Life Wide Open with CboysTV - YouBetcha is Creating a Midwest Media Empire

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

Fellow Midwest creator Myles Montplaiser aka YouBetcha Guy joins the podcast. He breaks down when your "everyday" shoes become your mowing shoes, how short and tight your jorts should be, and gives out some tips on how to be a smart creator.  YouBetcha Socials  Instagram @OhhYouBetcha  Facebook OhhYouBetcha  Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/youbetcha  Follow us on Instagram @cboystv and @lifewideopenpodcast To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's everything you need to make a podcast in one point. place. Download the free anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. Hey, well, welcome back to the Lifewide Open podcast. We've been traveling for two weeks. We're finally back home. It feels good. We got a special guest on today, a fellow Midwest creator, Miles Mont Pleasure, aka the You Betcha Guy. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. We've run into each other a few times, and I think it was good that we got together finally. You know, I think our audiences are a little bit difference, exactly. But the Midwest is the Midwest, so I think it works. I got a funny story about that. So every time I, you know, I'm sure you have conversations like this, someone will ask

me, what do you do for a living on? I'm a YouTuber and they go, oh, really? You ever, you ever heard of the, you betcha guy? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, of course. I'm like, nice. Yeah, you should see if you can do something with him. He's so funny. More times than I can count. Yeah, well, we're here. We're finally doing something. I know. We're finally doing it. So when people come up to you, being that we're both from the Midwest and they go, what do you do for a living? How do you explain that you make videos for the internet? Yeah, so I've kind of now just resorted to saying that I run a media company

and kind of roll with it that way. But at first it was like when you're trying to explain, now like most of the time people have seen the videos, at least have an idea. But I remember when I told my parents that I was going to do this and they're like, yeah, but this like isn't a job. Like what are you going to hide? you're going to pay the bills you know luckily we've kind of gotten to the point where being a

YouTuber and and being uh posting videos online is like much more of like an acceptable job exactly but it makes it easier to just be like yeah we just create content online so yeah yeah and how would you describe what you do are you a comedian are you a skit maker like what would you say yeah it's it's a very loaded question um i'm definitely not a comedian uh my buddy charlie barrens He's a true comedian. If you don't know him, he does similar stuff to us, but he also is a stand-up guy and he travels around and does tours and stuff. And when he was in Fargo, I did a hot five is what they call that,

of going up and doing five minutes of your own little stand-up jokes and stuff. And, you know, it was all right. People were kind of already wanting to laugh because they've seen my videos before. so it's not like a cold audience. But after I was done, I was like, yeah, I don't think I want to do this. So you didn't want to do stand-up? No, I don't do any stand-up at all. I also like the business stuff more than probably other people who create content.

And if you're on the road for 10 weeks, you're not going to be able to run a very good business behind the scenes. So back to the original question of what I would just say I'm a content creator. that's that's boil it down to that because we do podcasts we do videos um you know we've dabbled in blogs and stuff before but that's just you guys are you're building an empire we've been watching for i mean at least two years now and i mean we're big fans we love what you're doing um but yeah you guys are just you're killing it the goal now is kind of what's is to make it so it's a little bit bigger than just me right because it's like i always tell Ryan, he's sitting over there, the t-shirt guy.

He's kind of your right-hand man. Yeah, he's been there since the beginning. But it's like if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, like, our business is kind of done. Right. You know, or like what you guys have is, you know, is more than just one person and all that. And I think that's one thing that I'm trying to do

is make it into more than having other creators underneath us and stuff like that. That's kind of what I noticed. You're almost like a bar stool in a way. You have all these subdivisions of different shows and just different things you're doing. Yeah, I think that Barstool is interesting because they kind of blaze the trail for content creators and that it doesn't have to just be, you know, you're by yourself doing your own thing. It can be a group of people. And I think that they've done a good job with that.

And their model is definitely, it's interesting because they have a lot of creators that they're paying that aren't necessarily bringing the company money. Right. And that kind of the top people are supporting the rest of the company. And so it's kind of an interesting business model. But, yeah. So is that something that you want to do is continue to bring on different creators? Are you trying to find them at, like, the ground level?

Or would you rather pick up a creator that's already, like, established? Yeah, I don't know. We've kind of done both now. I think what really matters more is kind of the jockey on the horse rather than kind of where they're at, you know? does one gal that works that does content with us that she submitted we'd had like a little contest

she submitted and we're like she's not going to win this but there's just something about how she's presenting herself like she's not the funniest person in the room but she like you can clearly understand she knows how to like put out content that's like creates conversation and relatability she gets it

yeah so it's kind of like you have to kind of weigh in all that different stuff like you don't just have to be the funniest person in the room or anything like that to create really good content. Ryan Shealy knows that pretty well. He doesn't have to be. He's not very funny, but he gets views on the internet, right, Ryan?

You have your accountant on one, don't you? Yeah, so we got, basically we started a business podcast, not necessarily because I'm like the most qualified. It's just something that I like to do. Right, you're going to have those conversations anyway. Yeah, everything we do. It's not qualified, but we like doing it.

Yeah, it's like, Well, I found that if you just exclaim on the internet enough times, people just think you're an expert. Like, I just decided that I was going to be a ranch dressing expert, you know? I saw that. And we did a series for a while. We actually had two, like, stints doing it of, it was called the Ranch Rangler. And you just, like, say that you know what good ranch is and you post enough posts about it.

And all of a sudden you think somebody's going to question you? This guy doesn't know his ranch. This guy knows his way around the bottom of rank. Well, that's what you've got to be nervous about. It's like, there's actually maybe a guy who's actually a ranch connoisseur calls you out. Now you got internet beef? Yeah, blind taste tests, you know, because I was notoriously hating on Hidden Valley Ranch because I just don't think it's that good.

Yeah, I'd rather have like a homemade. Well, what's funny is there's a lot of homemade ranches that are made from the Hidden Valley packet, like the powder. Right. So it's kind of whatever. But the actual stuff that comes out of the bottle, I'm not necessarily a big fan of. and that was like people are like we'll put that up against another one and see which one you like blind taste tests and so yeah you're like it's just range

yeah it's a weird it's a weird life I live fading ranch with uh keyboard warriors on the internet so you're mostly Facebook and I would say Facebook is notorious for keyboard keyboard warriors right we definitely came up on Facebook we kind of hit the timing right where Facebook wanted to compete with YouTube on their long-form content. So they were kind of pushing long-form stuff. And we kind of hit it at the right time where they were doing that. And then they also started monetization like YouTube does. And so we built an audience there.

We kind of tailored our content to be shareable and tagging friends and stuff like that. And so that's kind of our audience grew the fastest. And then on top of that, we've just been trying to slowly grow all the other ones. and TikTok has been one that was fun to try and figure out and it was kind of like the race to a million followers on there

it's so interesting because I mean when you, so we'll repurpose like a YouTube video for Facebook and in order to make it like pop which we still haven't mastered by any means it has to be completely recut and, you know, tailored for the Facebook viewer whereas like a Facebook video

you know I mean I guess it could work on YouTube but for us it It wouldn't necessarily be ideal. I imagine it's probably got to be cut a little tighter, right? Yeah, exactly. A little bit faster just because. You get the plane off right away. Yeah, whereas, like, I feel like on YouTube, you click on a video and you're like,

you're committed, I'll give this at least a couple minutes. Right. That I'll watch it, whereas on Facebook, you have like 10 seconds or I'm just going to keep going. Do you mind going back and kind of just telling us what all spark this? Like, how did you get into this? Were you making videos for a long time or did this? Yeah, so once I started doing this, I kind of like thought back to like, you know, was there any like was I doing videos before and growing up it wasn't like a passion of mine or

anything but I do remember me and my younger brother would take the family video camera and we made our own parody sports center so it was like you know and and I was like the buttoned up guy who was like trying to keep it serious and he was like he was wearing like a Kobe Bryant jersey underneath a blazer and it's like you know probably was not funny to anyone but us but like that's kind of I would say like where it all started is just mess and around with the family video camera after college so well one i went to college so my dad owed a concrete construction business um and i don't know if you guys have ever worked concrete before but oh you don't want to work concrete tough work yes my dad always joked he said that i made you

work concrete growing up so that you would go get a college degree um and wouldn't have to work concrete the rest of your life not that that's it's just really tough work and it wears you down and whatever. But the first thing I did after I got a college degree was I went back and I wore concrete for a year. And I was like, my dad's right. I don't want to be doing this forever. So me and another guy in Fargo started a like social media business.

You know, we basically, it was just me and another guy trying, like somehow convincing businesses to let us run their social media. Because you went to college for marketing or what? I went to college. I got an exercise science degree, if you can believe that. Yeah. I mean, so I play college football, so, like, that's what you do. Yeah.

You either become a gym teacher or a personal trainer if you're a college football athlete, you know. Okay. Or you do well enough and you try and use your name to be an insurance agent. Right. Or a realtor, you know. Like, you look at all the local. That is true. Sports stars.

