Connecting Podcasters: A Conversation with Alex Sanfilippo (Ep. 56) REPLAY

Episode Transcript
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(02:27):
Alright. Hey, folks.
This
is Joe Rusciello. It is
great to be with you once again
for another episode of
the podcast, and we are coming to you live today from the asylum studios,
broadcasting from the pimple on the backside of Texas,

(02:47):
the beautiful city of Eagle Pass.
And we are gonna do the best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we could muster
without all the bluster.
Folks, it is
way too early for this.
Well, for me anyway.
It's,
02:05PM

(03:10):
on
Wednesday, April
2025,
and we are doing a very special
midday edition of the podcast
for our good friend and our guest today, Alex
Sanfilippo,
who will be with us at the, 02:30 mark. So, we'll be waiting for him to chime on in.

(03:35):
As soon as he shows up in the, in the waiting room, we'll we'll let him on in.
Now,
I'll do the full introduction for Alex when, when he pops up on the screen and, let you guys know who he is.
But, what I would like to tell you though is is that one of the great
things that he does is he he owns and operates this,

(03:59):
web service called PodMatch. And that is, you probably heard him mention it a couple of times with, when we were talking to, Matthias Matthias Mueller a few days ago.
That's how we connected. It was great conversation,
that we had. And,
you know, basically, folks, look, whether you're a podcast guest or a podcast host,

(04:19):
or whether you're aspiring to be a guest or a host,
you can just head on over to
podmatch.com,
and you could, or well, you can go to podmatch.com/free
and sign up over there, check it out, or you could use my, affiliate link if you're interested in joining up. That's joinpodmatch.com/joeroos.

(04:44):
We would love to have you use the link.
Our affiliate link with them, which is
a real that's a great thing on a few folks that have been using it, so that's wonderful. We're excited about that to be a part of it. But, he will be with us in a little while to start talking about it. But, basically, like I said, whether you're a podcast host or a guest or you're aspiring to be either one of them,
PodMatch,

(05:04):
will give you some really,
great ideas
to help you grow and improve
your podcasting efforts. And, I'll be honest with you. You know, I've been using them now for a little while, and,
they're they're great, man. Their their matches are are pretty much spot on with what exactly we're looking for.
And,
so I would encourage you if you're listening and you're a podcaster or if you are

(05:27):
maybe looking to,
be a guest on a podcast, this is definitely the place for you to go. So just have like I said, head over to podcast,
podmatch.com/free
to check them out, see all the neat features they have. And again when you are ready to sign up, just hit that join podmatch.com/JoeRouz.
Use my link and,

(05:49):
hopefully,
you'll,
have a great experience like I have. So we're excited about that. We're excited to have Alex on here in just a few minutes.
Alright. So in the meantime,
while we're waiting for him, we'll we'll just go through the usual stuff that we always go through.
So, as I mentioned on the last show, I remember I I told you I am, like, so unsettled on where I'm putting the stupid mic that and I shouldn't say stupid. It's it's actually a very good good mic.

(06:18):
I am so confused as to where to put this thing because I because I keep on knocking into it,
and and it bounces around a lot. So I'm looking for the best possible
scenario here to clear the desk in front of me. This way I could do more stuff.
So,
last week on on no. I'm sorry. Not last week. Monday. Yes. Monday,

(06:39):
I set it up with the,
I'm looking for it. Where did I put it? Oh, yeah.
I don't even know where I put it. It's around here somewhere. The, oh, here it is.
I set it up on this
this contraption.
See see, we we label everything,

(07:00):
the podcast. See, it's here. It's it's up over here. It's all over.
And you can get these stickers, by the way, if you click on the shop button on the, on your on your Rumble page. You'll see it right there. Shop, you can get these great stickers, and you get t shirts and all that great stuff at,
at our little link there. So you could check them out. They are really good stuff too. Really good stuff. So anyway, so I tried using this this contraption

(07:25):
and very expensive contraption too for not really worth what it what it is.
But, this thing just kept getting in the way. Just, just kept banging into it, knocking into it, drove me crazy.
And,
I was actually tempted during one of the longer clips that we played on Monday to to swap the thing out,
So it would be back up here on the boom, but I'm gonna I'm gonna leave it here for now because,

(07:49):
you know, I don't know. Maybe I'm just used to it being there because I, you know, used to do Internet radio, and we had it set up this way. And I I don't know, but
all I do know is out of my way. I'm not banging into it, and, we're good to go with that. Alright. So that little change there. Also wanna remind you that, we will be having our regular
show at 8PM tonight.

(08:11):
So make sure you tune in for that 8PM central time, nine PM eastern, and we'll be going through the news of the day. And I got a lot of great stories that came out, earlier today, and who knows, by the time I get down to actually cutting the cutting the audio and and making all the clips,
things will change.
That's that's that's the way the news cycle is. That's the way this current administration is operating. It's,

(08:32):
like a another podcast host said, it's like rock them sock them robots.
You know, you just just
just when the media thinks they got them on one thing, they're on something else. So,
it works out really, really well.
So,
so don't forget to tune in tonight, 8PM central time, nine PM eastern time, right here on Rumble. You can also find us on,

(08:56):
YouTube, which is worthless because we generally cut the feed before we get into the good stuff because we don't wanna get censored, and we don't wanna get our strikes and all that stuff. I've already been,
the business account side of this has already been taken down by YouTube for some unknown reason. Didn't give me a reason. They just sent me an email saying, well, we we stopped your business account. Okay. Great.

(09:19):
So I don't know how much longer we're gonna actually be streaming on YouTube because it's just not worth it.
Also we're on Twitch.
Not so much of a following there on Twitch right now. I think we have, like, two people watching on Twitch.
So,
you know, I I don't know if it's worth it to stay on there. And of course, we have it on x as well.

(09:39):
And, until I can figure out how to just separate
everything else when we cut the feed,
we have to lose x as well. But the good thing is that you can just go to your app store, download the Rumble app, and,
it's it's totally free. And
make sure you follow us.
Joe Rooz, j o e r o o z,

(10:02):
and, like, subscribe, share it.
Don't forget to do that. Very important. Across your social media with your friends and your family.
And, also, hit that notification bell so you are
made aware every time we have another show available. Alright. So please check us out there.
Alright. Also, if you would head over to our website and, look look for that contact form, send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have,

(10:27):
any guests that you'd like us to try to get, no matter how we could go about, making this a better experience for you, we're definitely down to do that. Alright. Also, you could head over to our support page. If you'd like to help us out with a donation in any amount whatsoever, you can head over to our support page. This is a value for value podcast. And all that basically means is that, if you've received any value from what we're doing here,

(10:51):
you could, return that value in the form of a donation.
It could be a one time donation in any amount. It could be a recurring donation in any amount, or you could sign up to one of our producer tiers. We have our associate producer tier, which is a monthly recurring donation of $17.76.
And with that, you get,
the the perks of the shout out on every single show. You get included your name gets included in all of our show notes as an associate producer of the show. And, you also get included in any emails and any any blast that we send out. For a monthly recurring donation of $18.36.

(11:24):
You get the,
the producers
tier, the producers credit.
Alright. Basically, it's the same thing. You're gonna get the same shout out as the same same inclusion and all your show notes.
But since you're donating more money to the show, you get the producers title.
Alright and then also for a $25
a month or more recurring donation.

(11:47):
You get the coveted
executive
producer
credit.
And that's a that's a good one because
you get all of the same benefits as the as as the other two tiers. You're giving more money, so you get the executive,
credit.
But the added benefit to the executive producer is that you also get to schedule a segment on the show with us live.

(12:12):
So that is great. You could sit for half an hour at least and sit and chat, talk about whatever's on your heart and your mind. And we can all talk about the news and things we're talking about on the show. And, you know, perhaps you have some opinions on things that we're going to cover. And, you know, it's gonna be not a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all. We have a couple of folks already in that tier, and you met one of them spent eight days with us.

(12:34):
Here at the studio at the asylum, and,
we had a great time. So I'm not saying you have to come down and, you know, hang out here. I I would rather you didn't, you know, because it's a small place. That's why I don't don't I'm not I'm not being mean. It's just a small place.
And, and and our and our one of our executive producers I've known for twenty plus years, so he's he's a buddy.

(12:56):
So, you know,
it's alright. We're good. Alright. But you get to come on the show, and that's I think that's great. And that that's a great way for us to interact and get to know each other and to, and to develop what it is we're working on here. Also,
don't forget that the podcast is a registered affiliate
with the alexjonesstore.com.

(13:17):
And with that, basically, with that, you you can head over to the alexjonesstore.com/joe,
and you will get
the opportunity to shop for all of these great vitamins and supplements.
Alright?
There's there's the the methylene blue now, which is huge. It is selling like crazy.
And that stuff I haven't taken it yet myself. I'm gonna be picking up probably sometime

(13:39):
sometime in the next week or two.
But I've heard such amazing things from people who are taking it and the people who have purchased it through the website,
the alexjonesstore.com/joe,
that are so impressed with it and so and and have gotten such great results with it. I recommend you try it out. Alright. Also, you can get the ultimate Irish sea moss, gummies, which are fantastic for you, loaded with iodine and other,

(14:05):
essential nutrients for your body. This is great for immune support,
bone strength,
energy,
it's
just an overall great product, and I've been taking this now, also helps your gut support, it's great, it's a great product. I've been taking it now for about four months, and I am really, really pleased with it. You could also get it in the capsule form, which is, I think, better because,

(14:28):
the gummies are a little they're they're not as concentrated as the capsule. The capsules are a little bit stronger,
so you only take two of these a day where you take four of the gummies a day. Alright. Also, I've been taking this great ultimate turmeric with, ginger root and black pepper. This stuff is phenomenal.
Joint health, mobility, antioxidant,
defense, enhances nutrient absorption,

(14:50):
aids in digestive support,
fantastic product, been taking this now for about three months, and listen, you know, I have, I have arthritis, so you know, turmeric, my doctor even told me that turmeric is great for arthritis.
So, you should try this out if you have that. This stuff is really fantastic. The ultimate turmeric gummies, they're they're great.
Also, for your just your overall health, you have this, wonderful product, Atomic Defense. Now,

(15:16):
there's a deal going on right now on the alexjonesstore.com/joe
that, you got a bottle of Atomic Defense with every purchase that you make. So this is now now is a good time to go out there and try it out and and see if you like it. This stuff is great. I've been taking it now for a little bit,
and, you know, it's been helping. Like, I I work in a healthcare facility, and I deal with biohazard material from time to time, so,

(15:37):
I'll just every two weeks,
and I would always get sick.
But since I've been taking the, atomic defense, I haven't been getting sick as often, and when I do, it's not as bad. So,
definitely you should try it out. This stuff is loaded with oregano, cinnamon, turmeric, garlic extract, echinacea, sea moss, cumin powder, bioprene, honey powder, and so much more.

(15:58):
Need to check this out too. And don't forget, every purchase that you make on the alexjonesstore.com/joe,
you get a bottle of the atomic defense with your order.
Alright. And then last but not least, and I pulled a stunt with you guys on on on, Monday night where I actually,
had my daily dose of this amazing product. I don't know if you could see it, but, you know, the glare's kinda terrible. But this is the optimal human superfood,

(16:23):
greens, functional mushrooms, 10,000,000,000 plus probiotics, digestive enzymes,
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prebiotics,
chlorella. This stuff is great for your digestion, natural energy, immunity, detox,
brain health, just an overall great product. And there are so many other ingredients in this thing. I don't know if you could tell, but the they they included it on the label and it's such small print because there's so much that couldn't fit it all. So you need to check this out. This stuff is fantastic.

(16:57):
One of the added benefits for me at least, it's not listed as a benefit of it, but for me at least, is, some weight loss. I lost about 30 pounds,
and, this stuff has been integral in that. Plus, the energy that you get from this is is great. It's it's so much better than take than drinking those crap,
energy drinks like Red Bull and all that other stuff. This is stuff is much better for you,

(17:19):
and
basically what it does, it doesn't give you that that
punch of a of a of an energy boost. It it's a slow,
even paced energy level that you get throughout the day. Now, I can't wait to get the Tridentine Blue
with this, because I wanna see what kind of energy I'm gonna get from that. Alright? I I always feel like I can use extra an extra boost throughout the day. So we'll see how this turns out. So try this out to Optimal Human. And when you sign up to to get this as a monthly subscription,

(17:50):
you get 50% off your first order. So check it out. Optimal human, all on the alexjonesstore.com/joe.
So be sure to check that out.
Alright.
Also let's see for the folks that are up on the audio feed only right now, why don't you head over to Rumble?
Head up head up well, I should say it. Head over to your app store. That's what I should say. Head over to your app store. Download the Rumble app. See, it's too early in the day for this for me.

(18:17):
Dude, Alex better you know, you better appreciate this, bro.
Alright.
So
head over to your app store, download the Rumble app. It's absolutely free. You can sign up for free.
There are some mid roll ads that will come through with the free plan that, that that they have.
But you if you wanna go ad free, you could easily just sign up for Rumble premium,

(18:39):
and you'll you'll love it. I'm a Rumble premium member.
And, of course, you know, in full disclosure here, I I am a shareholder in Rumble. I have a mistake. I have stake in this whole thing. So I really believe in Rumble. I believe in in their mission. I believe in what they're doing and, and how they're operating, and I I am incredibly proud to be a part of the organization as as as a shareholder.

(19:00):
So, definitely download the app. It's like I said, it's free. You all the content on Rumble is free, but if you want it without the ad, you can get a Rumble premium package and,
some in some cases, the lowest $10 a month. It's it's really not that expensive.
And, make sure though that when you do get you get the app that you look for our show, Joe Roos.

(19:21):
Hit that like, subscribe, and share it.
Hit the notification bell so you are aware every time we have a new show.
Alright. Well,
with, all of that said, it's just about that time where we are going to,
say goodbye
to the folks over at YouTube.

(19:41):
Say goodbye to the folks over at Twitch and on x, and we will be exclusively streaming
on Rumble
in just a moment. So if you're on those platforms that that feeds gonna get cut
Head over to rumble..com/joeroos.
Pick up the show there if you wanna watch it on on on the web or
your app store, download the app, and follow the show there, and you'll stay with us. Alright, folks. Don't free and also don't forget tonight, 08:00 central time, nine PM cent nine 9PM eastern for our regular show, and we'll see you there. Until then, adios.

(20:17):
Alright. So, we, we're we're done with that. We got through that pretty pretty quick.
So,
there is a well, I should say pretty quick. It took us about twenty minutes.
And Alex is not in this in the guest room yet, so we will be waiting,
for him.
But in the meantime so what we've been what we've been doing here, around the studio is we've been trying to do some different things. We've been changing some some of the layout, running new cables,

(20:42):
and,
just really trying to invest some more time and and energy in what we're doing. What we're really looking for right now is if anybody is, is watching and and you have a business that you are looking to support,
another business like this,
we would love to talk to you about the opportunities to advertise with us. So you could always email me at info@joeroos.com.

