The SHORTEST Travel Tours on the internet! - w/ John from Oneminutetours

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Our listeners are in for a treat as we welcome John O’Sullivan, the mastermind behind One Minute Tours. John shares his journey as a tour guide and how he transitioned this experience into compelling short-form content that highlights the hidden gems of Minnesota and beyond. We discuss his approach to storytelling, the significance of connecting with local history, and the exciting launch of his new TV show, "Hidden Middle."

• Exploring the essence of quick storytelling in travel content
• The importance of humor and connection in tours
• John’s journey to becoming a content creator
• A dive into Minnesota’s rich history
• An introduction to “Hidden Middle” and its mission
• Encouraging community support for emerging media initiatives

One Minute Tours
Hidden Middle

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you believe in the Alexandria rune stone, the
stone that was found on thefield that makes us believe that
possibly Vikings, real Vikings,came to Minnesota?
Do you believe in it, or is ita hoax?
John, what do you think?
Do you love to travel?

(00:27):
Do you love to travel?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Do you love road trips?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all
over the USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's a podcast that exploresunique and charming towns
scattered throughout the UnitedStates.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Guided by our love for location-based games like
geocaching, join us as weventure into some of the
country's most intriguingdestinations, uncovering hidden
gems and local secrets along theway and on today's episode,
josh.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
This is.
This is your guy.
This is your friend.
You've done collaborations withthis guy too.
His name is john and he doesthese what would you call travel
tours of some degree, allwithin one minute.
One minute.
How do you get that?
We're going to ask him actuallyexactly how he gets all that
information down to a minute.
But anyway, that's who's ontoday's show.

(01:12):
Thank you, josh.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm very excited.
He's a great guy.
He's a fellow Minnesotan.
But get this, craig, he is also, for you, a fellow Australian.
What How's?
He a fellow Australian,australian.
What how's your fellow?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
australian he has dual citizenship.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
He's, his wife is australian and he went through
the whole process and he is alsoan australian so he's gonna
understand me when I ask himquestions.
This is good.
I hope so.
I hope so.
Yeah, I I believe his, his, hispartner is an aussie, so wow,
yeah, he's gonna, he's going toconnect just great with you, I'm
sure.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Absolutely.
I'm going to ask you somehard-hitting questions, if
that's the case then as well,like where is she from and her
accent whereabouts it is?
So that'd be cool.
That'd be cool, mate,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
First of, all, Craig, I want to say to you happy new
year.
Happy new year to you too, Josh.
Happy New Year, Happy New.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Year to you too, Josh .

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Happy New Year.
It's 2025.
And not only that, Craig, butthis is our 50th 5-0 episode.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
It is too.
50 episodes, 50 episodes,that's a lot of talking back and
forth.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Josh, I know that's a lot of time spent together.
Like each episode is likeroughly an hour, so that's a lot
of time spent together.
Like each episode is likeroughly an hour, so that's 50
hours.
That's a that's a strong workweek together not for
australians.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
That's a work week and a half in australia, just
let you know.
Because, yeah, our work weekisn't we?
We maximum in australia 40 hourwork weeks, 40 hours.
Oh wow, what are you you have?
You have got more hours herethan you in the US.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Oh yeah, we work hard here in the US.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well, I wouldn't say hard, you work.
But no, I don't know if it'shard or not, but anyway, mate,
yes, congratulations, 50episodes.
What's your takeaway on the 50?
Because I mean, let's be honest, If people, if they've been
listening to us since the start,we everyone knows that josh
really wasn't too keen ongetting a podcast together, but
now you've got a podcast, nowyou've got a microphone in your

(03:10):
face and every two weeks I'vepulled you aside and take you in
just in a little podcastingworld.
Mate, how have you embraced the, the podcasting aspect?

Speaker 1 (03:20):
yeah, I was hesitant, but I do enjoy it, if anything,
just to spend some quality time, some QT, with my good friend
Craig.
Oh, my, the bromance lives on.
I think the biggest thing isI've said this before I'm so

(03:43):
used to short form content I'vebeen doing that for over 13
years so to have a platformwhere I can unpack more thoughts
that I just never have time onthe YouTube platform in the
short form content and now evenshorter form content with TikTok
and Instagram Reels and allthat stuff.
So it is really nice to be ableto talk a little bit more.

(04:04):
It's, it's.
This has become a little bitfor me, a little bit of like
behind the scenes of, of youknow, trips that we've been a
part of or geocaches I found, orexperiences that I've had, or
places that geocaching hasguided us.
Guided us.
How about you?

Speaker 3 (04:27):
in officially at this date.
Three, is it?
Three podcasts right now.
Three podcasts and I've got afinger in another, in another
one as well that I'm notactually, uh, featured on.
But, yes, three podcasts now,including this one.
Mate, I'm just finding it easierand easier and easier to be
honest with you, which is a goodthing as well, um, but I will
say this, josh, and that is withour podcast, this one here,
treasures of our town, I do likeyou, I do like to you know, uh,

(04:48):
think about the things thatwe've done.
You know the times we've spenttogether, the places we've been,
and talk it through, but at thesame time, it's like I was
reminiscing, but at the sametime, I like to sort of push the
, the video styles that you'vedone as well, to sort of, you
know, so people can actually getthe visual and then listen to
us and get the backstory, as yousaid, the, the bts, of that, of
that trip away that we did.

(05:08):
You know things like you know,alabama always sticks out to me.
That was a great trip, you knowwhat I mean, things like that
too.
So, and then to have, like ourlast episode where we, we
literally reminisce about theentire year and go over what.
I find that was a lot of fun andand if you haven't listened to
it, go back and listen to it.
But what I liked as well isthat in some cases I was like,

(05:28):
oh hang on, what was that showabout?
So I went back myself andlistened to those episodes that
I was like a bit fuzzy with too.
So, yeah, really, really cool.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Really cool so hearing that you're not burnt
out on podcasts.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Oh, definitely're you're in the flow I am
absolutely, absolutely in theflow.
I've got things down now.
Now, if people I've hadmessaged have asked me as well
in regards to the editing of theprocess of what we do, let you
know now, josh you, you and Iboth know it's very minimal,
extremely unless, unless youknow, goliath starts barking, or
unless the kids walk in on youor something like that, we don't

(06:05):
really edit at all.
There's no editing at all.
What you hear is you and Italking and discussing, and the
same with my other podcasts aswell.
There's no edit at all.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
So yeah, that's great , that's.
That speaks to a lot about howwe've grown, I think at least
I'll speak for myself I've grownbecause this is a completely
different medium, you know.
Especially, it's a little bitmore unfiltered because, you're
right, there's not as muchediting, no what.
Just what you hear is what youget exactly.
So, yeah, that's, that's alittle bit different, but I,

(06:36):
yeah, I've really been enjoyingit.
So happy, 50 up, 50 episodes.
Hopefully we'll have 50 more,absolutely.
But, craig, we've got to get toour delays and upgrades.
That's right, jeez, I almostforgot.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
I almost forgot.
Do you want to start?
Do you want me to start, josh?
I want you to start, okay, well, I'm going to start.
I'm going to start with mydelay and then build up to the
upgrade.
From there.
The delay is going to be veryquick because we don't normally
talk about this.
But the delay for me is thatnew jersey is getting cold, josh
, because we don't talk aboutthe weather.
But New Jersey is getting icycold, josh, like I'm talking

(07:10):
about, whereby, you know, snowand rain and sleet, and, yeah,
it is icy cold.
So I don't know what's going onthere.
But that's my delay, you know.
The only thing that means is Ihave to take more hot baths now,
that's all.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Oh, that's a plus.
Is that your upgrade?

