf car
pass almost. Yeah.
(37:38):
And then somebody in the back. So by the time we had doubled
back, we had another group behind us.
Like I think Brian Miller's group was actually behind us.
So then now we had like 20 unitsaxes behind instead of like 8 or
9. And somebody radio's like, hey,
is there a car up there that we're kind of trapped behind or
something? You know, I'm like, hey, I've
voluntold to be a drive leader. Whoever's back there talking,
(37:59):
feel free to come all the way uphere to the front and take the
lead, you know? Yeah, yeah, you want to do?
This because I'm not pushing at 5560 because you saw that road,
like I have no idea because it's, you know, elevation.
You don't know where the turn is.
We hit the main highway and after that it was all goofy, but
that was my experience with it. Yeah, but like I said, as long
as you were OK, it sounds like the car is OK.
(38:20):
I mean, yeah, I mean, we drove that same route obviously,
right. So saw the gravel and, you know,
luckily had AI wasn't the, therewas actually a couple cars in
front of me that weren't either in our group or whatever else.
And so I had a little bit and OK, those people slowed down
quite a bit. Something must be coming up.
So I'd like some, like I said, anotification.
(38:40):
And so I, you know, slowed down and, you know, just had to
really crawl through there. But other than some dust kicking
up to your point, it was totallyfine.
So glad you made it out. I'm glad I did too.
The rest of the, the drive. I think overall was, was, was
great though. So again, hats off to you guys
here. Can you put on your Acura hat
for a second? All right.
All right, Well, I just want to thank you for all your support
(39:05):
for this event and personally thank you for your support for
me for some things. And we couldn't do this.
Honestly, it's very cliche, right?
But we couldn't do this without you in Acura.
And so IA 100% appreciate that. And you know, IA 100% appreciate
you. So thank you.
Nice. Thank you, man.
(39:25):
And look, I said I'm not here tospeak on the company's behalf
because. You can take the hat off if
you'd like. No, no, but it's not going to
take the hat off because there'sso like just like there was a
lot of people that helped put this event together.
The company is way bigger than me.
The people that were here. I look, there's AI won't name
drop anyone, but there was there's several there were
several people from corporate that were here that did an
amazing job. Absolutely actually really did
(39:47):
support. You know, I, I probably didn't
do nearly as much as they did, but to be here to, to, to work
with you, to see the, the, the events get better each year, to
see the attendance go up, to seethe response from the attendees
like that, that's a win for everyone, right?
So I'm just lucky to, you know, again, to be here to be able to
(40:09):
come and support these events. And, you know, I feel like
that's the, the, the same belieffor the from, from the other
people that attended too. So, yeah, thanks.
You give me confidence. We're almost stage.
I was like, oh, Jay Rivers Kelly's my girl.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. But you have your writer in
front of the table. I was like, OK, so no, thank
you. I mean, the yeah, like I said,
(40:31):
you know, the, you know, the yeah, hospitality throughout the
week was top notch. And you know, and again, it's
like I said, I think everybody that attended, enthusiast
corporate guy, you know, NSX owner, you know, spouse plus
one, everybody just had an amazing time.
I didn't hear a bad thing. So again, hats off to you guys.
Well, hopefully we can do this again next year.
(40:52):
I'm flying to that one. So I don't know how much of this
crap I'll be able to bring with me.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's, let's definitely do it,
man. It's, it's exciting you guys put
the the announcement out there. So I'll see if I can keep the
street going and and definitely come next year.
I would love for you to, even ifyou're just, I don't know, you
have. You have to find a way to make
it work. OK.
(41:13):
John Rivers, thank you. Appreciate you man.
Well, another month, another closing.
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(41:34):
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(42:17):
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next week. Now it's stripping time.
Ain't nobody got time for that.
I can feel the coolness in here,right?
I think this thing is ready. Is it rolling?
Ready? Whenever you're ready, man.
All right, man. This is Hard Parking brought to
(00:26):
you by right Honda and right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ.
I'm your host Jay Finning, recording from my home studio
here in Gilbert, AZ. Coming up on today's show, as
promised after the conclusion ofthe NS Expo banquet a couple
weeks ago, I sat down with the great Jonathan Rivers of Drive
Culture. He just also happens to work for
America Honda for 15 years. But we sit down as Jay and John
(00:49):
of the YouTube creators that we are.
I did ask him some industry questions, but not too many.
But once again, I struggled. I had one of my cameras, the
camera on me went out of focus after starting in focus.
You just got to deal with it. I ran it through some AI stuff.
It made me go from blurry to creey.
But fortunately the camera on John Rivers was perfect.
(01:10):
So you can look at his beautifulself the entire time or most of
the time, and then you'll just deal with me.
And if you're listening to this audibly, then none of that
matters anyway. So coming U after this word from
Arcus Foundry in Spark Forge Jonathan Rivers.
It's a quick story for you, a listener lost a big job, missed
the call, never saw the DM probably because he was
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(01:55):
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John Rivers. What's up?
(02:17):
What's up brother? How you doing?
I'm doing great. We just got done within this
Expo 2025. Yes, Sir, we recorded last year
in Dallas and here we are. That is correct, Tacoma.