(21:04):
That's info@joeroos.com.
You could also go to our website joe roos dot com, and you could, email us through the website.
That would be fantastic. We would love to hear from you guys and, try to be able to, to do something together to to try to boost your business and this one and keep this whole thing going. I know I sound like a broken record. I always sound like I'm I'm pitching, you know, doing sales pitch. Believe me, that's not what I wanna do with the show. I really don't.

(21:30):
Right now, what I'm doing is I'm filling time until Alex checks in.
If not, other than that, I could always, you know, go into let's see. We could,
where's
let me open this baby up.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
No. You know what we'll do? Until he comes. Let's do this.

(21:54):
Where's my screens?
There we go.
Let's let's do that,
and
let's take a look at some of these things going on
here in the world.
Alright. So, what I'm gonna do here, I'm gonna do a screen share here in a minute. We'll talk about a couple of things that are going on

(22:15):
in the news.
So this this was actually a a pretty good story, so let me
let me get to this one. Well, we're actually gonna cover this on the show later on tonight,
but, this is so this is great news. Now, as you know, the, the Trump administration, since it has,
assumed power, has

(22:35):
basically
been stymied
by all of these local courts
trying to,
you know, dictate federal prop,
policy.
So, for example, you had, judge judge Boseberg out there in, Washington DC,
trying to institute a nationwide,

(22:56):
injunction against the against, the Trump administration about the deportation of the, trendy,
gang. But,
so this is another situation where a a, a a district judge,
said basically that, I think his name is James,
yeah, there it is. James Breeder

(23:18):
ruled that the Trump administration could not fire probationary employees from 18 federal agencies,
and ordered the administrate the administration to restate the employees. Now, just think about the logic of that. Okay?
Probationary employee, we all know,
a probationary employee is exactly that. You are working through a probationary period,

(23:40):
and during a probationary period, you could be terminated at any time
for any reason. Now, I've worked in places where they had
a two year probationary, an eighteen month probation,
or a three month probationary period.
No matter what the duration is, if you are within that probationary period, you could be terminated for any reason,

(24:00):
So bay basically without cause,
because you are probationary. Once you finish your probationary period, I don't think I need to be explaining this really, but sometimes we have to. You know, you you you could be terminated, and that's just the end of the story. Well, so this judge, this district judge, James Breter, ruled that the Trump administration couldn't fire, probationary employees and ordered them to be returned,

(24:22):
to order them to return to work. Well, the,
the fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, that would be today, lifted a lower court's block on the Trump administration firing thousand probationary employees,
allowing the administration to continue its efforts,
to, restructure the federal government.
Alright. So this is another huge win. Now, the the

(24:45):
the court system,
interestingly enough, has been giving the Trump administration,
several
several
victories over the court through the through the at the, the appeals process here. You had this one. You had the one with, with Judge, but with the Supreme Court getting involved with Judge Boseburg,
reversing his order and basically telling him to pound sand. You're not. You can't tell the administrative

(25:10):
the executive branch
how to administer policy.
So, and and they also said that that the court in Washington DC did not have standing,
because the detainees
that were that were deported were being held in Texas,
which makes sense.

(25:30):
How could a judge in Washington DC tell
detainees
in in Texas
or or tell the federal government that they can't they can't deport
detainees
in another state.
They don't have that kind of reach. They're a circuit court judge is only

(25:54):
over the circuit in which it presides.
So therefore, he was out of his jurisdiction.
Alright. So so these are great things. These are these are wins that are coming through for the, Trump administration,
as
we kinda knew that was gonna happen, but it was just delay tactics.
Alright. Something else that was, very interesting that took place today.

(26:17):
So
you have this trade war
going on, if you wanna call it a trade war with, with with China right now.
We have, you know, president Trump instituted the reciprocal,
the reciprocal tariffs.
And,
again, the word reciprocal basically means,
if you do it to me, I'm gonna do it to you. Right? So

(26:41):
China has some of the higher tariffs,
the highest tariffs on American products coming in. And,
and so
the Trump administration has, in effect,
applied these reciprocal tariffs. China added
another 84%

(27:01):
tariff
on American goods, and then,
today,
the Trump administration in response,
this is according to Truth Social, as we found on Truth Social,
Trump raised tariffs on China to 125%
after tie after China announced,

(27:22):
it's where did it go?
There it
goes.
Trump raised tariffs on China to 125%
of China, announced a total 84% tariff on US goods. This is as per the Epic Times,
which I don't have a subscription to right now. So
that's that. Alright. Well, it looks like Alex is in the, is in the waiting room, so let's, let's pop on over to Alex and bring him on in.

(27:49):
And, here we go.
And as soon as he,
clicks on his, his camera and his microphone, we'll be good to go.
So, anyway,
as we said.
And there he is.
How's it

(28:10):
go Welcome aboard. Your mic is muted.
There you go.
It made me reset all my gear. What what's up, Joe? How are you doing? I'm doing great, bud. How are you? I'm doing good. Good to see you, man. Good. I've been listening to your show all day, so I feel like this was, like, a really smooth transition from, like, listening to now being one of the voices on it. So I'm honored to be here, man. Well, dude, I'm I'm honestly, I'm honored that you took time out of your schedule, so I know you got a lot of stuff going on,

(28:34):
to come on on the show here. So folks, this is, Alex Sanfilippo,
and, Alex is a podcaster.
He's also the founder of podmatch.com,
which is a platform as we were talking about at the intro of the show that just that automatically matches podcast hosts and guests for interviews. And it is a great platform.
I honestly, I I I was when I first got the invitation

(28:58):
to to come and check it out, I was a little skeptical,
you know, and, because any anytime anytime I get these things, I'm always like, what do they want? You know, and
I looked over the material, there were a lot of promises made in the material that I was reading, and you know something, a lot of promises kept
coming out of those coming out of that. I've I've most of the guests that I've had on the show have come through pod match,

(29:23):
and they've been
the algorithm you guys use is
is pretty spot on. There's there's very few that I that I move on from that I don't accept,
but,
the the the ones that I have have just been absolutely fantastic.
And,
like my favorite probably my favorite interview that I've had, if I could say that, I hope none of the other people are listening, but,

(29:47):
was the one I did recently,
last, was a Friday with, Matthias Mueller
that I I got connected with. Pirate. The stoic pirate. Yeah.
I listened to that episode, man. That was man, anyone checking this one out? Go back. Episode 51. I mean, I I listened not today, so I remember the episode number. But that was sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off, but that was fire, man. It was really cool to hear a Swiss perspective,

(30:09):
and it was really great. Good job. It was fantastic. And I and what I appreciated too is the fact that, you know, it was 03:00 in the morning
for him. Right. Yeah. You know, and I told him, I said, look, I can change the schedule. I can do it earlier. We could work something out, and you know, but he was like, no. No. Your show is at 08:00 your time. We do at 08:00 your time. And I was like, alright. That's cool. I wish all of my guests would would Makes me feel bad. Well, that was the point.

(30:35):
By the way, he he looks tough as nails, dude. Dude. I would Right? If you're three in the morning, I wouldn't mess with that guy. No. No. He was like wide awake. I was falling asleep. I kept I was trying to hit like, well, we're gonna let you go. Well, I can keep on going. Oh. Okay.
It was great.
But, but it was a great wide ranging conversation. We had it was it was fantastic.
I even got to interview,

(30:56):
Bob Lament,
that I met through you guys, and I've never interviewed a cartoon character before.
That was quite interesting. Have you ever seen his,
I I saw it.
I've I've seen it on YouTube before. I I actually didn't know that he was on Pod Match, but I've seen that on YouTube before. That's really interesting. That's cool. Yeah. He's a he says he was a a legacy member.

(31:18):
Yes. Is that is that the term? Yeah. Okay. So wait. I'm gonna be thinking somebody different. Now I gotta look it up myself. Yeah. Go right ahead. I'm gonna take a sip of coffee while you're doing it. Make it happen. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yes. Okay. Cool. It what I have not heard that episode. Which do you remember which number that is off the top of your head? I need I need to go back. That'll be after I'm done here today. It was in the forties.
K. I'll just look through that. Somewhere in the forties. Cool. But it it was a lot of like, I wasn't expecting it. So,

(31:42):
what I usually do is kinda like what you did. I went through
the day of the interview. I sat down and said, let let me see what's going on. And generally what I like to do also is I like to have some kind of interaction with,
with the guest prior to the show. So I'll I'll I'll send him my cell phone. I'm here. Give me a call. Let's talk. You know, beforehand.
And he refused to do it,
and, I was like, alright. Well, this will be different. So I so I said, well, let me sit down. Let me do some research on this guy,

(32:09):
And,
I went to his YouTube and I saw a cartoon character. I was like, oh, okay. Well, that's that's that's kinda cute. You know, that's that's nice. You know, I I I don't think he's gonna do that as a guest, you know, and it's not somebody else's show, and and he checked in, and there was that cat, that blue cat.
I know exactly what you're talking about now. Wow. Yeah. And I was like, this is ridiculous. How do you what do you do?

(32:33):
I I respect that you've you've interviewed like, I listened to another one where it was,
okay. So I listened to the stoic pirate episode. Right? Like, I was like, that's really cool. And I listened to another one I really enjoyed with,
Douglas Robbins thing. Oh, yeah. Great conversation. Like a fellow New Yorker, like you. Right? Like, obviously, you're in Texas now, but, like, at one point,
Anyway, there's just, like, it's you you got a diverse group, man. I respect it. And it gives what I like about it is it brings a really unique

(32:59):
opportunity to hear, like, some very different perspectives. Like, you have a you have a military like, a foreign military perspective, and then you have, like, a
content creator, like, at the highest level,
like, their their perspective. It it makes it helps open my eyes a little bit. So,
yeah. And, not through PodMatch, because before I I before, I was invited to PodMatch,

(33:20):
I interviewed
Morris Kamitsky
from from,
GetAlbi.
So all about crypto and and about what, you know, what his product is. And at GetAlbi.com,
I use it. I use it every day. It's a it's a great product. And that wallet that he has that that they just came out with,
it's it's all web based. It's fantastic. I mean, it's made just make it so easy.

(33:42):
I'm gonna mangle his last name, but but Barry knows. Barry Luebbrecht,
you know, the the owner of Podholm.fm,
which is my host platform. You know, he he was gracious to give me the do the first show with me when when I first started this one.
I mean, I I tried to I tried to have as many different types of voices on the show as I can.
I know right now I I do a lot of political stuff, but that was never really the intention of this show. You know, I wanted to do the the progression of it was I started it as a,

(34:11):
I'm gonna do this, you know, whenever I feel like it, you know, I'll record something and whenever.
And then that quickly became, okay, well, I'll record something, I'll I'll I'll post it once a week. And then it became, okay, maybe I'll record it twice a week, and I'll I'll I'll do it twice a week. And then it was, from that, now it's now it's I'm doing shows three to five nights a week, live shows, on on and doing rumble, which or video, which I I don't really like. But,

(34:36):
which I'm trying to I'm trying to make it work as much as possible. Though, man. It's it's it's
you have good content. I respect it. I also like that you you pepper in some of your stories. Like, you telling the story,
about your dad, you're getting them a gift. I'm not gonna spoil the story. I don't remember which episode that was in, but, dude, I love It was with Doug. Yeah. Me and him would get along.
Yeah. My dad was great, man. And, actually, if I could just for a quick second, you know, my dad my dad passed away a couple years ago and today's his birthday. So, you know, I'm just thinking about dad today. Yeah. Wow. What a time for me to bring that up. Yeah. No. It's great. No. It's fine. It's my sister and I were talking earlier about it today. It was it was great. Wow. Part of his legacy for sure, he seems like he was a cool guy. Oh, he's the best. He was the best. But anyway, that wow. The timing there. So, I I love it. Like, this is one of the views of podcasting.

(35:22):
Is it, like, you're capturing those stories. Like, this story you told to your dad in that episode,
like, made me, like, laugh hysterically. I was like, that is so good. And so, like, that's that's a legacy now. Like, so anyway Amen. That's really cool, man. Alright. Well, I I've I've rambled on long enough.
So I I want I wanna talk to you about, first of all, I know you do podcasting for yourself. Right? You do your own show. Tell us a little bit about what you do with your podcast and what it's all about.

(35:47):
Sure. Yeah. My my podcast
is about podcasting.
I wonder if I tell people it's funny. I tell people like that in person.
Like, in my gym, I'm always meeting new people, and they're like, they're like, oh, you have a podcast. What's it about? I'm like, podcasting. Like, oh, and then they, like, take a few steps back. They're like, oh, that's that's weird. Right?
But because I run podmatch.com,
which is the software that connects podcast guest and host for interviews, I just realized there was a big need

(36:11):
for continued education for both podcast guest and host. Mhmm. And, the the reality is I realized really quick that, like, I don't have all the answers, and I'm actually okay with that. Like, I'm not one of those ego guys that, like, needs to be
the the guy with all the answers. So I built this podcast, and I kinda built it more like a like a TED Talk type of thing. Mhmm. So most episodes don't even have me on them at all. It's just

(36:34):
somebody sharing something really specific they know for about, like, ten to fifteen minutes.
It's gonna be, like, one really specific thing. Like, we had somebody talk about microphones one time. He really understood how to get good good sound like, you understand it really well. Like, you have superior, like, amazing sound. Okay. And so, like, someone was like, I can't stop the echo. He's like, here's how you get an echo. If you're in a home office with a lot of windows, here's how you do this. Right? And, like, went deep into it. So, like, that's one example. Of course, we have, like, storytelling tactics, ways to convert

(37:00):
listeners into leads, all all that type of stuff. And so the whole idea, we we call it podcast made simple. And the idea is just like, hey, let's try to simplify and demystify this whole podcasting thing. And it I've I've listened to a few of your episodes, and,
really really good. Like I I enjoyed That's what I meant. I've gotten a I've gotten a lot of information just from listening to podcasts about podcasts. Like I listened to yours,

(37:20):
Barry Luebbrecht
has a podcast out there called About Podcasting.
And, I picked up so much from that as well.
What was that?
Oh, okay. Sorry. Hold on.
There we go.
I had my, I I don't usually keep my, my email
window open, so that's what that was.
So,

(37:42):
that that threw me off. But,
but, yeah. I mean, I've learned so much from listening to to you and and listening to, to Barry and and others as well as as far as putting together a podcast. Like like you commented about the sound.
I hate the sound sometimes. Like Barry actually talked me off the ledge one day. I got I got I was so aggravated after I did a show because to me the sound did not come out well at all.