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, that could be the upgrade, but no, that's not
my upgrade.
Kind of, but not really.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Oh, I wonder for the holiday season.
Did somebody give you the giftof a portable hot tub, or did
you gift yourself?

Speaker 3 (07:41):
I wish, I wish that would be gold.
No, my upgrade is actually doesrelate to the, the van.
I got new bug screens for thevan for the slide out door and
the rear door as well, mostlyfor the summer months, obviously
, with the bugs, um.
But I did get as a as well, a adedicated heater, slash air
conditioner.
So it's like a dual uh, dualair conditioner and heater for

(08:02):
the van.
So it runs separately to thevan itself.
So when the van is not runningand parked up, I can still have
the the heat on or I can havethe air conditioning on,
depending on the weather itself.
So, yes, and a new video ofthat will be coming out shortly
too, when I actually get it allset up and uh and show everyone
what it actually is, how itworks screen.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
That was screen video , yeah what about you, mike?

Speaker 3 (08:26):
what about you?

Speaker 1 (08:27):
you know I don't want to have to up one up you,
that's okay.
You know you talked about beingcold in New Jersey, but
everybody knows that I'm fromMinnesota.
Minnesota it is.
It is cold here winter hasfully set in we had.
This is kind of a good thing tosome people.
I don't really care about it,but we did have a white

(08:47):
Christmas.
Oh yes, we did not have lastyear.
So it is pretty, it is cozy,snuggling up on the couch with
my best friend Goliath sippingsome eggnog no-transcript yes

(09:33):
like it's like you use likeofficially like 10 days, but it
actually equals up to like 53days yeah, exactly, we totally
like game the system yeah,that's right.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
You take the like two days off in between if it's two
long weekends, and you take thetwo days off in the middle.
Therefore, you get, like youknow, eight or nine days off,
but you're only taking two daysoff actually work.
So, yes, that's really cool,that's really cool.
So and mate, yes, I have seen Ihave seen your snow in minnesota
um with your b reels as well.
You've been showing your breels too, and so, yeah, I've

(10:05):
seen the snow on that too, andI've seen that the snow plows
have been out and they'rescraping the roads.
I'm just hoping it's not toocold up there as well.
It gets icy on the roads, doesit get icy on the roads?
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
But if you live here, you know how to handle it, and
also we have the infrastructuresalt plows, I mean, it's a thing
, it's all in place, minnesotadrivers, we know how to handle
it and also our cities are fullyequipped to handle it.
So we got like five, six inchesof snow last night.

(10:38):
Wow, and it didn't.
You know, schools didn't close.
It's just carry on.
Yeah, carry on.
Exactly, all right.
My affection delay.
Then what's?

Speaker 3 (10:43):
just carry on, yes, carry on Exactly.
All right, my fashion delay.
Then what's your upgrade?

Speaker 1 (10:47):
if that's the case, Well, that was my upgrade.
Is that I got 12 days?
Oh, of course Of break.
I'm refreshed, I'm ready for2025.
Yes, so that's great.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
What plans, what plans do you think you have in
2025?
If people want to come and seeyou, Josh, for instance around
the trips around the US, wherecan they think you may be this
year?
Just hints and tips.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah, well, two things I know for sure.
Yes, texas Challenge, Of courseyes, which is in the Ides of
March.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Mid-March.
So both you and I are going tobe at Texas Challenge in
Floresville, texas, which isjust outside of San Antonio, so
I'm really excited to get downthere in March.
And then also we got thegranddaddy of them all.
We've got Geo Woodstock 21,where again you and I will be
there, and we've got anincredible Airbnb, all ready,

(11:43):
squared to go, and we're goingto be live on stage.
So that's happening for sure.
Are you ready for somemanifestation?
Yes, at sea, somewhere warm atsea, with possibly other

(12:13):
like-minded people at sea in hottubs, finding geocaches,
capping monsays in foreign landsyes, I'm putting it out in the
universe that that might happen,although it might be just the
planning of it.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
But still, either, either way, it's going to start
this year, in 2025 it's going tostart, whether it be the
planning or the actual tripitself, and we've got to have
her on the show as well.
Josh um from uh geocachingadventures llc.
Uh needs to be on the show too,and she's going to be coming on
the show very, very soon, uh,to get things started and get
the ball rolling and get thenumbers rolling in as well, josh

(12:47):
.
So that's it.
That's it All right.
Did you want to lead into John?
Yes, is John here?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
John is here.
I want to introduce my friend,fellow Minnesotan and you will
soon hear, he is from somewhereelse as well, as we just stated
Fellow Australian.
Oh my gosh, this is so perfect.
We have so much in common withhim.
Already he's a traveler, he's aYouTuber, he's a content

(13:13):
creator.
Please welcome to the show,john O'Sullivan from One Minute
Tours.
John, how are you doing?
It is so good to see you and tohear your voice.
How are you?
I'm doing?

Speaker 2 (13:29):
great Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yes, are you staying warm in our lovely state here?

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Trying to.
It's actually been beautifulwith the snow it's been, you
know, not making it as cold asit was a few weeks ago.
It as cold as it was a fewweeks ago.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
I was just saying that last year we had a brown
Christmas.
We had I'm going to say had,because when this is published
it will be, christmas will beover we had a white Christmas,
and that was just lovely.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
I've got a fun fact for you, because we had a brown
Christmas last year.
It's been an unprecedentedmouse season in Minnesota.
I just talked to anexterminator that I know who
said they have skyscrapers withmice in them and have never been
in there before, because whenyou have cold temperatures
that's what kills off like halfthe population and they didn't
have it last.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
So we're teaming with mice wow, my gosh, that is,
that's kind of freaky.
Have you ever seen the moviewillard?
Isn't it willard that has likethe mice?
Yeah, that's, that'sfascinating.
Well, I bet you, the the eaglesand the birds and the hawks are
are happy for that fact.

(14:37):
Yeah, exactly, but I knew you,john.
You know you're full of funfacts, especially as you share,
uh, one-minute tours inMinnesota and beyond.
I saw that you had Chicago weekand you had New York week.
But let's just first getgrounded in your history,
because this is a travel podcastand I'm really excited.

(14:58):
For the first time this is our50th episode, by the way, john.
Hey, for the first time we havea real live tour guide that
we're chatting with.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour history as a professional
tour guide.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, sure.
So I started my adult lifeafter college in the global
financial crisis, which I thinka lot of us can relate to from
my generation.
So I couldn't hold down a jobfor the first year of my career.
I lost two jobs, so I wentoverseas for one year just to do
a little gap year journey ofself-discovery maybe.

