Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.55 | Feat. Mike Durkin!

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Good News York: Celebrating Syracuse with Mike Durkin In this episode of Good News York, hosts Matt Masur and Mike Brindisi bring in Mike Durkin from VIP Structures to discuss various exciting developments and real estate projects in Central New York. From adaptive reuse of historic buildings to a new community center initiated by football player Latavius Murray, the conversation covers many positive changes in Syracuse and the broader region. Mike also sheds light on the opportunities and challenges in the real estate market, the rising trend of integrated projects, and his personal life and commitment to community involvement. The hosts also touch upon Walmart's new podcast studio venture and the expansion of podcasting as a medium. Additionally, they celebrate Matt's birthday, Father's Day, and Danny’s successful gaming event. 00:00 Introduction and Banter 00:55 Meet the Guest: Mike Durkin 01:58 Mike Durkin's Professional Journey 02:44 Real Estate Development in Central New York 03:48 Challenges and Opportunities in the Market 05:45 Adaptive Reuse Projects 07:26 Future Projects and Community Impact 22:59 Personal Insights and Community Involvement 27:56 Promoting Central New York 37:02 Introduction and Random Topics 37:10 Good News York: Sponsored Segment 38:16 TikTok Shop and Law & Order Gavel 41:30 Birthday and Father's Day Celebrations 46:36 Listener Feedback and Swearing Discussion 51:35 Walmart's Podcast Studios 01:06:11 CannaCon Event Recap 01:08:18 Conclusion and Upcoming Events

You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your own.

your sign. Start free at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.

Hey, folks, welcome back to Good News York. I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode content here on a Monday, almost awake. Puff and a half of coffee in. Yeah. No, no water here. No, no running water. Plumbers are working on that. Luckily, we didn't buy the water-powered cameras, so.

We were going to. I made that bad joke like four times. So far today, I can't believe none of you guys have thrown anything at me. I didn't even hear it. In any case, he's not how much one? Much this guy listens to me. We got so many fun things to talk about. Yes.

Fun weekend to recap, Father's Day, my birthday. Oh, yeah. All kinds of awesome things to talk about. But before any of that, I should introduce my handsome co-host. Thanks, buddy. Mike Brindisi here with you. And we got a Mike Squared situation. Yeah.

Joining us in the studio was probably the coolest guy in Syracuse. I don't agree. And everybody knows him. It's the famous Mike Durkin, VIP structures. Welcome to the show. buddy. Mike Durk, welcome to the show. Shout out to Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com. Our sponsor, we're so happy you're here, man. This is awesome. Thank you for having me in. Of course. So, Mike, we'd love you to just talk a little bit about the types of things that you do and the things that you're involved in.

For some background, Mike is another one of my profound friends, somebody that I met in that organization and just endless information and things like that about what's happening. in all of New York State, really. So here at Good News, York, that's the type of stuff we love to celebrate. So we figured you'd be a great fellow to have on the show, and we really appreciate you joining us. Absolutely. So again, I'm Mike Durkin.

Professionally, I'm with VIP structures, and we design and we build and we develop real estate. I'm celebrating my sixth year right now in June. Wow. Congratulations. And, you know, from there, let me back up. I was born and raised in Syracuse, stayed here. My kids, God willing, are going to stay here as well. We love Central New York in this time of year. I mean, yesterday we were out on the lake and we were enjoying, you know,

a little overcast, but the sun was burning through. We were on the water and enjoying the waves and the birds and all that. So again, I'm a huge advocate of Central New York. I love the fact that you guys are putting out good news about us here. It's fantastic. Thank you. So, you know, professionally I had mentioned I'm with the United States. I love the fact that you guys are putting out good news about us here. It's fantastic. I love the fact that you guys are VIP. We're celebrating our 50th year this year, which is exciting. Meg, Tid is our CEO, second generation family run business. We're up to 150 people. Wow. Largest the company has ever been. And again, we're just proud of the clients that we surround ourselves with, the type of projects we pursue. We can certainly talk about that today a little bit.

I get excited to talk about development and design and build opportunities. And really just looking ahead to see where Central New York looks a decade from now because it could very well get crazy here in the next six to 12 to 18 months. I'm really feeling that we're all going to start being like, oh, shit, this is really happening. Yeah. I agree. I was thinking that too with all this Mike Ron. And the more we have people on the show like yourself and they're talking about what's going on in my head,

I'm thinking the same thing. Like, this is going to be bigger than I think even we think. Yeah. Yeah. It's exciting. Yeah. We, you know, it's a little early yet for Micron, but we're starting to see those interests from out-of-town real estate speculators that are buying land and they're not sure what they're buying, quite frankly. Gotcha.

You know, they could be from Texas or Florida or wherever and they're just buying land being like, I'm going to buy this. It seems affordable and I'm going to just see what happens. And so that speculation, this market hasn't seen. And our properties in central New York really don't appreciate over the last 50 years. You know, if you bought something in 2009 and it's cash flowing, it's likely the value of that property is the same as it was in 2009, quite frankly. Yeah. I think that's changing. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, my house appreciated a third of its value in like two years. Wow. It's crazy. It is. And I don't know enough to know why or how. but I see it, you know. And hopefully it's sustainable, right? We certainly start to get worried about affordability.

One of the best things about Central New York and one of the things that the younger generation are finding, they want to come and live in an easy place with plenty activities, a whole workplay model, work play. They can get to the honoratics. They can get to the cities. They can get around our city easily.

And it's affordable. However, rents are going up. And so I do get a little work. worried that at some point that affordability component might not be the first line that we're looking at. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. It's a big problem. Mike, just because you mentioned that kind of live work play, something that's been very interesting to me is we're seeing all kinds of these projects, whether they're remodeling an old place or they're building a brand new building. It's not just an apartment building or just a shopping center or just a hotel even. It has all of

these things in one footprint. Can you talk to that trend a little bit? We can. We have been doing what we call adaptive reuse, taking old buildings that might not be utilized at all. It could be vacant and run down or it could be just the time to repurpose it. But we love taking old buildings and envisioning what it can be in the future. So case and point, two projects near and dear to our hearts, the pike block, which is at the corner of Salinas Street in Jefferson.