(38:04):
The sound where I'm hearing right now? Yeah. And I was really unhappy.
It sounds great. Well, I fixed
it. So Oh, okay. This is I see what you're saying. This is sorry. It's good now. Thanks, Barry.
Well, no. He didn't do it, but he talked to you off the ledge. And he and he made me, like, because I I had text him,
we text through signal. So I I had text him, because cause he's in Switzerland also.

(38:25):
So I had text him and I said, dude I need you to check something for me. This sounds terrible. What the hell is wrong with this stuff? I don't know if it's me, if it's service, I don't know what's going on. And I said, I am ready to throw everything out the window.
And about fifteen minutes later, he he text me. He was like, he goes, your audio sounds better than 80% of
podcasts that are out there. He goes, so stop.

(38:48):
I was like,
alright. And then,
so I what I ended up I invested some money in in a in a better mixing board, you know. I'm using the,
the the RODECaster Pro two right now,
and, I upgraded my mics. I I got over time, you know, this wasn't like yesterday. Of course. Right. And, I actually and and I gotta say, I I There's some things about Rode that I don't like, but there there are things about them that I do like. And the fact that I called them,

(39:17):
and they actually
sat on the phone with me for about an hour,
and helped me tweak my settings
to get it to where to where I want. Yeah.
That's
really cool. That's like rare to hear a company do these days. Maybe it's because it was a Saturday, and they weren't busy. I don't know. But they did and then they also offer a lot of videos that I didn't know they had. So I was able to go through that stuff as well. But speaking of, things like that. Now I know that PodMatch,

(39:45):
and I want you to tell me about pod match, like what led you to do this and and how it got started.
But you also through pod match offer a lot of training,
and a lot of opportunities to learn, and that I think is fantastic.
And coming up there's a there's a, like a conference coming up that, is that open to the public or is that o only open to PodMatch members?

(40:06):
Yeah. So PodMatch members, we we just include the cost of ticket. It's $97
usually, but I mean, anyone anyone who hears this and wants it, like, reach out and just say you're friend of Joe, and I'll I'll get you a free ticket. But, yeah, we do we do, it's a big virtual event we do. It's it's a it's a jam packed four and a half hour event, podcasting education, both for guest and host or people that are
interested in maybe entering this space as well. Yeah. Well, I'm excited about it. I I registered for it, and I'm I'm looking forward to getting into it. So,

(40:32):
so when I do the show notes later on, I'll just put everything in there and and Perfect. Okay. Awesome. And so, okay. So that leads me up to to PodMatch.
Now, PodMatch, a friend of mine has has described PodMatch as a, a dating site for podcasters.
So,
which I think was great.
Yeah. That's pretty good. You know, it's funny I've been married too long to ever use a dating app. So I I can't verify that at all. Well, yeah. Well, I'm I'm single now. So I, you know, I I I played around for the last couple of years with with the, dating apps, you know, the, you know, swipe left, swipe right, and all that stuff. And pod match is almost like that, you know. You got your if you look at your dashboard, you got your your past, your maybe you maybe later, and all that. It's like left to right.

(41:14):
But, so it's it's kinda funny, and I never thought of that until my friend said it, and now now it's stuck in my head. So so, so podcast dating sites.
You should definitely use that somewhere on on on the site. Yeah. Some sometimes I do say it. I haven't I don't think it's anywhere in our copy, but that's not a bad idea. I like it. Yeah. It's fun. It's it's it's a fun way to look at it. But, so what led you to do,

(41:37):
pod match and,
because pod match is relatively new, isn't it? Yeah. It we we launched in 2020.
We started working on before, like, the whole pandemic and all that. Like, no idea that that was gonna happen. So it just happened to be that same year, which was good for us, but I come from from big corporate. I was in the aerospace industry for fifteen years Wow. Before I was,

(41:58):
I guess, a full time podcaster entrepreneur. So I did that for most of my adult life. That's what I was doing. And, I I love big corporate, but it kinda
I say I love big corporate.
When I first got into that, it was a privately owned company. Okay. And I I liked that.
And then when we went public,
we, like, joined a multibillion dollar organization. There was just so much red tape, man. And, like, I

(42:23):
I don't know. Like, I I I enjoyed all my time there. I don't know how to say it nicely. I just don't enjoy that. Like, feeling like I'm just a cog in the system, I guess, is maybe the way to say it. And that was kinda writing on the wall that's like, okay. I need to I probably need to find something else. Like, Like, this probably isn't gonna be me forever. So it took me a couple years, and that's kinda like when I discovered a passion for podcasting. It made me realize, like, I oh, I wanna do this podcasting thing. And so kind of the way that, like, I decided to to do PodMatch was I was actually started speaking at podcasting conferences. I launched an entrepreneurship show at that point, 2018 maybe.

(42:54):
Started doing really well. And so I was speaking at a podcasting conference at the beginning of twenty twenty. And when I got off stage, there's about 2,000 people there. I already had a pen and paper in hand because I wanted to ask everyone, hey. What are you struggling with in podcasting? Like, what's a real pain point that maybe I could help solve? Because for to me, like, being a good entrepreneur is all about finding a problem and offering a a fast solution to that problem, fast, simple solution. So, I I heard a lot of things that day, but 100 people is is when I stopped, had said the same thing. Hey, I'm having trouble either streamlining finding guests, finding ideal guests, or the whole thing is just too cumbersome. There's too much for me to go through. It was all all around that. And so I was like, okay. There's something here. And so I kinda hit the the whiteboards with with that exact idea in mind, like, I have how can I help solve this problem? And the way that you put it, Joe, is perfect. Basically, I was like, let's build like a dating app, but Seth can't go over dates, let's go over podcast interviews. And that's more or less kinda where the whole inception of the idea came from. Well, and that and it's

(43:49):
it's such a it's such a simple idea
that that you you would you would think that, because there's that old that old saying, you know, you know, if you've thought of it, someone thought of it, you've thought of it before you.
You know what I mean? There's nothing new under the sun basically. Oh, for sure. You know what I mean? Some people definitely thought of it before. Must have. But why do why do you think something like pod like pod match

(44:10):
has garnered the success that it has over other types of platforms like this? Because, and I ask you that because
PodMatch was recently nominated for a very
prestigious award in in the, in the podcasting community, the Webby.
Yeah. Alright. Which is
amazing. And congratulations
on that. Thank you. Yeah, man. I I I legitimately, like I didn't expect that. That, like, came out of nowhere. It was, like, I got the email, and I was, like, the first I feel bad, but the first thing I did, like, I don't mean to be skeptical, but I looked at the, like, URL to make sure it wasn't fake. I'm, like, what what address did this come from? This can't be real. Like, there's just no way. Yeah. That's what I do. I That was really cool, man. I I think the the big thing that separated us from day one is

(44:52):
going back to the fact that, like, I asked people what they were struggling with. And and the the the little detail I didn't share about that day when I got off stage and I was asking that is I also got their email addresses. Mhmm. Because I wanted to tell them when we came up with something. I wanted to ask them, hey, is this is this good? Is this right?
And so we just
we built it out and we asked them, is this working? And the funny thing is when we launched, we didn't have a logo

(45:15):
and I had typos everywhere and every page took, like, ten seconds to load. And so people were like, hey. You should get a logo. I'm like, that's not the question I asked you yet. Is this solving the problem? Oh, well, yeah. But it's really slow. I'm like, still not the you you know, that's not the problem. The problem is, is it helping you find those right guests? And so from day one,
I say all that just to say that we built it from an aspect of community is is always really important to me. So, like, since day one, I've done my best to remain very accessible to our members. Now outside of PodMatch, unless I see somebody like you that I'm like, this guy's cool. Like, I wanna meet this individual. Like, if it's if it's not that, like, I don't do a whole lot of communication outside of PodMatch, but within it, I'm trying to be really involved in the community and try to get to know as many people as I can. And, again, I'm listening for, like, okay. What are the problems that we're now facing as a community of podcasters, both guest and host? Like, what's the next issue that kind of ties in what we do that we can somehow

(46:07):
be able to solve together? And and doing that, I I think, has really separated us a lot is just really being involved, which I'll admit takes a lot more work, but it's also a lot more fun.
So I I just enjoy what I do. And so I think just being so involved in it has helped a lot. And at the same time, we've also done a good job
delivering the solution to the problem that people said they have and and really trying to take that as far as we possibly can. I think that that combination of those things has really separated us in the industry right now. Yeah. And and I I I will attest to the fact that that you are very accessible. I mean, you you do get back and because so I remember when I first signed up, and, we were we were exchanging messages back and forth,

(46:45):
you know, that was
you you don't get that often,
you know? And,
so it was it was just a fantastic
experience coming on board.
And,
oh, man. Before I forget, I gotta take this. I gotta do this really quick. I gotta do a read. Sorry. I forgot about it.
Sorry.

(47:05):
Give me one second.
I'll mute. Go ahead. Do your read, man.
Alright.
Let's see.
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Read done.
Very well said. I laughed.
I'm glad I was muted, or I would have been, like, that would have been an interruption for sure.

(48:39):
Yeah. I it pops up every now and then and just like as a reminder on the studio. So I I'm like, oh, man. I forgot to do that.
I gotta do it. You know, if I can just if if this is okay, turn turn you for a minute here. I I know you don't, like, go full on political all the time and stuff like that, but I tried it. One of the things that because I am accessible,
people regularly ask me for my political opinions.

(49:02):
Okay. I don't really have a whole lot. I I'll say like you, you've you've articulated really well.
Conservatarian, I think is how you've said it. Right? Conservatarian.
Yeah. I I immediately relate with that, man. Like, I I think,
like, with some facts matter and feelings have their place, but we gotta follow what the spreadsheet says. Right? Like and that's kinda how I fall. And so, like, having a non emotional response when I'm actually a fairly emotional person when it comes to my community being involved,

(49:31):
I never know how to respond to that.
And I I'm not
I I and I I don't have enough of, like, an understanding or baseline to even really come up with something conservative that's gonna
help somebody.
Constructive, sorry, that's gonna help somebody. Like, I I don't really have that. I don't know. Do you have any thoughts for someone like me who's a founder, who does like to be community led, that doesn't know a whole lot, but get asks a lot?

(49:52):
Wow. That's a good question.
I don't even know how to answer that, to be honest with you.
That makes me feel better actually. So Yeah. I know that that's that's that's a that's a tough question. I've never actually nobody's ever asked me anything like that.
I felt like Donald Trump there for a second. Nobody's been asking about that. Nobody's ever asked me that. Hold on. Nobody asked me about that. I'm trying to work on my Donald Trump impression. It's it's My brother can do I mean, if it's on a phone, it's it's flawless. Anyway, sorry. Back to the No. That's okay. Listen. Yeah. I don't need an answer. I just it felt good to tell somebody. And the fact that you're, like, oh, I'm not really sure actually makes me feel better because it makes me feel like I'm not just totally missing it somehow. Yeah. No. I you know, I what I try to do is and like you said, and I've said it before in other shows that I've done, that, you know, the the for me, the thing is you can't get emotional about about things. It it is and and it with the current administration, you see it with Donald Trump. I mean, he is a spreadsheets

(50:42):
factual
transact transactional
leader.
You know? He does have his feelings. He does have his emotions, but he keeps them in check, and he he's looking at the bigger picture. And that's I think that's what you need to do, is you need to look at the bigger picture.
Yeah. I can get really emotionally attached to this particular project, but if it's not working for me, then I have to change it and do something different

(51:05):
to make it work because it's not only about me, it's about everybody else that I'm working for. Because as a as as an owner of a business like yourself,
you're working for your
membership.
The folks that subscribe to the to the site,
you know, you're
working for them really.
So you need you need to look at the bigger picture. Yeah. Okay. Maybe I don't wanna have this type of content

(51:29):
available on
pod match as an example,
but, you know, there are people out there. I I'm a I'm a firm believer. This is where the, you know, the conservatarian
part comes in. I do believe that people have a right to express themselves, you know, as they as they see necessary. As long as you're not threatening to kill somebody, you know, you should have you should be able to have a voice on the public forum.

(51:50):
You know,
so
I I guess I guess what I'm what I'm trying to go with that is is, you know, you have to separate yourself emotionally, and you and you have to focus on the mission that's in front of you. I am here to build this community for
the the people who are subscribing to it, the people who are working with it, and the people who are getting results from it, and I have to do and take the steps that are necessary for them,

(52:15):
despite what I might be thinking.
So that's Super helpful, man. Thank you. So that's that's what I think, anyway. I think that's good, and that helps me a little bit to process it. So thank you for that. That that's cool. Thank you. Like I always say to it, it's that's my opinion.
Yeah. Right. Yeah. You could disagree with it. It's fine, you know. It's it's my opinion. In the end of the day, like, I'm I'm all about, like,
I mean, podcasting, like,

(52:36):
it it's just it's freedom of speech. Like, it's a great medium that's, like, really I don't wanna say uncontrolled, but there's there's no one behind it that's, like, Alex, you're not allowed to say that ever again. Like, that that doesn't happen because it's based off of RSS.
So it's like, we we we can share what we want, and I'm all about, like, within reason. Like you said, like, there's someone teaching people how to do something really
immoral that's killing people or something like that. Right? Like, we would never let that on our platform, but Of course. Anything less than that is like, hey. Like, if it's right wing, left wing, or,

(53:04):
conspiracy theories, like, beyond belief, like, that's okay because that's that's what they wanna talk about. And I I think that that to me, protecting that freedom of speech is one of the beautiful parts of podcasting. And I think that it's one of the few mediums that some of the the big networks
and big mediums, like media companies and stuff, really don't like because they know I can't control this, and that's a problem. Like Yeah. If there's a narrative they wanna get out, podcasting is kinda like a

(53:30):
it's kinda like a it's it's it's a loose end. Right? It's like, they can kinda do whatever it wants. And so for me, like, I I wanna I really wanna protect that. And that's one of my big passions. One of the reasons I love podcasting so much is the fact that, like, people can share. We can have conversations like this where I can ask you that question and no one's gonna be like, now Joe, you can't answer it that way again. Right? Like, it's not gonna happen. Like, we just have the opportunity to learn and grow together. So No. That's one of the things I love about it. The interesting thing is though is is, like, for example, in Canada. Alright?

(53:56):
Here in The United States, we need to really appreciate
our first amendment rights,
and the rights that that that the constitution protects.
Constitution does not grant you these rights.
Alright? Need to make that clear.
The constitution
protects
rights that you already have
from,

(54:17):
as our founding generation put it, from from the from our creator, from nature's God, however you wanna phrase it.
Those rights are
inherently ours. They're not given to you by government, government cannot control them, government can only protect them. Alright? And that's the whole point of the constitution.
We need to be more appreciative of that,

(54:39):
because you look at countries like Canada,
where you have to get a license to be a podcaster.
Alright? So
when you have when you have to get licensed to do something, that means what? There's regulations, there's restrictions, there's guidelines, there's things you can cannot say and do,
otherwise, they'll pull your license and you won't be able to do it again. You won't be able to speak again. You know,

(55:04):
other countries do the same thing. I think, I think in Europe as well, you have to be licensed in a lot of the European Union countries,
to do this. To have this kind of a have a this kind of a dialogue, or the dialogue like like I had with, Colonel Colonel Mueller. You know, that I mean, we talked about a lot of a lot of stuff. So,

(55:24):
we need to be appreciative of that. And also, just to kinda go back to one thing that you said too about, you know, divergent opinions on things. Right?
I am look, I'm I'm
I'm, like I say, a conservatarian.
Alright? I have conservative beliefs, and I lean I lean libertarian on certain things.
I do not agree with the left on just about everything.