(15:36):
And then 12 years passed.
So I went overseas and I met twowomen who changed my life.
The first was a tour guide whotold me about this amazing job
where I got to stand in front ofa bus and give tours of drunk
Aussies.
And then the other one was mywife and the mother of my
children, who happened to alsobe Australian, as the case may

(15:59):
be.
So I've been a tour guide for abetter 12 years now.
Started out on buses, I didboats, ferry hopping, foot tours
, and then I started my owncompany in Melbourne, australia,
which continues to operate tothis day.
It's called Depot Adventures.
I've got seven employees downthere and a general manager.
Minnesota, where I found thisnew life as a content creator on

(16:24):
the internet, where I now haveI run the largest social video
account in Minnesota aboutMinnesota, where I'm taking a
lot of lessons I learned as atour guide, but applying them to
the place that raised me.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Congratulations.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yes, well done, mate, well done.
I will say too that when I'm goon tour cause I've recently
been to the UK as well and I dida tour all through London
itself and there was a I reallyremember quite vividly there was
a what do you call it?
A ferry, a ferry tour across,and this guy got on and at first
you thought you know, oh, he'sjust one of the workers there,
because he was pulling the reinsand pulling the ropes and stuff

(17:01):
as well.
But then he got up and he said,look, I'm not really a tour
guide.
That's how he started.
But you know, he definitely was, because he was pulling out
these facts left, right andcenter.
He was humorous, he was funny,made us laugh.
Really.
You learn a lot from a tourguide, and so my addiction to
tour guides is this and that isif you're doing something and
you're just going around,driving around a city and you've

(17:23):
got nothing to tell you what'shappening or what's going on,
you don't know much and youdon't learn much.
But the tour guide for me iswhat makes that visit to the
city.
You don't only learn stuff, butit's also humorous as well.
So tell me in regards to you,because I've seen some of your
stuff as well.
You were extremely humorouswhen you do these content
creations on your one minute uh,one minute tours.

(17:45):
Where did that come from withyou?
Is that natural for you orwhat's going on there with your
humor?

Speaker 2 (17:50):
I mean, I had a formal training.
So I worked for a companycalled bus about.
They were like a sister companyto contiki that's the drunk
australians I was talking aboutbefore so, uh, over there they
put us through a six-weekintensive training course.
There's like a boot camp.
They drove us all throughEurope and made us stay awake
all day and into the night.
Literally I'd be on a bus andthey'd say Marty, tell us about

(18:12):
Czech cuisine, john, get upthere and give us an Italian
history lesson, amelia, spanishlanguage.
And that's just how I operated.
For six weeks we drove throughEurope and learned this stuff.
So that was the formal training.
But that six weeks we drovethrough europe and learned this
stuff, so that was the theformal training.
But that was not the part thatmade me good at my job.
It was a, it was an essentialcomponent.
But I often say, like you can,most people can get to like 90

(18:34):
of where a tour guide needs tobe.
But that last 10 is what makesa good tour guide, which is, um,
being able to relate to peopleand realizing that, like the
facts don't matter, like they'resomething that you can give to
people, that's not what they'repaying for.
They're paying for connection,they're paying for authenticity
and a little bit they're payingfor interpretation.
Yeah, a lot of times you canfeel sheepish about having an

(18:57):
opinion about a place that yougo to.
But then you have a tour guidebe like I don't really like what
they did here with Big Ben,it's not really that great.
Here's why.
And like a little bit of thatpermission structure for someone
to say something provocative,you'd be like, no, no, I like
this.
And then you're having adialogue and a discussion which
is, you know, a much more like,you know, a long-lasting

(19:19):
impression of a city.
I think that, like when I gointo those like pre-recorded
tours and it's just like thiswas built this year by this
person, it just completelymisses the point, uh, of of
exploring a place.
To explore a place is to um,commune with it.
It's, it's interactive, it's a,it's a discussion with you in a
place that you're going to andthe people in that place.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
That's very true, and to this day I still remember
the parts.
What I remember is not just thefacts but, as you just said,
it's the connection to it.
So one of the guys he even saidhe said about the place the
oldest pub along the actualRiver Thames itself.
And then he talks about theoldest pub and he says about how
he goes in there, you know,every Friday night, and then he
walks out every Saturday morning.

(20:00):
Oh, I mean, you know.
So he really does personalizeit too, and I remember that
because it was humorous and thatsort of stuff.
But your humor, though, it'sgot to be off the cuff.
You're very much off the cuffsort of guy, and so you do
improv, or what happens withthat?

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Not really.
No, I mean, mean, I would liketo.
I'd like to be the kind ofperson I'm comfortable on a
stage in front of people.
I'm just I don't know that I'mfunny.
I think I'm just like able tolisten and respond like I come.
I did theater in college and inhigh school and stuff and I did
improv classes there.
But that's not, that's notreally where it comes from.
It's more than the listening.
I think a lot of times even veryexperienced tour guides can get

(20:38):
on their rails, right On therails of like this is the train
going in this direction and thenthis thing, and this is the
oldest pub and this is the placewhere this happened and
actually it's got to be.
I was at this pub last nightand Brad was a bartender and you
got to know about Brad.
He knows it's showing the tourguide, showing a a deep

(20:59):
familiarity and lived experiencein a place.
Like I always tell my tourguides, I'm training them in
like it doesn't matter if youtell them that melvin started in
1835, although that is true.
What matters is that, you see,you tell them about sofia, the
barista at this cafe you have togo see and ask her about the
whatever like it's.
Those, those human connectionsare what people are looking for,

(21:21):
um, and if you just end updoing stuff about history, it's
like nobody cares right yeah,that makes a lot of sense, this
idea of bringing humanity,humanity, to the place that
you're visiting.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Because this joke, this uh podcast is about uh,
particularly how location-basedgames like you know, john
geocaching, stuff like that.
You know, john geocaching stufflike that.
Essentially we say geocachingis our tour guide, but there's
only so much information that ageocache can give you about a
location and so I guess, otherthan bringing that humanity, if
somebody's thinking about, likeI want to visit a new city or a
new area, why should theyconsider?

(21:55):
What are some other reasonsthey should consider hiring a
tour guide or joining a tour?

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I think ultimately it's a matter of just making a
connection with someone local.
So if you have a friend in atown, don't hire a tour guide.
You don't need to.
I'm not here to try to win overpeople on my profession, but a
lot of times you're traveling toa place where you don't know
anyone and it's not a good useof your time to just go on this
hop on, hop off sightseeing bus.

(22:23):
It's like you want to talk tothe person who has a perspective
.
Actually, an example of thisJosh, you and I went out and
filmed some content for ourchannels a while back now, like
a year or two ago, and when Ithink of that day that we had
out, you know what I think about.
I think about that we went to asculpture garden and there was a
woman who was like an artist inresidence, who told us how she
had come from another place andshe was staying there.

(22:44):
And then we went to a statepark and we had a cranky park
ranger that we were trying toask questions about.
Like.
Those things pop out in my headso much more than the actual
places themselves, becausethat's how humans are we're
social creatures.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Right, I love that.
Yeah you're right, those arethe moments that we remember.
We remember the people and theexperiences, not always just
like the facts.
That is a really great point.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
I'm going to have to go back now.
You realize this, john'sbrought it up.
I'm going to have to go backnow, 12 months ago, on my
TikToks and actually have a lookand search for this day that
you guys went out togetheritself as well.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
It was a lovely day.
We had a little bit of floatsand everything.
Oh, wow, I do remember Ilearned about Josh's knee joints
and the strength of thembecause of that little pose that
you do, where you squat and youput your fingers out.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Oh yes, oh, my God, you have the sprightliness of a
young man.
My orthopedic guy told me Ishould not be doing 80 of those
in one day.
He's like that's too much,that's actually a true story,
because I've had some kneeproblems.
He's like how often do you dothat A lot?
That makes sense.
This all checks out.

