December 13, 2024 • 72 mins
Four years ago, my daily rants on the ride home sparked an idea that blossomed into the Ride Home Rants podcast. Join me, Mike Bono, and our trusty podcast manager, Johnny "Fiddy" Falconi, as we reminisce about our podcasting journey and share the hilarious moments and behind-the-scenes chaos that brought us here. From spontaneous episodes recorded mere days before airing to a more organized process, we’ve had our fair share of learning curves and triumphs. We even had a few furry interruptions who have added some unexpected charm to our recordings.
Our podcast isn’t just about us; it’s about the fascinating guests who’ve shared their stories with us. Remember when we had middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik and the legendary college football coach Hal Mumme on the show? Those were episodes that truly expanded our horizons and brought a richness to our discussions. We’ve also enjoyed the whimsical segment, "Fast Fiddy Five," where guests tackle five unpredictable questions, adding a lighthearted twist to our conversations. It’s a segment that’s become beloved by listeners and guests alike, bringing out laughter and surprising insights.
As we celebrate our anniversary, we’re excited about what’s next for the Ride Home Rants podcast. Whether it’s exploring new thematic shows, revisiting favorite towns, or adding more fun and thought-provoking content, there’s plenty to look forward to. With gratitude, we thank our listeners, co-hosts, and guests for being a part of this incredible journey. Your support has been invaluable, and we can’t wait to continue sharing more laughs, stories, and engaging episodes with all of you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home
Rants podcast.
This is, as always, your host,mike Bono.
This is a very special episodefor me.
This is actually the four-yearanniversary show of the Ride
Home Rants podcast and it ishard to believe that it's been
four years since I started thisshow and we're going to talk all
(00:24):
things about the show since Istarted this show.
And we're going to talk allthings about the show and with
me today, as always, everybodyknows and loves this man and he
is the wonderful manager of thepodcast.
Johnny Fitty Falcone is goingto sit here and he's going to
help me talk all through theshow, basically how it got
started, how we got Johnnyinvolved, and we're going to
(00:44):
break down a couple of ourfavorite episodes and everything
like that.
So, figetti, what's going on,brother?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, man, a lot of great information we're going to
talk about today, kind ofreflect back on, you know, the
four years you've had the showand the little less than four
years I've been on and you know,going into season five and
going to kind of just give allthe viewers and going into
Season 5 and going to kind ofjust give all the viewers a
little behind-the-scenes thingof how we truly work here at
Ride Home Rants, not onlyreleasing the shows, but what
(01:13):
we're doing in the meantimebehind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, a lot of people don't see what happens.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
They hear the show when it comes out on Wednesdays
and special holidays andeverything like that, but they
don't see the work that we putin behind the scenes, and I
think it's going to open up alot of eyes to anybody who's
interested in getting intopodcasting yeah, you know for
sure, when you think of likepodcasts, you just think of like
all the things that go on withthe, with the show, when you're
airing shows, but you don'treally know about from what we
(01:41):
do and we'll talk about findingguests and doing the roundtables
and the topics, and you knowwhat days we want to air this
and you know, uh, just moving itaround and what's the best days
that we could try to getdownloads, and how we market in
this and all those cool thingswe're going to talk about today.
So, yeah, a lot of behind thescenes stuff yeah, that's,
that's always fun to talk about.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That I know.
Uh, up on my Patreon I do posta couple of videos basically
every month where it's showing alot of the behind the scenes,
not necessarily getting theguest, but all the editing and
everything that goes into makingthis show happen.
I even know, up on my TikTok atMike Bono underscore comedian I
(02:24):
do every now and again we golive on TikTok and it's me
recording a show and it's a lotof fun getting a lot of viewers
and, as I can see, the newest Iguess co-manager there Pickles
is with you today.
For those watching on Patreon,we got Johnny's dog Pickles with
us today.
Yeah, she's kind of with ustoday.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, she's a kind of being rambunctious right now.
It's all good.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
It's all good.
Yeah, it's, but it's.
You know, it's weird.
Thinking back to as well youknow starting this show four
years ago and you know wherewe're at now.
It's it's crazy to think thatit doesn't feel like it's been
four years for me.
You know what I mean, but it's.
Yeah, you brought this idea upto me and I was like holy crap,
(03:10):
it's been.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's been four years since I've been doing this show
yeah, you know, and I think youknow really I we've talked about
it and you talked about some ofthe episodes about ranting, you
know, on your way home fromwork.
But I guess really just kind oftell people truly you know,
know what inspired you to startthe show.
But how did you really go fromjust screaming in your truck on
(03:32):
a recording to, uh, you know,getting all the equipment and
starting the podcast?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, the um, the show started and a lot of my
comic buddies they laugh at thisevery time I tell them.
I'm like, well, what?
Well, I know a lot of comicshave podcasts, but why did you
start one?
And it was like you know, itwas basically out of spite.
I'm not going to lie.
Like it was March of 2020,right before the world shut down
with COVID, and I was talkingwith a record label out of
(04:00):
Atlanta and I was about to signa contract.
You know the.
The dream was coming true ofbecoming a full-time
professional standup comedian.
And then the world shut downand, like less than a week
before, I was about to get on aplane and fly to Atlanta and
sign the paperwork and I wastalking with him and it was like
(04:22):
, hey, man, it's 2020.
I feel like you can email thisstuff over to me, I can sign it
and then I'll email it back andhis exact response and I still
have the picture saved on myphone of his text response and
it was yeah, you don't reallyhave that much of an online
presence, so, unfortunately,we're going to pass now.
(04:44):
Really have that much of anonline presence, so
unfortunately, we're gonna passnow.
So you know months of talking tothis man and working everything
out and all the finer detailsthat that go into the behind the
scenes of being a comic.
And I stood over it for alittle bit and was still going
to work at a day job uh, sellingour fees at the time.
And I don't know, one day Ijust I was on my way home and
(05:08):
something just really irritatedme that day at work and I just
made a video on my way home inmy truck and I just kind of
ranted for the half hour drivethat I had home and a buddy of
mine reached out to me and hewas like dude, these are, these
are hysterical.
You just complaining aboutcustomers and that people coming
in and all, just all the stupidquestions you hear as a sales
(05:29):
professional.
And he goes this would be agreat podcast.
And I thought about it for alittle bit.
I recorded some more uh, justaudio, not, uh, any videos at
that point time.
And, lo and behold, in decemberI finally decided again you
know what that's let's post thisand let's see what happens.
The show kind of took off alittle bit at the start of it.
(05:53):
Lo and behold, four years laterit's changed and it's evolved
over the years.
It went from me ranting on myway home from work and talking
about customers and the stupidquestions that I would hear on a
daily basis.
Um, and it was that, and someof them like I have them wrote
(06:15):
down they've become part of my,my stand-up act too as well,
which always gets a big laughbecause people can relate to
that, because they hear it orthey're the ones that ask it and
they realize how dumb of aquestion it actually is.
But then I believe you were thefirst guest that I ever brought
(06:36):
onto the show.
We were just, I think we werejust shooting the shit one day
via text and you had mentionedlike hey, why don't you have
guests come on from other areasand see if you can kind of grow
the reach a little bit?
I was like, well, let's startwith you.
I mean, no better way to startthan with somebody that I went
to college with, you know I'mfriends with, and then it'd be
(06:59):
an easy conversation.
And we got to talking after thatepisode and that's kind of
where you got involved with withthe show and kind of had an
idea and we kind of rolled withit from there and that was
probably, oh hell, like five,six months into me doing, uh,
just solo shows, with mepropping my phone up on a
(07:20):
mountain, my truck, and justkind of ranting about my day on
my way home, and and that's, andI'm out in my truck and just
kind of ranting about my day onmy way home and that's, if my
memory serves me correctly.
That's kind of how you gotinvolved with the show.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, so I actually remember the first time I was on
was early January of 2021because we previewed the wild
card weekend, so you're aboutprobably six weeks into the
actual podcast itself.
Um, but I remember you actually.
I think you made a, made a poston social media and you were
(07:54):
like hey, I'm looking for guestsand I was like I'll be a guest.
That's like after we, you know,a couple years after we
reconnected, when I was livingdown in Jefferson County.
So I was like yeah, I'll, I'llbe your guest.
And then I think you know youhad maybe a couple other shows
and I was like hey, you know,that's when I was like hey, man,
like why don't you let me likeI know some people, let me
(08:16):
manage this and let me get someguests on, you know?
And then you're like okay, andthe next thing, you know, I had
(08:40):
like four people lined up in thenext month for you.
I think the four first showsbut I know it was aaron, taco,
bob and phil were the firstones- yeah in february, you know
.
And then from there I was likewell, I know more people, so
then we just start reaching outto those people.
Um, but you probably rememberthat we would for people that
don't know.
We of course pre-record theshow, but we were only
(09:02):
pre-recording these people likefour or five days in advance of
the show, like between thursdayto that tuesday and you had air
on wednesdays and then, as wegot a little bit busier into the
summer of 21, we started likereally pre-recording out by a
couple weeks.
So, yes, everyone, the show isrecorded a couple of weeks in
(09:25):
advance sometimes, and sometimeswe've even recorded like seven
or eight weeks into the future,with the ebbs and flows of
getting guests and stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, a lot of times, you know, I mean I don't want
this to sound like a bad thing,but a lot of times we are at the
mercy of the guests.
A lot of times we are at themercy of the guests and you know
when they can have some freetime to sit and record with me
for an hour.
And you know, there's timeswhen it's like, all right, well,
I have this show coming up andthere's some pressing here that
(09:57):
I kind of need to get out and Iwant to get out for the guests
to help them promote that, andall right, well, now we're
running into a holiday, I have aholiday show I want to put out,
and then, yeah, then you justkind of it's like three, four
weeks later and it's like, oh, Istill have this show that I've
got to air and then you canfinally get the show on.
(10:19):
But yeah, it was.
I'll say it was hectic in thebeginning when we were recording
three, four days before theshow actually aired, uh, trying
to get everything edited and cutdown to about a half hour, 45
minutes at the time, and reallymaking the show work and making
(10:40):
sure the flow.
Uh was good, because I'll'lltell you I was all over the
place.
Those first couple of recordings, like I feel like it was just
like just all kind of jumbledtogether and just kind of like
the way my mind worked andasking the questions and there
was like it didn't seem likethere was a lot of flow, like
(11:05):
there is now.
Like we really take the timenow, you know behind the scenes
and really work out thequestions and you know, okay,
how is this going to work?
This sounds like this.
We should ask this before thisquestion.
We should do this and we reallybreak down an outline instead
of just anywhere from like eightto ten questions that we want
(11:28):
to ask the guest.
And I think it shows throughoutthe shows that people are
listening to.
But my favorite thing that westarted doing we were at the end
of year one or beginning ofyear two when we started doing
the roundtables yeah, I thinkthose started I want to say more
(11:50):
in in year two.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
But going back to what you're saying, like, so,
for people that don't know, youknow a lot of the, a lot of the
guests in like the first seasonand most of the second season.
Those are all people mike and Iknew, like personally knew,
yeah, and really it was just infirst.
The first couple of months itwas more like hey, bono, like
(12:13):
this is this person, this istheir background, and then you
know, you would just go with itand just talk to them kind of
about whatever.
But yes, as the shows went on,for people that don't know, now
it's like okay, hey, like let'stalk about where they're from,
where they went to school.
You know how long they've beenin this career, you know, and
(12:34):
we've really kind of learnedthat as we went along.
Um, you know, because the onething I would say and you know
we've always talked about thisit's it's not just having us on
talking about these guests, it'salso the guests promoting
themselves and talking aboutwhere they've come from.
You know, it's one thing we'vereally prided ourselves on here
is having multiple guests whoare very diverse in multiple
(12:54):
fields, from all over the world,um, I remember we kind of said
this.
Saying at the beginning waslike, let me help you, help me
help you, um, and you know, forpeople who don't know what that
means it's, you know, let mehelp you.
You know, get yourself outthere, but at the same time,
you're helping us get our nameout there as well.
So you know, I think that'sjust stuff.
We all really went through atrial and error and we learned
(13:17):
and you know, we got into areally good structure.
But, yeah, the round tablesreally came I want to say,
probably more towards seasontwo's ending, because that's
when we started to get a littlebit tight on guests and having
those stand our horizon.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
We did get tight on guests there after the first
year because you know a lot ofpeople you know.
You don't think about how manypeople you actually know,
whether that be, you know,friends or even acquaintances
that you met along the way butthere's 52 weeks in a year and
we're trying to find 52 peopleto be on the show and yeah.
(13:57):
But yeah, it was probablycoming up near the end of year
two.
You're probably right, it wasprobably season two and we were
like all right, we're kind ofout of people we know.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, because the other problem was we were not
wasn't a problem, it was a goodthing for us.
But we were airing at the endof season two we were airing
holiday episodes on top of ourregular episodes.
And in year three we did allalmost all holiday episodes on
(14:29):
top of our regular episodes.
Not only do you have 52 weeks ayear, you say you add in six or
12 holidays, between six and 12holidays, so I'm like 64 shows.
So you really think about we'reon four years, you know you're
over wherever we're at 200 andwe're at like two, almost two 40
or something, yeah.
(14:49):
Yeah, you know, think about thatand there's only a couple of
solo shows in there from thebeginning.
The rest are people aroundtables.
So you know, you start to kindof run out of knowing people.
I mean that's a lot of peoplefor two people.
