Insight with Chris Van Vliet - The Schmo - MMA's Most Interesting Journalist On Interviewing Dana White, Jake Paul & Mike Tyson

Episode Date: April 19, 2022

Dave Schmulenson is better known as The Schmo (@theschmo312). He is a sports journalist, interviewer and host of the podcast "The Triple C and Schmo Show". He joins Chris Van Vliet inside the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he got started as a sports interviewer, what he learned from conversations with people like UFC President Dana White, Logan Paul, Mike Tyson, Colby Covington and other sports stars, how he came up with his character "The Schmo", how he feels about comparisons to Nardwuar, who his dream interview is and much more! Check out The Schmo's website: http://theschmo312.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet CVV CLIPS: youtube.com/CVVCLIPS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blin. All right. Here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. I appreciate you spending some time with us here in Las Vegas. Here inside the beautiful Blue Wire Studios at the Win Las Vegas.

You know, I'm not in Vegas. Well, I guess I'm here pretty often. I'm here every two weeks. But I feel like every time we do an interview here, it's just, it's so, good. And today, of course, it's no different because I always love sitting down and chopping it up with fellow interviewers. And if you've ever watched a UFC video or an MMA interview on YouTube, there's a really good chance you've either seen the Schmo or his videos have been shown to you, like in the suggested videos. I mean, he's pretty easy to recognize with his

signature yellow sunglasses. I've got to say, even though the Schmo is a character that David Schmo and some plays, he asks some great questions on the Schmo and the pro. And I just love how people that he's interviewing really open up to him in a way that they don't with other interviewers. Check him out on social media. He's at the Schmo 312. Check out his website, the Shmo312.com. I like how his bio says that he's a much needed breath of fresh air in sports journalism.

If you're not following me already, you can find me at. at Chris Van Fleet. And if it's your first time here, I hope that you like what you hear enough to want to subscribe wherever you're listening to this right now. And perhaps, if that's Apple Podcasts, perhaps you may want to leave a review like this one. Papa Pooey writes,

this dude is awesome. Chris Van Fleet has one of the best podcasts to listen to while I'm at work, and I get some more insight on wrestlers that I'm a huge fan of. Plus, I just met him, and he's even more awesome in person. keep up the great work, keep listening. Well, thank you, sir. Thank you, Papa Pui. I was at the Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis this weekend.

So great meeting all of you guys, including Papa Pui. And I should mention, since we're talking about this, that I'll be at the Baltimore Celeb Fest 4 with MCW Pro Wrestling on May 15th. So if you live in that area, it'd be awesome if you came out and said hello. The lineup, the lineup stacked. the Hardy Boys, the New Age Outlaws, Sammy Gavara, Ty Conti, Nick Aldous, that's just to name a few. So maybe while we're there, maybe we'll do an interview or two or seven. Who knows?

But I read one review from Apple Podcasts on every single episode. It's my way to say thank you for being on this journey with me. Hey, if you're a Spotify listener, Spotify has ratings now. So perhaps you would consider going in there and clicking on the stars. That'd be awesome. All right. Let's dive into this. please welcome the schmo

in this situation does this make me the pro the schmoh and the pro I would say so sure thank you so much for coming by hey thanks for stopping me in Russell con we made eye contact you actually you came up to me I did and you introduce yourself I was familiar with you you're familiar with me

and I'm glad we're here in person now less than a week later well look it's it's hard to not notice you I think when you're at any of these events like you stand out so much that's that's the whole all lure of the schmo i feel like definitely i think it was very influential in the branding decisions for me to wear something that would be different to stand out i tell people all the time a little bit of craigseger meets rodney dangerfield sports first comedy second a lot of influences in the attire the persona but also a lot from the 90s and the

world wrestling federation at the time no longer that it's the w w wrestling entertainment was watching that a lot as a kid and getting a lot of influences from that. This is going to be the first time a lot of people are seeing you or hearing you as David right now. So like perhaps you could introduce yourself because they only know the Schmo. Yeah. I grew up in a suburb outside of Chicago, Buffalo Grove, Illinois in the 90s. I'm a 90s child.

Favorite sport was basketball. My childhood idol was Michael Jordan. I mean two, three Pete's greatest basketball player of all time. To me, the greatest. I consider him. the greatest athlete, most influential athlete of all time. Because when I think of the word goat, the goat of goats, you know, Tom Brady, obviously, the NFL, Tiger Woods, you think of golf, you, Wayne Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky for hockey, obviously Mr. Canadian over here.