They end up becoming an insurance agent, a realtor or a car salesman. There is some truth in that. Yeah, because they just use your name. That's funny. But people love them. People love them. Yeah, 100%. But, yeah.

Those are kind of the paths that you choose But I always liked marketing and stuff like that And so we luckily convinced a few people to I don't know Let us run their social medias And we were really bad to start I can't believe that they let us do that That was probably the course of two or three years

Where at one point me Between me and another guy We had to edit like 30 videos They weren't like long videos But like minute to two minute videos in a month. Holy crap. And like, so I think that all those reps that we got kind of like laid the foundation

for what you bet you ended up becoming of figuring out what does well on social media, how to edit a video, so work like that. And then what was it like, four months before I started, you betcha? I was like, I got this idea for a page. The thesis was that everything that's happening on TV is going to happen on the internet and like someone's going to do it, right? like the action sports television shows you guys are now that like that's that's what you guys are the new age the internet version of that and i was like well someone's going to it's just

going to niche down a little bit more i'm like someone's going to be like the midwest page right the entertainment for people in the midwest so like let's just try it out um it kind of started more of like a lake page of like lake content right boating stuff like that and then it just kind of morphed into more the Midwest on a broader scale. And luckily, we had a video blow up on Facebook that kind of laid the foundation. It was comparing a bushlight to a spotted cow. I don't know if there were been to Wisconsin and had a... They love their spotted cow.

Yeah. And I didn't... It's sacred to them. And I absolutely pissed them all off by saying that the bushlight was better than the spotted cow. He did. I'd have to agree, honestly. Yeah. Well, and I've been repairing that relationship with Wisconsin ever since.

But it turns out if you can trigger a few people, that's a good way to get a video to go viral. It's true. I was going to ask, because you make all these stereotype videos. So, like, eventually one of these stereotypes has to get pissed off. Like, that's not how we are. You know, does that happen? We're pretty strategic of, like, making sure that what we're saying is, like, has

credibility. Yeah. Yeah, like, making fun of people who have trigger grills, not like making fun of, you know, like a certain group of... A shitty Coleman or like something like that. Or like attacking Yeti because... I have seen the Yeti beef.

Yeah. The Yeti beef is funny. So you don't you don't fuck with Yeti just to be clear. Well, what's actually very funny is... Well, no, I don't. What's very funny is I actually own a lot of Yeti products now because we buy them for the videos. but I'm like it sucks because I'm like I can't be seen in public with a Yeti

you know so it's like I just have these like Yeti products just sitting there doing nothing I should probably like give them away to like family or whatever but you've got the $300 lawn chair sitting in the garage I actually I actually do still have that and it's like I have become what I've hated it was like a weird moment where you're sitting there and you're like you look around you get the cooler the $80 lunch box the $50 bottle opener, all the stuff sitting there. You're like, wait, am I a Yeti snob? On accident, but, uh, yeah.

And then that, well, and that stemmed to make the, the, the, you betty, the, where I just took two inch insulation foam, um, and duct taped it together and I actually did like an ice test and it actually like three days later had ice still in the, really, because that's what a Yeti is. Yeah. It's just insulation foam wrapped in plastic. Right. So it was like, that was kind of a fun little project.

Is the U-Beddy coming this spring? I've actually thought, me and Ryan actually have done this before where we were like, we could, you know, like wine and the canvas and wine things that gals go to, like, where they drink wine and then they like all paint a picture together. Yeah. We were like, we should have a U-Betty making class where you drink bushlight and you make a U-Betty. And all you need was be insulation, foam, duct tape. and that's about it

but we never ended up doing it the logistics weren't as good as what we wanted but do you guys do coolers do you sell coolers no we've talked about it but it's kind of a business nightmare of right you got to make it good well not even that it's where do you store a thousand coolers true

you know it's like three cubic feet of cooler times a thousand that's you know it's just a lot of space and all that to do But, yeah, we've definitely thought about it. But then it's also, too, it's like making it so that it's priced appropriately. You can't be the... Can't be shitty, but it also can't be expensive.

Yeah, it's a whole thing. Right, because if you come out here and you make all these videos shit, not Yeti, and then you drop a product that isn't even comparable. Well, yeah, it's like you want to put out a cooler that's similar to an igloo that costs $40. But it's like the reason why it costs $40 because they produce them on a huge level. so you, like, would be making razor-thin margin. It's a whole thing, but, yeah. And there'd be you, betty haters.

Yeah. Be a nightmare. Then I'm fighting with keyboard warriors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We find it's best just not to even respond. Do you ever, like, go back and forth ever? Like, if someone's totally in the wrong, do you just shut them up real quick or no? Yeah, I will be snarky at times.

Depends on the mood. You're right. I think as I've gotten more busy. Well, yeah, I just have done less of that. there has been times where I've wrote out a full comment and then just like sat there for a second and I just deleted it. I'm not doing this.

Yeah. But yeah, it's because we try and do actual rational arguments on things that we tend to have less haters than people who are just trying to do outlandish things for clicks. We put a lot of thought into what we're actually posting. Does it make sense or not? So that kind of helps with not having as many negative comments.

Well, and your viewers. are like the nicest people in the country. The Midwest. I had to imagine most... So is your audience mostly Midwest? Yeah, so it's... All the Midwest states are up there. And then it's like Texas, Florida, like rural Florida.

Right. And then the northeast are kind of the areas of the country. Like upstate New York is very similar to the Midwest, Pennsylvania. I mean, it makes sense. It kind of just goes along that chain. But yeah. Yeah, it's... We kind of got the Midwest covered.

It's kind of an, it was an underserved market of, like, no one was putting out content. Like, it was always, everyone's just shitting on the Midwest for, you know, the middle of nowhere. Basically, do you guys have internet there? Do you still ride horses everywhere? Yeah. Those comments, you're like, okay, well, we're, you know, quality of life here is infinitely better than you and your New York apartment that costs eight grand for 300 square feet. So what do you, who's the smarter one here? Right.

Yeah, I think people find us interesting, too, because we're from the Midwest and they can watch us do all these videos and things. And they're like, first off, I didn't even know that people lived in Minnesota. But second off, how do you do all this stuff? Isn't there like skyscrapers everywhere? Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, it just works for our content. You got to create your content around where you live.

Well, what's funny is when I watch your guys's videos, I must be like now crossing the threshold to being like my dad because I watch your guys videos and the first day it pops into my head is so dumb but it's like God the local law enforcement really got to hate these so it's like funny

that it's like yeah I don't know you guys are driving your go carts on the main road and I'm like local law enforcement don't like these guys very much. I can't imagine they love it but it brings busts in the area we never uh we never really cause much

trouble because it'll be like a Tuesday and out here, no one, no one's out on the road on a Tuesday. That's kind of the weekend warriors type of. And yeah, and we do a good job of, like, we don't want to bother people. Right. Yeah, yeah. Like, we're very meticulous. Like, we would never, you know, cause trouble in front of someone out front of their house or whatever.

Yeah, I suppose that law enforcement might not. Well, not. Like, whether they, you guys probably have a good relationship with them and they've talked to them about, yes. But it's like, that's why I went like. Like total dad mode of like, well, you know, should you be driving that go car? I'm like, oh, God, I'm turned it into my dad. Like, this is, I'm, I'm now lame. I am lame that that's a thought that pops into my head.

So you're coming up with these videos. I feel like every single one of your videos is extremely relatable to anyone who has growing up in the Midwest or even those places that you had just previously mentioned. What's your creative process of like coming up with this? Is it just you? Is it like, is Ryan's something? there with you like how do you come up with the ideas and and make it all happen well it's what's actually funny is like you know you go to a family reunion and probably your best spot to get content

you're like you're like building a video in your head as you're at the family reunion you know like I think that that's kind of how a lot of stuff comes about is you're out with your friends at the bar got your ear to the ground what kind of sucks and you guys probably know this about content is like you really never turn it off because you'll say something about that's a great video I Hold on, let me write it down. Like my notes list is so far. Yeah, and I think that that, just having your ear to the ground, paying attention to how people interact.

I think my personality just kind of naturally points stuff like that out. So I think that that helps. And then obviously we have a team behind us that will bring ideas to the table and we will brainstorm and do all of that. How to make it better. Our best ideas come from just like, well, now what's kind of nice is our podcast feeds a lot of our like longer form video ideas because it'll just be us talking about bullshit you know like what everyone does and then we put out a clip on that and that does

really well so like hey we had our how to drink patio beers video yeah watch that yeah that stemmed from just a bit on the podcast talking about drinking patio beers and so that's like also been a good way to almost like test market it right which is kind of weird but you can kind of get an idea of how uh everyone reacts to it or yeah it's like almost like a focus group without doing a focus group type of thing, which has been fun. How many podcasts and videos are you doing, let's say, just a month? Because you're putting out a lot of content. Yeah, so at our company, we have 18 employees now.

