NZXT PODCAST - #040 - Josh

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

This week on the podcast, the crew are joined by NZXT’s Marketing Director: Josh! Josh and the crew discuss getting cake, training for the Marvel cinematic universe, and the best waifu. Follow Josh on Twitter: twitter.com/joshkocurek Listen live to the NZXT 💜 CLUB CAST on our Discord server at discord.gg/nzxt every Thursday at 10AM PT! Thanks to ITSDAMUNEEROW#1337 for the artwork!

to episode 40, the NZXT Clubcast, the official podcast of the NZXT community. This podcast is recorded live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time of the official NSXC Discord server and is available to stream wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. My name is Dennis. And with me as always is Ivan. Happy Friday, Jr. Hello. And Amanda.

Hi. Hi. Hi. Today's special guest is NZXT's marketing director, fresh out the oven, Brantz, Brankanew, Josh, how you doing, Josh? Hey, what's up, guys? By the way. Actually, I think he might be server-muted.

There we go. Server-muted. I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. How are you doing this morning? How are you feeling? I'm feeling great.

You know, rolling on my second round of coffee here, so excited to be here. Is this like specially like created, Grided Artisan Coffee or it's like regular like from a can coffee? It's somewhere in between. Not quite artisan, but not quite from a can. Put it that way. What's the brand? Do you want to give them a special shout out for keeping up all day?

Yeah. And all night sometimes. Yeah, I mean, I actually mix it up a lot. I don't drink a lot of the same coffee. But this one's from a local roaster in town called. Golden Coast. It's their Ethiopian bean morning brew. Pretty awesome.

So, I'm feeling it. This podcast is brought to you by Golden Coast. I'm going to start reeling in the sponsors. Yeah, let's just do it. One of these days we're going to have a coffee sponsor. And maybe if I can make it work, a tea sponsor as well. You have all the beverages covered. need a bang energy

our next sponsor let's do it I mean they're literally at like every single gaming event that have been in the past like year and a half so I mean I definitely see it coming sometime soon I'm asked for a panel for my Twitch stream

don't hey you know not to try to seal the deal on the sponsorship but don't sleep on unbang energy they actually have a really good keto protein coffee drink I know it's three very weird words but I've had it a few times

and it's actually very delicious Do you think that maybe like NXC will ever get to a point where we can have like a booth at like a coffee or like a tea convention? I think that I think Mike and I are kind of working on that behind the scenes. Oh, you heard of hear first folks.

First company info leaked on the podcast. Actually, I don't know if you guys even know this but NGCT is kind of associated to a coffee company. Really? Yeah, so Johnny invested in this company called Asaya Coffee, like a long time ago, and they made coffee scales. And back in the day in our old office, our front sign actually used to say NZXT, and then next to it was like a little sign that said Asaya coffee.

That's awesome. I was unaware of that. Yeah, I'll drop the link to the scale. It's a really nice fancy scale. It's like a $200 scale. For coffee? It's very like NZT style. You can check it out.

I feel like that's something that like a criminal would be using, you know? It's like a $200. Get those grams, right? Yeah. Back in a new office, now we have like a Kourig machine, but back in our old office, it was like super snobby. We had like this scale. And then we also had like a pourover station.

We had all this, like we had a fancy espresso machine, even made in Italy and all that. Dude, just you wait. Once we get back in the office after all this, like Mike and I are going to bring the snob back to the coffee and the tea side of things. So I might say you already did. All right.

So, sir, going on oven. No, I was going to say, thank you to Josh for joining us today. We're very excited to have him here. Yeah, thanks for the invite. I wasn't expecting it so soon after starting, but you know, better soon than ever, right? Everyone else said no, so we had no choice. Andy didn't want to come on for like a fifth time? He's the only one that has to come on all the time.

Yeah, I don't think anyone else would like messages us that often to come on. It's really Andy's like, well, if you guys need somebody, I'm here, you know, he doesn't, that little, I'm here, you know. So, Josh, marketing director. What exactly is a marketing director? What is the marketing director at NSXT do? I'm glad you asked at NSXT, because I think depending on where you're at

in terms of like the industry and even company to company, like marketing director can meet a lot of different things. But for NST, like I'm pretty much here to just oversee all marketing activities happening within the company. So everything from the marketing campaigns that we roll out product launches, you know, implementing kind of like large scale plans and processes for scaling the business, you know, whether that's, you know, in different categories or different parts of the world. And, you know, working very closely with all the different teams within it like you guys and Wes and Mike, obviously, very closely.