Canadian, yeah. But I think of Jordan and I grew up playing sports, I grew up loving sports, being outside of Chicago. And when I realized the dream of being professional basketball player was dead sometime in high school, six foot nothing, white guy with limited hops wasn't going to make it to the next level. I kind of always knew the next best thing would be talking about sports and kind of led me to this crazy journey I'm on today. And the journey is pretty crazy because there's a lot of people that are doing, I would say more like what I'm doing, where you're having these conversations or you're reporting. You've created this character. So where did this begin? And also like, how many versions did you go through to you came up with

this version of the Schmo? Interesting. Well, I would say that the version of the Schmo, the original version of the shmoh always lives on but the schmoe itself has kind of evolved throughout time you always have to adapt you don't adapt you die change is inevitable you have to be a part of it um so i'm a goof i was always a class clown i would always make jokes i'd always get in trouble i mean what you see is the schmo is kind of really an extension of my characters myself i could just get away with doing a lot more crazier stuff when i put those yellow glasses on but uh i grew up doing impressions like i have a really good bore at impression i would do austin powers well come on you're You got to give it to it.

Hello, my name Abarat, and I come to the U.S. of A to meet with you and sit in the studio at this black tables here. I like this. Very nice. How much? Austin Bowers? Well, I know I have to get. All right, baby.

Now, are we going to shack now? A shack later, baby. Yeah. We're here in Las Vegas at the Blue Wire Studios. Chris, you're doing a great job talking to me. Yeah, baby. Yeah. I haven't done that in years, but it's great.

And just different impressions. I don't want to start offending different groups of people, but I just change my voice a little bit. And I've never had a voice coach or anything like that, but just I'm a goofball. And I just like, I'm not afraid of what other people think of me and I would just go out and do these types of things.

But the Schmoe character itself, the inception of it, 2015, another story of me goofing around with my roommates in Los Angeles where I was living at the time. My buddy had these crazy pair of vintage yellow glasses. put on a turtleneck and a blazer, you know, a few drinks, maybe a few puffs of marijuana, who knows, and one thing led to another, but the idea of the character was always there, but what the character looked like kind of was born from just moments like that beginning in 2015.

Did you, like, ever get worried that when you took on this character and took on this persona, that you wouldn't be taken seriously? I think at that point, I just stopped caring. No one took, no one gave David Shmoulton a chance. I wanted to go the traditional broadcasting route. And when I graduated the University of Arizona in 2012, you know, I sent my tapes out to over 100 stations. I drove to Yuma, Arizona.

I would drive to places, drop these off at the directors, not hear anything back. And when I moved out to California, end of 2012, beginning of 2013, Fox Sports One was starting up, the NFL network. I was either New York or California, I knew the two largest markets. And I'm like, look, I might not get directly on camera right away, but I will work as a production assistant.

I'll edit. I'll do whatever I can to get my foot in the door. And I think too many people are afraid to take a step sideways or take a step backwards in order to take two steps forward or whatever you have to do. And I was willing to grind in my 20s and do whatever it took. So I think a culmination of accumulation of so many different factors

of people rejecting me and not giving me a choice, I kind of created the character to mock the system. Say, look, you don't want to give David Schmultz a chance. Well, I could do it better than the people you have in the position yet I'll do it in character. And that was my mindset. So did you do interviews before, like when you weren't the Schmo? Yes.

We were talking a little bit off air about having big interviews. As David Scholten, my last job in corporate America, I worked for USA Today. They had hired me as a publisher account manager to consult sports websites. But I kind of took that job just to make and get an end, to become friends with the editors and become friends with the other journalists to take on roles and responsibilities. here and there. I was calling up SIDs. I was doing college basketball previews for the, for the magazine. I was covering the Nike elite 11 football camps. Whatever I could get my hands on. I did press junkets. We were just talking about entertainment. Gary Oman was someone I interviewed.

Kevin Costner, I was able to interview. I wonder if we were at the same press junkets together. It was the only one I ever covered. Which movie was it? It was a Kevin Costner movie around 2015 or 60. I love that it's the only movie junket you ever did and you don't even know what movie it was. Oh my God. That is fantastic. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing about me. I really don't watch TV. I'm a diehard sports nerd. Like, I literally, what I consume is sports and business. And literally my wife is just nonstop work and work and work. I used to know the name of that, but it's just now I got so many other things going to my brain. It might come to me. You know what? We have this amazing thing called the internet. Yeah. So I'm going to look this up here to see. Okay. Then what was the first interview as the Schmo? The first interview, the Mo, actually, I believe it was Rick Newheisel. I met him on a Southwest airline flight. I had the glasses, but they were criminal.

Does that sound right? I don't think it was. Actually, it might have been criminal. It sounds about right. I don't even. 2016 action thriller? If Gary Olman's in it? CIA agent Bill Pope, was Ryan Reynolds also in it?

If Gary Olman was in it. Okay, that's the movie. It's a criminal. That was the movie. Ryan Reynolds wasn't at the junket, I don't believe. Or at least I wasn't on the list for that. that part. So the first interview was Rick Newheisel, met him on the Southwest Airlines flight. He had just, he was college football analyst for CBS sports, former college football coach for the Huskies,

for the UCLA Bruins. So I'm on the flight, told them what I was doing, because I kind of started doing my schmoh stick also while I was working for USA today. I had them build a set for me, and I started getting part of the car wash. Athletes would come into Fox Sports, ESPN, Los Angeles, then they come NFL network and then they come see the Schmo at the USA Today Studios over there. But yeah, I went to his living room. He played his guitar and that was the first one. But then the first athlete I brought for the Schmo and the pro in that USA Today Studios, yellow glasses, everything, Jerry Harrison, Jr.

