December 2, 2024 • 52 mins
About Benjamin Shrader My name is Benjamin Shrader. When I was 5 years old, I was diagnosed with very severe dyslexia. I was told several times that I would never learn how to read, but I did not let that stop me. After many years of therapy, I was finally able to reach a third grade reading level, which is the level I am still currently at. Because of my severe dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, I was homeschooled until high school and then attended a traditional high school. School was very difficult for me in both settings. However, I worked hard because I knew the importance of education.
Because of that hard work, I was able to attend Texas A&M university where I was a member of an exclusive program formally known as Startup Aggieland. This program helped students start businesses in their area of interests. I knew because of my challenges with reading, working for myself might be my only option for employment. But, I had no product or widget I wanted to sell. The only skill I had was the ability to talk.
When I examined the world around me, I noticed the simple truth that college kids liked to party. "If I controlled partying, college kids will like me". Not only did I see a business opportunity, but I also saw a chance to be popular and make friends, the dream of any outcast. I started a promotion and production company called Shrader Promotions LLC. I started small by promoting events. Slowly, I worked my way up to coordinating my own events. After a few years, I built the largest event production company in College Station. I've worked with amazing artists including Parker McCollum, Whiz Kalifa, G-Eazy, and many more.
At the height of my business's success, I was struck down with a life-threatening golf ball sized brain tumor. After surgery, radiation, and learning to walk again, I transitioned my business to be based out of Austin, Texas and returned to leading my company. I look forward to speaking with you.
Social Media Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjamin_shrader
X: https://x.com/BenShrader1911
Website: https://theshradernation.com/
Because of that hard work, I was able to attend Texas A&M university where I was a member of an exclusive program formally known as Startup Aggieland. This program helped students start businesses in their area of interests. I knew because of my challenges with reading, working for myself might be my only option for employment. But, I had no product or widget I wanted to sell. The only skill I had was the ability to talk.
When I examined the world around me, I noticed the simple truth that college kids liked to party. "If I controlled partying, college kids will like me". Not only did I see a business opportunity, but I also saw a chance to be popular and make friends, the dream of any outcast. I started a promotion and production company called Shrader Promotions LLC. I started small by promoting events. Slowly, I worked my way up to coordinating my own events. After a few years, I built the largest event production company in College Station. I've worked with amazing artists including Parker McCollum, Whiz Kalifa, G-Eazy, and many more.
At the height of my business's success, I was struck down with a life-threatening golf ball sized brain tumor. After surgery, radiation, and learning to walk again, I transitioned my business to be based out of Austin, Texas and returned to leading my company. I look forward to speaking with you.
Social Media Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjamin_shrader
X: https://x.com/BenShrader1911
Website: https://theshradernation.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
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(01:08):
Jacob Waller.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And what's going on everybody, and welcome back to another
episode of Conversations with Jacob. Today's episode number ninety one.
Today was supposed to be a different guest, but we
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It has? Jake Thorn said in the and the intro.
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Speaker 3 (02:20):
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Chairs No Waiting, the Andy griff Show Fan Podcast, and
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Speaker 2 (02:46):
And also before we go to our guest today, oh,
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to the podcast merchandise and joining me this week is
(03:09):
Benjamin's Benjamin Schrader and the day we're going to talk
about him living with the dyslexia and so much more.
And Benjamin, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
It is good to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
That was quite an intro. Oh I loved it. I
absolutely loved it. I'll move my camera a little bit.
But boy, oh, thanks so much for having me. It's
gonna be a great time.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely, and happy before we get to you. Uh,
just in July, which you went to a Trump ratty. Yeah, Hey,
can you Kenna walk us through that whole thing?
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yes, yes, I you know it's uh. I've been doing
a lot of different interviews about that. I Uh, I'll
be honest, I'm not even the most political person in
the world, but I do enjoy politics, and my dream
in life, my endgame is to go into politics. I
I'm involved with many different groups out here, and I
(04:07):
don't dred percent know how I got invited, how I
kind of pulled this off. But I think what it
really came down to was that some people on the
Trump team had heard about me. My longtime support of
the former president and the fact that I had a
golf ball sized brain tumor. I don't know if you
can see my yeah, are there. And so it almost
(04:29):
turned out to be something like a make a wish,
which which is a little funny. But I received an
invitation to be a special guest, a VIP special guest
of the Trump campaign at the rally in Pennsylvania. Find
out Thursday, book, I go through. You know, I fill
out the Secret Service form. It had been a whole
(04:51):
thing where I've you know, a social Security number, driver's license, everything.
Fill that out. I find out Thursday, fill that out.
My plane, fly down Friday, go to the event Saturday,
and you know, I'm sitting in the special guest section.
It was at first, you know, before everything happened, I
was one of the greatest honors of my life. I
(05:12):
was very nervous, if I'm being honest, which is a
rare thing for me. And so yeah, no had the
Texas Ag Commissioner Sidneler, I believe in front of me,
the mayor of Slippery Rock in front of me as well.
And I was if you're facing the stage, if you're
looking at the stage, I was directly on the left
(05:35):
on the third row back the third sort of you know,
seat of chairs on the ground, and then the stands
would have been parallel when a little bit behind us.
So you know, immense honor. Were called back by secret
service in the Trump campaign. We're able, I have the opportunity,
the great honor to meet the former president. He was
(05:57):
very nice. I think he could also tell I was
a little nervous. I was wiping my sweaty hand on
my pants to make sure that you know, I wasn't
I didn't have a sweaty hand, you know. Took a
picture with him at the opportunity to talk with him
a little bit, showed him my scar, and then you know,
they let us out, and then about thirty minutes after that,
(06:19):
the former president came to speak, and then you know,
an immense, an immense tragedy happened. And I wish the
condolences to the family of Corey compendator, and all my
best wishes and my prayers to everyone injured, and that
they may make a quick recovery. Thankfully. You know, it
(06:39):
seems like President Trump has made a quick recovery himself.
But about maybe five ten minutes after he comes and
starts speaking. You know, I just hear a pop up, up,
up up, and I know what gunshots sound like, and
so I said, okay, this is something's very wrong. And
(07:00):
I remember I ducked and I looked behind me, and
I just see blood everywhere. I could only see a
lower torso and legs and so much blood. Uh. You know,
I look back at the President. I see him holding
(07:21):
up his fist and to the Secret Services credit I
mean they were on him in an instant, surrounding him. Uh.
You know. I then hit the deck because you know,
I'm too My mind and moments like this goes relatively clear.
I make a joke with my friends that when everyone
(07:42):
else is calm, I panic. When everyone else panics, I'm calm,
and I say, okay, I'm too far to render aid.
My whole goals need to be become the smallest target
possible and extract from the area as quickly as possible.
Hit the deck. I know I'm there for a few moments,
a few minutes. Eventually what I believed to be. You know,
(08:03):
a member of the Secret Service comes and says, we
need to go this way leads us parallel defence. I
see the building where the shooter was, and I see
the body of the shooter, which at the time I
believed it was a soldier lying down. I did not
realize that it had been a sniper. My fear had
been that it was someone in the crowd who had
(08:25):
pulled out a pistol. That was my original thought. And
then I ended up running into a friend of mine
that I hadn't seen in like a year or two,
just you know, an acquaintance, and he had said, sammy
great guy. And he had said, okay, Ben, you know,
we got a car. We got to get the heck
out of here. And I said, yeah, thank god we did.
(08:49):
But I'm grateful to God to be alive. I was
clutching my rosary beads and praying and I, yeah, no,
it was definitely. Yeah, I've never seen anyone be shot before,
and it definitely is a horrific thing to go through.
But I guess how I how I cope with a
(09:13):
lot of these things is I try to joke with
myself almost you know, I said, had the brain tumor,
And now you know, ten feet behind me the guy
had been hit tenth I mean, if the bullet had
been a foot to the right and a foot down,
I wouldn't be here, and you'd probably be wondering, why
(09:34):
isn't Ben responding to my email. So the joke I've
been making amongst friends, and I don't mean to make
light of what is a horrific matter, but it's how
one copes is I had the brain tumor. Now bullets,
I better watch out for my third strike. So there's
(09:56):
a lot to go through, but it's an important thing
to talk about and share what really happened.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Now it seems like you was going to get to
this Trump Raady, supposed to be nice and outgoing, had
attorney to something terrible.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
It really did, It really did. It was one of
the greatest owners of my life. I was very excited,
you know, a little nervous, but to be you know,
little old me. I really am nobody special, nobody that important.
I like to think so, but not really. And to
be surrounded by ambassadors and congressmen and senators and commissioners
(10:34):
and committee members and mayors and is a unique experience.
And to be there and to have the opportunity to
meet someone who I mean, we almost see the presidents
and really famous people as almost not real, like they're
(10:55):
just on TV but too excuse. But to meet those
people in real life and to see that they're just
like us, they're people, and that you know, Trump was nice,
He seemed in great health, he seemed excited, he seemed
happy about his rally, you know, his event that he
(11:16):
was excited to talk at. And if he hadn't turned
his head at that last moment, you know, things would
have been absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Now kind of turning the point over to you, and
when did you figure out that you had how dyslexia? Yeah,
I guess shifting gears a little bit.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
You know. My name is Benjamin Schreider s HR A
d R. My father would say it's cheaper without the sea.
I found out that I had dyslexia in kindergarten. I
found out very young, which is a blessing. You know.
At the time, I really looked at it as a curse.
You know, I had always had trouble with reading and
(12:02):
I didn't like it. And this is something I talk
about to this day, is that, you know, I find
it a little secret between you and me. I've been
working on a dyslexia book, talking about dyslexia and something
I mentioned in there is that it is painful almost.
It's it's borderline painful reading sometimes, and it's like looking
at a foreign language. It doesn't move around for me.
(12:25):
I could tell you what each letter is, you know,
c at, but I couldn't tell you that that word
is cat. And so yeah, I hated the letter blocks.
