LLP #118: Beyond the Term "Influencer"—Finding Authenticity in Content Creation

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What does it really mean to be an "influencer" in the firearms community? Eric and Matt tackle this controversial topic head-on, stripping away misconceptions and revealing the realities of content creation in today's digital landscape.

With nearly two decades of experience creating firearms content, Eric shares candid insights about the evolution of the industry and why he's never been comfortable with the "influencer" label. The hosts explore how authentic content creation differs from manipulation, comparing it to a helpful store employee rather than a pushy salesperson.

The conversation delves into the substantial behind-the-scenes work required to produce quality content, the ethical considerations when partnering with brands, and how truly valuable content creation serves viewers through honesty and transparency rather than persuasion. Through real-world examples like SIG fixing drop safety issues and PSA implementing the "MAC bracket," Eric and Matt demonstrate how content creators actually help improve the products we all use.

Perhaps most revealing is their discussion of the "crab pot theory" - explaining why successful creators often face criticism from those trying to pull them down. It's a fascinating look at human nature that will resonate with anyone who's faced jealousy or resistance while pursuing their goals.

Whether you're a firearms enthusiast, content creator, or just curious about how digital influence works, this episode pulls back the curtain on an industry that impacts millions. Subscribe to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit for more straight-shooting conversations that cut through the noise with honest, thought-provoking analysis.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody.
This is Eric and Matt and thisis Life, liberty and the Pursuit
, your beacon of freedom and theAmerican way of life.
Tune in every Monday for a newepisode as we dive into the
world of liberty and what makesour country great.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back everybody.
This is Eric and Matt here withLLP.
I hope everybody's having agreat day and thanks for tuning
back in.
This is your home for allthings sane in a world of
craziness, your beacon offreedom in a world gone mad.
I kind of like that.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
It makes complete sense.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I mean, we are the guiding light, yeah maybe we
might be the guiding light tosomewhere people don't want to
go.
But hey, the reality is we gotto do what we got to do.
A ticket to fun town?
That's right, the ticket to funtown?
That's right, the ticket to funtown.
Some things are unfun but, uh,I really enjoy the podcast y'all
and I appreciate the, thecomments and uh, you know the,
the words of uh, of support fromyou guys and uh it I really

(00:55):
love doing this and it's it'sbeen great.
And I do want to give a quicklittle update.
This is kind of a rollingchannel update, uh, unrelated to
the podcast.
Uh, I haven't been cutting alot of range videos and things
like that.
I apologize, don't think thatI'm not getting back to normal
content on the channel.
Um, I've just had a lot of crapgoing on.
I've been doing a lot of homerepairs.
Matt knows, oh, yeah, man I'vebeen fixing up the house a bit.

(01:19):
So, uh, I do apologize for myabsence.
We will get back to cuttingrange videos.
I've got a ton of awesome stuffto show you guys.
Some stuff I can't talk aboutbecause it's super secret
squirrel.
I'm going to show Matt offcamera.
He's going to be like whoa, butlots of neat stuff You're going
to love some body armor tests,five guns videos, gunsmithing
content.
I've got so much crap.
I've got a giant whiteboard ofcontent written down that I

(01:41):
promise it's really good stuff.
I've been looking through it.
You're going to love it.
Anyway, today's show we're goingto be discussing the online
influencer paradigm and you knowMatt and I were discussing this
a little bit before the show tojust kind of get our brains
wrapped around what exactly thatmeans and you know this term
influencer gets thrown around.

(02:01):
We're going to discuss a lot ofthings in today's show, but
that's the sort of nucleus thatwe're going to revolve around.
Is that subject matter?
But I do want to hear aboutyour week, how, how things been
going.
You said you, you whooped up onsome, on some kids in the in
the jujitsu ring, you know withthe jujitsu training.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
You know, unfortunately I would say
fortunately for them,unfortunate for me you know, we
do have, uh, some students inthere that are significantly
younger, and those younger guyscome with a bigger gas tank,
much faster.
Um, you know, I still can getthe better of them, but it's
it's much harder.
I'm older, um, and I just camein with some little lower back

(02:39):
issues today.
So it's like, uh, it could be alittle difficult, but it's
always rewarding, it's alwaysfun and hopefully the younger
guys just keep getting betterand better and faster and they,
you know, if they can eventuallystart winning those rounds,
then good for them.
It's just kind of like handingoff the baton to the next batch.
Well, that's the whole point.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
You got to be hard on them so they learn.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
You know, just like you know, our NCOs were hard on
us and, believe me, they sayspare the rod, spoil the child.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
And you know what.
That's how training is.
Training has to suck, it's gotto hurt, because it's in those
moments of pain that you realize, oh, I have to improve my
process.
Hey, if I'm losing, why am Ilosing?
I had a really crummy day in thegym today, benching.
So we've been doing a lot ofsupport work.
I won't spend a lot of timetalking about the show, but I've

(03:28):
been doing a lot of supportwork for tendons and everything
for my bench and I haven'treally been doing a lot of flat
benching.
Well, I got on the flat benchtoday after taking almost a
whole month off.
My bench went to absolute crap,and that's just how it goes
sometimes.
And the bench is probably theone compound lift that is gonna
probably go to crap the quickest.

(03:49):
If you don't do it enough, youknow it can really.
Your bench can go, can turninto absolute trash, probably
quicker than anything else.
Your deadlifts and squats arealways going to generally be
there and you build that goodcore strength, but your, but
your bench.
You got to stay on top of thisare you, are you?

Speaker 3 (04:03):
so you're still doing barbell benches, yeah, okay, so
I kind of I do some barbellbenches, but I really switched
to the dumbbell bench.
Just, you know, a little bitless strain on the shoulders,
because man, I I'll get in a badway and it'll just pop that
shoulder and I get it.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
well, the thing is like the big three compound
lifts, or you know, your squat,your deadlift and your bench and
those are all you know, barbell?

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, you're competing in that, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
So I don't want to put the cart before the horse,
but I do have a new show comingup on we the Free.
Big shout out to my brothers,john and Sir Michael, over there
.
They're doing a great jobgetting that network going and I
will have an exclusive show onwe the Free very soon.
That's going to be dropping.
We're going to start filmingthat, hopefully within the next

(04:50):
month or two.
There's a lot of things thathave to happen, but it's going
to be exclusive content just forthat network.
So just a quick plug for myfriends there we the Free.
So before we get into today'sshow, actually, this is a great
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Speaker 3 (06:53):
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Speaker 2 (07:12):
Dude completely changed my life.
Dealing with testosterone, nomatter what someone does.
I know we've talked about thisand the last thing I would ever
want to do is beat a dead horse,but I'm assuming a lot of
people that follow what we dohere on the podcast are probably
same age as us or or whateveryou know.
Maybe you're in your forties orpossibly older.
So, uh, I know we talk about it, but when something changes

(07:34):
your life for the better in thatway, you can't help but talk
about it.
I mean, imagine the I don't knowthe first time you did
something, something that youmaybe now you take for granted
like the first time you drove acar.
You know we drive cars now.
Everyone knows how to get inthe car and go drive, like it's
just a common thing.
But imagine the first time youdrove.
Imagine the first time that youhad you were 16 years old, had