(55:46):
But tomorrow,
I'm gonna be interviewing somebody from a far left leaning organization.
You know, and we're gonna have a because there is some common ground there, like, and I'll be interviewing,
a doctor from,
from PETA,
the people for the ethical treatment of animals,
Emily Trunnell,

(56:07):
and, we're gonna be talking about the NIH. We'll be talking about all the billions of our tax dollars that go to these horrible, immoral
testing on animals.
And one of the things I what
apparently from the person that I spoke to on her behalf told me that one of the things that caught their attention, which I didn't even know they were listening, but,

(56:28):
you see you never know. You you never know who's out there.
We we were talking about, first I I always talk about my two kids, my my dogs. My I have my two French Bulldogs. I got Charlie, I got Beanie, which by the way,
I mentioned the other day, Charlie, we we found out has cancer.
And, so next week, he's go. He goes for surgery. So if anybody wants to donate to help that, I would appreciate it.

(56:50):
The,
so he he's, he has a tumor on top of his head.
And it's it has lymphoma cells in it, so they want to remove it. And so we're doing that next week. So,
but we were talking I mentioned the dogs on this on the show, and and I guess they were listening. And then,
I also mentioned about the the testing that,

(57:11):
guys like Fauci were doing where they were taking,
beagle, strapping them down to a table with putting their heads in a box and loading the boxes up with sand fleas and watching the sand fleas eat their heads alive.
I mean, that's your tax dollars are paying for that. Well, I'm sorry. I love my dogs. I love I love my pets, you know.

(57:32):
I don't want my tax dollars go into torture,
you know, another. And so, like, that caught their attention. But
my point is is that, okay, so I'm I'm I'm right leaning, they're left leaning, but we're gonna sit down and have a conversation anyway over something that's mutually,
you know, appreciated on both sides here is that there shouldn't be that type of abuse to animals and and such. So,

(57:54):
so again,
that's the beauty of podcasting,
that you can put the two divergent opinions together into one space and have it have a reasonable conversation. You don't have to agree with everything you say, you don't have to agree with everything I say at the end of the day. As long as we can have a conversation about it that's respectful and meaningful, and
and and I think podcasting does that, because it takes away those limitations of barriers, you know, you don't have to worry about,

(58:19):
corporate sponsorships and,
you know, and and and things like that that that,
you know, I don't like that you said that. I'm gonna pull the funding from your show now. You know? I mean, come on. Right. You know? So,
so that's that's the great thing. And and, actually, I gave I gave them,
my affiliate link for Pod Match. So Oh, sweet. Cool. Yeah. I I said, you know, you know, it might be good for you to to get on on this on this website that I that I use for for guests, because

(58:45):
you'll get more exposure for what you're talking about. You know, you can interview more and more shows and such. So they said they were gonna look into it. That's cool. I I I really appreciate that. And I like the the outlook you have. I for me, the the conversations in podcasting I learned the most from are people that
that have a mutual respect for each other, but don't agree on everything.
Like, if it's just all, like, oh, Joe, I agree with you a % on everything you're saying. Like, there's not a lot of growth that can happen Right. For either of us. Right? But if it's kinda like so like, like, the question I asked you, I didn't know the answer. Like, now I know an answer, and I I wrote it down here. And someone who list listened might have been like, man, I've I've had that same struggle. Now we kinda grew together. Right? Exactly. And so I think that, like you said, find that common ground. Like, that's

(59:25):
that's a beautiful thing. And I I think back to, like, my entire podcasting career,
one of my most
emailed in about, commented on
conversations I ever had was with a guy named Charles Duhigg,
really great, like, habit guy. And,
we didn't agree on what good and bad habits were. We agreed on how to form them based off of his research,

(59:46):
but, we didn't agree on what good and bad habits were just because we're different people. Right. But we had a very, like, respectful mutual disagreement about, like I'm like, I don't think that's really been it, like, healthy. He's like, oh, I I think it is. And, like, that back and forth. And people were like, I really liked it. Like, it gave me the opportunity to see that, like, I kind of agreed with, like, Alex, but I lean more towards this. Right? I'm I'm just kinda repeating what you said a little bit, but I think it's important for people to understand that, like, some of the some of the beauty in podcasting happens when it's not a total, I agree with everything that everyone else is saying a %. Like, having that that willingness to put yourself out there and stand for what you believe in, I think, is it's it was one of the beauties of our free speech. It's one of the beauties of what podcast can provide, and I think it's what makes it an interesting conversation to listen in

(01:00:30):
in on. Of course. I mean, you you you are gonna have those moments where it's gonna be a mutual back patting, you know. It's gonna happen. Of course. Yes. Yeah. It has to. Yeah. I mean And respectfully, it should. Right? Right. I mean, because I I think that you and I agree on on
so so far, everything we've been talking about we've been in agreement on. There is there isn't like a a tense dialogue back and forth here. It's
it's, it's just a free flowing conversation,

(01:00:51):
and, and and I like that about podcast. And that's the thing, you can have just, you know, just two guys sitting around drinking their coffee, drinking their tea, just doing their thing, just having a conversation. It could be about anything, everything,
and it doesn't make a difference.
You
as far as the differences in views,
It it it can make a difference though in somebody's everyday life that might be listening, and think, I'm not trying to sound like a, you know,

(01:01:16):
it it it
it it can. Like you said, you know, something that you said, or I said,
might have triggered somebody to think, oh, you know, I never thought of it that way. And and they make make a positive change in their life in the direction that they're going with their with with what they're doing.
So that's the beauty of podcasting, and and that's why I love doing it, and that's why I can't stay away. I started I started doing this type of stuff before they even called it podcasting. It was they used to call it Internet radio.

(01:01:43):
I remember you telling me that, man. I had to, like, look it up. I'm like, what what's Internet radio? It it was podcasting before it was podcasting.
Right. You know?
So, I started doing that back in 02/1516,
somewhere around there. I had I had a a a show back up in New York with it was me and and three friends. And that's again,
the beauty
of the of of the the venue of podcasting,

(01:02:05):
or Internet radio, whatever you wanna call it now.
You had myself who was the conservative voice, you had my friend Jay who was the left leaning liberal voice, and then you had another Joe
who was the libertarian voice.
And the three of us argued,
cursed each other out on the show, yelled at each other, but at the after the show was over, it was like, hey, great show. It was a lot of fun. You know, and you moved on. It was great. I I have never understood how people can do that. Again, I'm a little bit of an emotional person. Yeah. If someone's like cussing me out, I'm like, hey, man. That was great. I'd be like, get lost, dude. You know, like You know what we used to do to each other? We used to mute each other's mics.

(01:02:40):
Oh, nice. Yeah.
You're done, sir. Yeah. And then we had,
and plus Jay and I know each other for for a long time. So so we knew we knew what the triggers were and what they weren't, and we would purposely do that. But a lot of the stuff too, I hate to say it, a lot of the stuff was also staged.
Like we talked about it beforehand. Alright. Listen, I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna make fun your eye cancer.

(01:03:00):
Okay?
And
and and he and he would say, alright. Well, if you're gonna do that, then I'm gonna talk about this. And then, you know, okay fine. You know, that's that's great. And it it wasn't meant to hurt feelings, it was just meant to,
entertain.
Yep. Inform.
Because what we would what we would do is we would, like, if just as an example, if I mentioned,

(01:03:21):
his eye cancer,
it became a teachable moment
of how to look for that, and how to to to see where that
comes from, and how it started,
and how how could I've caught it earlier. And, you know, it it it grows into this whole big thing. And then, of course, it goes into the other aspect of it because it was at the time when they were trying to push through Obamacare.

(01:03:43):
And you know, I'm dead set against that. You know, the the federal government should not be in control of your healthcare
at all. They should have no involvement whatsoever.
You know, the as a matter of fact, like the the the best way that I always describe it was, and I I I think I said this to Colonel Mueller.
The government, like I said earlier, the government is their their only responsibility

(01:04:05):
is to
is is, to protect the rights that I already have.
And honestly, that's all I want government to do, is to protect my right to be able to do for myself and for my family.
That's all I want. Other than that,
back away. Just go away. I don't wanna know, just go away.
So we would get into these heated debates over, you know, government funded health care, and his point was, well, you know, I didn't have a job. I I was out on disability. I I couldn't afford my treatments, stuff like that. Where else am I gonna go get it? And you know, and I'm like, I understand, but see that's the emotional side of it. That's not the transactional side of it.

(01:04:38):
You know, the transactional side is there are venues, there are other places that you can go to get help. You shouldn't have to rely on the government.
And then we, of course, brought up points like, you know, people who are morbidly obese
that, you know, like, remember that that show that six hundred pound person?
Right? Oh, yeah. So Yeah. What okay. So so with government funded health care, that person now can

(01:05:04):
continue to live the lifestyle they wanna live, get as big as they wanna get,
and I pay for it.
You know, I'm not the one who's who's sitting there eating 16 Taco Bell burritos,
and washing it down with a diet coke to cancel out the calories, and that that no.
That's not me. Why am I paying for that?
I shouldn't have to pay for that. Right. You know, your your bad choices

(01:05:28):
shouldn't be my responsibility.
And it's like another another quote from somebody much much smarter than I am, said this. He goes,
your freedom to be you
necessarily includes
my freedom
to be free from you.
It's
great. It's a great quote.

(01:05:48):
Yeah. You know? And,
so we would have those kind of discussions, and then, of course, we would do like
like we had a we were very unpolitic we were very politically incorrect.
Alright. That's where the whole no PC thing for me comes from comes from. So, you know, we had names for everybody, and we had nicknames for people that would just, like, make your skin crawl now. But,
you know, but we we had way of one guy, and

(01:06:11):
he was a great guy. He,
we brought him into the show just to, to help us do research originally, but he was getting bored doing that.
So he was like, hey, do you think you think you can work me into the show at some point, so I can maybe just a few minutes, you know, whatever.
So so I, you know, we thought about it. We're like, alright. Yeah. Okay. Fine. We'll come up with a Alright. So here's your segment. Alright. We're gonna call it, we're gonna call it, My Two Cents with Alan the Jew,

(01:06:39):
and,
because he was Jewish. And,
and, the 2¢, you know, the penny pinching stuff. So, so Oh, I got it. Yeah. It was that's high quality. Yeah. And then we have a we had a graphic of of of a hand holding two pennies,
and, you know, so
so,
so alright. So that's your segment. You could talk about whatever you wanna talk about.

(01:06:59):
You don't have to tell us exactly what you just give us an idea of of what you're thinking, so that we can at least
be prepared.
Alright? But free range, say what you wanna say, when we come back from our break,
you're on.
So
we we did all that, and so Jay and I one day were like, hey, you know what?

(01:07:20):
Let let's see what he does if
we walk out of the studio,
and leave him there by himself.
I'm like, alright. I'm all ears, and we worked out this whole thing. So for
about a month,
before we actually did it,
Jay and I
pretend argued,

(01:07:41):
coming into the studio at the start of the at the start of the show.
During the show, we would argue. We would mute each other's mics purposely just to just you know, and then act up like all irritated and stuff. And
and then when the time came,
we dropped the hammer on on on on Alan the Jew. So we're

(01:08:01):
got the show going,
we're we're going through it, and this is all planned, you know, this none none of this was real, and
we were talking about something, and and and Jay said, you know what? And he shut my mic off, and I was like,
alright that's it. I'm shouting now, and I took the cans off. I threw the cans on the table. I said, you know what? I'm out of here. I'm out.

(01:08:22):
And I stormed out of the studio. I slammed the studio door and and Jay was like, and then Jay's part was, you know what? Fuck this. I'm not doing Excuse my language, but that's what he said. He goes, I'm not gonna do this anyway. He did the same thing. He walked out,
left Alan in there by himself,
who'd never hosted the show ever, just had his one ten minute segment.

(01:08:45):
Jay and I stood outside the door of the studio, just kinda leaning up against the wall,
yelling up in the air,
you know,
just
and and watching him because the the studio we used was
a semi professional studio. So we had monitors, and
speakers and everything on the outside, and in the green room, and all that stuff, and and so we're sitting out there watching the monitors,

(01:09:09):
and and we're listening,
and you should just see Alan sitting there, he's like, he looks at at Joe, the other Joe, and he's like,
just looking around and it's like dead air and the other Joe's going,
it's on you.
What do I do? And so he he he jumps on and goes, so

(01:09:35):
it was the he quit.
He quit. Yes. He quit. No way. After after that show, he quit.
Oh, man. Dude, that is a great story. I love hearing that. He he was By the way, the whole thing you just shared, like, you even said, like, it was supposed to be entertaining, but also informative. Like, it was teaching people as well. That, like,
that combination of infotainment is actually, like, a word now, apparently. Yeah. Yeah. That's the sweet spot of podcasting these days. Like, it's gotta

(01:10:02):
like, that story you just told, like, no one if if people are tuning in live, like, no one left while you're sharing that story. Right? Because they're like, okay. I gotta hear this. Like, I where where is this going? You know? I did not expect your ending by the way. That's actually really sad. I'm sorry. That was fine. It it it, you know, and and we, you know, he still kept in touch with us afterwards. You know, he he was like, can I come back? No.

(01:10:24):
Why not? You quit.
But but but it was a joke. How do you know it was a joke? Do you think it was really a joke? But you guys were, you know, you guys were laughing about it afterwards. Yeah. Yeah. We were.
But who said it was a
joke? You were supposed to run the show. You you had ten minutes of of of dead air. We paid for that.