Right, Washington. Tacoma, WA Yeah, because we
always say Seatac, right? But, and it when we decided we
were going to come out here, we advertise Seattle because
(02:38):
Seattle is the popular thing. Because no one knows what
Tacoma, actually. Right.
No one knows anything about Tacoma.
OK, but I mean, what are your thoughts?
How was your event? It was great, you know, good
hats off to you. You know, I'm president of the
club, you know, and the rest of the team.
You guys did a great job. And you know, this is my third
(03:00):
NS Expo. So my very first one was
actually when I was still livingin Ohio working, you know, at
the R&D, you know, facility developing the car back in 2014.
So that was my first one. And then the second one was last
year at Texas. So this is only my third NSX but
I know those guys that have likea dozen.
Like they got like 20 of them orwhatever.
(03:21):
Yeah, so. Which is cool.
So my frame of reference is small, but it was a good event.
And you know, you said it best. You got up on stage and told
everybody it's the cars are fine, It's the people, right,
You know, and, and I feel like, you know, for my corporate job,
it's the same thing. It's like, it's why there's so
many people that have worked there for two dozen years
(03:43):
because, you know, at the end ofthe day, it's a family.
It's about the people that you work with day in and day out,
you know? What is your corporate job, by
the way? What is it?
What is it you do for a living? Is it the Drive Culture YouTube
channel? That is a passion project.
It's a side job, but you know, yeah, the YouTube channel's fun
day-to-day though. Yeah, I work at American Honda,
(04:06):
been there for been at the company for 15 years, so long
time and done a variety of jobs over the years.
So that's the the day job. But the the YouTube channels
have been growing. It's been fun.
So we'll see where it goes. Can we talk about YouTube for a
second? Of course it's a grind.
It's kind of a pain in the ass. It's.
It's real, you know, I mean, I think people with the rest of
(04:28):
social media, they see somethingor they, or they look at someone
who has just the grandest success, right?
And that's the, the goal, that'sthe benchmark.
And then, you know, they, they think or believe that it's easy
to get there. And so I mean, that's the great
part because everybody has the ability to start a channel,
start an IG page, whatever it is.
But once you do and you commit and you start sharing with their
(04:52):
friends and family, hey, I'm doing this.
Like you said, the pressure's onand you're like trying to turn
it into something and you quickly realize it's a lot
harder than you might thought. So yeah, the grind's real.
It's funny because you know, I, I guess probably for 10 years
now, when you ask kids, some kids, you know, it's, it's a new
(05:14):
thing. Like what do you want to do?
I'm going to be a YouTube and it's like, it sounds great, but
it's such hard work and I think people won't realize it.
I mean, it's like podcasting. I mean, you don't do that.
I mean, you're a guest on this one.
But yeah, you have to wear all hats.
It's such hard work. And unless you just get that
lucky break, man, it's it's haveyou ever questioned?
(05:35):
You're like. You know what, for me, and it's
like not even about the lucky break because you know, I think
to minimize any pressure that I either put on myself or had I
never said I need this many Subs, I need this many views or
by within this time frame. I'm just doing it to do it.
It's still fun to do. I get to drive cool cars, you
(05:57):
know, and and now, not because the channel is big, but it's
kind of gotten to this very early point where now I've met
random people that have actuallywatched the channel.
So that's what's kind. I haven't had someone just run
up and be like, Hey, I watch thechannel, but like in
conversations and I'm like, hey,it's this channel.
And they're like, and then they go actually at this event, one
(06:19):
of the guys is like, I swear. And he's like, he pulled up his
YouTube history and he had already watched one of the
videos. And I was like, oh, OK, like
that's kind of cool. So like there's obviously, you
know, a lot of people out there.And so for me, it's like the
more people I can reach. And, you know, people like us
that are like, come to these events and they watch that.
Like that's, that's cool. So for now, and we'll see where
(06:41):
it goes. No, man, that's just hard, man.
You know, I finally hit monetization.
On Oh really? Congrats man.
Oh boy, thank you. But you know what happened to me
when I did that? So and it's a grind.
I'm not going to, you know, the I have another channel that's a
little better off, you know, than the podcast channel,
because I can't stay focused with anything.
(07:02):
And so it's so scattered, right.Car people want more car shit.
Non car people want anything butcars.
This is quite. True.
Yeah. And I'll talk about whatever I
want to talk about at the time. My wife doesn't even watch my
fucking podcast. I can, she says.
It's political. I I can relate.
I was like, it's not political. I can just, if I have an opinion
(07:23):
on something or I guess has an opinion on something, we're
going to talk about it. But I said, why don't you listen
to more episodes, you know, but you hear something you don't
like, then all of a sudden it's politics and whatnot.
But you know, So what happened was I got monetized.
I'm like, finally. So I turn on all monetization,
of course, you know, make sure Ihave all green.
Yeah, you know, dollar signs. Yeah.
(07:43):
Go to bed, wake up, check my phone.
And your YouTube page has been deleted.
The page. Went delete, not suspended.
No. Completely removed.