(23:56):
Let's transition to how youhave brought the tours to this
idea, which I think is just anincredible like fantastic idea
of bringing one minute tours toTikTok and to Reels and now to
YouTube.
What inspired you to startcreating these one minute tours?

(24:18):
Because I know, John, you stilldo walking tours, you still do
that in person but what inspiredyou to this idea of this one
minute tour?

Speaker 2 (24:26):
It was a little pandemic.
It changed it all.
The pandemic started and I hada company that had a staff and
we did walking tours.
Right, how the hell are wesupposed to survive a pandemic?
And so actually, this is a partof the story I don't often tell
, but Jeff Bezos was my savior,because Amazon was testing out a

(24:46):
new product called AmazonExplorer and they were looking
for tour operators to help outwith it.
The idea was that it would bereal-time, live virtual tours
from around the world, so, fromthe comfort of your home, you
could click a button and be inTokyo and you would have an
actual tour guide holding agimbal, which is a device that
stabilizes a phone with aheadset on, and you'd be walking

(25:08):
to Tokyo and if you wanted togo into a shop along the way,
you could tell this tour guide.
Because it's just a privatetour, you could say, hey, can we
go in that shop?
And they'd bring you in there,and then you could click the
screen and it would say, can Isee that?
And a person would pick it uplike, do you want to buy that?
And then they'd ship it over toyou.
What?
Yeah, so it was this novelconcept they had, and so in

(25:28):
Melbourne, which is where I wasliving at the time, one of the
most locked down cities in theworld, outside of.
China.
I was living there but allowedto leave my house on a special
work permit to hold a camera andwalk through the barren streets
of the city and all of it waslike I mean, my company made

(25:50):
hundreds of thousands of dollarsoff Amazon doing these tours
and it was not profitablerevenue, but it was enough to
kind of sustain.
And it also taught us this newskill.
And the new skill was like howto use a camera, how to get
comfortable with talking likethis.
These were two-way audio butone-way video conversations, so
I couldn't see the other person,so I had to walk around like a

(26:10):
putz in the street, like be,like, oh, look at this, I was
gesticulating around, and allthat because I'd be on camera
and that got me comfortable withit.
Then, as it was happening,tiktok was growing in popularity
.
Tiktok had a one-minute limiton their videos.
While I was giving 45 minutesfor Amazon, I thought you know
what would be fun.
Let's just do one-minuteversions of these.
I started doing those and itblew up, especially at a time

(26:34):
when no one could leave theirhome.
In fact, in Melbourne you couldgo more than five kilometers
from your home for more than onehour a day.
I was every day saying, did youknow about this?
And then also building upanticipation for the place to
reopen.
I did a series called it wasMelbourne is reopening.
Here are the bars you need togo to when it does.
And I'd stand outside a bar andtalk about it and this went

(26:55):
viral.
I about it, um, and this wentviral.
I got on a bunch of majornational networks in australia
talking about it and so, um,when I returned to minnesota in
2022, I thought let's do itagain, and it's growing even
bigger than that yeah, exactly,and and scott scott, what do I
call you?

Speaker 3 (27:11):
scott josh, that's my , that's my other podcast.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's my other podcast yes and josh.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
You don't know this, josh, because you haven't been
to austral.
Josh has not been to Australia.
I keep on rubbing it in.
But Melbourne, I will say okay,john, I'm a Sydneyite.
Okay, I grew up in Wollongong,just south of Sydney.
All right, we'll allowWollongong, that's real.
Wollongong's okay, wollongong'sokay.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Not northern beaches.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
No, no, no, no, no, we're in the south.
We're in the south and workedin Sydney my entire career as a
police officer as well.
But Melbourne, josh, melbournehas the best, the best coffee in
the entire world.
The coffee shops not so much,because literally some of them
are just holes in the wall.
Some of them try and befashionable and put like a milk

(27:56):
crate and you've got to sit onthe milk crate because it's you
know.
Oh, this is trending.
Milk crates are trending.
You've got to sit on the milkcrate, stuff like that, but the
actual coffee is absolutelydivine and to die for.
Again, some trends aren't good.
Some trends in Melbourne youhave coffee out of an avocado
shell, like with some bits ofavocado.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
That's not real, that is real.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
Absolutely real.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
I had it in Sydney when I was in Sydney as well.
The Melbourne place that's theNorthern Territory is making fun
of us.
I have a deep and abiding lovefor Melbourne.
In fact, I got my Australiancitizenship earlier this year
and so I had a big thank you.
It was a big moment for me, butMelbourne is, like it's such a

(28:37):
uniquely special place.
It is for me, but Melbourne issuch a uniquely special place
that I just have deep affectionfor both because I lived there
for six years and plan to livethere again, but also because I
went through COVID years.
It kind of feels like I wasthere at this critical time and
I had this moment, with fivemillion other people, of going
through lockdown and watchingour premiere every day on the TV

(28:59):
.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
And I will say again, josh, you don't know this, but
Melbourne is part of Victoria,as the state Victoria was the
most, the most locked down statein Australia, the biggest,
hardest lockdowns in Australia.
The premier at the time, whichis you call them governors here.
What do you call them here?
I think you call them governors, yeah, yeah, yeah, we call them
premiers the same same.
Yeah, he's now.

(29:22):
He's got so much flack from allthe sort of stuff that he did
and whatnot as well, but anyway,we get out of that conversation
, congratulations for you.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Let's come back to the United States.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
All Dan Andrews, all the time.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
That's all we're talking about now, just
premieres of Australia, Exactlyexactly.
Speaking of one-minute wonders,anyway, John, you said before
you started doing it, inMelbourne, et cetera as well.
But getting back to the US,where do you pick?
Or how do you pick thelocations to do these little
tours that you do on TikTok?

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yeah, you know, that's the number one question I
get.
I never quite know how toanswer it because I don't pick
them.
I go where my life takes me andthen I'm like, oh, I have time
to do a one-minute tour, let'sdo one.
And then it becomes a creativeexercise.
It's like, well, what am Igoing to talk about here in this
empty field?
And I'll be in an empty field.
I'm like, huh, that'sinteresting.

(30:13):
We're in like a valley here.
I wonder why it's a valley.
So I'll open up Google and I'lllook at it and I'll be like why
is there a valley here inGoogle?
Or I might look on theWikipedia page to like about the
nearest town, and I'll find, oh, it's the Minnesota River drain
into.
If you look at the westernborder of Minnesota, there's a
little nub, so it's almoststraight.

(30:45):
There's a nub that goes out,that follows the river.
That's what the lake drainedinto, and so the Minnesota River
used to be much, much higher.
That is also why we have avalley in St Paul, because
that's Minneapolis is before thejunction of the Minnesota River
and St Paul is after.
And so here I am in the middleof a field in southern Minnesota
, but I'm talking about aprehistoric lake.