(01:10:44):
I said, it's a good thing you quit. We were gonna fire you anyway.
Right.
Which is a call call, of course, a joke too. But Yeah. You know, that was the other thing about us too. It's like, you never knew when we were being serious. And probably one of the best comments that we've ever had doing that show
was,
now again, at the time it wasn't podcasting like it is now. It was, you know, it was Internet radio, and we were site we were streaming on multiple websites

(01:11:09):
around. So it was like,
so like,
we were on we had our own
feed. We had our own,
streamer,
streaming,
line. But I forget the term. But
and then there were two other,
Internet radio networks
that

(01:11:30):
simulcast us
as we were broadcasting live as part of their lineup. Like like the rumble has now called the lineup.
Very similar to that. So and we would kiss off to each other. So so basically, and and if you're not from if people aren't familiar with what that means, kissing off, it's it's when our show would come to an end, the host of the show coming up after us would come onto our feed,

(01:11:51):
and interact with us a little bit, and it'll be like, alright. So what are you guys gonna be talking about on on your show? Which by the way, the the show that came after us was hosted by a guy named TJ Sanfilippo.
So, Wow. So, and and he talked about all kinds crazy like crypted stuff, and UFOs, and, you know, like the really and and super super dark stuff too. It was really Okay. It was a really good my uncle. It might be. You never know. It it was but it was really it was really good stuff. So like so for he would come on and he would say, and and say, hey, so TJ, what do you got going on for us today? Oh, well tonight we're gonna talk about this this this and this and this, and so on and so forth. Alright. Great. So we'll catch up to you then. Folks, this is Joe Russo. And we kiss off the show, and you know, and and he'd pick up, and and it would go on a chain like that. So

(01:12:35):
but because we were connected like that, they had chat rooms.
And so, one of the best comments, and I'll never forget the comment was,
a guy said, and this is exactly
what we wanted, and this is exactly what I want from what I'm doing with my podcast
now. This guy said, because I love you guys because

(01:12:55):
when I'm listening to you, I feel like I'm hanging out in the backyard with my buddies,
around the grill, with a beer, just laughing.
And I was like, that's it. That's the point. That's what you wanted, man. That's so cool. That's the point. And that's Yeah. That's what I'm trying to bring with this. It's hard to do it by yourself, but, you know, but that when we have guests,
hey, this is it. Right. This is the dialogue. I'll be real I got the the vibe is really relaxed and it's gonna flow and it's not gonna be it's not gonna end in five minutes type of thing. So, like, I didn't feel any rush. And for me, like, being a busy software founder, like, I that's what I like to listen to. Like, I don't need more, like, hey. Welcome, guys. We're gonna get you out of here in five minutes, and here's the 35 things we're gonna talk about in that time. I'm like, that's kinda my life. Yeah. So Yeah. For me, like, I really enjoy it. I feel like, you know what? This is this is real to me, it's like I'm having a glass of whiskey and sitting back and just, like, listen to some friends chat. Right. You're a whiskey?

(01:13:45):
Cause sometimes like I'm gonna go to a whiskey night actually Saturday night.
And I'll be real man. Like some weeks it's just like, man, it's a lot. And like, I'm an extrovert, but I'll probably sit there quietly and just listen to other people ramble. So what do you drink? What's your, what's your favorite?
Well, okay. So this one is gonna be, I'm not it's someone who, like, runs a company here. They're gonna have four they're not saying what they are, but they have four different kinds for people to taste. I don't know what it is, but I've really gotten into angels envy. I don't know what it is about it, but I've really, really enjoyed it. So if it was up to me, that's what I would be drinking. Is it a bourbon or a whiskey? You know, it's it's a bourbon. I'm sorry. Yeah. That that one is a bourbon. Okay. Yeah. I'm a bourbon guy. I I I love my bourbons, and,

(01:14:21):
my my favorite right now is, like I'm I'm kinda torn. Because
I came across this, this 1792,
which is unbo the small batch is unbelievable.
But I I had not seen until recently the 1794,
'17 '90 '2 full batch,

(01:14:41):
which is a 25
proof.
Oh my God. It's good? Oh my
God. I've not even I didn't knew that was a thing. Let let me tell you, I when I opened it,
okay. So I'm I'm kinda weird like this maybe. I I don't know. But,
you have to have
you have to have

(01:15:02):
the right
glassware, you have to have the right cubes, you have to have the right stuff. I mean, I'm I'm Yes. I'm nitpicky like that. And listen, I if I go somewhere and they don't have the right glass, I legitimately just get water. And I know that makes me sound bougie or like whatever, but it's a whole experience, man. If I'm not gonna get the experience, I don't Yes. Really want part of it. Right? Exactly. So And I like to pair things. I like to, you know, it has to go with what I'm eating or what I'm doing, you know. So, and and

(01:15:29):
I'll I'll I'll send you some pictures of some of the plates that I cook. I love to cook. Cooking is like my therapy.
So Okay. I I I cook in my house. I cook like high end restaurant food.
And I I don't go I don't go cheap on it. Like if I'm gonna cook, I am getting the best of everything I can get.
So just saying. So of course, I'm gonna pair everything appropriately.

(01:15:53):
So I go around tasting all these bourbons, and whiskeys, and wines, and and and such to make sure that I'm pairing it properly. I'm usually hammered by the time I start cooking, but you know, it's
it's but it's you know, I I try my very best. But I found this 1792
full batch, and oh my god, it is so good.
When I opened it up for the first time, and I poured that first into that little the little, brandy,

(01:16:18):
bourbon glass,
just let that thing swirl around a little bit, just catching the bouquet off of it.
I got heartburn
just from smelling it. That's how strong it is.
Alright? I don't know if that's a selling point man. But
when Right. I know.
But, well it's like it's like this stuff. Optimal human by the way, which is available on the alexjonesstore.com/joe.

(01:16:41):
My plug. This stuff this stuff is great. I'm I'm just saying this as you know, just a sec. Like I do the same thing with this. I plug this. It's really good. It's very good for you. It's loaded with with everything your body really needs to maintain your energy throughout the day
without like drinking the crappy like Red Bull stuff and all that. This stuff just keeps them a level,

(01:17:02):
energy throughout the entire day.
The problem with it is, and I and I actually drank some of it on the on the show on Monday just to prove my point. The problem with it is it's it's green.
So,
Why is that a wait why is that a problem? Because it looks like grass, and it smells like grass.
Oh. Alright. And I tell people, as I'm trying to sell this stuff, that it that it tastes like liquid grass.

(01:17:24):
So,
but I but I did on the show just to I do drink it. I take it. I I love this stuff. I lost 30 pounds, you know, using this stuff. Yeah. That's what's up, man. Nice. So, you know You're back to the the bourbon thing real quick. Yep. And it was I messed up by the way, if I was gonna say a whiskey, red breast. Okay. And Okay. Specifically red breast 15, something about that. I know it's a little higher end, but man, that is good stuff. That that's really excellent. Yeah. It really is, man. My whole point saying all that though is, like, when I listened to your show today, I felt like it was me with a glass, probably neat, but sitting in a chair and just listening. Like, and so, that the whole thing, like, that's the vibe that you create here. So and I love that you've you've gotten comments like that before. I'm I'm I bet there's I bet they're gonna keep on rolling in. So A cup couple of nights ago, I had my I had,

(01:18:04):
I had my espresso
with, some some, black Sambuca.
I don't know if you ever had that. I don't know what that is. No. You know what Sambuca is?
No. I don't Are you Italian or not? I am, but I What's wrong with you?
Maybe I'm not. I mean, I'm from The United I'm from Florida. I was born and raised here, so maybe I just missed that. What is that? Sambuca. It's a it's an Italian liquor.

(01:18:28):
It's it's like it's like licorice.
Tastes like licorice.
Oh, dude. I I can't do this stuff, man.
Okay. Now that I've seen, I just didn't know how to say it. My my dad has this and
Yeah. So so you you you get your little get your little espresso cup, little splash of that. Okay. And,
so I was drinking out on the show one night, and, I did not realize that I had had so much of it. So, I was doing the show and about halfway through the show, all of a sudden I'm starting to feel it. And I'm trying and I'm trying to talk about tariffs and stuff like that. Okay. And I'm like, well I think it's time to say goodnight.

(01:19:06):
But but we so I did that, but I I love my bourbons. And,
another really good bourbon too. And it's not it's not really
terribly expensive, I guess, depending where you are. Like here, I can get it for, like,
maybe $70.
It's Elijah Craig toasted barrel.
Alright. Elijah Craig, you know, the toasted barrel. I got a lot I'm like taking notes over here. I mean, I got real notes, like, earlier when you gave me some advice. That was helpful. This is maybe not as productive in life, but it's fun. So No. This is you have to have a Toasted barrel. Yes. You have to have you have to have a point of leisure.

(01:19:38):
Yes. You can't always be business. You have to, you know what was what was the line?
The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play?
Yeah. Man. Who who said that? Spock.
Oh. Star Trek. Star Trek. That's that's that's stoic right there. You know, actually, it it were for me, I think you're you're you had a guest on episode 46, Douglas Robbins Yes. Talked about earlier.

(01:20:04):
He said, sometimes you just need to step away for a while. Mhmm. Come back with a fresh set of eyes and a fresh mind. And for me, that's when play comes in, where it's like, you know what? I'm hitting my head against the wall. Like, why am I doing this? And the the the not crazy things. It's just how we work. If I leave, I like to play soccer. Like, if I go play soccer or I go to the gym or I go for a walk or just do something, I come back. I'm like, oh, this is easy. Yeah. And like an hour ago, I was like giving a 10% and getting nowhere. So I'm with you on that, man. You gotta have something that's an outlet, because if not, you're gonna drive yourself literally crazy. You have to know your limitations.

(01:20:34):
Yes. You do. You really do. And, one of the limitations that I that I just to touch on this really quick is like I I mentioned it on the show on Monday,
because, I had a crazy day at my regular job. I ended up coming back to, I come, getting back from work a little bit later than I normally do.
And, normally on my on my lunch hour at the other job is when I'm pulling notes and stuff

(01:20:57):
for that night's show.
I did not have the opportunity to do that because I got called for everything. All day Monday, I was just on the run the whole time. I was actually eating lunch working at the same time. Oh man. So it was it was just one of those days. It was just the way it was.
And,
so I I didn't really get to do

(01:21:18):
the prep that I normally would do on my lunch break. So when I got back from from work, we got home from work, and I sat down on my computer, and I started pulling all the stuff, and I started clipping audio, and clipping graphics, and all that stuff, and try to put it all together.
I ended up starting the show forty five minutes later than I normally do. And there's one thing I've learned, and I didn't take my own advice

(01:21:41):
on it on this one. The one thing I've learned is that if I'm gonna start the show fifteen minutes late, I'm not doing the show.
Because I'll I'll I'll put it off. I'll do it in the the next day. We'll pick it up fresh the next day. Because
I'm so stressed trying to get ready to start the show on time,
that it's not gonna be a quality show.

(01:22:01):
And I and I think that, you know, my audience as as as big or as small as it is,
deserves
the best foot forward.
I'm not gonna give them crap.
Right. And that's what Good. And that also ties back to when I thought that when I was talking about the audio problem. You know, I I was gonna throw it out the window because,
you know, my audience deserves better than what I gave him that night. Yeah. You know, and, so it all comes back together. But I was going to the Elijah Craig to tell you a great pairing for Elijah Craig.

(01:22:30):
Alright.
New York strip steak,
medium rare,
and if you get a butt, that's that's with the dinner. But if you're gonna have it as a as a dessert or or an after dinner drink,
if you if you partake in this stuff, that's great.
But, I find that the Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel pairs

(01:22:52):
amazingly well
with a triple Maduro
Camacho cigar.
Amazing.
Amazing. I have a I have a I have a humidor in the other room. I have my I have my bourbon collection in the other room. You know, I'm already thinking about well, you know, I'm doing the show from eight to ten tonight. You know, the politics show.
I'm gonna, you know, what what am I gonna be sampling this evening? So

(01:23:17):
so it's
Pace yourself, my friend. Yes, sir. I've heard stories about you. Oh,
wonderful.
That's a good pairing, dude. I appreciate that. I it's funny, man. I got, like, the I already said it, but I've got, like, notes on both sides of the equation here today, man. That's great. I'm well rounded.
Yeah. That's that's for sure.
And, when I when I cook,

(01:23:38):
I I I listen to some classic
jazz. Like, I don't, you know, I'm not until that
crap they listen to today. I mean, that's
not gonna last. Trust me. Look, it's, it's like,
John Coltrane's My Favorite Things.
Alright. I don't know if you ever heard it. It's like fifteen minutes long.

(01:23:59):
Great song. Great arrangement of that song. My favorite things. Great arrangements for it. It was recorded in the, like, the early nineteen sixties, and it's still being played.
Alright?
I don't think so that's so that's what so from, say say 1960
to today is how many years?
A lot. Was it we're at sixty something years. I mean Right. Oh, yeah. I'm not great at that. I figured the numbers in my head that quick either. We're we're at a lot of years. Yeah. But it's still being played. Do you really think that,

(01:24:30):
that Nicki Minaj is gonna be played sixty, seventy years from now? No.
Definitely not. There's there's the whole, like, from a music standpoint, man, like,
just like the the the lyrical
the the lack of lyrical genius now is the problem. Like, their songs used to tell stories. Now it's just, like, often, some of the songs are really, like, they they kinda go through their little trend. It's, like, 10 words that don't actually even make sense together. They just say it in a way that sounds fun or funny. Right? And it's just, like, that's not gonna hold up. There there's some old songs that you listen to. You're like, dang.

(01:25:01):
Like, this is before AI was around. Nothing helped this person is before they have this idea of, like, these these huge, like, writer,
masterminds and stuff like that, where everyone kind of come together and work on one song. Like, someone wrote this song from a life experience. Like, in you Exactly. I don't know, man. Like, I feel music. I'm one of those guys. Me too. I can feel it if someone wrote a song. I'm like, dang. This one this one has

(01:25:22):
depth to it. Right? So I
man, like, I I I work out in, like, I guess, a more of, like, a traditional type gym, and it's just playing, like, the whatever's out right now. And I'll sometimes I'll listen to it. I I like, I have a personal trainer. I was like, what what are we what are we listening to? Like, I don't know. I'm like, this is awful. Like, what are we doing?
Yeah. I I I love I love the old stuff. The old stuff is just just endures. It's just Yeah. Because because there is meaning behind it. There's heart behind it. There's there's emotion. There's there's just

(01:25:51):
and talent. Talent.
That's the key is the talent. Because today, they have, what do they call that? The auto tune or something like that? Where they they Yeah. They can sound their auto tune and all that stuff. Yeah. But you go back to the to the seventies, the sixties, you know.
No help. Everyone was gonna hear whatever you had. Exactly. I mean, have you ever heard Pink Floyd live?