I'm sorry. Yeah, Fayette. Fayette and Salinas Street in downtown Syracuse. It was five dilapidated old buildings. Wow. And the developer team at VIP took ownership of that in the mid-teens of the 2000s and converted it to 68 apartments in about 30,000 feet of commercial space. We've got Center State CEO as a tenant, Pathfinder Banks a tenant, original grains, a tenant, and a few others, FTS,

and forgive me if I'm missing anybody. But then the 68 apartments, and that's an historic rehab, and it brought life back to that corner where at that time, Warren Street and Slyan Street were coming back to life, but we needed that anchor, and we're glad that VIP was in there. But it took some years off of our lives

to pull that project together, but we were full. We had a waiting list in our apartments for pretty much the whole time, COVID, maybe a pandemic. We might have had one or two here more than normal, but we see the demand. We hear about the demand. And since then, we've taken our old headquarters, which is a five-story brick historic building,

converted that to 34 apartments just last year. Wow. Full. It's fantastic. I've got goosebumps, as I say it. So now we're on to the third one, and that's the redevelopment of the post-standard building. It's where our headquarters are. We moved there about two years ago, and we're just starting to kick off right now, our

Crews are doing what we call selective demo when inside the building. We're ripping down walls. We're taking out mechanical systems. And we're going to convert that section of buildings on the north end and the east side to 72 apartments. Wow. And we really, quite frankly, guys, we had been sitting on that building for a while. We moved in, future brands moved in, MBT Bank moved in, but we were trying to find

one or two larger kind of flex users that could take advantage of the high ceilings and the heavy power and the loading docks. And it was hard to get folks who wanted to assemble widgets to think about a downtown presence. So we said, the hell with it. We're going to create our own development, and we're going residential. And again, we're confident that a year from now, when the first units come online, we're going to have lease up will go as smoothly as it has been for us over the last, say, decade. And it's really exciting to bring that end of downtown. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog.

If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this. Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. We're at the historic Clinton Square.

We see all the parades. We see the tree laying. We see the Farmers Market and the Tases Syracuse. It's all right there at the north end. And now we're going to reactivate the north end. It's two city block building. Yeah. It's a quarter million square feet.

It's a monster. Right. And for us to bring, what, 72 apartments, probably another 150 people. living and working and playing downtown Syracuse. That's incredible. It's fantastic. Which side will the apartments face?

So the north then, a lot of folks recognize the post-standard building, that press they added in 1999, that wall of glass, that faces 690. That's going to be four floors within that of apartments facing north. Wow. And then on the east side of the building where the press used to be before they added on, we've got another section that's High Bay. And we're going to rip off the facade there and we're going to be 25 feet of wall. of glass and it'll be two-story apartments on the east side. So that really that Salinas Street corridor, it's going to get reactivated, that for decades had been covered in brick and it was where they produced the paper.

Yeah. That's incredible. Does the paper still have any sort of pressings on that? No, they moved out. Press moved out in, no, the time's flying. I want to say it's summer of 22, they stopped producing the paper. Maybe it was 23. The paper's produced down in Pennsylvania and it's shipped up here a few times a week.

That's incredible. That press, when it was installed in 1999, I want to say it was $8 million. It was state of the art. It was the best machine you could find in the planet, and it produced a hell of a quality paper until the end. But it was, what do you want to call it, obsolete, if you will. So they literally took it apart with blow torches and just scrapped it up. It was a shame, but it made room for what we're doing now.

And that's bringing more people downtown. A vibrant downtown in any region is crucial. And downtown has about 5,000 people live in downtown now. When I started working downtown in 2012, I want to say the number was 1,700, 1,800 people. So that's incredible how many people live, work and play. And that's not the city. That's just a central business district, the heart of downtown. And that's all those people obviously support all these businesses down.

there as well, right? So what, and this is, there's no wrong answer, but as that population booms, what's the best little type of shop that somebody could open up that might serve these people? Is it a bakery? Is it another coffee shop? Is it another restaurant? What's just, what would be your best suggestion to somebody? I'm not an expert in retail, but I'll give a case and point. At the Pike Block, we just had a Milano Bean just moved in. Everybody's shout out to Malano Bean. They're from New York City. Oh, wow. And they actually bring their baked goods up every other day from New York. You walk in there and you feel like you're down in a bodega. The baked goods look amazing. They taste amazing. Their coffee's excellent. And I thought, you know, when we were looking at filling

that space, it was a Jimmy Johns before. And I, it was a, I don't want to say a coffee desert right there, but you could certainly go down to Cabal at the corner of Jefferson and War and Salina. You could go over to Cabal at across the National Grid. You could find a couple other coffee shops, but there really wasn't one right in the heart. Out of the way, yeah. And so I think that's a great use of that space. It's right next to Original Grain. Shout out to our friend, Chris Spiley, who's just kicking it, killing it with Original Grain. So we love that blend. We find that there's also a bunch of other retail is popping up, but I'm not the guy to ask what's missing now. But having four to five thousand people downtown, we're not quite there for a supermarket,

but I think we're close. I always heard the number was 7,000. I don't know if that's accurate. So we're getting there. I wouldn't be surprised at some point we have a small grocery store. I mean, that makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. Yeah.

I'm just thinking that spot, you know, that corner is the hot spot. You know, they just had taste to Syracuse right there. and all the, like you mentioned, the Christmas tree and all that cool stuff. Yeah. I feel like that's going to be a hot spot. What a great idea. Mike, what is your role in all these things at VIP and all these different projects? Yeah, well, thank you.

So I joined VIP in June of 19, and prior to that, I was a commercial real estate broker for a decade. Oh, wow. And I got to know the guys and gales at VIP. And I had said to the founder, Dave Nutting one day at a meeting in 2017, and I just put it out there. I looked at him. walking out. And I said, I want to work for you someday. And the door, he said that'd be great. And a door shut. And I'm like, holy shit, I just said that out loud. Good for you. Guys, I think I manifested it. Good. We stayed in contact for the next few years and we

figured out where I would fit. And to answer your question, Matt, they brought me in the raised capital for our real estate development projects. I see. And I was, you know, I was unfamiliar at the time with passive investment, syndication, returns on investment. And, I said, guys, you know, I don't know how to do that. And they're like, Mike, you've got integrity, you've got relationships, you've got a reputation, you're hardworking, you're honest, you've got the ingredients. If we're going to grow our development arm, we need to bring in from time to time partners for equity. And we think you could do this. And I signed up right then and there.

And so lo and behold, a few months later, we had raised almost $4 million for our first project. Wow. And I'm super proud of that moment back in 2019 for never doing it before and having the trust of my clients and my relationships and they trusted me and my team behind me and they trusted VIP. So when we're not raising capital, I tend to be kind of a Swiss Army knife. I help with our leasing from my brokerage days. We own some buildings who have tenants. So I help with our tenant fitups. and I'm also just out there promoting our design and construction services as well.

So yes, we develop real estate, but we also have a ton of projects where we're just the architect of record. We help companies figure out how they're going to expand, how they're going to remodel, become more efficient. We help clients imagine their own development project, and they don't know how to develop, but they've got an asset and they're not sure what to do. They'll bring our team in and we'll offer development advisory services where we're just, walking them through the process. How do they get municipal approval? How do you get site plan approval? I see.

How do you figure out if there's wetlands on the site or not? Where's the power? How are we going to tie in the water? Clients don't know how to do that. Of course. Our team can certainly guide them. We might not be the developer. We're just a support role.

And then we certainly build a ton of buildings around town that we're not the architect either. So our construction arm can build things that others design, our development arm can help clients figure out what they're going to develop. And our architecture team helps our clients figure out that design as well. So we're pretty nimble when it comes to designing it, building it, developing it. But if we can put all those actions to work on one project, we call that integrated. We can do an integrated project.

We come in and we develop it, we design it, we build it. That's the home run for us. But that's probably every two to three years, quite frankly. Yeah. It takes a while. And, you know, the cost of money has never been higher. So interest rates, right? Clients look at it and say, oh, my God, how am I going to pay for this?

