Men At Work Podcast - Entrepreneur Reveals the Truth Behind As Seen On TV Products!

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Matt and Kyle talk to an entrepreneur about his "As Seen on TV" ideas that have made it all the way to the Ellen Degeneres Show and the truth behind infomercials. We have a chit-chat with Molly when the world needs it most. Finally, we talk to an American furniture maker about the luxury furniture he makes and the high powered clients he services. *Originally filmed on 9/11/25 About Us: The Men At Work Podcast asks one question: What do you do for a living? After that the conversation flows from there. We've talked to substitute teachers, Bangladeshi t-shirt moguls, a real estate broker tight with LeBron James, and the Governor of Literal Pennsylvania. And we'll record anywhere. Random sidewalks during an eclipse, a furry convention, and more! Whether we like it or not, our jobs are most of our lives - might as well yap about it. If you want us to come to your event email us at: [e-mail] APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/men-at-work-podcast/id1373108039SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4XcFWt0I6gFvMotqDp5bsZ?si=2273debc08e5485d If you want more bonus content check out Office Hours a weekly workplace advice show on Patreon that subscribers submit their questions to and we answer them: https://www.patreon.com/menatworkpod *If you subscribe to the Patreon consider subscribing on a desktop or website or an android device, NOT THROUGH iOS (Apple) APP. Apple takes 30% of every month you're subscribed (yea they suck). Follow Us: The Pod: https://www.tiktok.com/@menatpodcast https://www.instagram.com/menatpod/ Follow Matt: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattpeoplescomedy https://www.instagram.com/mattpeoplescomedy/ Follow Kyle: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylepagancb/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylepagancb Follow Vito: https://www.instagram.com/vito_visuals/?hl=en

I was involved with six different startup businesses in my career. What kind of startups? A couple of restaurants, one as seen on TV company, a couple in the dental industry. Do you remember the Snuggie? Yes, of course. We hired the guy who had basically found the Snuggie, and he went on the Chicago home store thing, and there was a guy who had something called the Slanket, which was a blank who said. And he went up to, that's a cool idea.

We want to license it from me, we'll give you like 2%, which is standard. You know what I mean? And we're going to put it on TV and make a lot of money. And guys, like, no, no thank you. He said, okay, he went back research. It wasn't patented or anything. So they came up with a snuggie. Oh, wow.

And that dude's got to be kidding himself, man, after that. He'll get himself with a snug. He's sitting. Exactly. Welcome back to another episode of Men at Work. I'm Kyle Pagan. Is always joined by my man, Matt Feeples. We're out here, come to you from Penn Treaty Park,

doing the most dangerous thing you can right now in America. Yeah. Podcast from Mountieckin. outside. It's September 11th, Thursday. We're recording early this week because we are busy on the weekend. Busy boys. And yeah, so I'm a little nervous. Yeah, full transparency because I think the audience deserves an explanation. Normally we record in Writtenhouse. Now, again, this is a Thursday versus a Saturday. Me and Kyle had a very tail-tucked conversation that said, I'm really nervous about recording into place with a lot of people coming in and out.

Let's go to a place that has fewer people coming in and out and by a body of water so we can have is serene. 100%. If there's a four-year-old behind us in the park with an assault rifle, Vito, that's your eyes only. That's on big VETs, dude. That's on you, dude. That's all we have.

It is, man. It's a thankless job. A lot of blue-collar guys are like, oh, I had to climb up 15 stories and hang there unsuspended, and I could have died? And it's like, have you ever done a podcast after a very famous political influencer was assassinated? I bet you haven't, man. We're just saying what we do is the bravest thing you could do in America.

And we're here doing it for you guys, for our baby boys and baby girls. Yeah, you think Joan Hertz going over the line fourth and one of the touch push? You think that's hard? This is our touch push. Okay. Vito with his hand signals. Off camera, I don't want to get too far into it, but if you can see the signals that Vito gives us, for real, it's like the craziest shit of ever seen, dude. He looks like a bad quarterback.

He's the third base coach. He literally just went like this. It's crazy, dude. He just abandoned his post. We literally just said, can you take our, can you protect our six? We also literally just started, and Vito's like, I'm going to go take a walk. It's like, dude, what are we doing, brother? Get a grip on reality for 20 minutes.

$1,000 camera is just sitting here. Bikes going this way. Runners going that way. And now he's back. And now he's back. This is the kind of operation that gets you killed. He just got back from Utah. What were you doing over there?

What were you doing over there? Yeah, correct. He was trying to get sunglasses. This is what this means. Thank you. Every waking moment of Vito's life is like an infant coming into the universe where he has no expectation of what things are going to be like. It's like, hey, it's 5 p.m. in the early September, it's going to be sunny and hot.

And Vito's like, I'm not going to bring sunglasses. He's just a body full of him. anxiety. I kind of relate to that, though. That's why me and Vito are boys, because we're both just deeply anxious people. True. True. Redheads. Yeah, of course. Yeah, dude, the news and life at large has been absolutely horrifying, terrifying, nonstop, awful. I think, I really truly believe this. In 2020, something broke. No. In the continuum. I know people say this. Well, I'll do it for you then. Don't worry about it, dude. Don't latch on to this. I'm latching and I'm, and I'm getting, and life is not that good.

Life is good. How so? I have a beautiful fiancé at home. You have a beautiful girlfriend home. We have a beautiful producer. Yeah. We're sitting at a park. Getting bombarded by flies.

Watching a couple of bros just have a good catch that don't even know each other. I know. This is Americana. This is Americana. And it stinks out loud. Dude, it's not that great. Now, here's what I think you need to understand. So we're recording this outside of the Delaware River.

And the reason that Kyle's so optimistic is because he has full eyes on the perfect state of New Jersey. Jersey, just across the bay, staring at him going, Kyle, it's not worth it having coffee shops near you. Shut up. It's worth it to get into your car and drive everywhere you have to. And not ask Matt for a ride after the pod. Don't have to deal with his fucking car that doesn't have air conditioning for the last two years of the podcast. It's beautiful and sunny out. Roll the windows down.

I love seeing your hair blow in the wind. But yes, that's what you've got to look forward to. In a tough time like this, you got to surround yourself with those you love. Delaware River. The Delaware River. Kyle Pagan, Crossing Broad Zone, Kyle Pagan. Vito. Vito. My dad, texting me.

Some woman smoking darts over there and just chatting up with the girls. Like, that's fucking Americana. I love this shit. I truly envy it, too. You're talls on the other side of the world. Yeah, I don't even know where that place is. Couldn't tell you. Might as well be in Russia.

100%. Agreed. Snow is at both places. Is that right? Both has mountains. Yeah. Probably have, both have saber-toothed tigers. Both have a lot of guys married to multiple women.

100%. What is up with that? The Mormon thing? The whole, if you're a Mormon, you can marry 35,000 women. Yeah, but I think they've kind of, they're hanging on the rim. They're kind of getting a 15-yard penalty for taunting right now. They're kind of cool. Is that right?

What's happened? The Mormon wives. You ever watch that show? No. Crazy ladies. Bad bitches? Crazy. Five times ten, dimes?

Yeah. Bravo, I think it's the Real House Wives of Utah. One of my new favorites. Really? Crazy people. But they started it because of TikTok because there was like this TikTok where it was

Secret Lives and Mormon Wise or something like that. And it was just basically there was this whole swinger epidemic out there in Utah and they were made for reality TV. Yeah. So Brava was like,

I'll give you a show. Church of the Latter-day Saints, dude. That's what some guy, I saw a thing on TikTok recently that a guy went up and confronted some big Mormon leader and was like, don't you think that Joseph Smith

cheated on his wife and then made it? entire doctrine behind it and they're like sir you can leave sir you can leave it's like it's a totally valid question it's like i've had the same conversation with my boys where they i've seen them cheat on their girlfriend in college and then i go up to them like hey dude what's going on and they're like this is actually what god wanted me to do it's like i bet you he didn't want you to do that he doesn't want you go in sales you got to make a difference and he's like no this is literally my calling i got to get out of my system didn't we just learn you're not allowed to make valid

questions and use all apparently not apparently not apparently not No more questions. No more debate culture. A lot of stuff is going by the wayside. Honestly, would this be the worst if debate shows kind of took a back seat now? I think they should. Like Stephen A. Nick Wright. Yeah. Sports talk radio. My mom after eight glasses of wine. 100%. Facebook moms. My mom after eight glasses of wine might be up there with Stephen A.

So I don't even care. And then Stephen A. Can I say I don't care? And she goes, Everything you're talking about, this is just your childhood. Steve and I said, I didn't even have a childhood. I was born 45. So Adam Silver doesn't want people to watch his product? Yeah, he says, if you're poor, sorry, stay home, buddy, boy, that's the craziest response that I've ever heard. That was like cartoon villain level response.