(07:56):
your learners and your parentsare waving, go all right and
you're.
You're off on your own in yourcar for the first time and
remember how that felt to turnthat key and know that you can
go anywhere, that car will takeyou, and that's a really kind of
odd feeling of freedom thatthat people are, you know they
get used to for the first timeand we'd take for granted later.
I kind of feel like it's how thetestosterone is, like you don't

(08:17):
take you do you take beingyoung and healthy for granted
and being full of testosteroneand energy, like remember when
we were in Iraq, it's like wewere just full of piss and
vinegar and that mindset, youknow you lose that as you get
older and you kind of chill out.
You get more stoic and it'scrazy Like war becomes this,
this kind of up drug that likeyou, you know it's a drug, like

(08:40):
it literally sort of you know,gives you this experience like a
psychedelic in a way, like youdon't come back the same person
that you were when you left.
You know you're on the planegoing over there and everyone's
all excited what they're goingto see and what they're going to
experience and like the planeride home, everyone's kind of
quiet.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
You're just like you're just sitting there.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
You're like stoic and there's some kind of strange
transcendence that occurs there,whether it's spiritually or
mentally or, uh, it could be forthe better or for the worst,
depending on what yourexperiences were, but it was a
really odd thing to witness forme and that was a breakthrough
moment in my life when Irealized, coming back on the
plane, that I wasn't who I waswhen I left.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
It's true, man, like you nailed it.
I remember when we were leavingand everybody was like lining
up and you're in your chalks toget on the little jingle bus to
go to the airport and jump onthe plane and you could hear a
pin drop because everybody'sjust reflecting Like the whole
time.
You're like, oh, this is thelast time I'm going to see this

(09:47):
place.
This is like.
You know, I've experienced it.
It was just, it was a very,very stoic experience.
You're going home but you'renot.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
Very, very weird experience.
But I equate that to thetestosterone, because it's like
you kind of rediscover that,that zest and um, it really does
change your life.
So we are going to get into, uh, today's subject and that's
talking um a little bit.
Oh, one more thing.
All right, I gotta just, Ihaven't discussed my week, we've
been talking about your week.
I want all right.

(10:16):
So all right, your crummy benchpress week?
Yes, okay, so my crummy benchpress, that's, that's all good.
But, uh, now squats are out ofcontrol.
I squatted uh 540 for for repson monday, so the squats are out
of control and I'm benchingtomorrow, but anyway.
So, uh, we got a puppy.
From the last time that I didpodcast, we've gotten a new

(10:38):
puppy, uh, a doberman puppy, anduh, everything's good.
You know, I mean, who doesn'tlike a puppy, right?
Well, I come home from the gymtoday and I'm going in the
closet to get everything readyand I'm sort of preemptively
letting you know something thatI'm going to get in trouble for.
You know, y'all are going toknow before she does.

(11:01):
Well, I go into the uh closetand little girl decided to grab
one of mommy's gucci loafershere.
Oh boy, she is gonna be sopissed off.
Yeah man, she is gonna be angry.
I have no ideas what these cost, but she's gonna be pissed it's
a significant amount I'm sure,yeah, yeah, I mean that's,

(11:23):
that's gucci.
So I'm pretty sure that's.
I'm trying to talk quietlybecause she's upstairs, she's
gonna hear me, she's gonna comedown here I'm like why are you
whispering me?
Yeah, yeah, so I owe her a pairof shoes.
Um, anyway, just to prove thatI'm not making that story up
that's definitely.
I knew who the who the culpritwas.
The minute I saw that shoe onthe floor, I'm like oh hell.

(11:44):
I looked at it like I'm in somuch freaking trouble, I'm gonna
be in so much she is gonna beso freaking mad you don't mess
with a woman in her shoes no, no, no, not, not Gucci either.
so, um, I want to get intotoday's subject and, um, you
know this is something that I'vethought long and hard about and
really wanting to kind of talkabout this influencer paradigm

(12:08):
that seems to exist and you knowI've always hated the term
influencer.
When you hear social mediainfluencer thrown around as a
term, matt, what comes to mindfor you?
I mean, it seems obvious, butwhat do you think about when you
hear the term influencer?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
So, honestly, when I hear the term influencer, I kind
of cringe a little bit, becauseit reminds me of the person
going into a restaurant withlike 500 to 1000 followers
demanding a free meal so thatthey can like in, like, show off

(12:48):
to their followers.
Uh, on you know, ig or youtubewith a very small follower
account, I, that's just whatpops into my head.
And because you see those, yousee those videos all the time,
like, well, I'm so and so andI'm going to do a review on your
food, so you should give it tome for free.
And I love the ones where themanager is like no, they just

(13:09):
straight deny them and they'relike what do you mean?
No, like, no, you're notgetting the food for free.
Like, pay for the food eat it.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
An over-glorified sense of self-importance?
Yes, all right, that would beone, one trait.
What might be some other traitsthat, when you hear the term
influencer, what do you think ofDishonesty?
Maybe?
Maybe they're just being paidto?

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, just the term in general reminds me of like,
or it lends itself to like sales, or trying to sell something
like.
Just think of the terminfluencer.
You're trying to influence youraudience to buy something so
they can make money.
I mean, it's a very, verypopular um aspiration for the

(13:57):
younger generation.
A lot of the younger generationsee what you know a lot of
people have right now as far asyoutube and instagram, um, and
even like tiktok is huge manlike that's.
I know people that are makingtons of money, but you know
that's, they see that and theywant to, they want a piece of it
and they're willing to dowhatever they can to get it.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Matt, that's an extraordinary point.
The whole influencer paradigmas it exists does encourage
people to seek it out as, let'sjust say, a vocational type of
application Like, hey, I want tobe an influencer.
They see people who are popularand they go, wow, they're
making lots of money, so I wantto go into this to achieve that

(14:40):
goal, yeah, To make to to make aliving.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
It didn't, it was, it wasn't something that you did
to make a living before.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
That's what I want to talk about.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yeah, it wasn't something, it was just something
that you did and then then itturned into.
Let's try to make a living outof it.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
I'm not a big fan of the term influencer.
Okay, know, for me, when, whenthe industry and I say the
industry, what is the industry?
What?
When we say industry, when theindustry started using it,
everybody says that it'sindustry term yeah, industry.
So you know, our country runson capitalism, right?
We run on consumerism.
We run on people spending theirhard-earned money on some

(15:22):
product or service.
And you spend money, youreceive value for your money and
some exchange for your moneyand the company makes a profit
and you get something cool andeverybody wins.
And the idea is that, you know,when the industry says you're
an influencer, it means thatthat's the value they see in you
and their relationship with you.

(15:42):
And I always kind of took thatas being a little bit of a of a
letdown for me because I don'twant to be called an influencer.
I've been doing this long beforethat term ever existed, ever
existed.
You know, early in my channel Igot started out just playing

(16:04):
around with guns in the fieldand just making videos and just
having fun with it.
And over time, yeah, someonerealizes that you know, wow, you
know there's a demand for thissort of stuff and hey, we can
make videos, we can make moneymaking videos.
We can charge companies formaking videos.
So after a while, yeah, youbegin to realize like, okay, wow
, we can actually do this for aliving.
This is actually a job and itdid become that for me.