And I look at the e-mail and I'mlike, huh, All right, well, I'm
just going to keep laying here for a minute because I'm the
(08:03):
type of person where I could completely lose it, but there's
no point. I'm not going to change whatever
it is that happened. I just have to.
And so I started thinking to myself, OK, well, fuck, I guess
I have to start over. You know, thank God I have all
the videos. I got 400 and some videos so
thank God I have to wash your face.
Yeah, sorry. You get this on camera.
(08:24):
This is don't. Don't put that part on camera.
What's going on camera? Oh my God, so.
And I'm like, OK, well, I'm justlaying there in bed.
I'm like, all right, eventually I have to get up and get home on
my work day. Yeah, OK.
And then I'll just deal with it then, right.
So I'm, I'm reading the the e-mail and it's like, all right,
well, you have a chance to appeal.
I'm like, all right, there's an appeal process.
You know, I've heard of other people this happening and
(08:45):
they've appealed and got their pages back.
So I'm not going to panic yet, right.
So I get up and I do the drama thing and I post it on social
media. You were supposed to wait.
Well, here's it. I wasn't like, what the fuck My
page. I just like, I just posted the
screenshots. Yeah, that's, you know, and
then, but I was, I was updating people and it's like, OK, your
(09:06):
appeal process has been, you know, your process has been
submitted. It could take two business days.
I go, OK, well, I guess I just wait because at the end of the
day, if the page is gone, there's there's there's no
recourse. There's nothing you could do
about it. It is what it is.
But did they say why it was? Yeah, it was spam.
And another one was like, not really false advertising, but
(09:31):
like it's something like. So first thing I'm thinking
about is a conspiracy corner, which is a new segment I added.
OK, I'm like what? I got cancelled for a conspiracy
corner. What?
Maybe. Possible.
Wild. But then I rubbed a couple, you
know, brain cells together and Igo it's it's AIAI has scanned my
page. That was my thought and it saw
(09:52):
that I was using the RSS feed from the podcast.
There's ads in there all the time.
Sometimes there's the exact samead on everyone, so if AI is
reading that it might think it'sa spam page because I know
YouTube is trying to crack down on AI pages.
Yep, spam. Bots and stuff the faceless
pages spam bots because they hitmonetization and somebody
somewhere is getting rich for literally doing nothing but
(10:13):
stealing content. So I submitted the appeal, I
submitted the and then I posted the screenshot of that I'm
taking people to this roller coaster and within two minutes
your page has been brought back.So they came, they came back,
they came right back, they came right back.
That's that's yeah. And I go, there is no way
somebody reviewed that. They were just looking for an
(10:34):
appeal. No, yeah, they.
Read like a normal person, not arobot.
Then boom page came back. So not because of spam or
anything like that, but there was one no for me, for you, no,
no for me. This I, you know, so this was
like an early video of mine where to your point, when you go
to monetize it, it, well, sometimes I flag it if there's
(10:57):
like copyright issues or whatever else and music.
And that's what it was for me onthis one video I had it was like
music, but I actually had like aroyalty free song that I didn't
even need the license for. I mean that's why I use the, you
know, the song and the and the thing.
But to your point, I had to flagit back to YouTube and say like,
no, like you said, almost that appeal process, but it was just
(11:20):
to say that, no, this content's OK, the music's OK.
But that process took awhile. Like, it took like 2 days or so.
Yeah. So I like whatever.
I mean, you think about it, right?
The amount of views I got on that video in that time didn't
count towards monetization. And that was actually a popular
(11:41):
video. So it was actually like doing
really well. And I'm like, oh, this is this
is horrible, right? And then finally, you know, the
appeal or the judgement came back and it was flagged as OK.
And then the dollar sign came back and then whatever money was
made, it's fine. But I'm like, man, that that's
that's the thing. And I actually talked to, I
won't drop his name, but you know, big time car review
(12:03):
Youtubers got millions plus subscribers.
He was telling me in the beginning that was that happened
to him to the point where over his whole first year of doing
YouTube, he was either having some kind of copyright
violation. They suspended his channel, his
page, like it it like took away the monetization.
Just all this back and forth anddrama.
(12:24):
So I mean I know this isn't a rant session on YouTube but it's
like. It is right now.
Well, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's those things
though that unless you're doing it, you don't know, right.
So the, the, you know, and again, and everything looks easy
and people assume it's easy, right?
And so it's like, oh, I want to be a YouTube, I want to do this.
And then when you realize all these things behind the scenes
(12:48):
that could inevitably go wrong or whatever else, and a lot of
stuff's outside of your control,it is.
It's tough, it's frustrating. Yeah, it's, it's kind of a pain.
There's a website and they're not paying for this.
They're not sponsor, so they're going to drop their name.
But I've been using them for a while and I can get music, I can
get all sorts of stuff like editing tools and whatnot.
(13:08):
And so it's gotten so bad for I can go to my profile and go down
and they already have like for YouTube, there's two or three
companies that I guess like ZAP everything.
So if it's that company, then I just take the YouTube video and
I put the URL in there and I'd hit submit and then within like
20 or 30 minutes, the claim getsreleased.
(13:29):
OK, Yeah. So now I don't want to
necessarily cancel that account that I hardly ever use because I
think that feature is only available when I have an active
account, you know, so it so it kind of sucks.
