Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #10 - CM Punk Thoughts, My All Time Favorite Diva, How To Book Better Guests, Interview Pet Peeves

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Chris is back answering your questions from social media on another edition of AskCVV! If you have one that you want answered next month, don't forget to send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV! Here is a rundown of the questions and topics covered in this episode: What are your thoughts on the CM Punk situation? Do you think CM Punk should return to WWE and finish up his career? Looking back through the many years of interviews, which interviews do you feel really changed your approach to the job and how? Who was your crush during the Attitude Era?  What was your favorite restaurant in Cleveland? What are some pet peeves or things you always try to avoid doing as an interviewer that you notice others doing? What tips can you give for doing in person interviews compared to online interviews? What's the best tip for creating a connection with your guests? If given the opportunity to interview a past legend, who would you choose and why? Would you rather win the money in the bank contract or the Royal Rumble? How can I book guests with little to no contacts? How's being a dad changed your view on life? Love hearing your thoughts on dad-ing Who would win in a shoot fight, Batman or Ironman? Sponsors:  MYBOOKIE: Get a 50% welcome bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag  MUDWTR: To get 15% off go to http://mudwtr.com/cvv to support the show and use the code CVV15  BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com  MANSCAPED - Get 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code CVV at manscaped.com   MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF  PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com Quote I'm thinking about: You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. - Zig Ziglar For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are go. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleleet. And here we go. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's your friendly neighborhood, CVV. Chris VanVleet with you. And welcome back to another AskCV episode. This is AskCTVV number 10.

I say it all the time, but these are my favorite episodes to record. I love just being able to hang out, just me and you chatting. like this. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing right now, I appreciate you being here. If you haven't already, please hit that follow button wherever you're listening to this right now, or at the very least, check to see if you've hit that follow button before. Go and look, oh my gosh, I thought I was following. I'm not. So boom, hit that with a big old superplex. And if you haven't yet, or if you haven't already, hit those stars, whether that's on Apple Podcasts or that's on Spotify, those star ratings are very important.

If this is your first time here ever, appreciate you being here. When this episode's done, go back into the back catalog here and check out some other episodes off the top of my head. Some of my favorites from this year have been Cody Rhodes, The Undertaker, L.A. Knight, yeah, Will Saso, and, I mean, those are just a few off the top of my head. Go check those out. And if you have a question for the next Ask CVV episode, just tweet it to me or send it to me on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag Ask CVV.

So I'm going to try to get to as many of these as it possibly can. Man, we got a lot here. So we're going to fire these right through. You saw the title of this episode. So we're going to get to some of those bigger topics right off the start here. But first, let me just take a sip of the mud water. Yeah, I actually do drink. mudwater. I've been drinking mudwater every single day for the last three and a half months.

And if you want to drink it, go to mudwater.com slash CVV and use that code CVV15 to get 15% off mudwater. I wasn't even planning to do an ad read here, but I'm legitimately drinking mudwater because I just love the way that it makes me feel. It's like a sustained energy. But again, this is not an ad read. Let's get right into these questions here. Mike Flanagan on Instagram what are your thoughts on the CM Punk situation? Oh, Mike. What a question to kick things off with here. There is so much to bite off

and chew on and talk about with this situation. But I will say this. I never thought CM Punk was ever going to come back to wrestling. And I know that in pro wrestling, you never say never. But from everything that he had been saying, all the years that he was gone, it just certainly sounded like he was done with it. And then he came back and it was, depending on who you talk to, it was either the best return of all time or arguably the best return of all time. I mean, it was incredible. And I think one of the big elements of his return that is not talked about is it worked so well, not just because it was in Chicago, but it worked so well because it was right after the world had just started. to get back to normal after all of the craziness of 2020 and early 2021.