(16:24):
It did become a job, but itnever lost that sense of
discovery.
Like always genuinely aminterested to just see what's
going to happen when I make myvideos, like if, if I take a new
shotgun out.
How many times have I seen atwo liter soda blow up with a
shotgun?
Or a watermelon, or a freakingpiece of drywall or a ballistic

(16:47):
shell block?
How many, how many ballisticshell blocks have I shot?
My career?

Speaker 3 (16:52):
How many have you made?

Speaker 2 (16:54):
A lot, a lot.
And you would think that oncesomething becomes a job, that
people no longer have passionfor it, and I think that's the
separation.
That's where people think, ohwell, this person, they're just
doing this because they makemoney doing it and there's no
love or passion or real you know, they don't really care about

(17:14):
what they're doing, they're justdoing it for the money, and
that's not necessarily true.
Like every gel block, I shoot,every piece of armor.
I shoot every 12 gauge loadthat blows up something you know
downrange.
I'm just as happy as the firsttime I ever did it and, uh, I
feel lucky and privileged that Iget to do what I do for a
living.
Yes, I shoot guns for a living.
Yes, I talk about guns for aliving.

(17:35):
Yes, I give politicalcommentary, sometimes pissing a
lot of people off, for a living.
That's my job.
That's what I do.
I produce YouTube content.
That's my job, and it wasn'talways a job.
And I suppose the industrydecided to use this term
influencer and so many peopleate it up because I think that
it appeals to someone'snarcissism.

(17:57):
That's why I hate the term somuch, because it appeals to the
narcissist.
It appeals to someone'snarcissism.
That's why I hate the term somuch, because it appeals to the
narcissist.
It appeals to the person whotakes the selfies.
It appeals to the person whogoes.
Oh yeah, my voice matters.
I have influence.
I can sell this to someone.
I can get someone to buysomething.
Well, if you work at Home Depot, matt, are you shilling?

(18:18):
Are you a shill for Home Depot?
Because you help a customer inHome Depot?

Speaker 3 (18:23):
No, you are an excellent employee.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Well, okay, what if you're working at Home Depot and
someone walks in and they sayI've got to paint my shed, can
you tell me where the paintaisle is?
Okay?
And you go hey, the paintaisle's over there on aisle six,
let me know if you needanything.
And they go and there's amillion choices to choose from
in the paint aisle, they'reprobably going to buy some paint

(18:54):
.
Whether they buy the $8 thingof paint or the $30 thing of
paint, they're buying paint fromyour store, right?
You know what I mean.
Like you're simply guiding themto where the option is.
If they want your help making achoice with that option, then
they'll consult you.
They'll ask right, if someonepulls up a YouTube video of a
gun review, for instance,they're wanting an opinion.
They're either seeking someconfirmation bias for a purchase

(19:17):
they've already made rightright.
How many people have bought anew gun?
Let's use guns for an example,because that's what I do, that's
my lane.
How many people have bought anew gun and then looked up every
video they could find on thatgun just to see what people were
saying about even though theyalready purchased it?
That's confirmation bias.
By the way, that'sirmation biasis fine, because people want to

(19:40):
feel like they made a goodpurchase.
Now, if they pull up a bunch ofvideos and someone has
something bad to say, they'regoing to go oh man, I feel so
bad about buying this.
Or they have not purchased theitem yet and they go.
Well, let me consume all thecontent I can and get an overall
opinion about what this productis.
Right.
Is this a good gun?

(20:00):
Is this a bad gun?
Is it trash?
I don't know.
I'm going to figure it out andI'm going to use these YouTube
videos to provide context, alongwith blogs and mags or whatever
they're going to read or study,to make an educated and
informed purchase decision.
And generally, if you saywhatever model of gun it might
be, I mean, let's not usesomething good and popular like

(20:23):
I don't know.
Glock 19 is kind of like theHonda Civic of guns.
Let's use an example like aTaurus Judge.
Okay, so you know, people havethey think what they think about
the Taurus Judge versus theSmith Wesson governor, which I
find to be a far superior gun tothe judge.
But is the judge still an OKgun?
Yes, it is.

(20:44):
So they're going to watch everyvideo on the judge that they
can find and some people aregoing to say good things about
it, some people are going to saybad things about it and
everything in between, and then,when you consume all that
content, you're going to have anoverall synopsis of how the
bulk of people feel about thatproduct.
So one person might saysomething good about it, one

(21:05):
person might say something bad.
Maybe the person that saidsomething bad about it got a gun
that went out on a Friday atfive o'clock when everybody was
ready to go home.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
You never know, any gun company y'all is capable of
putting out a lemon.
I don't care who it is and I'mnot going to name names.
Well, perhaps I will name names.
Okay, I've had CZs that I'vehad to send back for for minor
problems.
I've had FN pistols that I'vehad to send back for stuck

(21:34):
safeties.
On the FNX tactical I've hadmultiple safeties over the years
that I've FNX 45.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Great gun, very high-end gun, very expensive gun
, but I've had issues out of FNs.
So is that to say that justbecause something is expensive
can you have a problem or not?
I know a customer had to send aBarrett M107 back for a bad
barrel.
Now the folks in Murfreesborothey made it right, of course
you better believe they replacedthat barrel no questions asked.

(22:02):
Okay, hey, sometimes somethinghappens, there's a manufacturing
defect.
Any product can have a problem.
Have you seen Ferrari welds?
Have you seen how bad they look?
Those cars are premium,high-end, sports cars.
You look at the frames it lookslike it was welded by a toddler
.

(22:26):
So you cannot simply say becausesomething is expensive or
high-end or because someinfluencer talks it up, that it
is good or isn't good.
You have to use your brain andyou have to be logical and you
have to think for yourself.
Don't listen to me, don'tlisten to Hickok, don't listen
to whoever you're listening to.
Listen to what your mind istelling you, what your heart and
your gut instinct is tellingyou.
Right, you should never look atan influencer in the gun world

(22:48):
and say, well, they're the end,all do all on this given subject
.
You know, if they say they'rethe end, all do all on a given
subject.
You should definitely notlisten to what they say, because
I feel like true influence,matt, if we really want to use
that term in that way.
I feel like true influence isthe lack of influence.
That's where I like to be.

(23:09):
I don't say I'm a subject matterexpert.
I don't say I'm the best.
I don't say I'm the bestshooter.
I don't say that I'm the bestat anything.
I simply put out my opinion andpeople can agree or disagree,
they can like it or not like it,and that's simply where I leave
it.
I don't tell someone hey, goout and buy this, this is the
greatest thing ever.
Very rarely do I do that.
Very rarely do I actuallyendorse a given product.