(01:26:14):
I mean, I've heard it like re like I haven't No. No. I know. No. No. But you've heard them playing live. Right? Alright.
No auto tune.
Right. They just played. They they were amazing
live. Absolutely, and to me, you can always judge
a band, or a musician, or a singer
by how they perform live,

(01:26:35):
because that's the real talent.
You know, you could do anything in the studio. I mean, I could I could do
I could do one of these. You know, I changed my voice pitch, you know.
Turn that off. The crazy thing is everybody, that's your actual voice. The filter's on right now.
Once one time, I I alright. Alright. Confession time. Since since it's just us. Okay? It's just us. That's fine. It's not just us. I can see some numbers here. It's not just us, but sure. But since it's just us,

(01:27:03):
this this is my core group of people listening. So so since it's just us,
I was playing around about,
I don't know, four or five months ago,
and I'll be honest with you, I was I was hammered.
I I I was hanging out with some friends, and
drinking, and having a great old time. We were sampling bourbons, like everybody brought a bottle, so it was like

(01:27:28):
one of those things. So everybody left,
and
I I don't remember doing it.
I I have the file
to prove that it happened,
but I came into I came into my studio, because I have a home studio. So I came into the studio,
and I recorded a show. I didn't air it, didn't didn't run anywhere. I just recorded the show. I recorded the show drunk

(01:27:54):
with that voice.
Wait, what did you what did you talk about? What did you listen to it at least? Yeah, I well I tried to anyway. Dude that is the best drunk voicemail anyone's ever gotten for me.
It was a it was it was an hour and forty five minutes
of me just ranting about
cigars,
bourbons,

(01:28:15):
women,
you know, all that all that great stuff.
Drunk with the high pitched voice,
you know, doing something like,
it was like where is it? There we go. So,
you know, just I I think I'm trying to think.
Maybe one day,
I'll

(01:28:35):
I'll upload it somewhere. I don't know. We'll see. Well, I'll I'll put it behind a paywall. Yeah. You hit behind a paywall. Right? Listen. I'm just gonna go ahead and sell it now. If anyone wants to donate to Joe's cause, he's gonna send you the episode. Alright?
Man, oh, I didn't think of it. I should since since Bob Lament came on the show like a cartoon character, I should have did the whole show in that voice.
No. Actually, thankfully you didn't. I'm gonna listen to that one, so I'd rather have that be your normal voice.

(01:29:01):
That was a good it was a good show.
So I don't know where I was going with it, but it it was it it was so anyway, I did this hour and forty some odd minute show
that nobody's ever heard,
drunk in a high pitched voice just talking about about,
booze,
wine, women, cigars.

(01:29:21):
I think I got some politics in there somewhere.
Guns had to be mentioned, right? Guns? Of course. Absolutely. Okay. Good. My my very extensive collection.
Sweet. Yeah. That's good. So, you know, it it it yeah. It was it was it was I don't know. It was fun. I don't know how we got on that subject, but we're gonna we're gonna get off it now. So I do wanna ask you one question though when it comes to to to, your experiences though in

(01:29:43):
in in podcasting, and through pod match, and and through all the work that you do with podcasters themselves and such.
How what what
how am I gonna how am I gonna phrase this?
Developing the brand.

(01:30:03):
Okay?
Developing,
and building an audience,
and,
and and
and, like, everybody has a different view of what success is in podcasting and and and everything really, but
but
what would your recommendation be for someone well, just safe safe someone like myself. Alright?

(01:30:25):
Experience in all this stuff in in podcasting, you know, not a huge audience yet, you know, not Joe Rogan yet, you know, we'll get there.
But,
from the outside looking in, what would your recommendation be for a podcaster, myself, anybody else,
getting into podcasting,
how would you recommend them to start building their brand,

(01:30:47):
getting an audience,
advertising?
I mean, how what what would you tell someone to get started?
Yeah. This is a this is a great a great topic, man. So I'm thankful you brought it up.
First, you you mentioned the word success. I think that the first thing to do is we have to define success for ourselves. Mhmm. Here's a perfect example of that. This this guy, he likes to keep his podcast private.

(01:31:08):
So I won't mention his name and name of the show or anything like that.
He has a podcast that you have to fill out an application to to listen to it. He won't let people listen to it. His goal is never have more than 20 people listening. Like, he just wants to give it 20 people. He wants it to be people that are building software companies that have potential to reach a billion dollars or more. Oh, wow. And he has taken a company from 5,000,000 a year to over 2,000,000,000 a year and sold it. And so he's had that experience before, and he's like, now I wanna be the guy who helps do that.

(01:31:36):
His definition of success is having the right 20 people in that room. And if I told someone like, oh, my podcast is 20 people listening. You'd be like, oh, that's it. Right? Like a lot of people most people would think I'm like, well, the 20 people listen to his, they're probably gonna reference him on their way to the top. Right? Like, if they really do build the next billion dollar unicorn, like, they're probably going to mention, oh, this guy, this is who got me there. I was in his little private channel. Right? Right. And that's what he wants. And so his definition of success is do I have the right 20 people in my room right now? Wow. And so

(01:32:04):
that's not good or bad. It's just that's his. And so for me, mine is are the people who use PodMatch getting smarter about podcasting?
That's my definition of success. So I don't I'm not, like, driven by the numbers of it. I just need to know, is our community getting smarter? Are they getting better at this? Are they improving? Getting stronger. Yes. Like, I'm doing well. And so, like, that that's my definition. So for everybody, like, I can't give that answer, and I know you didn't ask for that. I I just wanted to address the audience today, especially just you have to figure that out for yourself, and that takes soul searching. Mhmm. You've gotta get pen and paper. You've gotta get a loan. You gotta figure out why am I even doing this in the first place, or why do I want to do this? And when you go from there and you have that answer,

(01:32:41):
the rest gets a lot easier. And so to kinda answer the rest of your question, building up that brand, now that you know the the success that you're looking for, which you're looking to achieve,
you gotta figure out who's involved in that. So what I mean by that is you gotta think about who's, like, your ideal listener, your your avatars, we call it in the business. Right? So it's just a fictitious listener. Like, what what are they doing? What are they experiencing? What do they want to experience more of? And so for, like, you, you talked about like, I even said, like, I when I was listening to your podcast, I felt like it was me sitting there with a glass of bourbon, listening to some friends chat after I had a long work week. And, like, that to me, like, if that's the vibe you're going for, then you're doing it. Right? Like and that's great. And that's your avatar. You wanna find the person. Okay. Like, you're like, okay. Who I'm really helping is a really busy entrepreneur

(01:33:22):
or the person that's life is moving a hundred miles an hour, whatever that might mean. Maybe they're a dad with young kids, and they just sometimes need to get no room alone. Like, that's who wants to listen to my show. Right? Like, that's
like, defining that is so important because then you can tie your success
to somebody.
So it goes beyond just,
I need a bunch of people listening. It's like, no. I I need the right people listening, and here's where they are in life, and here's what they're experiencing. Here's how I make them feel. And so it all kinda goes from those two things, and then piecing that together

(01:33:49):
is your brand. So, like, what does that need to look like? Right? So, like, if if
I mean, if you call this, like
like, political madness or something like that, the person that's thinking I wanna be sitting down on the couch with my my cigar, my glass. Right? Like, they that's not what they're looking for. Mhmm. Like, you wanna be able to to somehow position a way that they say, okay. Yeah. That's that's what I'm looking for. That's the brand I'm looking to align with, not something else. Right? Right. So, like, we we have to make sure that we address it really well. And I've seen some people get this really right, and I've seen some people get this really wrong, but it's just a matter of trying to put yourself in the shoes of the person that you say I ultimately serve and that I know I wanna help. And when we can get really good at that, we can kind of fill in the gaps here. So for me, it's all in on that. And then you build the

(01:34:32):
the the the offer, like, the if you're gonna monetize it, you build it with those people in mind once again. Like, I I talked about when we built PodMatch.
I mentioned, though, like, I asked the people that I knew wanted it what they were struggling with to find out the answer. Start talking to listeners.
Mhmm. If you got five, ten, fine. But talk to them and say, hey. What is it that you're struggling with right now? Like, how how can I be helpful? And then you'll you'll start hearing that. Right? And the thing is if these people are already really successful, maybe they honestly just wanna donate to feel like they're part of it. Give them a shout out. They're like, hey.

(01:35:01):
Joe was on today, and and and Joe donated $5 last week. Joe, I just wanna say thank you. Joe's now like, man, I'm part of this thing. Right? Like, that goes a really long way. Well, that's why I would do these. Like, maybe my unconventional ideas, but, like, that's what I've seen work really, really well in podcasting. And it's a long game, doesn't happen overnight, but eventually, this type of stuff really makes a big impact and difference. It does. And that that's the reason why we do the shout outs. And that's why when, you know, when when folks, you know, sign up for the tiers, I make sure that, you know, okay, well, here it is. You know,

(01:35:30):
my producers. And somebody actually asked me why I call them producer tiers,
and the reason is because
you're wasting your money, and you're gonna produce tiers. No, I'm kidding. So it's, you know, no, I I I tell them that it's it's,
because if it wasn't for your contribution,
your your your contributions, your donations are helping me do this. You're helping me produce this show.

(01:35:56):
So you are a producer of the show. Now what I would love to do, and I gotta figure out how how they did it, but,
you know you know, Adam Curry,
they somehow got it to where,
folks that they have as their producers
get IMDB
credits for it. You know, I gotta figure out how to do that, because I would love to offer that to to my folks,

(01:36:17):
you know. So I'm gonna have to I'm gonna get you there. I I got you there. Don't worry. I I have a I have I have a buddy wrote a full training on how to do that. It doesn't cost anything, so I'll send that to you. Perfect. Beautiful. Take a note now. Beautiful, beautiful. Love it. See, this is what podcasting is folks. This is, yeah. This is how you help one other. And,
you know, and that's the other thing too, like other people don't understand that. You know, podcast is, you know, it's not a competition.

(01:36:39):
You know, we're all here serving the same purpose. It's to reach people with what we have specifically to offer. You know, and if you can help me, and I can help you, and you can help this person, and that person, and they can help each other.
This this isn't a competition. I'm not looking to to to steal your
your your thunder, your your your audience.
I would love to add them to mine, and I'd love I I would love to I would love to be able to add to yours, you know, and hopefully I do.

(01:37:06):
As a matter of fact, right before the show, I was I was texting, somebody that I know, and I was I was telling her that, yeah, so I'm doing this I'm doing this I'm doing two shows today. I'm doing two to four. I'm doing eight to ten,
and what would you do in two to four? I'm doing I'm interviewing Alex Sanfilippo. Well, who who's that? I don't know who he is. I never heard him. Well, I I gave him your background, you know, based on what I had off of pod match and your website and all that stuff. I I told him what I know, and and, they were like, oh, that sounds really interesting. I'm gonna have to I'll catch it later, you know, I'll watch it later tonight. I'm like, oh, great. Yeah. That's fantastic, you know. So well, you know what? That's that's somebody who's

(01:37:39):
watching what I'm doing,
and is now gonna come and watch what you're doing. Yeah. You know? So that's how we work together. Then that's that's what podcasting is. It's not this isn't like a one upsmanship
environment. Right. Yeah. You know, the other thing I I wanna add to this because this this is a,
I think this really impacts a lot of people when I share this, but,
I've got three younger brothers. One of them in particular,

(01:38:01):
he needed some advice for, like, seven years. And so I always gave the this dude, like, Joe, like I'm, I'm being real. Like I gave the guy stellar advice. Like it was like pat on the back. Like that was good, Alex. And he just
like never took it. And every time I'd see him was every couple of weeks we're hanging out and he's like saying the same. So I'm like, dude, like I repeat myself
and still nothing. Seven years go by and found I'm, like, burn out on, like, whatever, dude. You're just gonna do whatever you want. He walks in. He goes, dude, I got the best advice ever. And this

(01:38:30):
this kid you already know where I'm going with this. I think I do. Truth repeats the exact same thing I've been telling him
that someone else said it. And all I could do is, like,
yeah. That's really good advice. Did you take it? And he's like, yeah, I did, man. My life is, like, forever changed. And here's the thing, like, I got really upset about, but the reality is
sometimes people just need to hear it in the way that makes it click. Yes. And then it'll finally click. Right? And so for me, I was sharing in a way that it just didn't fully land. It didn't fully articulate. Maybe it was too close to influence because of his brother, but the reality is somebody said something very similar that worked. That once again, I think is the beauty of podcasting. Like, if you're like, oh, well, there's already a podcast about cars, and I so I I shouldn't do a car podcast. Yes. You should. Mhmm. Maybe somebody doesn't understand the way that other person does it, but the way that you share, they really resonate with, and it actually helps them understand what they're trying to learn, or they get the enter the, entertainment they're looking for. Right? Correct. And so that that to me is also the beauty of podcasting is each of our voices are unique, and that makes us uniquely positioned to really actually serve and impact somebody.

(01:39:29):
And that that's that's great. I mean, that and I understand exactly where you're coming from. I knew I knew where you were going with it because I've been I've been in circumstances like that too, you know, where you you tell somebody something, they don't listen to you, and you watch them spiral,
and then all of a sudden somebody else comes along tells them almost word for word exactly what you said, and it's like the most life changing moment they've ever had, and they can't wait to come and tell you about it. And you're like, well that's good that's good that's good. But you wanna punch them in the face, but you know you don't do it. So you're like, are you kidding me? Sometimes

(01:39:58):
sometimes I have. I do. So
And then you go record a two hour podcast in a funny voice. Drunk.
You know, I mean, I am a New York Sicilian, you know. I mean, I can, you know. Right.
It's the way it is. You know, my grandfather was very quick with the skiffa. The skiffa is when you walk by and you've done something stupid, he's smacked in the back of the head.

(01:40:19):
Yeah. My grandfather was great with that, so I I I learned.
You know, I learned from all that stuff. But,
but, what time is it anyway? Oh, man. How much time do I have left with you?
I'm good, man. Okay. Cool. Alright. Yeah. I mean, I don't need to overkeep you, but, like, I'm good. No. No. No. No. No. For help. I just I did we need to wrap by four. This way, I can get ready for the 08:00. So I just wanna make sure. So,

(01:40:45):
but, yeah, I did but, bro, listen. I I again, I love
I love the conversation, first of all. This is this is a great conversation, and I and I really do appreciate it. And,
And again, I know you're busy. I know you got a lot of things going on, so to take the time out like this to talk, that's why I was, you know, watching the clock too.
But, I I I I hope

(01:41:05):
that more people listen
to this and other shows that you're involved with because
the advice,
the information that you give out
is priceless.
It it to me it is. And, you know, maybe not to somebody, but to me it is. You know, and I hope that people will listen and take advantage of this. There is so much you can do in the world of pox. Yes. I know there's over 2,000,000 podcasts out there. I I get it. But, honestly, of the 2,000,000 podcasts that are registered, how many are actually doing it?

(01:41:38):
I mean, I can I can tell you that, man? It's, four I'm looking at our report. We do 400,283
right now. Yeah. Out of 2,000,000, basically. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And so it's and that that number, that's the highest I've seen it in a long time. So, like, that number will drop back down. But Yeah. Yeah, man, podcasting is not saturated. And as a matter of fact, if you look at how many YouTube channels are, how many blogs are, like, there's actually, like, billions of blogs and hundreds of millions of YouTube channels. Like, even if every one of let's say there was 5,000,000 active podcast. It's still, like, so small in comparison to the other mediums out there.