It's like, you hate to see the billionaires just say the quiet part out loud. Yeah. It's like, we already got the deals. We already got the checks. It's signed still delivered. I mean, he's kind of sticking it to like, who's the new partners? Amazon Prime Peacock

Yeah And I forget the ESPN So he's already got the deals So he's like Hey thanks guys But you know what Everybody watches our product

For free They either watch it on streamies Which unfortunately RIP big ups The streamies Yeah it'll be back It'll be back It'll be back

It'll be back baby Or everybody just Watches House of Highlights And nobody watches Our full games Which I actually Do agree with that I know you're a big ball head

You're a big basketball head Uh huh As I get older The NBA product Pisses me off I can just watch the fourth quarter And if I watch the fourth quarter I know everything about the game

Grandpa Pagan, dude It's not just the goddamn game, dude It's following the young guy Seeing them develop Oh, that was a good read From a ball off a ball screen From Vijay Edgecom Oh, that was a nice pull-up

From Jared Buchain You don't enjoy watching Our Young Black Kings Learn the craft You go, I'll watch the fourth quarter See if they entertain me And then you go text Adam Silver And say, the product sucks man

The product sucks I am That's crazy dude, Baseball sucks you're not going to get an argument for me. True. It's a 162 games. It's too many. And if your own commissioner is saying, like, yeah, the regular season kind of blows, no one really watches it, everybody watches the highlights for free,

why are these guys playing 82 games and they're playing like 15 back-to-backs a year? It's kind of insane. Why did Joel and Veed have to sacrifice his knees for a product that not even Adam Silver once? So maybe Jol & Bid just plays fourth quarters from now on. When you tune in, he checks into the game, and you just kind of get to make a word from there. Fine by me. I just don't, like, the idea of a reporter asking on behalf of, like, the poorest of poor NBA fans and be like, hey, nobody can afford to go watch the product live, even though there's 22,000 seats.

What do you think about that? And he's like, if you're broke, just say that, playboy. And then, like, the song, Hose Man starts playing to the back. Hose Man, Hose Man. Adam Silver just fucking puts shaving cream on the top of his head and shaves. If he was a real baller like that, he put shaving cream on his head and shaved during the interviews. 100%. But he's not like that, dude.

100%. He's spindly. He's tiny. I just, I tried to do it. I tried to, I tried to find my final form of father who gets mad at, at children for leaving the light on. And I tried to consolidate all of my streaming packages into something that was affordable and that I actually agreed with. It fucking sucked. What happened?

They have us by the ball. Yeah. So I'm a YouTube TV guy now. Sure. Just canceled cable. Cable used to be my thing because, you know, my other job, I had to be, like, kind of up to the minute when you're, like, tweeting and stuff and everything. Then the fucking Comcast, the delay was getting worse than YouTube TV. It was getting worse than streaming and everything.

So I was like, all right, whatever. I'll go to YouTube TV. The delay is better. So the YouTube TV was good and everything. It was like $82.99 a month affordable, but, like, you know, it gets up there. So I'm like, all right, fuck it. Let's see what we can do. I can do, like, I can do NFL on the NFL app.

I could do the regional broadcast on Peacock. And that would get me everything that I really need. We already have HBO. Yeah. We already have Apple. We already have Amazon Prime. We already have Paramount. I have everything I need.

And then you try to put the regional subscription on Peacock. And the Comcast website is such fucking dog shit. It's unbelievable. It's crazy. It just, they have me by the balls. You get so frustrated that you just, like, you just exit out and you're like, fuck it. I will, I'll figure it out. So now I have, like, Peacock Premium Plus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have the triple P. You can't have triple P. You can't have triple P. Not in this economy. You can have HPV. You can't have triple P. 100%. Yeah.

But so now I have that, and I'm going to be paying that until I call some stupid fucking Comcast rep who's not going to understand what to do. They're going to send me over to Peacock. Peacock's not going to be open. Yeah. And I'm just going to be paying $16.99 for something that I don't need and that I don't want. It really isn't saying that nowadays, in order to get, like, your service corrected, or your amount paid load.

You have to talk to 13 Indian guys. It's crazy. They're just like, I don't want to call them bridge trolls, but they're kind of like bridge trolls. You have to solve their riddles. You get on the phone and you're like, hey, I want to just not pay this much because it's not fair.

And they go, okay, only if you answer my riddle three. What stings in the night but is sweet in mourning? It's like, dude, come on. Every answer is operator. It's just me shouting into the phone operator. Hello? And they know your name when you call because they're like oracles.

Hello, Kyle. Are you looking to get more service for your YouTube TV? So I actually end up going back to UT TV. You have to, did it? I just went back. I said, fuck it, we'll do it live. Dude, I'm telling you in 10 years, we'll be back on cable. The funniest thing in the world is, I don't know how much you know, but like the Chargers and the Chiefs, they played on YouTube the other day.

I texted my buddy. I said, hey, you're watching the game and everything. And he goes, I don't have YouTube TV. And I said, you fucking idiot, it's for free on YouTube. But that's how ingrained we are. in this fucking society that, like, we're like, wait, they're giving us a sporting event for free? I actually didn't know that. I thought you'd have to buy YouTube TV.

I felt that the same thing. Yeah. It's free? It was free. The Friday game in Brazil last week was free. And nobody understood it. And the ratings came back terrible. And I think it's because nobody knew because we are so just, like, in this mindset that, like,

oh, dude, they're squeezing us for another $5, 10, $15 fucking. Red Zone, sure. Add it to the list. Feed me my fucking fit. Dude, that's brutal that now athletes have to deal with, like, YouTube comments. Like, legacy YouTube comments, like, O.P. sucks. Get them out of you. It's like, dude, that's Jailet hurts. Don't talk about him like that. Pat Mahomes is like, chat. What did you think about that flag?

Get to get some w's in the chat. But it's like, and then they just kind of like shoved it in our face being like, yeah. I don't know, something did me dirty. God, dude. Huh? Carreid did me dirty. That's from the pod. That's from the pod. That's not just a Kyle one.

That's where both of us. I got one of the bank. Fuck off, dude. I thought we handled it very well. I thought we both kind of came to a common denominator that we might have been both wrong. You know Kyrie?

Talk it over? I did get owned by Kyra. Sending some documentaries back and forth to each other? You're like, you know who's really our enemy here? Oh, Kyrie's probably... Kyrie probably hasn't stopped scrolling today. No, Kyrie's a scroll king, dude.

Dude, he's nice on the court and he's nice with the scroll. He does fucking ball handling drills on his phone. He's a doom scroller. The Noticer, they call it. So, the funny thing is about going back to YouTube for a second is they just shoved it in her face being like we can we can give this to you guys

for free yeah we can give you free if we want to mm-hmm we just don't want to that's the morsel they put it in front of you oh that's actually the most horrifying thing that's we're so subservient to big companies that they're like dangling a thing of meat in front of us and we're like for free master and they go for once they're dangling a 2420 game in front of us you're going to go watch green bay packers versus washington washington commanders tonight you can watch Matthew Stafford slowly die in front of you. Thank you, Master. You can watch a Travis Kelsey who should have retired three years ago.

That's got to be enough to fucking radicalize somebody. It's like getting a free game finally after paying for stuff all year, and then you finish a seven to three game, and you're like, what the fuck? Dude, let me watch ten games and give me the free one. Give ten. I think that's absolutely fair. Let me watch ten games and then give me a free one. Yeah.

Buy ten, get one free? 100%. It's an awful deal, Kyle Bacon. Fuck it, I don't care. No, I'll bang that out one Sunday Is that right? Yeah, it's like 16 games a Sunday God, I envy the fact that you're a real man

And I'm a little boy I think I couldn't watch more than one football game Per fortnight Every two weeks, I can watch one football game I sit there Indian style, I rack back and forth I do a puzzle I just these guys were like, man, it's football Sunday I could sit there from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

And I'm like, that sounds awful. Why don't you go do some stuff? Honestly, that's probably a good way to think about it. I don't think it's healthy. No, it's not. I'm such a puss, dude. I got to be a more... My New Year's resolution for September

is to be more of a big, strong dude. I've been at the gym. I joined Planet Fatness, which... By the way, I went there last night. Would you believe it? All the news channels were off. A whole lot of TV ads going on. Wow, a lot of censorship.

Yeah, they were like, you know what? I understand the demographic we have coming here. Why don't you guys focus on Miss Rachel? Why don't you guys focus on your cardio? Here's a TV commercial for LeBoo-boo. I go, I got to focus on different world events. Stop focus on who's dead and focus on your dead lifts. That's exactly right, dude.