And we can help them figure that out. And there's incentives and there's grants and there's tax credits. So you've got to know how to navigate those markets. So we can help our clients with that. But really just it starts with a thought of, hey, I need to do something. What am I going to do? And just call us. We'll help them at least get started.

and we're happy to pass it off to someone else if we're not the right fit. I love that. I love those things. Mike, I want to ask you one more question about this and then we're going to just change the channel real quick and learn a little bit more about you personally. But anything you can tell us about an upcoming project,

something folks might not know about that might be kind of interesting on the horizon, whether it's one of yours or just things happening in New York. You're listening to a podcast right now. driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this.

Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. Did that come to mind? Yeah, there's a couple of things. You know, I mentioned the redevelopment of the post, so we're super proud of the second phase that's happening with the residential components downtown.

We are also working on a unknown, a confidential client to build them a large daycare facility. So we're designing a daycare facility for a group that's going to have thousands of employees eventually in our markets. So we're super proud of that one. You know, we're still a year to a way. You stack the kids vertically. You can get a lot more in the room.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I've done that. It's true. Yeah. And, you know, there's a huge demand for daycare and housing. So we're finding ourselves becoming part of conversations about community centers.

We're also super excited about Latavius Murray's project that's coming. Latavius is a... The running back? The running back. No way. Yes, sir. So Latavius grew up in Nedro, New York, and he wanted to build a community center on behalf of his best friend growing up, Jonathan Diaz. And we've been helping Latavius for a couple years now. We helped him identify the site, which is right behind all these in Nedro, right in the heart of where Latavius grew up. And we've also helped them find the operators. So integrated community alternatives network, aka I can. of Utica. Okay. Is coming west.

I had met Steve Bulger, the president and CEO of ICANN a couple years ago and was telling him about Latavius' project. And Steve said, you know what, that's exactly the type of thing we do. And we've been looking for an excuse to come to Honodoga County. So we've married those guys together. They're now having an operating agreement with their partners. We're hoping to have shovels in the ground of spring of 26 to build a call it 40,000 foot community center with daycare, classroom.

with computer labs, a teen lounge, a gymnasium, a running track, lockers, showers, indoor playground. And that project is going to fulfill a really important need on the southern end of Syracuse for, again, that daycare component there is so big. You know, and this ties into my argument when people say, athletes get paid too much, you know, they get paid millions of dollars just to play sports. And that's one of my arguments is, but you don't see what they do with that money after they retire.

And a lot of them reinvest in their own communities and places where they grew up, and that's a perfect example. 100%. I got to tell you, Latavius is one of the kindest people I've ever met. And as he was mushering through the NFL, he went and got his MBA from Whitman. Shout out to Syracuse University.

Heck yeah. He's got his MBA from Whitman. He is sharp. He's got a passion to give back to the community. He's putting those resources to work, Mike. Yeah, that's great. That's great. I love to hear that, man.

That's got to be so fun to work on. It's fantastic. It's, you know, what we're really honing in on now is that next phase of design. So we've got the schematic design done. So that's about 30% of design. Now we're working towards design development drawings. So it'll be about 60, 65% complete. We'll go out to budget at that point, update the budget.

One of the things, as we design a project, we can actually get out price it as we're designing it. versus traditional model of designing it all the way through construction drawings and then going out to bid and then the client figuring out that they can't afford to do the project. I see. We're budgeting at schematic. We're budgeting again at DD. And then we'll do the final budget once the CDs are done. And along the way, we can maneuver those designs that if it's beyond the budget, let's scale

it back. Let's talk about a different alternative before we spend a lot of money or more money on architects that design something that can't be built. That's incredible. That's that's incredible. That's that type of, you know, I guess I would say innovation. Like you said, it's not the way that used to be done. Yeah. It moves things forward. And I'm sure that's the type of thing that makes your company a massive, you know, been around for half a century successful organization. It really does. Having that design and the price checks throughout the process, it not only keeps the client informed, but oftentimes if the budget is,

intact, when we get up to that 60, 70% complete, we can go to the town and get municipal approvals. We can get site plan approval while we finish up the cities, which means we can get the shovel in the ground sooner. Right now, folks are trying to figure out how they get it done. And when you tell them, it might take 12 to 14 months to build the building, and that might be after six to nine months of approvals, they're like, I don't have two years. Well, let's keep going. Let's try to shorten that window.

I feel like that's why your company's so key because I'm going to assume that a lot of your clients don't realize that it's 60, 70% completion, you can go and do that. So I think that's such a huge benefit of working with you guys. The schedule helps. And again, it all ties back. It's all so tied in because it'll also tie back to the capital and the lending that they need to go out. And so if they can get their budget soon, they can talk to the bank sooner. They can get their pricing sooner. They know what they can afford.

It just helps everybody. Knowledge is power. Sure, it is. And if we can keep them informed throughout the process, it speeds it up, and it makes it way more smooth, way smoother. Thank you. I got you. Listen, words are very hard on a Monday morning.

I was going to say, it sounded like something that the finances would love that situation. So that's got to be great. Yeah. That's awesome, Mike. So listen, let's just take a couple minutes before we let you go. Tell us about non-VIP, Mike. What are you doing when you're not? He's always VIP.

Building homes for people downtown. Well, I'm coming off of fathers and saying, I'm a proud parent. Yes. My kids are 26, well, soon to be 26, 22 and 20. Girl Boy Girl. I'm fortunate that the older two, Cassidy and Connor, they're both out of college. They're both committed to staying in Central New York. That's awesome.

We get to see them on a periodic basis that they're here. They come over for Sunday dinners. They come over and hang out in the lake. And then my youngest, Macy, will be starting her junior year at Hartwood College. She plays basketball, so we're still that proud parent that get to go sit in the bleachers and cheer on her kids. They were all super athletic growing up. I was a coach growing up, the youth athletics.

I was always engaged in the schools and the sports. And to have my youngest still playing is, I'm very thankful that she does that. And so outside of work, parent, first and foremost, I try to be a good husband. and my wife, Kate, we just celebrated our 27th anniversary, I think. Oh, shit. Maybe it's 28. I don't know. We'll edit it.

At that point, it's all just, you know, wanting. And then community-wise, I'm still heavily involved. I'm a United Way board member of Central New York. I'm on the Syracuse Builders Exchange Board. I'm still an active, profound member. Do you sleep? No, no, I'm a guy who can live off of six hours. That a boy.

And, you know, just you try to just give back. I try to give, give, and give. And it turns out that you'll receive tenfold if I just continue to give. Another shout out I'll do in this little side hustle I've got. It's also a podcast platform called Making the City Smaller. And we try to shine a light on the community and help connect folks who are probably passing in close proximity all the time. but if we can introduce them through informal contact or more purposeful contact and connect those thoughts

and help those companies and organizations grow what their mission is. So we're just making the city smaller just build valid and valued connections. Again, tell folks' stories. So people are engaged with that person. Before they even meet Matt or Mike, they watch you on this and they're like, I want to work with those guys. Yeah. That's the whole concept.