(23:32):
If I do, it's because I reallybelieve in it, but I always just
put the information out there.
Like the Home Depot employee onthe paint aisle, I say, hey,
here's the aisle with thepistols on it, here's a pistol.
You might be looking at otherpistols, you might be looking at
this one, but here it is.
This is my opinion.
We're going to shoot it, showit off.
Here's what happened and that'sit.
I'll leave you guys to it.

(23:53):
I'm not trying to influenceanybody.
I do not care if you buy asingle dang thing that I do a
review on.
I do not care if you buy it.
Just like the Home Depot guywho told you the paint was on
aisle six, he doesn't care ifyou buy any paint.
He's getting paid either way toshow up and do his job.
He doesn't care if you buypaint that day.
He's going to direct you to thepaint aisle and if you need

(24:14):
help you can ask him.
But his paycheck is going toclear just the same, whether or
not you buy the paint that day.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
And that's my job.
That's my job is to direct you.
Hey, this exists, here it is.
If you want to do somethingwith it, that's up to you.
You're all big boys and girls.
I'm not going to hold your hand.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
That's a great way to look at it and I would take it
even one step further and saythat you know I don't like the
term influencer, but themarketing companies and the
brands themselves that want touse those influencers to market
their wares in this particularcase, firearms or tactical gear
those influencers are smallbusinesses.
So those influencers are smallbusinesses and that's kind of
where they separate the divide.

(25:02):
So while that employee at HomeDepot is sending you to the
correct paint and he'll answerany questions you have, he
doesn't have any stake in HomeDepot, so he doesn't really feel
the urge to sell you the bestpaint versus an influencer, say,

(25:23):
for example, firearms.
We're going to keep beating onfarms because that's what we do
here on this channel.
You know that influencer is abrand, he has a small business.
So while he might not makemoney off selling you the actual
firearm, he's stillrepresenting his brand, his
loyalty, his morals, his valueswhile presenting this firearm.

(25:43):
And if he really thinks that'sa great firearm, is he getting
paid?
Probably.
But I know lots of influencersand gun tubers and even other
you know industry influencersthat if that product is subpar,
they just won't.
They won't do it, they will notshow the product, or they won't
attach their brand or theirname or their channel to that

(26:06):
product.
They're willing to not acceptthat particular job per se
because they don't want tocompromise their values or their
morals just for the sake of apaycheck.
Are there influencers out therethat are willing to compromise
their morals and their stance?
Yes, there's probably more thanless, but that's where the

(26:29):
difference is.
So while let's say, for example, that influencer is showing off
a particular firearm, they likeit.
They can say good things aboutit.
They're going to tell it to youstraight.
They're going to give you thegood, the bad Guys.
If you're watching a piece ofcontent and it's nothing but
just glorification of thisweapon, there's nothing wrong

(26:50):
with it or they have nocriticisms about it whatsoever.
You might want to dig a littlebit deeper and get multiple
views from other channels,because somebody has to have
something that they didn't like.
Maybe this guy's hands weresmaller so the grip didn't fit,
or maybe he didn't like the waythe slide kept giving him slide
bite on his hand because he hadbig old mitts, and so just keep

(27:13):
digging.
But the the end result is theinfluencer represents a small
business and the small businesshas to make money.
So when you say to shill, youguys understand that it's not
shilling, it is business, it's ajob per se.
And if you choose to watch thiscontent and you choose to, you

(27:35):
know, digest the content youhave to be willing to listen to
the shill per se.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, I agree, and you know, look, I've been doing
this y'all for almost 17 years.
Youtube just celebrated their20th anniversary.
So, guys, I've been doing thisa long time and I've been doing
this way before the terminfluencer ever existed.
This was never a job.
When I got started doing this,it wasn't.
I created the job and I'm nottrying to, you know, toot my own

(28:04):
horn or be some freakingglowing narcissist, cause you
guys know me, that's not me.
I'm not that kind of person.
But, guys, I've been doing thisa long damn time and I can tell
you that I've seen people comeand go and everything like that,
and I'm just, I've been here.
I'll be here when they turn thelights off and I'll be part of
the cobwebs if they ever turnthe lights off and look, I can

(28:26):
tell you that you just have tojust be honest and truthful and
if you're looking at a piece ofcontent, it doesn't necessarily
have to be a piece of guncontent.
A lot of people don't know this.
I actually do reviews on musicgear as well.
Yes, not to.
I mean, I hate to shout thischannel out because I haven't
produced any content for liketwo or three years.

(28:47):
It's been a while I'm behind onit.
But I have a channel calledguitar arsenal.
Okay, we do reviews on guitarequipment effects, guitars, you
name it and I went down a reallydeep and dark rabbit hole with
that channel.
I spent a lot of damn money onmusic gear because I wanted cool

(29:07):
stuff to show off, to build thechannel and I was really
enjoying cutting those videosand everything and having fun.
And that was a channel Istarted really just as a
creative outlet, just to havefun and with no inhibitions.
So after all these years ofdoing YouTube stuff, matt, I
turn around and go well, I'mgoing to start some new channel
related to something completelydifferent than guns, and I

(29:29):
really haven't told anybody.
I don't really make a big dealabout it, and I have all these
people show up in the commentsection.
They go wait a minute, are youthat guy that makes the gun
videos?
I get that a lot.
So I think it's funny thatthere's some crossover between
the music people and the gunpeople.
There's always going to becrossover.
But the funny part about thatis I treat the reviews that I do

(29:50):
on like effects, pedals,guitars and amps and all this
stuff the same way I treat mygun videos.
I talk about the features, I gothrough the settings, I listen,
you know, allow, you know, playsome sound samples so people can
hear it.
I give my opinion, talk aboutwhat I like and I don't like,
and then I, you know, I leavepeople to their own devices.

(30:10):
You know, if someone watches apiece of content on a firearm,
let's go back to firearms.
Or it could be an effect pedalor a guitar or whatever.
Someone watches a piece ofcontent on an item from, let's
just say, let's make it an even10 content creators.
So there's 10 different peopleproducing content on the same
piece of gear, be it a car part,a gun, piece of music gear, a

(30:35):
watch, et cetera.
You guys get the idea, somesort of consumable right, and
all 10 of those people have apretty positive opinion of the
product.
And let's say you go and youread all the comments in the
comment section below the videoand the people are like oh man,
yeah, I bought my, you know,whatever watch, I bought my,
whatever widget you want to putin there.

(30:56):
And there's a lot of peoplegiving good comments down below.
They're agreeing with the, withthe influencer, all the
influencers come to a general, amutual consensus.
That is a, that is a universalgroup confirmation bias.
That's what you got there.
Okay, now, I'm not somepsychologist or anything like
that.
I mean, look guys, I'm just aredneck with with too many

(31:18):
cameras.
I'm a redneck with what theygave money to.
That was probably a big mistake.
But listen, all that really didat that point was give you
something to go on.
But you're still going to makethe decision about whether or
not you're going to spend yourhard-earned cash on that product
.
It's still up to you to pullthe trigger and go all right,
I'm gonna buy this now or I'mnot.

(31:40):
Did those people influence you?
Yes, they did.
Some might go out and say, well,this is my job to review this
and, and I'm trying to convinceyou of why you should get this
product, that's influence.
But I think that the industrytends to just coin that
influencer phrase as all right,what do I get out of this?