Wow. These are great. Do people ever compare what you're doing to Nardwar? I get that a lot. After I created the character, I think I first heard it. People in the MMA saying, oh, you're just. an MMA version of Nardwar, and I start getting really offended by this kind of stuff. And then I looked at what he does.

And I could see why from just a very basic level, people say that because he's a character. I don't know if it's his real voice or not, but he does it in music. But for me, I do this in sports. I had no idea who he was when I created the character. My influences are from the Chicago Second City Legends, where I grew up, the John Belushi's, the Chris Farleys, the Mike Myers, who created Austin Powers, right? Those are the influences I have. And when I say Craig Sager meets Rodney Dangerfield,

I have so much respect for old school stand-up comedians and just being an overall goofball myself, like I feel like I took just a flare of my personality. And I feel like it's a lot of people's childhood dreams to be able to have conversations that are free-flowing where they can kind of say whatever they want. I feel like the schmoh's my way of masking that. Did you ever, like if these were your influences,

did you ever think about getting into stand-up? I think I'd be doing myself a complete disservice if at one point I never did stand-up. I mean, 100% going to do stand-up at one point, probably sooner than later. As you or as the schmo? It's got to be both, or at least the schmo for sure. I mean, have too many good stories. But yeah, stand-up is 100% on the cards. I feel like in the world that we're in here, broadcasting, podcasting,

YouTube, and content creation, whatever you want to call it, when you can add that other layer on there of what is comedy, whatever it is, comedy or being on a reality show or hosting a TV show, that like takes you to another level. For sure. And, you know, and it's funny you mentioned that, taking you to another level because no one wants to be stagnant. Like I didn't, I didn't create the schmo to just be associated as an MMA journalist. In fact, like, MMA wasn't the first sport I covered as the shmoh.

In fact, if you look at combat sports boxing, I started interviewing boxes before mixed martial are mixed martial artists and even NFL NBA like the schmo's an entertainer I just love sports but there's no limit like it's called the schmo and the pro everybody's a pro like right now you're the pro in this situation I'm still only because I'm sitting on this side of the camera if you sat over here you'd be the pro that's how it works yeah and it's um you know I because I've been able to interview some entertainers too like Snoop Dogg with someone that was on my bucket list and Ice Cube I've interviewed too yeah going into that musician world but I mean it's funny because I interviewed Snoop Dog, we're talking about Triller and Fight Club and Jake Paul.

Interview Ice Cube, we're talking about the big three, so we're talking basketball, but those are just my interests. It's interesting because a lot of people look at you and assume that you're just an MMA journalist, and you're right. Like, you started with a basketball and football? Yeah, and so I mentioned Rick Neuheisel, that's football. Jerry Harrison, Jr., first in series of Shmo, that's Major League Baseball. Yeah.

So I think that this is, it's interesting because it's kind of happening to me, too, where I've interviewed a lot of wrestlers, and the people go, oh, you just interview wrestlers. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, I've also interviewed all these other people from different walks of entertainment. Who's on the bucket list for you now? It's Michael Jordan. Okay. We mentioned that early. Okay. Who's on the UFC bucket list? The only, the only UFC fighter that I have not interviewed that 100% is on the bucket list is, for some reason, it's Connor McGregor. Why hasn't this happened? I have conspiracy theories in and out, but inevitably it's going to happen. It took some time for me to be able to interview Kabib. It took time. It didn't

happen right away. He had to retire first, but I ended up retiring, I ended up interviewing Kabib. So everything in life is timing. A lot of things in my life have never happened on my time, never when I wanted, but good things happen to those that are patient and be ready for the unexpected, but when the unexpected comes, you better damn be ready. You've had exchanges with Connor at like press conferences. Yes, so I don't count those, but I've definitely, I've definitely asked him questions. He knows who I am. There's no doubt about it. Let me. ask you this. We know, these last two years have been kind of strange with interviews.