We preach that all the time with our clients, too, is that, you know, we're not, yes, obviously you're selling your business and your product, but it's selling you first. People are falling in love with the person behind the mic and then going, what is it that you do? Oh, you know, that works for me. We could work together. Dakota Malone. Dakota Malone. 100%.

That guy's the most, forget Dosakis. He's the most interesting man in the world. He 100% is. And I love Dakota like a brother. and he has been a huge part of our Making the City Smaller Platform. His story that he told was incredible. And he found relationships across the country because they watched his story about who he is, just like he told you guys.

Yeah. And here he is three years later, still doing the same thing, same thing, and doubling down and building that reputation as an expert in his industry. Right. It's awesome. No, it's... What a great concept for a podcast, by the way. I think that's wonderful.

Because there's so many times in life you don't realize you're running parallel, like you said, with, you're right next to someone that it would be a match made in heaven for whatever it is you're involved in, and you don't even know it. And now we have the technology and the mediums to be able to get out there and make that connection. So what a great idea. That's awesome. One more quick story. So Kip White, Casey White's dad over at Chimera, he was at one of our events recently,

and he's like, hey, I got an idea. How about we go up in my plane? and we do making the city smaller from 3,000 feet above. Holy cow. Hell yeah. So last week, I think it was last week. We went up and we flew out to Griffiths and we came back to the north end of Oneida Lake, ended up in Clay and Ballonsville and Phoenix and came down back to the city.

And we were popping in on different projects VIP had built or projects chimera had outfitted with their access control. And we don't know where that story will lead yet, but we captured some great B-roll from 3,000 feet above. Incredible. And we're going to use that content to help shine a light on all these companies that are out there advocating for how we all make our city smaller. How do we shine a light in the good news of New York? We do it together. Yeah, no, 100%.

Listen, I mean, that guy would have had me at, hey, let's go up in my plane. I'd be like, cool, I don't care what we're doing. I'm in. No, that's awesome. I love hearing that. And those are the types of things that we like to celebrate. You know, we've talked about a couple other local folks doing this. that same thing. And that's, this is the thing that we need, you know, as we're talking about

all these things that come here. And, you know, we started in the beginning where you mentioned in a few months, people are going to believe this has really happened. And I think what we're seeing right now is still this undercurrent of just negativity and, oh, I'll believe it when I see it. And, you know, it's never ending. And we need this positivity of, you know. Well, we've lived through 30 years of pessimism because we would be promised X and it wouldn't come materialized. You're absolutely right. Manufacturing. It was leaving in the 90s when I out of college.

It was hard to justify staying here. But we did, and I'm glad we did. But first time, I feel like in decades, we've got an actual opportunity to do a transformative reset of our region. And we've got everything we need. We've got great, you know, climate, sure, it gets cloudy. But we all show up to work the next day. After 18 inches of snow, it's not debilitating.

We don't have the natural disasters. We just have some cloudy. guys. We just got to find our vitamin D, find that red light and get some color in your body mechanically, but or fly out of the A and come back. But the debilitating natural disasters do not impact us. We show up to work and we've got the resources and we've got the people and we've got the colleges. How do we keep these kids when they graduate to stay here? That's right. We're going to have the jobs now. I live in Ithaca and that's one of my big things is I think we've got to find a way to get industry into Ithaca where, I mean,

Cornell's pumping out some of the most brilliant doctors and engineers in the world, veterinarians. Yeah, and then see ya. And it's like, how do we keep them here? So I'm totally on board with you on that. And Syracuse, too, obviously, Syracuse University. That's been a classic upstate New York prop. Yeah, yeah.

I've been about great schools all over the place. And then nowhere to put them. Exactly thing. Yeah, but it's great. I'm totally with you. I feel like it's our time. I think so. Even the bills are good.

We've paid it. It's like, what's going on here? The bills are good and the region's growing and all these promises are coming true. It's just awesome. Yeah, the region, one more thing. The region is super important. I think I've heard Matt talked about it. I know I've talked to Matt offline about this.

We really are doing a better job. We as the collective community promoting the region. So it's the Mohawk Valley's inclusive of Central New York, which is inclusive of the figure lakes, which is inclusive of the southern tier and then into the north country. So whether it's Remington, you know, we've talked about Remington

and the redevelopment of that and everything that the Herkimer County IDA, our buddy John Pesack out there, is killing it with development. So as our footprint kind of stays within that two-hour drive, we love the Mohawk Valley through the Finger Lakes and down to the Binghamton.

Stacey Duncan down at the agency in Brum County's doing amazing things to get her region aligned. It's no longer county by county. The counties are getting together, and then those regions are getting together, and then the regions are working together. So it's really promoting upstate New York,

and we can talk about that line. Where is that line that you were showing the other day? That's right. With Mike, it's somewhere north of the city. It's that Newburgh. I saw that line you drew. I'm like, I think that's right. And we really have the opportunity

to promote the resources that we all have upstate. Wherever you draw that line and we're in the heart of it, 81 and 90s critical. And whether we go two hours in any direction, our region needs to be promoting the region because we've got great assets and a ton of colleges, a hundred percent. A hundred graduates that need to find a reason to stay. That's it. Amen. Drop the mic.

I'm going to let you out of here with one last question. Yeah. Because we're talking about all these great things in the region. I'm excited. I would love to get your top five resources in central New York that people from outside the area might not know. Great question. All right. Well, the Adirondex, right?

First and foremost, the Adirondex, there's no reason anybody won't fall in love with the Adirondex. So that's always my go to. The Finger Lakes are amazing. Yes. You know, you just, those bodies of water, they're all just incredible. So whether you're a wine type of person or not, go to the finger legs, take a tour, understand the heritage. You know, I love the dome. I love Syracuse University.

Yeah. You know, I think the dome goes right up in there. That's three, brother. Man, I'm struggling. We can edit. Don't worry. Take your time. You know, and in the city, New York City is not far.

No. My kids, what they'll do is they'll drive to Albany and then they ride the train down. I think that's a great way to do it. So I think New York City or Philly or Boston, all within those five hours, you know, I think that should be part of our conversation that we're each of the reach. And Toronto's included in that, right? But for those five top five, I'm thinking Adirondex, Finger Lakes, the Dome. The dome.

The city is outside of here. And then, you know, I'm really struggling with more. Give me one. What do you got? How about you a baseball guy? Like a Cooperstown fan? Oh, there you go. All of Fame is a good one.

I'm a lacrosse kid. But baseball come October, I'll pay attention. Cooperstown Hall of Fame is amazing. If you've never toured, you've got to go down to those lower levels where they've got amazing history and product. double day's field i go down there for a conference every year and we the attendees playing a softball tournament on double day that's incredible it's like you know you're you're out there and you're thinking about the history of a baseball which i'm not a huge historian but there's something special

about that field it's amazing yeah used to go there as a kid i grew up like an hour away and they used to have the hall of fame game every year where two teams from there would be would come and play and we would just stay out in the parking lot there were like 50 kids and we would just run around shagging fall balls. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's really cool. Niagara Falls, I got it. There you go.