And just, yeah, really making sure that everything that we're doing that's external facing for the company is really a strong balance of building the brand in a way that's making sure that it's kind of staying true to the core values of the company, helping us achieve our goals there. But also, you know, on the performance side, making sure that we're all. also contributing to the business and making sure that we're helping, you know, putting the right products in front of the people who want to see them. And people who want to learn more about either the company or individual products and product lines,

like making sure that we have all the right content out there for them to learn what they want to learn. So you mentioned the core values. Could you name the core values of NZICS here right now? that's the hot seat uh i do know like we're in the process of like they can bring in new ones in too so there there's a mix of them um obviously like you know foster community is a great one right i know that's your guys's favorite uh pursuing passion is is a good one my my personal favorite is demonstrating courage, just because there's a lot to that. And I think that speaks volumes, you know, especially from a marketing perspective, it takes a lot of courage to do a lot of the things

that we do. Let's see, being humble, accepting accountability. And there's one more. She's going to Google it real quick. About being progressive. Looking further, looking further ahead, right? Like, yeah. Hey, let's go. Always on the forefront. Pass the test. Very important. No, it's good.

It's actually funny because when people ask me, I always blank really hard on looking further. I think it's the one that I always forget. It's one you take for granted, right? Because I think you kind of naturally do it. But it is, yeah, I think from a value perspective, it's important to just put it out there and say it and show it because it's super important. People take that one for granted, I think. Yeah. It's also because Dennis is stuck in the past, literally.

He's like in the year 2002 still, listening to 50 cent. Yeah, 50 cent, little John Leeside boys, you know how I rule. Some of the best. How long have you been in ZX, Steve? So yesterday was six weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Remember, I think the first meeting that we had,

You weren't even in the office. We were in the office. You were in the office and we were all stuck at home. Oh, God. Yeah, dude, that was such a strange day. So, yeah, it was my first day. It was a Wednesday. And we, NZXT had just, like, instated the work from home order, I think, like, the week prior. But I had to go into the office because, you know, it's my first day. I had to, like, sign a bunch of paperwork and sit down with the HR team and just kind of get, like, payroll and all that other stuff established. So I had actually go there. And I was. curious. I was like, all right, I wonder what this, you know, who's going to be there. Because I'd been to the office previously during the interview process. So I had an idea of like delay of the land. But even then, it was pretty unpopulated. But yeah, I get there and I think I saw, I was there for about four hours and I think I saw five people. One of whom was, was just someone cleaning. So like for it was, yeah, it was pretty crazy. I did, in retrospect, now that I know and have met Jen and have spoken to him a lot,

like, he was there. And we just passed each other in the hallway a couple of times, kind of like gave each other's side-eye and then just kept walking. But yeah, it was kind of weird. So we ended up doing like our team building intro call. And like I'm sitting there in the office, like literally surrounded by everyone's desk. All of your guys is empty desk. And I'm like, hey, here I am. Yeah, the funny part about that was, like, we actually started working from home about maybe like two weeks before California issued the stay-at-home worker.

So we were like a little bit ahead. And when you started, you know, Justin, he wanted everyone to go drive to Orange County to a restaurant. And like, you know, let's mean Josh halfway and let's all go to a restaurant in Orange County. And we all looked at each other. do you not know what's going on right now? Everything's just like shutting down. So we had to do like some virtual scribble I-O like hangout session.

It was pretty funny. Yeah, in retrospect, I think that was the right call. I think I'm going to. I think me, Amanda, and I've been were in our in our Slack chat. We're like, uh, like I'm not, I'm staying at home. I'm going anywhere. Yeah, my thing is there for Justin too, because

he works from home a lot, even before the stay-of-home order happened. So I don't know if you back then at least knew that, you know, they had just issued like this lockdown or whatever. It was just like the news was just happening. So it was kind of funny. Yeah. Yeah, a weird time to start any new company, any job. I even moved from San Diego to L.A. during the process.

So, yeah, strange times indeed. Yeah. So before NZXT, Josh, what were you? you doing? I was at another gaming company. I was at, yeah, I know. I was at HP. They have a gaming brand.

I know, right? Well, you know, we got there. So yeah, I was, I headed up the global marketing team for Omen for about four years. And Omen is HP's gaming division within the company. So I came in right as we were, launching that brand. So Oman's been around for about four, four and a half years at this point.

And so I came in right, right when it was launching to takeover. And, yeah, I was there for that whole ride down in San Diego. Wow. Did you start? So you said you started right when it was about to like kind of kick off, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So what are something that you did with them? Well, so I, it, to their, testament, like they were very smart about what they did. I mean, not, not tuning my horn,

but like they, they were getting ready to launch the product line, which at that point was like a desktop, a laptop, a laptop, and a monitor was like their first product offering. And they, and it was, you know, it's HP, right? So hopefully, you know, for you, Youngen's on the call, It's what your mom in that printer is. But, you know, they're an old company, massive tech company, actual founders of Silicon Valley, if you look it up on Wikipedia. And so, you know, they were like, hey, you know, we want to get into gaming. We see, you know, amazing growth here.