(01:42:10):
The the thing is, it's the most,
it's the most segregating
from
host to listener, and I think that's why it hasn't been
as widely adopted by people who wanna be host because it's a lot more effort. Like, it's lonely, Joe, often. Right? Like, you don't necessarily, like your listeners don't appear on screen. Like, great job, Joe. Keep on going. It's not like being in a room or YouTube has so many, like, gamified metrics in it that make it seem very, like, oh, here it is. It's, like, it's it's it's keeping me there. And maybe that's the fault of podcasting for not doing that, but the reality is I find that you get the purest form of content creation. It's somebody who's actually super passionate about it. Mhmm. And they're willing to say, you know what? I may never hear from anyone, but I love this. I'm doing it anyway. Yeah. And I'm like, that's why I love it, man. Oh, exactly. Ex exactly my thing. Like, I I had another podcast that I was doing, I did for three years.

(01:43:01):
I did about
just around it to 300 episodes. Right?
And,
I got burned out, and I say, you know, let me do this. Let let me just take a break, and that's so this was back in November. I took a break,
and
I was like,
just sitting there. It's like,

(01:43:22):
it's it's it's Thursday. I'm supposed to be doing something, you know. What am I not doing? I'm not doing the podcast. Oh, okay. That's right.
Alright. It's it's Sunday. What am I doing? Why am I not what what's different? You're not doing a show, you know.
And it just like nags on
and and to me, that's the sign of that. This is this is something you should be doing if it nags on you like that. But I took that break, and I'm glad I did, and come January, that's when I started this one like I said earlier. I'm just gonna record a little bit here, there, whatever, you know, however it goes to where it is now. And,

(01:43:56):
you know, it's it's something that
I I don't I don't
If if I didn't If I could do this
professionally every day,
and not not to make not to make like Joe Rogan money. I'm not even talking about that. I'm I'm just talking about just to just to make enough money to just to pay my mortgage,
pay my bills, put food on my table.

(01:44:17):
That's all I need. A bottle of bourbon there and then, you know, but,
you know,
just to do do if I could if I could supplement the income that I get with what I do, with just doing this every day, oh, man, I do it in a heartbeat.
Yeah. In a heartbeat. Why? Not not because, oh, well, you don't have to go to work, and, you know, you're not gonna kill it. But you think this is easy?

(01:44:39):
You know?
No. Like Listen, I'll I'll speak to that point because I I still to this day, I actually I'm the primary have help, but I am the primary person who works on our podcast because I don't wanna lose sight of what it's like to be an independent creator. Right. Again, if I wanna be in the community, I wanna actually be part of the community and not just be like, oh, just pay someone to do that. Right? Like, I'm like, most people, that's not an option yet. So I'm like, let me let me remember what it's like. Dude, it is

(01:45:04):
it's the only way to describe is a labor of love. Like, it is so much work to produce a good show, which you have. Thank you. Good show.
There's it's as much as your as your job requires from you, if not more. Because it requires you wear a lot of a lot of hats to be able to do. Yeah. Like, I don't have a team working for me. Like, it's like somebody else asked asked me, well, well, who does this for you? Who does I do it. Well, when do you find time to do it? As soon as I can.

(01:45:29):
Right. Yeah. You know, it's it's like I I I sometimes I feel like a piece of crap, to be honest with you. When I get home from work and I got my dogs and they're they've been locked up in the house all day, they wanna they wanna play, they missed hanging out with me and all that stuff. And, you know, and I I I walk in the door and I drop my bag and I I grab a cup of coffee, I sit down at the dining room table, and I'm boom, I'm on the computer right away, and I'm getting my notes together. I'm cutting audio, I'm cutting clips, video clips, and and

(01:45:52):
putting all that stuff together. Then then from there running into the studio, turning on the lights, and turning on the the computers, getting everything working and running in here, then, you know, then then cooking dinner for them and because I I cook for my dogs. So they Your dogs live a good life, it sounds like. They they do. That they they deserve everything and and off the air, I'll tell I'll tell you my reasoning behind that. Alright. But,

(01:46:15):
the
they so so you
it's a lot of work, is the point. It's a lot of work. It's not like,
you know, I'm just oh.
An idea just came in my head. Let me go sit down in front of the microphone and talk about it. It's it's not that, but sometimes it could be, but it's not always that. Especially with the type of content you're providing,

(01:46:36):
the type of content that I'm I'm providing or trying to provide,
and and others like us. I mean, it's it this isn't something you can just sit down and just pull out of the air. You you have to sit down, you have to research,
you have to know your subject matter, and understand it, you know. I mean, I don't I personally don't have a problem with saying, well, I'm not sure about this, you know, but this is what I think.

(01:46:58):
Same. But yeah. But the you still put some pride into it. Like, yes. Listen. There are some, like, podcasts that are just like, today I was thinking about this, I wanna talk about it. It's like a twenty minute talk or thirty minute talk or whatever it might be.
I'm with you, Joe. I like to be like, okay. I need to, like, make sure I understand what I'm about to say. Mhmm. Because the way that people expect guys like you and I show up is to have some at least baseline understanding. But like you, I'm not gonna BS and say, yeah. I know a lot about that. When I don't, I'm just like, nope. Don't know what that is. Like, I I think people respect the humanity of that. Well, you hope so too. You know, it's it's like I I I don't want anybody to think that, you know, I know everything. I don't. I'm I'm

(01:47:32):
I'm
as dumb as as dumb as a rock sometimes, you know. It's just,
you know, I I sometimes I say stupid things, and they just they just come out. I think that has to do with the age, and you know, my service, and all that stuff. I just I don't care anymore. I just say what I gotta say. You know, it's like the old it's like that old joke that says,
you know, the older you get the the idea of of life in prison doesn't quite pack the same punch.

(01:47:56):
Wow. You know? So
You know, I I was thinking the quote, like, in your twenties, you worry what everyone thinks about you. In your thirties, you don't care what everyone thinks about you. In your forties and beyond, you realize no one was ever thinking about you. Yeah. That too. But yeah. Right?
I I could I definitely could agree with that a %.
But, you know, it's it's I don't know. It's
I I don't know what,

(01:48:19):
like, I I can't think of anything else I'd wanna do
with my own, like, with my quote unquote free time Right. Than do this. I mean,
through pod match, I've met some amazing people.
Yourself,
Matthias,
mister Robbins. I I've I've met such amazing people,

(01:48:40):
and had such amazing conversations
that have actually
given me ideas for other subjects to talk about and and to expand on, which is what I think the whole purpose of what you're doing is with PodMatch.
You know, connecting people together,
sharing ideas, and putting those ideas out
with the hopes that someone else is gonna take it and run with

(01:49:02):
it. Yeah. And that's that you can't you can't do anything better than that. I mean, this is a platform that you get to
to really
influence somebody's life. This is a platform you get to I mean, you could really mess up someone's life too, but,
you know, that's but that's the reality of it. But then, you know, you step back and say, well, it's not my fault. You didn't understand what I'm saying.

(01:49:23):
You didn't ask any questions.
No, but seriously though, it it's
this is an incredible
incredible venue that that you and I have been blessed with,
and
you know,
I love doing it. I I can't I can't see myself doing it. I look forward to show nights.
I do. I mean, I I look forward to it. Like, and if I'm not doing a show at on, like, I didn't do a show last night, because I'm doing two today, you know. So I I I was just like, I was I was sitting in the in the kitchen, and you know, I got the chance to play with my kids, you know, and and and just

(01:49:57):
roll around the floor, and you know, just mess around with them. Especially, I wanna give Charlie a little extra more time, because I know he's not feeling well, and you know,
whatever happens next week happens next week, but
you know,
you know, I I just look at my heart breaks when I look at him. I mean, he's fine. He's he's playful. He eats. He doesn't he looks great. Like, hold on. Let me see.

(01:50:20):
Come here, guys.
Been away from them to come in, so I can introduce
the world the world to the kids.
Is this the first debut on the podcast, or they've been on before?
They've been on before, but Okay. Cool. Alright.
But usually but I think, like, they were first on, I was just doing audio.

(01:50:43):
That's funny. They're not coming. Oh, here.
So I got on the phone for that again.
So
so this is this is my little girl.
Alright. This is my this is my bean.
Right, mommy? You're my good girl.
I love you.
That's my little mama.

(01:51:04):
This is Charlie.
Right, Patty, buddy?
Little heavier,
his head is.
His head is bigger than the rest of his body, and this is him normally.
His I know. I love you too, daddy. You're a good boy.
You are? And I don't know if you can see that, but that's the tumor. Okay. Yeah. So that's what we're gonna get removed next week.

(01:51:27):
Right, dad?
You're a good boy.
They I I Charlie's funny because what I what I do is,
not to inflate my numbers or anything, but I leave the TV on in the living room, and I have the rumble app on the TV. So I'll put the show on out there
for them,
and I don't know what it is with him,

(01:51:49):
but he he must pick up on something that I say toward the end of the show, where he knows that I'm finishing up.
Because
usually five minutes before I'm I'm done, he's at the door of the studio,
grunting, and groaning, and growling, trying to get my attention.
And, it's it's the funniest thing. It's like, that's my marker. I know it's as soon as I hear him coming. Alright. Well, that's it. You know, we're done. You're like, well, we're out of time today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But they were probably sleeping though. They're They're not used to be doing the show this early, so Right. Yeah. You know, but,

(01:52:21):
you know, they're my life, man. I love them. And I got I got a chance yesterday to to to hang out with them, and play with them, and you know, I didn't get a chance haven't got a chance to do that all week, because I'm doing the shows, you know. But Right. Even though I was enjoying my time with them, I missed this. I missed sitting down with my audience.
I missed spending time with them, you know. Again, no matter how big or small, it doesn't matter.

(01:52:45):
I enjoy that. I enjoy Yeah. Spending the time with them. And, you know, sometimes I get comments, sometimes I don't. Like I'm looking now to see if there's any
comments. Nope.
Okay.
You all suck.
You think I was talking nice about you? Where's my comments at? Say something for crying out loud.
But,

(01:53:06):
but you know, it's it's fine. It's
like I know my after like my live plays, I don't get a lot of, of activity right now, but my downloads are good. My audio is infinitely better than than the, than the video right now, but I don't really promote it as much, you know, and I I probably should. And that's, I guess, kinda why I was asking the question, like, so, you know, how how what would you recommend someone

(01:53:29):
in my case, for example? Like, like, I got good audio, but Yeah. In touch on promotion. I'm sorry. Like, the promotion of it, I I think to me, my favorite way to this sounds really weird. My favorite way to grow a podcast
is to find somebody every day that I think would really like the podcast, introduce them to it. Yeah. And I know that sounds like maybe maybe a little bit weird and, like, time consuming, but, like, sometimes that person runs a Facebook group of 5,000 people that also are the same person. Right? So I just make a friendship and connection with that person. Like, hey, this is really good. I'm like, cool. Do you guys have a podcast that you support in your in your community? Like, no. I'm like, can we make this part of that? And often we're like, oh, that's a great idea. Let's do it. And so, like, yeah, you connect with one person, but, like, that one person led you to thousands more. Right. And so that that's

(01:54:12):
listen, I'm all about, like, social sharing, all that stuff. But for me, that human interaction of it, like, I I've said it multiple times today. That's how I've built the company. Like, I love the community aspect. I love the one on one of it, and that's how I kind of Yep. Go at everything, even marketing. And there really isn't much of there's no other community like podcasters, to be honest with you. I mean, I I again, I've met so many great people in doing this, and people that I probably never would have met in a million years,

(01:54:38):
you know, had I not been involved in podcasting. And,
you know, it really is I mean, even though there are so many, it really is a very tight community.
Right. You know, and and I like that. I I really do. And Yeah. You know,
it it it makes it worthwhile. And funny as you said about, you know, just finding that one person, and I do that. I I try to anyway, you know. Like, I I I got a bunch of stickers. I don't know if you can see it on the side of the mic there, but Yep. I got a I got a bunch of stickers. And and if you're watching on Rumble, you just just click the, click the shop button on the bottom of your screen there. You can get yourself a podcast t shirt, and get yourself some some of the podcast, stickers right now. We're developing more content and stuff, so we'll let you know when that's available. But,

(01:55:21):
but, I I I had a I had a a guy here at the at the house working on,
I had a pipe break in the attic.
It's an old house, and, yeah, so we did the renovation work and and and,
he was working on the pipe up there for me. And,
you know, we just started talking, and he was like I was like, well, you guys gonna be done by by, like, 01:30, two o'clock? So I got a I got a show to do. Oh, well, what kind of show do you do? Oh, I I do a podcast. Well, what's it called, the podcast?

(01:55:51):
He goes, no really, what is it? A podcast.
Okay, I know it's a podcast, but what is it?
The podcast.
You know, and I purposely named it that way, so those conversations would take place. Well, what podcast?
The podcast.
Okay. You don't wanna tell me what the podcast is? I'm telling you what the podcast is. It's the podcast.
You know, I can make a skit out of it if I wanted to. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like an avenue. Like a like a who's on first type thing.

(01:56:14):
Yeah. You know. It'd be great. That's good.
You know, but
and and actually somebody else commented too that they thought it was very, it was a unique name. And I'm like, not not really. If you if you search the podcast, there's like thousands
of shows going Oh, there? Yes, the podcast.
That's why that's why I put my name at the bottom of it.

(01:56:35):
I tried to get, I tried to get the domain name for it, but I couldn't. It was already taken. Yeah. I imagine. You know? So,
that's why I went with my name, you know, Joe Ruz. And I bought it's the shortened version of my name. My my name my last name is pronounced Ruziello. So
Joe Rusciello. There's the Sicilian. I was wondering. I'm like, I've never heard Ruscie before. Okay. There it is. Joe, actually, it's it's, the last name is when my family came here, it was changed to Rusciello.

(01:57:01):
It actually was Rusciello. It's just r u s c I e l o. But when they came through,
immigration and the ports, they changed it. They added they added an s, they added an l, they took a c out,
they mangled the freaking thing.
Yeah. My family got here. They took away an l and added an o or something like that. So same thing.
It's crazy. But but that so that's where that comes from. But, you know, so I use that as as my domain, but that's fine. It's okay. It's not self serving. It's not like I'm patting myself on the back and saying, hey, look at me.