There you go. Yeah. Love it. Love it. Mike Durkin, where can folks find your podcast and anything else? NVIP, I guess, if they want to learn about that. You're listening to a podcast right now.

Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this, even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. Guys, so making the city's smaller.com, you'll find us on YouTube, Spotify, LinkedIn.

The easiest spot is just find me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, follow me, and then you'll be certain to get connected to making the city smaller. For VIP, it's just VIP Structures.com. Again, we design, we build, and we develop real estate right in the heart of downtown Syracuse, and we're celebrating our 50th anniversary, which is... Wild. And Meg is taking us to the next 50 years. 50 years of any...

Like, if you, I don't even know. If you snored for 50 years, I'm impressed. Like, if you do anything for 50 years. Well, and also statistically, thanks. Family businesses don't typically last. A lot of people think it's a thing. But it doesn't typically work that well. And Meg is an absolute superstar.

And obviously, she had incredible shoes to fill, and she's doing a great job. So I agree. If anybody's going to take another 50, it would be her. Real quick, are any of your kids interested in the same field? Are any of them looking into going into your... A little bit. So Connor was thinking when he graduated from Syracuse University in May that he might want to get in the primary.

project management. He's a I school graduate, which is a combination of information, technology, and software. But he was lending towards project management of construction, watching me and watching some others, and he had done some laborer for a home remodeler. But he ended up in a job with the United Radio, which is another company that's been around for decades, just a stakeholder in our market, and he's a project coordinator for them, It was good. Great launch pad, and that's a great mix of technology with his degree. Yeah.

And the project management, which he enjoys. So we'll see where his career takes him. And my younger one, I don't know. I think she could do anything she wants. She's smart. She's talented. She's strong. She's independent.

So we'll see. That's awesome, man. Congratulations on everything. Keep doing what you're doing. We need you here. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Mike Durkin, it's been a pleasure.

anytime you want to come back in and tell us about what's going on or just shoot the breeze. Please. That's what we're into. So clearly you can see when I said this guy was tapped into everything. Yeah. You can see what I was talking about. We're not kidding. Absolutely a pleasure to have you, my friend.

It's great to see you guys. And with that, we'll take a quick break. When we come back, we got some weekend stuff to review. Oh, yes. We got all kinds of. We got some news in the content world. Crazy stuff. We'll see what else we get to.

We got a bunch of. Yeah, we'll be back. Got some guy who's mad at me. Does the guy mad at you? I'm not talking about that. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah, we've got a lot to talk about on Good News York, sponsored by Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com.

That's it. We're black. You bought that? I almost bought that. Oh, sorry. All right, here we go. No, this is great. This is great.

Welcome back to Good News York. Oh, we're going to go. We got a bunch of random things. And I feel like we've kind of run out of time for our random things in the last few options. I know. I hate it. a few extra minutes, even though we just had a phenomenal interview with our man, Mike Durkin, I told you that guy was...

That dude. Yeah, you keep bringing in really... Like, every time you're like, got a really cool guest coming in from profound, and I'm like, okay, they are all amazing, dude. Like, just innovative, smart, kind. Check all the boxes, man. I love it. I love it.

It's a great time. But we got a lot of other things, like I said, that I wanted to talk about. And I might as well go with the first one since you sort of. Dude. You sort of. If this works. On TikTok, this is not a thing. It should be a thing.

I have a TikTok shop affiliate. I could sell this thing, but I don't care to. I've seen this ad like 10 times, and I've almost bought it 10 times. It's a lawn order sound effect gavel. Kang kong. The best part of that, the reason that TV show has like four franchises and 5,000 episodes is this fucking sound effect. Kung kong. Whoever on that show came up with that.

That idea deserves like 75% ownership of the show. Kung, gung. Dude, this is... It comes with a little gavel in the sound effect pad. And I don't know... So it's going to be... I'm going to guess it's going to be like king king. Not bad.

It's a little up here. I thought it'd be more down here. I don't know if the mic will pick it up from over there. But it is the official lawn owner sound. I got to say, the second most amusing thing... Yeah, it's a little, you got hit the right spot. There you go. You're a bad judge.

Okay. Yes, I am. It came with this cute little book. What? The history of law and order. That thing should be as long as war and peace. Look it. You know many episodes they've had?

This is the original Law & Order, not SVU. Oh, my bad. Ice tea. It's got the Jack McAvoy. Yeah. Horse. Who cares? I care.

Anyway, this is, again, proof that. You can feed me stupid shit in feed, and I will buy it. Law and Order, my wife used to watch this, and my favorite part was always the opening when they find the murder. And then I would go and leave and come back for the end. So I would know, okay, this is what happened, and did they get convicted or not? My favorite part about Law & Order is how someone will be brutally murdered.

And the police will go talk to a witness. And the witness doesn't stop what the fuck they're doing. Yeah. They just keep working. I'm busy gardening. Yeah. You're right. Tell us about the dude that had his head

Sought off yesterday? I don't know, man. I got 15 petunias to take here. These tulips got to get in here, bro. I don't really have time for, like. Dude, you're so right. Like, they're too good for the, like, if a detective came to me and I was gardening and they were like,

I have a few questions, I would be like, what? What did I do? Guys working in a factory and he just, he doesn't even fucking stop. No, he's like, what? What? I can't hear you. I'm trying to work over here, you jack off. It's wild.

It is wild. It is wild. It is wild. And, um, But, you know, the one thing I appreciated about Law and Order, because remember when we were kids in Scooby-Doo? And at the end, they would pull the mask off. Yeah. It was always the first person that they talked to.

Sure. So I was always like, yeah, that you know the first person they talked to is going to end up being the culprit. But at Law & Order, there were some twists and turns. Sometimes it's the second person. Sometimes it's the third. It's a wild, wild show. Anyway, that's my toy of the day. Dude, excellent.

Ten out of ten. We haven't done that bit in a while. What did we call that bit? We did? We did? We did that. Matt buys shit. Let's stick with that.

All right, on to the next. There we go. What's the next topic? What about your birthday, dude? Happy birthday. And happy Father's Day. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, Matt had a birthday this weekend and Danny and I suck. We didn't go. But we had good reasons. So here's the thing. We had a surprise party. Shout out to my wife. Yeah, amazing. Surprise party.

Didn't know anything about. And all my friends and coworkers and everybody who showed up. That was fucking awesome. Yeah, man. We had it right down the road from the studio at this pinball place that I'd never been in. What's it called? Skill Shot, I believe. Yeah. Phenomenal. They did the whole thing.

They got us food and drinks and unlimited pinball playing. And we had a great time. You fellas were both very busy. And I don't fault you at all, first of all, for not making it. I wouldn't have expected you to coming from how far away we are. There we would have been. You guys made me like one of the best. videos. I almost as I'm watching this and I'm laughing at it, I'm like, these guys, why don't they make more of this shit?