But you know, it's been worthit, it's been fun and that's why
we've really incorporated theround tables as well, though, to
(15:10):
get some just different, funother shows on there.
And you know, I think for themost part people enjoy the the
round tables that we do do yeah,I enjoy the round tables and
you know, from those roundtables too as well.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I mean, we've gotten a lot more guests to come on, or
, as we call them, the soloshows.
Uh, with the solo guests andnot the round tables, but from
other guests being like, hey, Iknow this person, they, they
probably want to be on.
Let me reach out to them andI'll get you guys in contact
with them and that's definitelyhelped, um, getting a bunch of
(15:38):
people together and it reallyhelps grow.
But yeah, we, we always startedwith the help me, help you.
You know what I mean.
Like I, I love helping anybodyin any way I can.
That's kind of where this showhas evolved to.
It's not just me, you know,sitting behind a microphone and
complaining about my day anymore, it's me trying to help as many
people as possible.
(15:58):
The show's getting a, you know,pretty decent reach.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
For two guys who just didn't know, jack squad, about
podcasting when we first startedand when I first started and
just kind of diving head firstinto it, uh, but yeah, and and I
think too, like and this isn'ttrying to toot our own horn or
anything like that but if youlook at the people that have
been on, you know the peoplethat have wanted to be involved
(16:23):
with, like sponsors and roundtables and you know co-hosts and
all that stuff.
You know people just I thinkthey enjoy being on because we
keep it fun, we keep itlighthearted, you know, but we
do have our serious moments andour shows and things like that.
But I think people just enjoythat because you know this isn't
(16:43):
a political podcast.
This, this isn't anything wetry to make serious.
You know we, we love everybodythat comes on here, from every
background and all that, and Ithink that's just something that
makes people a lot, a lot morewilling to come back on because
we're it's a comfortable show.
You know we really try to caterto everybody anybody on that.
(17:07):
So, yeah, I mean it was just alot of trial and error, but I
think we've had a lot of goodtrials and a few errors looking
back at it, so you know somethings you live and learn with,
but yeah, we've definitely hadmore good than than I'd say
errors, on this one for for sureuh, yeah oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I would say one thing that that has become a big hit
and we kind of didn't know itand we just kind of like said we
do talk about some serioustopics on the show, but when we
have just that solo guest, wehave the fun way that we end the
show now and the Fast, fittyFive and the five random, fun,
silly questions that we ask theguests and these are all for
(17:42):
everyone out there and these areall for everyone out there.
These are all fitting.
He sends them to me like theday we record and he's been
asking these questions to peopleby himself since I've known him
in college.
And this is just the way yourmind works and those random
questions and they get a laughevery time but every guest you
(18:06):
could see them chuckle and soI'm reading the questions and
it's just a fun, light heartedway that we we have found to end
the show.
But one thing I think everybodywants to know is so fanny how
do you come up with thesequestions?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
you know, honestly, a lot of them, just like I was
just thinking about my drivingin my car to work.
Or I'm at home and I'm like man, how bad would it hurt to like
get hit in the face with thatpillow right there?
Or, like you know, if I ranoutside and tried to like run
into that bush, would that hurt?
Or, man, this pen's out of ink,I'd rather write with a pencil.
(18:44):
It's just like random thingslike that I think about.
Or, like you know, is Pepsi orCoke better?
It's just things that pop intomy mind.
And I'm glad we started thatbecause, like when we started
that in the summer of 21, I wantto say like maybe it was right
around the time, like I don'tknow, mr askew was on for the
first time, or like ricky stansy, like one of those guys was on
(19:07):
and we started.
We started and I think it justwas been a lot of, a lot of fun
since.
But yeah, I really just come upwith them like at random, just
around the house or driving towork, or you know something like
that.
But uh, sometimes they're alittle bit more uh, a little bit
more, I would say, criticalthinking involved and some of
them, you just kind of let theanswers fly, you know, uh, right
(19:30):
away when you hear it.
So, um, just kind of depends, Iguess, on how I'm feeling for
today, when I, uh, when I makethem for the, for the, for the
guest, you know, and sometimesif I don't really know the guest
really well, I try to take it alittle bit easier, because then
I want them to be like who, whois this fitty guy?
That's like making thesequestions and when?
Why would it?
Why would a kangaroo fight 12giraffes?
(19:52):
Like?
you know, or just something likelike you think I'm like crazy,
or like you know I saw somethinglike hey, would you rather like
have it be day or night, youknow, just like simple things
like that.
So I I try to, I I try to notintimidate the people that
really don't know me too wellwith those questions.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I'll say it was, you know, a recent recording with
Lucas and she was.
She listened to a couple ofshows, so she was already like
mentally preparing herself forthe fast five and after we were
done she was just like I wasreally expecting a lot of the
animal questions, like thekangaroo fighting six cats or
(20:35):
stuff like that, and she's likeI feel like he took it easy on
me.
She's like I'm going to have tocome back on later on and let
him just really go for it.
So I think people are lookingmore forward to those
off-the-wall, really crazyquestions.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, I think she was looking forward to that.
I know when you and Joerecorded with Coach Garvey, he
even said I was expecting harderquestions than that.
So people do want them.
I think people like them.
I think it's like what, uh, timweaver said coach weaver when
he was on like those are thingslike 21 year olds and 22 year
(21:13):
olds like argue about atfootball practice and they're
they're at brown university,like you know, one of the
highest academic schools in thecountry, and they're talking
about like animals fighting andgetting locked in cages with
like animals and fighting WWFwrestlers and you know all that
crazy stuff that kids talk about.
That I talked about in collegeand I just continued it almost
20 years later.
(21:33):
So you know, here we are at thefast 55 now.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I think I really got the idea because you used to
post those questions on, likeyour Instagram story, just, or
something like that.
I did I used to.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I used to do do that, especially when I was like
really bored during covid.
I'd be like is east or westbetter?
And people would just vote.
I'm like, if people don't voteon your poll, do they think
you're better or do they thinkthey're better than you?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
it's just like I would do those just nonsense
like that for questions and yeah, I remember seeing those and
you were a part of the show andI was just like you know what,
let's try this on the show, likesee what people actually think
when they're not just kind ofbored scrolling through
Instagram and they see, you know, johnny Fitty Falcone story is
(22:22):
like, oh well, it's funny, butI'm not going to answer the poll
because I'm kind of like thatI'll see it and I'll answer it
in my head, but I won't actuallyanswer it on social media.
I don't know why, but it's funto me now, like if I see
somebody posting something likethat, it's like, well, now I
have to answer it.
I make I've been making peoplefor damn near three years now on
(22:43):
the show answer questions, butyeah, it's a lot of fun and it's
something we definitely aregoing to be continuing doing.
So don't think this is the endof that segment yet.
Just because I call itroundtable season, it seems like
as we get closer to theholidays, we seem to have more
(23:04):
and more roundtables on ratherthan the individual guests,
which I'm for, you know.
I mean I love bringing a groupof people together and, you know
, just bouncing ideas or youknow their different opinions
off of each other and it reallybecomes more, I don't want to
say of a debate show, but itbecomes more of a debate between
, if we're talking like theshows we got coming up, when
(23:27):
we're going to be, you know,preview in um, the college
football, uh, championship, andwe're going to be, you know,
talking about the playoff andthen the super bowl show, those
ones, you mean, you get sportsguys together and it's just
gonna be nonsense when, when youknow, with everyone's opinions
(23:47):
on everything, yeah, and youknow the other ones for people
that like don't know, like we'vereally added in new ones this
year and we highly encourage youto check them out.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Like we added all things movies, right, or you
know, we never really thoughtabout them.
We're like well, people lovemovies.
Let's like talk about get abunch of people and talk about
movies and we had one aboutvacations and actually one of
the guests, nicole, wasrecording from the airport
before she got on an airplane togo on vacation um, um, you know
we, you know we've had onthings about like small business
(24:20):
round tables and retiredcollege athletes, our story.
Um, you know, uh, talking abouttowns like Pittsburgh and
Cleveland and Willoughby.
You know why those towns aregreat, you know all things about
that.
So now we're doing the sportsshows, you know previewing the
world series and you knowbaseball season We've always
done and basketball and all that.
(24:42):
But we're doing a lot of otherthings to not only promote these
other towns but also have alittle bit of fun too, about
like vacations and movies.
I think people can relate to alot of that, of that stuff.
And I think when we'repreviewing or talking about, or
however you want to word it,these different areas like
Pittsburgh and Cleveland andWilloughby and we did a
Youngstown one, you know, forpeople that haven't been to
(25:05):
those towns, that maybe areoutside of that listening or
viewing area, you know it makesthem excited to maybe want to go
to those places and check themout, right, because people may
know cleveland and pittsburghbut they've never been there.
Not everybody may knowyoungstown or willoughby.
Um, you know, but we've doneshows promoting them too.
So, you know, I think we do alot of light-hearted ones too.
(25:25):
I'm really excited about um,and everybody is probably going
to come out in january, so youcan, you have a little bit of
time to wait for it.
But the, uh, the all thingsabout no things, and that'll be
recorded here in December andit'll literally be a show.
I already have the topics about12 or 13 things that are very
random.
(25:45):
We talk about all things but nothings in particular.
So it'll be a good time.
I'm sure everybody will lovethat.
It's going to be like anextended version of the Fast 55.
So we'll have a little bit offun when we do that.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So, yeah, so we try to have some fun on those round
tables definitely lookingforward to recording that show,
like I can't wait to to recordthat show.
And when you brought that ideaup to me, it was just like it
instantly brought me back to theshow seinfeld.
That's a show about nothing.
That whole episode, that'sbasically what that podcast is
(26:20):
going to be A show about nothing.
That episode is going to bebasically the Seinfeld show.
It's a show about nothing buteverything at the same time.
I can't wait I don't want togive too much away now because I
really want it to be a surprisewhen people actually get to
listen to that in January but alot more with getting back to
(26:48):
the behind-the-scenes stuff.
Not only has the show grown,with how we're breaking down the
show, how we're preparing forthe show.
The equipment that I've used,that I use now is evolving.
I'm actually even recording ona new microphone with a new mic
(27:10):
stand.
Never used to have a microphoneat the start of the show it was
literally either just myphone's microphone that it has
in it.
It was literally either just myphone's microphone that it has
in it or when I finally brokedown and bought a new laptop, a
laptop microphone that it had init.
And then you know the show keptgrowing and growing and I was
like you know what?
(27:30):
I think I need to break downand get a new microphone and get
a microphone actually and startrecording with a microphone
instead of just whatever'scoming on my phone or on my
computer.
And you know people don't seethat side of it.
Really I don't think is that.
You know there's a lot ofresearch, not only for the shows
(27:53):
that you're doing, depending onwho you're doing a show for,
but there's a thousand differentmicrophones out there.
There's a thousand differentmic stands out there,
switchboards, the to help withthe audio and everything like
that.
There's.
There's so much that goes intoit and you know it helped out a
little bit.
You know, uh, bethany collegebeing a communications major and
(28:16):
working for the radio stationthere, when I was there working
for the tv station there, when Iwas there working for the TV
station, I had a little bit ofan idea just from that.
But just getting the mic andthen setting it up and finding
that sweet spot to whereeverything, it took me probably
(28:36):
oh, I'll actually start usingthe microphone on episodes I'd
probably say a good three monthsto get everything leveled out
into where I didn't sound like arobot or it wasn't like
squeaking when I was talking toit and the levels were right
(28:58):
when guests were coming on,because that was a whole nother
thing because started in COVID.
So everything was done via zoomand the show is still done via
zoom right now too as well.
So that's another thing, youknow getting on the computer and
dealing with the.
You know the technology issues,I think, with guests.
You know the technology issues,I think, uh, with guests.
(29:18):
You know losing internetconnection and now I'm losing a
guest, and now you know fillingthat time where it's like, all
right, let them get their theirstuff back together and get it
back on and they'll be back in aminute or two.
But you know it's it's it's alot of like trial and error and
it's a lot of trial and error.
(29:39):
It's a lot of fun to figure itout.
I'm on my second microphonethat I've used.
My wife actually bought me onea couple years ago for Christmas
to help with the show.
Another thing with other shows,for everyone out there who hears
her in the background whenwe're asking questions and
(30:00):
especially in the Fast 55, sheloves answering those questions
in the background.
We're actually going to behaving her on the show.
I'm still we don't have a datefor it yet.
It's probably going to be moretowards January as well.
But everyone's going to get tomeet Mrs Bono and you know her
wonderful personality andeverything like that too as well
.
But, uh, everyone's going toget to meet mrs bono and you
know her wonderful personalityand everything like that too as
(30:22):
well.
Uh, so she won't just be in thebackground.
It's a little bit more workwith her, uh, coming on as a
guest, because one she hates thesound of her own voice always
fuck, as my cats are runningaround like crazy.
But yeah, so it's a lot of fun.
(30:43):
You're going to get to meet hertoo as well.
So I think that'll be a veryinteresting show and just our
dynamic is people don't see,they hear her in the background
and they hear our interactionsat a very brief minute level
with just the few interactionsthat we have.
But now we're going to have awhole show about it and I think
(31:04):
it's going to be eye-opening toa lot of people.
And a lot of people are going tosee why I don't need the right
material, uh, for my comedycareer.
So that's also another thingthat people are going to get a
behind the scenes thing too.
The nice thing that has comeabout with the technology, and
especially when we're breakingdown and making the outline for
the questions, is you can sendthem to me and then I can put
(31:27):
them in my notes on my phone andI have it to where it goes to
my computer so I don't have tobe sitting here reading off my
phone trying to remember thequestions and everything.