(32:02):
What does the industry get outof it?
Well, it's the influence.
So, of course, they're going tocall you an influencer.
They're not going to call you aI don't know subject matter
expert or a content creator or avideo guy, or just I don't know
.
I don't know how you would saythat.
I mean, does sports right andwheaties puts you on the box.
Well, are you shilling forwheaties because you've had a

(32:23):
bowl of wheaties and wheatiessaid hey, we'll pay you an
exuberant sum of money to putyour your face on a box of
wheaties according.
According to the commentssection yes, yeah, I mean, is
that somehow wrong to be paidlike?
No, I mean that anyone wouldwould accept an exuberant sum of
money to have their face on abox.

(32:44):
That's a dream of, of almostevery single athlete, the dream,
yeah, to be on the box ofwheaties, man right who wouldn't
so, in my mind, if, if, if Iaccept the golden apple, but I
do it in a way that doesn'tcompromise my morals, my values,
doesn't compromise, you know,my integrity, then by all means

(33:06):
heck.
Yeah, you're damn right thatI'm going to review that Olight
flashlight.
You're damn right, I'm going toreview whatever they put in my
hands, as long as the underlyingconsensus is that, hey, you're
paying me for my time, my effort, you're paying me to edit this
video.
You're paying me for everythingI've worked hard for to build
this platform.
And I'm going to say what Iwant to say.
You're not paying for an opinion, You're not paying for a

(33:28):
positive opinion.
You're paying for my time toproduce the content.
That time can be for sale toanybody, as long as the
integrity is in place.
Now, if a company ever came tome and they said, well, we're
only going to do a video withyou If you will say something
positive about the product, I'llshut that down instantly.
I will never have that type ofconversation with a person.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
I've seen it happen.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
And it does happen, but it ain't going to happen
with me, because that's onething that I've always believed
in.
Hard is like I'm gonna tellpeople exactly what I think good
or bad, and if a company cannotaccept that, then I just simply
won't do business with thosepeople.
So let's say, if there's somepopular product wink wink out

(34:14):
there that you don't see a videoon on my channel, okay, and
chances are it might be a groupof people who's tried to get me
to talk, you know, talk them upand I refuse to do it.
Yeah, so y'all can do the maththere if you want, but it's
there, just look through thevideos.
I mean that's.
I mean, that's just the bottomline.

(34:35):
There there are companies thatare very adamant about not
wanting something negative putout about their product, even if
you think something negative,and they're not afraid to voice
that.
Oh well, we can't have.
You know, you send a draft ofthe video and they go well, we
don't like that.
You said this, you have toremove it.
No, sorry, glock.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
We don't do recuts.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
I'm not taking the Glock 42 video down to this day.
I'm still not.
I'm not doing it okay, and Idiscussed that in a previous
video.
I'm not going to get into intoall the weeds on that, but
there's a reason that I don't dovideos on certain types of
products, because you knowthere's been some questionable
ethics involved that I don'tagree with.
Now I could do.
The low low hanging fruit wouldjust be to take the money and

(35:21):
shut up and just do the job.
That's the influencer talking.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Would be to just take the money and just do the damn
job.
And who cares?
Oh, if they're dumb enough tobuy it, it's their fault.
No, that's not how I am.
A firearm is a very importanttool and I take very seriously
what I say about those tools.
If we're talking aboutsomething, matt, in historic
context, a vintage gun, I cantalk about why I like the AG-42

(35:50):
Jungmann more than the Hakim.
Okay, if someone buys a Hakimor a Jungmann, am I pointing
them in the wrong direction tosay that I would buy the Jungman
over the Hakim?
If they buy either one, Well, Iseriously doubt they're going
to carry a 1942 service rifle asa protection sidearm or
something like.

(36:10):
You know what I mean?
Like someone's not relying ontheir life for that.
That's more of a hey, they wantmy opinion because I collect
these things.
Now, if I say some hot new carrypistol is the greatest hotness
and it's not, that could costsomebody their life, what if
it's a piece of garbage and Isay that, hey, this is good, and
then someone uses it?
Or let's just say it fails orhas some sort of a problem and I

(36:34):
failed to point that out.
Or worse, let's say that I gavean opinion that actually didn't
line up with the facts.
Now that's a problem and that'ssomething I will never do,
because I take that veryseriously.
That's somebody's life you'replaying with there, you know.
If something's not good, youneed to, you need to tell them
absolutely.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
And I think what we run into more or less in the
firearms industry is you do see,you know some failures of
product, some you know failure,failures to perform to the
standard that the company wants,those I'm pretty sure every gun
tuber has experienced that Ithink a lot of people aren't

(37:12):
aware of.
You know you have companies outthere that a certain group or a
certain segregation of peopledo not like morally, which would
be like the Colts or theSpringfields or the Daniel
Defenses for certain reasons,like, oh, the CEO might have

(37:37):
said something negative about'reanti-2A and they switched CEOs
or whatnot, or they donated to aDemocrat PAC.
So you're going to run intothose issues and you know what
can you say.
You vote with your wallet.
If you don't, if you don't likethe company, don't buy the
product.
But the product still has to beshown Now whether you agree

(37:59):
with that a hundred percent.
You know how did the, how didthe actual weapon perform?
You know it's up to you to buyit.
All right, so you can choose totake with that information to
go buy that particular firearm.
If you don't agree with thecompany, don't buy it.
But the person that's producingthe content is just putting it
out there.
It's like a buffet.
If you go to the buffet and youdon't like chicken, don't pick

(38:21):
up chicken, keep going, like,pass it and go pick something
else.
You're not going to blame thebuffet for putting the chicken
out, they're just offering it toyou.
The choice is still yours tomake.
I agree, you just have to kindof like the amount of mental
gymnastics that you see peoplego through to cause, uh, any

(38:42):
type of conflict within thecommunity.
Is it's mental to see thatthey're just like jumping
through so many hoops to cause alittle bit of conflict, like,
ah, it's a little bitoverwhelming?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
let's talk about sig for a minute.
Oh my well, look, look and andno, no, we're, we're not.
We're not throwing anyone underthe bus here.
I want to be fair, okay.
So when the sigs, you knowpeople started dropping the sigs
and they're going off andthings like that.
You know sig apparently hasworked out the problem.
I'm not here to throw trash atsig.
I love sigs, um, but rememberwhen you and I shot the thousand

(39:14):
round test on the 365, you knowI remember people.
okay, I remember early on thatthose guns were having a primer
drag issue and some people wereexperiencing some malfunctions.
Um, I know that tim at militaryarms channel was having a few
issues and he did a test and youknow, it seems like as they
upgraded, did some rollingchanges, um that the pistols

(39:35):
seem to, you know, not exhibitthat issue anymore, but we did
have an early one.
So we wanted to perform thetest and I think we got 3,000
rounds with no problem.
I think there was a one round,I think a few you might've rode
your your hand up.
That was self-induced.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
That was self-induced .
The video.
That was self-induced.
I was.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
I was a little high on the that was the first time
you ever made a video with me.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
You came out and helped me do the 1,000-round
torture test.
We shot 1,000 rounds throughthat .365 and did fairly well,
other than a few self-inducedstoppages which, by the way, the
Glock 42 video that Glockwanted us to take down had
self-induced stoppages in it.
That was just a malfunctionbecause of human error and
nothing to do with the gun.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yeah, the guns are so small and you have big hands.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
They are tiny guns right and if you ride that slide
stop, you can occasionally lockthe slide to the rear and
that's what happened to you.
Same thing happened to theGlock 42.
The point that I'm making isthat the problem was presented
from a wide variety of differentinfluencers oh, I used the word
influencer.
A wide variety of differentcontent creators brought this

(40:38):
problem to people's attention.
Right, what happened?
Sig fixed the problem.
Right.
People started doing drop testvideos on SIGs.
What'd they do?
They went back and went holyhell, we have to fix this.
They fixed the problem rightwhen the what is it?
The Palmetto State Armory AKV.