Probably five or six are just on the merchandise side of it and fulfilling orders and retail stuff. And then the rest is content creators. We have three full-time content creators. And then we have some part-time guys that are doing other stuff in the company that also, you know, our breakfast ball podcast, they are, you know, running other stuff. But then they do the podcast together. And so I would say the podcast, we have, you know, you bet your radio, which is the main one that we're on. That's kind of the one we put our weight behind.

I also do a raging workaholics podcast where it's just me talking about business stuff. And then we have a hot dish podcast, which is the gals in our office. kind of have their own podcast. Breakfast Ball podcast, so probably like four or five. But again, we have editors that do with that and create clips. And oh, and then we're also launching a new podcast with Charlie Barron's. Oh, nice. Called the Bellied Up podcast that is actually a call-in show.

Oh, really? So we put out like, hey, call into this number. and like we did the Midwest advice and a gal called in from Germany and was like, hey, I'm born and raised in Germany. What can I do to be more Midwestern?

Is that a joke? No. And then Charlie Barron's told her that all she's got to do to be Midwestern is hit a deer with her car. I was like, oh my God, you're telling people to get in traffic accidents. That's not good.

That's so true. though. Yeah, that's like the, that's like the christening. Like now you are Midwestern by hitting a deer with her car. So true. But yeah, so we got that and then they all, everyone kind of creates their own content on top of that. When you bring these employees on, do you kind of have them, you know, almost make their own schedules or, or decide like what they're doing throughout the day or as like the boss? How do you keep them busy? We actually don't really have set hours. It's like more so you have set things you need to get done you know you got to put out a podcast every week you got to put out x amount of videos every week and then you just make that happen and how you do it and what time

you do it and all that is kind of up to each individual creator the figuring out how to not micromanage everyone is like now the stage that i'm at of letting go and letting people be creative and do all that it's been tough um but sometimes you just get to a point where when you're trying to like control everything yeah you get so exhausted from doing that you're you're like finally just like you know what screw it i don't even care anymore it does it it it does it it yeah and then it ends up going better so it's yeah it's definitely a learning curve on that side of it so there isn't a like a schedule and like they're not like hey on tuesdays we film you bet you rate it well maybe you do have that yes yeah so we have like a schedule like that but um everyone kind

of sets their own schedule of when they're posting this video and not they kind of do it week by week we want to get to planning i mean you guys maybe feel this maybe maybe you guys do plan further ahead but we've like never been able to plan more than like two weeks ahead just because I don't know part of that is the company's taken on my personality and I'm like push everything off till last minute sometimes your best work comes out in the last minute thank you Ryan because Ryan's the exact opposite he wants to plan way ahead and I'm like you know what but I'm going to be so much smarter in two days right what if I think of a better idea in the next two days then you know then we're screwed yeah there's something to be said about putting

it down to the last minute and then that's when you really do put in your best work like when we're editing videos we'll we'll have a video filmed like a week in advance and we mean cjs don't even start editing it until the morning that we have to drop it at seven but it's a grind i mean we show up six a m and we go tell seven yeah maybe you get like lunch but but when we just tell ourselves like we don't have a choice we have to make it done then it's like And we're probably a little more, you know, this is going to be cut right here. And I'm not even going to think twice about it. And it's probably the right decision.

And you have this like ideal thing in your head right of that someday I'm going to have my shit together. Right. And it won't be like this. Yeah. And then another day, another week, another month, another year comes as the same shit over and over again. You need the pressure though. So like we tried, we tried editing yesterday to get a little bit ahead because we knew we were going to run the podcast and we're planning on dropping a video tonight.

Yeah. So we, I mean, we got the most part of it done, but I was planning like, oh, I'm just going to have it all done. I just couldn't. Yeah. I just couldn't. I was like, I got so much time. Like, once we get done on the podcast, I'll probably have like seven hours left.

Like, this is just a little two hour bit. Is that a Midwestern thing? I don't know. Ryan, how do you feel? He's like, I hate it. I think it's a personality thing. Right. I think it's like the, if you're a creative person, like a lot of content creators are, they

naturally are more procrastinators. and all of that, and I think that's probably part of it. Yeah, I feel like if you have too much time, then you almost overthink it. Yeah. You have to have, like, there's a certain amount.

It can't be like too little, though, because then you're just going to... Well, we actually have run into that with our videos where we will, like, have sunk a way too much time into something, and we're like, the internet's going to hate this. It's not funny. Yeah, we just put way too much thought and effort into it

and that it actually made it worse because we overthought things and all that. Sometimes you just got to run it, man. Yeah, that's the beauty of the internet as it is very run and gun at times. For the most part, you could have the best video last week. It doesn't really matter next week or this week because there's something new going on or whatever. Well, like, I haven't think about like, what if just less people were on the internet when you posted it that day because it was nice out? Right.

No, there's a lot of things. There's so many factors that it's, you just have to almost try and make good content and not get too bent out of shape if something you think is. well doesn't and you break down analytics like do you kind of analyze and try to figure out yeah we look at things like watch time and um thumbnail click through rate retention yeah we're starting to get more into youtube it's one of those things too though like are we kind of have a style that if we were to do the classic youtube style it doesn't like fit ours so we're like trying to find a a thing that will that YouTube algorithm likes but also like still fits our brand and we're not just becoming the like you know over the top YouTuber because that's not our style and it works

on YouTube but we just are we're in the middle of figuring that yeah but yeah I feel like your audience too has got to be I mean most like your jokes and you know the way the video is tailored the people is tailored to you got to be I mean I'd say at least 20 You've got to be able to kind of have a little bit of life behind you Where you can understand like, oh, I do that Yeah, I think where we relate to a younger audience is like, oh, yeah, my dad is doing that stuff. True, very true. And I think that that's been kind of there.

But you're right, like either I will have to figure out a way to appeal to a younger audience Or we'll have to hire someone that does or whatever. You'd be surprised, though, YouTube is, there's quite a bit of older, you know what I mean. It's the same thing with TikTok. Everyone's like, oh, yeah. 14-year-old kids are dancing on TikTok and it's like the amount of moms and whatever that are 40 years old that scrolls TikTok all night. Three hours a day.

Yeah, it's, I think that the internet's maturing that way where it's like less like I don't go on that platform because I'm this old. It's kind of everyone's on everything now. It's really funny because, yeah, we'll be, like, I'll go to the gas station and it'll be like a really little kid. Like, I mean, I'm like, I don't know if they should really be watching this type. But like seven.

And now you're sounding like your dad. Right. And I'll say hi or whatever, take a picture. But then I go to the bar that night and it'll be like a 55, six year old man. He's like, man, I used to be just like you when I was your age. And, you know, so it's such a... Yeah, it's such a broad spectrum. Which is good.

I'd like it. I feel like that's the best way to have it. The thing with kids now is like they're so glued to the iPad, which is kind of funny. We've talked about it. But how funny is it that, like, like, we're like, God, that iPad's going to rot their brain. And, like, our parents were like, that N64 is going to rot your brain. And then their parents said that the TV was going to, you know,

and then their parents said the radio was going to rot their brain. And, like, people used to literally sit in a living room next to the radio and just listen like this. You imagine. I know. I know. But I suppose now people do it. They just have headphones in. They just do a podcast.

But it's just funny because it just goes in cycles. It's the same thing over. You ever think about... We're all just on the loop, which is kind of sad, but... You ever think about how back when you were a kid, they were like, don't sit too close to the TV. Yeah. Don't sit too close.

Now they got the fucking goggles. What's funny is like, and of course, my personality, like, oh, don't put my face too close. I'm like this close. You can see each individual pixel. You know, it's like, yeah, and I'm really doing bad now, right? It's just, it's dumb. What's your opinion on the metaverse?

Metaverse. I think we're a ways out. I think it's going to happen. Yeah. I mean, why would kids go and try and line up going to the mall and hanging out together when they could just go to the virtual mall sitting on their couch and talk to their friends and see them and high-five them in the virtual world? So I think that that's eventually where we're going. I mean, COVID was a great example of the metaverse in a sense of we all figured out how to communicate without being in the same room. Zoom took off. Everyone is now okay. I mean, we're building a building right now. I have not done one of those meetings in person. It's all been over, you know, Microsoft Teams or Zoom or whatever. And that's what the metaverse is,

is just communication without having to be in the same room. And so I think that that's probably where it's going. It is why I am like have a little fomo of like, like imagine if you were when when they settled the United States and you just like You could buy land for like 100 bucks You know, you could buy 10,000 acres For like 50 grand Like I feel like that's kind of what's happening

On the Metaverse and I'm like And I know that but I still can't justify Spending money in the Metaverse So it's like What am I missing out on the gold rush that is like You know like I heard like Snoop Dog bought like a lot in the universe And you're like God I'd be sick to be next to Snoop Dog

It would be somebody paid like a million dollars to be his neighbors. Yeah. No, I think one of the Nelk boys and Snoop Dog, I might be wrong, but I think they are Mesavers,

neighbors, yeah. Your grandkids are sitting there in like 200 years, 100 years, whatever, and they're like, oh,

my grandpa, he invested a lot in the metaverse, so we've got lots of land. Or they're listening to this podcast right now, and they're like, you motherfucker,

why don't you buy more? Yeah, I mean, that's, yeah, shit, now this is going to be all. No,

I can't do the, well, I guess I just didn't know I'm going to go buy some after this I think part of the reason with the Metaverse right now is people don't really know like where to go I don't even know where to go to like get on the How do you even buy in the Metaverse?