Get those letter blocks away from me. I basically, you know,
in kindergarten, I was really struggling with that. I was
good at science and things like that, whatever level of
science they have in kindergarten, but I wasn't. I wasn't
(12:48):
progressing on my reading. So they tested me, said yeah,
it's dyslexia. And I went to a different test, got
it very in depth, and I think I was I
was a little difficult. They told me, oh, you're twice gifted,
and I just looked at them and I say, can
I give the gift back? So yeah, diagnosed. And my
(13:10):
parents are saints. They're amazing people, they really are have
always done the best for me. And so I had
to be withdrawn from the kindergarten, the school that I
was in, just because back then, you know, early two thousands,
there was not the same level of help in place
that there is today. And really, you know, yet, you
(13:34):
have to get help for people with dyslexia very very young.
You have to get that reading therapy very young. So
my parents withdrew me from the school and started homeschooling
me actually, which you know, it was tough at the time,
but was a real blessing looking back, really a blessing
that I was able to have that opportunity. They got
(13:56):
me nine years of reading therapy and almost every day
during the week, and it was really tough, and I
didn't make a ton of progress until a saint of
a woman, missus Prim, who has only lived a few
doors down from us, and she was a retired teacher
and had a specialty in reading therapy and things like that,
(14:19):
a sun with dyslexia who was a successful pilot now
and she used the original program, the Orton Gillingham approach.
It was very simple, A apple, ab B bat ccat
cut D dog, you know, the very very simple and
basically I memorized most words and what they looked like,
(14:41):
and that is how I read. And if I haven't
memorized a word, I'm gonna be having to sound it
out and if it doesn't sound like it does. Sound
it out, then I'm still gonna have a problem today.
So I read it about a third grade reading level
to this day. But I've done my best. Not let
me not let that whole back. And hey today, you
(15:02):
know I spent years using Texas speech voice to text.
It is still how I rely on everything. But luckily
today I can have my assistant do a lot of
things for me as well. So that is a It
is a good time. Indeed.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Now do you think it's getting how worse over time?
Or do you think it's kind of eased up over
the years.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
I apologize you cut out for a moment. Has my
dyslexia gotten worse or eased up? Uh? Yeah, yeah, interesting question.
I haven't ever head anyone ask me that. I would
say that it is easier today. It is easier today.
You know, dyslexia isn't something that can be cured. There
is no cure. It is fundamentally the way your brain works.
(15:43):
There is a different wiring. I have heard people say, like,
you know, I got half the neural net connections of
the average man on one side, but double on the others.
So dyslexics are just as smart. As as I colloquially
colloquially say in the comment tongue the readers, you know,
the readers that are out and about, so we're just
(16:06):
as smart as them, and you One in every five
people have dyslexia. But it's probably such a broad term
for so many different conditions learning differences. I like to
say learning disabilities, but I don't really like that. I know,
the neural divergence or the neural divergent community is really
the I guess new term for it. But it's a
(16:28):
broad broad a lot of different conditions in there. So
I would say that with technology is what has made
it easier today. You know, back in the day, it
was reading for the blind and dyslexic with your Victor reader,
this little block that looks like a really old Android phone.
You could put SD cards in and listen to your
(16:51):
I'd listened to all my science and all my history
textbooks in there, and you're reading for the blind dyslexic.
I believe there's still around greateranization. They would have people
physically reading the books and then describing the pictures. I
know that a lot of that can be done with
AI today, which makes things a little bit easier. And
then of course, I mean eleven Labs have some of
(17:13):
the best voice ais in the world, and the strides
that have been made with that are insane. And text
to speech, you know, back in the day was Dragon
Naturally speaking was the only one, which was great for
the time. But today it's built into your phone. You
can just pick up your phone and it's become widely
adopted by society, so it's quite good. It's not just
(17:35):
something for people with learning differences. I find that a
lot of times, if people with learning differences want to
find technology that can help them, it's about adapting technology
that's adopted by the masses, not about searching out the technology,
searching out technology that is just for the neuro divergent community.
So yeah, because of that voice to text, text to speech,
(17:56):
it's built into a lot of devices technology has made
at e But if you take my tech away from me,
you know, I use an example that I was once
doing a show, uh yeah, for your audience. I run
an event production company organizing concerts all across Texas. It
was once coordinating a massive show and I pulled the itinerary,
(18:19):
the schedule out of my pocket, unfolded it. I'm looking
at it, I have no idea what it says, and
you know, I get a little frustrated almost because I'm saying, boy, Ben,
you put this whole thing together, this whole show wouldn't
be happening without you, and yet you can't read the
piece of paper in your pocket. Dyslexia keeps me humble.
I guess I probably would have turned out to be
(18:40):
a jerk without it, but eventually I think I had
like flagged down one of the sound engineers and made
him tell me who was coming up next. So, but yeah,
I would say a little easier because of technology.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So when you read something on paper, it's kind of like, uh,
like nonsense.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Yeah. So I know that it's probably different for some
other dyslexics, but for me, and I think today too,
people are saying the term dyslexic is considered offensive. I
don't find it defensive at all. I'm giving you the
dyslexic card, so you can say it all you'd like,
but basically it is. I'm sure it's different for other people,
(19:23):
but for me, it is like looking at a foreign language,
so nothing really moves around, you know, It's not even
it's close to nonsense. But I wouldn't even say that
one hundred percent because I could tell you ABCD, I
could tell you each letter. I just can't put it together.
It's hard to describe that. It's just it doesn't click.
(19:46):
There's just something, you know, it's I have trouble understanding
how people can read. So well, that's the funny thing
that it's there's just something missing, something that doesn't click
in there. So, yeah, how I say it? How I
really described it as a foreign language. So if you
picked up I'm guessing you don't speak Portuguese or read Portuguese,
(20:09):
or if you picked up a book in Portuguese and
tried to read it, that's kind of how the best
way I could describe it.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Now, can you talk about your brain tumor?
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yes? Indeed so. About two and a half years ago,
I was diagnosed with something called oh excuse me, my apologies,
all right, didn't my machine? Hopefully that won't be an issue.
If it is again, we will address that. Let me see,
(20:41):
I don't even one hundred percent know how technology is
not my strong suit. Let me just quickly put my
phone on do not disturb, which I should have done before,
and there we go it did it for the computer? Excellent,
My apologies for that. So yes, addressing my brain tumor,
I had a golf ball sized brain tumor, something called
(21:04):
an acoustic neuroma. It is an overgrowth of nerve coating
tissue milumb sheath tissue. It was growing from my hearing
nerve underneath my brain and pushing up against my brain stem.
If I did not get that removed, I would not
be speaking with you today. The doctor said, I was
at a serious risk of a stroke and if I
(21:27):
did not get it removed, I probably would have only
had about two to three years. And I will show
you and your listeners, you know, my star. I had
sixty one stitches. And basically how it all came about.
I was doing another show and I'd been having minor
minor hearing loss, minor hearing loss two percent only so
(21:49):
ninety eight percent still, but enough that it was off
and a little bit of pressure, just a little bit
of pressure, and I'm there and I had gotten earplugs.
I said, boy, what a tragedy. Ben, You know, you're
what what have I been at the time? Twenty two? Yeah,
you're twenty five now, so whatever, you know, little ways back.
(22:10):
Was what a tragedy bend to lose a little bit
of your hearing so young. But you know, it's a
lot allou music. You should have worn your plugs, and
now I I'm going to start wearing your plugs, is
what I was saying to myself. And I always wear
them now, even in my deaf ear. And I think
everyone should wear your plugs no matter what concert or
event you're going to. You know, wear them down the
street for crying out loud. But basically, I say, okay,
(22:35):
but you know, I'm gonna go to the doctor just
to assuage my worry, just so I don't have to
be concerned or stress about it. I'm gonna go and say, okay,
so everything's going to be okay. Everything wasn't okay. Went
to the doctor, you know, got a CT scan, they
said your bones look a little weird. Went and then
got an MRI. And then I had another show coming up,
(22:59):
and I'd been working crazy on that and so I
wasn't really paying attention from calls from the hospital or
things like that. I get a call from my parents
and they say, Benjamin, you know, and I'm very close
with my parents, like I love them more than anything,
and we talk all the time. But this was in
the middle of the day and I was just surprised
(23:20):
and I said, oh, hey, guys, how you doing. They said, Ben,
you know, we got a call from the hospital. They
called your emergency contact because they really need to get
a hold of you. And that's when my heart dropped,
because I said, it is not a good sign when
the hospital is trying to get a hold of you.
That is Yeah, that's bad. That isn't what you want.
(23:43):
I called the hospital back and they say, you know.
I say, okay, what's wrong and they're like, oh, we
you know, can't discuss it over the phone. You need
to come in like asap, come in tomorrow. I didn't
get a wink of sleep that night. I go in.
A doctor explains, you have a golf ball sized brain tumor.
It's probably not cancer, but we won't be sure till
we remove it. We need to get this out asap.
(24:07):
And then a lot of this was during I believe
the tail end of COVID. I don't one hundred percent remember,
but I believe it was during the tail end of that,
and so there were still a lot of restrictions things
like that, and they had to book me, and I'd
seen a couple different hospitals, which scared the heck out
of me. But eventually I got the tumor removed at
(24:29):
M D Anderson in Houston, Texas. You know, they're the
best hospital for cancer and tumors in the world. And
YE had to be clear, you know, I didn't have
brain cancer or anything like that. Benign tumor. They slowly
peeled it out. I went death in my right ear.
I have a massive scar, went deaf in the right ear,
(24:52):
lost a balance nerve, so I had to learn how
to walk again, and it came back to me relatively quickly,
but it is is something that you know, it's a
very strange feeling when you lose a balance nerve, because
you'll stand up and you won't be able to tell
where your head is, so you'll just fall over. I'm luckily,
you know, you have two so your brain overtime's able
(25:14):
to compensate with your good side, and being deaf in
one ear isn't so bad the I guess the real
cruelty of being deaf is that it rings constantly, constantly.
