NZXT PODCAST - #017 - Mark

Episode Date: November 14, 2019

This week, Denis and Ivan are joined by one of NZXT’s first builder: Mark Ferguson. Mark and the crew discuss: the first days of BLD, working under Ivan, and self-help philosophies. Follow Mark on Instagram: instagram.com/syntax3rrur Listen live to the NZXT CLUB CAST on our Discord server at discord.gg/nzxt every Thursday at 10AM PT! Thanks to Cype#0404 for the artwork!

To episode 17 of the NZT Clubcast, the official podcast of the NZXT community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NZXT Discord server and is available to stream wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. My name is Dennis with me today. As always, we have Ivan. Shout out to all the people using Discord on their browser right now. Technical difficulties are a thing. Special guest today is Mark Ferguson. PC technician with BLD, aka A-SAPFerg. What's up, guys? Hello, good morning.

Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for having me on the podcast. I'm excited. It's my first time. Yeah, thanks for being here, man. So big news, we finally have our own podcast room, which is cool. And it almost works. Yeah, it almost works.

We're like a 99% I was going to say capacity, but that's not the word I'm thinking of. But anyway, we're almost there. I think that's right. I think that's right. Yeah. It's small and it's not. crowded though it's actually very minimal but cozy yeah we're trying to get everything

you know squared away so yeah this is the first one from this room so there might be some technical difficulties i guess denn is already putting his elbow on the keyboard yeah he just stopped recorded uh yeah the like stared at the yeah the program like oh it's working it's working um yeah so if you guys notice any issues with the podcast uh let us know we'll do our best to get it worked out uh work work work in progress but now guarantee we'll get it fixed but we'll do are best. Yep, exactly. Yes, I don't it is zero. Clubcast is now, it's now, it's typing. So for those who are listening in RSS feed podcast application land, we do record live, like you said, and you can also

ask questions live and react and talk to the chat live. So I didn't know that. Yeah. That's cool. We will, we will have questions for people so that they can ask you whatever they want or ask us whatever they want. I just got way more nervous. I do have a lot of questions for Mark actually We all have a lot of questions for Mark So Mark is very special because he was Well first off he was the very first builder ever hired That's correct

Yep, that's right And he's also the first papito And also first blonde employee Yeah I think Still I don't know, maybe not You're like the only blonde-haired person in this office Blondehered cutie

Oh shucks Yeah, Mark was our very first PC builder that we ever hired at NZXT. He's been here a while now. He's seen the build department grow from being a one-man team to what it is today, which is basically an army of weaves. Army of Weaves in a giant warehouse, just building computers all day while they watch anime. It's the best ever, really? Yeah.

How long has it been now since you've been here? Actually, I wrote that down because I wanted to remember that. it's actually uh thanks Trello thanks Trello April 6th 2017 was actually my start date and then that was the first time I got hired on for BLD nice yeah so I think coming up on four years well that's a long time if my math is right I'm not sure that's a lot your math is wrong is it coming up on three it's gonna be three okay so Mark how how were you hired like what's your background and like PC building and like how'd you end up being the first builder ever?

That's a great question. So how I got hired actually, how I got recognized was through Instagram, I'd say. Oh, cool. Yeah, for my, actually my personal website as well. Before I worked for NZXT, I got into PC building for friends and family and for myself as well, after I first built my first gaming PC and realized, you know, how glorious PC gaming can be. Since then, I just started looking online, finding parts on deals, buying parts with my own cash and then flipping, flipping builds.

And I didn't really make any money at first. It was actually losing money. I was losing money like 20 bucks here and there because I didn't really care about making money. I just wanted to get the most experience, the most time building. So I just flipped parts for, you know, basically the same amount of money that I put into it, just to get more parts to buy for more systems. That's pretty cool. Just doing it for the Graham.

Doing it for passion, actually passion. And Graham came second and still is second. I don't really care too much for it. I appreciate everyone following me, though. It's just that I don't really go on there to post things, ask much of people. I just like to show off pretty computers, and that's what I love to do. And you love computers so much that you're the first person I ever met to have a tattoo of a computer part on your body. That's right, yeah.

However, I cannot tell what that tattoo is, but apparently, according to you, it's a motherboard. Yes, that's the thing. I remember the first time I saw a tattoo, I was like, hey man, that's pretty cool. What is that? And you said, oh, it's a motherboard. And I said, really? And then he said, I think you said like it's like halfway done. It's like not finished, right?

Yeah, it's terrible story. It's a really embarrassing thing. Actually, I moved to California. And then that's when I, you know, obviously started doing PC building. And then when I was, you know, getting into it, I got a motherboard. Actually, I had it prior because I was interested in gaming in general. But I got a motherboard and then it was actually two-session tattoo, the first session I got it done. It was only halfway done and then I was going to meet up with the guy after it healed.

And the guy ended up moving halfway across the state. I have a perfect solution for you. What's that? Just put a NZXT cover on it. I mean, why not really? That would be awesome, yeah. Yeah, bro. And then the other day I was eating lunch with Mark in the break room here.

I noticed he had another tattoo. This one's on his neck. That's right. He has like a. a heart a little heart right on his throat but can I take a picture of your motherboard tattoos

I can't show the chat yeah so yeah you're right I can't tell it's a motherboard at all yep 100% I mean it's actually supposed to be as if you were to peel away

my skin and have the motherboard underneath my body my flesh but it's very that's why it's very a conceptual design about a motherboard now I just drop the motherboard there

in the chat what do you guys think oh yeah there it is yep it's pretty cool Let me take a picture of your new one too So you can see that one. Oh, my new one? Yeah. This one's, yeah.

I still think this one's fake. It looks like you dried in every morning. It's definitely not fake. So wakes up, right? I've got to get this down just to make sure. No, that was definitely real. Trust me, I felt the needle. How come the heart's not purple, man?

I know. I didn't think about that until afterwards. I just went with the classic red heart on my neck. And it's actually pretty interesting because when I got the tattoo, it was hitting my van. and I just yeah I could feel my heartbeat my blood flowing through and yes it's pretty it's scary I don't like that yes it's savage for sure but that's pretty good so I'm trying I'm trying to upload the picture of your heart tattoo and is telling me that it's explicit content

oh you're serious it's weird it's like I hate upload and look what it's going to say on the bottom here oh it's my pose it's going to say it sounds gross explicit content cannot be sent to the desired recipient. Wow. That's really, sorry guys. Wow. That's like,

that's on like machine learning stuff or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's recognized too much flesh. That's like, warning, warning. Right. So,

too much blonde hair in one picture. So how, how are you recognized off of Instagram to get hired at NZXT? Thank you. I think we went off track there for a bit. Happens. It's a podcast.

Conversation. I love it. It's great. So, yeah, actually, I got noticed through a friend on Instagram.

His name is Remus CS, Remus Computer Solutions. Shout out to Remus. Shout out to him for sure. He actually was doing some of his own system building and he's got his own thing going on. And he reached out to me on Instagram and just, you know, we joined our community together. And then he gave me a heads up that NZXT was hiring in the area.

Ivan knew him for a while. And then he got me in touch with Ivan. Yeah, actually a little backstory on that. So Remus, he, I, I, hired him to work on some projects for NXT. We didn't have PC builders. So back then, I would have to hire PC builders. By the way, I just uploaded the picture of Marks.

Yeah, I had to take a screenshot and like scribble on it. Wow. But anyway, yeah, so I was looking at Remus on some projects. And he did a really great job. To this day, I don't think there's a person alive who does better cable management than that guy. I mean, his work is insane. So when we were going to launch Build,

and my boss asked me, hey, do you know of any builder that you'd want to hire as the first builder here? And right away, I thought of Remus. I was like, yeah, like, this guy's awesome. So I reached out to him, but he told me that he appreciated it, but he wasn't interested, but that he knew this guy that was just as good as him. And I should check him out. So I did, and I liked what I saw, and the rest is history. That's awesome.

I didn't know. He was giving me such good praise. Man, he definitely recommended you. And, you know, like, once we saw your work, yeah, it was a no-brainer for us, too. For the record, I'm not like him. I can't cable manage to like him at all. I don't even try to be like that. You do steal his ideas.

I saw you walking around with gloves the other day. Oh, we all got black gloves now. Yeah. That's how it is. I noticed either day, like, I put a video on Instagram of somebody building that, I think they're just putting like an I-o shield. And so I'm like, oh, man, I'm really digging those gloves. You guys are really taking care of the static.

I'm like, sure, static. Totally what it's for, uh-huh, yep. I use them mainly to protect my hands because when we had Black Friday in particular last year, oh my goodness. Never forget. My hands were torn up, bloody. In fact, on my Instagram page,

I got a picture of them. They're disgusting. We'll talk about that because that's definitely something that I don't want to touch on with the holidays coming up super, super soon. Yeah. Okay, so you get hired on, what's that process?