We see a great opportunity here. It aligns to what we as an organization do because we already do like consumer PCs and electronics and things like that. And so they quickly realized that they don't know anything about gaming or the gaming community or that industry or that audience. And they're like, we need to get people in house who understand all this and have a better understanding of what it's going to take to be successful. And so they brought me in to kind of help grow that team. And so I came in and it was like, here's what we got. We have a laptop.

We have a desktop. We have a display. the brand's called Omen and this is what we look like and I'm like, all right, let's get to work. And so over the last four years, just kind of helped launch, grow and kind of like shift the brand

and help build it into something that hopefully and even looking forward continues to be successful and grow and does a good job. And now you're going to try to destroying them, right? And now I'm, yeah, it's, you know, I have great relationships still there, obviously. Awesome team. I still talk to them, at least on a weekly basis. And, yeah, we joke.

I was like, hey, if, you know, my goal is to make your guys' lives hard now. And, you know, if you're cursing my name in meetings in the future, then I know I'm doing a good job. So let me know. I went to two HP by, or Omen by HP events. So I went to, I think it was BlissCon. They had like some. like a party at some restaurant across the street or something like that. But that was like a regular type of event.

But they had this crazy other event I went to at TwitchCon where they had, it was like an infield of San Diego Padres where the San Diego Padres. Yeah. Oh, and Challenge. Yeah, it was pretty cool. They had like these, it almost looked like a game show type of thing, like these giant booths where people were inside and playing video games. It was pretty cool.

Yeah. it's such, the Omen Challenge was such a fascinating thing. I don't want to turn this into the Omen podcast, but I mean, the whole concept behind it was, the whole concept behind it was, it was kind of like an annual event, like a gaming event where, I mean, the whole goal was to take the traditional, whether it's like e-sports or just like competitive gaming viewing experience. You know, the same thing that we would log into and watch on a daily basis on Twitch and kind of like, like, try to flip it on its head a little bit and inject something new and unique and different and fun to it to kind of make it exciting. And so that evolved a lot over the course of my time there.

But yeah, that was actually one of the first ones. I think we were playing like Heroes of the Storm. And we had people in like these crazy like chambers where we're like pumping in like air and smoke and like heat and cold. It was it was quite a crazy thing. But yeah, I mean, from a production perspective, it was quite massive. And then we had T. Payne and Steve Aoki afterwards. So, you know, how you end any good event. Exactly, yeah.

That was, like, one of the first real big gaming events that I took my wife to. And she was like, man, this is super crazy. Yeah, it was. It was insane. I remember, like, very vividly. My wife and I got cake thrown on us, too, by Siwaioki. That was pretty cool. Dude, that's like life goal stuff right there. That's awesome.

Yeah, I heard that people pay a lot of money for that cake in the face. It's like a big thing that they end up doing. So since you worked at a, say, at a company, so HG has been around for like a long time. They've been around forever, right? And N60, I would say still relatively young in sense of like how we're just now finally kind of starting to scale up. What are some of the differences that you're kind of noticing? and like, I'd say challenges that you're facing here as opposed to say, you know, HP Omen. Yeah.

I mean, from a difference perspective, definitely this isn't on the positive side of things is like the culture is very, very different. And it's not a knock against HP by any means. Again, they've been around literally forever, right? And they do a lot of different things. So it's a corporate culture that has a lot of very strong. smart people in it, and a lot of people who have been around for a long time, whether at the company or at various different companies.

And so, you know, this, you know, and I already mentioned the fact that they had a lack of gaming industry knowledge and culture knowledge in the company. And so even through my time there and helping build teams and educate and just kind of bring a sense of this is what that community is like into the organization. because that's what it takes to be successful. It's absolutely nothing like a company like NCXT, which is built from the ground up on the back of gaming and gaming culture. And so, you know, that's very refreshing for someone like me.

And I think an awesome thing. You know, when you're sitting in a presentation and your CEO has slides with one punchman in it, You know, it's just like, okay, I think I'm in the right place here. So that was really cool. But, you know, from a challenge perspective, you know, it's all, it's just different flavors of the way marketing is approached. And obviously, scale is very, very different. You know, I think one of the things that I'm, I'm, I would say it's a challenge right now, but I'm very excited about is just the, you know,

the fact that NST is very heavy direct-to-consumer e-commerce-driven company. So, which is, you know, in 2020, like that's everything these days, right? Like, you know, you can direct-to-consumer anything. I think I ordered vegan chicken nuggets off of Instagram like two weeks ago, uh, direct-to-consumer. So like, you know, that's just how people. I never heard before. anymore.