It is like Tonight's loud tonightis all the time, but
you're because your brain is looking for a signal that
isn't there. But most of the time I don't even
(25:35):
one hundred percent notice it because now it's really loud
because I talked about it, But I don't really notice
it one hundred percent of the time, just because you
go through life. And yeah, I'm just glad I'm not
deaf in both that would be tough.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
And what was the surgery like, yeah, no, it was,
uh yeah, terrifying, i'd say, but I said, okay, this
needs to be done. You know, sometimes the whistle blows.
You got to go over the trench. Even though it's terrifying,
you gotta get it done. And I think that, you
know my faith, I'm a Catholic myself. And then of
(26:11):
course Stoicism I've always liked, you know, since I was
a little kid, thinking I was so smart. Listen to
the audio book of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, the great Stoic
philosopher and Roman emperor. Things could always be worse. I
think that sums up Stoicism. But a sentence, things could
(26:33):
always be worse. It could be brain cancer. I could
have it in both ears, I could be you know,
there was this only small chance of death. Luckily with
this as long as I got it removed, so it
could always be worse. And you know, big risk was
that I'd lose control of my facial nerve, so it
would look like I'd had a stroke because basically your
(26:56):
facial nerve, your hearing nerve, and your balance nerve are
all wrapped together going through your ear canal. Luckily, they
were able to save my balance nerve, which MD Anderson
was one of the few places that could actually do
that getting the surgery. I mean, you know, I was
asleep for it, but it was painful once I woke up.
(27:20):
But the joke I make is I can handle a
lot of pain because I'm always an emotional pain. That
is a joke, of course, but that is the joke
I make, and humor is totally how I cope with this,
just joking about it, because yeah, I know, waking up
and you know, they asked me right before if I
wanted my bone back, and I'm like, what what I mean,
(27:41):
what do you say to that question? I was like yes,
So they put like titanium plates in and my boats.
Apparently you can have a hole in your skull and
your muscles cover it and you're fine. But I got
a lot of metal back here. And you know, I
get headaches when the weather changes. But over time I
have become less and less and I think the real
(28:04):
I guess more not tragic thing, but are real scare
was you know, they had to leave a little piece
to save my facial nerve. Most of the time it dies,
but because I'm so strong and robust, that little piece
refused to die and started growing again. So I had
to go in and get something called gamma knife, and
that is a type of radiation treatment. Luckily you don't
(28:25):
lose your hair, thank god. But that was like a
Saw movie. I tell you, they put my head in
a vice. And I mean they did a great job.
They m d Anderson amazing. They did a great job.
But it's terrifying because you were awake and me and
my wisdom, I said, Okay, I'm gonna not take anything
(28:45):
like anything but with tilano because one, I find this
type of medication is constipating, but we'll keep that between
you and me. Two, I'm like, I want to remember this.
I want to remember this very clearly. And yeah, I
remember and It was not something I want you want
to remember it. It was they have to drill a
vice to your head to the bone so that you
(29:09):
can't even move a millimeter. Then they put you in
a tube where they blast you with a little radiation,
and you know, they play music during it. And my
biggest complaint, my only complaint through the cell was they
didn't have a premium Spotify account. So every couple songs,
it was home depots, great new deal, we are farmers,
(29:29):
you know, Hey, Triple A has got there. And so
I was a little crazy, a little more crazy than
I am after that, But in the end, it all
worked out and I'm still here now.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
And what was the transition like between a traditional school
and going to homeschool?
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Honestly, I don't remember the transition too clearly because it
happened when I was very young, you know, from kindergarten
to being homeschooled. But homeschooling was tough for me because
I'm a very outgoing person, sometimes far too outgoing for
my own good. I love talking to people, and only
(30:12):
later in life did I realize that if you let
other people talk too, they'll want to talk to you more.
I know, it's hard to believe, but that is a
revelation that came to me over time. It was not
always easy, but my mother was a saint, you know,
getting me reading therapy, math tutors. You know, back then
(30:35):
there weren't even co ops or pods, but she would
make them and have a retired teacher come in and
teach us. My parents are both well educated, very qualified,
and really took a very in depth and very involved
in my education. In high school, I did attend regular school,
and I'm thinking, I am thinking that, oh boy, people,
(30:59):
the grass is greener. On the other side, high school
is going to be a place where everyone loves and
respects each other and has a great time, like high
school Musical. That's what it's going to be like. It
was not like that. Oh my gosh. I hated high school.
I refer to it as jokingly. You know, in Chinese
history they have the Century of Humiliation. I refer to
(31:20):
high school as the decade of humiliation. I hated those times.
I was the weird kid who talked too much. And
when I got to college, I said never again. And
that's how I you know, I was part of startup
agu Land. I started an event production company with the
help of that program, and over time, I grew that
(31:41):
to really have a lock on the music industry, the
events in college station and I said, boy, you know,
college kids like to party. If I control partying, college
kids will like me. That was the simple deduction, and
so I grew that business and I've been the I
hate you using the term CEO because it always sounds
(32:01):
a bit arrogant. I don't mean it to and there's
so many fake entrepreneurs out there, you're like, but I've
been the CEO of Shorter Promotions for seven years and
we've coordinated events with you, Whiz Khalif Park McCollum co
Wetsall GZ. Because of my work, I've had the pleasure
to meet Lady Gaga. She was extremely nice. I called
her Miss Gaga. I was a little nervous there and
(32:24):
so yeah, but that was the transition, I guess a
couple of different transitions in my life. Forgive me for
over answering.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Sir, right now, did you ever think and that you
be doing this kind of stuff in life? Oh oh,
with you doing these concerts and part of the stuff
that's going on that's going on now, did you ever
think that you be doing this.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
My dream was a silly dream in a sense of
I had always wanted to be known. I had always
wanted people to know my name. And I know that
that's a little silly, and as I've grown older that
that has, I guess, matured into something of that you
can make a good living if people know your name,
(33:10):
and if people who are really important see you as
someone reliable and see you as someone with a great reputation,
that you can transition this knowing of you into something
that is very useful. You know, important people are like yourself.
I would not have you know, we wouldn't have the
opportunity if it wasn't for my work, and so I
(33:34):
had wanted. I did not see the music side of
it because I have zero musical talent. I played the
recorder maybe in you know, when I was homeschooled, do
do do? And I couldn't even it is terrible, zero
musical talent, Never done any of that. But on the
business side, you know, at first I started promoting events.
(33:55):
You know, I was out every single night in a suit,
little on me, going around shaking the hands of bouncers,
shaking the hands of managers, talking to anybody I could
give me a chance and one then you eventually did,
and with them I was able to drastically increase their
sales over a couple months because we really use social
(34:15):
media to target sort of the student body, and we
got student influencers to promote upcoming events and things like that.
And then I saw where the real money was was
in coordinating events, and I moved towards that in a
more respectful position too. I never wanted to be some
CD promoter type of guy, and I would say hopefully
I perhaps cringy, but not sort of CD in any way.
(34:38):
You know. I was never the type to be bringing
around ladies or things like that. No, no, no, people.
Far too many people go into this business because they
want to party, and that is the completely wrong way
to look at it. I am there because it is
a business. I'm there to offer a service to my
clients and my customers. I'm there to put on great
(34:59):
events so that everybody can make money or go away
by go away having a great time. That this is
a serious business, and bringing that opened a lot of doors.
The legitimacy of in a suit with my plastic business
cards that I do a good job that I get
a good reputation and then I'm able to move from there.
So we transition operations to Austin about a year ago
(35:22):
and that really became our home base. But we've done
events Houston, San Marcos. You know, had the opportunity to
work with the top production companies in the state, Night Culture,
C three and many others. But yeah, so it's been
a great road and I love it now. And you know,
it's opened a lot of doors, whether it's politically or
really with so many different opportunities.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Now if I'm not mistaken, and uh, I thank Gastine.
And where your promotion is like the number one in Texas.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
You're very kind, You're very kind. Yes, by some would
agree with me, and I would say, I would say
there'd be a good number that for a time that
I was. I would they may perhaps to them the
number one sort of individual promoter in Texas, but I
don't consider myself a promoter in the sense like that.
But that promotional when it comes to concerts that we
(36:11):
can sell out a concert like that, and it's an
amazing thing. And I have to thank the Straight nation
as I call it, for the support that the people
have shown is great, and of course that is, let
me be very honest, self appointed number one. But because
of our track record and the fact that there are
(36:32):
very few independent sort of people doing event production, it's
almost all companies under the banner, you know of Live
Nation C three, Night Culture. C three puts on ACL.
They're the number one event production company in the state
of Texas. ACL Austin City Limits Huge Music Festival. You know,
Nic Culture, they put on a couple different shows. I
(36:55):
believe they put on Freaky Dky. I apologize that I'm
getting that wrong, but they're mass if they own studio
are sterea live huge venue in Houston. So that but
there's very few individuals who are actually of staying power
in this game and are actually there doing the type
of thing that my company does. And you know, I
got two employees, a couple different contractors. It's a five yeah,
(37:19):
five contractors actually six now six contractors, two employees, and
so yeah, I know, but it's uh. I would say
that there is a real argument I could make for that.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Now, And when did you decide to become an influencer?
Speaker 4 (37:37):
At first, it wasn't one hundred percent a conscious decision,
but I saw the power that some of the athletes
had because they had substantial followings on social media. At
Texas a Anda, and I saw people that had followings
(37:57):
could make a difference in the issues that they cared about.
And I care a lot about dyslexia things like that,
and I care a lot about transitioning more and more
with politics, and I care a lot about being known.