Like, do you get like a DM? Was it like, you know, like who hits you up? So after Remus plugged me in, letting me know that it's online, I went online, applied for it, and then I just reached out to NZXT, Ivan, I reached out to whoever I could for the contact and just kind of asked him to look at my resume and pull me in for an interview. I knew I was a perfect fit for this job because just because I was so passionate about building computers in general, I knew that I'd make it through no matter what. You're a believer for sure.

I was, for sure. I wanted in really bad, and I wanted to. to, at the time, my manager was Mike, the hiring manager, and I wanted to definitely let him know that I was down. I was here. So, and then once I got pulled into the interview, I'd like to think I did a great job, obviously. So I got pulled in, and then ever since then, yeah, we, I started out just as a one-man team, and then we hired Jimmy on after that shortly after, and then him and I sat for a while there. and yeah, BLD was starting to grow as it was just beginning. So we didn't really have that much orders, that many, you know, people.

Do you remember the little celebrations every time we got an order? Oh my gosh, yeah, for sure. Anytime an order came in, you know, we'd have maybe, I don't know, five builds a week. And if that, we got lucky. And then we used to play rock paper scissors to see who could build the first. Rochambeau. Yeah. I didn't participate in that, but definitely, yeah.

It was really cool. How was the build warehouse changed since, like, you first started? So much. We've actually changed locations, obviously, but before we had a tiny little cage, like, barely anything. Probably the size of the studio. Yeah. I mean, this is small. Seriously, yeah, maybe a little bit larger, including inventory.

And I don't even think Dennis saw that. So this was before the cage that you saw. There was a different cage, which, I don't know if you remember our old office when you walked out to the back room. On the left-hand side, there was that door, like a metal door. I think so. That rolled up. Yeah. It was basically that little corner right there.

That was the whole build department and it was just mark in there in a cage. Yeah. Yep. And no order. So I tried to, you know, think about ways I can improve the process or just kind of, you know, streamline a few things. Because we didn't really have a process in general. It was, you know, the first time thing. So we were kind of working out the kinks.

So most of my time was spent doing that. And then now it's every day, all day building. If I'm not building, I'm, you know. in the bathroom or something wait you're here who's building right now that's a great question wait a minute we have all the other army out there that's that's who if you guys i'm gonna order out right now sorry that we're taking uh take a mark away from you sorry little by little we we just kept making that cage bigger and bigger and then moved it all over the warehouse until basically one day we just had no more space and we just said okay now we actually need to get a new a new warehouse

yeah it's crazy that's where we're right now one of the coolest things i used to remember doing is uh being around so much hardware at the old warehouse when we first started and you know our inventory compared to now is like really you know massive compared to how it was back then there's the original cage hey thanks vivian for posting that that's uh that's awesome yep that was where was that um so when we first started doing builds here was there like any like process you saw any like that that that that that meant you think like this is not how would she be doing it well he's the way he's the when they came up with the process. Yeah.

Are we talking about here in this location or when we first started? When we first started. When I first started, yeah. Bored some of the mistakes that we made. It's just like building and like building quick and like, you know, how to get like a quality build out and like a good amount of time. I would say most of our problems weren't necessarily based around the actual building process because, you know, I think we're more than capable of that. I think more of issues came from trying to figure out how to make it presentable and, you know, do. you know step above everyone else who's doing system buildings right now and I remember you actually

didn't you code some script to do the burning testing and all that that's right it was just a a little bit it's a low level programming scripting language it's just auto hotkey I'm pretty sure a lot of you are giggling right now once you hear that but it's uh I use that to automate the installation process for the drivers and the necessary software and get it system ready yeah and back then we had no sort of process whatsoever for this so mark literally like every build would just write down okay here's here's the steps here's how long it took and then you guys just kept refining that process figuring out the best way to build what should go first for different cases different types of builds what should go last you know who should do what things like that that wasn't

easy i'm sure no there were a lot of time studies done but for the most part our our build is Actually, we have certain processes that we have in place to maintain level of quality. But for the most part, the thing I really love about it the most is that we are just individual builders. We don't really police each other too much as long as it's capable managed properly and has the same aesthetic. You can go about it the way you want. And then you just got to perfect that process and make sure hitting your quota every day. How many PCs are you building a day? actually right now we're on the slow end because of the holiday seasons haven't come up yet but

we're pushing out like six a day but on on like I think my record in a 12 hour day last black Friday was like 22 builds I think or some around there and those are rookie numbers oh boy got to pump those numbers that was intense that was intense if you really break it down I think that's like two builds every hour yeah that was uh the first black Friday we've ever done done and we had no idea what to expect. It was crazy. And yeah, I mean, we can't even walk through that warehouse. I was just about to say last year, we had all the boxes.

We didn't have enough people helping breaking down all the brand new component boxes. We just chucked them over our heads and just had this section of, that's another thing on my Instagram. I posted a picture of if you ever want to go check it out. Like, it's massive. You can't even, it's definitely a safety hazard. We didn't keep it there for long, so don't report us. I heard that people got mad because.

because of all the boxes that we had out. Yeah, we were getting complaints. People say, I hope you guys are recycling those. And then there were other people that were just messaging us. Like, can we get the empty boxes? I'm not going to ship empty boxes. Like, a lot of people were asking for that stuff. I mean, I could see why it's good for resale value.

You know, if you've got your card that you want to resell. But that's just kind of silly. Yeah, it's definitely one of those things where, like, you don't realize how crazy it is until we actually do it, right? Yeah. How is the first Black Friday compared to like this Black Friday? This Black Friday is going to be. It's insane.

It's going to be crazy. I really think so. Luckily we have more guys here though. Last year it was, I don't know, maybe like 20 of us now. We have way more people. And all of us are very talented guys. Definitely we're going to kill it. We're going to kill it.

But it's going to be some crazy times coming up. Unless. Unless. Yeah, Vivian just posted some pictures from last Black Friday in there. Oh, cool. All the boxes we got here. This is nice. That's actually very cleaned up.

Yeah, it's actually not that bad looking. Oh, no, that's, yeah. Yeah, there's a section. Hey, I know him. Wish we could plug my photo, but. Yeah, just, yeah, it gets crazy. Yeah, it's a lot of boxes here. You know, we definitely go nuts through Black Friday.

Thanks again, Vivian. I'm actually pretty excited to see it because, like, I haven't been here for Black Friday yet. So, like, I'm definitely taking a lot of photos and a lot of videos. Now we actually have people that their whole job is to break down these boxes and make sure the warehouse is clean. So I don't think it'll be as chaotic. No, I probably won't. We'll keep it clean and organized, I think. It's just going to be a lot of orders.

My favorite part of Black Friday is all the food we order. That's awesome too. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, whatever, whatever anyone wants. And I remember it was like breakfast was like, okay, let's get 100 egg mac muffins and 100 hatch browns. For lunch, it was like, all right, let's get 100 in an hour. cheeseburgers yeah for dinner it's like all right let's get uh like lucille's let's get like a hundred things of ribs or whatever it was just like non-stop eating they definitely took care of us because we were here you know working overtime every day all day and i think we worked i

worked seven days or eight days straight i think 12 hours six i remember i came like during the weekend to give you to bring uh i think i brought like a bunch of uh like jamba juice i remember i just bought like a bunch of juices from somewhere like it was something like that i just like i felt bad for you guys like working so much and I just that's crazy I know wanted to keep you guys hydrated thanks for that but we love what we do that's the best part about it really is like I really just really love doing exactly what I'm doing right now it's I mean not long term goal but it's definitely a passion of mine and when you have that much love for it then it doesn't really feel like a job I mean it's great being around you know 1080 20 80 TIs all day long it's great working with webes

Yeah, so that's actually the question I had. When did you first, I mean, it's from the beginning. So I'm definitely asking questions from like someone who hasn't been here that long as kind of a canooby. Gotcha. How, when did you notice there's like, oh, God, like there's so many weeps here? Like, when was the moment that you realized there's like anime was a big part of like the warehouse and like the culture in the build warehouse? Wait, wait. What? We have leaves here? What? Huh?

No, dude. It's actually. I can't find them. You know what? I actually, uh, I think. first noticed that because back in the day in our old warehouse our boss had asked us if we wanted to put up some sort of scrolls you know and they gave us the option to pick out whoever we wanted and at the time i didn't really know who else to pick or anybody you're doing that picked tom cruz i picked tom cruise you would pick the tom cruise technically this is gin jim pick tom cruise because

it was called tom cruise sexy pose and i just i fell in love with it i was like that's the one i want and i stole it from jinn but i think jinn was using it as a joke but then uh i don't I don't know, Vivian, maybe Vivian can find a photo of the warehouse right now with the scrolls. But if you look at that, there's a bunch of anime stuff, things that I don't even know. To be honest, I'm going to be truthful. But, yeah, and then one Tom Cruise in the middle of that. So I think that's a pretty good indication of, yeah. I think the first one was One Punch Man.

One Punch Man, yeah. I think that's Johnny's favorite. Yeah, Johnny's favorite. The Tom Cruise is definitely the one that I noticed. It sticks out. Yeah, it sticks out like Mark sticks out. Yeah. It's just like one blonde guy in the middle of like an army of weeds building pieces.