(40:58):
When that gun first came out?
Right, what happened?
Nine millimeter brass wasgetting stuck in the action from
time to time and Tim atMilitary Arms Channel said hey,
we should weld a little bracketin here to prevent those cases
from falling down in the actionand deadlining the gun.
What did they do?
They installed the MAC bracket.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Yeah, they named it after.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
And they named it the MAC bracket.
So people tend to get lost inthe minutiae and the argument of
oh, this person's a shill orwhatever.
But the truth is we discoverproblems in guns and we actually
help the company make the gunbetter by giving them feedback,
valuable feedback, now granted.
Okay, yeah, a company might bepaying us to make a piece of

(41:38):
content, but we're also kind ofdoing some market research,
we're doing R&D, we're doingtesting and, as much as I hate
to say this y'all and look I'mI'm being completely transparent
and truthful with you guys.
Ok, when we talk about rollingchanges in guns, you know,
especially firearms.
Firearms are a culprit for this.

(41:59):
Sometimes they will readthrough comment section and
they'll go wow, this seems to besomething that people are
addressing and, believe me, thatdata is extremely valuable to a
gun company, whether or notyou're actually selling firearms
for them or actually moving theneedle for sales.
That may not even necessarilybe what they're trying to go for

(42:22):
.
They might actually just wantto read through all the comments
and know what people have tosay.
That is valuable data to a guncompany.
Imagine you're a smallfledgling gun company trying to
get off the ground and a bigcontent creator makes a video
and you have I don't know adecent amount of views and
you've got a bunch of commentsto read through.
Say you've got 150 comments.

(42:42):
Well, that's 150 people thatare theoretically giving you
some feedback on your product.
That is incredibly valuabledata.
All right, and say you own agun company and you're reading
through the comments and let'ssay 60% of the comments are I
love this gun, but it'soverpriced.
All right, what does that tellyou?

(43:04):
And maybe you need to work onyour pricing structure.
Maybe you need to work onmaking the gun a little bit less
expensive.
Now, I'm not going to say whichcompany, cause I don't want
them to get angry at me, butit's a company that I've done
some stuff with in the past.
They have a popular rifle out,right.
And what did they do?
They read through a lot ofcomments and they realized like,
wow, people really love thisgun, but they don't like how

(43:25):
expensive the top end one is.
Well, let's make one a little,a little cheaper.
Let's change some things.
Hey, maybe it doesn't need thisfeature, that feature.
Let's make it a little cheaperand make a little bit more
available price point that linesup with what people were
wanting.
Let's give the people what theywant.
They say they want.
Hey, if five or six, you know, Idon't know if 50, 60 people say

(43:49):
, well, if this rifle was $1,400instead of $2,100, I'd probably
buy it.
Ding ding, ding, Now you go.
Okay, can I make it for a pricepoint that people are willing
to pay?
Ding ding, ding, now you go.
Okay, can I make it for a pricepoint that people are willing
to pay?
Or is this a pipe dream?
Or is it only going to be a gunthat is never going to break
under that $2,000 price pointfor a rifle?

(44:10):
I mean, look, that's just thereality.
Y'all Companies use thiscontent to help them make
decisions on what to continuemaking right.
What did Glock announce at NRA?
They announced that they'regoing to stop making some Glock
models.
Why do you think that is Well,they know from sales numbers if
something is selling or not.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
But they also know from reading through comments
and looking through social mediaif people have the demand for
it or not, if people are askingfor it or not.
So all of those things cometogether.
So a piece of content is amutual collaboration between my
viewers and me.
My viewers are giving theirfeedback, I'm giving my feedback
, and anyone is welcome to opensource, read through that

(44:52):
feedback.
It's there for everyone to see.
I don't hide comments, I don'tpin anything.
I just let the comment sectiongo crazy.
I don't pin anything.
I just let the comment sectiongo crazy and guess what?
Everyone can read through it.
You know what my fellow viewersare thinking, you know what I'm
thinking and it's there.
It's just all out there inpublic, right there for everyone
to see.

(45:13):
I can't think of anything moretransparent than that.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
That and you know it allows the companies to stress
test very quickly, because very,very few people are going to
shoot 1,000 rounds out of theirCCW.
Most people they go to therange every once in a while.
They might shoot through theammo that they've had in there
for like a year and they cycleit through, but they're shooting
it in a very sterileenvironment.
A year and they cycle itthrough, but they're shooting it
in a very, very sterileenvironment.

(45:43):
It's you know gun range.
They might pop you know 25rounds, reload, go home, do
whatever with.
When you come out to contentcreators, they're taking that
thing through the gambit, likewe did.
We did that video.
We put a thousand roundsthrough it in a day, three
different shooters, differentmags, different ammo.
You know we were able to getsome uh some malfunctions, some

(46:03):
not.
They're able to get all thatinformation, all that data in a
very short amount of time andthat would.
That would simulate what youwould get from shooting from
three different shooters withthree different ammunition types
and all stair conditions it's'swindy, it's cold, it's rainy so
you do that across the boardwith a lot of other content

(46:25):
creators and then bam, you havea very big sample size to view
and comments that you can kindof look through and see what the
issues are.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
At the end of the day , the cream is always going to
float to the top and, you know,if you consume enough content,
you're going to get a prettygood idea of what is going on
with that given item, and we aregoing to talk a little bit more
about that, but before we do, Iwant to give a quick thanks to
our friends at Undertak.
Look guys, I'm not kidding,their stuff is freaking awesome.
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(46:56):
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(47:17):
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(47:39):
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(48:02):
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Speaker 3 (48:17):
Get yourself some new under bridges, y'all guys,
amazing products, dude like weuse them very, very soft.
Um, I mean, if you're not inthe active lifestyle, you know
you can still wear them, but ifyou happen to be in that active
lifestyle, they're perfect, manright so what did I just do?

Speaker 2 (48:36):
I read an ad in a piece of content I'm trying to
sell you a product.
I'm trying to sell you someUndertak underwear.
Go buy it.
And you should go buy it.
Now that's me being aninfluencer is for me to say, hey
, go buy this underwear.
Yes, undertak supports thisshow, but we use the product.
Yes, we use the product.
We can make this show becauseUndertak helps us out.