Yeah. And, you know, I had to resort to doing Zoom interviews, which I'd never done before. Every interview I'd flown to the person and done them in person. And I got into an interesting discussion with my friend. Like, if you did a Zoom interview with somebody, did you actually meet them? And I was saying no, and he was saying yes. And I think that the truth is maybe possibly somewhere in the middle there. Definitely at least somewhere in the middle there, because then when you eventually meet

that person you did a Zoom interview with, then it's like you've already met them before and talked to them before. And ironically, that just happened to me this past weekend in Dallas. So the Venezuelan Vixen, you know, the Phantomweight champion for the UFC, she and I have done Zoom interviews before. And obviously I spoke to her in person before press conference, but I've never interviewed on camera on the Schmo and the Pro until this past weekend. So it's like we were saying, yeah, I've done a Shmo in the Pro with you, but do those count? Does this count? But we've had the familiarity because we had already done it before. So to your point, it's got to count for something, maybe at least a halfway there. But inevitably, you meet the person, you give them a hug,

and they go, it's so good to finally meet you in person. Yeah. And it's like, oh, okay. So maybe the other one didn't really count. But as you know, I mean, as we sit here and you've done plenty of Zoom interviews, nothing beats an in-person sit down face-to-face. Nothing. Nothing beats being able to feel someone's energy, shake their hand, give them a hug. As good as technology is. And I'm so grateful that what happened over the last two years happened in this era of technology. Because I feel like we would have been, we would have felt a lot more alone if it had happened in the 90s or 80s or any time before then. At the end of the day, though, you're still looking at a two-dimensional representation on a screen of a three-dimensional being. Yeah. And what's going to happen when the way

we look at it now ends up being completely computerized, 3D figures. Like, I don't know. Augmentation with reality, with the glasses and everything, the metaverse. Who knows where interviewing is going to go from a virtual standpoint. But I'm not going to sit here and put a cap on it. Yeah, I don't know. Did you ever feel like you had to win fans over when you started with this? Because I can imagine there were people at first that just thought this was a schick.

I didn't like it. Oh, for sure. And there's still people that think it's a schick. don't like it, but maybe they don't say. Well, it is a schick. They just, it is a shick. Yeah. There's some people, it's not their cup of tea. But for me, what matters most is the athletes. Do I have the athletes respect? Because if you have the athletes respect, you're going to get the fans. Because the athletes are respected by the fans, the fans look up to the athletes, which me, myself, at my core, I'm a fan. That's why I feel like my questions are speaking in the words,

in the voice of the fans, not necessarily in the voice, but I'm doing the schmoh stick. But I know I feel I have a really good pulse of what the community wants to hear from the subject. Because I'm such a diehard sports fan at root. And that's never going to change. So I know if I can do my shtick in a way to have always maintain the integrity of sport, respect to the athletes, the fans will come. Yeah. And the thing that I love about what you do is there's a lot of reporters and there's a lot

of journalists who are asking questions in order to get a headline. Yes. I love that your questions come from like a general place of curiosity. 100%. you as a fan are genuinely curious and you want to know what the answer is. For sure. And then the headlines will come because I think I know what they're going to say. And these other outlets, the other journalists, their sites end up taking the videos and

making articles and making money. So everybody's making money off it. No problem at all. It feeds the ecosystem. Most importantly, it grows a sport. Fastest growing sport in the world. Absolutely. From the mixed martial arts standpoint.

But yeah, I think that from the standpoint of asking the right questions, To me, I'm not worried about it. If I get caught up worrying about what other people are thinking, other people are doing, I'm not focusing on myself and what good are you if you're not trying to better yourself each day? Yeah. What was your first UFC that you ever watched? Like, I don't mean live. I mean, what was the first ever UFC event you watched?

So when I was in college, I went to University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. My roommate at the time, Scott, he was big into MMA. And Dominic Cruz, obviously fighting a lot in the WEC. from Tucson having his gym in Tucson which that's kind of like that era is what really got me stuck. They were on Spike TV and that of nature and then when I moved to Los Angeles in the early

2010s decade, I don't even know how to clip. What do we call that? The 2010s? The 20s? The early 2010s. We're in the roaring 20s now. They're roaring. They're roaring. I can't believe that was a century ago now. Behind where I lived in Los Angeles there's this bar called cues and they would

always put on the fights and events and Chris Wyman, I remember, was on the come-up. He had the collision course with Anderson Silva. Ronda Rousey, come from Strike Force, come to the USC. I'd run into her running the Santa Monica stairs. And my first reaction was just giving her this huge hug and this huge come-up. And I was watching all the fights in those 2010s, like religiously, but it all started from what I was doing from 2008 to 2000 trial.

That was when I was first introduced to it. But then by 2013 through 2017, I was just really watching from a fan standpoint. I'm working in corporate America, focusing on whatever I can in the sports world, primarily from the NFL on the NBA basis because those are the two largest sports in this country. And in the United States, where you can monetize and biggest fandom, and I was a huge fan of of those sports too. But I would say 2013 through 2017, I wouldn't miss paper views.

That was when it really started. I, we're around the same age. I'm a few years older than you, but like, I remember going to Blockbuster. I was a huge wrestling fan. And then I heard that there was this thing called the Ultimate Fighting Championship where people were actually fighting with quote unquote no rules.

We're going to Blockbuster and looking at VHSs of UFC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, looking on the back and being like, oh, wow, that guy who looks really strong is fighting that guy looks really weak. Let's buy this VHS. It's crazy how far this sport's grown. In such a short period of time, too.