It's tough man, and you know, I've been now, so I mean, you
know, right now it's almost October 2025, right?
(13:51):
And so I uploaded my first videoin January of 2024.
So it, you know, not quite two years yet.
And I mean, last I checked, you know, I've got like, I don't
4100 subscribers, whatever it is.
And no, and I mean, it's, it's not about a number, right?
Because you know, I've what I'vealso learned and talked to
people that have 10s of thousands or hundreds of
(14:13):
thousands of subscribers. They're like, sure, you want to
have more, right? Obviously, who wouldn't want
more? But it's really about how
engaged that audience to see there's a finger point.
Yeah. Now it's about engagement,
right? Like if you've got 5000 Subs,
but they're always watching yourvideos or liking your videos or
commenting, that inherently willdo well and advertisers will up
(14:37):
the CPM, thus giving you more revenue.
And you can do really well with a somewhat small subscriber
base. Now again, obviously if you have
more, the pool can be bigger, but if you've got 100,000 Subs
and knowing what and they don't actually come back and watch the
videos and aren't engaged and there's no community, then what
does that mean? So I think again, we always get
(14:57):
caught up in the numbers and themetrics and a lot of people
don't understand that it's not the subscribers are fine, it's
the views. It's how many, how much people
are watching your, your videos, how long they're watching them?
Are they clicking on the ads? Are they like purchasing
something once they click that affiliate link, like all that,
Are they using YouTube Premium? Like there's all those things
(15:19):
that actually dictate the monetization component out
there. Yeah, it's kind of a wild thing,
man. Should we talk about?
The car industry, this is your show in there.
All right. I mean, hey.
I just work here, yeah. So what are you drinking?
Do you know? You gave me the glass.
I mean I thought this was water at 1st and I was like this is
(15:40):
not water so it is it is clear liquid.
Well what? What am I drinking here?
We. Can call it water, all right?
It's a lalo, which is tequila. OK, yeah.
So it probably doesn't taste like water.
It does not. I'm not gonna really finish
this, but. No, it's fine.
I told you, you don't have to. Yeah, I'm sipping.
(16:01):
I'm sipping. I like to lace it from my guess,
you know? Yeah, to get him kind of loosen
up a little. Bit Oh yeah Oh yeah you know
yeah, tequila doesn't need to belike.
It's the It's the truth, Drake. Right, yes, the serum, yes, so.
So how, how are things going in your world as far as the car
industry, Acura, all public stuff, but sometimes people
(16:22):
don't really do their research. Like what are you excited about
that you guys are doing now? What are you excited about for
the future that you're allowed to actually talk about?
Well, yeah, I mean, I'll prefaceit with, you know, I'm not here
on the company. You are not.
You're just the guy that's getting drugged right now.
Yeah, So not, not, not here on the behalf.
This is not affiliated with the company, but no, just being a
(16:44):
car guy, right and a YouTube right and a YouTube.
No, I you know the industries ina crazy place, you know, because
you know, you've got a lot of stuff going on right.
I mean, you've got, you know, really this major shift and
strategy on what type of powertrains are available,
electric, hybrid, plug in gas, You know, no one has the Magic 8
(17:09):
ball, but we all have to play them very far ahead.
And so, no, I mean, you know, across the industry, it's a,
it's a tough time and, you know,everybody's trying to figure it
out. There's politics, there's taxes,
the tariffs, Everything you hearin the news is real.
And so, yeah. What news?
Well, stop all right, Not. Everything you hear in the news
is real. Not every well, you know,
(17:32):
related to this, related to thistopic, right?
Yes, yes, related to what we're talking.
No, I mean, I think, well, the problem is I think, you know,
when I I say that because, you know, I think when people hear
tariffs, they're like, oh, well,it's not going to impact me or I
haven't seen the different. I haven't seen the impact yet.
But it's kind of a downstream effect, right?
It doesn't, it's not necessarilya light switch, right.
(17:53):
And so, yeah, we're just kind ofstarting to see the impact of
it, right? And so, yeah, it'll be curious
to see, you know, how that shifts the types of products
that come out, you know, consumer sentiment, what they
want to do, what they want to buy.
So yeah, interesting time. Not going to name the car
company, but one car company continuously blames the tariffs
(18:15):
on their poor sales and then having to cancel stuff and they
had poor sales before the tariffs was even a thing.
So at some point it's about the cars that they're trying to push
the price point. Like what's something that your
average consumer doesn't really understand when it comes to
product planning because you guys have to look out multiple
years when things actually, actually change, they're
(18:36):
unexpected and causes you to completely shift, you know, in
your planning, you know, how disruptive is that potentially
or how disruptive can that actually be that maybe you've
seen you? Know, I mean, look, I mean at
the end of the day, you know, I think every company, every
department in the company, whether it's a planning team,
the sales team, the PR team, everybody has to try to react as
(18:58):
quickly as possible. And especially given the
environment today, things decisions happen really quickly.