And it was like one of the first shows where there was a full crowd inside an arena. And it was like, oh, my gosh, we're already excited because, you know, the world feels normal again for the first time in like over a year. And oh my gosh, I heard the rumors. This is actually happening. do do do do do do do do do look in my eye oh my gosh it's happening it's here and it was just so exciting and those are the moments that whether you're an AEW fan WW fan WW fan New Japan Impact Wrestling whatever it is those are the fans the moments as a wrestling fan that you look at and you go yes this this is it like what a cool moment and then we see

started hearing all these stories about things that were going on backstage. And I will preface that by saying, we don't actually know the full stories. These are always just reports of like, oh, you know, this person's saying this thing happened. But then when all out happened and the press conference there and the things that he was saying with his boss sitting next to him, Tony Kahn sitting next to him, I just thought, it went too far. And I guess. It went too far. And I guess that he was frustrated and I get that he was upset with a lot of the things that were going on behind the scenes. But to air that dirty laundry in the way that he did, I just didn't sit well with me. And then him being suspended and him not being on TV and us not seeing him for months

after that felt like it gave that whole situation a chance to breathe a little bit. And I honestly wasn't sure if he was going to come back again or not. And then he did come back. back and it just seemed like whatever the situation was, whatever that dirty laundry was that had been aired, it seemed like none of that had been fixed. And it left Tony Conn in this really difficult spot of like, well, he is one of our biggest draws. We have kind of created this whole show on Saturday collision around Tom, around CM Punk. And it's like, what do we do now? And again, we don't know the full situation of what went on at All In, but obviously it was bad enough for Tony Con to get rid of CM Punk,

to fire CM Punk. And on that note, I will say that Tony Con did, I remember Eric Bishop being like the fact that he actually had the, was brave enough to fire CM Punk, like, congrats to him. On that note, though, I will say that, like, it was strange timing. It was strange timing to do it on Saturday right before collision and then right before All-Out. Like, I feel like All-Out already was fighting for, like, relevancy. I felt like All-Out already had, like, its backup against the wall because All-In, huge show, you know, the biggest show that A-AW has ever done by far, one of the biggest.

wrestling shows of all time. And then a week later, they're saying, oh, yeah, but by the way, like, don't forget this pay-per-view that has been a tent pole pay-per-view for AEW since the beginning. Labor Day weekend means it's all out. And it's kind of just like it just kind of felt like it was buried off the back of everything that had gone on positively for All In. And then it's like, right before collision, you know, we terminated CM Punk. And it's like, oh, my gosh, well, now, if I was a CM Punk fan, or I was watching collision for CM Punk, well, now I'm probably not.

And if I hadn't, I, you know, if I was thinking, oh, maybe CM Punk will show up in Chicago and All Out, well, that's now off the table. And I just thought that that announcement should have been made on Monday. I felt like there should have still been this mystique around collision and all out of like, ooh, could his music hit? You know, the rumors are swirling. about everything that happened with him and Jack Perry.

Could he still be here? What's going to happen? And I just felt like, I don't know, the timing didn't seem right on that. I felt like it took all of the focus away from collision and all the focus away from All Out, which was, by all intents and purposes, a pretty great pay-per-view. And I just felt like all of the headlines and all of the focus around All-Out was talking about C.M. Punk. And I just felt really bad for the performers. who worked at show.

So I will sum all this up by saying, with an analogy, I will sum this up with an analogy. I feel like CM Punk coming back to wrestling is kind of like when you break up with that girl. And, you know, it's been a few months, and you're like, yeah, I'm glad I'm broken up with her. And then, you know, a few years go by.

And you think about her every once in a while. And you go, you know, it really wasn't that bad, right? It wasn't that bad. Like, you know, we could have made things work. We had our issues, but we could have made things work. And then you get back together with them. And, like, very quickly, you go, oh, yeah, mm-hmm, yep, that's why we broke up. I just kind of feel like that's the situation here.

Like, C.M. Punk left WW, walked out at WWE, walked out on pro wrestling, and it just seemed like he was pretty happy with how everything was going. I'm sure he missed pro wrestling. But in the back of his mind, there was probably that little voice going. yeah, yeah, but it didn't work out because of this reason, or it didn't work out because of that reason. And then whatever happened came back, and it just seemed like all of those reasons just happened to still be there.

So that's what I think of the situation. I think that he was one of the best things to happen for AEW. And also in a way, it sure seems like he was also one of the worst things to happen to AEW. So very, very curious what the fallout from this is, which leads us actually to this next question here. From Jay Cravalo at Viper Assassin YT on Twitter, do you think CM Punk should return to WWE and finish his career? And that seems to be the big question that is surrounding CM Punk.

And I would say that under the management now, I feel like CM Punk would actually be a great fit in WWE. So I think there's two questions here. It's, do you think he'll return? And should he return? Maybe not in that order. Maybe I should have reversed the order there. But like, should he return?