I can have everything all inone spot, which it's come a long
way from.
Just hey bono, here's so, andso here's what they do.
(31:47):
Go ahead and have a good showto now breaking it down and yeah
, the the equipment.
It's just something I don'tthink people think about with
podcasting at all.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
No, and you're right on that.
And like, if you think about itright, anyone can really zoom
in from a phone or a computer,like that's easy, but it's, you
know, is holding their internetright Because the show being, so
you know, global I mean we'vehad people from other countries
(32:24):
on and all over time zones andstuff like that so it's we have
no choice but to be on zoom foreverybody that you know, doesn't
know that.
So, because we are happy,people from Iceland and Turkey,
we've had people from Finland on, you know, and and then all
across the country.
So you know it's their internetas well you have to worry about
, and there has been times whenpeople have dropped or it's been
(32:45):
really choppy and things likethat.
And then you know the behindthe scenes about saving it to
zoom and then you have to editit with, like garage band.
I know you use dad and themicrophones and your mouth, too
close to the microphone, is afar away.
You know what's the lighting,like, you know things like that.
And um, also, I think likepeople don't realize that we
(33:09):
didn't also always have an intro.
You just went into the show atthe beginning and then, when we
had um speedo sheldon on as aguest.
You know, speedo uh wasgracious enough to make the the
intro.
So shout out speedo on that.
So the ride home rants, uhintro was done, done by him, you
(33:30):
know, as a favor of being onthe show.
So, um, you know there's it'scome a long way with uh, with
the intro and the technology and, yeah, the notes.
And you know, another thingpeople probably don't realize is
, as the shows went on here, youknow, and we've had more guests
, or even the roundtables, andwe come up with the topics and
send those in.
(33:51):
But, like, for the people thatare on now that we don't know,
like that, and I personallydon't know, we have to do
research on those people.
So if somebody's like, hey, Igot such and such, you know
they're interested in being on,or hey, I recommend, like these
four people and I'm like cool,now I need to go google these
(34:11):
people and ask these peopleabout themselves, because I need
material for the show to sendover to mike.
Um, about themselves, because Ineed material for the show to
send over to Mike.
So for, like, people that Idon't really know, most of the
time it's unless Mike has aguest now, it's usually me just
coming up with the most, most ofthe topics and then the fast
five, sending over to to Bono,who then does, you know, the
(34:33):
recording, and then all theediting of the show, and then we
figure out what day we're goingto post it if not wednesday.
So that's kind of how you knowwe do things too.
I do more of the reach out inthe the topics is what a manager
should do, and then mike, beingthe the owner and the host,
really owns it and hosts it anddoes all the behind the scenes
things.
So yeah, it's really come along way to technology and the
(34:55):
setup, that's for sure yeah, theediting too as well.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You know, garage band has been, uh, my go-to uh for
editing and you know it it'sbeen been a ride figuring out.
Like you said, you know, neverhad an intro and then we had
speedo on and you know he waslike, oh, I could write you guys
an intro, like that would beawesome, because now it's
(35:22):
literally just me just startinginto the show and there was no
buildup to it.
And you know, now I, you know,edit into each episode every
(35:44):
week, which at the beginning,that's what I was having to do.
I was having to take the audioclip that he sent me, put it
before the recording and thenhave the recording right after
it so that everything lined upand that it, it flew, flew,
flowed with the show.
Um, and now you know, a lot ofpeople you know, you know, have
(36:09):
the hosting site uh buzzsprout.
Uh buzzsprout, you know, has alot of features that help out
with stuff like that.
I just saved now the audio fileof the music and the intro to
the show and it automaticallyadds it in at the perfect time
(36:30):
whenever the show starts and itblends it in nicely.
So it's cut out a lot of the alot of the editing work on that
aspect.
So you know it's gotten a loteasier and I know we've thought
about it for a while.
They're getting away frombuzzsprout.
I'm not sure why we we thoughtthat but went right back to it
(36:52):
because it's just.
It's probably the best hostingsite that I've tried out.
Shout out to them for allowingus to keep hosting our show and
allowing it to go to Apple andGoogle and Spotify and
iHeartRadio Anywhere you get apodcast.
(37:12):
Now you can find us now.
At the start it was just Appleand Spotify were the only two
where you could hear the showand now it's heard on every
platform and it's a lot ofthings like that that having a
host site makes life a littleeasier for podcasters.
(37:36):
Makes life a little easier forpodcasters Mainly the
distribution to all the otherplatforms and the intros and the
post rolls where we havesponsorship reads in there.
Now that's another thing.
We're going to talk about thesponsors here a little later in
the show, but first we're almostup to 250 episodes 50.
(38:04):
So did you have any two gueststhat you thought were like the
biggest guests that we've had on?
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Man, we've had so many good guests.
But I would probably say if wehad to go with name, the name
only, I would say yes, you know,that would have been probably
Kelly Pavlik, former WBO WBCring and lineal middleweight
(38:34):
champion of the world right outof Youngstown.
Middleweight champion of theworld right out of youngstown,
um, you know he boxed in the2000s people pretty much from
all over ohio and pennsylvania.
You know new jersey.
He fought a lot like we talkedabout this on the boxing show at
atlanta in atlantic city, forlike donald or not four, but at
donald trump's um casinos, um,and like hotels there, and it's
(38:56):
in the atlantic city boardwalkhall of fame.
So kelly pavlik, probably namewise, and then, honestly,
probably how mummy, uh,legendary college football coach
, um, especially during his timeat kentucky.
Uh, was great.
Shout out ernest wilson forhooking us up with the legend
how mummy and having him on halfa dozen times and probably
should check in with how and seehow things are going.
(39:19):
Um, but uh, you know, yeah,it'd be probably the two biggest
people.
I'd probably say were those two.
We've had a lot of good names.
We've had guys in the nfl andyou know major college football
players and coaches and allthese wonderful people.
You know other podcasters,writers and everything, but
(39:39):
probably name wise, those areprobably the biggest two names.
Would you agree on that?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I would agree, and you know I it's a tough one for
me because there's really threethat come to mind.
It's those two and then RickyStansy would would be, I say, a
close third.
I don't think I would put himabove Howe or Kelly Pavlik.
Kelly Pavlik is definitely upthere.
You're a middleweight boxingchampion through the 2000s in
(40:09):
what four different divisions?
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Four different championships.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Four different champions yeah, that's a tough
thing to do and just being fromYoungstown, ohio, that's another
thing why we wanted to do thesecity episodes.
We have people that are fromthese little smaller towns,
people I don't think think thatbecause they see him fighting in
(40:35):
Atlantic City and they justkind of probably assume, oh,
he's from Atlantic City, he'sfighting there a lot.
So you know him and definitelyhow mommy and his work that he's
done with the Spring Leaguefootball now too as well, and
going back to his Kentucky, yeah, those would definitely be.
You know my, my top two justnames alone.
(40:57):
You know my top two Just namesalone, if we're going off of
that.
But before we get to thesponsors, I want to hear your
top 10 episodes that you thinkout of the 250 that we've done.
Do you have a top 10?
It doesn't have to be names, itcould just be your top 10.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, I mean I think that's interesting right, and I
know we were kind of thinkingabout this and there's been so
many episodes and roundtablesand individuals.
And you know, the thing with,like people know I've listened
to the show and been loyallisteners is, you know I do
sometimes co-host with you.
I've done more hosting now overthe past, like a little bit
(41:38):
over what a year, and then I'vealso been on as a guest and then
also I just listen.
You know, I just I just get theguests and I did this for my
original one year anniversaryshow.
I did a top 10, but yeah, Ithink I got a top 10 and looking
back and reflecting on fouryears of this, I think it's um
(41:58):
pretty interesting.
So I'd say probably top sonumber 10, I would say, and I
would encourage everybody tolisten to all the episodes.
But it's probably especiallylistening to these top 10,
probably listening to collegefootball round table that we had
last year for the nationalchampionship semi-finals.
I mean you championshipsemifinals.
I mean you got guys on therelike Hal Mummey, jonas Jackson,
(42:20):
you had on Dave Bolson, so youhad on guys that were involved
with major college football andmajor universities, right, not
just in coaching, but like infundraising and the money behind
it.
So I think that was a great one.
Looking back, I mean, you know,reconnecting with him and
getting him on, and he's beenprobably been on the most
(42:42):
roundtables, as you know, mrAskew, you know.
So having him back on that'slike, I think, the first show I
co-hosted, you know.
Then I'd say Ricky Stanzi.
Number eight, former NFLquarterback living up here in
Lake County right now suburbs ofCleveland.
Seven, you know, suburbs ofCleveland.
Um, seven, um, you know howmommy probably right, right
(43:07):
there, you know, again, shoutout Ernest Wilson for hooking us
up.
Uh, number six is probably thevacation show.
I think the vacation show wasreally, really great.
Uh, I think that's a lot of funfor people.
Five definitely would say KellyPavlik, who we just talked
about.
Four, because he was my numberone on my individual show
anniversary show, but justbecause he talked about the
economy and all things behind it.
(43:28):
Dave Wiley was super great thattime during the COVID crisis
and the pandemic and how werebounded with, you know, a
curve that was K-shaped morethan like a bell curve or
anything.
Probably number three, probablythe All Things Cleveland show,
(43:49):
which was great with, like,jordan and Wendy and Tony and
Steve and myself and we didpredict the Browns were leaving
to go to Brook Park and we saidthat in the summer and they
definitely did it.
So you heard it first on theride home rants podcast, um,
probably number two, the allthings will be show that was.
That was so much fun having allthose people on um and all the
(44:11):
banner back and forth on that.
And then probably number one,even though my audio came out
kind of bad on it we still don'tknow why.
But the Retired College Athletepodcast.
You know we talked about thingsthat are real and raw with
college sports and Mister was onthere and you know, like Lauren
(44:39):
and you know I know we had acouple other people Dan.
You know I know that was a realand raw show for people and I
think that was something that alot of people can relate to.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
So I think it was probably my top ten there, mike
for sure.
Yeah, I, I've been thinkingabout this.
You know my, my top 10 for forthe show in the four years and
you know I'm a little bit morebiased, you know, because you
know it's for lack of a betterterm.
You know my show and everythinglike that, but you know the I'd
(45:14):
have to say 10.
I'm right there with you withthe roundtables for the college
playoffs last year and thenational championship, that
comes in number 10 for me.
Number eight or number nine Ihave Number eight or number nine
(45:40):
.
I have.
It was.
I had Hal there at number ninefor me Just getting to talk to a
legendary coach like that.
That was huge and loved it andI love having him on every time
we can get them on a round table.
Number eight for me was theHalloween round table that we
(46:03):
did this past year.
I'd love the banter with thoseguys back and forth with you
know who's the, who's the bettermovie killer and everything
like that.
You know that was just.
It was a lot of fun to do thatone and I'm a big Halloween fan.
I do love Halloween as aholiday, which is weird because
my wife hates it Number sevenfor me.
(46:30):
This is going to sound weird butit's a little bit biased, but
it's my first show that I did.
The first one I uploaded frommy truck, just because it's kind
of what got the show rollingand I put it there.
I didn't want to be like, okay,well, it's number one because
it was the first show that Iever did and I ever uploaded and
(46:51):
I put it ahead of those guysfor that reason, because it was
the first show, but I put itdown there too as well, because
there's so many more guests thatcame on.
Ricky Stanzi comes in at sixfor me, just getting to talk to
somebody who played in the NFL,played quarterback in the NFL.
You know a huge football fan,so that helped.
(47:11):
Five is Kelly Pavlik getting totalk to you know, a boxing
champion.
Mister comes in at four for me.
Um, and it's mainly because youknow we just miss each other at
Bethany College, uh, when hewas there and coaching and when
(47:31):
I was there.
So we we just like we just misseach other with getting to know
each other there, but justgetting to talk to him and he's
been a big supporter of the show.
He still texts me out of theblue.
Hey, mike just listened to thatepisode.
It was great.
And then he bounces joke ideasoff me that he comes up with
(47:52):
himself for comedy too as well.
So I got Mr at number four andmy wife absolutely loves it when
we have him on the show.
She thinks he's hysterical.
She has said he has become herfavorite guest of the show.
So we got him at number four.
Number three this is where itgets tough for me is my top
(48:14):
three, I'd have to say.
The vacation show comes in atnumber three for me Getting to
hear people's travel plans andthe fact that Nicole was at an
airport while we were recordingthat show, getting ready to go
on a vacation.
She wasn't traveling for work,she was literally leaving for a
(48:36):
vacation as we were recordingthe vacation show.
Um, the pittsburgh show comesin at number two for me.
I grew up an hour outside ofpittsburgh, uh, in west virginia
.
I visited pittsburgh a lot.
I actually wish I would havebeen able to to record that show
(48:56):
.
My schedule did not let me hostthat show, but you know,
getting to hear a little bitmore about a town that I grew up
near and still learning stuffabout that, and I love all
things Pittsburgh, so I lovethat show.
And my number one show, god,this is tough.
(49:18):
My number one show God, this istough.
My number one show for me.
It's really it's.
It's really a toss up betweenthe town shows.
Uh, with Youngstown, theYoungstown show, um, and the
Cleveland show.
(49:39):
It's really kind of a tie atnumber one for me.
Uh, mainly because I starteddoing comedy and really wanting
to make it a career inYoungstown, I started doing
shows in Youngstown and that waskind of a buddy of mine that
got me into comedy.