That's what they should have said. That should be the tagline yesterday. I'm not going to lie to you, though. I've been meaning to tell you about this. I have joined Planet of Fatness, Plan of Fitness, for those not involved in the tribe. I might be the bell of the ball at Planet Fatness. I don't think that's saying much. And I know that, but you're supposed to give me small victories.

The past couple times I've gone there, I think people look at me like, this guy knows what the fuck is up. You're going to get lung alarmed. It's going to kill you. I get so nervous about getting lunk alarmed, dude. I don't think you'd be able to recover from a lung alarm. alarm. Not a chance. I swear to God I'd Bud Dwyer if I got a lung alarm. They'd come up to me and be like, sir, and I'd be like, don't even

worry about it. Put Dwyering out of planet fatness would be all time. That'd be tough too, because they were going to come up to tell me that I'm actually the bell of the ball. They didn't even tell me I'm the lunk alarm. It's kind of a tragic event. It's like Romeo and Juliet, dude. I killed myself before I can know that my true love existed, which is me getting complimented once by a fat guy named Jeffrey. They were just trying to tell you that like, you're lifting pretty good right now.

Yeah, they're just going to say a compliment. It's like, oh, wow, I see some definition coming down in the arms. Yeah. Well, if you want to change yourself, are you going to become sober? Because that's, like, the big thing right now. No, never that, dude. Okay, good for you. Can't become sober.

I don't care what these psycho-celebs are saying. All the comedians, too, man. Yeah, it's crazy, dude. It's crazy. Because, so, at least with comedians that's coming from, like, a somewhat biased perspective, a lot of the comedians who were alcoholics, they were fucking alcoholics. They were, like, a problem. Because your whole job was, like, you go to a bar, and then you're paying.

is like you can have eight free drinks. Then you go on stage for 10 minutes and you're nervous. So it's like, ah, I got to kind of like loosen up a little bit. So you have those eight free drinks. You have one decent set. You get off stage. You're like, I'll have eight paid for drinks. It's basically like they're free because I got eight free ones already.

Celebrities are like, no, mate, I went to an event last weekend and I had two glasses of wine and I lost myself. I can't be acting like that. You're Johnny Depp? I don't know who I am, dude. I'm an amalgamation of Austin Butler, Tom Holland and Johnny Depp. A little Ozzy in there, too. A little Aussie. RIP to the God, dude.

But these guys, like these, the celebrities, it's one of those people that, like, you know what? Like, we're pretty big drinkers, you and I. When you hear somebody be like, man, I got fucked up last night. You're like, no way, really? What were you drinking? He's like, dude, 5 Miller Lights. I was on my ass. And it's like, shut up.

What does Shane Goa say? Light beer drunk or light beer rehab would be the funniest thing in the rest. Yeah, dude. A lot of pops on the recliner. A lot of guys having to leave their Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. schedule because of light beer rehab. Five Miller Lights would be an inning of Phillies. That would just be, I could passively drink five Miller Lights.

100%. I drink five Miller Lights and get up in the morning and go work out. I think that actually is unfortunately true. Yeah. I think I get stronger after the Miller Lights. There's a couple times that we've done the pod. We do like the Patreon. Please subscribe to the Patreon for the love of God.

I'd get on there. We do office hours every Wednesday. And me and Kyle have a couple pops during the pot. And then after the fact, I'll go to the gym and I feel like I might be stronger. Really? If you go to like two or three before the gym, I think that is the new pre-workout. Drunk Alarmed. Hello, folks.

He just loses a goose. My God, we're feeling it. They can't drunk alarm. He's watching the Charlie Sheen documentary the day. Yeah. You got off that topic pretty quick, yeah. Crazy. Crazy.

Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, I forgot about everything, and I forgot that we lived through it. Yeah. I mean, it was like, I didn't know how crazy he was, like, to begin with. Yeah, dude, he was fucking nuts. He was nuts. Like shot a girlfriend back in the day? He's the OG Lunk Alarm.

You shoot your girlfriend, you get Lunk Alarms. You cannot act like that. That's Tiger Blunt. But now he's going to eat. Yes, he does That was the Tiger Blood the entire time But he's got Magic Johnson AIDS He's got like cool sexy guy age

Well, that's awful But He does mention it in the in the In the documentary Where he's like Where he's like Like I had a temple shirt I really wanted to say go else

But I didn't Thank God That's quite restraint Dude go Rowan It's a huge It's a huge game this weekend So that's I should be allowed to say go house

Anyway Go Toledo Every day of the week every day of the week I didn't say it to the temple guy I said to Toledo guy I just had to get it down to me holy Toledo it's like a

it's like impulsive dude yeah I had to just say go something if you don't do it you'll get home and beat your wife you gotta get out of your system I think the mudheads anyway yeah just crazy documentary his like

his like four year stint when he was really fucking out of his mind was like a seminal part I think of a lot of like 28 to 35 year old people's lives when he was by winning yeah smoking seven gram rocks Smoking 7 gram rocks, tiger blood.

Did they have his drug dealer in the, uh, in the diagram running? He goes, he was really smoking 7 gram rocks. I saw it with my own eyes. I love that, dude. The drug dealer said, like, we'd go over and party for two weeks. He'd pay him like $15,000 to $30,000 a night, the drug dealer. Just go over and party with him. No shit.

Bring drugs and stuff. Oh, my God. And then the guy would like, I had to go home after two weeks. I would sleep for a week. I'd come back and Charlie Sheen would still be party. Charlie's, see, that's a guy who lived it. I respect that. He had a, he had, so, so Charlie She,

was born dead. The imbical cord was wrapped around him and he was like, the doctor just beat the shit out of me until they got a pulse. Really? Yeah, that was like how he started. So I honestly think,

like Sean Penn's in the documentary when he says, he goes, he has a biological makeup that makes zero sense. Yeah. And like one of his ex-wives are like, yes,

the people who have smoked crack as much as me and Charlie Sheen are dead right now. Imagine those two. It's like fucking NBA jam. Charlie Sheen and I think the woman's name

was Brooke or something like that. It was like putting in the code to get, like, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen on NBA Jam. It's like Carmelone and John Stockton on NBA Jam. The idea of, like, them having talking heads to corroborate how fucked up they got. That should be, like, every episode of intervention where, like, it's the girl who's clearly on heroin, and it cuts her driller, and, like, she's out of hand. This is crazy. I have never said anything like this. It's a Gary Payton, Sean Kemp, of smoking crack.

Dude, made it to the finals, but couldn't quite finish it. Oh, my God. What a fucking, I mean, just a, he's lived seven lives. So they said that he smoked more than a normal guy can smoke Than humanly possible So he was smoking enough for like two and a half men Yes God folks

I'm never gonna die God folks Guys we're struggling in the fucking sunlight Now for you guys dude I'm trying to not die as I have the sun piercing through by goddamn gale How you crush five Merrillites door to Philly's game That's Charlie Sheen just crushing 7 gram rocks And why can't you go doing a Phillies game

Why can't you have a couple rocks during a Phillies game Do the 999 challenge with fucking rocks Make it interesting Why not? At least. 162 games is a long time. They should do that as like a halftime event or like a seventh inning stretch, just like, hey, we've got a guy on crack.

He's going to go run around the stadium. We're going to see how long it takes. I mean, Lawrence Taylor won the NFL defensive player of the year on crack. Is that right? Darry won the 1986 World Series on crack. Doc Gooden, I'm pretty sure, pitched a game on crack. No shit. Yeah.

I guess that was just like early Adderall. It was 80s. Yeah, I think that probably is what inspired people to start doing Adderall. It had to be. I mean, at least in my opinion. Not that I've ever touched that crap All right, let's find somebody to talk to Yeah, sorry about all this

How you doing? Hey, what's up, man? We do a podcast where you ask me what they do for 11 You got five minutes? Sure, nice. Let's go. Ready? Go get it. Go ahead.

I love that. Play fetch while you're on the pot. What's your first name? Andy. And what you do for 11? I play poker every day. Play poker every day. So are you at the River Casino or you go somewhere else?

Live casino. Live casino. You're live casino guy. Why are you more live than Rivers? much better place to play they have better cash games they've got more bonuses prizes stuff like that high hands things like that so poker player huh how do you get into that just over the years got into slowly and it's a lot of fun how long have you been doing it full time two years oh I mean basically I'm retired I don't play golf so what else am I going to do

with my time yeah get rid of the money somehow I hear it me I got get rid of the money you got adds to the mind. Well, that's how I gamble. I'm not much of a gambler myself. I go to a slot, me and my girlfriend, getting an argument, and then I've got to go home. So that's my extent of gambling, as you could imagine. But that's the difference between the games, table games, slot machines, you know, blackjack, relet, all that stuff outside. Yeah. Or out in the casino versus the poker room, because the house is always going to win over time. Okay. But in the program, I'm playing against you, you know, you're playing against me. If you're better than me, over time, you should beat me, and vice versa.