Does it make sense for him to return? I think it would actually make a lot of sense for him to return. And he has a big legacy in WWE. I mean, when you think of a promo that really walks the line of, Is this real? Is this not? Is this a work? Is this a shoot?

What do we call them now? We call them a pipe bomb. And we will forever call them a pipe bomb because of the pipe bomb that CM Punk dropped. And it's so interesting that he's created a lot of memories in WWE. And there sure seems like there's some unfinished business that could happen there. I mean, I think here's what my prediction is. I'm just thinking this right off the top of my head here. I feel like we're not going to hear anything really like maybe there might be lawsuits.

That'll be very interesting here, which I feel like with the release, the wording of what AEW said when CM Punk was released. I felt like it was worded in such a way that like there may be some pending litigation from this. Like firing someone with cause sounds like, oh yeah, like. well, let's have the lawyers talk about this. But it seems like as we head into the Royal Rumble in January, I feel like there's going to be a lot of buzz of like, we'll CM Punk be there, will his music hit? And I just feel like if he had a short run,

a short run, maybe it's, maybe it's the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania, just him being there. I don't even think he needs to be in the title picture. I think just him being there could really be a very interesting situation. But I think to answer, so I think like, should he go back? Could he go back? I think the answer there is yes.

Will he go back? As I sit here right now in September of 2023, I think the answer to that question is no. But it's pro wrestling. Really, anything could happen. If you want to get a better night's sleep and change your betting less often, let me put you on to Miracle Maid's bed sheets. These are the softest and the best sheets that I've ever slept on. So they're inspired by NASA, and Miracle Made uses silver-infused fabrics to make temperature-regulating bedding so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long.

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They're already on sale right now like 40% off. But if you use the promo code CVV at checkout, you'll get an additional 20% off and three free towels on top of that. So go to try miracle.com slash CVV. and use that promo code, CVV. At James underscore Maxwell on Twitter says, looking back through the many years of interviews,

which interviews do you feel have really changed your approach to the job and how? Well, that's a good one. I'll actually give you a kind of a non-traditional answer here. It wasn't one of my interviews that really changed my approach to the job. It was from my now very good friend, Jake Hamilton. You could check him out on YouTube at Jake's Takes is the new of his channel. He is one of the best interviewers on the face of the planet. And I am so grateful to be able to call him one of my friends. But when I first met him, he wasn't my friend. I mean, I didn't know him.

We were strangers. And here was this guy. It was like 13 years ago when we met, 2010. I was doing a movie junket for the movie, Dinner for Schmucks. Remember that movie? Paul Rudd and Steve Carell. So I was doing that interview in Los Angeles. And I'd never seen him before, but he came in very well-dressed, beautiful hair. I mean, it's this great hair. And just a good-looking guy who's, I think he's like, so at the time he would have been like 22 and I would have been like 26. And dude just crushed these interviews.

And I went back and I looked through his like highlight reel. and he had these moments where he was just swinging for the fences. He was creating what I later called Jake Hamilton moments. He asked Angelina Jolie if she would dance with him because she had so many great slow dancing scenes and movies. He asked Morgan Freeman to read his eulogy, because Morgan Freeman has such a great speaking voice. Like, they're just incredible amazing moments.

And I'm like, here you are sitting down with the big, biggest stars in the face of the planet and you, my friend, are swinging for the fences and you are knocking it out. And it was from watching his interviews of just like, I thought the work that I was doing at that time was good. Actually, at the time, I would have thought it was like really good. And then I saw him and it made me level it up. And I've told him this many times, but, you know, he's so incredibly talented. But it was seeing him not be afraid. And it was seeing him like word things in a certain way of like, if I ask it like this, the chances of it actually happening might be better. So it was, you know, those were the interviews that really changed it for me. And I highly encourage

you to go check out any of Jake's work. And there's actually a compilation not made by him, made by just a fan of people, celebrities, saying, that's a great question to Jake. And it's like a, I don't know, 15-minute compilation of him asking these, brilliant questions and celebrities going, that is a great question. So you asked a great question here, James, and that's my answer. Those are the interviews that changed my whole approach to the job and really just started to make me think about the way that questions were worded. Because at the end of the day, these are just words, right? But words in a different order can have a very different effect. So that was it for me. Steve Kukos on Instagram says, who was your crush during

the attitude era. Oh man. Well, being from Toronto, Tristratus was obviously a big crush. But when I saw Tori Wilson for the first time in WCW, I was like, wow. Yeah, that's it. So, Tori Wilson. And then, you know, I feel like everything she did in WWE was even that much better. So Tori Wilson, who I have yet to ever meet or have on the show, but that is certainly a guest that I would love to have on the show. I mean, Trish as well. I've met Trish twice, never done an interview with her, but I've met her twice once when I was 17. And I was like, oh my gosh, I mean a Trish Trottis. And then I met her at WrestleMania 35 in New York.