I don't know I don't know I think that's the hurdle that they have right now is it's very uh you got to know a guy almost it feels like you know like buying it like bootlegging Yeah I don't know no I have there's a website I think there is I and I don't know enough to like Don't quote me on this but I I'm pretty sure it's, you just got to know the website.

It's pretty simple. You can, like, look and see what this person bought for. It's just like anything. Is this like one of those websites, though? Yeah, but is it. Turns out it's not even really just paying some dude on the other hand. I own 50 acres up on the moon. Oh, yeah.

It's so hard now. It used to be so easy. You used to have to cross the entire country and put up a couple steak posts, you know? I mean, that's what's going on in the metaphors. And we're sitting here with our, you know, sitting on our hands, not, not taking advantage of the gold rush. but fuck we get some after this shit yeah that's bad we're looking into that

after this podcast yeah C boys and you bet you own all of the Midwest in the Metaverse I bet you no one's buying in the Midwest yeah no one wants all the farmland we're like this is going to be worse something in 400 years what's going to be kind of messed up

is like people will just have jobs in the Metaverse of like you will just be like begging groceries in the Metaverse you think but it's cool because it's virtual. How does that? It's insane.

Do you think you're going to actually have to like be moving though? Like how does that work? If it is in the metaverse and they're working, are they going to be using their mind or like holding like the whatever those things are? I think it literally would you would just walk in the room and you'd see a guy standing there like looking like he's doing the, you know, grabbing the groceries dance that, you know. Dude, everyone's going to be so unhealthy. just fat and sitting there

It's like Wally But why would you Why would you work hard to make money And do the American dream When you could just get home from your Bagging Groceries job Put on the goggles And in the Metaverse

You have a Lamborghini Right You're the man Yeah Why would you Imagine though You get the Metaverse You're all excited

And you get stuck begging In groceries Yeah you're like a CEO You go have a company, and you're like, God damn, I did it again. History repeating itself. You get done, like, freaking stock and shelves at Hornbockers, and then you have to go to the Metaverse and bag groceries. You got screwed out of one of the business deals in the Metaverse,

and you got to go back to work in groceries. That would suck. Holy fuck. All right, we kind of went down to the whole of that. Bush Light is one of your sponsors, correct? Yes. So at first, probably the first two and a half years, we were just kind of, I just love Bushlight,

and that's kind of where it came from, was just promoting it that way. And we do have an official partnership with them now, which is really fun. Dude, that's so sick. But, yeah. Why don't you bring a case here? Well, I didn't drive my car.

And Ryan's car is the cleanest truck you've ever seen, so he doesn't have any stragglers in there either. So fortunately, I didn't bring a case. but I'm just so how does that work did you reach out to them or did they hit you up because they I'm sure you're plugging them left and right and for the longest time they were probably just taking the free publicity or what yeah so it was like it kind of became well I also like wanted people to know that I was doing this because I like drinking bushlight not because they're paying me right so I was actually like I had a conversation with them and I'm like I think we should officially

work together at some point but let's just not do it yet so I actually like told them that I didn't want to do that right away because I wanted people to not be like, oh, this guy's just doing it for the cash. You know, like I think that that's one thing that's really tough about social media is like in order to pay the bills, you got to do brand deals and add revenue and all that other stuff. But at the same time,

you want to keep some authenticity. And so that was kind of like, I'll do brand deals with other companies and other sectors, but let's try and keep the beer category as authentic for as long as possible. eventually it made sense, you know, money-wise and all that stuff. But, and it opens up the doors. They, you know, you get to go to more events and stuff like that. Makes you more official.

We've done our work to make them feel comfortable, like, that I'm not going to, they can put their money behind us because I, I've shown that I'm not going to do something stupid. I think that that's like those big corporations. It's tough. If they co-sign you and you do something stupid, then they're like, well, that's bad reflection on us. We know. Yeah. Yeah, we know.

No, I mean, we work with Polaris. Yep. So they're like our corporate sponsor. Yeah. And phenomenal company, but kind of the same thing where they're like, all right, guys. Yeah, let's maybe cool. If we're going to back you, like, yeah, don't be. And that's one thing.

You're a content creator and you're listening to this. There's a time to be edgy and there's a time to be smart. Long-term plays. Don't do things for the quick views of that you're going to be edgy and say something dumb or do something dumb, be strategic about it. If you're going to take a risk on jumping a jet ski over a road, like make sure it's calculated and that you're not going to like piss off any of your stuff, right? Right, exactly.

Don't do that. And don't do that. Oh, God, it's dusty in here. You guys need to dust. I know, we need to get Ken on the swiffer over there. So what does that look like having a sponsor, a beer sponsorship? do they just be like all right well you'll get a pallet of bush light and you got to put it in the fridge or whenever you go to the store you just get a show a card and like hey this one's on

bush yeah how does that work it's not so much that but we do get regular shipments of bush light to the office is like you know every month or every other month that could be deadly if that would be deadly and it's like funny when we have a guest uh one of the gals works for me she's she's my assistant and i'm like one of the roles that she has to do is the make sure that the beer fridges look pristine. Right. That's important. It's just kind of funny.

I'm like, labels out. Make sure when we get new beer, you rotate. You take the stuff from the back to the fridge, put in the front, put the new beer in the back. You know, like, let's make it sure that there's no gaps in it. It's, like, really funny that I'm, like, very particular about the beer fridge, where in reality, it probably isn't that big of a deal, but it's like, you know, take pride in my bushlight fridge. The details matter.

Yeah. We do. So our buddy, Evan, who we actually just hired. loves Twisted T's. I'm not sure how much you can talk about it because they're not owned by Bush. I don't know who. But anyway, the dude loves Twisted T's.

So, like, we reached out to Twisted T's and tried to get them to work with us because we surprised them with, like, a little dirt bike. And we got, like, a Twisted T wrap on it and everything. And we got them, like, a onesie. And we were like, hey, yo, can you guys, like, just work with us on this? And we'll be like, hey, sponsored by Twisted T.

They helped us surprise Evan with this new bike, right? Right. Right. Nothing. Yeah. They didn't even offer free shipping for the onesie that we bought. Free shipping. Yeah, that's all I'm doing.

So do you have any recommendations as to how we can get our foot more in the door? You can do two routes. One, you can almost just do it so they eventually have to. That was kind of our like deal is like we just did such a good job promoting their brand and making it part of culture that like they're kind of like, well, like it looks bad on their part. Yeah, like people are commenting like you should do. You should do this and that. So that's like one way.

Like you just double down, triple down, quadruple down on Twisted T. Okay. Or you just get a good agent that knows the right person. Because probably the problem is you just haven't got to the right person to talk to. You know, it's like oftentimes those brands, social media teams and stuff is like some intern. Right. Who's like the nephew of the owner of the company or some shit, you know? So it's like not necessarily like their fault either.

They don't really know what they're doing. I almost wonder, like, they're just, they're watching from a fire, like, why would we sponsor them? We don't have to do anything and they're still promoting us. So, you know, there's like a line almost. It's one of those things where you've got to be strategic and that's like, actually, I think a good agent is, comes into play there of like they can negotiate like, hey, well, they're going to start drinking this seltzer instead of twist and tea and stop promoting. We're going to promote your competitor and they can use that as leverage and stuff like that. So when you're out at a bar, you're kind of knowing as you love bushlights, whatever. I can't imagine how many people are coming up to you, trying to get you to drink a bush with them.

Yeah. Well, and that's like, I mean, that's, I now know that when I go to the bar, that's what is like. And so I'm prepared for that. But it's also, like, fun. Like, you go to a bar to, like, hang out and meet new people and do that. So that's like, I enjoy that part of it. What's actually funny is there's a bunch of dudes in the Midwest that just, I mean, you guys have a guy working. can hear that looks like me yeah and so your stunt double can he doesn't do much stunts but he

well for you whatever you want well luckily i don't do much that needs stunting you know i usually like i'll throw my back out like lifting a cooler so maybe that's what we need you for you know it's a cooler jockey if you hired ken to organize your beer and lift your coolers he would be the happiest guy i'm sorry we're going to poach him over to you betcha you guys How funny that would be If we just never said anything And Ken just flips on it But what's funny is

Those guys that look like me They'll message me to be like Hey man, thanks for the free beer last night Someone thought it was you And they bought me a beer But they couldn't like not give them the beer Once they found out it wasn't Yeah

So they're like yeah They just gave me a beer If you're thick with two seas like me You got a dark beard You know maybe try and take advantage You get a free beer out of the deal maybe play it up do a lot of people come up and try and get you drunk though when you first start doing events you know you get jazzed up and you start shotgun and beers with fans and you start doing

shots with fans and next thing you know you're time traveling at the bar at when you're supposed to be working um so i kind of instituted like uh i don't really do i don't shotgun or do shots at like events and stuff unless it's like the end of the events because otherwise i'm just like you get too drunk and then you make it fool yourself. And, like, as weird as it sounds, like, it is still, like, my job. And I don't want to, like, tarnish what we're building because I got drunk and did something stupid. Someone took a Snapchat and put it on TikTok and, you know, like, there's, like, a fine line of, like, I obviously want to drink with people who are fans of you betcha.