(31:06):
So the answer really is I thinkthat there is a story to be told
about every single place you goin the world.
And if I were to do it, likewhat are the top 100 stories I
want to tell about Minnesota?
I'd never do it because you,you have to go, travel there and
set up and do all that stuff.
So there are pluses and minusesto that.
I think that my content isreally biased, based on where I

(31:26):
happen to live, which isn'tnecessarily representative of
the city I'm in.
I don't do a lot on NorthMinneapolis, which I'm trying to
change, because that is theblack neighborhood.
We are one of the mostsegregated cities in Americaica,
here in the twin cities, uh,but I don't go there because my
social life doesn't take methere, and so, um, it's like, uh
, that that's how I picked up,is that I don't?

Speaker 3 (31:47):
by the sounds of it as well, john you, you do these
one minute tours, but it takesyou what over over, well, over
an hour of research, etc.
People just do this to get itdown to one minute, sort of
thing.
Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2 (32:01):
If I start from scratch, yeah, but also I have
13 years experience as a tourguide so I can find tenuous
connections, like, for example,there's a place in Minnesota
called New Prague but it'sspelled like Prague in the Czech
Republic and I used to givetours in Prague.
I used to give tour groupsthrough there.
So I went to New Prague and Ikind of gently teased the people

(32:25):
for mispronouncing the citythat they were trying to honor
when they made the name of thecity but then also was able to
talk a little bit about Czechhistory in there.
So a lot of it is using thebackground that I have, so I
don't have to do the hour ofresearch every time.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
It is awesome.
You will never run out ofcontent because, you're right,
everything has a story.
It's interesting the parentcompany of our hobby, geocaching
is called GroundSpeak and thewhole idea is like, wherever you
are, there is a story.
And that's a part of geocaching, because we talk about the
places it brings us and when wego to that place, there is

(33:03):
always a story about that placeand it's kind of interwoven with
our hobby.
Can?

Speaker 2 (33:11):
I say something about that for a second.
Yeah for sure.
There's a thing thatMinnesotans do which is like we,
and I think Australians as well, is that we go to Europe and
then we say, oh my gosh, it's sogood to be in a place with
history, you know real history,real culture right Because like
our history is like the 1820sand their history is the 800s.
Right, but if you interrogatethat a little bit longer, you

(33:34):
start to see how problematic itis, because our history doesn't
go back to the 1820s Like herein Minnesota.
We have this rich andfascinating history from the
1600s of French voyagers comingfrom Quebec and doing commerce
with the Ojibwe and Dakotapeople over here, and if you go
12,000 years ago, you havepetroglyphs, pieces of art in

(33:55):
southern Minnesota being made,and yet when they made the first
version of the minnesota flag,they put a date on it to signify
when minnesota began, and theysaid 1819.
That wasn't when the statebegan, that was when the first
permanent european settlementwas, and so it's almost like we
are continuing to propagate this, this untruth that history

(34:15):
began in the 1800s here inminnesota.
Um, and it's one of the thingsI enjoy about being here is like
I'm able to, you know, pushthat false assumption that
people have and say no, no,let's talk about 1790s in
Minnesota here.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah, I love that.
I have a follow up questionwith that.
Do you believe in theAlexandria runestone, the stone
that was found on the field thatmakes us believe that possibly
Vikings real Vikings came toMinnesota?
Do you believe in it or is it ahoax, john?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
What do you think?
It is scientifically verifiablya hoax.
It's not a matter of belief.
We have proven we have carbondated the thing.
In fact, the reason that we havethe runestone on display at the
Minnesota History Center alongwith a Norwegian sword is that
the Norwegian Institute gave it,lent it to the history museum
so long as it was accompanied bya statement that there's no

(35:14):
Viking ancestry here inMinnesota.
But I think the more interestingpart of that story is like how
badly a people who had just comehere wanted to have a tradition
to follow.
There's something in ourhumanity that wants us to be
able to reach back into thegenerations before, and because
you had all these Scandis cominghere in the 1860s, they're all

(35:36):
like well, what is ourconnection to this land?
And then they find this myth,this mythology of a runestone.
And so a farmer buries arunestone in a field and says,
look, I found it here and peopleloved going along with it, to
the point where we have our NFLteam named after the Vikings
here, in spite of the fact thatthere is no connection, because
we have a desire to find aconnection to the land on which

(36:01):
we live, and so if we don't havethat, we'll just make it up.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Wow, I've never thought of it that way.
That is really interesting andas you explained it, I totally
agree.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
That's why you're so great John.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
You have the sense of curiosity about things that you
just like dig below the surface, and it is amazing that you can
often do it in less than oneminute.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Well, you've got me going now, because now I want to
keep going.
Now it's like so here's thething right.
So we want to make a connection, so we make one up.
But there's an issue with that,because there is an amazing
connection here.
Like the Dakota tradition isfascinating If we go back to
humans coming over from Russiaand facing impossible odds and
having commerce.
The native tribes of this landhad commerce with people in

(36:48):
California.
We have found seashells fromthe coast of California here in
Minnesota because the indigenouspeoples were trading with one
another and yet, rather thanindulge in that understanding
and enjoyment of it and say thisis our story of this land, like
this land is hosting so manypeople, instead we say oh no,
we're Norwegian or we're Irish.

(37:10):
Yeah, that's somebody else'sstory Exactly, and so it's this
otherization of the story thatbelongs on this land, and so I
love.
Just I get fired up talkingabout it.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
Talking about it Exactly, josh, you did bring
that up.
I think it was two or threeepisodes ago.
You told me about this Vikingconnection, the rune stone.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
So Josh was talking to me about it We've settled it
here and now we've settled it.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Like two or three episodes later, we've settled it
.
It is actually a hoax.
But in saying that, John aswell, here's another question
that literally pops out as well,and that is have you actually
discovered something whilstyou're doing your research for
these tours?
Then, If it wasn't a rhinestone, what have you discovered?
What have you discovered?
Oh yeah, Something unusual.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Oh man, I mean, every day it's something new and
interesting.
I mean to stay on the topic.
Aren't that old in terms of howlong they've been in Minnesota?
They came here the same timethe French did, and so there are
two different groups of peoplein Minnesota indigenous people,
the Dakota and the Ojibwe people.
The Ojibwe came from the EastCoast to what is now New York

(38:14):
and they came around the GreatLakes at the same time as French
Canadians were coming down thevoyagers, and they were trading
ideas with each other and so,like the voyagers, famously came
on canoes.
But those canoes were part ofthe Ojibwe tradition and they
both arrived here about 500years ago.
Compared to the Dakota and Ithink a lot of what we think of
the rest of the indigenoustradition, they're being

(38:36):
thousands or tens of thousandsof years old.
The Ojibwe are, you know,relatively new inhabitants of
this land.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Wow, yeah, digging below the surface.
Once again.
That's impressive.
So let's get back to the oneminute.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
Oh, I hate the one minute tours.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Do you find it challenging I've seen you in
action, I've seen you in person,in action and do you find it
challenging to get everythingyou want to say in short form
content?
And I think that, partially, Ithink that's the appeal.
I mean, let's be real, a lot ofpeople just don't have the
patience to sit through a wholeYouTube video, a long YouTube

(39:17):
video, or to sit through adocumentary about something that
they're interested in.
Tiktok has a platform where itjust gets fed right to them and
it's compelling and you drawthem in and you have.
You have a short amount of time.
Now, of course, tiktok hasexpanded their time, of course,
but, but the discipline, theidea of the discipline, at least
when it was less than oneminute, do you, did you find it

(39:40):
difficult to to fit everythingyou want to say, or condense it,
or summarize it in a way that'smeaningful?