And I'm like, I need to do an interview with you. And she's like, absolutely. Just send my people an interview or an email. with an interview request and for whatever reason just never came together. But I feel like that one could happen. I feel like a Trish Stratus interview is imminent at some point in time. I'm not saying it's like next week or next month, but I feel like that one could be impossible. Tim Vick Zulus on Twitter says, what was your favorite restaurant in Cleveland? Oh man, I love Cleveland. I miss Cleveland. I miss you guys. I'm still a Browns fan. And my goodness, what a start to the

That huge win over the Bengals. I love it. So I lived in Cleveland from 2010 to the end of 2014, so five years, like all of 2010, 11, 12, 13, 4, 5 years total. I don't know. I counted that out of my hands. I lived right downtown at that time. So there were a lot of restaurants that were downtown that I loved going to. One of them, it was called Cleveland Chop House at the time. Now it's just called Cleveland Chop. That was one of my favorites. We would go there for lunch all the time because I was working a later shift. I was on the afternoon news shows on 19 action news, which is now just, I think it's Cleveland's 19, CBS 19. I was on the afternoon show. So I started work at like three-ish o'clock and ended around midnight, which was, you know,

I'd get off work at like midnight and I wouldn't be like ready to go to bed because you'd just come off of like working on TV and like being on TV and being all amped up. and a lot of restaurants wouldn't be open. So I will, the reason I say that is Bar-Louis was like across the street from where I lived. I lived in this apartment building called the Bingham. And there was like hardly anything that would be open after midnight, unless it was like a Friday or Saturday night. But Bar-Louis was. So I spent a lot of time at Bar-Looie, and I know that's like a place, chain, like several of them all over America. Quaker steak and lube had the best wings.

And the Winking Lizard downtown had the best wings. I'm a huge wing fan. If, by the way, if you have any chicken wing suggestions, like chicken wing restaurants, please tweet them at me. Please. I travel a bunch. Maybe I'll be in your city and I will eat those wings. Maybe I'll eat those wings with you.

And one more is melt bar and grilled. Bar and grilled. It was a, it still is a grilled cheese sandwich restaurant in Lakewood. it's so, so good. So there's a bunch of them there for you. And I just love Cleveland. And it's been like two years since I've been back. I miss you guys. So I'll have to head back there again sometime soon. Mr. Peralta on Twitter says, what are some of your pet peeves or things that you always try to avoid doing as an interviewer that you notice others doing? I get a lot of compliments for this. And I don't even feel like I consciously do it, but I get a lot of compliments from people that say,

I love how you don't interrupt your guest. So I'm like, oh, yeah, I mean, I brought them here for them to talk. Why would I be interrupting them? But yeah, I guess that's a thing where people will interrupt a lot. So that is something I'm aware of when I see it in other interviewers. And I think another thing that I see in other interviewers is the person that you brought on to be your guest will start to tell a story. and then you'll interject with your own story. And then oftentimes the story of the host is longer than the story from the guest.

And it's like, what's going on here? And I've never understood that. It's like, no, no, no. Like, please stop talking so we can listen to what the guest is saying. That's always been, yeah, that's always been a big one for me. And I think that just all falls under the category of not listening. And a really simple one too, Mr. Peralta is not doing your research.

Like, I think there's a lot of people that just do like the real simple, very basic Wikipedia bullet notes, bullet points. And I think it just like just has to go at least one layer deeper than that. Like, especially if we're going to talk wrestling here. And the very least, fellow interviewers, type that person's name into Google and click, the news heading. What are some of the most recent headlines about that person? What are some of the most recent quotes that person has said? And I think it's just little things like that are just like,

ah, man. Or like, I'm sure it bothers you as much as it bothers me. When someone starts to tell a story, a reference something that's like very, like for that person, like a very well-known thing. And the interviewer, interviewer you can tell just has no clue what that person is talking about. It's like, oh, I'm listening to this podcast because I'm a fan of the person that you're interviewing. Like, just do, have the respect enough to do some research. So that's it right there. Oh, more interview tips. There's the next question here.