It was great. Well, and we will play it and I'm going to post it and share it. It was the very least we could do. We love you as a friend and but also as our boss and we felt incredibly guilty that we couldn't be there. But we had good reason. My son had his own birthday party down in Vestal, New York. I would have to drive separate and come up and Danny, Danny put on a hell of a Loracana gaming event which was a wild and awesome The fact that you've trained him

to say that word buddy Oh I know It's truly impressive I sound cool in the gaming world now I'm like hey you guys play Lorcana No you should Even though I have no idea What it is

Other than it was phenomenal And I appreciate it And I thank you We love you man And we're so glad That your wife was awesome And she had a private Facebook thing And I'm more impressed

That Danny and I didn't blow it Did you really, be honest, did you have any inkling? I had no clue. Zero. My wife told me that we were doing something for my birthday. And that was all I knew. So I don't know. She's taking me to dinner or something, you know what I mean?

Like, she and I are both not necessarily big, like, event people for this. We've always been more about the kids than each other. So this was a total surprise. It was phenomenal. Well. Great time. Great to see everybody. I fucking love people for coming out.

Well, you're very loved, man. And we'll share that fun video as well, because, like I said, You guys... It's a good vid. You guys did a great... It's a good vid. The best... I'll give this piece of advice.

If you can't make it to a friend's party, send a goofy video instead. Did it... Do you think... Do you think it made up for us not being there? Like, do you think it was like, you know what? This was justified for them not coming. They put... You know what I mean?

Sure. You didn't eat any of the food or anything. It was perfect. That's true. That's true. Well, I think our... You know, in the video we say, we're actually doing you a favor. You see us at least four days a week.

So this was our gift was like, you know. It was good. It was good. We had a great time and I really appreciate everybody. And everybody on Facebook, I had like hundreds of folks reach out and wish me the old. It's great. Happy level up day.

If it wasn't for Facebook, I wouldn't know anyone's birthday. I'll be honest. I'm right there with you, man. Including myself. Luckily mine's a holiday. So, you know, it's the one holiday you don't get off. No. But anyway, it was a great time.

It was a great time. Also great Father's Day. Father's Day to you. Thank you, buddy. I'm like one of those kids who's, you know, birthday's near Christmas, so my family kind of merges the birthday and Father's Day, which is awesome. My daughter had a gymnastics recital. Nice.

Brilliant scheduling on Father's Day. Of course. But it was a great time. And, you know, you're going to spend the time with the kid. Absolutely. Who cares? Before we quickly jump away, I just wanted to kick it to Danny for just a second, buddy. And I don't know if you just want to mention, how was your event on Saturday?

How was this? Oh, yeah, Danny, I don't know if that setting is still on the camera where you can flip it around because I think they reset. Oh, no, it's all good. It was awesome. You know, we had 32 players. We actually just got, I was talking to Mike in between the break here. We got picked up by a Lorcaana account that specializes in, they're called Ink decks. So in Lorcana, there's ink.

They just specialize in collecting all the decks from big tournaments. So they just posted us and tagged us on their thing. So now more Lorcana content creators can go through our tournament and look at the lists and especially the more unique lists that stray off from the meta. So I'm excited to see that. It's such a very niche thing, but it's amazing the community that looks for that. Well, yeah, I think it's more. I'm sorry, are you speaking English? Old English.

Surprisingly, yes. No, I think that's what makes it more. I was nerding me. Yeah, that's massive. No, but I think that's more impressive And this makes it more special Is that because it's such a niche game When people who play that game

Find that there's like a place to go for it It's it's humongous, man. It's awesome. Congratulations. It's genuinely awesome and I'm really I'm really happy that everything went well for you. Thanks guys. You're welcome, buddy. So a couple other things We want to talk about. One We'll throw out

And this is Good News York, so we want to stay We'll stay very positive. Sure. We got some fantastic feedback from a listener recently. They suggested, it was so nice of them to put in a suggestion that we didn't ask for. How consider it. Very. They suggested that we didn't have as much swearing in our clips.

Yeah. Yeah. It appears that this person, while an adult, is not necessarily skilled in the ways as adults, function and and and and they were a little upset to hear that I might say fuck yeah I've I've on the internet I felt it was more directed towards me because I do swear a lot when I get excited you know like I think we posted a clip the other day where we were opening your gifts and I dropped like two F bombs I guess I just didn't have to do that because I get in an in an every I thought it was more of me than you but I'll I'll gladly let you take the blame you know here's the thing um we're on

the internet you know and adults swear and we want to be real that's the biggest thing you know We want to be positive. We want to be upbeat, but we don't want to be fake about it. No. You know, we're not, we're not pretending to like these things. We don't pretend to support these businesses or these entrepreneurs we're talking about. We're real. Yeah.

And in real life, Mike and I swear a shit tongue. We really, we really do. So if we just sit here and be real and do a natural organic content podcast, you're going to hear some fucks once a while. And the guy that wrote me, I know. Noam. He's a great guy. And I think he was coming from a place of being like, I really like the show, but like heads up. Do you remember of the clergy or something?

No, not at all, actually. And so I was actually thankful, because we do appreciate feedback. First day with a high-speed connection. But you know what? I found the most refreshing is how much it triggered you. I love it. You defended our honor and I appreciate that because I love to fucking swear. It's not that I love it.

You know, I remember when Howard, I'm a huge Howard Stern fan. I I don't think I've missed an episode since 1997. When he went to Terrestrial Radio or from Terrestrial Radio to satellite, I remember the first few episodes and few interviews before, he was telling everybody like, look, everyone's going to expect us to come on and all the things that the FCC hated about us, we're going to just, and he's like, I don't want us to swear more than we did.

We're just going to, you know what I mean? We're not going to swear more now. It's just now we, and it's funny is that it ended up being a ton of swearing because that's naturally how they talk. And so, and I'm glad you, I thought, what I thought was going to happen was you were going to say, you know, he's right, we got to stop. And I didn't want to do that because like you said, this really is our natural reactions. Yeah, you know, and we do things professional and we do business content and things of that nature. What we don't do is make content for children.

We don't. You know, and that's not to say that we're obscene in any way, but the whole thing, this is pointed at professionals in New York State, learning about New York State, learning about things to do with their family. Yeah. But this is not a children's show. And in the podcast feeds, it is specifically marked as explicit. And in YouTube, it specifically says it's not made for children. Yeah.

So I don't know what to tell you, bro. I dare say, and I'm not just, you know, trying to grasp its straws here, I dare say when I'm listening to a podcast or anything and someone swears, it immediately authenticate that podcast for me. And I'm not saying you have to swear. I mean, if it makes sense for what they're talking about and they swear, I suddenly go, okay, so this isn't completely scripted, they're passionate about what they're talking about, they're real people.

Right. And by the way, I was in, you know, I did radio and the FCC sucked. I get why they were there and they're important to be there. Yeah. But, you know, we don't have to worry about that. So let's celebrate that. And again, it's not just us. It's not like we're breaking boundaries here and we're cutting edge.