Yeah, my first time I was I was doing a I was doing the tour of the office. I did the office and oh cool, you know, walls girls. I'm like, wait, why is your Tom Cruise? Really? I don't get it, but. Yeah, I don't think anybody gets it. It's like the beauty of it. It's not there for someone to get.

It's just like, okay, you know, it's like you get that you don't get it. It's just, you know, someone decided it's put Tom Cruise up on the wall because they have all this weird anime stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I think that what really makes it is his face though, because he is really making it like this sexy face. There you go. Yeah, there it is the best. Yeah, that wall is going to be covered in these days.

He's going to be nothing but Wallscrows eventually. It's funny how the same posters covered a whole wall in there. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's, I was actually just thinking that's not all of them, but I think it might be because it's just. What's the projector that those playing anime come into play? Oh, all day, all day long. Yeah, we used to have that going all day long. Um, guys next to me would have their laptops open watching anime.

Um, I just had my headphones in most of the time. I was just there hardcore building, but, um, everyone else was building, obviously, but it's just, it's really cool that we have a culture that you can, um, get to do what you love and also just kind of browse anime or something, you know, if you're into that kind of thing. It's a big part of the company. Like a lot of people think that we joke around what we like make fun of webs and stuff, like on social media, but like, we are. Yeah.

Yeah. And we are, but we also because, you know, how dare you disrespect the we've culture. Part of the thing about being a webe is like if they you have to make fun of yourself you know like webes call themselves webs nowadays you know before it was like uh almost like a bad thing to call them you know yeah it was actually when you guys mentioned that I kind of I don't know anything about the culture and when you said that I was like oh are we offending people but oh boy no I can't say that who cares that we offend them they're just webs um how is the culture of the company changed because I mean we're we're obviously growing like a really

crazy right I mean we're hiring people all the time you know the the builders are like I remember there's a week where like I think we I met like four or five six new builders like a day or something how has it changed that's a great question too I'd actually like to start that one off by saying that I absolutely love nzxte culture I really do it's it's insane I when I first started building I got into this company I didn't know what to expect about the culture but it's really changed my mind I've met a lot of good people here we're really doing some great work this company turns on a dime it doesn't take a long time to get things done if anybody has a idea to change things for the better it just kind of um gets put out

there and then if it's great and johnny wants to roll or whoever wants to roll with it they just go for it they they they give a lot of faith in their employees and everything um that's one of my favorite things about this place is just the community and the culture we'll try anything twice try anything twice huh that's what everybody says yeah man yeah yeah That's true. Like what Mark just said, it's like everyone here has a voice, no idea is too crazy. If anyone has like anything, you know, to, to say about anything. Like their opinion is heard and valid.

And I think Mark's a good example of someone who has like, you know, brought up stuff and things have gotten better because of things he brought up, you know. So thank you. You're welcome. That made me feel special. but yeah so just to you know follow up on that question about how it's changed um it's it's not really changed much in terms of you know the high quality stuff that we we do well right um the only thing that's different is just we have a lot more people on so um we're we're taking off pretty quick especially with the bld that's the only thing i really see too much with the company because that's

you know my entire surrounding yeah every day um but it's it's great things i'm super excited for this company. I'm super excited where it's going. I'm so excited for everyone who's, you know, interested in this company and following these fans, you know, like, NZXT fans are crazy. They really are. Yeah, being a lot of love. Yeah, definitely because of the work that we do, you know. I agree. We show them love and they give us love back in. We show that we care. I mean, I think to me that's that's the biggest part. I agree with that. And to add to that, that's actually one of the things that I used to tell a lot of people when I first started hired, I got hired on here is we're, we are literally the community. People who work here are just like you guys. That's why we relate

is we're all gamers. Dirty weaves. We're all here to have fun and, you know, game and we all enjoy the same stuff. We are all under one sun. So it's really awesome. I'm really happy to be here. I'm very fortunate and thankful. Okay, boomer. Yeah. What's the, What's the biggest mistake you've ever made work in here? Oh, boy. Oh, man. Getting a motherboard tattoo. Yeah, unfinished.

Trusting some guy in the alleyway. You should finish that. Dude, I swear, if you can actually put an NZXTN7 motherboard cover on that, the tattoo is getting to be fixed. Oh, man. I totally would. You should. Yeah, actually.

I don't know. Who knows? I'll have to get a fixed for sure coming up. But back to your question, though. I don't really know. I don't know what's the worst. mistake I mean I've made I've made probably made a lot of mistakes and we own up to that that's one of our values or I don't know if this changed but it's except accountability for that yep still there

yeah okay good I don't know did we change it we have five no I six that's a six last time okay so okay how dare you how dare you not remember them well I remember I'm just that I couldn't remember for some reason I don't know this is going to sound crazy but I thought we we made them simpler or lessened or something like there were there it There were, I think, the original, I think there was like 10, and then we used to simplify it to six. Yeah, pursue passion, demonstrate courage, accept accountability, foster community. Look further. Look further.

And. So scrappy peat pie. Always. Be humble. That's the last one. That's the most important one. Well, second most important one. Second most important, I'd say.

The Kendrick Lamar rule. Yeah. But that's... He came down once and read it down for us. They're like, oh, yeah, duh. But that's another great thing, you know? I don't know. What other companies do you know that have core values that actually, you know,

I see people following every single day. It's a great place. It really is. You ever crack like a CP or something? I was curious. Like, oh yeah, have you broke hardware? I have. Not here, though.

Not here, Johnny. So just if you're listening, I didn't break anything here. He just texted me. He's like, let me know what you broke. Okay, I lie. All right. I broke one thing. I broke one thing here.

I dropped a glass. Tempered glass one time. Yeah, the thing shattered. How long ago was it? Last warehouse. It was a long time ago. Just a slippery hand, yeah. How did people break glass on here?

I don't think it's really... Not often. Right, I can imagine. In fact, I don't think we break hardware often at all. I think, yeah, we have... Our process is really well-tuned. We're machines. What's all the yelling and all the yelps that happen in the warehouse?

Because, like, every now and then we'll be in the office and just be working, right? And then we'll hear, before before that though we always hear um a female voice on a megaphone all right builders listen up y'all got and then it just like goes out on something and then next thing you know it's just like the walls are shaking yeah yeah smack in the walls and stuff yeah right now lily's policing us for uh throwing away our trash in the appropriate places because we're being messy boys but other than that i don't know you're asking the wrong person uh BLD i don't even think anybody knows why

BLD makes such strange noises where we're insane we really are I just I'll be building listening some music and it'll go straight through my headphones I'll take it off and I'll just hear the memes all day long I remember once I heard I heard howling real really howling yeah like like instead of one person and then it was like 50 people all just howling at the same time and I was like what the heck is going on back there we do so and then like by the time I get back you guys so I'm supposed to do the office real quick and see what happens yeah that's the thing It's a we it doesn't happen all the time when it's going on and that's why it's so rare and cool It I mean happens constantly but it's just not 24-7 like you know

Yeah, um okay so I want to ask about I should have no idea I don't want to ask about I think I asked all the questions I haven't top of my head Evan do you have anything we have a list what's in what's next on the list actually you already kind of went through oh yeah yeah okay so so so I haven't told me that you were the the first papito, right? Like the first... He's papito. Yep, yep, for sure.

Yeah. How was it working on social, like, very early on? So when I was... Here's a little history. I actually started for BLD, and then I was working with them for a while, and then I just... I started thinking about ways to improve the process,

and then I just hit up Ivan and asked him, hey, you know, maybe you should kind of incorporate this little idea and gave him a little bit of an idea to think about him. And then he came back at me saying, hey, would you be interested in social media? And kind of, you know,

if you have any idea right now, maybe you'll have more. And it's definitely out of my comfort zone. It was not something I've ever done in my life. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I definitely was up for the challenge. And Ivan's a really great dude. I could learn a lot from him.

And I have when I was in social media. So I accepted the position. I went to go work with him for a while. And then that's definitely a crazy history. of NST for sure because it's I experienced the NST fans and all the social channels and just how much work is required to upkeep on something like this and what we really pride ourselves in doing to make things even more difficult is we like to message back a lot of the people I mean we hit up everyone our engagement rate is really high it's something that we also take pride in as well

because if you look around at all the other companies not to you know back on anybody I appreciate all of that but do it do it but I will say we definitely engage with our community the most and we don't just do it because we have to we do it because we want to so working in social media it's taught me a lot with him and yeah it's definitely pretty crazy but yeah and similar to you know like when we hired you as a builder it was because you know Remis recommended me to you and told me I look into this guy he's actually really you know, a great builder and he's smart or whatever.

But when it came time for the social media thing, what was going on was during that time, it was, up until that point, it was, you know, it was just me, like, doing everything. And I was starting to drown because at that time, our community was really, really exploding. It was right before we, like, we were approaching, like, I want to say, like, the million,

follower mark on social right combined with everything um and like you said it's a lot of people right and i tried to to talk to everyone every even to this day like every dm i get every whatever email text discord message whatever i will reply i'm just really really slow because there's so many but um back then a couple years ago i was just drowning and i needed to help and every single day i remember um because i like to come into work early and then mark would come in early too And I would just go to the break room and I would have to walk by the build cage and I just started noticing.