(01:57:31):
You know, that's a lot of That's a good domain. It's easy to remember. Yeah. This is quick.
But,
you know, it I I try I try to talk to everybody as much as I can about the show,
and there are some people I don't wanna tell about this tell the show about because or tell I don't wanna tell
them about the show because,

(01:57:51):
I didn't think they would like it or not, you know. Just, yeah, not not really a fit for you, but I gotta stop doing that. I just gotta throw it out there. Yeah. You know, and just and and and whatnot. So I'm gonna be getting more stickers. I'll be sending them out, and, you know, handing them all over the place. I,
I I bought these cards too. Like, they're like, I don't have any here with me right now, but the little laminated cards

(01:58:13):
or not laminated, the, the the the
the the high the the high quality paper,
you know, with the glossy finishes and all that stuff
with all the information on there about the show, and I I everywhere I go, like ATM machines, gas station, restaurants, you know. It's almost like almost like you know being a Christian going around you know witnessing and leaving gospel tracts everywhere,

(01:58:33):
you know.
I'm a Christian. I've never done that. Oh. Well, I'm I'm I'm born again Christian myself, but I love it. Yeah. Yeah. But I I I've done that. So Quick mark like, I love guerilla marketing. It's kinda like the tactic. Mhmm. What might be really interesting because, like, I don't, like, try to think of who would like your show. A lot might be the people that go to, like, a happy hour or something like that, like, people that just, like, looking to unwind a little bit. Right? It'd be really interesting if you approached a bar.

(01:58:57):
I don't actually know what they're called, but the thing they put into the drinks, the little, like Coasters. Coaster. But most of them are disposable. Right? Right. If you were, like, can I buy 10,000 of those and just put, like, your podcast with, like, a QR code on it? Yeah. That's a good idea. See I I don't know. Like, it might be an interesting idea and just try it with one bar. Just like a local bar and just be like, hey. I I you know, you buy it anyway. I'll just supply them and I'll have my have my podcast on. I'm a local guy. I come here anyway. Right? Like, or something like that. Might be

(01:59:22):
kinda interesting to see if someone's, like, drinking, like, what the heck? You know, let me see this thing. Like, what do we got here? Who's this who's this joke scene?
Just a cool you know, I I love the grill gorilla marketing stuff. Like, outside the box stuff is kinda fun. That's that's good idea. That might be cool.
What I did is I I I actually I I gave to there there are two
well, where I live I live in a small town, Eagle Pass, Texas. 30 Thousand people you said or something. Right? More or less. Yeah. And,

(01:59:48):
you know, so
there are a lot of limitations here. Everything closes by 09:00. It's like Okay. It's one of those things. So,
there were like three liquor stores that I know of in the entire place, and I've been to two of them. And,
so I I gave I gave one of them one of the stickers
when I first got them, and I wasn't expecting anything, but I the other the other day, I went I went there to to pick up a bottle for last weekend,

(02:00:13):
and
he had it stuck to his door.
And I was like, oh, that's awesome. That is fantastic. I appreciate that. I said, so how would you how would you like to sponsor a segment on the show?
How much is that gonna cost me? Don't worry. We'll figure something out. You know, it's not gonna be a lot. You know, just what do you think? Well, let me talk to my partner and if yeah. So, you know, we'll see. Might get a little sponsorship there, and go and, you know, go on from there. But it's,

(02:00:37):
you know, it's it's a it's a slow growth
thing, you know. It's not something, you know, I mean, unless you have
and I'm sure you could you could you could attest to this. I mean, unless you have
big time corporate backing,
you're not get you're not gonna
make the millions of dollars right off the bat, you know. No. It's it's it's like anything. I mean, it's it's a slow grow. You know, I I always we it's a weird correlation. I always compare it to something like football. Like, I always think of Jerry Rice where he says,

(02:01:04):
I'll do it today, I'll do what others will, so tomorrow I'll have what others can't. The reality is he was, like, one of the best NFL receivers of all time,
but no one knew who he was for at least eighteen years of his life when he was playing. Right. No one had any clue. Like That's true. And it thankfully doesn't take that long, but, like, the effort
for anything worthwhile doing in life is is like that. Like, we gotta be willing to say, like, you know what? I'm gonna do this in dark. And so one day, people are gonna be like, Joe, how how did you do this? And you'd be like, you forgot about the hundred episodes I did before you were listening. Right? Like, you forgot about this stuff that I was doing the dark when no one else was around. Right? Yeah. And so I I think that, like, anything that's everyone would do it if it would happen automatically. Right? It's a matter of us putting in the work and putting in the time. Right. It's like it's like I I I keep on referring back to Joe Rogan, because because his most obvious, most well known person. Yeah. He's most well known person. Yeah. By long shot. He's number one. You know, but,

(02:01:52):
you know, when did
how long has he been doing it before he became
Joe Rogan?
You know, how many episodes where, you know, it was just, you know, nobody listening or hardly anybody listening, and then all of a sudden,
you know, I guess, what the corporate money hit in? I don't know. But something happened. I don't know. He did it for a he's done it for a long time though, man. Yeah. And, like, I didn't

(02:02:15):
the thing is he did it for the right reason. He loved it. I don't even think he cared if anyone listened at first, at least. He was just having a good time. And I think that that's kinda like, again, it's what you gotta enjoy if you're gonna do it for a long time. Right? You gotta have fun. Exactly. If you're not having fun, like, I always tell people this in podcasting, man. Both sides of my firm, like, if you're not enjoying this, like, you should probably stop Mhmm. Because, like, it's it's it's it's work, but if you're having fun, you can make it enjoyable, then keep with it. Right? And then do it. So Exactly. I think he's one of those guys who did that. He liked it. And he had you could go back to episode one of that dude show. You could go out at episode a hundred. Probably nobody listening still. But he was having a good time doing it. And I think that that's really that's the key in all this. It's having fun doing it, thinking about the person that you know it's serving as well. Exactly. And, you know, it's

(02:02:56):
there was a there was a point I was gonna make with that. It was,
when it when it starts to feel like a burden
to do it, step away.
Step away. That which is exactly what I did when I was doing because the other show I was doing was a bible study show,
and I was doing two live shows a week, like like I'm doing five now, but you know, I was doing two live shows a week,

(02:03:20):
but it was a different type of show because I was teaching
scripture. I was teaching the bible. I I couldn't just wing it.
So I would do eight
hours of study per show
before I sat down in front of the mic and the camera to do the show. Dude, that's a lot. Right? And then on top of that, you know, work and taking care of my home, and and everything else I had to do, I got burned out. I needed a break. I need something fresh, something different, and that's why I started doing this. And as much as I love doing the other show, and maybe I'll go back to it at some point, you know, maybe once in a while I'll go back to it.

(02:03:55):
This is, you know, I I enjoy this. I I feel even though I'm doing more shows, I feel like I have more freedom.
Yeah. You know, because
basically, the the the show writes itself.
You know, all I'm doing is I'm just commenting on headlines.
Right. In in reality, you know, and and offering some opinion on it.

(02:04:17):
You know, it's it's not like I'm I'm I'm killing myself reading and reading and reading and reading, and then putting all notes together, and scripting out a lot of stuff because, you know, I don't wanna make the mistake. Because, you know, as a Christian, you understand when you're dealing with the word of God, you wanna make sure that you're Of course. On points are high. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a whole different level. I I did a faith based show when I first got started. Now, I'll tell you, it's my episodes were fifteen minutes long. It was hours. Like like you said Mhmm. Hours of work goes into it. So it's it's just a different pace. Yeah. Totally. Totally. Anyway. And, and interesting though too,

(02:04:47):
like when I started this podcast,
I've I've noticed that a lot of podcast don't usually make it past 10 episodes.
Right? That's usually like the end at that point, because they give up.
But,
and I don't have anything, like, to back it up with, like like, research or anything like that. But I got it right here, man. It's actually eight episodes. Okay. 47%

(02:05:11):
of people make it past seven episodes. So 10, it's gotta be
even less. Right? So it's like
podmatch.com/report,
by the way, is where I'm grabbing this. If anyone listening is like, where's this dude pulling the data? Podmatch.com/report
is where I I include
every month we update all the the industry data for independent podcasters. So I I just went straight to it and looked at it. So, yeah, man. 10 episodes is probably, like, forty five percent of people make it that far. So fifty five percent have already quit in less that's two months. Yeah. And they're already, like, can't do it. Right? Like, that that's the work that

(02:05:41):
it's it's testament, man. And when it makes it even to 50 episodes, dude, it's it's a lot of work. It no. It absolutely
is. And, so, you know, I I I looked at my numbers,
and and I'm not really, like, I'm not in it for the numbers. But I was just curious, you know, because I had seen something. I think it was PodTrak
put it out.
If I'm not mistaken, it was like a newsletter that that I got from PodTrak does one. Yeah. Yeah. It was one of those those tracking services. They put it out, and they and they were showing that,

(02:06:09):
you know, which which type of podcast
does
better.
You know, like a almost like a like a ranking thing.
And,
they said that Bible based,
podcasts generally don't do well.
You know, it's a very very slow
growth.

(02:06:30):
But
more of like tech
podcasts are the ones that are skyrocketing. They're just taking all the the cryptos and,
you know, technology and all that stuff. That's like I can see that. That's where everybody is going to right now.
And, so and I was curious. So I looked at my numbers when
I was at 10 episodes with this show and 10 episodes with the Bible study podcast.

(02:06:52):
When I was at 10 episodes with this one, I had already, like, nine thousand nine nine thousand nine nine hundred downloads
by episode 10. Alright. So about a hundred about, you know, about a hundred downloads per show. Okay? Yeah.
And I had no promotion. I wasn't advertising. I wasn't pushing it anywhere. I was just recording it, sending it out, recording it, sending it out.

(02:07:14):
So with this podcast at at episode 10 I'm sorry. The wait. What did I did I say I've got my numbers backed up. You were talking about this show, you were at 900. Right. At nine which is bible study one, I was at, like, 40.
Wow. 50 downloads. Oh, that that data is pretty pretty accurate then. Yeah. Yeah. By episode 10. And Wow. You know. So but

(02:07:37):
when I finished
with, like I said, like, two fifty, almost 300 episodes,
I mean, the show was heard in a 33 countries around the world. You know, I had, like, like, 80,000 downloads overall,
you know. And to me, that was okay. That's good. That's great. Yeah, man. I mean, every one person listening to me always makes something worth it. So it's like changing one life is worth it. And that's that's a lot, man. That's like that's global reach. Yeah. Now that with this with this podcast, I'm I'm I've hit when I looked at pod,

(02:08:06):
Pod Homes information,
my host.
I was in like 35 countries,
and I'm somewhere I'm closing in on, I think 8,000 downloads right now. Nice. You know? So That's great dude. It's good traction, man. That's exciting. So it's excite very exciting, you know? Yeah. That's really cool. You should definitely be celebrating that. Yeah. And like I said, I'm not about numbers, you know. Like if if if you reach one person, and they take whatever you got, and they and they're and they do well with it, then great. I'm fed that that's

(02:08:33):
my job is done.
My job is done, and actually our job is done. It's 04:10 here my time. I gotta we gotta get it. Oh, yeah. It's time to go, man. We're we're done. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's a wrap. It's a wrap. I'm gonna just so abruptly shut shut it down. But because because I could actually I could sit here and talk to you all night. I mean, this this is just a good time, bro. I think we got we have a we have a good synergy, so it makes it a lot of fun, man. Exactly. And I would love to be able to do this again at some point, so I want you to stick around. And,

(02:08:59):
and, you know, let's keep in contact, and let's keep working on this thing together. And, there's a few other things I wanna talk to you about outside the show. So,
I'll shoot you an email,
and we'll we'll we'll we'll connect and we'll we'll chitchat. Sounds great, man. Alright. Yeah. I look forward to it, bro. But before you do that,
whether you're a podcast guest or a podcast host or aspiring to be a guest or a host, podcast podmatch.com

(02:09:23):
free will give you some of the quick, helpful ideas that you need to grow and improve your podcasting efforts. Alright. So that's your script idea for your call to action. Alright. I'm gonna say this,
if you're not on PodMatch, get on PodMatch. If you're a host right now and you're looking for for a good way
to meet people,
network, and and, and and improve your content, get on PodMatch. It's a it's I'm telling you, it works. And one thing that we did not mention at all is is the fact that, you get in in most cases compensated,

(02:09:57):
for the, for for doing the interviews, for being the host. You get it also for the guest, or is it just the host? Just host side. Yeah. So You know, they they run the they run the whole they run the production. So the guest wins automatically if the host is making a little bit of money. Right? So Of course. Yeah. So so that's always a plus, you know, because as, you know, as you know, you know, it's it's hard to generate revenue when you're doing the shows. Sometimes it's, you know, people especially with the economy, so it's still so tight. People don't wanna

(02:10:22):
part with a couple of bucks here or there, you know. So, you know, that all helps. It all helps. So head over to podmatch.com/free
to get more information about it, and you could also, if you decide you wanna join right there, join podmatch.com/joeroos.
That's my affiliate link. Make sure you use that, and, because we want the credits. And,
it'll be it's it's a great experience.

(02:10:45):
Alex Sanfilippo, thank you so much for being here with us today and spending all the time with us, and I really look forward to doing it again. Yeah, Joe. This was a blast, man. Thank you for having me. Alright. Well, if you wanna hang out, just, shut your camera off if you want, and then, we can just chitchat after,
I cut it all off really quickly. Alright, folks. Well, that brings us to the end of, this

(02:11:07):
show, and then we're gonna start getting ready for the next one. So just to give a quick shout out to our executive producers, Wayne Rankin and Rosanna Rankin. Thank you folks so much for all of your help and support.
Also, I wanna say thank you to the folks that are listening on our modern podcast apps. Thank you for this for the, streaming stats to us,
especially the folks that are listening on fountain.fm

(02:11:28):
and podcastguru.fm.
Thank you so much for the stats. We really do appreciate it. Folks, if you wanna try out one of these modern podcast apps,
just head over to podcastindex.org
or modernpodcastapps.com
and, download some of the apps. They are fantastic.
Alright. Also,
just, wanna throw this in here. We're gonna talk a little bit more about it on the next show. But if you wanna get involved with shaping the future of a free and independent Texas, head over to my website, joeroos.com/tandm.

(02:11:57):
And, there you're gonna find QR codes. So you can scan those QR codes. You can register your support, become a member, make a donation, or just get more information about the organization.
Don't forget, contact form. Any questions, comments, cares, concerns, send them on over to us. If you don't wanna use the contact form, fine. Email me, info at joe roos.
And, don't forget the support button. We really do need the support to help keep all this stuff going.

(02:12:18):
Alright.
Socials,
Joe Roos
on x Instagram, not Joe Roos because I told you already, they
banned me before I even made a post.
On, Truth Social,
Check out Truth Social. If you wanna know anything that's going on with this administration before it hits anywhere else, it goes up on Truth Social. So at Truth Social, it's Joe Ruse,

(02:12:40):
minds,minds.com.
Great platform. Check them out. Find me there at Joe Ruse as well. And of course, on Facebook, the podcast
with
Joe Ruse. Alright, folks. I think, that should just about do it for us for tonight.
And I will see you guys
at 08:00 central time.

(02:13:01):
Folks,
God bless you. Have a great night.

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