You know that, that do have that, like I said, kind of
downstream effect. And so along that way, you kind
of got to keep up with things and, and see where see how it's
directly going to impact your, your given business and, and
(19:19):
part of the business, right. And so no, I mean, like I said,
I'm, I've kind of moved on. I'm in marketing and things that
the country, but no, but like I said, you know, I think every
department has to no matter whatbusiness it is, they have to
look at things and go, wait a minute, like this is really
challenging. How do we, how's this going to
affect the plans that we alreadyhad in place?
And then maybe how do you pivot and do stuff like that?
(19:40):
So yeah, it's it's challenging for sure.
Not speaking on behalf of your employer, but just speaking as a
YouTube, you know, what have youseen or in looking out at that
shift, right. I mean, reading the writing on
the wall, I mean, it seems to make sense that manufacturers
(20:03):
maybe say, OK, well. We don't know where we're going
to be in 10 years because we don't have the capacity to
support it right now anyway. Maybe we should just kind of
shift angles for now and keep some of that stuff on the back
burner. I mean, is that what you're kind
of thinking at Drive Culture? No, I mean, it's look, I like I
said, it's whether you're a car guy or or however you want to
(20:24):
like, you know, if you're just an enthusiast or if you're just
someone that is trying to keep up with industry news.
I mean, no one has the the magic8 ball and tell you where things
are going to go. I mean, you know, to your point
about the YouTube channel, the one good thing is I get to drive
a lot of different cars obviously, and try them out.
And so, you know, I think that'salways inherently been the
problem with something, some newtech, new features, you know,
(20:49):
come into the marketplace until actual customers get to use
them, get to drive them, get to try them out.
You know, formulating opinions is tough, right?
Which is why they go to YouTube to hear other people's opinions.
But you know, I'm not here to sway anybody or so you know,
right. But no, I mean, for me it's
like, again, I think, you know, when you go back to like
(21:09):
fundamentally what people wanted, right people.
And it didn't matter if you wanted a sports car or a luxury
car or an SUV or sedan, people always wanted good looking cars.
They wanted cars that went pretty fast.
That was like always a, a bonus.And they always wanted something
that, you know, again, made their drive, their commute
(21:32):
either easier, more convenient or more fun.
They're like that as a transportation device.
I mean, that's what people are searching for, right?
And I think whether the car's electric, you can get all those
things cars. Hybrid.
More of those things actually, for most people.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, you know, for, and
(21:55):
so again, I think the powertraincomponent of it is, is, is very
flexible, right? It depends on what customers
want. And it's great to have the
different options out there. It's great that customers get to
experience the different options.
Certain parts of the country right now have better
infrastructure than others. Long term, we'll see where that
goes, right? But I mean, I think that it's
(22:17):
great that people can go out andsay, hey, look, you know, for me
and EV works because of this, because I live close to the
office, I can commute. There's charges where I live in
my state and in my office place and tar, you know, these other
stores and places that you go to, they have EV chargers.
Then there's going to be certainparts of the country where it
(22:38):
doesn't exist. Doesn't make sense.
Weather may impact it, the driving distance the person has
to do the commute. So look, I mean for them it's
not about saying all together, get rid of that powertrain then
go look at a different option that works better for you,
right? And maybe it's hybrid, maybe
it's gas, you know, so. Maybe it's some hydrogen thing
(22:58):
that the people are trying to work.
On Hey, hydrogen fuel cells are I have AI have a hydrogen fuel
cell on the on the channel. It's a real thing.
And I mean, but that, but again,that is an entire infrastructure
play as well, right? You know, so again, if you live
in a place that has hydrogen fuel stations that are up and
running, it might actually be a great alternative for it, right?
(23:18):
So, but clearly that's a very small part of the country right
now, so it's not going to work for everybody, so.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's more that we don't we the the country
just flat out does not produce enough to support it.
It just the the the the grid. It just doesn't like you said,
you don't no one has the magic 8ball.
Yeah, you know, whatever is coming is coming.
(23:40):
You know, articles, people have said certain things.
I'm like, all right, cool, whatever, but for, for something
that's out now, you know, I think the last time you were on,
we talked about your, your Integra, your Integra project.
The cool thing about working at a OEM or working in the industry
is, yes, you are Privy to futurestuff.
(24:00):
You obviously have to work on it.
Somebody's got to be working on stuff for it to come out.
So clearly people know future stuff, but of course we can't
talk about it. Fair.
With that said though. But I wouldn't, you know, I'm
not, I wouldn't ask you to to, you know, I'm not Barbara
Walters, you know, I'm not trying to get you on a gotcha.
No, the the good thing is is I still love my car.
I mean, my car is great. Drink more of your drink and
(24:21):
thank you. I was gonna say that all of a
sudden he no, no great things. I've been still enjoying my car.
I've had it for two years now. Don't drive it enough.
I've literally got like less than 5000 miles on it and so.
I have a miniature of it, yeah, that you gave me.
Yeah, I mean you. Yeah, of course.
No, man, it's it's awesome. Yeah, it's it's fun.
It's it's still such a fun car to drive.
(24:44):
Yeah. Lucky to have worked on it.
Lucky to own 1 now and drive it.And yeah, it's been good.
What's 1 of the biggest things that people don't understand
that goes into the vehicles thatyou guys are rolling out?