It's the fucking internet. Yeah, man. And, you know, you'll fully. through your feed and you'll see a clip of us telling a joker saying fuck and oh man that's so offensive and then on the next feed you get to see your neighbor yeah threatening your other neighbor's life yeah because of who they voted for for local dog catcher yeah some not oh my god they said the f word and then it switches to body cam footage if someone getting 18 holes put in you are the least vulgar content on the entire internet i would agree

when i'm not talking that's my whole as dany said i'm an hr night well but you got a real me in. I can really get going. Tapes don't roll 24-7. Oh, my Lord. But anyway, that's enough about that. Yes. Last thing I wanted to talk about. And I kind of wish I had the clue. I don't even know. And Danny, if I'm putting you on the spot too much, tell me, is there any way to pull up a link that I might have sent in the chat? Do I know what this is? This is the podcasting thing. Oh, boy, oh boy. So, so I can't wait to hear what you think about.

Podcasts are exploding. Mm-hmm. Okay. And I'm going to say whether or not we're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this.

Even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. Find this clip. I'm going to set it up for you. I'm sorry for throwing this at you live. Podcasts are exploding. We know that. We launched growth mode content.

So many people told us we hit it at just the right time. Podcasts certainly aren't a new concept. They've been around for literally decades. A decade ago, I tried to launch a podcast business in Syracuse, as many folks know, didn't fucking go anywhere, didn't know what, nobody knew what a podcast was. Stop swearing. Back then. Sorry.

So, you know, it's been this ebb and flow, but especially, and I don't know exclusively, and maybe we give this more credit than that, but in the last election, many folks believe that podcasts played a massive role. And regardless of what your take on, whether or not that was good or bad, that skyrocketed these things to the forefront. and now everybody has a podcast, thanks to growth mode content. And this trend is growing. And I could see why folks might worry about that,

especially folks like us in this industry. Looks like Danny's got it. And as long as he thinks the audio works, I'm going to ask him to play this clip first. Oh, I haven't seen this. And then we'll talk about it. Great. I thought you watched it.

We just talked this in the chat. Okay, I thought, never mind. So here's the clip. Walmart is launching podcast studios. And let a rip, buddy. We'll hear the story. Walmart's launching podcast studios. Okay, remember back to the day when JCPenney had those

We might just need our speakers out. Family Portrait Studios where you got those awkward family photos. There we go. Walmart is bringing that back. But not family photos. They're launching podcast studios. Imagine walking into Walmart and recording a podcast. They just launched their first location in Franklin, Tennessee.

But it's not just podcast. You can record music, photography, video podcasts. It's really a space where you can create all types of content. Because Walmart knows that content is the new currency. And podcast studios have been popping up everywhere. Here in Miami, we went from two to like 50 studios in the last two years. They are popping up on every corner because people need content in 2025. That's exactly why I built the Airbnb of podcast studio.

Okay. You can cut it. So. Can you cut the monitors? Boy, Walmart knows how to ruin everything, don't they? I mean, part of that is you got to keep in mind. That's not even necessarily Walmart. That's somebody that goes, because they have these spaces all over the place.

And, you know, partners come to them. They go, hey, I want to, you know, I think there's the haircut place. Sure. And in a lot of Walmarts. They go, hey, let's put our place in all your Walmarts. You know, I don't know necessarily they seek that out. I don't know. but this is something that's very exciting to me.

And I know a lot of people might think, especially when that fellow mentions how this is exploded and studios have exploded. As somebody who runs, I don't want to say, we're not typically a studio. A lot of these studio spaces, and especially that Walmart,

is a cool spot for you to use. Right. That's not what we do at growth mode content. Right. We have the cool spot, but then we also have the team that does all the work that goes into it, which is the part that nobody

imagines. Sure. It's also the reason I'm very excited about this because all of these very cool, very nice looking sets and cool studios for do-it-yourself content is going to show people the reason we exist. It's a lot of fucking work. Yeah. And it's not just the sitting down and recording. It's the editing. It's the posting. It's the promotion. It's the strategy that goes behind it all so that somebody will actually watch the stuff that you have. These are all the extra and the most time-consuming pieces of any content creation strategy. And it's the thing that none of these just studios or the places that offer you to rent the room for whatever an hour, none of those offer that. So anybody who does this with any seriousness and anybody who gets a little traction is going to find exactly

what I found in my business when I started making podcasts for my business. The business gets successful because of the podcast, you don't have time to do the podcast. Right. Enter growth mode content, where we literally do make it so easy that all you do have to do is show up, sit down and record, and all of that other work is done for you. And you have a reliable, consistent daily posting schedule and a strategy behind your content and all the other pieces that actually make it successful. So the more and more people want that, to me, that just drives demand to us,

especially when I believe we are setting ourselves and we're continuing to grow in this manner, setting ourselves to be the premium option, right? And there's a couple other great studios in Syracuse. They are working to do the same things, but these are all good for us. You know what I mean? I see, and that's why you are the entrepreneur you are.

You know, you find the positive in everything. And so I thought, oh, my God, they're going to half-ass this and they're going to water the industry down. We were like, no, no. And you say, well, they are. Well, they are, but. But that's good. Because here's what I'm thinking.

My mind immediately goes to, you remember people from people of walmart.com? Oh, yeah. So I'm thinking, oh, podcast studios for Walmart clients. This is great. And then my brain goes to people of Walmart.com. And I go, what kind of circus is this going to be? I realize the entire. Mark my words right now.

Okay. I'll mark them. There will be an entire booming genre. of React content of people that do nothing that react to these shitty Walmart podcasts. Okay. That's the people of Walmart as exactly what you're describing. So I'm okay. On a content level.

And I'm telling you, your TikTok feed, and now that I said this out loud, it'll probably already start to happen. But your TikTok feed will be filled with nothing but the worst podcasts on the planet and people ridicule. Because my band played a festival in Mason City, Iowa, and we stopped along the way in Iowa at an Iowa Walmart, and I'm just telling you that wing of podcast is going to be something. Look, you're right.

It's great because if anything, it's a business card for the industry itself. You know, if Walmart's doing it, if these big companies are doing it, you know, we know it's worth doing and worth giving it a shot. So, yeah, I mean, well, you know, it also just, to me, it just further underscores that we're in the right place and this is the right medium. We did it before.

You know, a decade ago when I was doing this, there weren't 50 podcast studios in Miami and it wasn't, you know, as much as people had heard about it and you can say that it was already booming.

That was around the time of cereal. If anybody remember that, oh, that was the first podcast I ever remember about hearing about it. That really put podcasting on the map. But still, that was nothing compared

to where we're at today. And what's very interesting to me is people are finally waking up to this idea. of content for their business. Yeah. Right?

We've been in this traditional advertising model for far too long. Far too long where the only way to grow your business is to buy a, make a commercial, first and foremost. Sure. And run it on traditional mediums. But then folks went and made commercials and started running them on the internet. Like, oh, this is just the same thing, right? No.