Mark would always give me like these little like tips. You know, he would say like, hey man, have you ever tried doing this on Instagram? Cause I just did it online and it was pretty cool. It worked really well. And I would try it and it would work. And I was like, hey, that was a good idea. And then the next day he'd give me another idea.

And the next day, you know, he would tell me, you know, maybe you shouldn't do it this way. Maybe you should try doing it this way and see what happened. So I just really enjoyed that conversation I had with Mark because not many people had that with me. There wasn't like, well, yeah, or even think that way. Like, not many, there's like no one else besides like Johnny and Mark that were telling me like, she tried this, you know.

So when it came time to actually like, you know, hire someone, Mark was the first guy I thought of because he was already helping me, you know. So the fact that he was already helping me, it was just like an easy decision for me to like offer him the job. And Mark's biggest concern was, I don't know, man, I don't know anything about marketing. And I told him, well, that's good because I don't know anything about marketing either. I don't even think I do anything marketing. And yeah, so Mark came on board and helped me out with social for a really long time. That's really cool.

I never knew that I actually had helped out that much because the only thing I just made. that up. Oh, wow. For the podcast. Got him. Got him. Just in case. Yeah, let's go backwards. Can we edit that? Or is this live? Was it definitely live? Yeah.

But yeah, no, it was really fun, but definitely not for me. It was actually very stressful. It is, it can get stressful because it's never ending. It never ends. And to your point, it's always growing. And it's always changing. So, I mean. The more it grows, the harder it gets. Yeah.

How much social media do we read? really know I think everything is kind of a test every single time you know there are tried and true tactics and I remember like every day I would that I would have to convince you to stop worrying like don't worry man don't worry yeah like it's okay if it fails doesn't matter let's just let's just try it yeah I was definitely that was definitely something that held me back for that position but you know yeah I'm more suited to build I'd say no do you want to talk about why you left that or But not getting to details? Yeah.

I mean, whatever you want to say. Yeah. So, I mean, not too much because it's a little personal, but for that time, I was actually working with them for a while. And I really liked it. I was trying my best to keep up on it. And I mean, I was on it all the time.

I'd get home out of work and I'd try to have to reply to some people. We post. You hear that, Dennis? A lot of stuff. That's what I do we're talking about? On that all the time. Yeah, just trying to keep up. I'm mad shade.

I mean, just when I got into the in the mornings, I had to. replied to just Facebook messages alone. Oh my gosh. Like there's so many overnight. That's funny because like it's definitely not that way right now. That's at least that's what I remember. Facebook was like the one thing that got took up most of my time either that or I wasn't managing my time very well but how long ago was that? I don't know see back then. See back then it was I don't think you were doing Twitter right? I wasn't doing Twitter only IG yeah and even then I was only managing IG comments well actually I was doing a lot of IG posts for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You were like all, you were the IG and Facebook dude. Yeah, and it's actually really cool to see that I can go back into the archive of the IG and see all of my posts and know that I had some sort of place in NCXT's history. It's actually really cool. Back when your name was next gen PCs. What? No, trolling again on me. But we love Derek, though. Yeah.

Yeah, then, you know, Mark decided he just, you know, he was going through. like a you know some personal stuff and decided he just decided he needed to take time off absolutely yeah it was it was a rough time in life a personal reason so i yeah i had to request some time off and and take some leave and then um when i came back i just came back for building and i left ivan alone sorry ivan with all that work the whole time but hey not like for me like just having you in this location that's all I want you know like even when you wanted to come back as a builder and you you messaged me you're like yeah do you think I can come back as a just as a builder and like course it's like you're always going to have a home here like whatever like you know whatever it is

that you want to do like for sure you know you're definitely welcome that's awesome yeah I remember that I actually message you back and you know because I really wanted to come back at the time I I had gained some mental clarity after everything. You know, all the hard times were, you know, rolling off my back. And then I just quickly realized like, oh, my gosh, like, what did I do leaving NZXT? I loved it. And, yeah, I reached out to you. I remember that.

And then luckily and thankfully, everyone was cool with me coming back. That's funny because when you came back, build had changed a lot. Oh, it had, yeah. When you left, you weren't even a part of build, right? Yeah. At that time. Yeah. And it was still relatively small.

And then you came back and it was just exploded. Like I remember your first day back, I asked you like, hey man, what do you think? And you're like, dude, this is so nuts. What the heck is going on? It was crazy. Yeah, actually, my first day back, I think Fawn was a little, wanted to know why I should be hired back, which is for a good reason. And then I think Fawn was pretty stoked to have me back afterwards because I think the first day, I came back. I killed it.

I think 11 PCs or something. Yeah, you've always been like the model builder example, you know what I mean? Not anymore, though. Not anymore. Well, I mean, we have every builder out there is awesome. But like, you know, whenever like we were hiring builders, it was always like, can they keep up with Mark? Are they as good as Mark? I will take that credit just because I believe in my passion.

I believe in, you know, everything I'm doing right now. I love it. So I definitely will take that. But to that point, yeah, I'm not definitely not the model anymore. We have so much talent in there. You just look like a model now. Oh, I definitely look like a model. Thank you.

Oh. What's the, sorry, so side of question, what's the, most amount of PC someone's put out in one day? In one day? I don't know,

but I do know, 22 is mine, 21 or 22 around there. 22. Is that regular eight hour day or is that? That was a 12 hour day. Dang. Yep.

That's more than two an hour? Yeah, about, I think roughly. I think, Did they work? The most basic builds Yeah, every one of them works, man. Everyone.

I think the most basic builds take, I don't know, maybe like 27 minutes max. At least for me, it's like the starter PC. The budget builds. Going back a little bit to the, when you're still working on social,

do you ever like look at our social now and think like, oh, that's different? or that's new or that's better or that's worse like what are some of those things can i tell you some some truth moments right now yeah please okay actually there's been a few times because i learned a lot from you uh doing social media and then i'll see you post some things i'm like what you told me not to do that i even you told me like explicitly not to do that and now you're

doing it all the time no he does that all the time he literally will tell me not to do something and then he does it himself like what like why only i can do it but hey It's, I think that's a talent for what you're doing, especially in this industry for social media. You have to just kind of take chances without having to fail. And I think that's like what we said before was one of my weaknesses. So like where are some of those things? And for, for. Just like something that you saw, you're like, wait, I haven't told me not to do that.

Why is he doing it? Oh, I don't really have any. Well, one of them was the putting NZXT changing it from different colors. But then that's, I called you out on that one. And then you kind of corrected me that it's not really. for our main social it's just a fan art and we like to display that and then all of a sudden I felt like so mean I was like why are you just starting I think I why you're doing that I posted some like just fan nzxtr and I didn't remember Marks like you're not supposed to distort the logo

yeah you know I'm supposed to change that goes against the branding guidelines what's the matter with you it's but these are the type of things he would bring up you know and like no one really brings up right so but you know that's the same thing the creative director asked me jinn and I told them both the same thing. Once I told them both the same thing, they both said the same thing, which is, oh, I get it. And yeah, it was like, it's not about distorting the logo. It's about appreciating our supporters, our community who took the time to do this, like, awesome NXT art. What, I'm not going to, like, show support because it's not on brands. Like, no, it's like, you have to, you have to give that support, you know? I love that. It's actually a good time to say right now that,

if you guys follow the podcast on SoundCloud, we do have, well, actually, SoundCloud and Spotify, because it shows up on there, too. So SoundCloud and Spotify, we have different. art for every episode and that's all directly from the community so and all those all those cool wallpapers or all the art is actually pinned in the art channel on the discord so go and check it out so make your art get featured on the podcast exactly i haven't seen it all sweet sweet clout i definitely would like to check that out because what i've seen is really cool and actually going back before we get too far off on the next topic um i would like to mention that uh with the social media what's changed um it's actually quite different if you scroll through um when i was

managing it. And I think this is really cool. It's taken on a new life form and I think that it constantly will grow. But when I was posting, we were posting more like how I would post my Instagram, just more dirty shots, I'd say. They're not really clean and they're not really there to, you know, be in your face. But now it's, now it's super clean. It's product, you know, a lot of product stuff there. So that's definitely something that's changed. I don't know, like, you know, no offense, I don't know if I would probably do that just being truthfully, you know, just because I like more of the, you know, in touch with community. But I do see that you would, with this new style that you have, it's very product focused. And I think that's

what we were missing before as well, is that we didn't really have, like, people didn't know what our brand was or our products were in general. They just seen us as a PC, you know, cases, I'd say, but we have a lot of stuff out there, and I think that, you know, the direction you guys have taken it is actually really cool. But yeah, is that, is that actually I have a question for you. Is that, is that design choice for you or? Yeah. So, what happened was one day Johnny messaged me and he said, he said, hey, my wife says our Instagram sucks. Oh, no. That's And I was like, really? And then he's like, yeah, she says that just like really ugly.