It's like 30 years old. Yeah. And fastest growing sport right now. And just think about, and I say this to people all the time when we're covering people I'm close with, it's like, think about where the NFL was, the NBA was, Major League Baseball by year 30, where they are now. They were like, the UFC is. They were like leather helmets still.

Exactly. And look where we are now and look where it continues to grow. Like back when we first started watching this sport, fighters didn't have a dedicated gym. Like there was no like American top team where you have your jihitsu, your wrestling, your biking, or boxing. you have to go to all these different gyms to get the different disciplines. Now you have these gyms like Sanford, MMA, American Top Team, Extreme Couture, you name it.

I don't want to leave any names out, so I'm just going to stop. But they have the one-stop shop for pretty much everything. And that's why you're seeing the evolution of this sport, partially why you're seeing the evolution of sport. Well, I remember it was probably about 10 years ago with Rory McDonald when they were like, this is the first ever athlete who trained as a mixed martial artist. because everybody else came from a discipline. They were a wrestler who learned how to punch or they were a boxer who learned how to wrestle. And then Rory McDonald came in whenever, he made his debut, I think it was like 19.

And they went, oh, this is like a completely different athlete now. Yeah. And he's a beast. He is a beast. So walk me through, you're about, pretend that I'm an athlete and you're about to interview me and I've never met you before. What does the like the pre-conversation go? Great question. I try to keep it as short.

as possible because I don't want to give it away. I actually pray and hope that these people don't know me. And as I get more popular, they know me beforehand. But when the glasses are on, that's what I'm in character. When they're off, I'm not in character. That's the only way I can keep my sanity. But all I try to say is you're the pro. When I put these on, you're the pro.

I'm the schmow. That's it? Are you ready to go? That's it. That's it. It all rhymes too. Are you ready to go thing? I added the are you ready to go thing because sometimes they say this

I don't, but literally it's built on the premise of when I put these glasses on, you're the pro, I'm the schmoh. And that's all I want to say. I want to say as little as possible to them. And if they want to talk after the interview, we could talk after the interview. But I want to get the best out of them and catch them completely off guard because that's the thing is, you know, when people saw my schick for the first time, too, they just thought it was just another prankster, just another version of a barstool sport. So you're just making fun of everyone and he doesn't know anything about it. But it's like, no, I'm a diehard fan. This is self-deprecation. So the joke's always going to be on me. It's never on the subject. And I'm going to ask him some layups.

I call them layups. But that way, the guards down, I butter them up a little bit so I can really get them to give their raw, honest opinion on a hard-hitting subject that they wouldn't give to somebody else if their approach wasn't the same. And you train yourself too, right? Or you have. In the past. I can't do it as much anymore because with the smartphones and the no-dor- When I go into gyms, people always want photos and stuff of that type of nature. And I feel like I have, I can parlay it to a celebrity about one time. I'm ready to do about whether it's grappling, whether it's boxing or mixed martial arts. I want to do it with the correct dance partner.

And I want to raise enough awareness. And obviously, I want to do this for a good cause. I want to do it for really good charity. Are you going to call out Ariel Hwani again? I mean, I called him out. He didn't, he didn't answer. I mean, he could have handled it a lot better. but there is backstory behind it, which I've addressed too.

But when I was coming up in 2018, my first UFC event that I had covered, I met him. I went up to him, just like how you went up to me, introduced myself to him. He said, you know, I'm a fan. I've been following this sport. This is what I'm doing. And I kind of sought out for him for advice, you know, and everything. He's like, take down my email address. And I've been taking down email addresses for years.

I'm a relentless networker. for some reason that day, he gave me a wrong email address and I never forgot it. And that's the reason that is the backstory of how I called him out about it. Yeah. And he was the right dance partner too. Like he intentionally gave you the wrong email? He says he doesn't. He says I miswrote it down. But listen, I'm in that position when I'm struggling, when I'm paying money out of my own pockets to cover these events and to go X, Y, and Z, I'm not in a position to write down the wrong email address. And in someone in my shoes who's created his own path, built his own brand, has had no money or supports behind him to get to where I'm at and continue to grow, I don't miss write

emails. I don't get that stuff wrong. I've sent hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of emails just trying to get in. So many rejections, so many blanksters, and for some reason that email never went through. Now I confronted with him and I showed him that email. I remember in December of 2019, but all in all, what did he say? No, he, you know, he didn't want it. He doesn't want the fight. I mean, he's never, he'll never, he'll never, on public say anything, acknowledging the callout, the charity grappling.

And then I moved it to basketball, to a charity basketball game. It was never about punching people in the face. It wasn't a, who's a stronger man type thing. It was, no, let's do something. We're two huge names in this sport. Let's do something for charity. Let's raise up the cause. like, like, this is, this is for the fans.

This is for the athletes. This is a good thing. He'd never address that part. It was always, he's trying to use my name to build off of and blah, blah, blah, blah. You go down that route. And it's like, once he went down that route, it's like, I don't need, I don't need you and never needed you. I never want to say that.