Speaker 2 (39:54):
No, I didn't, but that's because I had a decade of
training to do it.
Like everything in my careerled to this, and this is the
insight I had when I started OneMinute Tours is that I created
a channel that played to mystrengths, and for years I had
been on a bus with a microphonegiving a night drive of Paris,
and when we arrived at theEiffel Tower, our bus was going
to turn at the green light.
When the light turned green,whether or not I was finished my

(40:15):
story of Pierre Eiffel Right,and so I needed to find a way to
quickly wrap it up, and, bycontrast, if we didn't make that
green light and had to waitanother cycle, I had to just
draw the story out that littlebit longer, and so I learned to
be very modular with mystorytelling, and so the
creative constraints of makingit one minute I really enjoy,

(40:38):
because it's not just a matterof putting it into one minute,
it's also making the visualreally exciting.
So I think a lot of times onsocial video I think about uh,
what is my moat, what are theways in which I am different
than other people on there?
And a lot of people on socialvideo are in the aesthetic that
we are in right now as we recordthis podcast, like microphones,

(40:59):
interfaces, dark room, likethat's it.
So I make a note like everyvideo I do is on location in a
place, because a lot of peopleare not comfortable filming
themselves in public.
I got over that because I usedto give tours in Trafalgar
Square and I told the story ofAdmiral Nelson fighting the
battle of Trafalgar.
I'd be standing up by the linein Trafalgar Square and there

(41:20):
were tourists everywhere.
What the hell is this guy doing, shouting in front of 40 people
?
But I got comfortable with thatand so, yeah, yeah, I think the
lesson I learned is like oneminute tours didn't come fully
formed.
One minute tours was a creationof what my unique skill set was
.
That's my advice for othercreators as well.
It's like find what yourversion of that is.
What is this thing that you areuniquely good at?

Speaker 1 (41:42):
yeah, and I agree, one of the things that is so
compelling and I encourageeverybody that's listening to
check out John's stuff, but theone one-minute tour that just
pops in my mind when it comes toyou for some reason this is the
one that stuck is your StateFair started the video in the

(42:04):
kitchen and you walked all theway through the kitchen and then
you walked all the way throughthe dining area and then all of
a sudden you were outside andthen you were out in the on
outside the whole diner andyou're talking the whole time
and there's people and there'saction around you.
There was just something socompelling.
You're right, like a talkinghead isn't particularly
compelling, but when you havethe, the location, moving around

(42:26):
you as you're talking about it,it was just really cool.
And I noticed that with a lotof your content, you're moving,
you're moving through and youdon't care what people think.
That's very clear.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
well, this is also something that's changed.
The creative process haschanged, as I've gotten to be
known here.
Uh, that's hamlin church dininghall.
You're talking about the oldestdining hall at the minnesota
state fair, um, and the reasonthat happened is that a teenager
recognized me.
She's like oh my God, theTikTok guy, would you come in
here?
And at this point, like I have,I'm the largest social video
account in Minnesota aboutMinnesota.

(42:56):
My channel gets more views inthe evening news, and so I get
stopped in the street every daywhen I go out, and I've learned
to play that to my advantage,because if someone stops me in
the street just yesterday ithappened and he was an attorney
with the Hennepin CountyDistrict Attorney and I said,
hey, can I do a video there?
And so I will use thoseinvitations and try to get more

(43:19):
access to more unexpected places.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Yeah, and that's a part of it too is like you're
not in your living room talkingabout this stuff.
You're out there with thepeople and it allows you to
connect with other human beingsand inspire even new content.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
So well done I really enjoy that, and I think John as
well.
I will say this, and that is,you've inspired even people like
myself and Josh as well, whenwe do videos and we've been
doing for quite some timetogether now, but we Josh loves
a walk and talk now.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Like in the beginning .

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Josh was always, you know, no, I stand here, I center
myself and whatever.
But now he loves a walk andtalk, which is yes and no for me
, because I'm always walkingbackwards.
I've got to make sure I keephim in frame.
I've got to make sure he'ssteady because I'm his, you know
, that's the thing too, so Iknow how different it is that
way.
But when it comes to, though,your content and I've seen a lot
of your content as well yourcontent isn't just about the

(44:14):
educational side of things aswell.
You can't have an educationcontent.
I'll be honest on TikTok it'sgot to be funny or it's got to
be humorous, or it's got to beentertainment as well.
So how do you balance theentertainment side of uh, of the
one minute tours, compared toactually giving decent
information as well at the sametime?

Speaker 2 (44:29):
yeah, yeah, it's actually.
It's a prescient question rightnow because, um, I'm in the
middle of, uh, we're developinga television show right now.
We're raising funds for ourcommunity for it and, um, as a
result, I'm trying all these newcontent styles on and one of
the things that I've been madeaware of by the production
company is, like, i't appearone-dimensional on those things
because it is a quick hit ofhistory and I have some humor in

(44:51):
there.
I did a video today that gotposted about which of the Great
Lakes looks most like a part ofthe male anatomy.
There's nothing historicalabout it, it's me just being
silly.
I thought it was just me beingme, because that's just me.

(45:12):
But when I showed it to otherpeople, they're like oh, I
wouldn't post that and I'm likewhy not?
Like, well, people will getturned off, but just by the
content, and your content'sinformational.
And it was a surprise for mebecause I think I think that I
mean myself in all my videos,but really I'm like snapping
into informational mode, and sowhen I went a bit blue, a bit

(45:34):
off color, you know, people arelike ooh, that makes me feel
uncomfortable and so we postedit in spite of itself.
I haven't looked at the resultsyet today.
I'll look after this call, I'msure after this podcast.
But it was interesting to be.
Like you know, I appreciate yousaying I had some humor, but I
think that people don't get tosee the side of me that's, you
know, just talking like we'retalking right now.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
That often Right, so let's let's talk a little bit
about the big step you took.
I know when we hung out thatday, we were talking about like
what?
Even I, you know, I contemplatewhat am I going to do with this
TikTok?
What am I going to do withYouTube?
I still have a day job.
At that time, you had a, youhad a different day job and
pretty recently fairly recentlyyou've taken the leap into

(46:18):
becoming a full-time contentcreator.
Yeah, what have you beenlearning about it?
You and you also now have ateam of people.
What have you been learningabout it?
And you also now have a team ofpeople.
Yeah, what made you take thatleap?
And you're like I'm going to gofor it and how is it?

Speaker 2 (46:34):
going.
I'm not made for the corporateworld.
I worked for the corporate jobfor two years.
It was my first grown-up joband you know it was fine.
But, like, I really enjoybusiness ownership.
I like being fully responsiblefor something.
I like being fully responsiblefor something, I like having a
team and being able to set thedirection, and so it's been
really great for me to do this,to be back in the helm at owning
a business over here.