True. It's a big difference. So how do you get past, like, when you first started going to those, like, high, I'm assuming you're doing like these high dollar rooms, is there like an anxiousness that you have to kind of fight through to the big dogs sitting in there, they're staring you down as you walk in, you don't know, you don't fit in kind of thing? Well, I don't play high stakes games at this stage, but, you know, the whole game is about knowing cards and numbers and just stats, statistics, and reading people, right? You know what I mean? So they say, you know, you don't play your hand, you play the player. Okay. So the stare down stuff like that,

You just have to, you know, look at people, understand them, you know, try to read them, and then go from there. Are sunglasses legal during the game? I see a lot of guys in the sunglasses. I can't wear them because I can't see the cards. Okay. I respect that. I respect that. So you're doing this kind of cold turkey.

You're doing this without the glasses on. Oh, yeah, for sure. Not like the fossil. Remember the fossil? Yeah, I actually have reading glasses on so I can make sure I see the cards. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not doing anything high. Some people, like, wear hoodies and stuff like that.

Or the way a baseball cap, they'll roll down low, so you can't really see their face, you know, all that kind of stuff. Any contentious games, like any kind, you played where, you know, the hand might have gone a different way than another guy expected, and he kind of blows up a little bit? Yeah, the worst thing in poker is people blame, like, the dealer. Like, the dealer has nothing to do with it, you know what I mean? If you were dealing or I were dealing the same cards, it's still coming out, but they'll throw their chips or they'll throw the cards at the dealer or the curse at the dealer. It's just bullshit. Ruins the game for everybody. What's that?

It ruins the game for everybody. It does. It's just that, you know, there's a guy in the poker room that call him Mean Gene because he never cracks a smile. Really? Like, ever. I'm like, dude, if you're not having fun, why are you here? Do you read him pretty well?

You know, he's mean. That immediately. I'm being upset. Do you read, are you a good reader of people? Have you always been a good reader of people? No, I wouldn't say I'm a good reader, but it's certainly a part of the game. You know what I mean? And one thing I'll do, especially if you have a position, I don't know if you guys

know much about the game. A little bit about Texas Hold'em. Yeah. If you're acting last, let's say, you know, and the flop comes, I'm looking at my other one-on-one. I'm looking at their facial expression, not at the cards. I'm going to see what they do first facially, you know, what they look, they call, they raise, whatever. Then I'm going to make, you know, look at the cards and see what I want to do. Yeah.

What's an expression that you see that might be a tell? Is there like a smirk? Is there like a lot of, like, touching your face kind of action you see from guys? Because that's, I'm describing me in any interaction. Did you ever see the movie Rounders? Yes. It's the cracking of the Oreo cookie or whatever. Everybody's different.

It's hard to just give you one blanket kind of answer to that, but it's just about looking at people. And sometimes you think they're weak and they're really strong. You know what I mean? And other times you get it right. So you're not going to be right all the 100% of the time. Well, what's the rounder's quote? If you don't know who the sucker at the table is, it's you.

Yeah, exactly. Do you have any tell stories, like a guy that maybe like wrinkled his nose a little bit? Or did you remember that you're like, I got this guy hooked on? Not really. Just a reverse where, like, I've read my cards wrong and I thought I had the nuts and I'll bet like 300 and I looked like I got fucked it up. Big dog, you need LASIC, dude. You need a LASIC. No, I was drinking too much in that case.

Yeah, that makes it. I got you. I hear, I hear you. What did you do before? I was involved with six different startup businesses in my career. What kind of startups? A couple of restaurants. One, as seen on TV company and a couple in the dental industry.

As seen on TV company. Very honest. As seen on TV products. Our biggest one was the. Wax FAC. This was probably 15, 20 years ago. But it was sold for like $4.5 million. It supposedly pulls wax out of your ears.

Oh, I see that shit on TikTok all the time. The new ass scene on TV is the TikTok shop. Yeah. Yeah. Because I see those ones of people just pulling wax out of their ears. It's crazy. I did have something that I found a product making it on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Yeah?

Oh, really? What did that evil bitch do with it? Yeah. I said, what that evil bitch did with it? notorious horrific person. This was called the Gojo Handset, I think it was the name of it and basically what it was,

it was like a headset with a suction cup so you could put your phone there so you could have hands free talking. Yeah, yeah. So she made a parody out of it where a cop would have his gun and they had a cup of coffee

and a donut and go, preach! I've seen a Muslim... Your podcast listeners can't see what I just did, but I used my head and... I've seen a Muslim woman do that once or twice. Yeah, under the Hajjah. Under the Hajjah.

So wait, so how did you get to the ass scene on TV business? Uh, my best friend, um, ended up buying a television station and we wanted to get into infomercials. So that's what we did. Were you doing like the long running, like you do like an hour or two hours, like a QVC where you're up there and you're like, this gun thing is the coolest thing we have? Check this out. Like you're doing an hour straight? In direct response television, there's short form and long form. Long form are in infomercials. They're 30 minutes long. Short form are usually two minute commercials.

Uh, I haven't been paid attention, but, you know, that whole world might have, like you said, go on a TikTok or something else now. Or Toomey. I mean, there's still some. I see some of it on TV, but I don't think it's prevalent as it was, you know, 15, 20 years ago. Sure. No, no, it still holds up. That thing is driving a wedge between my mom and my dad and their marriage, where my mom still

gets sucked into TV infomercials. And then, like, two weeks later, she comes home with, like, a giant wine glass that she ordered for $35. Right. And my dad's like, hell, can I please retire? She's like, no, we need the wine glass. I mean, that was my dad with sports memorabilia at 2 a.m. They used to the sports memorabilia channel at online.

and they'd be hammered off of beers down at the bar down in my basement and stuff and they just, sports normally would just show up on Thursday. Yeah, you can't beat it, too. Crazy. Yeah. For something to do, of course. Do you guys ever watch Shark Tank at all? Do you ever hear of the Scrub Daddy?

Yes. Yeah, I think it's one of the most selling items on there. So we were actually presented with that prior to it getting big, right? Yeah. And he came in and did a demo for us. It looks like a sponge that's a smiley sponge, right? But what he didn't tell us, like if it gets great. cold, it's hard, so he can scrub it hard

and then warm, it's softer, and that's a big thing, and, you know, and Director Response Television, you've got to have the money shot, they call it. Yeah. And so, we turn it down, and then we went a little truck tank, and it did very well. It's enormous. Got a big factory over, and I think it's Penn

Sauk in New Jersey, somewhere around there. They got the big factory. But that thing is, like, we got one at my apartment. That's uncomfortable to use when it's just you and the scrub daddy, and you've got to, like, wash spoons, and you're sticking into the thing's mouth. You want to talk about a money shot, Dude, this is the crazy shit I've ever been involved in. I cover his eyes when I do it, I'm like, don't love, dude.

Hold your breath. It'll be over soon. Poor thing, man. Seen on TV, man, that's so crazy. Did the industry just die with the guy when he died from OxyClean? No, it's weird because when it first started out, you couldn't get anything in retail, right? You basically buy it off television. And then they started going to the big box stores and stuff.

So then it was almost like a race to retail. Sure. So what you used to do is produce, you want to see what you return on. Basically, your return is on the television to see if it warrants, then taking to retail. But they started overlooking that because they just wanted to get to retail. And so we're going to retail and flop and then the internet and then Amazon and shit like that came up. So it all got convoluted and harder, basically. Anything that you invented that you're like this one I'm going to retire on, but it never took off?

No, there's the opposite ones where we like this. This is a shower caddy thing where you put a shower, a shelf in your shower, and you just put it in there like that. And we had this claim that could hold 15 pounds. So when we put, we're doing the commercial, we put 15 pounds on it, it dropped. So all we did was we had a shot of it and we put it on and we cut to something else. That's exactly how I think it would be in the SDOM TV world. It's too good.

Come back from commercial, like, sorry folks, we had a 16 ounce or 16 pound product hanging from there that's do you uh do you have any fun ones do you mean sham wow was an all-time goat shan wow what was that guy's name he beat the piss out of some chick and then he had to get he had to get canceled yeah shan wower he ever the old chamois yeah the guy who would take the thing and he would like smack smack it over the uh the barrel full of water yeah and he would like he's oxy no not oxy no i never talked about it it's like a black smear you put over the flexil flexil he was riding on the river with it flexil i was like there's no shit yeah yeah yeah Exactly. Don't believe everything you see.

I know. That guy, he probably had a 15-pound boat. That was the give-and-take. That one got my dad. My dad was like, we had it for the boat. Here's another story for you. Do you remember the Snuggie? Yes, of course. Which was one of the first one. I think it sold like $500 million worth of shit.