Should do something about that. So I was like, all right. So then I just like, like I'm not going to post until I figure out what the heck's going on. So I just basically looked through our feed. And I was like, all right, why does this? Why did why did she say this sucks? And then I was like, well, so we're posting basically the same stuff we're posting on Facebook. Same stuff we're posting on Twitter.

same stuff that like no offense but like the like the PC Instagrams like every PC Instagram is like the same exact thing all it all is and it was like okay everyone's doing the same thing and then I started looking what our competitors are doing it's like everyone's doing the same thing so I was like okay well she's right it is ugly because it's like you know there's nothing beautiful about this it just it just looks like a it just looks like a cluttered meme page, you know, mixed in and sprinkled in with like some close-up shots of hardware. So I realized, well, we have all this awesome like product imagery that we don't use anywhere. And it's beautiful. And I think I can, you know, revamp our Instagram page to just

be like some, a curated feed of like cool NZCT product. But the other thing that I decided to flip was I'm going to try to make these captions like fun instead of I don't care about the hashtags I don't care about promoting the product I'm just going to have fun with the caption and is that are you admitting that you are removing CTA

or is CTA always a thing still so it depends but for Instagram I tested a lot of different things and then I realized the caption the CTA like none of that stuff matters even the image doesn't matter like people just want to like

have fun right and that's what I just started having fun with the captions and posting like product shots and it worked see that's actually what I I loved about it too when I you know seen that lately I'm dying laughing some of the comments I remember one in particular my favorite was you went off on this ramble like it was the most you know wordy description ever it was a not funny one it was a rant I know which one I'll post it in the chat right now yeah by the way for those of you who don't know what CTAs it's called to action it's just like a term is it a store today or you know yeah it's just what you want by now people to do with your product they're basically asking sale so right here I'm to show you what we have for

the the backgrounds that we used on the on the podcast so these guys right here this is cool yeah so everything we have Panned is everything we've used as art for the podcast and these show up on Spotify and these show up on on SoundCloud so if you guys out there are listening and want to check these out, SoundCloud slash Spotify or the art channel in the Discord. And check the pins and that's a, so the other things. I just linked the post I think Mark was talking about. Yeah, definitely check that.

Let's check that out. All that, all of that media is so cool, man. Oh, yeah, this is great. Let's see, let me look it up. I noticed that although this account has 493, 439,000 followers, I am not receiving 439,000 likes on my post. I'm not sure if this is being done intentionally

or if these quote-unquote friends are forgetting to click like either way i've had enough i've compiled the spreadsheet of individuals who have forgotten to like my recent posts after two consecutive strikes your name is automatically highlighted in purple of course and i am immediately notified three consecutive strikes and you can expect an in-person consultation think about your actions see i don't get it and it's beautiful it's beautiful and we have a shot of our um our power supply like the guts of it and i don't know that's just hilarious to me yeah i love that that's really fun so i did like that direction for sure yeah and people can't tell if I'm trolling or not that's yeah I remember I remember one day me I've been in Mike uh intermike did this like

the NXC social media teams and fired and it's been replaced by marketing bots and people are like legitimately like worried like they were calling customer service like yo I don't know what happened to the social media team but please bring them back we really love the account it's super fun that way please and they'll get rid of them we're just in it before like I'm never gonna buy NZXT again it's like fire Oh my gosh. That is so funny. Yeah.

I mean that's like basically the whole approach with our social media and we've tried everything, believe me. It's not fun. Yeah, it basically comes down to just having fun with the community and, you know, helping them when they need help, making them laugh when they need a laugh, you know. Making them do dumb things. Yeah, it's just, you know, we're letting them know that.

What your past from the comments. Yeah, that's so funny. love it but that's our fans for you though I mean that's like our community is is amazing I mean I just now seen at a quick glance at least 10 different types of high resolution wallpapers and artwork and stuff and people have taken the time to do that yeah we get a lot of people in the channel right now listening live you know I mean this wouldn't be a thing without the community you know 100% yeah so actually would this be a good time can I plug just a few of my Instagram fans no I mean I agree I have three yeah we uh by the way the Mark's Instagram is

pinned in the podcast chat if you guys want to follow him check it out or block them i mean i i barely post but you know it's if you want to see you know a real shot of whatever builds we build like i mean that's exactly what i post it's just in the warehouse so if you want a steady feed of nzxt hardware to your eyes then definitely give a follow but um for the most part it's just i don't really you know engage with my community too much what's that spider yeah i found a spider on uh on the case it was literally on the power supply or the power button there so that's spooky yeah now people had to check it out because he called something out yeah go check out what spider what's not gonna look at it oh look all the pretty light so who are you going to shout out oh yeah so just a shout

out i have four people here um i really don't know them other than remis uh they're just guys who have supported me through my instagram uh i just see him lurking commenting every so often just given some really good positive support um i just thought they'd be really cool i think they're all hardcore N Z-Z-T fans as well. But for one of them is Remis, if you guys want to check out Remus, CS, for his, you know, cable management skills and all of his pretty shots, check him out. It's at R-E-M-I-S-C-S.

And then I have another one that's, his name is Brian Builds PCs. Oh, perfect. Oh, that's perfect. Okay. Ivan's outsmarting me right now, taking a photo of this and uploading it. I'm right down too. Do you think I should probably, yeah. Yeah, go for it.

Brian builds PCs. It's just spelled just like how it is. Brian, B-R-I-A-N, builds, PCs, P-C-S. And then there's, I think his name is pronounced water pike. I'm not sure. It's W-O-U-T-E-R-P-I-E-K. And the last one is Merlin-G-R-L-I-J-N-N-G-N. M-E-R-O-N-N-N-G-N.

And the reason why I just wanted to plug those again is just because they've really been supportive. of me and if you check out their pages too they definitely love nzxd their fanboys so nice nice yeah um i just blocked all those accounts did you really know they're gone no you did not because i know they chat with you probably probably a lot at least i don't know maybe who knows uh mark where do you see yourself from like three to five years that's a great question because you mentioned like you love building but it's not like end goal for you right yeah absolutely not i um i'm going through a transition in my life right now. I learned, discovered minimalism and just kind of focusing on what matters in my life the most,

trying to reduce my clutter and focus on the things that will get me to where I want to go. I have a lot of life goals, career goals. Unfortunately, they require me to leave NZXT at some point, as sad as it may be. I love being here. I love building, but it's just I need to, I'm more interested into network security and programming and stuff like that. Yeah. So I'm going to try to pursue that passion learn how to do some programming get my network plus certificate from comp tia um just kind of go down that route and uh do some bug testing some pen testing you're definitely going to live in a tiny home i'm definitely living in a tiny home somewhere for like sixty thousand dollars you should see these things they're very gorgeous um and not everyone

would live in that such a tiny space but i've seen those no there's like the like houses like like that are on other properties right yeah they're that they're actually kind of and I kind of want one, but I also like, don't. You can have a mobile too. I mean, they're technical. Yeah, they're technical, too. They utilize all the space. It's really, really clean design.

But, yeah, I actually have, Ivan to think about for a little bit of the transition because working with social media, and then he has a lot of, he taught me a lot, plugged a lot of books for me to read and just kind of focusing on myself. So thank you, Ivan. You're welcome.

Yeah, I appreciate that. I'm always trying to educate the youth. Yeah, and also Trello. I need to be paid by Trello. So if Trello's listening, I literally, I plug Trello all the time. It's a useful app that will help you manage. Did you know that we've mentioned Trello in every single podcast episode? Are you serious?

I swear. Oh, wow, this is going to be, yeah, you guys should keep it up then because maybe we'll try. Trello. That's how me and Dennis keep track of our projects and tasks. That's how you and I keep our projects and task. Yeah. And if for anyone else interested in, I don't know, you want to better yourselves and keep track of your habits and, you know, kind of squash the bad ones.

You could download an app I just discovered. I'm pretty sure a lot of you might already know, but it's Habitica. Oh, yeah. It's like a RPG game, right? Yeah, it's like an RPG game, so you have to set your habits down and then you have a health bar. It's all for all those gamers out there. So if you, at the end of the day, if you discovered that you did a bad habit, I cussed today or, you know, something like that, then you ding yourself and then you get deducted.

on your health bar. So you kind of have to hold yourself accountable, but if you actually do your habits properly and track them and, you know, give yourself points, you earn experience points, you earn tools, a lot of that stuff. And then you can even go on quests with friends who also have Habitica. And if you're battling a dragon or something and one of your friends does not actually do their tasks that they were supposed to do, you still get hit by the dragon. So your friend may be the responsible to kill you if he doesn't do his habits. So it's actually pretty fun. Wow. Sorry I went off on that. But it's good. I'm just like in a vibe right now where I got to tell everyone just in case. That's good. For sure, man. What was the best book I recommended for you to read? I'm

curious. Getting things done actually was one of the best books I've ever read to GTD method. By David Allen. Yep. Actually, I'm glad you plugged that because I don't know the author. I'm very bad with that but that book actually did change my life because it helped me structure my thinking a lot i agree with that getting things done um and just getting everything out of your subconscious mind and onto trello and just forget about it right it's like yeah remember just like you have a stupid thought just write it down forget about it move on with your life yeah and then figure out later you know um that book is great it's great it's amazing i think that's i wouldn't really love trello if it wasn't for gtd because I set up my Trello in a GTD method, getting things done method.