(46:56):
I couldn't do it, though, untilit worked financially, and so,
with the size of audience I had,I had people reach out to me
all the time saying can you comeprofile our business?
We'll give you a few hundredbucks for it, and it was never
worth it, Like you know, justthe gas money of driving out
there talking to them, postingit.
They wouldn't be happy with it.
They wanted to have me havethree meetings the marketing

(47:18):
department before to figure outwhat their strategy was going to
be.
It just even at three or 400bucks which was real money it
just felt like I don't know.
I don't know if that's worth it.
So I had one organization callme last January and say can you
do this big campaign for ourevent?
And I just threw out what Ithought was a ridiculous number.
I said, yeah, I mean, sure Ican do it, for I think I said

(47:40):
$5,000.
And they said, okay, good,that's within reason.
Oh my God, good, that's, that's.
That's within reason, oh my god.
And so that was that's why Idid it a couple more times.
It kept happening and I came torealize, like if I, just, if I
just talk about this with theseriousness that another media
organization would talk aboutthe star tribune or wcco or the

(48:02):
other that's a local cbsaffiliate here, then, um, maybe
I can start charging those rates.
And so that's what I've done.
Um, you know, we, our averagelike order value for our videos
right now is like between fiveand twenty thousand dollars,
which sure sounds like a heck ofa lot of money and sounds like
I'm rolling in it, but it's,it's not.
When you have six staff, ittakes that many people to

(48:22):
support it.
I have a sales manager, I, Ihave an office manager, I have
four social media coordinatorsand then I have myself making
the videos and all those peopledraw a salary.
And so it's been an interestingjourney building this thing up,
especially because I'm notriding in very many people's
wakes.
This idea of being a full-timecontent creator is a really new

(48:46):
thing.
It'd be easier if I'd just goneinto being a carpenter, because
there's generations ofknowledge about that.
But here we are.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Especially newer in what we call the flyover country
, where you and I live John.
I think you even referencedthat out when you were in New
York.
You're like oh, I'm in TimesSquare.
Look, there's oodles of contentcreators around me, right right
.
In Minnesota it's a little bitdifferent.
It's stark, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Yeah, I just want to say it's stark and it's
something that's coming intocontrast in the last few months
something that's coming intocontrast in the last few months,
I mean for the second time inthree presidential election
cycles a lot of people have beenknocked under heels by
something they didn't think wasgoing to happen with Trump's
election.
But I think a lot of that canbe attributed to the fact that

(49:40):
our medias they're so based onour coast and there's so much
less media creation happeningevery day.
I mean, I can tell you I canname four media organizations
off the top of my head inMinnesota that have massive
layoffs in the last year even,and I think that there are some
consequences to that that wehaven't fully explored.
But I think that we're seeingit with a way that a lot of the

(50:00):
country was surprised by theelection result, when all the
media they're consuming iscoming from so far away.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
By the election result, when all the media
they're consuming is coming fromso far away.
Yeah, yeah, that totally makessense.
No-transcript and taking thatleap.

(50:32):
So I might have to do some morehard work or just have a
conversation, or maybe a peptalk, or maybe, john, you just
hire me, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, man, let's work on that.
Let's figure it out.
I think I said this to you whenyou hung out a year or two ago.
I'm like you can do more.
We did this full time.
Let's do it.
Let's get out of here.
Let's blow this candy stands.
So I'm a phone call away whenyou want to figure it out.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
And, funnily enough, john as well.
When I actually talk to peopleseparately and they say you know
, oh, they want to know moreabout Josh.
They know Josh because he'sfollowing on social media, and
they are surprised that he'sactually got like a real job,
like a real full-time job thathe does.
He's not doing this full-time.
Not only is content creationfull-time, and all three of us

(51:17):
sitting here talking now, we allthree of us know the time it
takes to do content creation,from the filming or the ideas at
first, then the filming, andthen the editing as well, and
then the publishing and posting,and then the promotion of that
as well.
So, yeah, good thumbs up toJosh.
He's still doing the hard yards, really is, really is, and good

(51:38):
to see that someone, though, ison the other side of Josh,
pushing him a little bit to go.
Josh, you know you could bevalued more just saying so.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Well, I just met up with a content creator a mutual
friend of Josh and mine's,emmeline Childs, this week, and
we were talking about this exactsame topic, because there's a
chasm, like you start out as acontent creator and it's such an
act of solitude, right, andthen there's this gap between
where you are now and where youneed to be, which you can't
possibly think of.
How am I going to do a videoevery day and edit it and

(52:12):
publish it and tell people aboutit and do the business deals
and all that?
Well, the answer to that is youdon't go to that chasm.
You hire other people to helpyou leap over it, right, and so
that's that's the thing thatpeople really struggle with is
like releasing some control overit and taking on some
management ability.
But it's very much possible.
I think the economics speak forthemselves when it comes to
eyeballs, because people talkabout the death of media.

(52:33):
Media has not died.
People are paying as much asever for eyeballs, right.
It's just that all that moneyis going to Meta or to Google or
that sort of thing.
But we can jump in there andtake some as well, but you need
to have a support structure inplace, because it's impossible
to just do it all yourself.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Well, I'm happy to say that I think, personally, I
was one of Josh's firstemployees, so to speak, when he
brought me on board as one ofhis editors way back in the 2020
, 2021 days.
So, yes, thank you for that,but meanwhile, though, I think
Josh could be on a TV show aswell.
John just saying, and, ofcourse, with your new TV show In
the Works, tell us about that,your new TV show In the Works.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Yeah, thanks.
So the show is called HiddenMiddle and there's a business
reason it exists and aphilosophical reason it exists.
I mean, from a businessperspective.
Right now all of my contentlives on other platforms where I
don't have a directrelationship.
But for the monetization model,Just think about when you're
scrolling on TikTok.
You are going from video tovideo to video to video, and
then an ad pops up.

(53:37):
But how does TikTok attributethat revenue to the five videos
you watched before?
It's a really opaque answer thatdoesn't lead to a lot of great
things, Like the dollars theyspend that they give the
creators is so low you can'tplan a business for it, and so
you need to be on a YouTube tohave it be a proper business
model.
So that's the business reasonit exists.

(53:57):
There's also a creative reason,which is just like I'm starting
to get a little bit not tiredof, but just like I'm not
feeling as challenged as I usedto be by one minute tours and so
creatively I wanted to dosomething to challenge myself
long form.
But then I think there's aphilosophical reason that exists
in the world.
So the idea of hidden middle isthat it takes place in the
hidden middle of America, soflyover country, as we referred

(54:20):
to it before, and it exploresthe hidden middle between two
disparate topics, often, whichhappen to be in the middle of
America.
So, for example, how does anaked John Lennon tie into the
model of America?
What's the connection betweenthese two things?

Speaker 1 (54:38):
That's what we're going to explore on the show.
I'm really curious now.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
I'll give you the deeper pitch of it, which is
that Beatlemania comes fromAmerica and they're going
everywhere.
Eventually they make their wayto the Midwest and they play one
time in the Twin Cities.
And where do they play?
At Met Stadium in Bloomington,minnesota.
Met Stadium is where the Twinsand the Vikings play and, being
a Scandinavian peoples, what dothey have in the locker rooms?
A sauna.