It's a very vague question, I was going to say.
I mean, like I said, I mean I think across the industry, you
(25:05):
know, most people don't actuallyknow how the sausage gives me,
as I say so. So Guinness Expo.
There you go. Yeah, behind the scenes there,
all the stuff that you guys haveto do to put on, You know, at
the end of the day, people come here and they go, oh, it's a
great event. And, you know, they look at all
the cars and then they go home and, you know, hang out with
people and go home. But you know, but yeah, I mean,
(25:27):
my, you know, the planning, the,the years of planning for today
and the event and all the peoplebehind the scenes and all the
activities and the complexities behind that, Most of the
attendees here that don't know about it.
So it's the same thing in our end in the auto industry or
anything, anything else, you know, I mean, the work, the
time, the investment, the blood,sweat and tears, all the stuff
(25:50):
that you know, goes behind the scenes is unbelievable.
So especially something like as complex as like the automobile,
right? You know, a device that has to,
you know, get someone safely, you know, from point A to point
B and, and last 30 years and 200,000 miles and, you know,
(26:11):
still be really high quality andnot fall apart and, you know,
provide long lasting joy and excitement.
I mean, think about, I mean, there's not many other products
that you buy in your lifetime that have to live up to that
standard, right? So, I mean, our phones, they
don't last that long. My mind did a lot more not no, I
(26:33):
had to replace mine, you know, so I mean, so that's The thing
is, and, and I mean, even your, your phones, our phones are
great no matter what brand or product you have.
I mean, phones are great, but you know, you get a new phone
every year, you know, you're always upgrading, you're always
getting the newest model doesn'thave to last for 20 years, you
know, doesn't have to, you know,go to the the same safety and
(26:54):
reliability. And you know, I mean it's so
it's just a different level of complexity in in that industry.
What do you think of Ted's speech?
It was good. I worked with Ted for a long
time, I know. Yeah.
Yeah, no, he was good. Like that's when I first, I
didn't know you at the time, like we talked about last year,
but you know, that's when we hadthat first encounter in
(27:16):
Columbus. So you were there.
Yeah. Yeah, you were there, yeah, for
sure. Got pictures?
Yeah. I I thought his speech was was
good, but it is. I watch him because I love the
guy. Love you too.
Thank you. You're welcome.
I love the guy. Just watch him.
I go that's he's passionate. You could tell he's from, you
(27:38):
know, the engineering side. You know the equation when you
look at the presentation. So we had to give him like a
little, little little signs. It's too funny.
He missed every sign of that stuff, but he did.
That's all of them, Yes, but that's yeah, you know, look, I
mean, he's, he's great, man. I the one thing I, you know, I
have so much respect for him is that like, you know, because now
(27:59):
he's not tied to the company, right?
He's, you know, he's moved on. He retired, right?
And so he's not here on the company's behalf.
As he said, he's not saying things in the company's behalf.
He's literally here is like everybody else.
And then, you know, all the regular attendees, he's here as
an enthusiast, as a car guy, as someone that's passionate.
(28:20):
And obviously given his role andwhat he worked on, I mean,
everybody here is, you know, very excited for him to be here
and appreciative of him to be here.
But for him, it's just easier toparticipate kind of like anyone
else. I thought, I thought somebody's
just like, oh man, I was out on the track and I got to drive a
car and I was like, and you literally did that for your
entire 30 plus year career. Like you just drove cars on the
(28:41):
track and yet you're here and you're excited to be driving the
cars on the track. You know what I'm saying?
So like, so that to me is, is pretty special.
So anyone that you know, loves their job, loves their career,
loves their company as much as that.
I mean, that's that's Freak's volumes.
So I rode with him in the track like because we did the same
thing in 2017 at Rd. America.
(29:03):
Yep, Yep. And it's funny because since NS
Expo is always kind of around the same time of year, give or
take a few weeks, the Facebook memories popped up a picture of
me doing a selfie with with Ted.You know, he probably owes me
either a drink or a hot dog because every time I see him, I
mean, they're buying him a drinkor food.
(29:24):
But I was we went around the Ridge twice and I was glad he
took a lap to cool off, cool thebrakes off.
Yeah, wait, this is in your car?No, this was in the Integra Type
S, the gold car. Yeah, the gold car.
And yeah, I don't think I've been right since.
Oh yeah. Yeah, I was.
I was ready. In fact, we were the third lap,
(29:45):
we were going around and just kind of talking like, you know,
how the kids, how's the family and how things going.
And I'm like, I'd have to cut mysentences short because I felt I
was like, yeah, everything's going good, yeah.
No, no, it's a thing. I mean, when you get and then
along, I mean nothing recently because I, I didn't participate
(30:06):
in the track stuff this week, but way back in the day again
during development and throughout that whole process,
yeah. I mean, I went right seat with
him and other, you know, very skilled drivers and stuff.
And when you do that, you go right seat with someone that
really knows what they're doing and like changes your whole
perspective. You're like, wait, the car can
do that. And it's like.
(30:30):
So going back to the first time we were there together without
knowing each other, that's the first time I met Peter.
And he was taking his like Toyota Tercel or something like
that around the your, your guys little test track out there.