Like, my work speaks for itself and I'll prove it. And that's why I just ended talking about it. Yeah. And you're not just a character and you're not just someone who does these interviews. Like, if someone's just seen you on their recommended page on YouTube, I feel like they're only seeing like just the tip of the iceberg here. What else is the rest of the iceberg here? Yeah, I mean, I'm an entrepreneur.

I'm really good with business. I'm really good with marketing. Like brand building is something I obviously excel in because a lot of people can call themselves a social media expert, but anyone could be an expert when you're taking the NFL or a huge property that's already got millions of fans and followers. But if you could start something from zero on scratch, have no push or money behind your back.

nobody to help you out except for yourself and you believe in yourself to the point where you're willing to do whatever it takes. You invest your own money in yourself over and over again. You bet on yourself. That's what it's all about. I'm a fearless. I'm a risk taker. I just love to wake up every day, talk sports and make people laugh. That's the premise. So there's the YouTube channel, which I think is kind of the gateway for a lot of people to find out about you. That's how I found out about you. What else? What else do you have then? Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. Everywhere for social media, the only one I really am not active on is Snapchat. I just feel like...

Who needs to go on Snapchat? Instagram has all the features. TikTok's big on that. Instagram just keeps stealing from everybody. They really do. And Instagram's owned by Facebook, so that's all linked to it. But Instagram and YouTube are my two largest platforms. I still don't know what the hell I'm doing on TikTok, but it works.

Right. Then that's all that matters. Right. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm a very. I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clevenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking.

I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. soccer podcast, presented by Henco. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

What is part of the business of being the Schmo? Shmoh, sure. So as part of the Schmell, I'm wearing my Shmozone T-shirt. or I do a weekly podcast with Helen, my better have. People can go listen to that wherever to listen to this. Yes, they can listen to that wherever. And it's also on the YouTube channel. It's just not as often as the Schmo and the Pro, but the Shmo's own podcast.

It's on the same channel? It's on the same channel. I talk like this, but obviously we always have an athlete or a guest, so people aren't always hearing the questions that you bring up because, you know, I just figured it will happen over time. And here we are in a situation like this where you're a good guy, you have a great platform, and we're having a conversation. And so the Schmo Zone.

And then about six months ago, I started the Triple C and Schmo show, which is its own YouTube channel with Olympic gold medalists and double champ champ and the UFC Henry Sehudo and the flyweight division where I am the Schmo. I also do a Tuesday night trivia show with the Instagram page Fight Club, which is partially owned by Michael Bisping. And just MMA trivia questions. I work with UFC Ultimate Sound, which it's called ACX, which is a music point. partner of the UFC where it's a music segment where I interview the athletes, the MMA fighters, asking them about their walkout music, their favorite artists and stuff like that. And I'm probably missing some other things, but I mean, I have my hands dipped in a lot of different levels there.

Sounds to me just from the outside looking in that you're spreading yourself pretty thin here. I'm starting to, but... Because a lot of this, you're not even including it. A lot of this includes a lot of travel. Oh, yeah, I travel pretty much at minimum twice. a month. Like you and I three days ago were in Dallas. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes I could be a space cadet where I could forget these things. Yes, I would be in Jacksonville right now, but Henry Sehudo and I are going to be hosting a watch party on Millions.com Saturday evening, live reactions to the fights. Then we'll

do our show, the Triple Scene Shmos show afterwards. It's a post-fight breakdown of what just went on. So we'll be in Arizona. I'm probably going to go to San Jose next weekend for Bellator. There's a huge Bellator card. And Bellator, they need to do better job promoting themselves. But But you got A.J. McKee, who's their number one pound for pound guy. He's got the rematch with Pitbull. You got Corey Anderson fighting Nemcoff for the light heavyweight championship. I mean, they have some great matchups. They just got to market better. I'm going to cover that. I know there's some boxing coming up here in Vegas, top rank Shikor, Stevenson, Valdez. That'll be the 30th. So I'm not just UFC. I'm wherever. And the NFL draft will be here at the end

of the month. I'm going to do that as well. Man, that's a lot. That's a lot. have you seen any like schmoe imitators yeah and i and i think um helen laughs at me all the time but there's a lot of i'd say journalists that are trying to do a lot of things that i'm doing and i i think imitation is the best form of flattering but if you're trying to copy someone you're always going to be two steps behind them why would you want to be too i've seen people trying to i have this little schmow sash and by the way it took me 31 years of life before i could finally grow facial here i try to do a little schmosh congratulations on hitting puberty i appreciate man. Some people, it's 13, 16s, others it's 31, and I fall in that category.