But really, if you go on Trello's website, they have a million different ways you can use it and customize it to your own way. But GTD was, yeah, definitely to answer your question, one of the things that, cool, it's changed a lot. Very cool. Wow, I'm learning a lot about self-help and thinking he started reading some more books, man.

I never read. I only recommended one book to read and he never finished it. And it was a book about stand-up comedy. I finished it. I just forgot it. Yeah, I think. I'm definitely looking at a person to like if I read something I got to read the page like three or four times because everyone is man because I'll like I'll read it and then I realize I just have been staring at this page and then now I'm at the end and I don't know what the heck I was that reading so they go back and read it again that's how everyone is now because our attention spans are so books are hard. We're nonstop getting notifications on our phone on our desktop whatever like all day long so it's very very hard to focus especially when you're reading I I love reading and I read every day.

day and I read the same page like at least twice. Like I have to do that. It's, I think everyone's like that man. It's not just you. I agree. I think it's especially rough when you work in like social because like my phone's always going off like in middle of notifications. So like I'll be talking to someone like for example, I was at dinner last night, right?

And my girlfriend's talking to me and like my phone goes off. So I'm looking at it real quick. Okay. Now. And then like I'm always looking away from like what I'm supposed to be focusing on. Right. It kind of sucks. But sometimes that's that's that's.

That's the gig, you know. Right. And it's, I mean, especially in social media, I can feel it. I've been there. I've seen that. It takes up a lot of your time. I got to make sure I catch those spicy ninja tweets, you know? You know you should try?

You should try to do like a daily detox or like a once a day detox or something or maybe even, I don't know. I don't think I don't allow me. No. Yeah, it's true. I mean, your job relies on it. Yeah, he really doesn't. It's like, it's funny. Every time I like decided to turn on my stream or like turn on a game,

immediately I get like a message from Ivan and Slack. It's funny because like I'll go like hours without hearing from him and then as soon as I'm like okay I'm just going to do something hey so what are we doing I'm like goddain oh boy even before you worked here I was messaging you yeah no for sure it was weird

I think every night we chat to like 10 11 o'clock yeah yeah it's actually I was going to ask how is it for you for social media coming in with Ivan and everything can we can we just like link up right now and talk so much dirt on him like he's not in the room so i was a great teacher he kicks my butt every day and tells me every

idea i have sucks because it does and really that doesn't sound like that and the communication is pretty much non-stop except for sundays sundays is your day that's a rule i don't work on sundays is family i don't do you just found your detox day yeah yeah sunday it's very important to like you said unplug that so yeah at that time yeah we do nothing like yeah for sure sundays i don't I don't look at my phone. It's just, you need one day to just, like, unplug your brain.

I agree. I agree. Or so you go nuts. No, but it's good, though. You know what I mean? Like, I'm always thinking, and he's definitely pushed me to, like, be better and be, like,

better at what I do and how I think about things. And, like, I'm, like, low-key working on, like, revamping my own social media to see, like, to see, like, what I can do my own without, like, you know,

having, like, 700,000 followers, you know, as, like, a crutch or something. Because, like, you know, my social right now is is weak but just because I'm putting so much more time into like the work that I do you know right right but like learning what I've learned I'm like I wonder if I can like make this happen somewhere else you know so I'm I'm in the works don't steal my ideas of copyrighted too bad I will see you I mean that's I already stole a lot of your ideas too so it's too late I mean

I took I took a lot of your your model stuff like you know do the opposite type of That's the only idea is just do the opposite of everyone else, man. You know what? It really does work and why not? I've even applied it to stuff outside of my... I always say that. It's not just social media. It's literally every aspect of your life.

If you just do the opposite of what everyone is doing and then do... You can't lose. And then do the things you don't want to do. Those are the hard things. Everyone puts off to the very end. Like if you make a to-do list right now and you just write down everything that's in your head that you have to do, you're going to do the easy stuff first. 100%.

Brian's are like hardwired. So my advice, do the opposite. Do the hard stuff versus. Get the hard thing out of the way that you don't want to do, that you're dreading, and do the things that no one else is doing. And if you see other people doing certain things, like figure out how to do it exactly the opposite for a room. It's funny that you mentioned that because when I first started NSXT working here, you're

saying that, you know, you started noticing that a lot of the companies were copying some things that were successful that we did, especially for social media-wise. What those are? Just random stuff, like white cases and stuff like that because we had the first white case. And I just actually noticed, Be Quiet, posted some purple headphones flashback. So, yeah, I was looking at that. I was like, hmm, is this because we had out purple headphones? This is a good idea.

It's got up that right now. No, the day, actually, there's Patrick at. The day we announced our audio line. Logitech posted on their Instagram an NZT PC with an NZXT puck with purple headphones asking or there was like hashtag

Throwback Thursday do you all remember our purple headset and what do you think NZT replied? No, I don't know. What is it? What is it? We remember. Really? I remember everything. A little wave image. But more importantly, I don't forget. Yeah, definitely. You have a lot of history, man.

show me for you for you um so we're getting close to well close close to the end time um i want to start feeling some questions so if you guys there in the chat want to ask any questions uh either me mark or ivan let us know um while we do that i actually have a list of some quick fire questions for you because i want to get to know you a little bit more can i can i also uh ask you something real quick um yeah i have a five-minute segment i just like to say out so when when would i do that for the times you know know. Is that again? I just have a little section I want to talk about, you know, questions that I get a lot, just this one question. Do it now. Is that okay right now?

Yeah, do it. Okay. I actually just wanted to mention, I get this question a lot on Instagram. People think that they're so wowed by me building computers and stuff like that and asking me how I got into the industry and stuff and what kind of schooling I did. And I did go to school. So I'm pretty sure that would help people get recognized just naturally. But, you know, it's just some word of advice for anyone out there who's looking to become a PC builder long term and do exactly what I do. And as long as you're passionate, really, as long as you're passionate, doesn't matter your background, you know, even if you've not built a single computer, just try to get out there and get your hands on it. And you can do it, man. It's anybody can build a computer. It's so simple.

It's amazing. It's rewarding. So I highly suggest that. And check out NCXT's career page. My position is what you want. If you want my job, go check it out. I guarantee you can get into this place as long as you're passionate. We don't hire just any builder, but we do have a level of quality that we have to uphold. But for the most part, PC building in general is just super simple. So go get it, guys. Like, really, you can do it.

So that's it. I just wanted to say because it's, you know, people think technical, it's PC building is very technical, but it's not. It's just, you know, it's been referenced to be. being, you know, expensive Legos. What other questions people ask you? Can I have free PCs? Just like you guys, but I don't get it as much.

I say absolutely not. Well, I mean, I don't really respond too much. Heck no. Yeah. I make them guess a number between one and a billion and they never get it. Free, you say. But, yeah. All right.

So we have one question, actually, from Pickle. He wants to know what that is happening in poll questions. Yeah. Evan, do you answer that? I'm Pickles campaign manager for moderator. I'm actively trying to get him hired for that, but it's not so easy to convince the powers that be. Oh, I want what that means.

Okay. So while we're getting some question, who's the owner? Owner of what Dragon Hawk? Oh, so that's not a question because there's no question, Mark, at the end. Okay, so Mark, yes. Texting or talking? texting 100% Favorite day of the week

Friday Favorite city in the U.S. besides the one you live in I love Portland Nicknamed your parents used to call you Fergie Wow Did you not expect that? That's pretty simple No I didn't but that was great

Last name's Ferguson so that's what So like is everybody in your family called Fergie Because everyone has the same last name My brother and I have been Yeah they use it interchangeably My parents would give you a nickname based on your last name. Yeah, right? I know.

Not your first name. But that's, why didn't they call you Marky? Well, it's because my aunt did. My aunt called me Marky, but it was because mostly when I went to school, they would hear a lot of my friends calling me Ferg, and it kind of stuck that way. Okay. Has anyone ever called you A-Sep-Ferg? No, never, but I would love to be compared.

That's awesome. Chabba. Would you, last song you downloaded? Shabba. I actually don't download any songs. I just have Spotify. And I'm really terrible at that. I don't ever remember any of the artist's names.

Last song you liked on Spotify. Oh boy, this is actually rapid. Last song I liked. Doja Cat. Which one? Which one? It was the most recent one with the video. Can you remember the name of it?

Can I look real quick? Is this a freaking rules? There's juicy. Not juicy. There's juicy. Is it? Juicy rules, anything less than cyber sex. Cybersex.