And so I said, boy, I'm really going to take
an active role in trying to be this. So you know,
(38:17):
whether it's watching a thousand different cringy videos to figure
out how, or it's just slowly doing it over time,
whether it's running an ad campaign or following the right
accounts or posting the right things. That slowly I built
up a couple thousand, ten thousand, then had a few
spikes with different things where you know, a couple more thousand,
(38:39):
another ten thousand, and that it's a powerful thing. I
was able to speak at the International Dyslexia Association at
their yearly conference because of this. I was I'm able
to talk with you because of this, I'm able to
run a huge portion of the company's sales come through
my Instagram, my social media. You know, we have other
(39:02):
people under the banner. We have other company accounts, but
a lot of it is there is power. There is
immense power in being an influencer. I started a YouTube channel,
Benjamin Schrader, of course, talking about this and how to
become an influencer, because if you want your voice to
(39:22):
be heard, if you want to go to events for free,
if you want people to know your name, there is
power in that and you can make a difference in
the issues you care about.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Now, how did you have anybody that inspired you to
become an influencer?
Speaker 4 (39:42):
To become an influencer, not so much. There was one
individual I believe his name that I had found very interesting,
and forgive me, I don't know a ton about him,
but I know that an individual named for their pseudonym
Big nietzs Chee. And I had seen what he had
(40:02):
done at Texas State and I was impressed, and I said, Okay,
you know, that is something that I think I can
do a little bit different than what he did, but
something similar in scale. And I actually had the pleasure
to meet him at VidCon. Very very nice man and
so yeah, but I would say when it comes to
the business side, Shelley Brinkman was the leader of Startup
(40:26):
Aggie Land, the program that I was a part of
that helped students start businesses, and we all took a
class on entrepreneurship together. You know, how to file your taxes,
how to get investors, how to pitch, really useful things
like that. And I'm still a proponent of school. I
found school. Actually, I found college helpful, and I found
the connections that I made and some of the classes,
(40:47):
I mean, maybe not the history of modern art that
wasn't too helpful, but a lot of other things were.
I would say that her helping me and a gentleman.
She introduced me to Jose Quintana, who in many venues
is out in Brian in College station. That the two
of them taught me so much and really helped hone
(41:09):
my business acumen and my my sense in business, and
then showing me the ropes of the industry. You know.
They introduced me to Brendan Anthony, who was the music
Czar of Texas. He is it's an appointed position by
the governor. I believe it's appointed. Yeah, And he was
also very helpful in really teaching me the ropes of
the music industry. And because of all of these different people.
(41:34):
And I believe there was also a professor, and I apologize,
I believe his name was Rodney, forgive me his name
slipping my mind. But a lot of these people that
I met showed me. The business acumen and the influencers side, though,
is something that I would say I recognized that it needed.
I needed that. I needed that if I was going
(41:54):
to have an offer, if I was going to have
something to offer to people to work with me, why
work with me and not someone larger, not a statewide company,
not a nationwide company. Because I can offer you the
target audience you want, I can offer you the student body,
I can do my partnerships with many different organizations offer
(42:16):
you these people that that was the defining thing of
my offer. So yeah, I would say that business I
learned a lot. The influencer side was a bit more organic.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Now you're also obsessed with the Roman Empire.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
Oh yes, yes, what proper man, isn't I tell you?
And I want to be clear, I want to be
clear between you and me. This isn't that type of
obsession where it's, oh the guy knows a little bit.
Speaker 5 (42:45):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I mean,
you want to talk about the early Galic wars were
not the glic Wars of Caesar, but the early ones
where they were fighting the Romans.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Or you want to talk about the social wars, you know,
Sellah's purges. We can get into everything from my boy
Hadrian or my boy Aralian saving the empire during the
crisis of the third century. So yeah, no, it's a
real I love history. I love history, I love studying it,
and I love I find great inspiration from people throughout history.
(43:21):
So yes, I may be maybe a little obsessed. My
girlfriend would say, yeah, yeah, Ben, thanks again for telling
me about Buddhika's expansion in England. Again, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
So yeah, so so oh. Since Europe sits with the
Roman Empire, teak books about it.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
And so really the main way that I learn about
it is YouTube, funny enough, and I watch hours and
hours and hours of while I'm working, while I'm doing things.
There's a great YouTube channel and I'm so sorry I'm
forgetting in the name, but he makes uh you know,
amazing videos on this. And then there's like Kings in Generals,
(44:07):
a couple other different ones that really can teach you
in depth about it, and it's great for conversation. I'll
show you a story once. I was once at a
conference and there was a boy from Italy there and
I and something had come up about history, and I said, oh, yeah,
I love I absolutely love the Roman Empire. I love
(44:28):
the history of it. I find it fascinating. And I mean, yeah,
maybe it was a little brutal, but hey, you know,
it's interesting history. And he looks at me, and he
looks at me with a little suspicion. He said, between
Skippio Africanus and Hannah Milbaka, who was the superior general.
Now I don't get what he means at first, because
or he said ship Shepio Africanis. And I'm a little
(44:51):
confused because Sheipio. But then I realized that's how they
say Scipio Africanis. Now Skippy a conquered Carthage. Hannibal Barka
almost conquered Rome but didn't quite pull it off. I
think for a moment, and I say, though, Hannibal Barka's
campaigns in Iberia Spain were very impressive, and you know
(45:15):
the Battle of I forget the name of the battle,
but he killed one hundred thousand Romans in one day,
very very impressive. Because he didn't receive enough support from Carthage,
he failed in his ultimate goal and was never able
to take Rome. Scipio Africanus, on the other hand, though
his campaigns in Africa were impressive, they were less impressive
(45:36):
than Hannibal Barka. But Scipio Africanus succeeded where Hannibal did not.
He took Carthage. He burned the city to the ground
and when he looked, when his legates looked at him,
he was weeping. And they said, why why are you weeping?
Scipio we won, and he said, today I see an
enemy city barn, but one day I know Rome will burn.
(46:00):
So yeah, he uh, that was my answer. And then
he loved me because he said, oh my gosh, he
actually knows what he's talking about. So yeah, Skippio is
in my mind superior general. So yeah, that is just
a little thing. Forgive me for going on a tangent
about Roman. It's all right, started about Alexander the short sighted.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
So yeah, are you a fan of Harry Potter?
Speaker 4 (46:25):
You know? Funny enough, I am. That was a big
thing when I was a kid, and I always hated
the fact I couldn't read the Harry Potter books, and
it was tough for me. I've never read the books
and I couldn't read them. Back then everyone else was.
I watched the movies and I acted like I had
read the books. I was more of a Percy Jackson
guy by Rick Rordan. You know Percy Jackson. Excuse me,
(46:48):
demigod sona Poseidon. He sorry for spoilers. It's been after
like a decade or more. Uh, you know, sona Poseidon
and he had dyslexia, and so that was I found
it very connecting with me. But I mean I like
the movies, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah, Now, what is your most viewed video on social
media or your most viewed post on social media?
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Oh my gosh, I don't even know. I mean, I
know my picture with President Trump did very well. I
think my Lady Gaga posted very well. I've had a
couple of different clips go a little bit viral. There
was a clip of me walking in a full suit
(47:37):
and I, you know, I look at the camera and
I say, what do I say? I said something like, oh,
it comes very naturally to me. And apparently some people
had used that in clips of different videos, and then
I know a video that.
Speaker 6 (47:51):
I had, a girl had taken of me, had gotten
where I was like talking with her, like it wasn't
even really anything going on that was special, got like
millions of views for some reason on TikTok.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
But I wasn't even tagged, I tell you. So. Yeah,
but no, forgive me. I need to check, because yeah,
I should know what my most viral bilist is. But
I would say virality is not the key to success
in this influencer sort of industry. It is about consistency
and a lot of posts. You know, if you can
(48:29):
post every day, if you can do these things as
much as you can, you don't need to go viral.
You just need to slowly build up more and more.
If you have something go viral, great. But you can
get a lot of followers or fans that are supporters
of the causes. I like to say, I never like
the word fans, so supporters who might not be as
dedicated as those who have built up with you, and
(48:51):
so yeah, viral, I haven't gone viral nearly as much
as I'd like to go viral. But it's you don't
need to. You don't need to to succeed almost better.
It can almost be better not to it can hurt
you a bit. If you go to viral, you can
be a one hit wonder nobody wants.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Oh yeah, now, where can people find your online?
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Oh? Yes, and forgive me for drinking my vs I
wish I was sponsored. I'm an old man secretly at heart,
and I love my vs at. Benjamin underscore Trader the
regular way to spell Benjamin. I forget how you ben
Ja m I N I think the regular way to
spell Benjamin underscore s h R A d e R.
Of course we have Trader Nation dot com, but that
(49:37):
or Benjamin underscore Trader is my Instagram. That is the
best place to follow and find stuff about me. And
then our website, trade nation dot com is going to
be getting a total overhaul. But if you want to
look at the old website before it goes away, I
already hired someone to do it redo it. So if
you want to see the old website for the last time,
(49:58):
you can go see it there. But Instam is definitely
the best way, Benjamin underscores Trader to get a hold
of me or to see the content.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
That I put out before you wrap up the podcast.
Speaker 4 (50:11):
Let me not forget my YouTube channel Benjamin Trader as well.
That's going to be the next big expansion. My apologies,
Oh it's all right now. Towards the podcast, I usually
ask my guests for a close in thought. Uh, do
you get a close and thought for the people listening
to the podcast? Yes, I would say that I'll give three.
(50:38):
At first, I wish my condolences to the family of
Corey Competor and a quick recovery to everyone involved, and
that everyone can come away from that tragic day and
be better and feel better over time, and that things
like that don't ever happen again in America because we
(50:59):
don't want don't want political violence. We want peace, and
we want to vote, and we just want things to
go smoothly. And the next I would say is that
if you want to change your life, if you want
to change the world around you, don't be arrogant. Kindness
is the new currency. That's what a little phrase I've
(51:19):
coined and I've been saying lately. It won't pay your bills,
but you can get a lot farther with that. And
if you're a kind influencer and you build an audience,
you can affect the issues you care about, and there
is real power in that you can make a difference
and you can become who you want to be. If
a half death, severely dyslexic man can do it, you
(51:43):
definitely can. And then finally, I'll leave you with a
quote from my favorite and the first Roman emperor. Most
of you would know him as Augustus, but I will
always sort of know him by his original name, Octavius.