And your biggest was $4.5 million? Four and a half million units. Not dollars. You know what I mean? Which I wonder would have been like $20. It maybe wasn't. But anyway, so we hired the guy who had basically found the Snuggie. And he went on the Chicago home store thing, and there was a guy who had something called the slinket, which was a blanket.

And he went up to, that's a cool idea. We want to license it from me, we'll give you like 2%, which is standard. You know what I mean? And we're going to put it on TV and make a lot of money. And guys like, no, no thank you. So, okay, he went back research. It wasn't patented or anything. So they came up with a snuggie.

Oh, wow. And that dude's got to be killing himself, man. After that, you could have been like a millionaire. He's sitting in a studio apartment in a slanket being like that kind of fucking mother. That's too good, man. Oh, my God. And what else have you done other than not seen on TV stuff? Restaurant investing?

A couple of restaurants. One in Philly, one in Delaware years ago, probably before you guys were born. And then the dental business, a couple of things in that. Are we doing like just making dental instruments and stuff? We had six dental practices. And then we had another couple we started up, which actually sold, sold, um, In-house plans to people that didn't have dental insurance. Okay.

So basically where you get cleanings and stuff like that. And that went national and that actually was sold for a shitload of money. Nice. So you just always been an entrepreneur? Basically. Yeah. Luckily. Is there like, I hear a lot of stuff about like the dental industry is like scammy.

There's people like my age now that think that they're just trying to like bring you in to give you a feeling for something you don't need. Did you ever see anything like that? I think there's some truth to that. Yeah. I mean, certainly in our dental practices, we. didn't do that. You know what I mean? But I wouldn't, I agree that there are probably some that, you know,

tell you need something when you don't really need something. You know, at the end of the day, it's a business, and they're trying to, I hate to say, upsell you, right? Yeah, it's crazy. You know what I mean? It really is insane. Just give me a gold cat. You just got to be, yeah.

You can be a gold tooth. I'm like, I do. You're right. I do need it. But it's the same with doctors, right? I mean, everything about doctors, you know, do you really need whatever? You know, if you go to a doctor for something and they prescribe to this and they're in their bed with the pharmaceutical companies or.

I don't need a catheter ever. I have one in right now. 100%. That's what I can't focus. Any doctors out there, no matter what, dude, I don't consent to a catheter. True. Honestly, let me die before I have a catheter. That shit scares the fuck out of me.

A catheter or a prostate exam? Are you close to the age for a prostate, if you know, my mask? A prostate exam? I've had them in the past, but yeah. They're brutal. They seem brutal. No, they're not fun. Not fun.

Is it fun to have some dude stick a finger up your ass? Confirmed. Confirmed, you know. Confirmed brutal. True. What was your first name again? Andy. Andy, you're an interesting cat.

What should tell me about your podcast real quick while I'm here? Yeah, man it works. There's a couple entrepreneurs here just instead of selling as seen on TV, we're as seen on YouTube. That's right. Just trying to sell audio? Us, yeah, trying to sell us to the people and everything. So you're on YouTube? How many subscribers do you have, if you don't mind me asking?

We have 4,500, I think. Could start. Let's bump that up a little bit, please. If you're watching right now, please subscribe for Andy. My son has a YouTube channel called Dylan Does Basketball. Oh, okay. Promote that as well. He's got about 225,000 subscribers.

But he started out like you guys, man And so you can build that up Just keep doing what you're doing Appreciate that What's he do? He teaches NBA videos Oh, you know, about players About teams, about coaches

Usually 20, 25 minutes long He narrates them He edits them put small together Sweet, pretty sweet His best video was Mark L. Foltz Of all people Oh, God He had about 5 million views on that one

But he usually gets about half million To three quarters of million views average No shit. Yeah What was it about the shoulder? injury, I'm assuming? The whole story. The yips. My son, it was one of his favorite players, and I always kidding all the time, because

you know, to me, he just had a mental block, had something go on. He said it's the scapillar and balance or whatever that thing was in the thoracic outlet syndrome. Yeah, that one. I bought that hook, line, and sinker. Yep. The futs capacitor or whatever, you know what I mean. Yeah, 100% still reeling from it. Yeah. He'll be back.

It'll be back. It's a matter of time. Well, thanks so much, man. We appreciate it. Yeah, we really appreciate it. Appreciate it. Nice to meet you all. Absolutely. Yeah, we're We're doing a podcast. We just ask people what they do for a living. It's a good time. Please, take a squeak.

Take a squeak. He's talking to the dog. How are you? Take the headphones, take the microphone, take the microphone. Oh, that's all right. Oh, God. Onion rings over French fries every day of the week. You said an onion ring?

Then yes. Yeah. No, she's eating an onion. An onion? I've been there. Straight onion. Like a Shrek in the swamp. I ate a raw tomato last night, and it was, it gets a bad rat. Hi.

Just a big Jersey fresh tomato. That's a Roma. Not the rag. Not the rag. You can fit one Roma in his mouth. What's your name? Molly. Molly, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you. What's your names? Kyle. Matt. Hi. And what do you do for a living? I work for an interior designer and the building we're housed in as brand manager and marketing. Sweet.

Interior designer. In the place that you're housed. Say that you're an interior designer. So it is a little complicated. Yeah. But we have. In 1890s Methodist Church that we bought, the woman who owns it, bought it. And she created a space from it.

So it was a church all the way up until she bought it in 2007. And then she has her own interior design business. So do people come in and they're like, hey, this is what we can do to your house? Well, our office is within the space. And then there's also 20 other spaces. So there's a lot of therapy, a lot of massage therapist. We just did a yoga studio. We just opened a yoga studio.

Oh, so you're kind of like a wee work. Kind of but better. Okay. It's like a holistic wellness kind of vibe we're bringing. Got it. And you're the interior designer in one of the... I'm not the interior designer, but I do all the like social media, website, chit chat. I love a chit chat.

What's a chit chat? What we're doing right now? Who's chit chat? Is it here? I always wanted to be in a chit chat sometime. It's kind of nice. I've never been one before. It's pretty sweet so far.

Welcome to my chit chat. So you're, so, yeah, how do you like being brand marketer for, for small business, large business, medium business? Small. Small business? How do you like doing it? I love it. I stopped Instagram myself a few years ago, maybe four years ago. It's a good time to be offline.

It was bad for my brain. Yeah. But I like doing it. I'm really good at it. So I like doing it for someone else. Yes. And it's not my stuff. And you don't have to worry about the dopamine effect of being like likes and.

Well, imagine you still get it. It's still got to be there. But it's not tied to my personal personality inside my head. It's tied to your skill that you make money off. I would, I'd be more scared of that, dude. My personality can go by the wayside. If it's like a skill, no, no. I need her.

Yeah, I know, I know, I hear you. I need her, too. I hear you. Yeah, I get you. It's got to be kind of daunting, though, because, like, you guys are selling such a unique thing. Like, how do you go about making that seem like a, like a common thing that everyone wants to try? Interior design? Or the space?

Yeah, the space. I'd say the space, I, I've just been, it, the, okay. Here's the thing. Sure. We're in East Falls. So there's your first obstacle right there, you know, getting people to go out there or to stay there. And so I, the first thing I've been doing is just getting out there and meeting people. So going to events, going to yoga classes, meeting different teachers and practitioners and just saying, like, hey, we'd love to have you come by.

Holding events. So like just having people step into the building once makes it so much more likely that they'll come back. Got it. So that's my thing. And again, like a chit-chat. Everybody, I think with all the digital, thank you. I love chit-chat. And I hope you carry that on. Of course. We've been doing for about 68 episodes now. Fabulous. We've been chit-chatting a little bit. We chit-the-chat. Yeah, I think that having, I think a lot of things that I hear when I go to these things is that people want connection. Because of everyone's behind their screens, the pandemic, you know, that old song and dance. Yeah. People were like, I need, they say touch grass, but that,

just means like I need connection of some sort and we are a space that can facilitate that and so we host like dinners and retreats and things like that um hopefully making them accessible you know so it seems like it's just important for you to be offline and it is online as a brand market absolutely yeah yeah that's a weird dichotomy guy I know yeah as a guy who is tied to his job being online yeah it's weird it sure is in the year 2025 to have an all You're doing it now. Yes. I mean, technically you're doing it, too.

We are doing this. We are going to be online. In another stratosphere. That's amazing. We're going to be online. But you'll never see it, no Instagram. So maybe in another left. Well, via work.

True, true, true. Yeah, sure. Follow us on the brand account. Now, I got some, uh, some dumber questions. Is there any fear that the place is haunted? Because I'd be a little spooked that 1920s Methodist church. Methodist, I always think of like butter churners. Okay.