Robbie Collins at Robbie C1877 on Twitter says, what tips can you give for doing in-person interviews compared to online interviews? I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating. the interview begins with the second you see that person, the second you walk into the room if it's in person, or the second the Zoom window opens, the Streamyard link opens if it's a virtual interview. For in person,

I think a really important element of this, it falls into the technical side. Like make sure the shot, the camera shot looks good. And I'm not saying you need to have a new camera or anything like that. Like I shot so many of my interviews on my iPhone for years and years and year. I still often do shoot my two shot on the iPhone. I just think that that's a really important part.

If your interviews look like crap, people will think they are crap. If your interviews sound like crap, people will think that they're crap. Perception is reality. And I think that that's a really big thing. And people make a decision really quickly, especially if they've never seen your content before or heard your content before. People make a decision within the first like three seconds of a video. So I think that it needs to be fairly well lit, even if that's just natural light, you and your guests sitting in front of a window.

Like, that's a really important thing. Don't make it backlit. Don't make it too zoomed out. Don't make it too zoomed in. Don't have too much headroom. Little things like that I think are really important. Other than that, I think the nuts and bolts of interviewing remain the same. I will stand by the fact. Yes, it is a fact that interviews in person are far superior, far better. a much better connection than doing interviews over Zoom. But I think the nuts and bolts of doing an interview, whether it's in person or whether it's over Zoom, are pretty much all the same. And one more little tiny little baby tip about doing an interview in person, just make sure to show up like early. If you say the interview is going to be at 2 o'clock, show up at like 1.45 just so you can

set up, be ready to go so that you're rolling at 2 o'clock. I think that that's a really important one. Ian underscore Gar 14 on Instagram says, what's the best tip for creating a connection with your guests? I think that it's really important to structure interviews and the fact that like what's going to be a good opening question? And if things go really well, would that opening question?

Could it lead into this next question if the conversation leads that way? So I think that that's a really important one. Like start off strong, especially if this is someone that you've never interviewed, before if you're just meeting them for the first time. Again, going back to what I was just saying, people will make judgments very quickly, not just about content, but people make judgments about other people all the time in person when they meet them. So I think you can do whatever you can to try

to win that person over and really build a rapport with them. Even before the cameras are rolling, start to build a rapport like in the same way that you would if you ran into someone at the bar that happened to be a fan of the same sports team that you are. Like you would just, you would have something in common and then you would, boom, build on that. So I think rapport is a really important thing to build that connection and to keep that conversation going. X Bonafide on Instagram says, if given the opportunity to interview a past legend, who would you choose and why?

Eddie Guerrero. Eddie Guerrero. And he was taken from us far too soon. And I feel like there was still so much that we would have seen from Eddie. would have loved to see that. So I just would have loved to have a conversation with him. I think that he's one of the very best to lace him up. And so it's Eddie. The answer to that one is, it's for sure, Eddie Guerrero. Simon Stevens on Instagram says, would you rather win the money in the bank contract or the Royal Rumble? I mean, you're listening to this right now. I know that you

already have a decision in your head as you hear that question. And come on. Let's say it all together here. The Royal Rumble, right? Because when you win the Royal Rumble, you're guaranteed the main event at WrestleMania. And I get with the money in the bank contract, you can call your shot. It can be anytime, anywhere, any place. But I just feel like there's a very special time in wrestling between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, you know, the road to WrestleMania. And if given the chance, if given the option, I would like to be the focal point of that, if this is me. I would like to be the focal point of that road to WrestleMania. Also, I just think that they've dropped the ball just a few too many times with the money in the bank contract, especially in recent years.