He called it my first away game, to use a sports reference,
(50:03):
when I finally went out of myhometown to do comedy and I
absolutely crushed it there myfirst time there.
And I've done a ton of shows inCleveland too as well.
So those two getting to knowmore about them in more places
that I can now reach out to andmaybe try to get more shows
there and try to bring moreentertainment to those towns For
(50:28):
the past 12 years I've doneprobably over 100 shows in each
city.
So, yeah, that one.
I can't decide between whichone it is, so I've got to go
with a tie at number one betweenYoungstown and Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah, I think you know it's all going to be too
what people enjoy, right, andthat's something great about our
shows.
We have something for everybody,whether it's all it's all going
to be, too, what people enjoy,right, and that's something
great about our shows.
We have something for everybody, whether it's roundtables and
time, all the shows.
Um, you know we did anotherroundtable was on restaurants
and patios.
You know we've had on animalsand you know we've had all types
of stuff right and got onteachers and fitness warriors
(51:07):
and coaches, and you knoweveryone's going to have
whatever their preferences onshows.
So, you know, just cause youknow you and I named, you know
20 shows and we're in therereally not even 20 cause we had
some overlap there Other peoplemay find different ones.
So just go through the show andyou know, see what you think
there's a lot of descriptions inthere and that's something else
(51:27):
you, you know I think it's beengreat too, mike, is that when
you got the ai um wrapped upwith the show, the making making
the actual, the actualbreakdown of the show, so we
didn't have to keep typing itout.
Was was pretty great too.
So encourage all the guests togo check out the shows, um, from
the early stages to now, I mean, they're a lot, a lot of fun to
(51:49):
check out.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah, that goes back to the technology piece that we
talked about earlier, with theAI kind of helping me out with
the descriptions of the show andreally filling it in for me,
and it puts great descriptionsin and it really highlights
everything about the show.
A lot better than me sittinghere typing it out which seemed
to be the longest process at thebeginning, you know, was trying
to type out those descriptionshighlights everything about the
show.
A lot better than me sittinghere typing it out which seemed
(52:11):
to be the longest process at thebeginning, you know, was trying
to type out those descriptionsand make sure I didn't miss
something from the show.
Uh, that was, you know,important to the guests or you
know, about their background orsomething like that.
So, yeah, and it's kind of thethe world we live in we're kind
of like ai is kind of liketaking over everything when it
(52:33):
comes to technology and that,and I fought it at first.
I'm so glad I decided not tobecause it's great and it
definitely, you know, puts anice light on, you know, not
only the show itself but theguest itself and now the
sponsors that we've beenbringing on to the show, and we
(52:53):
have a lot of help withBuzzsprout.
There they have people thatreach out that want to join the
show.
You hear those at the middle ofevery episode where we can land
a sponsor, and usually it'sanother show, another podcast,
which I'm for helping otherpodcasters out and, you know,
getting their show out there ona different platform like ours.
(53:15):
Maybe it's not something thatyou know is comedy related or
sports related, which I loveputting those ones on there for
people because it gives themanother chance to listen to
somebody else's show or adifferent type of show that
maybe they're not used to.
But I'm actually wearing thefirst sponsor hat that came onto
(53:36):
the show in Reaper Apparel.
I've found a lot of thesponsors mainly by reaching out
to companies, but a lot of themhave their affiliate programs
that a lot of people don't knowabout.
That it's, you know I'mbasically, you know, the brand
(53:56):
ambassador for these companiesand Reaper Apparel was the first
one to accept the offer.
And you know they've been withthe show for, oh, two and a half
seasons now.
I think is when they reallycame on through almost three
seasons.
I think they came on at thebeginning to middle of season
(54:16):
two and they've been a greatsupporter of the show.
They've sent me a lot of swag,I'll tell you that.
So I have a lot of Reaperapparel gear that I, you know, I
wear around town and you know alot of people don't see this
side of it too as well.
Is that, you know, not everysponsor is going to be a paid
(54:41):
sponsorship.
We've had a lot of people Landois one of them, uh, with his
company sweet hand sports.
Um, he sent me golf glove, hesaid both of us a hat, and you
know we keep them in there andwe do have, you know, an
agreement where we're tradingother things back and forth for
(55:03):
the read that we have playing atthe beginning of every show for
lando.
And you know, you know, justthings like that, you know, I
think, are more, I don't want tosay beneficial, because
obviously you know I'm not goingto turn down money if somebody
offers me money for asponsorship but at the same time
(55:24):
, if I can help somebody by, youknow, rocking their gear,
whether that be when I go outgolfing with Lando's Golf Club
or when I'm on stage, I try tofind out, you know, picky new
sponsors hat, and because Ialways wear a hat when I'm on
stage and I try to wear that hatwhenever I'm on stage.
I'm having a real hard timebecause, you know this is near
(55:48):
the holiday season.
So I do gear back my shows andany shows that I will have this
time of year Comedy shows, notpodcasting shows but, you know,
because you know I do have, youknow, a son and you know, a wife
, so I try to spend as much timewith them during the holidays
as I can and I actually, youknow, am starting the bookings
(56:09):
for 2025.
I'll get this out here now.
I do have a show lined up onJanuary, the 18th in Cambridge,
ohio, at the Downtown Arena.
Anybody that's going to be inthat area show is from 8 to 10.
I'm with the former guest ofthe show, destin Richardson.
It's not only writing jokes forme now it's trying to figure out
(56:33):
which sponsor I'm going to wearto these shows, because I don't
just promote them when it's onthe show.
I try to get them out any waythat I can.
Especially like TacticalBrotherhood is another one that
really helps.
Part of every Proceed goes tohelping veterans.
(56:54):
That's a big cause for me.
I try to align myself withcauses that I can get behind,
deemed Fit.
The newest one, the newestsponsor to the show, part of
every Proceed going to helpingfirst responders, especially the
ones that work during COVID,with their mental and physical
(57:16):
health.
So you know it's it's causeslike that.
But finding sponsors is not aseasy and I know we have a decent
amount of sponsors that getread on the beginning and the
end of the show.
So for those of you that don'twait till the end, you know we
do have some more great sponsors, so make sure you hang out till
(57:37):
after the show to hear aboutthem and all their great causes
and everything like that.
But you know we've done a lotwith, like former guest Wendy,
guest Wendy helping her realitycompany.
She sent both of us hats andstuff like that.
There's a lot of trading forpromo, reads with materials and
(57:59):
that I think, is more beneficialfor me.
Do you have any thoughts onthat with what we've had with
the sponsors on the show?
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yeah, and I think for us know we are open to trades,
right, we will rock.
If you want to send us yourapparel, we will wear it.
Um, you know I just wore um thehat wendy gave us a couple
years ago, you know today.
So like, for example, when shesent us those hats or gave one
(58:27):
to me and I think I mailed it.
You know we did a free month ofpromos for her.
Um, when Nick Tomba was on uh,he owns um coaches dry rub
business.
You know he, I think, sent us acouple of free dry rubs and you
know we did a uh, we did amonth and then he sponsored a
month and he sent um, I thinkthat was like maybe may of 22
(58:49):
yeah, I believe it's may 22.
You know he sent all thoseguests a free sample of his dry
rub.
So you know we've done thingslike that.
Um, I know dana, uh, when shewas on time on her candle
business, I know she did a paidpromotion, but I know, you know
it's like lando sent us stuff.
So you know we're really opento to all that with people.
You know, if we can wear yourstuff, I wear my hat from lando
(59:12):
and I wear my hat from wendy andum, you know, use nick's dry
rub from again coach's dry rubum, here in lake county.
Uh, if anybody wants to checkthat out, that's nick tomba.
He's a defensive coordinatorand teacher at willoughby south
middle and high school.
Uh, you know, so we're, we'reopen to that stuff.
You know stuff Mike's got fromReaper, apparel and Dean Fit.
(59:32):
So we're definitely open to doall that.
With the sponsorships, I thinkpeople here before and after the
show are different than whatMike was talking about that we
have in the middle of the show.
Those are sponsorships fromBuzzsprout that you know we
approve or they approve, andthat is a small monetary gain
(59:54):
that we get so many cents perthe download that we have when
those are on.
So some of them may only belike 12 cents.
Other ones I think we mademaybe made like ten dollars off
of that one, but you know they.
They are different, um, but wetry to.
Again, let me help you, help me,help you.
Uh, with the sponsors, so Iknow we're in a works with a
(01:00:18):
couple other um ones right nowand we're going to continue with
some stuff.
So you know, for anybody asinteresting and collaborating,
uh, you know we are down to rockyour apparel.
Um.
You know Mike and I live indifferent areas, but you know we
are down to to rock yourapparel.
Um, you know mike and I live inin different areas but you know
we're close to big cities sowe're happy to wear your stuff
out, whether it's a hat or ashirt or whatever you want to
send.
Um, you know, so we are alwaysgood with that.
(01:00:39):
So they sponsors have beengreat.
Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Um, they've just been really awesome to work with
yeah, you know, and I lovetalking with the sponsors and
again, I I do this out on myPatreon page.
I actually have a whole showwhere I'm talking about the
sponsors the whole time.
It's getting a lot of goodfeedback.
(01:01:01):
I'm hoping that a lot of thesesponsors are small businesses
Helping them out to as well, butI am, I am down for pretty much
anything.
Uh, buddy's beard care, uh,that the other sponsor here that
you know, he sends me acomplimentary beard bomb every
(01:01:25):
month and we continue to do hisread.
So, yeah, it's just you know,and the connections that I think
that we've made, you know, justwith knowing these sponsors and
you know, glad to have them onthe show, glad to have them be a
part of it.
But, yeah, for anybody outthere you got a small business,
(01:01:48):
a company, anything like that,reach out to us.
There's a link in every episodenow where you can send us a
text directly and it'll comeright to me and we can, we can
break everything down and we cantalk back and forth about, you
know, sponsorships for the showand you know, helping each other
grow.
(01:02:08):
Help me, help you, help you,help me.
And you know it's it show andyou know, helping each other
grow, help me, help you, helpyou, help me.
And you know it's.
It's a lot of fun and but itgoes back to again, do I think,
people not knowing the behindthe scenes?
And you know, reaching out tothese sponsors and trying to, to
make the good sales pitch, to,to get them to come on board,
and you know, but it's been alot of fun finding them.
(01:02:28):
It's been a lot of fun findingthem.
It's been a lot of fun.
It's been a wild ride with youon the show since you came on
and helping the show grow towhere it is.
I haven't looked lately I knowyou're the numbers guru out
there with where the show is at.
I think the last I looked, Imean you talked about it.
You know we've had guests fromfrom.
(01:02:48):
Last I looked I mean you talkedabout it We've had guests from
other countries and we wereactually heard in.
I think it was like 20different countries.
The last time I looked I couldbe way off on that.
I know you're the numbers guy.
Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
I will tell you what they are in actually one second.
We'll let everybody know, as werecord this, where the numbers
officially stand.
But I can tell you what theyare in actually one second.
We'll let everybody know, as werecord this, where the numbers
officially stand.
But I can tell everybody thatwe did get 232 downloads of the
show today, which was reallygreat for us.
(01:03:32):
Right now, ride Home Rants isheard in drum roll, drum roll as
all the stats load.
We are heard in 60 countries orterritories across the world,
with the United States coming inat one, germany, two, brazil,
three, canada, four, singapore,five, united Kingdom six, norway
(01:03:52):
, seven, ireland, eight,australia, nine and a tie at 10
with Finland and Turkey andIndia.
So that's where we are with thecountries, which was great.
And we are heard in 1,368cities worldwide, with
Zanesville, ohio, coming in atnumber one, cleveland, ohio, at
(01:04:15):
number two, columbus, ohio.
At number three, pittsburgh,pennsylvania.
At number four, youngstown,ohio.
At number five, mentor, ohio.
At number six, guajara,marahano.
At number seven, which is in, Ibelieve, south america towards
brazil, ashburn, virginia.
At number eight, wilmington,delaware at number nine and then
(01:04:40):
washington, pa, at number 10.
So that's kind of where we'reat with that, and that's
surprising because I haven'tlooked at those numbers in a
while and that's interesting,that washington's kind of where
we're at with that, and that'ssurprising because I haven't
looked at those numbers in awhile and that's interesting
that.
Washington PA kind of came outof that.
But that's definitely great.
So you know, as far as we standtoday, when this episode is,
you know, a couple of dayspre-recorded, that's kind of
(01:05:01):
where we are with our downloadnumbers.
Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
To most people that are seeing these huge podcasts
up there on the charts at numberone, number two, all the way
through number ten, getting tensof thousands of downloads.
They probably didn't see theshows at year four and they
probably were just as pumped aswe get have a 242 download day.
(01:05:29):
You know, like that's, that'sanother thing.
It's the little victories thatyou kind of hang on to in
podcasting and you know having aa 200 download day is a good
day.
Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
And as we stand at, you know, with year four, um,
right now we have a total of allof our, say, 250 episodes.
We have, uh, 14,226 totaldownloads across.
So you know, we we do sometimeslist our top 10, uh, which
we'll probably list here,probably as new year changes.
(01:06:04):
I like to always post wherewe're at with that.
So stay tuned, um, you know,for uh, for that um, on our
social media and then, uh, yeah,we'll release kind of where
they are.
But there definitely was somemovement with the 232 downloads
today.
Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Yeah, absolutely always pumped for that, uh, but
we are down near, you know, theend of the episode here.