I came to Rome when it was a city of stone.
(52:03):
I leave it one of marble.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Well, Benjamin's don't thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
I want to thank you for having me. It was
a great time. I enjoyed. We jumped around from a
lot of different things, but hey, I had a great time,
So thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Oh yeah, absolutely. That wraps up this week of conversations
with Jacob Tunia next Monday for another episode. Until then,
God bless and we'll catch you guys next week.
Got any partners. You're listening to Conversations with Jacob, hosted
by my good friend Jacob Waller. Make sure to check
out the podcast where podcasts are available, and check out
the video version on YouTube. You can follow us on
social media. Facebook is Conversations with Jacob, Twitter is at
(00:46):
CWJ podcast, and you can visit our website Conversations with
Jacob podcast dot weebley dot com. Hey you got a
show idea, maybe a guess suggestion, email I said, Conversations
with Jacob at gmail dot com. Now here's your host,
(01:08):
Jacob Waller.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And what's going on everybody, and welcome back to another
episode of Conversations with Jacob. Today's episode number ninety one.
Today was supposed to be a different guest, but we
got to go through and reschedule, and so we're moving
on to the next guest. Uh has Jake Thorn said?
It has? Jake Thorn said in the and the intro.
(01:34):
Check out our Facebook page and Twitter, and we're back
on Twitter after a long kind after a long break,
so check us out on Twitter, our website Conversations with
Jacob podcast dot web dot com, upcoming shows, past guests,
and so much more. Check out the podcast every Monday
at one o'clock Eastern time, and make sure it's to
(01:56):
like and comment to our YouTube channel. Just type in
Conversations with you and it should pop up. It's about
the way. Speaking of a podcasts, check out Two Chairs
No Waiting, Two Chairs No Wadding has an Andy Griffin
fan podcast hosted by my good friend mister Adam Newsom.
As a matter of fact, and here's Adam Newsom to
(02:17):
tell you more about the about his podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Andy Barney, Opie, Goober, Floyd de Barber. That's some of
the names from the Andy griff Show. Drop by Two
Chairs No Waiting, the Andy griff Show Fan Podcast, and
we'll visit with some of those folks, along with tribute
artists and fans and just all kinds of things related
to the Andy Griffith Show. I'm your host, Alan Newsom,
and you can find the show Two Chairs No Waiting
(02:41):
at two Chairsnowaiting dot com or on iTunes.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And also before we go to our guest today, oh,
you can check out our podcast story. You can buy
t shirt, mugs and much more. Just go to Conversations
with jacobpodcast dot Weebley dot com. And and you got
to scroll down to the podcast store tab to go
to the podcast merchandise and joining me this week is
(03:09):
Benjamin's Benjamin Schrader and the day we're going to talk
about him living with the dyslexia and so much more.
And Benjamin, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
It is good to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
That was quite an intro. Oh I loved it. I
absolutely loved it. I'll move my camera a little bit.
But boy, oh, thanks so much for having me. It's
gonna be a great time.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely, and happy before we get to you. Uh,
just in July, which you went to a Trump ratty. Yeah, Hey,
can you Kenna walk us through that whole thing?
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yes, yes, I you know it's uh. I've been doing
a lot of different interviews about that. I Uh, I'll
be honest, I'm not even the most political person in
the world, but I do enjoy politics, and my dream
in life, my endgame is to go into politics. I
I'm involved with many different groups out here, and I
(04:07):
don't dred percent know how I got invited, how I
kind of pulled this off. But I think what it
really came down to was that some people on the
Trump team had heard about me. My longtime support of
the former president and the fact that I had a
golf ball sized brain tumor. I don't know if you
can see my yeah, are there. And so it almost
(04:29):
turned out to be something like a make a wish,
which which is a little funny. But I received an
invitation to be a special guest, a VIP special guest
of the Trump campaign at the rally in Pennsylvania. Find
out Thursday, book, I go through. You know, I fill
out the Secret Service form. It had been a whole
(04:51):
thing where I've you know, a social Security number, driver's license, everything.
Fill that out. I find out Thursday, fill that out.
My plane, fly down Friday, go to the event Saturday,
and you know, I'm sitting in the special guest section.
It was at first, you know, before everything happened, I
was one of the greatest honors of my life. I
(05:12):
was very nervous, if I'm being honest, which is a
rare thing for me. And so yeah, no had the
Texas Ag Commissioner Sidneler, I believe in front of me,
the mayor of Slippery Rock in front of me as well.
And I was if you're facing the stage, if you're
looking at the stage, I was directly on the left
(05:35):
on the third row back the third sort of you know,
seat of chairs on the ground, and then the stands
would have been parallel when a little bit behind us.
So you know, immense honor. Were called back by secret
service in the Trump campaign. We're able, I have the opportunity,
the great honor to meet the former president. He was
(05:57):
very nice. I think he could also tell I was
a little nervous. I was wiping my sweaty hand on
my pants to make sure that you know, I wasn't
I didn't have a sweaty hand, you know. Took a
picture with him at the opportunity to talk with him
a little bit, showed him my scar, and then you know,
they let us out, and then about thirty minutes after that,
(06:19):
the former president came to speak, and then you know,
an immense, an immense tragedy happened. And I wish the
condolences to the family of Corey compendator, and all my
best wishes and my prayers to everyone injured, and that
they may make a quick recovery. Thankfully. You know, it
(06:39):
seems like President Trump has made a quick recovery himself.
But about maybe five ten minutes after he comes and
starts speaking. You know, I just hear a pop up, up,
up up, and I know what gunshots sound like, and
so I said, okay, this is something's very wrong. And
(07:00):
I remember I ducked and I looked behind me, and
I just see blood everywhere. I could only see a
lower torso and legs and so much blood. Uh. You know,
I look back at the President. I see him holding
(07:21):
up his fist and to the Secret Services credit I
mean they were on him in an instant, surrounding him. Uh.
You know. I then hit the deck because you know,
I'm too My mind and moments like this goes relatively clear.
I make a joke with my friends that when everyone
(07:42):
else is calm, I panic. When everyone else panics, I'm calm,
and I say, okay, I'm too far to render aid.
My whole goals need to be become the smallest target
possible and extract from the area as quickly as possible.
Hit the deck. I know I'm there for a few moments,
a few minutes. Eventually what I believed to be. You know,
(08:03):
a member of the Secret Service comes and says, we
need to go this way leads us parallel defence. I
see the building where the shooter was, and I see
the body of the shooter, which at the time I
believed it was a soldier lying down. I did not
realize that it had been a sniper. My fear had
been that it was someone in the crowd who had
(08:25):
pulled out a pistol. That was my original thought. And
then I ended up running into a friend of mine
that I hadn't seen in like a year or two,
just you know, an acquaintance, and he had said, sammy
great guy. And he had said, okay, Ben, you know,
we got a car. We got to get the heck
out of here. And I said, yeah, thank god we did.
(08:49):
But I'm grateful to God to be alive. I was
clutching my rosary beads and praying and I, yeah, no,
it was definitely. Yeah, I've never seen anyone be shot before,
and it definitely is a horrific thing to go through.
But I guess how I how I cope with a
(09:13):
lot of these things is I try to joke with
myself almost you know, I said, had the brain tumor,
And now you know, ten feet behind me the guy
had been hit tenth I mean, if the bullet had
been a foot to the right and a foot down,
I wouldn't be here, and you'd probably be wondering, why
(09:34):
isn't Ben responding to my email. So the joke I've
been making amongst friends, and I don't mean to make
light of what is a horrific matter, but it's how
one copes is I had the brain tumor. Now bullets,
I better watch out for my third strike. So there's
(09:56):
a lot to go through, but it's an important thing
to talk about and share what really happened.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Now it seems like you was going to get to
this Trump Raady, supposed to be nice and outgoing, had
attorney to something terrible.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
It really did, It really did. It was one of
the greatest owners of my life. I was very excited,
you know, a little nervous, but to be you know,
little old me. I really am nobody special, nobody that important.
I like to think so, but not really. And to
be surrounded by ambassadors and congressmen and senators and commissioners
(10:34):
and committee members and mayors and is a unique experience.
And to be there and to have the opportunity to
meet someone who I mean, we almost see the presidents
and really famous people as almost not real, like they're
(10:55):
just on TV but too excuse. But to meet those
people in real life and to see that they're just
like us, they're people, and that you know, Trump was nice,
He seemed in great health, he seemed excited, he seemed
happy about his rally, you know, his event that he
(11:16):
was excited to talk at. And if he hadn't turned
his head at that last moment, you know, things would
have been absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Now kind of turning the point over to you, and
when did you figure out that you had how dyslexia? Yeah,
I guess shifting gears a little bit.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
You know. My name is Benjamin Schreider s HR A
d R. My father would say it's cheaper without the sea.
I found out that I had dyslexia in kindergarten. I
found out very young, which is a blessing. You know.
At the time, I really looked at it as a curse.
You know, I had always had trouble with reading and
(12:02):
I didn't like it. And this is something I talk
about to this day, is that, you know, I find
it a little secret between you and me. I've been
working on a dyslexia book, talking about dyslexia and something
I mentioned in there is that it is painful almost.
It's it's borderline painful reading sometimes, and it's like looking
at a foreign language. It doesn't move around for me.
(12:25):
I could tell you what each letter is, you know,
c at, but I couldn't tell you that that word
is cat. And so yeah, I hated the letter blocks.
Get those letter blocks away from me. I basically, you know,
in kindergarten, I was really struggling with that. I was
good at science and things like that, whatever level of
science they have in kindergarten, but I wasn't. I wasn't
(12:48):
progressing on my reading. So they tested me, said yeah,
it's dyslexia. And I went to a different test, got
it very in depth, and I think I was I
was a little difficult. They told me, oh, you're twice gifted,
and I just looked at them and I say, can
I give the gift back? So yeah, diagnosed. And my
(13:10):
parents are saints. They're amazing people, they really are have
always done the best for me. And so I had
to be withdrawn from the kindergarten, the school that I
was in, just because back then, you know, early two thousands,
there was not the same level of help in place
that there is today. And really, you know, yet, you
(13:34):
have to get help for people with dyslexia very very young.