And so he was pulling up and allfour doors would open.
Well, three doors would open because he was a driver and
everyone would just hop into thecar.
(30:51):
And I had that exact thought going around that track with
him. At the time, I didn't really
know Peter. Like I had just met him.
Like, he's like my boy now, right?
Just a regular ass car can do that, to your point, because
those people know what they're doing behind the wheel.
I wouldn't do that, but I know Ican.
I know the car can. Well, yeah, You know what the
(31:12):
car, you know, might be capable of, right?
And so at some level, yeah, it just changes your whole
perspective, right? Because you know, you, you, the
way we drive on the street, no matter What Car you have,
whether it's a really fast supercar or just a, you know,
average, you know, econo car, the way you drive in the street
(31:34):
is totally different than how you drive on the track.
As it should be. Well, as it should be, but I
think, but I, but I think what happens, especially with someone
that's a beginner that goes out on a track day for the first
time, they're still driving likethey're on the street.
And So what I mean by that is like they're not looking far
enough ahead. You know, they're not braking
hard enough, right? In normal driving, you don't
(31:57):
brake actually, you're, you're modulating and just kind of be
slowly, you know, decelerating and trying to bring the vehicle
to a stop on the track. You're like waiting to the
absolute last minute and then, you know, stab the brakes as
hard as humanly possible, right?It's like, is this instant kind
of like on off And I remember one of the first times I got to
(32:19):
go right see was like a professional driver.
It was that more than the speed,more than maybe even a cornering
grip and stuff like that. It was the braking that threw me
for a loop because you're like they're waiting till the avenue
like dude, when are you going tobreak?
Like we're we're right at the turn.
When are you going to break? And then like how hard that that
you know that breaking G force, right?
(32:40):
It's just, and it kind of like pushes you forward and now you
know what a seat belt is really for and you're like, oh, please
hold me, you know, because you're just being thrown
forward. And that is such an amazing
experience, but it's you have toexperience it And, and quite
frankly, most people don't get achance to go ride to see what
Peter Cunningham or someone might kill us or to ride so.
(33:03):
For John Rivers. I'm not that good, but I can
drive. I mean, you know, but I mean,
it's no, I mean, I, I take people for drives and do that
stuff and always try to behave myself.
But again, if they're not used to it or like, or at least have
the confidence in you that you know, you know what you're doing
or that you're going to stop or turn, whatever, it's a big
(33:23):
thing. So.
So we'll get you out of here on a couple more of these little
things. So we did the group drive, you
guys, you drove the was it the casino white?
Yep, a casino white NSX type SI.Was a yeah NC one just a regular
NC? 10 regular NC 10 I mean yeah 4
fold. Just for clarification.
(33:45):
Yeah, it just was, Yeah. So. 4 fold.
Drove that, yeah. How was it?
How did? How did you like the drive?
Was it incident free? Yeah, no problems, No problems,
no problems. The route that you guys had
planned was really good. Well.
That wasn't me. Well, I mean, but it just just
the route that everybody was taking was really good because
yeah, I mean, you know, inherently everybody kind of
(34:06):
broke up and so. And then there's people stopping
off to take pictures and then there's, you know, then
obviously there was a big lunch break in between.
So the, you know, the route was good.
It was scenic. I mean, it was really beautiful
the the trees, the water that we.
Northwest is beautiful. Yeah, I mean just a gorgeous
backdrop to be driving and you know, so cool again to see all
(34:29):
the passionate owners, enthusiasts and the all of the
cars, all the different colors, the first Gen., the second Gen.
Type S, everything mixed in together.
So. So yeah, no issues.
I don't. And I mean, you know, what do I
know? I don't know the entire event,
but I didn't see or hear really of any other major incidents so.
Did I tell you about my drive? No.
(34:50):
What? What happened?
Oh, no. Yeah.
Something went down. So I was voluntold to be a drive
leader. OK.
And so I take off with the groupand I'm, I'm chatting with my,
my, my copilot, you know, a guy from from back in Arizona who
needed a, a ride. You know, I had an open seat, so
we're chatting. So he has a route on his phone.
I have it up on the car play. We're just talking, talking.
(35:13):
We missed one of the first turns.
I'm like, all right, we'll find a place.
He goes. We miss turning the people on
the radio. Hey, I think we're supposed to
turn back there. I'm like, all right, I saw it.
I'm going to turn around. Whatever, it's good.
And then, you know, I'm always checking to see who's who's who
actually are still following me instead of cut off.
Everyone was still following me.I was like, all right, because
they're like, El Presidente is up there driving.
(35:33):
We're good, right? So then I'm kind of checking up,
checking the rear, checking the side, checking the rear, and I
look up and there's this dead baby deer in the middle of the
road. Well, I thought it was like half
a deer. It was something dead in red,
right? And by then it was too late.
It was like right in front of the car.
I was like, oh shit. It's like, OK, nothing to do
(35:54):
about it. I'll have to check the car
later, right? So I'm looking for a spot to
turn around. And you know what?
These are all private drives, whatnot.
So I finally find this a street that kind of dips off to the
left and goes down. So I'm like, all right, let me
just bust AU turn like right here.