It used to be you won the money in the bank contract. It was a foregone conclusion that at some point in the next 365 days, you were going to be. You were going to be. You were going to be the money in the bank contract. It was a foregone conclusion that at some point, you were going to be the world champion. And that's really shifted in the last few years here. And I hate what happened with Austin Theory. And I'm guessing, this is a guess. I don't know this at all, but it just feels to me like they gave him the money in the bank contract and maybe they didn't feel like he was getting the reaction that they were looking for or didn't think that he was ready to be the world champion at the time. And him cashing in for the U.S. title. and then not even winning the U.S. title,

even though he had been the U.S. champion before, that just didn't sit right with me. So, yeah, Royal Rumble. And also, like, there's something about winning the Royal Rumble where, like, the person who wins the Royal Rumble is already a main eventor, and now they're, like, just continuing to be a main inventor. I feel like Money in the Bank is a great stepping stone

from someone who's, like, right on the cusp of being a main inventor, or, like, very high mid-card. And then they get money in the bank, and it like, you know, raises them and elevates them to that next level. Name man. Really? Your name's name man on Instagram?

That's a pretty good username. How could I book guests with little to no contacts? Well, I would say that you could book guests with little to no contacts. You could book guests with no contacts in the same way that you got your question right here on the podcast. We're all connected now with social media. And I think you don't need to have contacts. you don't need to be able to know someone who knows someone.

All you need is a keen eye on someone's Instagram bio or Twitter bio to find out their email and just send them a message. And I think the second part of that is you need patience. And you need to be able to know that like you're going to send quite a few emails that aren't going to get responses. And you're going to send emails that are going to get just, no, sorry, not interested. and then eventually you're going to get one that's like, yeah, that sounds good, what date and time works for you?

And it may take you six emails to get there. It may take you 86 emails to get there. But just know that every no that you hear or every no response that you get is going to get you one step closer. And I'm not sure what your booking guests for. I'm going to guess as a podcast. Please, for the love of God, please make sure to link your podcast in the email that you send.

There is nothing more frustrating than getting an email from someone that's like, hi, I'd love to have you as a guest of my podcast called the ABC show. If you're interested, please write back. And then you're like, well, what's the ABC show even about? Can I hear an episode? And then you're basically saying to the person you're trying to book, the onus is now on you to go into YouTube or podcast app type in the ABC show and then to listen to it just try to like you want to try to eliminate as many barriers as possible just link to it the ABC

show highlighted hyperlink boom go and it's just amazing to me how many people don't do that tiny little step also one more thing and at some point here I should probably actually like formulate, like, what does the guest booking email look like to actually, like, make sure that you increase your odds. I can't say you're going to book a guest every time or you're going to book more guests, but increase your odds to book more guests. I think another thing is, like, list off some of the previous guests that you've had on the show. And if you want to take it one step further, link to those episodes so that the person who is potentially going to be a guest can have a listen to that. And there's a lot of the stuff. You've heard me talking about this thing

that I've been building with my good friend Travis Chapel, full-time creator. We are going live next Tuesday. Fulltimecreator.co, if you want to check it out on Tuesday, September 19th, it's our opportunity to work together. Both Travis and I have been very fortunate to be able to now be full-time creators. I've been a part-time creator, I guess, now for over a decade. I'm defining creator as someone who not just creates videos. but also, you know, makes a few dollars from them. And I was earning AdSense money, I think,

in 2012 from YouTube. But yeah, for the last four years, I've been so fortunate that my job is a full-time creator. And I've made a ton of mistakes along the way. And that's partly what full-time creator is. It's a mastermind where Travis and I are going to dump all of the knowledge that we have about creating. That's on podcast, YouTube, social media, and general. The best way to book guests, the best way to create a thumbnail, the best way to title your videos, the best way to edit your stuff. We're going to dump all of this information out. This is stuff that I have never shared publicly. So if you are a fellow creator and you're struggling, I'm with you. And you are not alone. So we're building out the full-time creator mastermind at

full-time creator.com. And I would love for you to be a part of this community that we are building. and hopefully fast-track your success to earning your first dollar, to getting to your first thousand subscribers, to working your way towards quitting the job that you don't enjoy going to and working your way towards being a full-time creator. So that launches next Tuesday full-time creator. A-A-A-T-T-R-D-2, A-E-T-T-A-E-T-A-E-T-R-D-A-T-A-T-R? too on Instagram, how has being a dad changed your view on life? I love hearing your thoughts on

dadding. I mean, it's changed everything. I was just interviewed for a podcast earlier today. I actually, I'll share this out on, I think I'm going to share it tomorrow on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and on YouTube. I post a lot of stuff on the YouTube community wall, but I did this really fun podcast and we talked a lot about the dad journey I've been on it. It was with Kia Nalbandi, who was just crushing it. He's like 2 million subscribers on YouTube, just crushing it with this content. And it's changed my life in every single way for the better.