You have to get that reading therapy very young. So
my parents withdrew me from the school and started homeschooling
me actually, which you know, it was tough at the time,
but was a real blessing looking back, really a blessing
that I was able to have that opportunity. They got
(13:56):
me nine years of reading therapy and almost every day
during the week, and it was really tough, and I
didn't make a ton of progress until a saint of
a woman, missus Prim, who has only lived a few
doors down from us, and she was a retired teacher
and had a specialty in reading therapy and things like that,
(14:19):
a sun with dyslexia who was a successful pilot now
and she used the original program, the Orton Gillingham approach.
It was very simple, A apple, ab B bat ccat
cut D dog, you know, the very very simple and
basically I memorized most words and what they looked like,
(14:41):
and that is how I read. And if I haven't
memorized a word, I'm gonna be having to sound it
out and if it doesn't sound like it does. Sound
it out, then I'm still gonna have a problem today.
So I read it about a third grade reading level
to this day. But I've done my best. Not let
me not let that whole back. And hey today, you
(15:02):
know I spent years using Texas speech voice to text.
It is still how I rely on everything. But luckily
today I can have my assistant do a lot of
things for me as well. So that is a It
is a good time. Indeed.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Now do you think it's getting how worse over time?
Or do you think it's kind of eased up over
the years.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
I apologize you cut out for a moment. Has my
dyslexia gotten worse or eased up? Uh? Yeah, yeah, interesting question.
I haven't ever head anyone ask me that. I would
say that it is easier today. It is easier today.
You know, dyslexia isn't something that can be cured. There
is no cure. It is fundamentally the way your brain works.
(15:43):
There is a different wiring. I have heard people say, like,
you know, I got half the neural net connections of
the average man on one side, but double on the others.
So dyslexics are just as smart. As as I colloquially
colloquially say in the comment tongue the readers, you know,
the readers that are out and about, so we're just
(16:06):
as smart as them, and you One in every five
people have dyslexia. But it's probably such a broad term
for so many different conditions learning differences. I like to
say learning disabilities, but I don't really like that. I know,
the neural divergence or the neural divergent community is really
the I guess new term for it. But it's a
(16:28):
broad broad a lot of different conditions in there. So
I would say that with technology is what has made
it easier today. You know, back in the day, it
was reading for the blind and dyslexic with your Victor reader,
this little block that looks like a really old Android phone.
You could put SD cards in and listen to your
(16:51):
I'd listened to all my science and all my history
textbooks in there, and you're reading for the blind dyslexic.
I believe there's still around greateranization. They would have people
physically reading the books and then describing the pictures. I
know that a lot of that can be done with
AI today, which makes things a little bit easier. And
then of course, I mean eleven Labs have some of
(17:13):
the best voice ais in the world, and the strides
that have been made with that are insane. And text
to speech, you know, back in the day was Dragon
Naturally speaking was the only one, which was great for
the time. But today it's built into your phone. You
can just pick up your phone and it's become widely
adopted by society, so it's quite good. It's not just
(17:35):
something for people with learning differences. I find that a
lot of times, if people with learning differences want to
find technology that can help them, it's about adapting technology
that's adopted by the masses, not about searching out the technology,
searching out technology that is just for the neuro divergent community.
So yeah, because of that voice to text, text to speech,
(17:56):
it's built into a lot of devices technology has made
at e But if you take my tech away from me,
you know, I use an example that I was once
doing a show, uh yeah, for your audience. I run
an event production company organizing concerts all across Texas. It
was once coordinating a massive show and I pulled the itinerary,
(18:19):
the schedule out of my pocket, unfolded it. I'm looking
at it, I have no idea what it says, and
you know, I get a little frustrated almost because I'm saying, boy, Ben,
you put this whole thing together, this whole show wouldn't
be happening without you, and yet you can't read the
piece of paper in your pocket. Dyslexia keeps me humble.
I guess I probably would have turned out to be
(18:40):
a jerk without it, but eventually I think I had
like flagged down one of the sound engineers and made
him tell me who was coming up next. So, but yeah,
I would say a little easier because of technology.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So when you read something on paper, it's kind of like, uh,
like nonsense.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Yeah. So I know that it's probably different for some
other dyslexics, but for me, and I think today too,
people are saying the term dyslexic is considered offensive. I
don't find it defensive at all. I'm giving you the
dyslexic card, so you can say it all you'd like,
but basically it is. I'm sure it's different for other people,
(19:23):
but for me, it is like looking at a foreign language,
so nothing really moves around, you know, It's not even
it's close to nonsense. But I wouldn't even say that
one hundred percent because I could tell you ABCD, I
could tell you each letter. I just can't put it together.
It's hard to describe that. It's just it doesn't click.
(19:46):
There's just something, you know, it's I have trouble understanding
how people can read. So well, that's the funny thing
that it's there's just something missing, something that doesn't click
in there. So, yeah, how I say it? How I
really described it as a foreign language. So if you
picked up I'm guessing you don't speak Portuguese or read Portuguese,
(20:09):
or if you picked up a book in Portuguese and
tried to read it, that's kind of how the best
way I could describe it.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Now, can you talk about your brain tumor?
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yes? Indeed so. About two and a half years ago,
I was diagnosed with something called oh excuse me, my apologies,
all right, didn't my machine? Hopefully that won't be an issue.
If it is again, we will address that. Let me see,
(20:41):
I don't even one hundred percent know how technology is
not my strong suit. Let me just quickly put my
phone on do not disturb, which I should have done before,
and there we go it did it for the computer? Excellent,
My apologies for that. So yes, addressing my brain tumor,
I had a golf ball sized brain tumor, something called
(21:04):
an acoustic neuroma. It is an overgrowth of nerve coating
tissue milumb sheath tissue. It was growing from my hearing
nerve underneath my brain and pushing up against my brain stem.
If I did not get that removed, I would not
be speaking with you today. The doctor said, I was
at a serious risk of a stroke and if I
(21:27):
did not get it removed, I probably would have only
had about two to three years. And I will show
you and your listeners, you know, my star. I had
sixty one stitches. And basically how it all came about.
I was doing another show and I'd been having minor
minor hearing loss, minor hearing loss two percent only so
(21:49):
ninety eight percent still, but enough that it was off
and a little bit of pressure, just a little bit
of pressure, and I'm there and I had gotten earplugs.
I said, boy, what a tragedy. Ben, You know, you're
what what have I been at the time? Twenty two? Yeah,
you're twenty five now, so whatever, you know, little ways back.
(22:10):
Was what a tragedy bend to lose a little bit
of your hearing so young. But you know, it's a
lot allou music. You should have worn your plugs, and
now I I'm going to start wearing your plugs, is
what I was saying to myself. And I always wear
them now, even in my deaf ear. And I think
everyone should wear your plugs no matter what concert or
event you're going to. You know, wear them down the
street for crying out loud. But basically, I say, okay,
(22:35):
but you know, I'm gonna go to the doctor just
to assuage my worry, just so I don't have to
be concerned or stress about it. I'm gonna go and say, okay,
so everything's going to be okay. Everything wasn't okay. Went
to the doctor, you know, got a CT scan, they
said your bones look a little weird. Went and then
got an MRI. And then I had another show coming up,
(22:59):
and I'd been working crazy on that and so I
wasn't really paying attention from calls from the hospital or
things like that. I get a call from my parents
and they say, Benjamin, you know, and I'm very close
with my parents, like I love them more than anything,
and we talk all the time. But this was in
the middle of the day and I was just surprised
(23:20):
and I said, oh, hey, guys, how you doing. They said, Ben,
you know, we got a call from the hospital. They
called your emergency contact because they really need to get
a hold of you. And that's when my heart dropped,
because I said, it is not a good sign when
the hospital is trying to get a hold of you.
That is Yeah, that's bad. That isn't what you want.
(23:43):
I called the hospital back and they say, you know.
I say, okay, what's wrong and they're like, oh, we
you know, can't discuss it over the phone. You need
to come in like asap, come in tomorrow. I didn't
get a wink of sleep that night. I go in.
A doctor explains, you have a golf ball sized brain tumor.
It's probably not cancer, but we won't be sure till
we remove it. We need to get this out asap.
(24:07):
And then a lot of this was during I believe
the tail end of COVID. I don't one hundred percent remember,
but I believe it was during the tail end of that,
and so there were still a lot of restrictions things
like that, and they had to book me, and I'd
seen a couple different hospitals, which scared the heck out
of me. But eventually I got the tumor removed at
(24:29):
M D Anderson in Houston, Texas. You know, they're the
best hospital for cancer and tumors in the world. And
YE had to be clear, you know, I didn't have
brain cancer or anything like that. Benign tumor. They slowly
peeled it out. I went death in my right ear.
I have a massive scar, went deaf in the right ear,
(24:52):
lost a balance nerve, so I had to learn how
to walk again, and it came back to me relatively quickly,
but it is is something that you know, it's a
very strange feeling when you lose a balance nerve, because
you'll stand up and you won't be able to tell
where your head is, so you'll just fall over. I'm luckily,
you know, you have two so your brain overtime's able
(25:14):
to compensate with your good side, and being deaf in
one ear isn't so bad the I guess the real
cruelty of being deaf is that it rings constantly, constantly.
It is like Tonight's loud tonightis all the time, but
you're because your brain is looking for a signal that
isn't there. But most of the time I don't even
(25:35):
one hundred percent notice it because now it's really loud
because I talked about it, But I don't really notice
it one hundred percent of the time, just because you
go through life. And yeah, I'm just glad I'm not
deaf in both that would be tough.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
And what was the surgery like, yeah, no, it was,
uh yeah, terrifying, i'd say, but I said, okay, this
needs to be done. You know, sometimes the whistle blows.