Yeah, that's a good song. Yeah. That's a dang good song. Yeah. Like a lie. Okay, we got some of questions here from the chat. cats or dogs dogs

okay how much do you enjoy installing IOS shields from Cuddle actually I love those except for the I think the current ones we have it's the B65 board for some reason the corner never goes in so I hate those ones

Mac wants to know can he be a mod? Mod for what? Discord drill holes in it wants to know can we have NXT beanies because winter that'd be pretty cool definitely not my question now

just throw your hair out I mean you can chicken or waffles waffles okay went not both I've never had it together and that just sounds disgusting Drew head down to Roscoe's like tonight

sounds so gross to me it slaps it slaps yeah it definitely does okay favorite holiday favorite holiday is probably Halloween

okay how long does it take you to get ready 10 minutes I'm a disgusting guy like I don't have any skincare routines or anything why isn't Johnny server. He is in the server. He's don't know who is. Not only is he in the server.

He's listening right now. He's incognito. Is he really? I wouldn't be surprised. Johnny, I love how Johnny's got his thumb on everything in this company, you know. But he also has, you know, the trust to let his people do what he needs to do. Probably the only CEO in the world who

like, he'll call me like on a Saturday morning and ask a question about Twitter or something like that. You know, like, what other guy is going to like care that much? Like he cares about every little aspect of the company. I agree with that. Can I make a note on that actually?

That's another reason why I actually love NZXT, and I'm not just talking really good about my boss because I'm on podcast and he's listening potentially right now, but one of the things, I was actually having a conversation with my girlfriend last night, and we were just talking about some things that I think NZXT could do better, you know, just a few things. And I told him, like, I told her,

if I literally email Johnny and told him, hey Johnny, this is what I think could be changed with your company. Here's, you know, three bullet points. He's a busy guy, so you don't want to overload him with too much description. But if you gave him three points and topics to say, you know, how I can improve, I bet he would make some time for me, put me in the room, talk about him. And if he incorporated, liked him and wanted to help him be incorporated. And I think that's the most amazing thing about this company. It's really rare. It really is.

It's not something to be found a lot. I mean, that just goes to show with the town hall that we do, right? Like, we do this town hall, and I think I talked about us last time, every quarter where people can ask questions directly to the CEO, and he gets up in front of everybody, and he answers them from the whole company. He's right there. And, I mean, there was even things that I did when social media, back when Ivan,

and I didn't think that he was, you know, looking at stuff like that, and he was hitting me up with questions and comments about stuff, and I don't know, just it's a really cool thing. Poppy, always watching. Okay, drill holes. I think maybe yes is ready. Favorite car and why? Say that again. I'm sorry. Favorite car and why? I don't have a favorite car. I'm not a car guy. I just have this 2003 Honda Civic. Okay. With like murdered out tinted windows. Yeah, super tinted windows and everything else. You have the darkest windows I've ever seen it in a car. I don't know how that happened. I just went to a company and got them tinted and then I've been pulled over twice and I haven't changed it. Yeah. I've never been pulled over for my tinted windows. Really? Yeah, I've got limo in the back and then they got like one step down in the front. I had limo on all. His is like every one of them, I think. So maybe that's the problem.

His windshield is black. Yeah. Okay, I know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like my, my side mirrors are so black that like I have to roll them down when I'm parking

at night because they can't see the curb. Are you serious? Wow. It's great, but also terrible. That sounds pretty dangerous. But no one knows that I'm doing in there. Um,

I don't know how to pronounce this name because it's a Korean. Do you or would you listen to K-pop? L-O-L. I definitely would. In fact, I have. I put on a random play playlist like two weeks ago. Is your favorite,

a K-pop artist? I don't know anybody. And why is it BTS? BTS? BTS. I'm so lost. Oh, Adam wants to know. Between the RGB colors,

which palette you guys like the most? Purple. But actually, I'm kind of, another thing I'd like to say is I'm a little bit tired of RGB. I am like, after doing them all day long like that.

Yeah. It definitely gets to you. I need a little bit of a break for those, I think. It's a pain in the butt. What is your favorite part of working at NZXT? The culture, the people, the community. The podcast. Straight up.

Yeah, I mean, this is fun. I'm on a podcast right now. This is cool. Right? Who would have thought, right? That we'd ever have a podcast. Yeah. Yeah.

Tea or coffee? Tea, for sure. I'm not a coffee drinker. What is your opinion on calm music? Calm music. I love calm music. Chill music. That's actually my favorite, I'd say.

Do you listen to chill anime beats? Chill, not anime beats, no, but chill, just in general, I'd say. All right. Are you a gamer? Absolutely. What are you playing right now? Actually, that's the thing is I'm really trying to stay focused, so I'm not really playing too much games right now, even though I just now said I'm a gamer. But that's one thing that I'm crazy about.

If you talk, ask me about why PC gaming, and I'm not trying to attack the console gamers here, guys. If you ask me why PC gaming is just the most ideal, I'll go all out because I've had the best setups and I've been changed. I'm waiting for PC2 to drop. PC2. I mean, it's got to be the next thing. Actually, Mark, like I did with the interns, like I did with Dennis, I gave you a video game when you started working with me.

That's 100% true. That's like my tradition. Yeah, I got Zelda. I got on Switch. In fact, I love Switch. That's why I'm not talking too much on console. but Switch is the best console to have if you have a PC. Love it.

I agree with that 100%. I tell everyone the same thing. Love the switch. Yep. You can get access to fun, lighthearted games that you can't get on PC. Anything else just played on PC. Like Doom on Switch is awesome.

Doom's pretty good. I heard it actually, it doesn't run too well on TV mode, I heard. But when you put it in the, no, if you do in the docking station, it runs well, but yeah. Favorite anime? I don't have one, but I'd say sword art online.

If they're going to say Tom Cruise. A lot of people are going to be angry at you right now for saying sort of online. Are you serious? It's just because I'm a noob. It's a trash show. I'm a new. Can I show you my anti-RGB set up to one of you after the podcast? I would love that.

Yeah, absolutely. Show it to Mark. DMM on Instagram. There you go. Yeah, please do. Show me your anti-RGB. Yeah, hit me up. I love seeing everything like that.

Call of Duty or Minecraft. Oh, whoa. Craft of Duty. That's tough. Yeah. I mean, I played Call-Ditty ever since it first came out. like, you know, so, but I'm, I just, I don't like how it's gone. So maybe Minecraft.

I'd say Minecraft. I'm more creative. Or just combine the two and play Fortnite. Yuck. Adam wants to know, what kind of pen do you use usually? What kind of what? Pen. P.N.

Penn. Like a writing instrument. A pen. Yeah. The cheapest free one. There you go. DJ Pando. Who are your favorite twins of all time?

Twins. T.N. Tamara. There you go. Hey. Sister sister. That's only because I just have a song in my head. Shout the Doja Cap. Yep.

Carolina wants to know, Pokemon Shield or Pokemon Sword. Pokemon Shield, I don't know any of those. This is the two new Pokemon games that people are going nuts over. It's a great question. I wish I had an answer for you. I'm so sorry. What takes you the longest amount of time when building a PC,

excluding cable management? Opening up boxes. Legit. Yeah. Opening up boxes. I hate it. It's the worst part. If I get a system, it's already prepped,

it saves me 15 minutes. Well, that's how we came up with the whole process of prepping the hardware before the builder even starts building because before you know Mark when it was just like Mark he would have to like one by one open everything and takes forever takes forever so that's when you know they come up with the process like what if we actually open everything first put it on a cart then give it a builder and then let's see how long that takes and that was way more effective it definitely helped out but we also have certain time studies I think we need to really lock in our processes still but yeah it definitely helps out saves at least

15 minutes for me and you know that's another thing that's really cool is when we're us individual builders we don't have an assembly line process that's one of the the things that I've found the most fascinating and interesting about nzx t compared to all the other system integration um companies out there nzxts fun because they it's not an assembly line full of people who don't really care about gaming or just plugging in parts it's guys who love to build computers that's all we do every day it's all we talk about if you're if I mean if you even just have any interest in PC you would fit into this community and the best thing I love is that I get to complete the build from start to finish it's not like a zombie you know plugging in parts and what I like to think about when I'm building is usually

how great this is going to be when the person opens this up and starts to play and I start to think about the times where I first got into gaming PC gaming and just how glorious it was it really was and so A lot of the times when we're building, we really are just trying to think about, because we get random configurations. You know, fans here, too much fans here, and it's up to us to determine sometimes the best, you know, configuration for maximizing performance and cooling and everything. So it's really cool that all of us get to build with passion and build with love and provide a product at the end. That's more than just a computer. It's something from us to you as gamers, you know. It sounds corny, sounds cheesy, but it's so true.

It's so true. And that's exactly the reason why we are so active on social media is because, you know, we realize people spend a lot of money on these things. Like, there's people that spend their life savings on our computers. And for us to, like, not care, that would be really sucky. Yeah. It would be sucky for. What are we doing? For them and for us, because it's like, why are you even doing this?