So as I busted AU turn, the street kind of pitched down and
I scraped the bottom of the car pretty hard.
(36:15):
As I do U-turn is like I'm like,oh, beep.
So we get back on the route and we're driving and one of my good
friends from Arizona is on me. Like he is on my ass on the he's
on my ass on those roads. I'm thinking I go, who the hell
is behind me? Will that beep, beep, beep like,
all right, well, Jay Tug, it's not that he's a sacred name or
(36:36):
anything. So now I'm worried about him on
my ass on these roads that I've never driven on.
And you saw the route. It was like this.
And then we come up to the firstgravel pit.
Everyone was talking about the there's two gravel pits.
You come to the first one and bythen I'm going like, I don't
know, 45. And I see at the last minute I'm
like, oh, shit. And then I got the back end of
(36:57):
the NSX like this. Yeah, just kicked out.
Yeah, kicked out. I was like, and of course that
was the last crazy thing that happened, but I'm getting shit
the whole time by my friends in the back, like he's throwing
dirt and dust. Who's who's kicking up dust?
I'm like. When you're at the front, it's
a. It's a different.
(37:17):
Don't have this much notification.
You don't. I've never driven on that
fucking Rd. before. Now that's that's too bad.
I mean, well, look, you're OK. They were tight.
You remember? They mean tell, tell the people
how tight some of those, especially when it got down like
1 1/2 lanes wide. Yeah.
No, there was basically no splitin the lanes.
It was just. Yeah, it was like a golf car
pass almost. Yeah.
(37:38):
And then somebody in the back. So by the time we had doubled
back, we had another group behind us.
Like I think Brian Miller's group was actually behind us.
So then now we had like 20 unitsaxes behind instead of like 8 or
9. And somebody radio's like, hey,
is there a car up there that we're kind of trapped behind or
something? You know, I'm like, hey, I've
voluntold to be a drive leader. Whoever's back there talking,
(37:59):
feel free to come all the way uphere to the front and take the
lead, you know? Yeah, yeah, you want to do?
This because I'm not pushing at 5560 because you saw that road,
like I have no idea because it's, you know, elevation.
You don't know where the turn is.
We hit the main highway and after that it was all goofy, but
that was my experience with it. Yeah, but like I said, as long
as you were OK, it sounds like the car is OK.
(38:20):
I mean, yeah, I mean, we drove that same route obviously,
right. So saw the gravel and, you know,
luckily had AI wasn't the, therewas actually a couple cars in
front of me that weren't either in our group or whatever else.
And so I had a little bit and OK, those people slowed down
quite a bit. Something must be coming up.
So I'd like some, like I said, anotification.
(38:40):
And so I, you know, slowed down and, you know, just had to
really crawl through there. But other than some dust kicking
up to your point, it was totallyfine.
So glad you made it out. I'm glad I did too.
The rest of the, the drive. I think overall was, was, was
great though. So again, hats off to you guys
here. Can you put on your Acura hat
for a second? All right.
All right, Well, I just want to thank you for all your support
(39:05):
for this event and personally thank you for your support for
me for some things. And we couldn't do this.
Honestly, it's very cliche, right?
But we couldn't do this without you in Acura.
And so IA 100% appreciate that. And you know, IA 100% appreciate
you. So thank you.
Nice. Thank you, man.
(39:25):
And look, I said I'm not here tospeak on the company's behalf
because. You can take the hat off if
you'd like. No, no, but it's not going to
take the hat off because there'sso like just like there was a
lot of people that helped put this event together.
The company is way bigger than me.
The people that were here. I look, there's AI won't name
drop anyone, but there was there's several there were
several people from corporate that were here that did an
amazing job. Absolutely actually really did
(39:47):
support. You know, I, I probably didn't
do nearly as much as they did, but to be here to, to, to work
with you, to see the, the, the events get better each year, to
see the attendance go up, to seethe response from the attendees
like that, that's a win for everyone, right?
So I'm just lucky to, you know, again, to be here to be able to
(40:09):
come and support these events. And, you know, I feel like
that's the, the, the same belieffor the from, from the other
people that attended too. So, yeah, thanks.
You give me confidence. We're almost stage.
I was like, oh, Jay Rivers Kelly's my girl.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. But you have your writer in
front of the table. I was like, OK, so no, thank
you. I mean, the yeah, like I said,
(40:31):
you know, the, you know, the yeah, hospitality throughout the
week was top notch. And you know, and again, it's
like I said, I think everybody that attended, enthusiast
corporate guy, you know, NSX owner, you know, spouse plus
one, everybody just had an amazing time.
I didn't hear a bad thing. So again, hats off to you guys.
Well, hopefully we can do this again next year.
(40:52):
I'm flying to that one. So I don't know how much of this
crap I'll be able to bring with me.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's, let's definitely do it,
man. It's, it's exciting you guys put
the the announcement out there. So I'll see if I can keep the
street going and and definitely come next year.
I would love for you to, even ifyou're just, I don't know, you
have. You have to find a way to make
it work. OK.
(41:13):
John Rivers, thank you. Appreciate you man.
Well, another month, another closing.
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(42:17):
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Ain't nobody got time for that.
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