(48:59):
They pay us.
They pay for the promotionalspot to put them there to you
know.
So they support us.
We use their stuff.
It's a win-win.
You know you support them, it'ssupporting us.
So that's the way to thinkabout it.
Don't overthink something.
If an influencer I use thatterm lightly, but it is weird, I

(49:20):
hate to think of it that waybut if a content creator gives a
plug or something, you canignore it if you want or if you
really love what that contentcreator does.
When you purchase products thatthey're promoting on their show
, that directly supports thatcontent creator to continue
putting out the content thatthey create.
They're not putting those plugsinto their content for their

(49:40):
own health.
They're not doing it for theirown good.
They're doing it because theyhave a financial relationship
with the, with those people.
But also it is on each contentcreator to go.
Well, I'm not going to discussa product I wouldn't use, I
wouldn't buy, that I wouldn't,personally at least, endorse as
being a solid product or companyor yeah.

(50:00):
So let's say that if a companycame to me that I didn't agree
with their mission or ethos as acompany or maybe I don't even
like their products or use theirproducts I would never accept
money from them to do a plug inmy show, if it's not something I
would use.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
I would wear undertaxed underwear every day.
They could put an Ivy 88 logoon the butt.
If they want, with a cherryunder it, I'll wear it.
I mean because it's goodunderwear.
It has nothing to do with theshow.
I love their underwear.
Yep they got some really coolpullovers too.
Yeah, so go buy some.

(50:36):
Damn it.
There you go.
Am I being influencing?
Am I influencing, matt?
I think you're just being.
Is that?
Am I being influencing?
Is that?
Am I influencing, matt?
I think you're just beinghonest.
Yeah, am I influencing here?
I mean, that's the truth.
Um, we are kind of getting on,uh, on time for the show, but I
do want to discuss how, invarious industries, matt, you
know, it is so crazy how somecontent creators will put out

(51:05):
content that purposely bashes aproduct.
So sometimes the needle movesin the other direction.
You're going to see people whomaybe they make a video
glorifying a certain product.
You'll also have people thatmake videos saying, oh, this gun
sucks, or it failed, or it'sawful, or hey, we did some
torture tests and here's whathappened.
So there's so many things onthat spectrum of what a gun is
capable of, what it can do, likesuch as our meltdown videos,

(51:27):
like when we do our full automeltdown tests.
What are we really proving?
We're not really provinganything.
It's just kind of more of alike wow, I would never do that
to my gun.
You know, someone's going towatch that video for
confirmation bias.
They already own whatever gunthat I'm killing in that video.
They just want to see how wellit does when a crazy redneck in

(51:51):
a in a in a freaking suit, uh,melt it down till it catches on
fire.
Yep, it's not about whether ornot you would do it.
It's about that confirmationbias of huh.
If I did do it, this is whatwould happen.
It it's about that confirmationbias of huh.
If I did do it, this is whatwould happen.
And sometimes that's fun too,so it's.
It's not really meant to besuper educational, it's just
more like a hey, y'all watchthis Like.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
It's just what would happen?
Hold my beer.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yeah, hold my beer, I mean.
And some content is just likethat Um, such as some of the
extreme mud tests.
I know you've seen probably uh,ian and some of those other
guys have done some uh mud testvideos.
You know that's interesting tosee.
Am I going to drag my M1 Garandthrough the mud and get it
super muddy?
I'm going to try to avoid thatscenario, right?

(52:39):
I wouldn't put my body down inthe mud willingly.
Why would I put my rifle inthere?
So is the average person goingto get caked in mud?

Speaker 3 (52:48):
No.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Or sand?
Probably not.
They're going to avoid thatscenario and I always tell
people like would you do that?
Would you put your body in that?
If you're in the field, you'rean infantry soldier.
Are you going to go around thegiant pit of mud if you can, or
are you going to walk through it?
You're going to go around itLike you're not going to go out

(53:09):
of your way to get in that?

Speaker 3 (53:12):
I'll tell you and you know this as well as I do as an
infantry reformer but you mayhave to.
Yeah, you will have to, but Iwill tell you.
The first thing that you aredoing is protecting that rifle.
You jump in the water riflegoes up if you're in the mud.
You're on your back shimmyingthe rifles in the air, like you
are doing everything humanlypossible to keep that rifle off

(53:34):
the ground, out of the dirt, outof the mud, out of the water.
Um, it would be a you wouldhave to be in a very, very
austere place to have some ofthat stuff happen.
Like throwing mud into thechamber and like riding the bolt
forward with mud inside, likewhere are you at?
Like I've seen footage inukraine.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
That's not that bad, I mean geez and uh, and I will
say that a lot of the stoppagesthat I've seen in firearms on
the battlefield in Ukraine havebeen really from just lack of
maintenance and some of themhave been ammunition related
failures, such as some of theirdrug and knobs.
They were using commercial wolfammunition of a heavy grain

(54:16):
weight and they're having someissues in some of the drug and
knobs and the SVD.
You know the SVDs usingcommercial ammo and they were
stopping up and having, you know, some chambering issues.
Another issue that I saw wasthat some of the ammo has a
lacquer primer sealant and asthe guns heat up in full auto,
that sealant melts and it cancreate enough of an obstruction

(54:40):
to hold the firing pin back andthe gun will fail, won't go off.
You're in the field every daygetting shot at every day.
You may not have time to scrubyour bolt down or maybe you
don't think about it or make thetime.
So when we talk about in thefield and having a problem with
it with a firearm in the field,like what would you see in
ukraine?
Um, those 74s, like a lot ofthem, they're running them

(55:03):
suppressed, with suppressors andall that extra back pressure
and that type of a weapon system.
Yeah, the gun fouls up quicker.
You get way more crap in thebowl corrosion and in the
corrosive ammo and and over timeI mean yeah, you're going to
start to experience issues.
So I would say lack ofmaintenance is going to give you
a problem with your rifle in atheater of combat way quicker

(55:27):
than exposure to the elements.
Now, exposure to the elementsis a factor, but I think the use
of the gun and neglect of thegun through the course of
everyday use, and if you neglectit, that's going to cause way
more of a problem in thelongterm than any amount of
exposure ever will.
I mean, think about Iraq.
How all that sand everywhere.
How many times did you have afailure of your rifle because of

(55:49):
sand?

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Zero.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Right.
How many times did the Ma Deucechoke up because someone was
too lazy to clean it?

Speaker 3 (55:57):
More often than not, and that was exactly the case
with the 240.
Every more often than not, andthat was exactly the case with
the 240.
Every time I got, I never tooksomebody else's 240.
And the one time that I tooksomebody else's 240, I spent the
entire time scraping that boltoff, getting all that carbon off
of the bolt, because they justrefused to clean it.
I was like never again and Iknow who it is.
I'm not going to say who it is.