I feel like I could sit hereand talk about this all day, but
don't want to run on aboutourselves in that.
So we're actually going to wrapup this four-year anniversary
(01:06:38):
of the Ride Home Rants podcastshow.
Thanks for coming on andtalking with it, fetty.
I've been a part of the show soglad you've been a part of the
show and helping it grow andeverything like that.
That is actually going to do itfor this week's episode of the
Ride Home Rants podcast.
I want to thank everybody forlistening.
I want to thank everybody againfor your added support
(01:06:59):
throughout the show throughoutthe years, for many years to
come.
As always, if you enjoyed theshow, be a friend, tell a friend
.
If you didn't tell them anyways, they might like it just
because you didn't.
That's going to do it for meand I will see y'all next week.
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home
Rants podcast.
This is, as always, your host,mike Bono.
This is a very special episodefor me.
This is actually the four-yearanniversary show of the Ride
Home Rants podcast and it ishard to believe that it's been
four years since I started thisshow and we're going to talk all
(00:24):
things about the show since Istarted this show.
And we're going to talk allthings about the show and with
me today, as always, everybodyknows and loves this man and he
is the wonderful manager of thepodcast.
Johnny Fitty Falcone is goingto sit here and he's going to
help me talk all through theshow, basically how it got
started, how we got Johnnyinvolved, and we're going to
(00:44):
break down a couple of ourfavorite episodes and everything
like that.
So, figetti, what's going on,brother?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, man, a lot of great information we're going to
talk about today, kind ofreflect back on, you know, the
four years you've had the showand the little less than four
years I've been on and you know,going into season five and
going to kind of just give allthe viewers and going into
Season 5 and going to kind ofjust give all the viewers a
little behind-the-scenes thingof how we truly work here at
Ride Home Rants, not onlyreleasing the shows, but what
(01:13):
we're doing in the meantimebehind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, a lot of people don't see what happens.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
They hear the show when it comes out on Wednesdays
and special holidays andeverything like that, but they
don't see the work that we putin behind the scenes, and I
think it's going to open up alot of eyes to anybody who's
interested in getting intopodcasting yeah, you know for
sure, when you think of likepodcasts, you just think of like
all the things that go on withthe, with the show, when you're
airing shows, but you don'treally know about from what we
(01:41):
do and we'll talk about findingguests and doing the roundtables
and the topics, and you knowwhat days we want to air this
and you know, uh, just moving itaround and what's the best days
that we could try to getdownloads, and how we market in
this and all those cool thingswe're going to talk about today.
So, yeah, a lot of behind thescenes stuff yeah, that's,
that's always fun to talk about.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That I know.
Uh, up on my Patreon I do posta couple of videos basically
every month where it's showing alot of the behind the scenes,
not necessarily getting theguest, but all the editing and
everything that goes into makingthis show happen.
I even know, up on my TikTok atMike Bono underscore comedian I
(02:24):
do every now and again we golive on TikTok and it's me
recording a show and it's a lotof fun getting a lot of viewers
and, as I can see, the newest Iguess co-manager there Pickles
is with you today.
For those watching on Patreon,we got Johnny's dog Pickles with
us today.
Yeah, she's kind of with ustoday.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, she's a kind of being rambunctious right now.
It's all good.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
It's all good.
Yeah, it's, but it's.
You know, it's weird.
Thinking back to as well youknow starting this show four
years ago and you know wherewe're at now.
It's it's crazy to think thatit doesn't feel like it's been
four years for me.
You know what I mean, but it's.
Yeah, you brought this idea upto me and I was like holy crap,
(03:10):
it's been.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It's been four years since I've been doing this show
yeah, you know, and I think youknow really I we've talked about
it and you talked about some ofthe episodes about ranting, you
know, on your way home fromwork.
But I guess really just kind oftell people truly you know,
know what inspired you to startthe show.
But how did you really go fromjust screaming in your truck on
(03:32):
a recording to, uh, you know,getting all the equipment and
starting the podcast?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, the um, the show started and a lot of my
comic buddies they laugh at thisevery time I tell them.
I'm like, well, what?
Well, I know a lot of comicshave podcasts, but why did you
start one?
And it was like you know, itwas basically out of spite.
I'm not going to lie.
Like it was March of 2020,right before the world shut down
with COVID, and I was talkingwith a record label out of
(04:00):
Atlanta and I was about to signa contract.
You know the.
The dream was coming true ofbecoming a full-time
professional standup comedian.
And then the world shut downand, like less than a week
before, I was about to get on aplane and fly to Atlanta and
sign the paperwork and I wastalking with him and it was like
(04:22):
, hey, man, it's 2020.
I feel like you can email thisstuff over to me, I can sign it
and then I'll email it back andhis exact response and I still
have the picture saved on myphone of his text response and
it was yeah, you don't reallyhave that much of an online
presence, so, unfortunately,we're going to pass now.
(04:44):
Really have that much of anonline presence, so
unfortunately, we're gonna passnow.
So you know months of talking tothis man and working everything
out and all the finer detailsthat that go into the behind the
scenes of being a comic.
And I stood over it for alittle bit and was still going
to work at a day job uh, sellingour fees at the time.
And I don't know, one day Ijust I was on my way home and
(05:08):
something just really irritatedme that day at work and I just
made a video on my way home inmy truck and I just kind of
ranted for the half hour drivethat I had home and a buddy of
mine reached out to me and hewas like dude, these are, these
are hysterical.
You just complaining aboutcustomers and that people coming
in and all, just all the stupidquestions you hear as a sales
(05:29):
professional.
And he goes this would be agreat podcast.
And I thought about it for alittle bit.
I recorded some more uh, justaudio, not, uh, any videos at
that point time.
And, lo and behold, in decemberI finally decided again you
know what that's let's post thisand let's see what happens.
The show kind of took off alittle bit at the start of it.
(05:53):
Lo and behold, four years laterit's changed and it's evolved
over the years.
It went from me ranting on myway home from work and talking
about customers and the stupidquestions that I would hear on a
daily basis.
Um, and it was that, and someof them like I have them wrote
(06:15):
down they've become part of my,my stand-up act too as well,
which always gets a big laughbecause people can relate to
that, because they hear it orthey're the ones that ask it and
they realize how dumb of aquestion it actually is.
But then I believe you were thefirst guest that I ever brought
(06:36):
onto the show.
We were just, I think we werejust shooting the shit one day
via text and you had mentionedlike hey, why don't you have
guests come on from other areasand see if you can kind of grow
the reach a little bit?
I was like, well, let's startwith you.
I mean, no better way to startthan with somebody that I went
to college with, you know I'mfriends with, and then it'd be
(06:59):
an easy conversation.
And we got to talking after thatepisode and that's kind of
where you got involved with withthe show and kind of had an
idea and we kind of rolled withit from there and that was
probably, oh hell, like five,six months into me doing, uh,
just solo shows, with mepropping my phone up on a
(07:20):
mountain, my truck, and justkind of ranting about my day on
my way home, and and that's, andI'm out in my truck and just
kind of ranting about my day onmy way home and that's, if my
memory serves me correctly.
That's kind of how you gotinvolved with the show.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, so I actually remember the first time I was on
was early January of 2021because we previewed the wild
card weekend, so you're aboutprobably six weeks into the
actual podcast itself.
Um, but I remember you actually.
I think you made a, made a poston social media and you were
(07:54):
like hey, I'm looking for guestsand I was like I'll be a guest.
That's like after we, you know,a couple years after we
reconnected, when I was livingdown in Jefferson County.
So I was like yeah, I'll, I'llbe your guest.
And then I think you know youhad maybe a couple other shows
and I was like hey, you know,that's when I was like hey, man,
like why don't you let me likeI know some people, let me
(08:16):
manage this and let me get someguests on, you know?
And then you're like okay, andthe next thing, you know, I had
(08:40):
like four people lined up in thenext month for you.
I think the four first showsbut I know it was aaron, taco,
bob and phil were the firstones- yeah in february, you know
.
And then from there I was likewell, I know more people, so
then we just start reaching outto those people.
Um, but you probably rememberthat we would for people that
don't know.
We of course pre-record theshow, but we were only
(09:02):
pre-recording these people likefour or five days in advance of
the show, like between thursdayto that tuesday and you had air
on wednesdays and then, as wegot a little bit busier into the
summer of 21, we started likereally pre-recording out by a
couple weeks.
So, yes, everyone, the show isrecorded a couple of weeks in
(09:25):
advance sometimes, and sometimeswe've even recorded like seven
or eight weeks into the future,with the ebbs and flows of
getting guests and stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, a lot of times, you know, I mean I don't want
this to sound like a bad thing,but a lot of times we are at the
mercy of the guests.
A lot of times we are at themercy of the guests and you know
when they can have some freetime to sit and record with me
for an hour.
And you know, there's timeswhen it's like, all right, well,
I have this show coming up andthere's some pressing here that
(09:57):
I kind of need to get out and Iwant to get out for the guests
to help them promote that, andall right, well, now we're
running into a holiday, I have aholiday show I want to put out,
and then, yeah, then you justkind of it's like three, four
weeks later and it's like, oh, Istill have this show that I've
got to air and then you canfinally get the show on.
(10:19):
But yeah, it was.
I'll say it was hectic in thebeginning when we were recording
three, four days before theshow actually aired, uh, trying
to get everything edited and cutdown to about a half hour, 45
minutes at the time, and reallymaking the show work and making
(10:40):
sure the flow.
Uh was good, because I'll'lltell you I was all over the
place.
Those first couple of recordings, like I feel like it was just
like just all kind of jumbledtogether and just kind of like
the way my mind worked andasking the questions and there
was like it didn't seem likethere was a lot of flow, like
(11:05):
there is now.
Like we really take the timenow, you know behind the scenes
and really work out thequestions and you know, okay,
how is this going to work?
This sounds like this.
We should ask this before thisquestion.
We should do this and we reallybreak down an outline instead
of just anywhere from like eightto ten questions that we want
(11:28):
to ask the guest.
And I think it shows throughoutthe shows that people are
listening to.
But my favorite thing that westarted doing we were at the end
of year one or beginning ofyear two when we started doing
the roundtables yeah, I thinkthose started I want to say more
(11:50):
in in year two.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
But going back to what you're saying, like, so,
for people that don't know, youknow a lot of the, a lot of the
guests in like the first seasonand most of the second season.
Those are all people mike and Iknew, like personally knew,
yeah, and really it was just infirst.
The first couple of months itwas more like hey, bono, like
(12:13):
this is this person, this istheir background, and then you
know, you would just go with itand just talk to them kind of
about whatever.
But yes, as the shows went on,for people that don't know, now
it's like okay, hey, like let'stalk about where they're from,
where they went to school.
You know how long they've beenin this career, you know, and
(12:34):
we've really kind of learnedthat as we went along.
Um, you know, because the onething I would say and you know
we've always talked about thisit's it's not just having us on
talking about these guests, it'salso the guests promoting
themselves and talking aboutwhere they've come from.
You know, it's one thing we'vereally prided ourselves on here
is having multiple guests whoare very diverse in multiple
(12:54):
fields, from all over the world,um, I remember we kind of said
this.
Saying at the beginning waslike, let me help you, help me
help you, um, and you know, forpeople who don't know what that
means it's, you know, let mehelp you.
You know, get yourself outthere, but at the same time,
you're helping us get our nameout there as well.
So you know, I think that'sjust stuff.
We all really went through atrial and error and we learned
(13:17):
and you know, we got into areally good structure.
But, yeah, the round tablesreally came I want to say,
probably more towards seasontwo's ending, because that's
when we started to get a littlebit tight on guests and having
those stand our horizon.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
We did get tight on guests there after the first
year because you know a lot ofpeople you know.
You don't think about how manypeople you actually know,
whether that be, you know,friends or even acquaintances
that you met along the way butthere's 52 weeks in a year and
we're trying to find 52 peopleto be on the show and yeah.
(13:57):
But yeah, it was probablycoming up near the end of year
two.
You're probably right, it wasprobably season two and we were
like all right, we're kind ofout of people we know.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, because the other problem was we were not
wasn't a problem, it was a goodthing for us.
But we were airing at the endof season two we were airing
holiday episodes on top of ourregular episodes.
And in year three we did allalmost all holiday episodes on
(14:29):
top of our regular episodes.
Not only do you have 52 weeks ayear, you say you add in six or
12 holidays, between six and 12holidays, so I'm like 64 shows.
So you really think about we'reon four years, you know you're
over wherever we're at 200 andwe're at like two, almost two 40
or something, yeah.
(14:49):
Yeah, you know, think about thatand there's only a couple of
solo shows in there from thebeginning.
The rest are people aroundtables.
So you know, you start to kindof run out of knowing people.
I mean that's a lot of peoplefor two people.
But you know, it's been worthit, it's been fun and that's why
we've really incorporated theround tables as well, though, to
(15:10):
get some just different, funother shows on there.
And you know, I think for themost part people enjoy the the
round tables that we do do yeah,I enjoy the round tables and
you know, from those roundtables too as well.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
I mean, we've gotten a lot more guests to come on, or
, as we call them, the soloshows.
Uh, with the solo guests andnot the round tables, but from
other guests being like, hey, Iknow this person, they, they
probably want to be on.
Let me reach out to them andI'll get you guys in contact
with them and that's definitelyhelped, um, getting a bunch of
(15:38):
people together and it reallyhelps grow.
But yeah, we, we always startedwith the help me, help you.
You know what I mean.
Like I, I love helping anybodyin any way I can.
That's kind of where this showhas evolved to.