Yeah. What are we here for? It's like, I always say, Mark, if you find. meaning you will find happiness we just actually I I hate to say it man because we had a little bit of a tiff with that but I found my meaning and I'm like thinking about Ivan at one point I'm like she was right seek meaning and you will find happiness is always right but yeah going back to that yeah we have a lot of great guys here a lot of you know a lot of talented builders speaking of the guys O'Don is asking how active is the team when you guys are

building are you guys talking to each other during work I'm not I am I don't even know if the guys know that I'm friendly in there to be honest. Sometimes I'm mostly just building and constantly have headphones on but they do call you the blonde devil is that good or bad I think that's great I'll take that one I'll take it maybe I should start putting some handlebar mustache on or something twisting it up. Joe Holes wants to know Pokemon yellow oh yeah yeah did you answer the question that's good yeah yeah yeah we're good with that one we can fire off okay yeah uh Pokemon yellow or red oh boy I don't even know that either but I'm going to go with yellow because that's what I'm feeling purple there you go I did have a few Pokemon so back in that game boy days

A few Pokemans? Pokeymans. Most powerful PC you've ever built from Pickle. For my own, it's had to be. I had at the time, 2080-S-LI. I had an old processor. It was an I-7-5930K, which is still great. It's a six-core processor.

It didn't allow the cards to bottleneck or anything like that. But yeah, that was a killer system. And then I had, you know, three monitors plus four monitors, technically. I had it all I had everything and it was amazing Yeah Nice Did you ever game with the ball mouse

And what mouse was it Yeah I would say that's That's a great question Yeah Boom slang Back in the day Yeah I definitely had one of those And it was I think I was probably playing Diablo

With a ball mouse or something Diablo too Lord of Destroption Are we talking track ball Or we're talking ball under the mouse Ball under the mouse One of you got to take out and clean sometimes Yeah Yeah

I remember has to get a toothpick and like get all his lint out of there. It's really gross. What's the most difficult thing you've experienced at NZXT? What's the most difficult thing I've experienced at ZXT? Besides the podcast. Social media, I guess. Really?

Yeah, I'd say social media because everything else I already knew how to do and I knew how to do well before I even got here, just because I love to do it, you know? So, I mean, I was a guy coming in and like thinking about you have to star pattern when you tie down your CPU, you know, cooler, stuff like that. I was very by the book talking about, I knew all the specs about, you know, thermal throttling and stuff, but I didn't know anything about social media. So that was a challenge for me.

And I think it also rubbed against the grains of who I am as a person. I'm a worrywart. I think a lot. You know, I can't just let go like you guys do. But it's good that you tried that because, like I always say. It's good to challenge yourself, man. I loved it. And do the things that are hard and things that you have doubts about and like the things

that push you and motivate you to, you know, do your best. Even if your best sucks, as long as you do your best, you're going to succeed in life because that is what, you know, makes people winners. It's not, you know, necessarily winning. It's like the people that can do the work, whether they win or lose. And then keep going day in and day out and like, learn and grow and that's how you actually get better and not just social media but like in anything really it's just well said got to keep doing it and pushing your boundaries yeah that's

exactly what I did and learned a lot from you because of that and I'm you know maybe now sometime in the future if I'm ever in a position where I find the social media position opening you know maybe I could go in there and expect a little bit you know or know what to expect a little bit yeah I'll sue you but yeah do it favorite food favorite food I love Thai food. Really? What's your favorite thing at a Thai restaurant?

Curry. Penang curry. I hate Thai food. I hate curry. I love it. Curry is dope. Panang curry, Thai food. I doesn't like anything.

I do. I'm not picky. I just know what I like. I'm picky. I'm picky. I said it sounds like. Hey, I pick both you guys. What type of screen wallpaper

do you like the most? I guess what type of wallpaper you like the most? The cleanest. I actually have this wallpaper on my laptop right now that's got nothing but a word that says trust the computer the computer is your friend.

And for some reason, it's so ominous and dark. You know, it's not really graphic. It's just kind of funny. Right. Who we went in a battle, Papi or Papito? Oh, boy. Which one we talked about? We're talking about the old Papito or the new Papito?

I'm talking about the old one right now because I'm... V1 or V2? We're talking about the V2. Actually, Mark worked with me before anyone ever called me Poppy. Oh. Yeah. I think you came back and then all of a sudden my nickname was Poppy. Yeah.

I would actually agree with that. So I kind of missed the beginning of that culture, the introduction to that. The whole Poppy thing started once I actually had a child in real life. They started calling me like, dad. And I was like, you're going to call me that. At least call me Poppy. And for some reason, it just like stuck. That's cool.

That's cool. How can I apply and work at NST? Someone's slacken. NZCT.com slash careers. I did Ivan's job. Message Dennis on LinkedIn. That's how. Yeah, yeah, it's funny.

I was telling him that I'm the idea. I feel the builders have been added me on LinkedIn for some reason. This thing is hilarious because I never use it. You know what's funny about that? I started getting the same request, but I think I started adding people for LinkedIn and then I started getting people following me back. So one of us must have snowball effect that. I don't know.

LinkedIn followers don't mean anything. Right? I know. Seriously. Okay, a couple more questions for you. Scale 1 to 10. How good of a driver are you? 10, I barely get in any accidents just because I'm really safe.

Filled the blink. Taylor Swift is? Taylor Swift is old. Wow. Yeah. Sorry. I'm so sorry, but. Sorry, Taylor.

I'm into Doja Cat. We're in the new age now. The Doja's fire. Invisibility or super strength? I almost said some stuff I could not say. No, I can't. I can't do that. No.

I used to really want invisibility, but now I think Super Strength would be super fun just to punch my way through walls. Right, right. Favorite game of all time? Favorite game of all time that's so tough. It's between... Overwatch?

Actually? You were addicted to that game. Oh, I was hardcore, and not to brag or anything, but I was really good. So they say. So they say. What's your highest rate? Well, now you're going to do that on me.

So I'm not any diamond, okay? I'm good for what I thought. I was platinum. $2,500 back in, like, I don't know, early seasons. That's not bad for playing with the controller either. I didn't play with controller. No way, man.

Nope. Sorry. But yeah, it's either between Dark Souls or Skyrim or any of the Elder Scrolls games. Okay. Okay. Not bad, not bad. I like to abuse myself with Dark Souls. What's your, what's one game you were, you were super hyped up for that disappointed you the most?

Oh, that's a good question. I don't even. Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Redemption 2. I didn't play it. I haven't played it yet. No one can play it right now. I haven't played in. It's like, I open up Reddit and it's just like.

And we're complaining, yeah. Not even complaining, just memes about that. Is it, is it bad right now? I don't even know. It's getting, I think it's for some people, there's like some sort of, the port's really stuttery. Yeah. But not for everyone.

That's the thing. Oh, that's rough. Some of the things are like, once you go into a big game, like millions of people, you start finding issues that you couldn't like, you know. No kidding. Yeah. What, what meme do you like the most? What meme?

Favorite meme of all time. It's Wednesday, my dudes. For some reason. Do you guys? Yeah. Okay. Okay. You guys should know that, but it's super old.

I don't know why I used to scream it in the warehouse. I used to partake in. There's a remix of it. Let's see. This is it right here. It is Wednesday in my dudes. That's definitely not the remix. That's the one I'm familiar with.

Yeah, yeah. Unless that is a remix of the original. No, no, but apparently there's a remix. And I want to know what the remix sounds like because it sounds hilarious. So I love that we have two monitors now. It's so great that we can remix. Remix compilations. Okay.

I would, but. It's two minutes. Yeah, we'll do this on the chat remix. by Denny, bro. Hey. This sounds legit. Sounds pretty fire. I'm ready for this.

There's a beat drop coming up. Oh, snap. Okay. Here comes a doja part. She put to drop a hot 16 right now. You should be our exit music. It should be. Even though it's Friday, June.

My dudes, but that's the beauty of it. You know, doesn't make sense. What is, so you mentioned that you listen to a lot of music. when you're working, right? Yeah. When you listen to. Just like letters on Spotify or is there like a...

All Spotify stuff. So, for this. Yeah, I listen to a lot of podcasts. But lately I've been focusing on YouTube videos and just kind of self-help and, you know, speaking of work. Yeah. I think we have to go back to work now. Oh, yes.

It's about that time. But we're having so much fun. Yeah, man. It was fun. Thank you for your joining us today. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It's been really fun.

And hopefully you can be on again. soon yeah maybe if people want to hear my ugly voice back who knows if not then it was nice though yeah bye bye if you want to follow mark we pinned his instagram check him out thanks a while guys i appreciate it all right thank you for joining us today mark and thank you to everyone who tuned in remember folks tune in next week at 10 a m pacific center time of the official nzxte discord server and follow us on all relevant social media at nzxte and go buy those computers Submit your art in the art channel. And what else?

Maybe like last advice? No, I think I think I'm good. Be yourself. Do the opposite. Do the opposite. Defeat the Huns. You can do it. Five second rule always applies.

Five second rule. I like that one. Peace out. Later.