So whether it's just growing a little stash or slicking their hair back, I started to grow this schmohawk out because everyone started doing the fade with the lines. And I'm like, I got to switch up the look a little bit. And then I started noticing media members wearing turtlenecks. No one, no media members were wearing turtlenecks and blazers when I was doing this. Nobody in general is wearing a turtleneck really, unless you're the rock in that classic photo. Yes. The Rock, but he didn't have a blazer on any war a chain. The Schmoe hasn't worn a chain yet. But the Rock's the man. I love the rock. The Rock's on the bucket list too for interviews. He is the best. If you have the chance, it will be the greatest interview you've ever done.

Amazing. Yeah. Guesbumps. Who has been the best reaction? If you don't tell people what's going to happen during the interview, what's been the best reaction when you just go right into it? Sure. I've had a priceless reaction from Tyson Fury. The first time I interviewed him, we were singing like smash mouth. all-star to because he's a great singer. He's one of the best interviews I've done, larger than life. Bill Walton, complete legend. You know, I'm a huge NBA nerd. So interviewing

Bill Walton and getting his reaction and becoming friends with him over the years, that is always very meaningful to me. The most viral YouTube interview I have right now is Yowell Romero. It was actually the Super Bowl in Miami, Radio Row, which I think, by the way,

Radio Row was the best week for interviews in all professional sports. You get Everybody's there. Everybody's there. Everybody's there. That's my favorite. Are you getting credentialed for yourself? I'm credentialed for the Shmozone.

That's incredible. Yeah. Wow. And I think that this is also something that anybody that's listening to this or watching this right now that wants to like be in this position that you're in or that I'm in is to realize you can build this up on your own. Correct. But when I got in, I wasn't credentialed on the Shmozone.

I was credentialed under independent broadcasting station. that was they needed a sports reporter so I was filling in for them that's how I was getting credentialed wow I would ask you who your favorite interviews been but I feel like that's like really cliche so I'm gonna ask you what's been your favorite shmomen my favorite shmomen and I love how you put that by the way because I've had a lot of a lot of great schmomomens um Mike Tyson's probably up there I recently was able to play basketball with Floyd mayweather that was that was a bucket list how does that happen i don't know i don't know how that happens i don't know how i get invited to something like it's a lot of the best things in life just happened completely randomly when i interviewed bill

goldberg because goldberg 173 you know at one point who's next when i had him meet me for the first time and grab my neck and throw me off when i said who's next you are schmoe and he pushes me off camera with it holding my neck and everything i thought that was fantastic because that was just a piece of my childhood coming to life. I'll give you a great Goldberg story. I did an interview with him a few years ago, and my friend is his manager, so we did this interview, and we were at like a charity event. There was like a barbecue thing going on like jumping castles.

And I go to my friend, I go, do you think Bill would put me up in the jackhammer? It's like, I don't know. I'll ask him. Hey, Bill, would you put Chris up in the jackhammer? He's like, oh, sure. Comes over and like literally, three seconds later, I'm up in the jackhammer. And I got hundreds of thousands, millions of views online. It's amazing.

That's fantastic. That's fantastic. That's what makes it so much better. Like when you could do things like that, like you're reliving the best moments of your childhood. Yeah. And then the last one that also comes to mind is when I was throwing popcorn at Tio. And I think Tio, Terrell Owens is one of my,

to me, I credit him in the early stage of the Schmo. He was the third guest I had on the Schmo and the pro. Wow. He's what put me on the map, like in terms of, oh, NFL players like, oh, he had Tio on? Oh, come. on the show with him and stuff like that. And Tio, just throwing popcorn, doing the sit-ups and push-ups on the driveway. And we've had a great relationship ever since. So that's definitely

up there for some moments. What's your advice for somebody who's trying to get into this? Because I think it shifted a lot, right? Like you and I came up in the era of the quote-unquote traditional media. Yeah. Where you had to be with an outlet. Yeah. Now it's completely different. It's completely different. You have to be willing to take a step sideways or step backwards in order to ever move forward. And that's what I tell people all the time. And no events too small. People ask me all the time, how do I become an MMA journalist and stuff? Reach out, find out who the closest regional scene is. Find out who's running it. Offer to do it for free. I work so much for free in order to get in. There are so many times where I've struggled to make money just to

continue the journey that I love. And if you truly love this, you will find a way. You have to be dogged. You have to be consistent. Consistency is key. If you're just trying to start, a podcast or start a show and you do it once here and there and your audience does not know when to tune in and you're not consistent, they're going to fall off the map. You can never build it that way. So believe in yourself. Self belief is huge. Have the confidence.

Have the consistency and go out and just do it. And you can't be afraid. And sometimes you just don't see results. I remember the early days of the triple scene show show. And we're still growing this. I remember our producers like, we're not, we don't have enough subscribers and stuff like that. And I said, hold the phone here. Hold the phone here.

If you build it, they will come. It doesn't happen overnight. You have to continue to grind, continue to show up. If your work is truly the best, people will watch. Yeah. As macho man talked about famously, the cream. The cream. Rice did the tap.