It's not just me, you know,sitting behind a microphone and
complaining about my day anymore, it's me trying to help as many
people as possible.
(15:58):
The show's getting a, you know,pretty decent reach.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
For two guys who just didn't know, jack squad, about
podcasting when we first startedand when I first started and
just kind of diving head firstinto it, uh, but yeah, and and I
think too, like and this isn'ttrying to toot our own horn or
anything like that but if youlook at the people that have
been on, you know the peoplethat have wanted to be involved
(16:23):
with, like sponsors and roundtables and you know co-hosts and
all that stuff.
You know people just I thinkthey enjoy being on because we
keep it fun, we keep itlighthearted, you know, but we
do have our serious moments andour shows and things like that.
But I think people just enjoythat because you know this isn't
(16:43):
a political podcast.
This, this isn't anything wetry to make serious.
You know we, we love everybodythat comes on here, from every
background and all that, and Ithink that's just something that
makes people a lot, a lot morewilling to come back on because
we're it's a comfortable show.
You know we really try to caterto everybody anybody on that.
(17:07):
So, yeah, I mean it was just alot of trial and error, but I
think we've had a lot of goodtrials and a few errors looking
back at it, so you know somethings you live and learn with,
but yeah, we've definitely hadmore good than than I'd say
errors, on this one for for sureuh, yeah oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I would say one thing that that has become a big hit
and we kind of didn't know itand we just kind of like said we
do talk about some serioustopics on the show, but when we
have just that solo guest, wehave the fun way that we end the
show now and the Fast, fittyFive and the five random, fun,
silly questions that we ask theguests and these are all for
(17:42):
everyone out there and these areall for everyone out there.
These are all fitting.
He sends them to me like theday we record and he's been
asking these questions to peopleby himself since I've known him
in college.
And this is just the way yourmind works and those random
questions and they get a laughevery time but every guest you
(18:06):
could see them chuckle and soI'm reading the questions and
it's just a fun, light heartedway that we we have found to end
the show.
But one thing I think everybodywants to know is so fanny how
do you come up with thesequestions?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
you know, honestly, a lot of them, just like I was
just thinking about my drivingin my car to work.
Or I'm at home and I'm like man, how bad would it hurt to like
get hit in the face with thatpillow right there?
Or, like you know, if I ranoutside and tried to like run
into that bush, would that hurt?
Or, man, this pen's out of ink,I'd rather write with a pencil.
(18:44):
It's just like random thingslike that I think about.
Or, like you know, is Pepsi orCoke better?
It's just things that pop intomy mind.
And I'm glad we started thatbecause, like when we started
that in the summer of 21, I wantto say like maybe it was right
around the time, like I don'tknow, mr askew was on for the
first time, or like ricky stansy, like one of those guys was on
(19:07):
and we started.
We started and I think it justwas been a lot of, a lot of fun
since.
But yeah, I really just come upwith them like at random, just
around the house or driving towork, or you know something like
that.
But uh, sometimes they're alittle bit more uh, a little bit
more, I would say, criticalthinking involved and some of
them, you just kind of let theanswers fly, you know, uh, right
(19:30):
away when you hear it.
So, um, just kind of depends, Iguess, on how I'm feeling for
today, when I, uh, when I makethem for the, for the, for the
guest, you know, and sometimesif I don't really know the guest
really well, I try to take it alittle bit easier, because then
I want them to be like who, whois this fitty guy?
That's like making thesequestions and when?
Why would it?
Why would a kangaroo fight 12giraffes?
(19:52):
Like?
you know, or just something likelike you think I'm like crazy,
or like you know I saw somethinglike hey, would you rather like
have it be day or night, youknow, just like simple things
like that.
So I I try to, I I try to notintimidate the people that
really don't know me too wellwith those questions.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I'll say it was, you know, a recent recording with
Lucas and she was.
She listened to a couple ofshows, so she was already like
mentally preparing herself forthe fast five and after we were
done she was just like I wasreally expecting a lot of the
animal questions, like thekangaroo fighting six cats or
(20:35):
stuff like that, and she's likeI feel like he took it easy on
me.
She's like I'm going to have tocome back on later on and let
him just really go for it.
So I think people are lookingmore forward to those
off-the-wall, really crazyquestions.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Yeah, I think she was looking forward to that.
I know when you and Joerecorded with Coach Garvey, he
even said I was expecting harderquestions than that.
So people do want them.
I think people like them.
I think it's like what, uh, timweaver said coach weaver when
he was on like those are thingslike 21 year olds and 22 year
(21:13):
olds like argue about atfootball practice and they're
they're at brown university,like you know, one of the
highest academic schools in thecountry, and they're talking
about like animals fighting andgetting locked in cages with
like animals and fighting WWFwrestlers and you know all that
crazy stuff that kids talk about.
That I talked about in collegeand I just continued it almost
20 years later.
(21:33):
So you know, here we are at thefast 55 now.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I think I really got the idea because you used to
post those questions on, likeyour Instagram story, just, or
something like that.
I did I used to.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I used to do do that, especially when I was like
really bored during covid.
I'd be like is east or westbetter?
And people would just vote.
I'm like, if people don't voteon your poll, do they think
you're better or do they thinkthey're better than you?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
it's just like I would do those just nonsense
like that for questions and yeah, I remember seeing those and
you were a part of the show andI was just like you know what,
let's try this on the show, likesee what people actually think
when they're not just kind ofbored scrolling through
Instagram and they see, you know, johnny Fitty Falcone story is
(22:22):
like, oh well, it's funny, butI'm not going to answer the poll
because I'm kind of like thatI'll see it and I'll answer it
in my head, but I won't actuallyanswer it on social media.
I don't know why, but it's funto me now, like if I see
somebody posting something likethat, it's like, well, now I
have to answer it.
I make I've been making peoplefor damn near three years now on
(22:43):
the show answer questions, butyeah, it's a lot of fun and it's
something we definitely aregoing to be continuing doing.
So don't think this is the endof that segment yet.
Just because I call itroundtable season, it seems like
as we get closer to theholidays, we seem to have more
(23:04):
and more roundtables on ratherthan the individual guests,
which I'm for, you know.
I mean I love bringing a groupof people together and, you know
, just bouncing ideas or youknow their different opinions
off of each other and it reallybecomes more, I don't want to
say of a debate show, but itbecomes more of a debate between
, if we're talking like theshows we got coming up, when
(23:27):
we're going to be, you know,preview in um, the college
football, uh, championship, andwe're going to be, you know,
talking about the playoff andthen the super bowl show, those
ones, you mean, you get sportsguys together and it's just
gonna be nonsense when, when youknow, with everyone's opinions
(23:47):
on everything, yeah, and youknow the other ones for people
that like don't know, like we'vereally added in new ones this
year and we highly encourage youto check them out.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Like we added all things movies, right, or you
know, we never really thoughtabout them.
We're like well, people lovemovies.
Let's like talk about get abunch of people and talk about
movies and we had one aboutvacations and actually one of
the guests, nicole, wasrecording from the airport
before she got on an airplane togo on vacation um, um, you know
we, you know we've had onthings about like small business
(24:20):
round tables and retiredcollege athletes, our story.
Um, you know, uh, talking abouttowns like Pittsburgh and
Cleveland and Willoughby.
You know why those towns aregreat, you know all things about
that.
So now we're doing the sportsshows, you know previewing the
world series and you knowbaseball season We've always
done and basketball and all that.
(24:42):
But we're doing a lot of otherthings to not only promote these
other towns but also have alittle bit of fun too, about
like vacations and movies.
I think people can relate to alot of that, of that stuff.
And I think when we'repreviewing or talking about, or
however you want to word it,these different areas like
Pittsburgh and Cleveland andWilloughby and we did a
Youngstown one, you know, forpeople that haven't been to
(25:05):
those towns, that maybe areoutside of that listening or
viewing area, you know it makesthem excited to maybe want to go
to those places and check themout, right, because people may
know cleveland and pittsburghbut they've never been there.
Not everybody may knowyoungstown or willoughby.
Um, you know, but we've doneshows promoting them too.
So, you know, I think we do alot of light-hearted ones too.
(25:25):
I'm really excited about um,and everybody is probably going
to come out in january, so youcan, you have a little bit of
time to wait for it.
But the, uh, the all thingsabout no things, and that'll be
recorded here in December andit'll literally be a show.
I already have the topics about12 or 13 things that are very
random.
(25:45):
We talk about all things but nothings in particular.
So it'll be a good time.
I'm sure everybody will lovethat.
It's going to be like anextended version of the Fast 55.
So we'll have a little bit offun when we do that.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
So, yeah, so we try to have some fun on those round
tables definitely lookingforward to recording that show,
like I can't wait to to recordthat show.
And when you brought that ideaup to me, it was just like it
instantly brought me back to theshow seinfeld.
That's a show about nothing.
That whole episode, that'sbasically what that podcast is
(26:20):
going to be A show about nothing.
That episode is going to bebasically the Seinfeld show.
It's a show about nothing buteverything at the same time.
I can't wait I don't want togive too much away now because I
really want it to be a surprisewhen people actually get to
listen to that in January but alot more with getting back to
(26:48):
the behind-the-scenes stuff.
Not only has the show grown,with how we're breaking down the
show, how we're preparing forthe show.
The equipment that I've used,that I use now is evolving.
I'm actually even recording ona new microphone with a new mic
(27:10):
stand.
Never used to have a microphoneat the start of the show it was
literally either just myphone's microphone that it has
in it.
It was literally either just myphone's microphone that it has
in it or when I finally brokedown and bought a new laptop, a
laptop microphone that it had init.
And then you know the show keptgrowing and growing and I was
like you know what?
(27:30):
I think I need to break downand get a new microphone and get
a microphone actually and startrecording with a microphone
instead of just whatever'scoming on my phone or on my
computer.
And you know people don't seethat side of it.
Really I don't think is that.
You know there's a lot ofresearch, not only for the shows
(27:53):
that you're doing, depending onwho you're doing a show for,
but there's a thousand differentmicrophones out there.
There's a thousand differentmic stands out there,
switchboards, the to help withthe audio and everything like
that.
There's.
There's so much that goes intoit and you know it helped out a
little bit.
You know, uh, bethany collegebeing a communications major and
(28:16):
working for the radio stationthere, when I was there working
for the tv station there, when Iwas there working for the TV
station, I had a little bit ofan idea just from that.
But just getting the mic andthen setting it up and finding
that sweet spot to whereeverything, it took me probably
(28:36):
oh, I'll actually start usingthe microphone on episodes I'd
probably say a good three monthsto get everything leveled out
into where I didn't sound like arobot or it wasn't like
squeaking when I was talking toit and the levels were right
(28:58):
when guests were coming on,because that was a whole nother
thing because started in COVID.
So everything was done via zoomand the show is still done via
zoom right now too as well.
So that's another thing, youknow getting on the computer and
dealing with the.
You know the technology issues,I think, with guests.
You know the technology issues,I think, uh, with guests.
(29:18):
You know losing internetconnection and now I'm losing a
guest, and now you know fillingthat time where it's like, all
right, let them get their theirstuff back together and get it
back on and they'll be back in aminute or two.
But you know it's it's it's alot of like trial and error and
it's a lot of trial and error.
(29:39):
It's a lot of fun to figure itout.
I'm on my second microphonethat I've used.
My wife actually bought me onea couple years ago for Christmas
to help with the show.
Another thing with other shows,for everyone out there who hears
her in the background whenwe're asking questions and
(30:00):
especially in the Fast 55, sheloves answering those questions
in the background.
We're actually going to behaving her on the show.
I'm still we don't have a datefor it yet.
It's probably going to be moretowards January as well.
But everyone's going to get tomeet Mrs Bono and you know her
wonderful personality andeverything like that too as well
.
But, uh, everyone's going toget to meet mrs bono and you
know her wonderful personalityand everything like that too as
(30:22):
well.
Uh, so she won't just be in thebackground.
It's a little bit more workwith her, uh, coming on as a
guest, because one she hates thesound of her own voice always
fuck, as my cats are runningaround like crazy.
But yeah, so it's a lot of fun.
(30:43):
You're going to get to meet hertoo as well.
So I think that'll be a veryinteresting show and just our
dynamic is people don't see,they hear her in the background
and they hear our interactionsat a very brief minute level
with just the few interactionsthat we have.
But now we're going to have awhole show about it and I think
(31:04):
it's going to be eye-opening toa lot of people.
And a lot of people are going tosee why I don't need the right
material, uh, for my comedycareer.
So that's also another thingthat people are going to get a
behind the scenes thing too.
The nice thing that has comeabout with the technology, and
especially when we're breakingdown and making the outline for
the questions, is you can sendthem to me and then I can put
(31:27):
them in my notes on my phone andI have it to where it goes to
my computer so I don't have tobe sitting here reading off my
phone trying to remember thequestions and everything.
I can have everything all inone spot, which it's come a long
way from.
Just hey bono, here's so, andso here's what they do.
(31:47):
Go ahead and have a good showto now breaking it down and yeah
, the the equipment.
It's just something I don'tthink people think about with
podcasting at all.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
No, and you're right on that.
And like, if you think about itright, anyone can really zoom
in from a phone or a computer,like that's easy, but it's, you
know, is holding their internetright Because the show being, so
you know, global I mean we'vehad people from other countries
(32:24):
on and all over time zones andstuff like that so it's we have
no choice but to be on zoom foreverybody that you know, doesn't
know that.