But also at the same time, I got to, like, make sure I'm not being a total idiot. Do people ever walk out of even go, oh, you betcha? Do they do the, like, maybe not, like, in the best time? It almost feels like they're clowning on you. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit, but it's, now it's more of like a, you betcha, they're like she'll get it across the room or they'll just come up. Like I, I just will have, you know, 35 year old dudes just walk by me and just look at me like, like creepily and just be like, push. And they just like keep walking.

They don't even stop to let's say anything else. So that's always interesting. Yeah, push. Yeah. I haven't had too many negative fan interactions. That's good. Every once while I do get someone that brings me a spotted cow. Really?

What do you do? Throw it on the ground? Yeah. I usually just like, smash it on his head. Give it to someone else. Yeah. It's like you don't want to crush their, you know, like,

their gift. Oh, thanks for the gifts, but also, F you, I don't want it. Right. You know. So I feel when someone brings me a diet Mountain Dew. They think it's the fun because I'm a Mountain Dew guy. And they'll bring me a Diet Mountain Dew, and they think it's the funniest joke ever.

I'm like, thank you, but I don't really want this. Can we unbiased? box the mountain do thing a little bit here he loves the mound do so what's when did you start drinking mountain dew like as a kid and you just never stopped it's a toddler yeah no no

it's sippy cup well I don't know it's good it's a good it objectively is a great pop but I'm just saying like I usually usually it's like you go through a certain phase in your life where like mountain dew is really prevalent and then you don't have that you just

I've stuck with the phase you've been ride or die since the beginning it's normally like Eighth, ninth grade, you stop drinking mountain. Unless they don't serve Pepsi, then I have Coke. No mellow yellow. You like how that was, like, my way of saying, like, when are you going to grow up people? Yeah, yeah. And I, like, said it very politically.

I don't think he, I don't think you can, Ryan. Ryan drinks a Mountain Dew instead of a water. No, Mountain Dew is, like, if I haven't had a mountain dew in like a year and you put, it's ice cold, whatever. A good sober pop. So great. But the question is, is they also have some good. other flavors as well.

Like the Mountain Dew original is obviously great, but what's your like favorite side flavor of it? Because there's Mountain Dew Code Red. Yep. There's the live wire. There was one that was like just a black pop. Yeah, do you remember the grape? Yeah, blackout.

It was pitch. Baja blast. Baja blast. Honestly, I'm a bit of an original guy. But if you had to pick the second, what's your secondary one? Probably Baja blast. Gotta go Baja Blast, I think.

I think I'm a cold red guy, mostly because that was like their first side flavor they did. And it was always like, yeah, I'm dead. Let's go to the gas station. Let's get a cold red. Yeah, felt like a badass drinking it. He just hyped up on sugar for like an hour and then you just crash. As a child, but, yeah. Man, we're really unpacking Ryan here.

Yeah. What other stuff you got that? What else you went to? What's your other problems? Yeah, what other stuff you got from your child? that we can unpack. Oh, man. I don't know.

Hey, okay. All right. What's your opinion on seltzers? I think that it was very smart to try and have a competitor to beers. Like, you know, it's really not that much healthier than you, but they did a really good healthier than beer, but they just did a really good job marketing it. Like, it was a healthy alcohol option. Do you drink them at all?

No. So you're going to the fridge. You're getting ridden. ready to drink a nice crisp cold bush this will never happen to you because obviously but you open it and there's there's no bush all you got is a happy dad or a white claw one under the two and an IPA yeah what are you drinking that's tough sledding I don't know I don't know can you go to the store you you legally bind it probably can't answer that question.

I'm just looking for the liquor cabinet after that. I'm just going to find a whiskey, you know. It's one of those things that, like, in a pinch, I will drink whatever. Like, I always tell people, like, there's a lot of bars outside of the mid-wet. Well, like, this area, every bar has got bushlight now, right? Whereas you go a little bit outside and then, like, a bar doesn't have bushlight. I'm not going to be the guy. Like, I always say, like, would you rather me be, like, the lame guy who's, like,

sitting in the corner not drinking because, you know, they don't have bushlight? or am I going to try and find something else? And so that's always the model that I do what I can to get the buzz going. But, yeah, it's a tough situation. I don't know if I can commit to a seltzer or an IPA. You just go thirsty. Yeah. I'll drink the, I'll drink the, like, mouthwash instead.

The buzz. Catch a buzz from a mouthwash. And your breath will smell good, too. Yeah, and you smell good, too. It's like drinking. peppermint snobs you know yeah double double whammy all right i have another personal question in your opinion can you make jorts out of skinny jeans yeah i mean like skinny jeans the part that sucks about skinny jeans is that it's so tight at the bottom right so if you just cut

that part off i think you're good to go so it's okay to do yeah i would say so all right our We have our own pair of jorts that we made That have our branding on them and stuff like that And we're working on a second iteration And the second iteration, I'm trying to taper a little bit more So they're like, you know Fitted.

Yeah, I mean they're not like skin tight or anything Yeah, they look they definitely look nice with the new balance I think I've seen them Yeah, yeah They're like perfect dad shorts Exactly I'm actually a big I like the seam on the bottom

You know, it's a lot of people like the cut jeans look where it's like the frayed bottoms i like the the nice just a nice that's i think what makes them like those are dad because if they're like frayed it's like you know little redneck maybe you're going to wee fest i don't know music festival right yeah yeah depending on how cut short you cut them i guess yeah with the scene you can wear it a little bit more less casual more fancy you can wear it to church you can wear it to you probably can wear it to a funeral in some cases you know but Depends who you got the, yeah, exactly. If you got the frayed bottoms, I don't know, not as.

It's like this guy's here to party. Yeah, is this guy here? Where's his cut off his cowboy hat? Is he at Wii Fest, you know, so. Another question, can you wear your mowing shoes for a subject other than mowing? Yeah, so you kind of have to have a lineup, right? You kind of have to have your, like, cleaner, nicer pair that maybe doesn't touch the lawn at all. Reserve for the funerals and the birthday parties.

And then you have a medium pair that you do some yard work in, but you also wear out and about of the town. And then you have your pair that used to be the nice pair that just eventually went down and it is now the yard work shoes. That's got the green, permanent green stains on the outside of it. Are they all the same? It's the same shoe. What is it, New Balance 6, 7.9.

You got to look and see what you're wearing cowboy boots. I'm wearing cowboy boots today, but the new balance, like, 6, 7, 9 or something is. So you basically... That's a good model. Don't get the 6, 7, 8. I don't know what. It's 6 something. So when you get a new pair, then it starts at the top of the rotation.

Well, yeah, the thing is you don't ever throw a pair out, though. Okay. So then you basically just have a bunch of mowing pairs then? Yeah, yeah. Well, and you do one of those things where you don't throw... You're never going to wear the worst pair, right? No. But you can't throw them away because what if?

You might need them. What if there's an apocalypse and you need that extra pair? You know, like, that's borderline for. That's so true. Mike's over here like, I never throw anything away. Also, I feel like sometimes I grew up in the Great Depression because I'm, like, scared to throw anything away, especially, like, content-wise.

Like, what if I threw away something that would be great in a video later, you know? And then... So you just got hell of hard drives? Well, yeah, but, like, it's more so, like, uh, like clothing items and stuff. Like, there's also, like, I have the original cutoff that I wore in the first dad video. I'm like, can't throw that out. Sentimental. Yeah.

So then now I just, like, got build up and build up. My fiance is like, dude, we have to start throwing stuff away. Otherwise, this is going to be a mess, you know? We ran out of room. Well, that's why you're building a bigger warehouse. Yeah. I'm trying to just fit more of my junk in there, but. So your merchandise is extremely relatable for like the people that watch your content

and the Midwesterners that want to buy it for either themselves or they want to buy it for a gift or something. You got funny sayings, right? Yep. Have you always, has that always kind of been the model? It started when we started creating merchandise, I was like, we don't have a big enough audience and people don't care enough for people to want to buy a shirt that says you betcha you yet. And so we started just making almost like beer gear, you know, just.

sayings that were, you know, people were loved, people were already buying Bush Light merch, but then they could buy one that says the nectar of the gods instead of Bush this time or, you know, the boys are buzzing or whatever was kind of the approach behind that. So we do have, you know, you betcha stuff. And we've kind of gone where the you betcha stuff is things like the jorts or a fishing shirt that's like not a graphic tee.