It's not. Because it's attention driven. You know what I mean? I don't want to watch a. commercial. Do you want to watch a commercial? Only if it's for a law and order gavel. There you go. And that's it. That's it. And the algorithms know that. So they don't feed your commercials. Correct. So, you know, you can do what you used to do and hire a Hollywood movie studio and produce a $100,000 ad that's 30 seconds to pitch your

thing. Yep. But the algorithm's going to go, nobody gives a shit and nobody's going to see it. Yeah. And that's where this organic content, that's why this is so prevalent. This is why we are doing what we're doing. It's a double-edged sword because, you know, first of all, when we started here, part of me thought, but man, the oversaturation in this industry is going to make it harder for people to succeed. And then I realized

actually, the oversaturation doesn't play a role because if you really have something that are going to captivate people and get their attention, if you have the content, the cream will rise to the top. 100%. Even if there's a million other Walmart podcasts, if you have something to add in this world, you know, it will rise.

I think it might even further propel them. And one thing I honestly worry about is the honest place that'll be the biggest challenge is for the up-and-comer. Right. They're going to have to wade through a lot more shit. Barrier of entry. to get to, you know, to get some volume. But again, this is where the proper strategy.

And the other thing is we'll go back to what we've always talked about so many times is the average podcast doesn't go past episode 20 or doesn't even make it to episode 20. Yeah. Right? So Walmart's going to make a ton of money on people that will record two episodes and have fun. Sure. And never do it again. And good for them.

Do you think they'll do it right as far as executing hiring the right, like the right position? See, that's what I'm with you. I think where it could go wrong and probably will is they're going to just nonchalantly hire people. You got any what's your credentials? I have a podcast to home. Great. You know, and I think the quality might suffer a little bit. If they are smart in this model, what they will do is make it almost completely automated.

So they'll do things similar to we have where instead of tripods and things you've got wall-mounted cameras, they're in a fixed spot and a simple like one, button record. So anybody could do it themselves. If they're smart, that's how they would do it. Interesting. Because, and just looking at the numbers on this, because I've been running the numbers on these business models for literally a decade, if you're going to pay somebody, especially if you think about two-sumbodies, the amount of money you got to charge to even

break-even is, in my mind, way more than any consumer, any casual, I want to try it guy is ever going to invest. So chances are they're going to make it dirt cheap and they're going to do it by probably not well staffing. That's what I was thinking. And you know, the ultimate irony will be they'll still have their perfume and cologne locked up

but the podcast studio will be wide open. Well, I mean, look, it's going to be fun for us just to cover this and see what happens. I do like the comparison to the 90s, you know, J.C. Penny Portrait Studio thing. Because when you think about it, though, how many people, there were photographers, same as we have today, you know, independent, really talented, artistic people.

And yet, I don't know, how many millions of families brought their kids to J.C. Penny's to get the picture, you know? No, you're right. It's an interesting concept in a modern form. I'm just interested to see how it goes. I'm happy for the industry. I'm just worried about them not executing it correctly. But again, that'll lead for great content for us covering this. The worst, if they want to pump in $100 million in advertising this concept of people

and people get there and they get excited about it and they do it and they see the potential, but they're underwhelmed, just going to convince them to invest the real money and use a real company like us. And many, you know, we talk about ourselves. There's a number of other great content creation companies like us all over the country. days. We are also growing rapidly. Yeah. And that's good. It's great. Get people into it. Get ready for a ton of NASCAR podcasts. Then when you're ready to do it for real, come here. And then come here. But we are not threatened. We are happy. Yeah. Because it's all good. It's all good. It's all good.

New business, new opportunities. New business, new opportunities. I mean, there's just, what a time to be alive. I mean, there's so many ways to make money now. Like just gone are the days of like, oh, I can't find a job. It's like, dude, there's so many ways, even only fans. I mean, just like, there's just so many avenues to make money. And instead of being, you know, threatened by the oversaturation, I've learned to just embrace it, you know, and find a way to make it work for you, you know? In all these things, like you said, there's these opportunities. There will be a ton of people that jump into it. There will be a ton of people that fail. They don't get anywhere.

and there will be some superstars. But like you said, it's the variety of opportunities. And even in the content, we talk about podcasts, but you can pick one of the social media sites and make that your niche. Sure. Exclusively for that. Or, you know, you can make fucking.

One of the most popular, if not still, the highest grossing channel on YouTube, is that children's toy channel where it's a person, all you see is their hands playing with the little toy. And they don't. And that's 100%. And it's narrated. But that's a hundred. You don't even see this human's face.

I know. My daughter. They're making tens of millions of dollars a year. My daughter used to watch years ago, little LOL dolls, this woman would, but she never manicured her, like her nails were dirty. That would be crazy. But do you think they're going to have an anchor show? Like, they'll have a Walmart network and they're going to have their own Joe Roekeke.

No, they don't give a shit. You don't think so? Nope. They're literally just want to rent the room. It's a, it's a borderline real estate play. Interesting. That's how that. It's pretty smart.

That model of podcast studio. If you're not offering the additional services like we offer here, that model of renting the studio is literally a real estate play. It's the same as a co-work where you can rent a desk for the day, that sort of thing. That's really the whole model. And I could be mistaken. Maybe they're doing more, doing something different,

but from everything I'm seeing, I would be kind of shocked. And that's the majority of places are these podcast studios. They're a room you can rent. Yeah. You got to know what to do with it. All right. Well, I'm here for it. Hell of a day.

Hell of a day. We didn't even talk about what we did on Thursday. What the hell did we do? Oh, my God. We're going to have to save that for another. Speaking of which, fellas, so just a quick programming note, that was a thing we were at a live event,

and we didn't record a traditional episode like this, but we shot a lot of different pieces that we planned to piece together for an episode. Just out of curiosity, did we know where we're at with that episode? I don't know. Danny, do you know where we're at? It was Canacom. We went to Rochester, New York for Cannacon, which is a cannabis festival. But it's not what you picture.

We picture. Yeah, it wasn't like a big party. A hippie fest. Not even close. No. It was, it was, there wasn't even any cannabis there, ironically. It was like, you know, people that developed lights for growers or pesticides. The businesses that support the main industry.

You can't accept federal money because it's federally still illegal. So, I mean, and it was great. It was very professionally done. And there was a lot of cool. We saw a pizza vending machine. I mean, Jesus. We were there for one of our content clients, Chimera integrations, who does security and access control and things like that,

not just for that industry, but all kinds of industries. And did some live podcasting for them. It was awesome. And like I mentioned, recorded sort of a good news York in a series of segments. Two for one. Sure. Yeah. Perfect.

Perfect. Did we put that out? Oh, shit. I don't even know. Look at us. You think I would pay attention to my own stuff? We're like, well, I don't care. Rent the space.

I just assumed that one was going to take longer. That's awesome. So we got it out there. We got back and watch that. ArcanaCon episode. It was fun. We did a really great closing, I will say. Oh, yeah.

Spoiler alert. You should stick around for that whole piece done because we just sort of recorded that, you know, in the public space with everybody looking around going, What the fuck these guys doing? These idiots. But anyway, we'll get the full breakdown of all of that. Later this week, we've got a jam-packed week full of other guests. We've got a ton of guests and just a lot to talk about.

Yeah. We've got an event coming up where we're going today. We should start a podcast. Let's do it at Walmart. It is Good News York brought to you by ads on the go. Get ads on the go.com. Get ads on the go. dot com.

Come about you. Anyway, Mike Brindisi, Matt Mazer saying goodbye and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace out.