So, because we are happy,people from Iceland and Turkey,
we've had people from Finland on, you know, and and then all
across the country.
So you know it's their internetas well you have to worry about
, and there has been times whenpeople have dropped or it's been
(32:45):
really choppy and things likethat.
And then you know the behindthe scenes about saving it to
zoom and then you have to editit with, like garage band.
I know you use dad and themicrophones and your mouth, too
close to the microphone, is afar away.
You know what's the lighting,like, you know things like that.
And um, also, I think likepeople don't realize that we
(33:09):
didn't also always have an intro.
You just went into the show atthe beginning and then, when we
had um speedo sheldon on as aguest.
You know, speedo uh wasgracious enough to make the the
intro.
So shout out speedo on that.
So the ride home rants, uhintro was done, done by him, you
(33:30):
know, as a favor of being onthe show.
So, um, you know there's it'scome a long way with uh, with
the intro and the technology and, yeah, the notes.
And you know, another thingpeople probably don't realize is
, as the shows went on here, youknow, and we've had more guests
, or even the roundtables, andwe come up with the topics and
send those in.
(33:51):
But, like, for the people thatare on now that we don't know,
like that, and I personallydon't know, we have to do
research on those people.
So if somebody's like, hey, Igot such and such, you know
they're interested in being on,or hey, I recommend, like these
four people and I'm like cool,now I need to go google these
(34:11):
people and ask these peopleabout themselves, because I need
material for the show to sendover to mike.
Um, about themselves, because Ineed material for the show to
send over to Mike.
So for, like, people that Idon't really know, most of the
time it's unless Mike has aguest now, it's usually me just
coming up with the most, most ofthe topics and then the fast
five, sending over to to Bono,who then does, you know, the
(34:33):
recording, and then all theediting of the show, and then we
figure out what day we're goingto post it if not wednesday.
So that's kind of how you knowwe do things too.
I do more of the reach out inthe the topics is what a manager
should do, and then mike, beingthe the owner and the host,
really owns it and hosts it anddoes all the behind the scenes
things.
So yeah, it's really come along way to technology and the
(34:55):
setup, that's for sure yeah, theediting too as well.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You know, garage band has been, uh, my go-to uh for
editing and you know it it'sbeen been a ride figuring out.
Like you said, you know, neverhad an intro and then we had
speedo on and you know he waslike, oh, I could write you guys
an intro, like that would beawesome, because now it's
(35:22):
literally just me just startinginto the show and there was no
buildup to it.
And you know, now I, you know,edit into each episode every
(35:44):
week, which at the beginning,that's what I was having to do.
I was having to take the audioclip that he sent me, put it
before the recording and thenhave the recording right after
it so that everything lined upand that it, it flew, flew,
flowed with the show.
Um, and now you know, a lot ofpeople you know, you know, have
(36:09):
the hosting site uh buzzsprout.
Uh buzzsprout, you know, has alot of features that help out
with stuff like that.
I just saved now the audio fileof the music and the intro to
the show and it automaticallyadds it in at the perfect time
(36:30):
whenever the show starts and itblends it in nicely.
So it's cut out a lot of the alot of the editing work on that
aspect.
So you know it's gotten a loteasier and I know we've thought
about it for a while.
They're getting away frombuzzsprout.
I'm not sure why we we thoughtthat but went right back to it
(36:52):
because it's just.
It's probably the best hostingsite that I've tried out.
Shout out to them for allowingus to keep hosting our show and
allowing it to go to Apple andGoogle and Spotify and
iHeartRadio Anywhere you get apodcast.
(37:12):
Now you can find us now.
At the start it was just Appleand Spotify were the only two
where you could hear the showand now it's heard on every
platform and it's a lot ofthings like that that having a
host site makes life a littleeasier for podcasters.
(37:36):
Makes life a little easier forpodcasters Mainly the
distribution to all the otherplatforms and the intros and the
post rolls where we havesponsorship reads in there.
Now that's another thing.
We're going to talk about thesponsors here a little later in
the show, but first we're almostup to 250 episodes 50.
(38:04):
So did you have any two gueststhat you thought were like the
biggest guests that we've had on?
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Man, we've had so many good guests.
But I would probably say if wehad to go with name, the name
only, I would say yes, you know,that would have been probably
Kelly Pavlik, former WBO WBCring and lineal middleweight
(38:34):
champion of the world right outof Youngstown.
Middleweight champion of theworld right out of youngstown,
um, you know he boxed in the2000s people pretty much from
all over ohio and pennsylvania.
You know new jersey.
He fought a lot like we talkedabout this on the boxing show at
atlanta in atlantic city, forlike donald or not four, but at
donald trump's um casinos, um,and like hotels there, and it's
(38:56):
in the atlantic city boardwalkhall of fame.
So kelly pavlik, probably namewise, and then, honestly,
probably how mummy, uh,legendary college football coach
, um, especially during his timeat kentucky.
Uh, was great.
Shout out ernest wilson forhooking us up with the legend
how mummy and having him on halfa dozen times and probably
should check in with how and seehow things are going.
(39:19):
Um, but uh, you know, yeah,it'd be probably the two biggest
people.
I'd probably say were those two.
We've had a lot of good names.
We've had guys in the nfl andyou know major college football
players and coaches and allthese wonderful people.
You know other podcasters,writers and everything, but
(39:39):
probably name wise, those areprobably the biggest two names.
Would you agree on that?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I would agree, and you know I it's a tough one for
me because there's really threethat come to mind.
It's those two and then RickyStansy would would be, I say, a
close third.
I don't think I would put himabove Howe or Kelly Pavlik.
Kelly Pavlik is definitely upthere.
You're a middleweight boxingchampion through the 2000s in
(40:09):
what four different divisions?
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Four different championships.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Four different champions yeah, that's a tough
thing to do and just being fromYoungstown, ohio, that's another
thing why we wanted to do thesecity episodes.
We have people that are fromthese little smaller towns,
people I don't think think thatbecause they see him fighting in
(40:35):
Atlantic City and they justkind of probably assume, oh,
he's from Atlantic City, he'sfighting there a lot.
So you know him and definitelyhow mommy and his work that he's
done with the Spring Leaguefootball now too as well, and
going back to his Kentucky, yeah, those would definitely be.
You know my, my top two justnames alone.
(40:57):
You know my top two Just namesalone, if we're going off of
that.
But before we get to thesponsors, I want to hear your
top 10 episodes that you thinkout of the 250 that we've done.
Do you have a top 10?
It doesn't have to be names, itcould just be your top 10.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, I mean I think that's interesting right, and I
know we were kind of thinkingabout this and there's been so
many episodes and roundtablesand individuals.
And you know, the thing with,like people know I've listened
to the show and been loyallisteners is, you know I do
sometimes co-host with you.
I've done more hosting now overthe past, like a little bit
(41:38):
over what a year, and then I'vealso been on as a guest and then
also I just listen.
You know, I just I just get theguests and I did this for my
original one year anniversaryshow.
I did a top 10, but yeah, Ithink I got a top 10 and looking
back and reflecting on fouryears of this, I think it's um
(41:58):
pretty interesting.
So I'd say probably top sonumber 10, I would say, and I
would encourage everybody tolisten to all the episodes.
But it's probably especiallylistening to these top 10,
probably listening to collegefootball round table that we had
last year for the nationalchampionship semi-finals.
I mean you championshipsemifinals.
I mean you got guys on therelike Hal Mummey, jonas Jackson,
(42:20):
you had on Dave Bolson, so youhad on guys that were involved
with major college football andmajor universities, right, not
just in coaching, but like infundraising and the money behind
it.
So I think that was a great one.
Looking back, I mean, you know,reconnecting with him and
getting him on, and he's beenprobably been on the most
(42:42):
roundtables, as you know, mrAskew, you know.
So having him back on that'slike, I think, the first show I
co-hosted, you know.
Then I'd say Ricky Stanzi.
Number eight, former NFLquarterback living up here in
Lake County right now suburbs ofCleveland.
Seven, you know, suburbs ofCleveland.
Um, seven, um, you know howmommy probably right, right
(43:07):
there, you know, again, shoutout Ernest Wilson for hooking us
up.
Uh, number six is probably thevacation show.
I think the vacation show wasreally, really great.
Uh, I think that's a lot of funfor people.
Five definitely would say KellyPavlik, who we just talked
about.
Four, because he was my numberone on my individual show
anniversary show, but justbecause he talked about the
economy and all things behind it.
(43:28):
Dave Wiley was super great thattime during the COVID crisis
and the pandemic and how werebounded with, you know, a
curve that was K-shaped morethan like a bell curve or
anything.
Probably number three, probablythe All Things Cleveland show,
(43:49):
which was great with, like,jordan and Wendy and Tony and
Steve and myself and we didpredict the Browns were leaving
to go to Brook Park and we saidthat in the summer and they
definitely did it.
So you heard it first on theride home rants podcast, um,
probably number two, the allthings will be show that was.
That was so much fun having allthose people on um and all the
(44:11):
banner back and forth on that.
And then probably number one,even though my audio came out
kind of bad on it we still don'tknow why.
But the Retired College Athletepodcast.
You know we talked about thingsthat are real and raw with
college sports and Mister was onthere and you know, like Lauren
(44:39):
and you know I know we had acouple other people Dan.
You know I know that was a realand raw show for people and I
think that was something that alot of people can relate to.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
So I think it was probably my top ten there, mike
for sure.
Yeah, I, I've been thinkingabout this.
You know my, my top 10 for forthe show in the four years and
you know I'm a little bit morebiased, you know, because you
know it's for lack of a betterterm.
You know my show and everythinglike that, but you know the I'd
(45:14):
have to say 10.
I'm right there with you withthe roundtables for the college
playoffs last year and thenational championship, that
comes in number 10 for me.
Number eight or number nine Ihave Number eight or number nine
(45:40):
.
I have.
It was.
I had Hal there at number ninefor me Just getting to talk to a
legendary coach like that.
That was huge and loved it andI love having him on every time
we can get them on a round table.
Number eight for me was theHalloween round table that we
(46:03):
did this past year.
I'd love the banter with thoseguys back and forth with you
know who's the, who's the bettermovie killer and everything
like that.
You know that was just.
It was a lot of fun to do thatone and I'm a big Halloween fan.
I do love Halloween as aholiday, which is weird because
my wife hates it Number sevenfor me.
(46:30):
This is going to sound weird butit's a little bit biased, but
it's my first show that I did.
The first one I uploaded frommy truck, just because it's kind
of what got the show rollingand I put it there.
I didn't want to be like, okay,well, it's number one because
it was the first show that Iever did and I ever uploaded and
(46:51):
I put it ahead of those guysfor that reason, because it was
the first show, but I put itdown there too as well, because
there's so many more guests thatcame on.
Ricky Stanzi comes in at sixfor me, just getting to talk to
somebody who played in the NFL,played quarterback in the NFL.
You know a huge football fan,so that helped.
(47:11):
Five is Kelly Pavlik getting totalk to you know, a boxing
champion.
Mister comes in at four for me.
Um, and it's mainly because youknow we just miss each other at
Bethany College, uh, when hewas there and coaching and when
(47:31):
I was there.
So we we just like we just misseach other with getting to know
each other there, but justgetting to talk to him and he's
been a big supporter of the show.
He still texts me out of theblue.
Hey, mike just listened to thatepisode.
It was great.
And then he bounces joke ideasoff me that he comes up with
(47:52):
himself for comedy too as well.
So I got Mr at number four andmy wife absolutely loves it when
we have him on the show.
She thinks he's hysterical.
She has said he has become herfavorite guest of the show.
So we got him at number four.
Number three this is where itgets tough for me is my top
(48:14):
three, I'd have to say.
The vacation show comes in atnumber three for me Getting to
hear people's travel plans andthe fact that Nicole was at an
airport while we were recordingthat show, getting ready to go
on a vacation.
She wasn't traveling for work,she was literally leaving for a
(48:36):
vacation as we were recordingthe vacation show.
Um, the pittsburgh show comesin at number two for me.
I grew up an hour outside ofpittsburgh, uh, in west virginia
.
I visited pittsburgh a lot.
I actually wish I would havebeen able to to record that show
(48:56):
.
My schedule did not let me hostthat show, but you know,
getting to hear a little bitmore about a town that I grew up
near and still learning stuffabout that, and I love all
things Pittsburgh, so I lovethat show.
And my number one show, god,this is tough.
(49:18):
My number one show God, this istough.
My number one show for me.
It's really it's.
It's really a toss up betweenthe town shows.
Uh, with Youngstown, theYoungstown show, um, and the
Cleveland show.
(49:39):
It's really kind of a tie atnumber one for me.
Uh, mainly because I starteddoing comedy and really wanting
to make it a career inYoungstown, I started doing
shows in Youngstown and that waskind of a buddy of mine that
got me into comedy.
He called it my first away game, to use a sports reference,
(50:03):
when I finally went out of myhometown to do comedy and I
absolutely crushed it there myfirst time there.
And I've done a ton of shows inCleveland too as well.
So those two getting to knowmore about them in more places
that I can now reach out to andmaybe try to get more shows
there and try to bring moreentertainment to those towns For
(50:28):
the past 12 years I've doneprobably over 100 shows in each
city.
So, yeah, that one.
I can't decide between whichone it is, so I've got to go
with a tie at number one betweenYoungstown and Cleveland.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah, I think you know it's all going to be too
what people enjoy, right, andthat's something great about our
shows.
We have something for everybody,whether it's all it's all going
to be, too, what people enjoy,right, and that's something
great about our shows.