It's kind of where we've gone a little bit with the you betcha. Like functional, you're saying? Yeah, or like, like, if you thought about like a, like, you know, take Carhart, right? They're not making that many graphic teas. They're making a sweatshirt. They're making a vest. They're making whatever doing some stuff like that that's you bet you branded and then have the graphic teas be sayings that you bet your fans will like, but also if you have no idea

who you bet you is, you might still buy the shirt too. And that's kind of where we've gone with like our retail merchandise and being in Fleet Farm and stuff like that. That's the way to do it. You're in Shields. too, right? Yeah, we, a little bit of shields, but mainly it's high V and flea farm. Dude, I'm so jealous of your guy. Oh, you betcha. You betcha, it just, you can live on forever. Like, it's so good. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's what we're trying to do. Hopefully it can.

Well, I'm sure. You almost are kind of growing in to the character that you portray. And sometimes you portray the dad and you're getting closer to that. My fiance hates it. like i will get up off the couch and do it's groaning and she's like dude you've got to stop doing that you're not doing the videos right now like you're too young for you to be turning into an old man already such a blessing though because most people um you know you get famous for for doing some sort and some sort of thing but you grow out of it well and that's you're growing into it yeah i like that you are that is i'm very envious i'm using that actually That's a good. Create something you can grow into.

No, I actually at the beginning battled a lot from going from being the bush-like guy to trying not to be pigeonholed to just being the beer guy, but maintaining that roots of being the Bush-Lite guy, but then also becoming the you betcha guy and having other reasons why people follow us instead of me just doing beer reviews or Yeti reviews. And that's kind of where our skit videos and the dad character started and all that. Like, obviously you got your Midwest content that's relatable. But then you're doing stuff like during the Super Bowl,

I saw you had the Super Bowl. I can't remember the title. It was every Super Bowl party ever or something. Like that, the whole United States. It doesn't matter if you're in California or whatever. That's applicable. And when we started doing the videos like that, it was like Midwest this, Midwest, that.

And then we kind of started realizing like it's just, we don't even have to put Midwest in the title anymore. It's just Midwest because the way we talk. and what we do is Midwest now, you know, and I think that's kind of been the maturity of our page of, like, realizing that if we just say, like, you know, every Lake Day ever, we don't have to say Midwest Lake Day anymore because it's like, well, everyone just knows that's what it is.

So, yeah, that's kind of something we've done too is, like, like our thumbnail and title of our video is maybe revolving around some kind of action sport thing. But then once you, like, get into the video, there's like two or three other whole segments or bits in the video that are just, you know, it might just be humor. Like, Ken spends too much time on the toilet. So we build them a reclining, you know. Yeah, I wasn't.

You know, like just things that you don't necessarily need to. You still use that, by the way? I took one dump in it. It was pretty gross. I'm not going to lie. We got the chair of Goodwill. Well, you actually did do it? Oh, yeah.

Use it. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun of show. Dude, it was kind of tough because, like, my leg, like, my, like, my kind of dangling a little bit I'm kind of short it was gross though like I was worried if we would have kept it any longer we a lot of our friends like to come over for just a party or whatever hang out on the weekends yeah that'd been pissing all over the side of it had been disgusting I didn't

want to assemble it I don't I didn't take it down actually whoever did it good job yeah it's hard to flip up the toilet seat one one thing I think that like you guys have done well is you obviously have your storylines of what you're going to do but then I think all the side bits are what your audience comments on and what they love the reoccurring bits and so I think that that's smart like it's like drinking mountain dew yeah yeah keep that going and then it's like you know I'm going through a cold red phase or a live wire phase could be a good switch up to the mountain do look people are you maybe leave it as an easter egg so your audience it's like wait was he drinking a cold red this time where's the regular mountain do you know yeah I would catch it they would

Ideally, we get to the point in our YouTube career where we can just take a picture of Big Ken and go, new video today, and it pulls a million views. Because people are like, well, I don't really care what they're doing. If he's involved, it's going to be something ridiculous or what. No, you know, it's just like, it doesn't really matter what the title or thumbnail is. People are going to just click on it because they know it's going to be funny, good content. Yeah, 100%.

And I think, you know, to applaud you guys, you've done a really good job on YouTube where it's like if I like to look at the quality of views on the internet right you have like TikTok or like it's like the cheapest views you can possibly get right like you could literally just accidentally get a million views on there right then I think Instagram's harder because it's like not as like there's a feeds a little bit tougher you get discovered yeah I think Facebook's probably on the cheaper end because there's the share button that goes into everyone's feeds and all that stuff whereas Instagram you don't share you have to send it to one person at a time all the stuff and then i think

youtube is probably the hardest because youtube people go there to just watch videos not to interact with their friends and all that other stuff you guys are like competing for you know if you're thinking about television yeah like if you're thinking about Netflix it's like everyone has a Netflix show and everyone's competing for the you know popular like the top 10 and all that other stuff It's just like more competition that way. And I think it's definitely harder to get views. So I applaud you guys for figuring that out and crushing it there because it's definitely tough and we're still trying to figure it out.

Thank you. Thanks, man. We've been doing it for five years, though. Yeah. And that's all we focused on was just YouTube. I think that that's just figuring that out. Like especially if you have people listening that want to do what you guys do, like that's maybe the biggest like lesson that.

and learn is like everyone was like oh well i don't have a thousand subs in a year like i suck it's like no it's just because it's hard yeah you just got to keep going you know and i think that that's a lot of times um you can get lucky and and have something pop off or whatever but a lot of times it's just like it may take five years to get to a million subs especially after something pops off you got to you know be ready to put the work in and then keep them there and then keep evolving and keep getting better. Well, that's like, I would say, like, after the spotted Cowbush live video, your first thought is, like, sweet, we've got a million views, right?

And then, like, the next day, I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, oh, shit, if I'm going to do this for a job, I got to figure out how to do this again. Yeah. And I don't even know how I did it the first time. Also, it's like, I better get to work and figure this out. And I think that that's, like, the tough part, right? Is, like, figuring out how did we do it in the first place? how do we get to the next one and all that 100% yeah that's what makes the great's really great

is because they're able to recognize you know that they had something special and then they put in the put in the work and then for you which we're still trying to figure out is how do you build the team around you i think that that's where i you know i did get lucky is that my brain does work a little bit more in like a business sense and so i was like it's one thing to get views but it doesn't matter if we don't if we don't know how to monetize them and that's where the merchandise thing came about and that's where you know finding a good agent that that can do brand deals and all the other stuff so that you can focus on creating the content you have a team around you that handles all the stuff that helps make the money and stuff like that

and I think that is like the next step after like figuring out how to get views is then like how do you monetize it and I mean you guys are doing a good job like you guys got this awesome facility and I got yeah I I uh it's cool to see it online and then come and see it in person like I think uh you're saying that some guys is like oh it seems a little bit smaller than I thought I actually thought like it's this is like cool and like I don't know the shipping containers and like I you guys are like oh the ceiling's kind of low in here I'm like that's like that's like I like it's like feels like you guys have been grinding and kind of piecing it together and doing that it's fun yeah thanks man appreciate that it's always cool to

have another creator over here and then we can kind of bounce ideas off of each other. Have you found that being from the Midwest or being from Fargo, there's like really not any kind of content creators or really people doing what you're doing? Do you think that you're limited on resources at all? I've had a lot of thought of like, you know, can you run a media company out of Fargo? Yeah. One opportunity is, I think it's kind of the Midwest in general is there is a lot of talented people out there. We just got to find them and put them on. I think it's maybe some growing pains

and being the trailblazer of you create that in this area of the country. You know, it does suck. You got to fly everywhere if you're going to go somewhere. But luckily, Fargo's airport's big enough to where you can get anywhere within, you know, eight hours or whatever. And I truly believe that we can build something special in Fargo. I think it's a growing city. I think it's going to have more and more stuff happening there and if we can be kind of a part of that too helping it grow is is a cool thing as well um plus i got you know it's like the midwest values too of like i got all my family and friends are in this area so it's like you know to move to a different area of the country for my business seems like okay well i wouldn't be as happy because you know

you got your family and friends here too so that's something to think about as well and you know That's part of the reason, too. We're talking about the stand-up show at the beginning. That's also not great for your family life to be spending 10 weeks on the road doing a comedy tour either. So, like, I'm also trying to make sure I make decisions that are good for the long-term like me and, like, future family and all that. So I think that Fargo's a good spot. I think it's a great place to, I mean, even here in the Lakes area, it's a great place to, like, raise a family and do all that. So the best, I'd say.

Yeah. High quality of life, low standard of living, which is nice. You can make the same amount of money on YouTube as a creator who's in California, and you could have, you know, three times the size of building. You could have two times the amount of toys to do stuff with. But just because you live in this part of the country, and that's a big deal too of like even Charlie lives in Milwaukee. It's just more expensive to live there.