Back in the day? Kind of like, because Methodist is a little bit, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Dutch a little bit, right? Friendly. A little bit? Yeah. They rub shoulders. Rub shoulders. Okay.

No, I think it's a friendly ghost. Whoever they are. Okay. I'd say. Casper? Maybe. Yeah. A child.

He was a friendly ghost. It's not up to us. We didn't make them that way. I don't feel any bad vibes. And I feel like as many people come through those doors, they'd feel that. I think it's only friendly ghosts. Good energy. Good energy.

I feel like it's probably up to you guys to provide the good energy. We also, we did. So a person who owns it, her name's Val. She's lovely. great eye for design obviously she kept a lot of the things that make it a church so the organ pipes she refashioned into a beautiful chandelier

that hangs in the center of the room so it's like it's still all feels very holy and you want to yeah you want to be it's still a sanctuary it's just like the meaning has changed a little in what that means we're not like praying but somebody could

I hope there's no phantom in haunting the place because he'd be pissed if she took her organs and made him into like something like that. Oh, the Phantom of the Opera? Yeah, true. That's like a point, dude. Get with me, guys. I hear you.

I'm with you, brother. We're chit-chatting, guys. We're chit-chat. We're goddamn chit-chat. I need you up here. You're chit-chatting down here right now. Me and the ghost? Chit-chatting all the way up here.

Oh, I would chit-chat with the ghost all the time. Yeah, yeah. I'd ask how his day went. I wouldn't talk that long. I honestly, can I be completely honest with you? Please, name one more time. Molly. Molly.

Molly. I have no idea what you work for. Interior design. It is confusing. Yes. So I'm going to tell you the names. Studio IQL is our interior design business. And it's a small company, and we do residential, commercial, and hospitality spaces.

So we've done a number of restaurants and hotels and a ton of residential spaces. Oh, okay. So you're an interior design company that goes out. to commercial spaces and also residential spaces yeah yeah so it's like any yeah it's like any where's the holistic part come into it we live in that building that's where our office is okay and she owns the woman who owns studio iql also owns the building that's like McDonald's which is really cool biggest real state empire in the entire country wouldn't you believe it did i would tell you she's girl bossing oh yeah she sounds like girl boss speaking of a girl boss my second question

yes another bad question but i do get curious about this like i appreciate that uh uh Like, how do you deal with receiving a shitty idea without being mean in telling them, I'm not going to do your idea? Like, do you have a nice voice you put on where it's like, oh? I used to. Yeah? And I think the team you're on really makes a difference because the team I'm on, I can fully say now, I don't think that's a good idea.

Really? I really appreciate it, but I think we should do something else. And they will, they appreciate that from me, which I don't know. I don't know if you have this feeling, but, like, I didn't always have that. I was not always able to be like, I don't like that. I couldn't do that right now. If anybody gave me the worst idea of all the time, they're like, what if you lived? How do I handle your bad ideas?

It doesn't answer. That's his whole thing. I'll send an idea. I hate that. Thank you, Molly. Thank you for saying that, Molly. I don't like it either. You've never spoken up until Molly got on the podcast. Well, now I have somebody in my corner.

You're welcome. Yes, the Methodist Church. We're girl bossy right now. And we're chit-chat. That's right. Sure, you guys aren't chit-chat. Yeah, I just, I can't, I don't think I can receive a no like that. So I guess it's more on me than you being the person giving me the no, but I guess you get to a certain point where...

I know it's not the end of the world. You'd think it wasn't, but... It's only the beginning of whatever's next. Should I have a podcast? You might need have a podcast. You want this, this shit. I don't feel like doing this anymore. Interiors that feel lived in, layered, and personal.

I like that tagline. That's right, that's right. We are human beings and we care about your space. Yeah. It's true. For real, we, I mean, I wouldn't, I don't think I would work for a place that I didn't believe in what they were doing. And I, I really love that I can straddle between the design business and the building itself. Like, I love talking to people.

I love, which is why I was over there. I was like, really talking to? Yeah. Yeah. And I think I come from an artistic background. So the interior design really kind of melds it all together. As a brand marketer, how do you feel fighting with algorithms every single day of your life? I hate it Yeah, it sucks

Did you see it in my eyes? Did you see the light go out? Yeah, 100%. I mean, I got bags under my eyes These bags under my eyes These are just algorithm bags They're algal not Yeah, they're algorithm eyes

What is the word even? Like, what does it even mean anymore? Is it, I think it's taken a human form? It's all about the hook. I think it, I, what? It's all about the hook, right? The hook, yeah. Yeah, three seconds in.

You don't norm in three seconds in? Chit chat. Chit chat. More people need to chit chat. I agree. I actually disagree. I think less people need a chit-chat. I think two of the people are talking.

More better people need to chit-chat. Okay, decent folk chit-chat. We're starting it now. People that aren't insane in the membrane need to chit-chat more. They can chit-chat with just them. They can go to your space. You got a nice corner roped off for them. Is that right?

Yeah. Do you want to get into the interior space? Are you ever doing day-to-day stuff? Do you like, hey, I have an idea about crown molding? No. That's not for me. That's left to the designers. They're the smart ones.

I will be behind them with a camera, my phone. I'll put my phone in their face at all times. Sure. I always like this TikToks is like the small business, always put them out there where it's like when the brand marketer wants us to do a TikTok. I like this. Yeah. That's pretty much me.

If I'm like, you're having a good, genuine time, I'm going to take my camera out now. Yeah, 100%. Is it hard, like, getting people to do like TikToks and Instagram reels and stuff? It is. It's like one of those things that people are like, we don't have time for that right now. But that is a thing that brings business in. So it's like, even if it feels really silly. Especially now, I think people are, there's, the world is so scary.

And so I think silly, silly stuff is what people are online for a lot of the time. It's to just like get lost. Yeah. But it's also bad though, because then you find yourself. Of course. An hour later and you're still scrolling. Of course. And it starts silly.

It always starts silly. But then, yeah, I get it. I get it. But you have to like, I mean, we're all just trying to carve out our own little space. in this algorithm. On the other hand, I'm also like, get yours, which is a bad way of thinking. Get your what?

Just get yours. Just get it? Who? Everyone? Yeah. From who? I don't know. Just get yours. Just grab what you can get.

Yes, and? The empire's over. Grab what you can get. It's a little nihilist. Is there a better way? I think so. I think we should get ours. Yes.

Together. I don't think it's ever going to go that way, though. Ever. I'd love to have... Are we too big now? No, I think we're medium-sized still. No, I think that's like... It's a great way of thinking.

I just think it's a little bit utopic. Of course. Well, you aspire to a utopia. I like you. I like Matt. I think we'd get along whether the cameras are rolling or not. I hope so. But I don't know if like half this park would.

Probably not. But again, getting people in front of you chit-chat, looking eye-to-eye, you probably aren't going to... You're less likely to want to... hurt me. So you think Chichak could really like save the world? I think. Yeah. I don't disagree with that. In another life, I think I would love to have been a politician. Would you have time? What do you? Nah. Have you seen the game? Yeah, it's not great. Scary. Well, they might need you right now. You might want to get out there. Can you pick stocks?

What? Can you pick stocks? How's your fundraising? Great. My funds raised. I sometimes wish. Do you want me asking how old you are? Sure, 32. 32? I'm 32, 29. Congrats. I think we are, so 93, 93, 96. That's right. I think we are the last generation that kind of remembers what it was like to

have full-fledged conversations and have kind of like going outdoors but also having the internet, but it was also not really what it is today. Yeah. We're like the bridge generation. Yeah, that's perfect. I think every generation is like, we're the last one. Yeah. But we're like the last ones like from our from 93 to now 2025 over 30s plus years. The amount of technology has to be incomprehensible has to be the most advancement in the 30 year period of all time.

Ever. I think so I think that's right. Well, because time is always moved in such giant chunks. Yeah. Where things don't change. They change so small that by the time 10 million years is gone by. It's like, oh. Oh. It's changing the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. But now it's yeah, like we our brains are fully not ready for all the things. that we have. I think it just moved too fast because you go from like the 40s to the 70s. Like the only thing that really advanced

was like drugs. Tupperware. Civil rights. Civil rights. Pretty big one. Tupperware. Civil rights and Tupperware. The big two.

Yeah. It's big. The big three. The whole journey. I want to go back to the old 1800s days of like writing letters to your boys or like your constituents. Yeah.

Your fellas. Your fellas. You can write letters to your boys. Dearest fellas. By candlelight. You can write letters to your boys now. Yeah. I'll put like the little hat on.

It'll be late at night. You know that church I work in? was there during that time. Is that right? That's true. A lot of letters written in there. Come write some letters. I would love to.