(56:18):
I was very, very upset becausewhen I needed it, bro, when I
needed it, I had to shoot singleaction.
I was like this is ridiculous.
I was just pulling the boltback, firing single action, and
then after that it took meprobably a good four hours to
clean that thing out and I waslike, whoever took my 240, I'm
going to get it back.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know who you're talking
about too.
I'm not gonna say his name, butI that's crazy after 20 years,
I remember, I know, I know theguy's name bro, it almost cost
me my life.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Man like that's a, that's a, that's a royal mess up
right there, man.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
I agree, but overall I think that we really covered
that influencer paradigm prettywell.
Um, you know, I I just had somethoughts I want to share about
that, because I feel like peoplereally get it twisted and I
think there's a lot of hateattached to it, and I don't know
if that hate just comes from aplace of jealousy.
Maybe they see what you'redoing and they see you're
successful at it and they'rejealous that they're not doing

(57:12):
it.
Or they're jealous that theydidn't think of it.
Or they're jealous that theydidn't do it in the beginning
like you did and grow like youdid.
Or maybe they just despise thatyou're successful.
I mean, look, there's a lot ofthat, there's a lot of that out
there.
People some people don't want tosee someone successful.
They hate the idea of someonethat they view being like them

(57:34):
very much, being more successfulthan them.
If people look at my contentand they see me as an everyday
guy but yet I live like a guythat's not an everyday guy Well,
all of a sudden they're goingto be like well, damn, you're
not an everyday guy, you're,you're, you're some person who
puts themselves on a pedestal orsomething like that.
Or maybe you have some overglorified sense of

(57:55):
self-importance, and thosethings simply aren't true.
I don't really look at myselflike that.
I've always just consideredmyself a well-known average
person.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
Yeah, and that, well, they have a name for that.
It's called the crab pot theory.
Really, what's that?
If you ever watch, if you gocrabbing and you catch your
crabs and you put them in afive-gallon bucket, right, the
crabs all pile up and there isgoing to be a point in time
where the crabs on top can climbup.
They'll reach up and they'llgrab the rim and they'll pull

(58:25):
themselves up, but the crabsbelow them will reach up and
pull them back down, because ifthey can't escape, you can't
escape.
So if you look it up, guys,it's the actual thing, is called
crab pot theory and like that'sthe same.
If people can't be successful,they want to drag you, they want

(58:46):
to pull you down, they want totear you down because they don't
want you to be successfuleither, and it's literally
called crab pot theory.
What?
Yes, you're kidding me.
No, it's.
It's a real thing, man, andthat's why you get around people
Like some people are justnegative all the time, like
we've all, we've all been aroundthose people.
They're negative, they'realways talking bad.
They're always talking badabout somebody else this person,
that person because they're notas successful or they're not as

(59:10):
good as that person or anybodyelse.
So they, all they want to do isjust pull you down.
Misery loves company.
That's like the prime exampleof that.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
What a, what a great, great way to end the show.
I mean that is so cool.
You know and I want people torealize too that it takes a lot
of dang work to produce contentthat you're putting out on the
internet, essentially for free.
Remember in the early days whenI was putting out videos on my
Sony CyberShot?
If you look at some of my earlycontent, it's literally just a
little like four megapixels SonyCyberShot camera, like a

(59:42):
literal tiny little digitalcamera that I was making my
videos on because that's all Ihad.
And I leave those videos upbecause I think it's just
important for people to see theprogression.
But, like in those early dayswhen putting out content, there
was no rhyme or reason, it wasjust I don't know, we were just
making videos.
It just felt like somethingcool to do, like to document
things that we happen to alreadybe doing, and I still kind of

(01:00:05):
treat it that way.
Yeah, it's stuff I wouldalready be doing and some of it
has some promotional potentialwhere, yeah, a company might be
paying me for my time to give anopinion on a certain gun, but
it's still always under theguise of something that I would
be doing.
I would be going out to testthat gun anyway.
I might as well film it andshow what's happening while it
happens.
That's right, and I just thinkpeople tend to undervalue how

(01:00:28):
much time it takes for a contentcreator to film and edit and
syndicate and deal with all thatstuff.
I mean, it is a job.
When you do it at the levelthat a lot of us are doing it at
, and do it on a full-time basis, it's it's quite, uh quite the
job.
Um, so we are going to endtoday's show.
Uh, before we get rolling toofar in the show, though, I want

(01:00:51):
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Now the Strikeman stuff'spretty legit.
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You know, it is so crazy howthe training world has changed
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(01:02:54):
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Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Like it is not just dry fire anymore Now, like they
can work out issues with yourtrigger press.
They know if you're healing,they know if it says so many
like some of the data pointsthat make us such better
shooters now than what we usedto have.
The training aids are soamazing, and what we have now
it's.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
It is crazy the amount of information you can
get.
You used to have to shoot andgo look at how your shot group
looked like and then you have totry oh, am I slapping the
trigger?
Am I healing it?
Am I, is my grip not good?
Am I, you know, not breathingcorrectly?
Now, dude, you can shoot threeclicks on a dry fire and it'll

(01:03:32):
tell you everything you need toknow.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
It is crazy, like how well that stuff works for
helping out with your shootingand everything.
So you know, I think we coveredthings pretty well and uh, is
there anything else you want toadd before we leave today's show
?
Matt?

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
No, I mean, I think you, you, you explained a lot.
And guys, you know, if you everwonder what makes Eric able to
speak on this particular subject, I mean he's been doing it for
the better part of 15 years.
One of the youtube partners, um, you know, 2.75 million

(01:04:05):
subscribers.
That is enough.
Imagine having a subscriberbase big enough to fill 24 nfl
stadiums.
That's crazy, man, like to havelike roman coliseums, just them
.
You know, just a large amountof people.
That is a lot of experience andit's a lot of honesty.

(01:04:26):
And if you guys enjoyed theshow, you know, keep tuning in,
leave us some comments and, youknow, let us know how you feel.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
I really appreciate you guys supporting the podcast.
Matt and I are super excited tobring this back and, uh, thanks
to all of you who leavecomments and everything, we will
be taking on some questions inthe next show.
So make sure you follow me onTwitter.
Iraqveteran8888 on Twitter.
That's the most direct way toengage with me on a regular
basis.
I also give some politicalcommentary over there.

(01:04:56):
That might be a little spicy,very spicy.
If you want to follow some of myspicy commentary, uh, feel free
to tune in over on twitter, andsometimes I will drop tweets
and ask you for your questions,so I'm more than happy to answer
questions on the air.
Also, let us know how you likethe podcast here in the comment
section below.
We post on youtube, uh, everymonday, so you'll see the show
come up video form.
Some of you, I know, aredownloading the podcast in audio

(01:05:18):
form, uh, so if you want to seeour ugly mugs in person, you
can follow us over on YouTube.
So have yourselves a great day.
Many more videos on the way andmore podcasts on the way.
We'll see you soon.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
All right, Bye everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Thanks for listening to Life Liberty Pursuit.
If you enjoyed the show, besure to subscribe on Apple
Podcasts, spotify and anywhereelse podcasts are found.
Be sure to leave us a five-starreview.
We'd really appreciate that youcan support us over on
Ballistic Inc by pickingyourself up some merch and
remember guys, dangerous freedom.
Have a good one.