So it's like we can do more stuff and all that. So that's like another added advantage. We, just like you use everything in our area to our advantage. and we have that almost a one-up on people because they don't have the opportunity if you try to use that. Like if you guys tried to buy like 40 acres in California, it would cost you an arm and a leg.

It wouldn't be able to do it. Yeah, exactly. So it's like also another cool advantage there too. I think the hardest thing for us and, you know, we're a little bit more out of the way than Fargo, obviously not as convenient, but we just can't find like a really good editor or a couple editors

And like, you know, just we'd have to train them But it's like we need to find the right person first Go look at local news Like news people? The editors who work at local news stations You kind of robbed one of the local news stations Of one of the guys, didn't you? Yeah, I mean, it's not my fault

That they're paying them 20 grand a year Right, and they probably, it's probably a fuck ton of work sitting there all day All we did was put out a job listing and they apply That's like not us stealing anyone but it's like, well, of course they're going to leave if you're going to make them work until 10 p.m. and pay them $20,000 a year. Right, yeah.

You know, all we did was offer them a livable wage and, like, of course they're going to come work. And they're happy to come work here, yeah. But the reason why people who work at local news are so good for internet content is they're used to pumping out a lot of content in a short amount of time and good on, like, quick turnaround deadlines and all the other stuff. And you could teach them the comedic timing at times or whatever, and you can kind of teach them that stuff.

Build the story. But if they just have such a good work ethic because they're used to being run to the ground because they're getting paid $20,000 a year and working 12 hours a day, you know? So I think that that's like, I don't know, I would look there because it's like that's the style. You just put out like a, you just put one out right in town,

like a job listing? Yeah, how'd you do it? Indeed. And that's like, yeah. And I'm with you. Like that was my concern when I started is like, is there going to be enough people that understand. how to create content and all that and it's people are people you know like the people who live

in L.A. and New York and all that they're not any different than the people here just people aren't don't know that it's even a possible job you know like people don't know that they can be a content editor right you know like they just like oh well there's no jobs for that around here and so I think that um I think there's really I think there is talent a lot of talent in the Midwest just got to kind of like polished up and found basically have you tried to delegate most of your like busy work off on the people so you can just focus on you know what you do best yeah i'm getting there um it's definitely the i've had to learn how to like not micromanage and just say this is the end goal of where we want to get to like you can just go figure that out now and i think the merchandise

is a good example where i told ryan i go if something is wrong with our merchandise of the business it's not anyone's fault but yours so like giving them ownership there where it's like that sounds like a little bit like no that's true that's true yeah yeah but doing that with Ryan i think was like a big step for us and and it like i don't ever have to think about that other than like the designs that we come up with and promotional stuff but the operations of you you bet you merch is all run by Ryan and if some if packages don't get to people on time and we have people complaining in the messages or whatever first place i go is to ryan and say what's going on let's try and fix this it's right you know what went wrong so i think that that's kind of where we're

getting to yeah good for you that's the that's our next thing is just getting that and i think once we really get that we're going to just dial in i mean when we really started taking off everyone always thinks that like you quoted the jesky jump it really didn't blow us up on youtube it just made local news so everyone locally thinks like oh yeah they they jumped this jet ski and they got all these followers, you know, right from that. But it actually was just, like, an average video. But anyways, as soon as we started really planning. It was like, that was just, like, funny because it was like, I remember people being, like,

debating, like, you know, like, you know, should they have done that? Or, like, was it an innocent thing? Like, you know, like, it was very innocent because the farmer that owned the pond and the other, it was a dirt road. He was there watching. He loved it. His whole family. I know.

I'm on your guys aside a lot, by the way. But it's just, like, funny because it's, like, I remember people being like, did you see that? Like, what do you think of that? It was great for, like, locally, it got us a lot of notoriety. But I think there is some misconception to it. Yeah, I believe that, yeah. But you also have moments, right?

Like, we had a good following before we did our husband's a target video. But then, like, that was a moment that brought us to another level or brought more notoriety to this and that. We're like, there's a whole portion of our audience that really, like, don't even care about our Bush-like content. All they care about is the stuff that's similar to Hens. I swear, that's some of the best stuff because it's just like us. We start taking people from the snowmobile industry. They click because of the snowmobile video, and then they're like,

I kind of liked how they were joking around with each other. And then they come back and they watch a dirt biking video, or maybe they come back and we're chopping the roof off a limo. I don't know, but just goofing off. I got a funny story about last time I wrote a dirt bike. Oh, yeah? So I don't ride dirt bikes, by the way. I don't, I'm, I'm much better on just solid ground. I'm scared of heights.

Okay. I don't, once I'm airborne, I panic. This is when Ken's going to come in. I'm not saying he's good at any of these things, but he'll do it. I panic in the air. You think he'll do it? Maybe he loves them. You're his favorite content creator.

He wouldn't do it for us, but maybe you. So last time I. wrote a, I had a buddy who had like a little mini track, right? And it was, I don't know what size dirt bike it was. It was definitely wasn't the big house. Right. But it wasn't like a pit bike, right? It was somewhere in the middle. And I'm just like, you know, going around, just riding whatever. And then I turn the corner and there's like a double jump there. I'm like, you know what? I'm, you know, I'm sick of living my life. Being, being a total like, once. Like, I got to try it, right? And I, you know, I don't pin it down, but I started.

going pretty fast. First jump goes well, airborne, land. What they don't teach you when you don't know shit about motorsports and all that is how to land not having the throttle going. Because I panic in the air, right? So I'm not thinking about the throttle. You're just whiskey throttled. So then you just landed and it just took off on me and like I made it to the next jump and I just went flying. Your body wasn't positioned right. Bike went flying. I went flying. And like you do the thing i mean you guys do the after you fall you try and get up and i'm like oh it's cool you know but your whole like dignity is hurt you're embarrassed your right leg is like oh yeah so that was the last time i was on a dirt bike because i ate shit on a double jump and

had no idea what i was doing so now i just like watching it on the internet instead of living it out in life the go carts are fun though i've got a buddy who's got some go carts that those are fun to rip around on it was always too like growing up i loved watching extreme sports and stuff like that, but I just, you know, I got a pair of, I remember I got a pair of, uh, uh, in line, like, aggressive. Why do I know you're going to say rollerblades?

I almost interrupted you, but I, like, it's got the, like, I knew you got to say rolling blades. So you can, so you can grind on the rails. And I had a buddy, buddy in the neighborhood who had his own grinding rail and I got those babes suckers on. And I'd rollerbladed over there and I went for one time and I ate shit so bad.

And I never did it again. So. Yeah, I love the idea of doing that, but I never, I can't, I'm just more of a football player. Give me a ball. I'm better with a ball. I would stick to making jokes if you don't have to risk your life or risk breaking a bone. Yeah. I would just make people laugh on the internet a different way.

I mean, watching Nitro Circus shit's fun, all that other stuff, the stuff you guys do. What do you guys think of Nitro Circus? You know those guys at all. You know, we actually just, the podcast that comes out tomorrow, we were just, just in Utah with Greg Godfrey. He's the founder of Nitro Circus, and he produced all of it. That's sweet. Yeah, yeah, he's actually a good buddy of ours.

That's awesome. We're buddies with his kids, and he's nice, dude, very nice. Sweet. He's got good stories. Those guys are actually talented, though. You know, like, they created a show off of doing extreme stunts and skill. Yeah, like Travis Vistrana is, like, actually doing double backflips. Right, right.

Not by accident because he flew off. No, not just whiskey throttle him. off of the jump, you know? Yeah, that was, that was not good. That's the thing, though, we're not, like, super skill-based. It's more the lifestyle, right? Another misconception, they think we're so crazy or whatever, but realistically, we just ride just as good as everyone else that rides frequently, you know?

Yep. But it's relatable. Yeah. And we just make jokes. Comradery of it. Like, I can't drink more than a lot of fans that I meet, right? I'm sure. Like, they always challenge me, and I'm like, or, like, they challenge me to a shotgun.

I'm not Steve, we'll do it. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I objectively cannot shock on that fast compared to some of these people. Yeah, they like race you. Yeah, well, they think because I talk about beer on the internet that I'm like going to shotgun the fast, the beer bong the fastest or whatever. And it's like, I mean, it's kind of the same thing, right? I mean, I can drink a lot of beer and do that, but it's like, I don't know. One of my buddies, the name's Andy Janovich. He's a fullback for the Cleveland.

Browns, I mean, that guy could sit down and put down a whole 30 rack. He's a big boy. Yeah. He's just like, he, I can't drink more than him. There's got to be like inconvenient though. To have to drink that much? Yeah. They're more expensive, you know? Yeah.

He always got that one buddy is this big lightweight and you're like, yeah, buddy does drink for cheap. Yeah. He's two drinks and he's done for the rest of the night. But, yeah. So have you ever thought about getting into pranks, like messing with people because you're so witty and quick? Yeah, um, we've talked about it.