See if you could connect, you know. With the ghost? I don't want to connect with the ghost. I think I don't want to connect with the living or dead. I think I got everybody. With yourself? No, I think I'm sick of him too. I've had enough of him.

That guy freaks me out, so. But that's why I'm writing letters. It's a nice. Is this your letter? Can I ask what this is called? Yeah, it's called Men at Work. Yes. Oh.

I know. Everybody says that. They're not Nazis. Oops. You know, it's. Well, prove it. Consider it proven. I'm nervous.

How about that? Are you sweating? Yeah. You have as a conversation. Isn't that proven enough for chitch chatting? We love a chit chat. I love a chit chat. I literally, my friends were like, oh my God, so embarrassing because I was like, I want to go chit chat.

I mean, even if you were, I mean, not to, if you were Nazis, I would leave 100%. Appreciate it. But even if you had different views than I did, and I'm sure we do on something, like, this is the time to be talking. To chit chat. Yeah. at all with anyone. 100%. Yeah.

I agree. Yeah. And I just, I made a post for us today. Like, spaces are important and, and everyone deserves, like, a warm place that feels safe and, and, and comfortable for them. And a lot of people don't have that right now. And so, like, all we can do is do that for each other and the people that we have close to us. I love that.

I think that's exactly right. And in those spaces, you can chit-chat. In those spaces, chit-chat is safe. Chit-chater. I love that. Thank you, Molly. Molly, thank you so much for James. This was great.

That's nice. We hope you had a good time. Yeah. Would a couple Nazis sound like that? I hope not. The more we bring it up, the more we start to sound like that. Stop saying. Stop saying.

No, but you're not the first person. People hate our fucking name. Men at work. But we're two years in. We can't change it. Come against it. You're going against it. We are.

You're trying to change. Men are fine. And you're going to improve it, right? Thank you. We're trying. The one guy walked by and he said, do you want to come on? He goes, no, I'm a nurse, and I'm white. I can't come on.

And I was like, well, that's an insane way of thinking. Yeah, that's, that's, uh, okay, get a lot of, and I don't know. Look, met at work, women at work, cool, cool folks at work. Humans at work. Men at work, people keeping it a bean. Great Australian band, platinum selling. That is true. So our name.

Are you going to sing? Uh, I forget all the time. We're going to be now. Nice. I guess I can fucking sing. I had no idea. That's crazy. Okay.

Molly, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Very nice to be a year. Get as much daylight left as you can. Yes. Brand marketer. I couldn't do it. I don't like, I put up an Instagram.

posts an hour ago and it's been sitting in the back of my brain the entire podcast. I couldn't handle. How much likes, how much shares? I couldn't handle. What are people saying? What are people saying underneath that ? Underneath that? Nothing. Who is? Nothing to do with me. Can you read one of the comments? No, I don't think any comments ever happened ever, no matter what. Nobody ever speaks to me, so

I wouldn't worry about that. Well, who can it be now? Brand marketing. I would hate to have to fight with algorithms. Just kidding. I do it for it every day. What's up, man? What's up, dude? Come on. Please, we'd love it. Yes.

Molly said you're a good one. Yes. Okay, I can take that. Well, I like a water loop. You'll fit right in then, brother. I'm more of a Laquois guy recently. I can't get into the sparkling waters. I think like the flavor isn't strong enough.

I'm a soda guy. It's a soda guy. That's bad. It's still a soda guy. What's the other one? My fiancee has just started getting them. Waterloo's, LaCroix. Spindrift.

Bubly. Bubly's been a kind of one. The spin drift is nice, but I think they put actual, like, juice in there. Yeah, there's like a two grams of sugar in there because they put like real juice. Is that right? Okay, it makes sense. I can feel it. I can feel on the taste.

What's your first name? Don. Don? Yes. I'm Kyle. This is Matt. Matt, nice to meet you. Pleasure to meet you.

And what do you do for a living? I am the supervisor of manufacturing for a company called John Pomp Studios. John Pomp. We're a American furniture maker. We make metal and glass furniture. Damn. We're still doing that onshore? Yeah, yeah.

Hell yeah. Yeah, we do everything in house. Very nice. Wow. Hell have been around. They've been around. I've been around as a company for, I think, 25 years. Okay.

Don't quote me on that. Yeah, sounds good. We're not going to fact-check that. So how is IKEA ruined in your life? What's the market like? Oh, no, no. We sell to a very high-end crowd. Okay.

Like, we make like $50,000 tables. Holy shit. We just, a very proud thing we just made the largest table ever manufactured in North America. Wow. 12 foot long, 43 inches wide, two and a half inches thick. Who the hell's buying that? Uh, the CFO of Microsoft. Okay.

Oh, okay, good. Yeah. Okay. So you had to ship that bad boy out to Portland? It went to his Maui home. Oh, he just went to his beach home. Went to his bunker. Yeah.

It's kind of like deflating sometimes when like you've learned where it's just going to their vacation home. Like, yo, this dude just spent like $300,000 on two times a year furniture. Dude, do you ever think about like after the table gets there how brutal the conversations are at that very table. that you slaved over yeah like a bunch of just like horrific heathens talking about like well human life isn't that important and you're like the one who made that table that's tough sled peter teal's about wondering if you can save the humans or not it's like dude oh boy let's chip him hopefully don't think he's planted that table that's crazy that you're literally building a table that like big business is being like settled over like it's probably Zuckerberg it's probably

fucking that guy and it's like that's crazy yeah and like and that's just one table yeah there's just one table That's nuts. Where our clientele is, like, pretty extensive. Yeah, it's luxury, luxury furniture. Yep. So how do you start? Did you get into woodwork when you were younger, or this is something that came about as you got a little bit older? My old man has had a furniture refinishing business this whole life.

So, like, you know, when I go visit him in the summers, like, I'd always be sanded paint, just kind of like I was like kind of what I knew to do. I fell into furniture, what was it, like, 16 years ago. Nice. I moved back to Philly from Savannah, Georgia. And my buddy got this gig up in Port Rich. for an artist doing like woodworking and he was like yeah why don't you come come check this out i think you like dig it and just like went there met the owner it's actually how i met molly yeah um this place

called bdddw okay um this guy tyler hayes he's a uh amazing artist sure but just as evil in the same breath oh um but yeah good evil okay okay you know he's that the duality of of working for an artist that that's the reality of it you know it's just like when you're an artist it's just like when you're an artist and you're working you become so attached you become intimately involved and especially when like i was there when i was like a 25 person company sure it grew to a hundred 120 person company and uh you know you forget that it's a job and it's business and like since it's art you become so attached to it becomes very personal so that was just like a more personal day he's a fantastic businessman fantastic artist of course you got to separate bad boys from life

from p ditty bad boys for life well exactly 100 maybe we don't take any advice from p ditty but i understand the general sentiment is fair that's fair now let me ask you this so you're a car with long hair and facial hair. Do you ever worry that you're Jesus? Do you ever think about this? Oh, no. No, no, I'm very humble. Okay, good.

Something Jesus would say, very, okay, very Jesus-like answer, whatever, all right. Turn that word of Lou into wine. Do it. Not what everyone's watching. All right, all right. Is that grape already? That is a... Blackberry lemonade.

We're halfway there. Yeah. We're halfway there. We're working on. So, you just went to this place, never had a background in woodworking besides your father, right? Yeah, I was just like, I know how to run an orbital standard. And he was like, sounds good for me. In the Sandin Room.

Okay. Is that crazy how we find our jobs? Yeah, really? We kind of just step in shit sometimes. It honestly is a lot about, like, who you know. Like, if you never knew that guy. Oh, 100%. I didn't go to college.

I didn't do shit. I was a shit kid after high school. I got in the van with my band and, like, skated and did a bunch of dumb bike mechanic jobs and, like, fell into this. And now I'm, like, a very successful person in my career. It's like crazy. It's just like, it's who you know and it's what you put into it. Do you think for an artist that that's almost like a borderline necessary experience

to kind of like depose yourself from societal expectation. Absolutely. And you think that definitely has helped and influenced you in a lot of ways? Oh, absolutely. That's crucial to it.

You have to break the mold to get into anywhere that feels authentic. Sure. Otherwise, you're just copying and reproducing. You're never doing something that's truly you.

Okay. Now, I worry about, like, I'm a comedian. So, like, I worry about stealing jokes or doing a joke that sounds like something. When you're creating some piece of furniture

and you're obviously taking inspiration from things you've seen, do you ever worry, like, damn, I'm kind of making this very similar how he or she made it. You know, I struggled with that. I worked for Tyler Hayes at BDW for so long.

When I was making my own things, I would never take a photo of it. I would just give it away because I was like, it looks like I worked for this dude. Like, I'm like, it's so hard to kind of like, like I never felt proud of anything in that way. But then, you know, in the same breath, I love traditional American tattoos.