You got to go over the trench. Even though it's terrifying,
you gotta get it done. And I think that, you
know my faith, I'm a Catholic myself. And then of
(26:11):
course Stoicism I've always liked, you know, since I was
a little kid, thinking I was so smart. Listen to
the audio book of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, the great Stoic
philosopher and Roman emperor. Things could always be worse. I
think that sums up Stoicism. But a sentence, things could
(26:33):
always be worse. It could be brain cancer. I could
have it in both ears, I could be you know,
there was this only small chance of death. Luckily with
this as long as I got it removed, so it
could always be worse. And you know, big risk was
that I'd lose control of my facial nerve, so it
would look like I'd had a stroke because basically your
(26:56):
facial nerve, your hearing nerve, and your balance nerve are
all wrapped together going through your ear canal. Luckily, they
were able to save my balance nerve, which MD Anderson
was one of the few places that could actually do
that getting the surgery. I mean, you know, I was
asleep for it, but it was painful once I woke up.
(27:20):
But the joke I make is I can handle a
lot of pain because I'm always an emotional pain. That
is a joke, of course, but that is the joke
I make, and humor is totally how I cope with this,
just joking about it, because yeah, I know, waking up
and you know, they asked me right before if I
wanted my bone back, and I'm like, what what I mean,
(27:41):
what do you say to that question? I was like yes,
So they put like titanium plates in and my boats.
Apparently you can have a hole in your skull and
your muscles cover it and you're fine. But I got
a lot of metal back here. And you know, I
get headaches when the weather changes. But over time I
have become less and less and I think the real
(28:04):
I guess more not tragic thing, but are real scare
was you know, they had to leave a little piece
to save my facial nerve. Most of the time it dies,
but because I'm so strong and robust, that little piece
refused to die and started growing again. So I had
to go in and get something called gamma knife, and
that is a type of radiation treatment. Luckily you don't
(28:25):
lose your hair, thank god. But that was like a
Saw movie. I tell you, they put my head in
a vice. And I mean they did a great job.
They m d Anderson amazing. They did a great job.
But it's terrifying because you were awake and me and
my wisdom, I said, Okay, I'm gonna not take anything
(28:45):
like anything but with tilano because one, I find this
type of medication is constipating, but we'll keep that between
you and me. Two, I'm like, I want to remember this.
I want to remember this very clearly. And yeah, I
remember and It was not something I want you want
to remember it. It was they have to drill a
vice to your head to the bone so that you
(29:09):
can't even move a millimeter. Then they put you in
a tube where they blast you with a little radiation,
and you know, they play music during it. And my
biggest complaint, my only complaint through the cell was they
didn't have a premium Spotify account. So every couple songs,
it was home depots, great new deal, we are farmers,
(29:29):
you know, Hey, Triple A has got there. And so
I was a little crazy, a little more crazy than
I am after that, But in the end, it all
worked out and I'm still here now.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
And what was the transition like between a traditional school
and going to homeschool?
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Honestly, I don't remember the transition too clearly because it
happened when I was very young, you know, from kindergarten
to being homeschooled. But homeschooling was tough for me because
I'm a very outgoing person, sometimes far too outgoing for
my own good. I love talking to people, and only
(30:12):
later in life did I realize that if you let
other people talk too, they'll want to talk to you more.
I know, it's hard to believe, but that is a
revelation that came to me over time. It was not
always easy, but my mother was a saint, you know,
getting me reading therapy, math tutors. You know, back then
(30:35):
there weren't even co ops or pods, but she would
make them and have a retired teacher come in and
teach us. My parents are both well educated, very qualified,
and really took a very in depth and very involved
in my education. In high school, I did attend regular school,
and I'm thinking, I am thinking that, oh boy, people,
(30:59):
the grass is greener. On the other side, high school
is going to be a place where everyone loves and
respects each other and has a great time, like high
school Musical. That's what it's going to be like. It
was not like that. Oh my gosh. I hated high school.
I refer to it as jokingly. You know, in Chinese
history they have the Century of Humiliation. I refer to
(31:20):
high school as the decade of humiliation. I hated those times.
I was the weird kid who talked too much. And
when I got to college, I said never again. And
that's how I you know, I was part of startup
agu Land. I started an event production company with the
help of that program, and over time, I grew that
(31:41):
to really have a lock on the music industry, the
events in college station and I said, boy, you know,
college kids like to party. If I control partying, college
kids will like me. That was the simple deduction, and
so I grew that business and I've been the I
hate you using the term CEO because it always sounds
(32:01):
a bit arrogant. I don't mean it to and there's
so many fake entrepreneurs out there, you're like, but I've
been the CEO of Shorter Promotions for seven years and
we've coordinated events with you, Whiz Khalif Park McCollum co
Wetsall GZ. Because of my work, I've had the pleasure
to meet Lady Gaga. She was extremely nice. I called
her Miss Gaga. I was a little nervous there and
(32:24):
so yeah, but that was the transition, I guess a
couple of different transitions in my life. Forgive me for
over answering.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Sir, right now, did you ever think and that you
be doing this kind of stuff in life? Oh oh,
with you doing these concerts and part of the stuff
that's going on that's going on now, did you ever
think that you be doing this.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
My dream was a silly dream in a sense of
I had always wanted to be known. I had always
wanted people to know my name. And I know that
that's a little silly, and as I've grown older that
that has, I guess, matured into something of that you
can make a good living if people know your name,
(33:10):
and if people who are really important see you as
someone reliable and see you as someone with a great reputation,
that you can transition this knowing of you into something
that is very useful. You know, important people are like yourself.
I would not have you know, we wouldn't have the
opportunity if it wasn't for my work, and so I
(33:34):
had wanted. I did not see the music side of
it because I have zero musical talent. I played the
recorder maybe in you know, when I was homeschooled, do
do do? And I couldn't even it is terrible, zero
musical talent, Never done any of that. But on the
business side, you know, at first I started promoting events.
(33:55):
You know, I was out every single night in a suit,
little on me, going around shaking the hands of bouncers,
shaking the hands of managers, talking to anybody I could
give me a chance and one then you eventually did,
and with them I was able to drastically increase their
sales over a couple months because we really use social
(34:15):
media to target sort of the student body, and we
got student influencers to promote upcoming events and things like that.
And then I saw where the real money was was
in coordinating events, and I moved towards that in a
more respectful position too. I never wanted to be some
CD promoter type of guy, and I would say hopefully
I perhaps cringy, but not sort of CD in any way.
(34:38):
You know. I was never the type to be bringing
around ladies or things like that. No, no, no, people.
Far too many people go into this business because they
want to party, and that is the completely wrong way
to look at it. I am there because it is
a business. I'm there to offer a service to my
clients and my customers. I'm there to put on great
(34:59):
events so that everybody can make money or go away
by go away having a great time. That this is
a serious business, and bringing that opened a lot of doors.
The legitimacy of in a suit with my plastic business
cards that I do a good job that I get
a good reputation and then I'm able to move from there.
So we transition operations to Austin about a year ago
(35:22):
and that really became our home base. But we've done
events Houston, San Marcos. You know, had the opportunity to
work with the top production companies in the state, Night Culture,
C three and many others. But yeah, so it's been
a great road and I love it now. And you know,
it's opened a lot of doors, whether it's politically or
really with so many different opportunities.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Now if I'm not mistaken, and uh, I thank Gastine.
And where your promotion is like the number one in Texas.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
You're very kind, You're very kind. Yes, by some would
agree with me, and I would say, I would say
there'd be a good number that for a time that
I was. I would they may perhaps to them the
number one sort of individual promoter in Texas, but I
don't consider myself a promoter in the sense like that.
But that promotional when it comes to concerts that we
(36:11):
can sell out a concert like that, and it's an
amazing thing. And I have to thank the Straight nation
as I call it, for the support that the people
have shown is great, and of course that is, let
me be very honest, self appointed number one. But because
of our track record and the fact that there are
(36:32):
very few independent sort of people doing event production, it's
almost all companies under the banner, you know of Live
Nation C three, Night Culture. C three puts on ACL.
They're the number one event production company in the state
of Texas. ACL Austin City Limits Huge Music Festival. You know,
Nic Culture, they put on a couple different shows. I
(36:55):
believe they put on Freaky Dky. I apologize that I'm
getting that wrong, but they're mass if they own studio
are sterea live huge venue in Houston. So that but
there's very few individuals who are actually of staying power
in this game and are actually there doing the type
of thing that my company does. And you know, I
got two employees, a couple different contractors. It's a five yeah,
(37:19):
five contractors actually six now six contractors, two employees, and
so yeah, I know, but it's uh. I would say
that there is a real argument I could make for that.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Now, And when did you decide to become an influencer?
Speaker 4 (37:37):
At first, it wasn't one hundred percent a conscious decision,
but I saw the power that some of the athletes
had because they had substantial followings on social media. At
Texas a Anda, and I saw people that had followings
(37:57):
could make a difference in the issues that they cared about.
And I care a lot about dyslexia things like that,
and I care a lot about transitioning more and more
with politics, and I care a lot about being known.
And so I said, boy, I'm really going to take
an active role in trying to be this. So you know,
(38:17):
whether it's watching a thousand different cringy videos to figure
out how, or it's just slowly doing it over time,
whether it's running an ad campaign or following the right
accounts or posting the right things. That slowly I built
up a couple thousand, ten thousand, then had a few
spikes with different things where you know, a couple more thousand,
(38:39):
another ten thousand, and that it's a powerful thing. I
was able to speak at the International Dyslexia Association at
their yearly conference because of this. I was I'm able
to talk with you because of this, I'm able to
run a huge portion of the company's sales come through
my Instagram, my social media. You know, we have other
(39:02):
people under the banner. We have other company accounts, but
a lot of it is there is power. There is
immense power in being an influencer. I started a YouTube channel,
Benjamin Schrader, of course, talking about this and how to
become an influencer, because if you want your voice to
(39:22):
be heard, if you want to go to events for free,
if you want people to know your name, there is
power in that and you can make a difference in
the issues you care about.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Now, how did you have anybody that inspired you to
become an influencer?