It's more so, uh, I would feel so bad. Inconveniencing them. Yeah. Yeah. The inconvenience plus it's also a little bit like not our style either. I don't think. Um, like I would much rather do like, uh, have someone on our podcast and then kind of mess with them like dry sarcastically that way.

It's kind of like our form of a prank rather than going up to a stranger and being, you know. Your sole objective is just ruin their day. Yeah, I think that's tough. We don't go into ruin someone's day with a prank. Let's be clear. You said that. But it's just the idea of it is funny. Yeah, and I think that I have the whole like Midwest nice brand.

And then it's, you know, you're like. I feel you could do it in a nice way. I'm not saying you should. And I understand exactly what you're saying. But almost just like you have this image where it'd be very unsuspected. Like, you could just be kind of goofy. And there's like, what the heck's going on here type of thing? Like you're just being almost a little weird.

We've talked about how funny would it be to like where we were going to the Penn State, Iowa football game this last year. And we like, we didn't end up doing it, but we were like, how funny would it be if I just did like Man on the Street style? And the prank was that I just tried to work nitney into the conversation as much as I could. So the Penn State or the Nittany Lions. Okay. Like what does Nitney even mean? I don't know. But this would be funny just to keep being like, oh, yeah, Nitney, Nittany, man.

So they're doing that. Like, that would be maybe. frame style that I would go for is more so, like, they're just kind of confused at what's happening. Dude, you totally could because honestly, you have this image that, like, is pretty unsuspecting. Yeah, yeah, like, just nonchalant.

You're very like, like, this guy is an idea of mess with me. Yeah, didn't he? Yeah. Just like that. The classic meow and super troopers. Yeah. Same thing. Yeah. Same vibe. That would be kind of our version of a prank if we were going to do it. But, dude, we would love to have you on.

if we do some kind of like prank Where it would maybe fit in? Either have you working with us Or you being the guy that we prank And then you know It's pranking like the public Is if we're like messing with you And getting their reaction or something like that

Yeah we should figure something on Yeah we should definitely stay open to that You might be too recognisable Around Fargo I'd imagine Yeah that's also one thing too Like shooting in public sometimes is tough But it's not It wouldn't be too bad I don't think

Is it tough for you to shoot in public? like do you kind of get like awkward if you're shooting like the patio beers and people yeah so everyone's sitting there in the bar like this yeah so like you mess up and he's doing those videos again yeah so i'm used to like doing videos with people watching now um but it's mostly like just trying to get it done in a efficient manner and like not having people interrupting and stuff like that not that they're being rude it's like they just want to chat but right yeah trying to get this done but also like lifestyle content's kind of like tough, too, because it's like, you know, if I'm trying to do something silly or whatever,

it's like people are, I don't know. If you mess up, you can't do another take or whatever. We kind of do a little bit of both and mix it in once in a while, but one thing that I want to get into that we're looking to do is, like, you know, diners, drive-ins and dives was Guy Fieri, just doing the same version, but with small-town bars. So, not necessarily reviewing them, but just, like, highlighting the stuff that they have, The cool stuff, you know. At the roadhouse, you highlight the bingo corner and whatever and talk about that.

And you make a joke about my dad's construction company actually has a table there. Like an advertisement. Like, you know, they have the advertisement underneath there. And it's like the only advertisement they've ever done in their home. And it's probably because my dad's business partners, like his buddies with the guy who owns it or whatever. And he just like gilted him in to, you know, get the table, so. So wait, do you sit at your table when you go to the roadhouse?

Do you sit at the table or do you leave it open for people to come and see? That is actually a good point. Because every time I go there and it's open, I'll sit at it. But then I'm like, you're right. That doesn't make any sense because then it's not getting any more advertisements. Now that's smart. We got to get some of those tables, dude. Did your mountain dew finally the sugar rush came in?

That's good thinking. When the Mountain Dew hits? Yeah. When the Mountain Dew hits. you should uh you should do something with our big seema truck or have you seen our big truck oh dude i think you could do it some kind of fun yeah with it it's like lift it like you'd probably sprain your end i actually did spray my ankle jumping out of it once but oh yeah yes yes i don't know you could do something funny with it yeah you guys have problems with it because it's like kind

of not it's just super illegal yeah i feel like if they pull you over and they're just gonna ah he's a good guy yeah well yeah I don't know. Well, if you ever need it. He was trying to make a point, you know. Yeah, I mean, you could do like a guy who lifts his truck video. Yeah, that's what I'm saying is you could use, if you need to use it, take it. Or if you ever want to hit another dirt bike jump, we're ready.

I'm good. I'm good. Maybe the next life, I'll try it again. We were cracking up at the, when you did with Charlie, he was in the kayak. Yep. And then you were on the jet ski slamming energy drinks. Yeah, that was in this area, actually. That one was a completely improvised video.

so when we get to me and him get together our videographers like get stressed because so many ideas even if we do have like some sort of outline for the video or whatever we kind of tend to just throw it out the window when we start filming because it is like so easy to just do like the improv because when you're with someone who does improv like and is good at it like makes it that much easier and that one kind of we're just like well the idea is just would be like it's basically like a green energy like health nut versus like a guy who's got the jacked up truck on a jet ski or whatever was like the mentality and like let's just go do it and then the premise was but at the end they end up becoming friends and they ride the jet ski together and then we just filled in the

blanks like out on the water even it was like yeah so that was kind of interesting we like that's when everybody says oh yeah you should work with that guy go every scenario i see it would be him making fun of us. Like, we're the guys being made fun of. Like, you're fishing and we're like the douchebags and the wake boat going by, making waves, making her to fish. Like, it could work. Yeah, I know what you're saying. I like doing that. Like, I like wake surfing. I actually don't understand up. Jet ski. I don't

talk about mine. You don't? I don't. It's been too... No, we got to tell it. I'll tell it. I'll tell the short story of it. Like you enjoy it or... Yeah, he loved it. I loved it. It was I bought a stand-up jet ski and then we were like filming with it and they're like, do a backflip. And I'm like, okay, I'll do a backflip. And then I kind of sunk it, not to the bottom, but it got water in the engine and it hasn't ran other than the 30 minutes that I wrote it and then tried to backflip it. Well, it was a backflip.

It was like the one that's made for backfliping. Like it's got a lever you pull it and it's supposed to backflips. He surprises us with it. So it shows up 14 grand he paid for this thing. But like, is it that? Because I know like jet skis, if you turn them over a wrong way, I can like, ruin the engine or something? Yeah, I don't really know.

I did the wrong thing for sure. He almost landed on the backflip, though. I was very impressed. See, I would not be able to do that. It's panic, and then it just would be folded open and I would eat shit. I'm the same way, but I would know if I buy a stand-up jet ski that's supposed to do backflips, they're going to expect me to do a backflip on it. So I'm just not going to touch this thing.

I'm not, I'm standing clear. Pick your battles. Right. Say there, yeah. No, well, the stand-up. too is like people don't realize how hard it is to ride a stander jet ski they get on it and they think and then they end up you can all the defy you always see the defeat yeah they troll back with their legs hanging off the back because they couldn't get it yep you go into it with so much

confidence yeah you're like oh that looks easy out there and then you get on it and you're like oh shit this is wobbly and like even turning sometimes is tough and yeah it's sketch going fast on it too because if you fall you eat it you're like all right so we got a plan Man, we're going to get you on a dirt bike. We're going to have you back flipping Ryan's Chet ski. All the stuff we won't do. You're not busy today, are you? It's like, guys, I'm used to just sitting in a lawn chair all day, you know,

and you guys are, like, having me wake surfing and jumping shit. Yeah, we play out a video and we make you do all that. And we're like, okay, what are we going to do for years? Like, nothing, man. We're just going to sit down and have a couple beers and chat. There you go. I think this has been good. Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me.

Again, Studio Suite. like the desk. I like the setup. And, you know, it's, it's cool, too, to, like, see, you know, we obsess about stuff like the set and where the lighting and shit like that at ours. So, like to see you guys also put thought into it, too, is cool. And, um, you guys are crushing it. I appreciate everyone, you guys having us on. And, uh, yeah, I think we both, uh, just keep, keep going on the way that we're going. And it's going to be fun to see in a few years. absolutely absolutely i think this was our our perfect uh merge our perfect collab was a podcast yeah yeah just sit and chatting yeah and hanging out now when people say yeah go listen to the

podcast yeah there you go i like that well if you're if you're out and about will be you just got a cabin over here come on over the summer and hang out yeah so i think we should do a video but let we just have to think on what makes sense for and even if we're not doing a video though come on over and we can bullshit or whatever but your instagram is oh you betcha right so plug all your stuff i did a really good job so you say oh you betcha right but there's an extra h in there a silent h so that was really smart by me right but you can't just say it so it's oh h h you betcha on all the platforms uh we got our own podcast you betcha radio um yeah so that's gonna check them out guys honestly if you just search you betcha hopefully

yeah you'll get it it will yeah all right we'll live thanks guys all right peace