And I love how I now see the world through her eyes. She's Logan's three and a half months old. And there's these little moments where like, you know, you'll say something goofy or silly. and she just has this big smile that fills her entire face. And it's like, oh, man, it's the best. And I can't wait to take her to our first baseball game together. Or I can't wait to take her fishing. Can't wait to take her to our first pro wrestling show.

Like, I'm just excited to, like, make these memories with her. And I'm so, so, so grateful every single day that I have the best partner, my wife, Rachel, and we're in this journey together as husband and wife and as mom and dad now to our little girl Logan. So yeah, that's, I mean, it's changed my view on life in the fact that I now see things through her eyes. She's seeing everything for the first time. You know, and there's this real childlike innocence that all kids have. And I feel like I am now seeing things through her eyes. And it's just made me have this like so much of a better appreciation for everything. And it's also really helped me to understand situations a little bit more. I feel like I've been so much more empathetic.

I think there might have been a younger version of me that like when a kid cried on a plane, I was one of those very stereotypical people that would like roll their eyes and be like, oh man, could someone shut that kid up? And now I have so much more empathy for what those parents are going through. Like when a kid's crying on a plane, like the kids doesn't go onto that plane. This little baby doesn't go onto that plane with like the intention of like, I'm going to ruin everybody's flights. Watch this. They're just a baby. They're trying to figure things out. And I can guarantee you this. We've been very, very, very fortunate. Logan's now flown on four flights to Nashville and back to New York City and back. So four flights total, very long flight.

The New York flight's like six plus hours with the delay that we had. So that was like eight hours of sitting on a plane. We've been so, so, so, so, so, so fortunate that she's slept for most of the flight and just been overall just like really good. I'm sure that's not always going to be the case. It's going to be one where I'm sure she's going to have a meltdown. But I now have the empathy. And I understand that, you know, there's always more going on in a situation than what.

what you see on the surface. So I guess that is to say I have been much slower to come to a conclusion about something because you never really know the full situation. All right, one final question here. Charlie Thrower at Charlie Photo Guy on Twitter

says who would win in a shoot fight? Batman or Iron Man? I feel like the answer here feels pretty obvious, right? It's Batman. Iron Man's just like really at the heart it like a great inventor. They're both rich. They're both like billionaire playboys, but Ironman is just like really good at like using technology. But if this is a shoot fight, like just people fighting against Batman, it's Bruce Wayne for sure. Bruce Wayne beats Tony Stark, I think, every single time,

like 100 times out of 100. Batman's like good with his utility belt, but at the end of the day, Batman doesn't really have any weapons. Like Batman's for the most part, like punching people in the face and it's like he ties them up with whatever that thing's called that he ties them up with and the batterang kind of just like gets their attention but like i mean for the most part batman is hand-to-hand combat iron man's just like you know a rich guy in a suit and i have great love for both batman and iron man but i'm just saying this is a shoot fight we were looking at the odds on my bookie dot a g and you use the promo code cvv If we're looking at the odds there,

I feel like Batman would be like a minus 5,000 or something like that. You know what I mean? All right, there we go. If you want your question asked or answered on the next Ask CVVE episode, tweeted at me, sent it to me on Instagram using the hashtag Ask CVV.

There were some great questions here. I think we fired off like 12 or 13 of them. I love doing these. We've been doing them once a month. What do you think? Should we do these more often? Maybe twice a month? We're already doing two wrestling interviews per week on most weeks.

Should we throw these in like maybe right after the pay-per-view? You know, right after a big pay-per-view, we recap it. Like, what are your thoughts on All In? What are your thoughts on Survivor Series? Something like that? I don't know. You tell me, this is just as much your show as it is my show. And I am honored that I'm able to spend this time with you every single

episode. I will leave you with the words of Zig Ziglar. This is such a great quote. I've said this on the show, but it was many hundreds of episodes ago, and maybe you haven't heard it, or maybe you did hear it, and you need a little reminder here. You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. How good is that? Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The next. Next ones with Xbox. We'll see you then. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock,

but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then?

To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Allie. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.