You know, I think there's a lot of people that get into podcasting, for example, and they put out 12 episodes and they go, nobody's listening. And I always say to those people, how many people do you think we're listening to Joe Rogan after 12 episodes? Yes, exactly. How many people do you think we're listening to Joe Rogan after 2112 episodes? And now here he is at 1800 episodes. episodes and it's a completely different story.

Yeah. Because he did it and we all do it because you love it and you, if you're not loving it, if you don't love every part of it, you need to stop right now. Oh, for sure. And like, I didn't start having success in terms of the character and everything until I taught myself how to edit. I was so reluctant for years and learning the editing process. You have to learn everything.

You have to be willing to swim in the muck. There's going to be great days. There's going to be shitty days. There's going to be things that you hate to do. but if you love what you're doing, as in you want to get somewhere, you're going to have to enjoy the process. You're going to have to embrace the process, even the parts that you don't like.

Yeah. Did you bring, did I see you brought the schmow glasses? I brought the schmow glasses. Is this kind of like Clark Kent and Superman here? You know, it's in terms of what you're going to get if I put them on, yes. Let's see what happens. I mean, here, here's the glasses. I know you wanted me to bring them. I got them here.

These are my shmoglass lines. I did sell them. They will be back on sales soon. I just pause with the whole NFT thing. What does a pair of Schmo glasses cost? I think I was selling them for 65. Wow. But they were all custom.

They're all custom made. They actually have a purpose too. What people don't realize is... Why don't you tell me this as the Schmo? All right, Chris. What people don't realize is with these Schmo glasses, they really help with bright lights. Bright lights, they could have a lot of glaring effects on your eyes,

especially if you're looking at the screen, or if you're cage side for an MMA event, for a boxing match. They help take all that excesses. light out. I hit the off button there. The Schmo's all over the place. Oh, this is so good. I love what you do to your face when you become the Schmo. All the facial characteristics. That's the Chris Farleys, man, the John Belushi's. I studied those guys. The Mike Myers, comedies about what you can do with your face, the facial expressions. Sometimes when the Schmo's interviewing the guess,

he leans in there, who stares at the camera there. There's a lot of different things that the Schmo study from these comedic legends over time. Okay, can you take the glasses off for a second? I have a very serious question that I want to end with. I've loved this, by the way. David, thank you. Schmo, thank you so much. I love, I'm all about gratitude. And I start and end every day,

saying out loud three things that I'm grateful for. So perhaps I'll ask you and then I'll also ask the Schmo. Sure. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Most important is good health. Your health is your wealth. And just being healthy and being active, being able to wake up each day and breathe and smell the fresh air.

That's what I'm far most thankful for. Yeah. Secondly, I'm most thankful for my inner circle, to my better half Helen, to my supporting parents. My parents are my biggest fans, my younger brother, my immediate family, my close friends that always believe in me, even when I was struggling through the darkest days, they know who they are. I'm grateful for them.

And then, most importantly, I'm just grateful for good human beings. Good human beings, the athletes I interview, the fans that support everything I'm doing, and just people that are willing to show. compassion, show empathy to others, and, you know, make this world a better place because I feel like with all the noise and the social media and the situation we're in, having the pandemic, having the situation now in Russia, I don't talk politics, by the way, because immediately, to me, you talk politics, that divides half your audience. You'll never hear me talk about politics, but I just think there's so much negativity in the world. So I appreciate the

people that go out of their way to keep things positive. I just want to acknowledge you, like all of the hard work that you've put in to, for you as David, but also for you as the shmo, all the hard work that you've put in, it's all paying off. So I just want to acknowledge you for like all those things that you did for free or all those things where you were paying your own way to get there. It's all like paid off. It's all worth it. So I just want to acknowledge you for that. I appreciate it. I really do. And thank you for coming by. This has been so entertaining and also like so motivating. There's so many people that want to do what you're doing. And I think that when somebody can see somebody that is doing it and see somebody that it's

successful doing it, they can then reverse engineer their way back. And I'm willing to help anyone who's willing to put in the work. But so many people say they want it, but how bad do they really want it? Yep. You have to be a dog. Thank you. Thank you. Well, there we go, my friends. Big thank you to The Schmo for joining us in the Blue Wire Studios. Big thank you, of course, to you for being with us. You can check out Dave on social media at the Schmo 312. And when you're done with this episode in like 40 seconds, check out his podcast, the Triple C and Schmo Show.

He does it with UFC fighter Henry Sehudo. And share this episode with someone that you know will love this. Take a screenshot, tag us on social media. Let us know what stood out for you the most. and you know me. I love these stories of people who bet on themselves. They're just so inspiring and so encouraging to me. So I'm going to continue to bring these kinds of conversations to you from people of all different walks of life.

I will leave you with this. I tweeted it out yesterday. It seemed to resonate with a lot of you, so I'll give it to you here as well. At any minute, someone can come along and change your life. that person is you. Be great, be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. 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 Allie.

heard it then to rock bottom dude i was born in nineteen eighty seven i can't believe he's doing this hammer alley follow and listen on your favorite platform