Speaker 4 (39:42):
To become an influencer, not so much. There was one
individual I believe his name that I had found very interesting,
and forgive me, I don't know a ton about him,
but I know that an individual named for their pseudonym
Big nietzs Chee. And I had seen what he had
(40:02):
done at Texas State and I was impressed, and I said, Okay,
you know, that is something that I think I can
do a little bit different than what he did, but
something similar in scale. And I actually had the pleasure
to meet him at VidCon. Very very nice man and
so yeah, but I would say when it comes to
the business side, Shelley Brinkman was the leader of Startup
(40:26):
Aggie Land, the program that I was a part of
that helped students start businesses, and we all took a
class on entrepreneurship together. You know, how to file your taxes,
how to get investors, how to pitch, really useful things
like that. And I'm still a proponent of school. I
found school. Actually, I found college helpful, and I found
the connections that I made and some of the classes,
(40:47):
I mean, maybe not the history of modern art that
wasn't too helpful, but a lot of other things were.
I would say that her helping me and a gentleman.
She introduced me to Jose Quintana, who in many venues
is out in Brian in College station. That the two
of them taught me so much and really helped hone
(41:09):
my business acumen and my my sense in business, and
then showing me the ropes of the industry. You know.
They introduced me to Brendan Anthony, who was the music
Czar of Texas. He is it's an appointed position by
the governor. I believe it's appointed. Yeah, And he was
also very helpful in really teaching me the ropes of
the music industry. And because of all of these different people.
(41:34):
And I believe there was also a professor, and I apologize,
I believe his name was Rodney, forgive me his name
slipping my mind. But a lot of these people that
I met showed me. The business acumen and the influencers side, though,
is something that I would say I recognized that it needed.
I needed that. I needed that if I was going
(41:54):
to have an offer, if I was going to have
something to offer to people to work with me, why
work with me and not someone larger, not a statewide company,
not a nationwide company. Because I can offer you the
target audience you want, I can offer you the student body,
I can do my partnerships with many different organizations offer
(42:16):
you these people that that was the defining thing of
my offer. So yeah, I would say that business I
learned a lot. The influencer side was a bit more organic.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Now you're also obsessed with the Roman Empire.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
Oh yes, yes, what proper man, isn't I tell you?
And I want to be clear, I want to be
clear between you and me. This isn't that type of
obsession where it's, oh the guy knows a little bit.
Speaker 5 (42:45):
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I mean,
you want to talk about the early Galic wars were
not the glic Wars of Caesar, but the early ones
where they were fighting the Romans.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Or you want to talk about the social wars, you know,
Sellah's purges. We can get into everything from my boy
Hadrian or my boy Aralian saving the empire during the
crisis of the third century. So yeah, no, it's a
real I love history. I love history, I love studying it,
and I love I find great inspiration from people throughout history.
(43:21):
So yes, I may be maybe a little obsessed. My
girlfriend would say, yeah, yeah, Ben, thanks again for telling
me about Buddhika's expansion in England. Again, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
So yeah, so so oh. Since Europe sits with the
Roman Empire, teak books about it.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
And so really the main way that I learn about
it is YouTube, funny enough, and I watch hours and
hours and hours of while I'm working, while I'm doing things.
There's a great YouTube channel and I'm so sorry I'm
forgetting in the name, but he makes uh you know,
amazing videos on this. And then there's like Kings in Generals,
(44:07):
a couple other different ones that really can teach you
in depth about it, and it's great for conversation. I'll
show you a story once. I was once at a
conference and there was a boy from Italy there and
I and something had come up about history, and I said, oh, yeah,
I love I absolutely love the Roman Empire. I love
(44:28):
the history of it. I find it fascinating. And I mean, yeah,
maybe it was a little brutal, but hey, you know,
it's interesting history. And he looks at me, and he
looks at me with a little suspicion. He said, between
Skippio Africanus and Hannah Milbaka, who was the superior general.
Now I don't get what he means at first, because
or he said ship Shepio Africanis. And I'm a little
(44:51):
confused because Sheipio. But then I realized that's how they
say Scipio Africanis. Now Skippy a conquered Carthage. Hannibal Barka
almost conquered Rome but didn't quite pull it off. I
think for a moment, and I say, though, Hannibal Barka's
campaigns in Iberia Spain were very impressive, and you know
(45:15):
the Battle of I forget the name of the battle,
but he killed one hundred thousand Romans in one day,
very very impressive. Because he didn't receive enough support from Carthage,
he failed in his ultimate goal and was never able
to take Rome. Scipio Africanus, on the other hand, though
his campaigns in Africa were impressive, they were less impressive
(45:36):
than Hannibal Barka. But Scipio Africanus succeeded where Hannibal did not.
He took Carthage. He burned the city to the ground
and when he looked, when his legates looked at him,
he was weeping. And they said, why why are you weeping?
Scipio we won, and he said, today I see an
enemy city barn, but one day I know Rome will burn.
(46:00):
So yeah, he uh, that was my answer. And then
he loved me because he said, oh my gosh, he
actually knows what he's talking about. So yeah, Skippio is
in my mind superior general. So yeah, that is just
a little thing. Forgive me for going on a tangent
about Roman. It's all right, started about Alexander the short sighted.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
So yeah, are you a fan of Harry Potter?
Speaker 4 (46:25):
You know? Funny enough, I am. That was a big
thing when I was a kid, and I always hated
the fact I couldn't read the Harry Potter books, and
it was tough for me. I've never read the books
and I couldn't read them. Back then everyone else was.
I watched the movies and I acted like I had
read the books. I was more of a Percy Jackson
guy by Rick Rordan. You know Percy Jackson. Excuse me,
(46:48):
demigod sona Poseidon. He sorry for spoilers. It's been after
like a decade or more. Uh, you know, sona Poseidon
and he had dyslexia, and so that was I found
it very connecting with me. But I mean I like
the movies, you know.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah, Now, what is your most viewed video on social
media or your most viewed post on social media?
Speaker 4 (47:17):
Oh my gosh, I don't even know. I mean, I
know my picture with President Trump did very well. I
think my Lady Gaga posted very well. I've had a
couple of different clips go a little bit viral. There
was a clip of me walking in a full suit
(47:37):
and I, you know, I look at the camera and
I say, what do I say? I said something like, oh,
it comes very naturally to me. And apparently some people
had used that in clips of different videos, and then
I know a video that.
Speaker 6 (47:51):
I had, a girl had taken of me, had gotten
where I was like talking with her, like it wasn't
even really anything going on that was special, got like
millions of views for some reason on TikTok.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
But I wasn't even tagged, I tell you. So. Yeah,
but no, forgive me. I need to check, because yeah,
I should know what my most viral bilist is. But
I would say virality is not the key to success
in this influencer sort of industry. It is about consistency
and a lot of posts. You know, if you can
(48:29):
post every day, if you can do these things as
much as you can, you don't need to go viral.
You just need to slowly build up more and more.
If you have something go viral, great. But you can
get a lot of followers or fans that are supporters
of the causes. I like to say, I never like
the word fans, so supporters who might not be as
dedicated as those who have built up with you, and
(48:51):
so yeah, viral, I haven't gone viral nearly as much
as I'd like to go viral. But it's you don't
need to. You don't need to to succeed almost better.
It can almost be better not to it can hurt
you a bit. If you go to viral, you can
be a one hit wonder nobody wants.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Oh yeah, now, where can people find your online?
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Oh? Yes, and forgive me for drinking my vs I
wish I was sponsored. I'm an old man secretly at heart,
and I love my vs at. Benjamin underscore Trader the
regular way to spell Benjamin. I forget how you ben
Ja m I N I think the regular way to
spell Benjamin underscore s h R A d e R.
Of course we have Trader Nation dot com, but that
(49:37):
or Benjamin underscore Trader is my Instagram. That is the
best place to follow and find stuff about me. And
then our website, trade nation dot com is going to
be getting a total overhaul. But if you want to
look at the old website before it goes away, I
already hired someone to do it redo it. So if
you want to see the old website for the last time,
(49:58):
you can go see it there. But Instam is definitely
the best way, Benjamin underscores Trader to get a hold
of me or to see the content.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
That I put out before you wrap up the podcast.
Speaker 4 (50:11):
Let me not forget my YouTube channel Benjamin Trader as well.
That's going to be the next big expansion. My apologies,
Oh it's all right now. Towards the podcast, I usually
ask my guests for a close in thought. Uh, do
you get a close and thought for the people listening
to the podcast? Yes, I would say that I'll give three.
(50:38):
At first, I wish my condolences to the family of
Corey Competor and a quick recovery to everyone involved, and
that everyone can come away from that tragic day and
be better and feel better over time, and that things
like that don't ever happen again in America because we
(50:59):
don't want don't want political violence. We want peace, and
we want to vote, and we just want things to
go smoothly. And the next I would say is that
if you want to change your life, if you want
to change the world around you, don't be arrogant. Kindness
is the new currency. That's what a little phrase I've
(51:19):
coined and I've been saying lately. It won't pay your bills,
but you can get a lot farther with that. And
if you're a kind influencer and you build an audience,
you can affect the issues you care about, and there
is real power in that you can make a difference
and you can become who you want to be. If
a half death, severely dyslexic man can do it, you
(51:43):
definitely can. And then finally, I'll leave you with a
quote from my favorite and the first Roman emperor. Most
of you would know him as Augustus, but I will
always sort of know him by his original name, Octavius.
I came to Rome when it was a city of stone.
(52:03):
I leave it one of marble.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Well, Benjamin's don't thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (52:13):
I want to thank you for having me. It was
a great time. I enjoyed. We jumped around from a
lot of different things, but hey, I had a great time,
So thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Oh yeah, absolutely. That wraps up this week of conversations
with Jacob Tunia next Monday for another episode. Until then,
God bless and we'll catch you guys next week.
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