And that's what that's based on. It's based on recreating, repurposing, and a new breath and new light. And it's not just, you're not stealing something. You're just repurposing it. in a new light and giving new breath to it. Sure. So that's helped me kind of like understand furniture way

because at the end of the day, a chair is a chair. Sofa's a sofa, lighting's lighting. Like Beethoven and Bach, there's only so many chords you can play in a song in the world. Like everything is a bastardization of something. And if you look at it, like in that light. But there's still ways to kind of find yourself in that. But it was very hard for me to separate myself for that from working for one artist for so long to kind of find my own style and uniqueness in that.

Okay. And being kind of okay that I look like I was influenced in some way. That makes sense. So furniture is subjective. Absolutely. I like that. I agree with that. What's your favorite kind of furniture?

I love dumb furniture. I love a shitty plywood chair. I love Donald Judd. You know, just like you can make something fantastic and structural and minimalistic and it can look stupid. It doesn't need to be a chair really. Like a chair with three legs. Yeah. Just like something goofy.

I hate seeing, like, the Dior medallion chair. That's the classic, the round chair with the roundback that's got the little upholstery inset. You've seen it at every restaurant. You've seen in every ballroom. It's like, I'm tired of seeing that fucking chair. Like, give me something dumb. Stack a rock on something and be like, that's a chair.

Believe me, I'll sell it to you. Dude, you are fucking Jesus. That's exactly what Jesus would do. I know it. Just give a... You would turn a rock into a chair. Yeah, absolutely. When you go to a restaurant,

Uh, booth or table? What's the move? Oh, um, I usually let my lady decide. Sure. Um, she loves a booth. Yeah. I, I do like a booth, but like, I feel like we're always in those two-seater situations where, like, we're always in those two-seater situations where she gets a booth and I'm in, like, the chair.

Oh, I don't like that. Oh. They got to stop doing this. You sit so close. Everybody near you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a new thing, too, and I don't, I don't understand that. So I guess, yeah, I prefer the booth, but I feel like I never get booth, because of modern seating for a two-top. Hey, your gentleman. Yeah. You're Jesus. The real answer, I feel like, is just bar seats. Me and my girl are a big bar seat. Yeah, but bar seats with no back?

That's pretty insane. I'm 40 now. I need to lean back a little bit. 100%. We've got to stop with the bar seats with no back. Yeah, I don't know. I don't appreciate that either. Which is your favorite type of wood?

Favorite type of wood? You know, a sugar maple. Oh. It's a very underestimated wood. It's a nice pale wood. You can do a lot of cool things with it for an artist. It's really cheap, so you can buy it and fuck something up and throw it away. You're not breaking the bank.

Yeah. So it's a very usable wood. Any good stories from your time working? I know obviously you're selling gigantic tables to CFOs, but like any, you know, stuff that you've maybe made someone for something that you're like, oh, I love that guy. Or something that you were like, we hit a deadline that was like insane and like we got it over the finish line or something like that. Just like one of your favorite stories you have from your time working. Just to finish it out. I'll reflect back to my time at BDW.

Yeah. We did a lot of really cool shit there. They would host these parties called the Weenie Roast up in upstate New York. Sure. They would hold an archery competition between galleries that we worked with. And at the end of the year, they would have like a final championship game where like everyone come out and people like dressed to the nines. And just like being the stone barn. So it would be like high art, kind of like equated to like Andy Warhol party essentially.

Okay. Just kind of like bunch of like high end artists coming out to like central New York to a stone barn. I forget where it was. It was like three and a half hours outside of the city. And we would just host these crazy parties, and I would play music from 9 a.m. to about 10 p.m. And it would just be me and a few other co-workers. One year we made these, like, 60-inch drums that we stretched goatskin ourselves over top of them. We made a 20-foot-long, like, alpine horn out of, like, Alaskin cedar.

And I would just be out there with my guitar doing loops, doing drones, just making noise, making really chaotic, ambient, like 70 psychedelic stuff. And, like, we had a bunch of goats kind of running around. And at one point, a dude that actually worked at the showroom. He paid him to just, like, we bought a cop outfit for this other guy. And he chased the one employee. He just got naked. Just ran through the field. And he had a huge fucking hammer, swinging everywhere.

And then, like, an hour later, they switched roles. And, like, the skinny boy was, like, wearing, like, the cop outfit. My buddy who worked with, like, a chubby dude ran through his underwear. He's like, I'm not getting naked, but he ran for his underwear through the field. And it was just, like, crazy shit like that. Oh, yeah. What a time. I did not know that story was going to go there.

I made something for John Mayer one time, and I really liked it. It was great. See, that story got old real fast. Like, it's like, I've been, like, you know, one of the biggest clients when I was at B-Dubbs was, like, Justin Timberlake. And the amount of times I was, like, in his house, student deliveries or, like, you know, shit like that. So, like, that part got, got real, real fast, unfortunately, or fortunately, because, you know, at the end of the day, they're just people, and you realize that really quickly. True. You just go there and you just go there and you just deliver the furniture, and they, you'll buy you a meal.

I'm like, yeah, that was awesome. Great job. Or have a beer with you. You're just like chilling and shooting the shit. So you deliver the furniture, too? When I worked at Bdubs, yeah, I would go deliver everything. Bdubs. It's saying BDDW, like, it's like a mouthful sometimes.

It just reminds you of like you getting like garlic parmed chicken wings and also delivering a humongous table to Justin Terminalet. Extra hot to Buffalo Wild Way. Yeah, of course, of course. So when you have to carry these massive things, like, dude, I always feel bad for movers. Oh, yeah. Because movers are like. I don't know how they do it.

It's crazy. Yeah, it's, there's this dude that we worked with Marv. He was just a fucking brink. Rick, just making do Jamaican dude, pure fucking muscle. It's like, never went to the gym, but dude could squat 500 pounds, no fucking problem. It was insane. So, like, me and him and, like, his crew just, like, going to delivery, is just hulking it out, just getting shit in the place. Marve is a great mover name.

Oh, yeah. An incredible mover name. Marvell. Marvell, the movers. Movers with Marvell. You think, because of, like, kind of the margins that you guys have, you think this will always stay on, like, onshore and stuff? Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's what we pride ourselves in.

at john pomp like we do every we do all the cnc machining for everything in house we get the materials raw and bring it to like life through like cnc water jet like a whole finishing crew fabrication crew um we have like a 50 person shop right now awesome and it's not that robotic it seems like there are probably some machines and stuff that you guys use so we do have like a cnc lathe and a cnc mill because we make a lot of lighting so we do a lot of like internal threading kind of crazy stuff how we put things together but everything is weld i have a crew of four fabricators We don't do anything like robotic We do everything by hand

And like hand bend everything and all that shit So we do it the hard way That's awesome But that's why we Why people pay for that They want to support people that still do those things And yeah we're just trying to keep that alive As it sits in their vacation home

And they visit two times a year Yep Same of the game though dude Yep Hey thank you so much man We appreciate it Oh no problem Great fantastic

Thank you so much Nice meeting Take it easy That's podcast That's it dude Great episode Great episode of us just getting one done

Thursday, not when we typically film in a park, and we remain safe and vigilant. Not going to lie to you. I was nervous how the ep was going to go, and then you just get three good guests, and you're like, maybe I am the man, and I was wrong all along. We're going to be yelling over the bridge this weekend?

I'm going to be screaming on the bridge, literally the next 11 minutes, so just keep an eye out for a guy screaming over the Ben Franklin. And while you're at it, keep an eye out for, please, guys, get up the Patreon, we're trying to put more stuff on there. The more money we get coming in, we're not using it to live off of. We're just going to use it to do cool shit. Office hours every

Wednesday, like 7 or 8 o'clock, we do a live stream, get in the chat, make fun of us, give us your work stories, things going on in your life, we'll talk about it, chime in. For real, dude, if you're cool enough, we'll just let you get on the stream with us and get video on a microphone. And we shadowbox every new Patreon subscriber. Shadowbox, and I'm going to start

adding some elements. Shadowbox, maybe a summer salt, maybe a jump from a high bound. Wow. Yeah, dude. I don't give a hell. I love you guys, and I want you guys to be my friends. Yeah, and throw subscribe. If you listen on iTunes or Apple, please rate us. It does wonders for the algorithm. Again, we're fighting with algorithms every single day. Throw some comments. We got a bunch of comments in the last episode from one guy, two guys actually, but you know what? It was awesome. It was awesome interacting

with you guys. We want to know who you are. We'll reply back. We have no problem replying back. Mean, nice? In the middle? Don't go in the middle. Do mean or nice. Actually, sure, yeah. In the middle is a little placating. Have some fucking balls. Yeah, dude. Man up. We'll talk to you. We'll talk to you. Thank you.