(55:12):
And the Beatles, at a pressconference, talk about using the
first sauna they've ever usedhere in the Twin Cities.
And then they go on.
And then Met Stadium goes on aswell.
It gets torn down for theMetrodome which is built later,
and now we have US Bank Stadiumand Target Field, the place of
the Metrodome.
But do you know?
What was built on that land Wasthe largest mall in the world
at the time it was built, theMall of America.
And you can go to the maintheme park in the middle, the
indoor theme park in the mall,and see where Home Plate was.
Well, using that, we're goingto figure out from the original

(55:34):
blueprints of Met Stadium wherethe sauna was, so we can go
stand next to the roller coasterand be like dude.
John Lennon was right here, butalso in telling the story
between how these two things areconnected will also tell the
story of how consumerism hasshaped our country.
Beatlemania leads toTicketmaster of today.
In the same way that shoppingmalls were something that

(55:58):
changed mom and pop shops.
Those are now gone because ofAmazon.
There's a few different levelsthat we'll be able to tell the
story on.
It's something that will needsome more time.
About 20 minutes or so is howlong we're planning the episodes
for, but we really want thisthing to be supported by the
same community that's propped upone-minute tours.
I've shown that this economicmodel can work for Minnesota and
I want to be able to prove itagain with a TV show.

(56:20):
So we have a Kickstarter, we'redoing a crowdfunding campaign
and we're trying to raise$60,000 to produce our first six
episodes of this show from ouraudience, and so that just
launched just this week and it'sbeen a really exciting
experience and of course as well.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
all these links, as well, will be in the show notes
too, by the way.
But before we move on, Josh,I've just got to say this, and
that is see.
I was listening to John talkthen, and he was talking about
the Mall of America.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
And I've been to the Mall of America.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
I brought you there, but he was talking about the
home plate.
Now I remember standing on thehome plate and knowing about the
home plate.
Why Not just because of you,josh, because an adventure lab
is also in regards to that.
So the adventure lab took mearound and did me my little tour
as well.
So this adventure, which islike geocaching, john Okay, it's
a part of geocaching, it'sthese adventures.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Oh yeah, I did that, Josh, I'm going to do that I had
that on my phone, yeah yeah,yeah, we did that at the
sculpture park.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
Yeah, so just by you now talking about that, john,
and talking about the JohnLennon, it just just geocaching
that takes us to places, butalso you know people like
yourself as well, so it soundsreally cool, mate.
How else can then people getinvolved if they want to get
involved in regards to this, andyou just said, it was a link
for your Kickstarter.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Yeah, just visit hiddenmiddlecom and that'll take
you right now to ourKickstarter and a future to our
show page.
You know we're looking forpeople to be producers on this
thing, so that means, like, beon our advisory board and help
us decide what kind of episodesto make.
Maybe you and I may come toyour home and film a one minute
tour about your family, but alsopeople can get involved for
like five bucks, like we justwant to be able to show.
There's a lot of people whosupport this idea of midwestern

(57:57):
made media, um, and that's whatwe're doing, so hidden middlecom
is where they can do it I can.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
I've actually got it open so far, John.
You've got 63 backers andyou've got 28 days, so let's get
this thing started.
Let this is get this thinggoing.
So it sounds like really,really cool.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
That's actually really great Cause there was 52
when we started this phone call.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
So we're doing, we're not doing this live, so it's
not us, but anyway.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Oh, John, I wish we had more time to chat with you.
We need to have you again onsome other time maybe,
especially when this TV showcomes out, which is just really
exciting.
But, John, where other placescan?

Speaker 2 (58:39):
people find you if they want to see you.
Yeah, I mean, basically, I'llgive them two URLs
oneminutetourscom andhiddenmiddlecom.
Those two places will directyou to the socials that you need
to go to.
So, one Minute Tours, uh,specifically about the minnesota
it's, it's about our historyhere and it's a social video
channel across all the platforms, from tiktok to youtube to
facebook, um, but then, uh,hidden, middle of the tv show
that will cover issuesnationally and maybe even

(59:01):
internationally.
We've been talking today abouthow we can film while I'm in
Australia in March and connectthat story to the Midwest.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Very cool.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Very cool.
I'm just looking up the sorry.
Just quickly, josh.
I'm just looking up thewebsites now.
Oneminutetourscom.
If you don't know how Johnactually does record, it looks
like you do a little gimbal on aphone, mate.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
That's all you kind of do that's right.
Thank you, DJI.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Oh, dji, yes oh.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
I love DJI Gimbals.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
anyway, I'm now accepting sponsorships to DJI.
If you're listening.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Exactly.
We're trying to get Miller HighLife to sponsor.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
And Airbnb now as well.
And Airbnb, that would be nice.
Exactly All the corporateoverlords are convention, that's
right, Josh, we don't need,really we don't need sponsors.
Why don't we need sponsors?

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Because of our patrons.
That's right.
But before we end I just wantto say I tried to leave that in
noise that segue was beautiful,but I forgot.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
The dulcet tones, the Australian accent, the
Australian segue was wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
I'm not even writing it either, but anyway, but I
almost forgot something, craig,and that is John.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
He's from Minnesota, he highlights our state, he
loves our state, he digs deep,he finds the hidden middle.
And you know why he does that.
I bet it's because he's proudof his town, you know, and
that's a rare thing these days.
That's a damn rare thing thesedays.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Go on, josh, ask him now.
Ask John, ask John.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Yeah, I know you want to Do.
You know what movie that's fromJohn.
He might be a little young it'sBlades, fans and Automobiles.
Every single episode of thispodcast, I have to get that
statement.
He's proud of his townsomewhere.
Which part?

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
of it.
Is it in?

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
It's when they're in Wichita and they're in the cab
and the guy takes them the longway in the middle of the night
and he looks at John Candy andSteve Martin looks at John Candy
and goes he's going the wrongway.
He goes, well, you know, he'sproud of his town.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
That's a rare thing these days to take him the long
way in the middle of the night.
All my quotes from that movieare overshadowed by those aren't
pillows?

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Yes, it was probably a scene later, right after that
scene.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Speaking Josh, speaking of rare things, I will
say that, john, thank you verymuch, from myself as well, for
joining us.
And other rare things, and thatis, our patrons.
Some of them can be rare.
Wow, if they want to get onPatreon, how can?

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
they do it, josh.
Yes, if you've been enjoyingthis podcast, learning about new
people and new things that arehappening out in the world, like
John from One Minute Tours, wewould love your support.
This is a fully supportedpodcast.
We don't have Airbnb, we don'thave Miller High Life.
We don't have any of that yetYet, but right now, this is all
listeners supported.
So if you'd like to support us,consider joining our Patreon at

(01:01:49):
patreoncom.
Backslash.
Treasures of Our Town.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
So how else can people find us, Josh?
If they want to reach out to us, if they want to be on the show
, if they want other informationabout the show, how can they
reach out to us, mate?

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Feel free to reach out to us at
treasurersofourtownpodcasts at g, or you can follow us on
Facebook, Instagram, X andYouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
So that's it for our show today.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite
podcasting app and Josh, asalways your travels always lead
you to the most unexpected,amazing hidden gems, even if
it's only for one minute, aroundthe world.
See you next time.
Thanks so much, john.
Thank you, john, bye-bye, goodday.