We have something for everybody, whether it's roundtables and
time, all the shows.
Um, you know we did anotherroundtable was on restaurants
and patios.
You know we've had on animalsand you know we've had all types
of stuff right and got onteachers and fitness warriors
(51:07):
and coaches, and you knoweveryone's going to have
whatever their preferences onshows.
So, you know, just cause youknow you and I named, you know
20 shows and we're in therereally not even 20 cause we had
some overlap there Other peoplemay find different ones.
So just go through the show andyou know, see what you think
there's a lot of descriptions inthere and that's something else
(51:27):
you, you know I think it's beengreat too, mike, is that when
you got the ai um wrapped upwith the show, the making making
the actual, the actualbreakdown of the show, so we
didn't have to keep typing itout.
Was was pretty great too.
So encourage all the guests togo check out the shows, um, from
the early stages to now, I mean, they're a lot, a lot of fun to
(51:49):
check out.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah, that goes back to the technology piece that we
talked about earlier, with theAI kind of helping me out with
the descriptions of the show andreally filling it in for me,
and it puts great descriptionsin and it really highlights
everything about the show.
A lot better than me sittinghere typing it out which seemed
to be the longest process at thebeginning, you know, was trying
to type out those descriptionshighlights everything about the
show.
A lot better than me sittinghere typing it out which seemed
(52:11):
to be the longest process at thebeginning, you know, was trying
to type out those descriptionsand make sure I didn't miss
something from the show.
Uh, that was, you know,important to the guests or you
know, about their background orsomething like that.
So, yeah, and it's kind of thethe world we live in we're kind
of like ai is kind of liketaking over everything when it
(52:33):
comes to technology and that,and I fought it at first.
I'm so glad I decided not tobecause it's great and it
definitely, you know, puts anice light on, you know, not
only the show itself but theguest itself and now the
sponsors that we've beenbringing on to the show, and we
(52:53):
have a lot of help withBuzzsprout.
There they have people thatreach out that want to join the
show.
You hear those at the middle ofevery episode where we can land
a sponsor, and usually it'sanother show, another podcast,
which I'm for helping otherpodcasters out and, you know,
getting their show out there ona different platform like ours.
(53:15):
Maybe it's not something thatyou know is comedy related or
sports related, which I loveputting those ones on there for
people because it gives themanother chance to listen to
somebody else's show or adifferent type of show that
maybe they're not used to.
But I'm actually wearing thefirst sponsor hat that came onto
(53:36):
the show in Reaper Apparel.
I've found a lot of thesponsors mainly by reaching out
to companies, but a lot of themhave their affiliate programs
that a lot of people don't knowabout.
That it's, you know I'mbasically, you know, the brand
(53:56):
ambassador for these companiesand Reaper Apparel was the first
one to accept the offer.
And you know they've been withthe show for, oh, two and a half
seasons now.
I think is when they reallycame on through almost three
seasons.
I think they came on at thebeginning to middle of season
(54:16):
two and they've been a greatsupporter of the show.
They've sent me a lot of swag,I'll tell you that.
So I have a lot of Reaperapparel gear that I, you know, I
wear around town and you know alot of people don't see this
side of it too as well.
Is that, you know, not everysponsor is going to be a paid
(54:41):
sponsorship.
We've had a lot of people Landois one of them, uh, with his
company sweet hand sports.
Um, he sent me golf glove, hesaid both of us a hat, and you
know we keep them in there andwe do have, you know, an
agreement where we're tradingother things back and forth for
(55:03):
the read that we have playing atthe beginning of every show for
lando.
And you know, you know, justthings like that, you know, I
think, are more, I don't want tosay beneficial, because
obviously you know I'm not goingto turn down money if somebody
offers me money for asponsorship but at the same time
(55:24):
, if I can help somebody by, youknow, rocking their gear,
whether that be when I go outgolfing with Lando's Golf Club
or when I'm on stage, I try tofind out, you know, picky new
sponsors hat, and because Ialways wear a hat when I'm on
stage and I try to wear that hatwhenever I'm on stage.
I'm having a real hard timebecause, you know this is near
(55:48):
the holiday season.
So I do gear back my shows andany shows that I will have this
time of year Comedy shows, notpodcasting shows but, you know,
because you know I do have, youknow, a son and you know, a wife
, so I try to spend as much timewith them during the holidays
as I can and I actually, youknow, am starting the bookings
(56:09):
for 2025.
I'll get this out here now.
I do have a show lined up onJanuary, the 18th in Cambridge,
ohio, at the Downtown Arena.
Anybody that's going to be inthat area show is from 8 to 10.
I'm with the former guest ofthe show, destin Richardson.
It's not only writing jokes forme now it's trying to figure out
(56:33):
which sponsor I'm going to wearto these shows, because I don't
just promote them when it's onthe show.
I try to get them out any waythat I can.
Especially like TacticalBrotherhood is another one that
really helps.
Part of every Proceed goes tohelping veterans.
(56:54):
That's a big cause for me.
I try to align myself withcauses that I can get behind,
deemed Fit.
The newest one, the newestsponsor to the show, part of
every Proceed going to helpingfirst responders, especially the
ones that work during COVID,with their mental and physical
(57:16):
health.
So you know it's it's causeslike that.
But finding sponsors is not aseasy and I know we have a decent
amount of sponsors that getread on the beginning and the
end of the show.
So for those of you that don'twait till the end, you know we
do have some more great sponsors, so make sure you hang out till
(57:37):
after the show to hear aboutthem and all their great causes
and everything like that.
But you know we've done a lotwith, like former guest Wendy,
guest Wendy helping her realitycompany.
She sent both of us hats andstuff like that.
There's a lot of trading forpromo, reads with materials and
(57:59):
that I think, is more beneficialfor me.
Do you have any thoughts onthat with what we've had with
the sponsors on the show?
Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yeah, and I think for us know we are open to trades,
right, we will rock.
If you want to send us yourapparel, we will wear it.
Um, you know I just wore um thehat wendy gave us a couple
years ago, you know today.
So like, for example, when shesent us those hats or gave one
(58:27):
to me and I think I mailed it.
You know we did a free month ofpromos for her.
Um, when Nick Tomba was on uh,he owns um coaches dry rub
business.
You know he, I think, sent us acouple of free dry rubs and you
know we did a uh, we did amonth and then he sponsored a
month and he sent um, I thinkthat was like maybe may of 22
(58:49):
yeah, I believe it's may 22.
You know he sent all thoseguests a free sample of his dry
rub.
So you know we've done thingslike that.
Um, I know dana, uh, when shewas on time on her candle
business, I know she did a paidpromotion, but I know, you know
it's like lando sent us stuff.
So you know we're really opento to all that with people.
You know, if we can wear yourstuff, I wear my hat from lando
(59:12):
and I wear my hat from wendy andum, you know, use nick's dry
rub from again coach's dry rubum, here in lake county.
Uh, if anybody wants to checkthat out, that's nick tomba.
He's a defensive coordinatorand teacher at willoughby south
middle and high school.
Uh, you know, so we're, we'reopen to that stuff.
You know stuff Mike's got fromReaper, apparel and Dean Fit.
(59:32):
So we're definitely open to doall that.
With the sponsorships, I thinkpeople here before and after the
show are different than whatMike was talking about that we
have in the middle of the show.
Those are sponsorships fromBuzzsprout that you know we
approve or they approve, andthat is a small monetary gain
(59:54):
that we get so many cents perthe download that we have when
those are on.
So some of them may only belike 12 cents.
Other ones I think we mademaybe made like ten dollars off
of that one, but you know they.
They are different, um, but wetry to.
Again, let me help you, help me,help you.
Uh, with the sponsors, so Iknow we're in a works with a
(01:00:18):
couple other um ones right nowand we're going to continue with
some stuff.
So you know, for anybody asinteresting and collaborating,
uh, you know we are down to rockyour apparel.
Um.
You know Mike and I live indifferent areas, but you know we
are down to to rock yourapparel.
Um, you know mike and I live inin different areas but you know
we're close to big cities sowe're happy to wear your stuff
out, whether it's a hat or ashirt or whatever you want to
send.
Um, you know, so we are alwaysgood with that.
(01:00:39):
So they sponsors have beengreat.
Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
Um, they've just been really awesome to work with
yeah, you know, and I lovetalking with the sponsors and
again, I I do this out on myPatreon page.
I actually have a whole showwhere I'm talking about the
sponsors the whole time.
It's getting a lot of goodfeedback.
(01:01:01):
I'm hoping that a lot of thesesponsors are small businesses
Helping them out to as well, butI am, I am down for pretty much
anything.
Uh, buddy's beard care, uh,that the other sponsor here that
you know, he sends me acomplimentary beard bomb every
(01:01:25):
month and we continue to do hisread.
So, yeah, it's just you know,and the connections that I think
that we've made, you know, justwith knowing these sponsors and
you know, glad to have them onthe show, glad to have them be a
part of it.
But, yeah, for anybody outthere you got a small business,
(01:01:48):
a company, anything like that,reach out to us.
There's a link in every episodenow where you can send us a
text directly and it'll comeright to me and we can, we can
break everything down and we cantalk back and forth about, you
know, sponsorships for the showand you know, helping each other
grow.
(01:02:08):
Help me, help you, help you,help me.
And you know it's it show andyou know, helping each other
grow, help me, help you, helpyou, help me.
And you know it's.
It's a lot of fun and but itgoes back to again, do I think,
people not knowing the behindthe scenes?
And you know, reaching out tothese sponsors and trying to, to
make the good sales pitch, to,to get them to come on board,
and you know, but it's been alot of fun finding them.
(01:02:28):
It's been a lot of fun findingthem.
It's been a lot of fun.
It's been a wild ride with youon the show since you came on
and helping the show grow towhere it is.
I haven't looked lately I knowyou're the numbers guru out
there with where the show is at.
I think the last I looked, Imean you talked about it.
You know we've had guests fromfrom.
(01:02:48):
Last I looked I mean you talkedabout it We've had guests from
other countries and we wereactually heard in.
I think it was like 20different countries.
The last time I looked I couldbe way off on that.
I know you're the numbers guy.
Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
I will tell you what they are in actually one second.
We'll let everybody know, as werecord this, where the numbers
officially stand.
But I can tell you what theyare in actually one second.
We'll let everybody know, as werecord this, where the numbers
officially stand.
But I can tell everybody thatwe did get 232 downloads of the
show today, which was reallygreat for us.
(01:03:32):
Right now, ride Home Rants isheard in drum roll, drum roll as
all the stats load.
We are heard in 60 countries orterritories across the world,
with the United States coming inat one, germany, two, brazil,
three, canada, four, singapore,five, united Kingdom six, norway
(01:03:52):
, seven, ireland, eight,australia, nine and a tie at 10
with Finland and Turkey andIndia.
So that's where we are with thecountries, which was great.
And we are heard in 1,368cities worldwide, with
Zanesville, ohio, coming in atnumber one, cleveland, ohio, at
(01:04:15):
number two, columbus, ohio.
At number three, pittsburgh,pennsylvania.
At number four, youngstown,ohio.
At number five, mentor, ohio.
At number six, guajara,marahano.
At number seven, which is in, Ibelieve, south america towards
brazil, ashburn, virginia.
At number eight, wilmington,delaware at number nine and then
(01:04:40):
washington, pa, at number 10.
So that's kind of where we'reat with that, and that's
surprising because I haven'tlooked at those numbers in a
while and that's interesting,that washington's kind of where
we're at with that, and that'ssurprising because I haven't
looked at those numbers in awhile and that's interesting
that.
Washington PA kind of came outof that.
But that's definitely great.
So you know, as far as we standtoday, when this episode is,
you know, a couple of dayspre-recorded, that's kind of
(01:05:01):
where we are with our downloadnumbers.
Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
To most people that are seeing these huge podcasts
up there on the charts at numberone, number two, all the way
through number ten, getting tensof thousands of downloads.
They probably didn't see theshows at year four and they
probably were just as pumped aswe get have a 242 download day.
(01:05:29):
You know, like that's, that'sanother thing.
It's the little victories thatyou kind of hang on to in
podcasting and you know having aa 200 download day is a good
day.
Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
And as we stand at, you know, with year four, um,
right now we have a total of allof our, say, 250 episodes.
We have, uh, 14,226 totaldownloads across.
So you know, we we do sometimeslist our top 10, uh, which
we'll probably list here,probably as new year changes.
(01:06:04):
I like to always post wherewe're at with that.
So stay tuned, um, you know,for uh, for that um, on our
social media and then, uh, yeah,we'll release kind of where
they are.
But there definitely was somemovement with the 232 downloads
today.
Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Yeah, absolutely always pumped for that, uh, but
we are down near, you know, theend of the episode here.
I feel like I could sit hereand talk about this all day, but
don't want to run on aboutourselves in that.
So we're actually going to wrapup this four-year anniversary
(01:06:38):
of the Ride Home Rants podcastshow.
Thanks for coming on andtalking with it, fetty.
I've been a part of the show soglad you've been a part of the
show and helping it grow andeverything like that.
That is actually going to do itfor this week's episode of the
Ride Home Rants podcast.
I want to thank everybody forlistening.
I want to thank everybody againfor your added support
(01:06:59):
throughout the show throughoutthe years, for many years to
come.
As always, if you enjoyed theshow, be a friend, tell a friend
.
If you didn't tell them anyways, they might like it just
because you didn't.
That's going to do it for meand I will see y'all next week.
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