That's the most 20-20 thing I've ever heard. That's the very Californian thing too. Yeah, they're called Nugs. Check them out. We'll get them a sponsor on the show. But yeah, I mean, it's, and so just the emphasis there, you know, there's going to be a lot of similarities in like how we market and what we do, but there's just a lot of data that's here in-house because we have like a visibility into just like that.

complete purchasing process and that consumer journey. And so that's very cool. But a little daunting as well just because, you know, there is a lot of data overload, but that's why people like Mike exist to help make heads or tails of things. But yeah, and then just kind of like the, I think just being very heavy on the direct-to-consumer sales side is just a little bit of a change. I mean, there was plenty of that at HP,

but there was also like a big portion of my job was also working with, retailers and other partners like Amazon and Best Buy and, you know, depending where you're at in the world, you know, like Dixons and J.D.com and in places like that to also make sure that when we're launching products or doing campaigns that we're supporting them as well. And while there's some of that here, there's definitely a big, a bigger emphasis on like, hey, how do we, you know, make sure that the experience on NZXT and Let's Build is the best.

Right, right. Yeah. What's your favorite thing about the marketing department? Now, they're finally kind of growing it up a little bit. Hold, let me check the Discord to see if, okay. Yeah, I was going to say you guys, but I don't want to hurt any feelings. No, I think, I mean, I'll stick with you guys, but as a whole, I think the team, right? Not just the three of you, but also like Andy and.

and Emily and West and Mike and everyone else. Everyone's super passionate and just loves to do what they do, which is it's awesome, right? I mean, you have, and I've had experiences with that, you know, even in my previous roles at Omen and even before that. And, you know, but you always find people who are just not, you know, they just don't have that level of excitement that, that, you know, you kind of want to see.

out of people, especially when they have jobs that other people like outside looking in, you know, people would like kill to have your job or kill the work in your industry or do the things you do. And, you know, people who kind of take that for granted, you know, I think kind of sucks sometimes. But, you know, luckily, you know, everyone that I've had the opportunity of talking to and working with y'all on a daily basis, it's very, very infectious, just how excited everyone is to do stuff and how much everyone cares about what we do. So I think it's definitely one of my favorite things. What's your least favorite thing about the department? Be honest. I mean, circumstances right now suck. Like, I'll be honest. I love being, I love working

and collaborating face to face, right? I'm way better in person than I am on my camera and on, and on, And, well, yeah, I guess better is in the eye of the beholder. But it's, you know, I just love being around that energy. And I love kind of just being with the team and being able to talk about anything and just get ideas and concepts and just collaborate quickly. And so I think right now, you know, the circumstances of having to work remotely is one of my least favorite things. Obviously, we're still doing a good job with it and adjusting. But yeah, that's just not the way that I would prefer things to be. I'm sure everyone agrees with that.

But, you know, is what it is. I just kind of love it because I'm wearing sweats right now. I'm not going to lie. Yeah, I'm going to say. I've done laundry like twice in a month. So I'm not mad at that either. But yeah, it would be nice to see you guys. Okay, so since you are directing.

the marketing department, where would you like to see the marketing department in five years? You're not an interview. That's such a good question. I know. This is way better than the questions I haven't asked during my interview process, which we can get into that some other time. I mean, honestly, for me, I definitely think we need to grow from a people perspective. There is a lot of things that we can be doing.

that and should be doing that either we're not doing today or we're just kind of like dip in the toe in the water. And a lot of that has to do with, I think, just resources and capacity. And from a marketing perspective, there's so many different angles and communities to look at and creative ideas that we want to try. And so, you know, in five years from now, I'm really wanting us to have a good mix of people who are, super duper specialized in their roles and what they do, right? I think you guys are a good example of that in terms of community and social media and really understanding the ins and outs of all the different platforms and the voice of the brand and know how to talk as NZXT.

But I also want to see a good mix of like, I would say like more generalist marketing expertise as well that can kind of help carry everything, like a little bit of everything and they can kind of oversee like campaigns and product launches from a way where they'll definitely need to be working with you know specialized individuals like y'all but uh can kind of help orchestrate bigger picture stuff um and i also think from a international perspective i would like to see growth there too um and you know the kind of speaking again back to omen for a second like that was one of the most rewarding parts about being there for the four years I was there, was just kind of seeing over the course of that time from year to year to year,

the as we, it was almost kind of like, I want to use a better term here. No, no, no. I was going to, I was going to say like, you know, something that spread quickly over distances. You know what I mean? So, but it was cool to see as we expanded as a company to, to, from the U.S. to China, to India, to Germany. As we went there and kind of made a presence and started to grow, we also established routes with strong marketing teams that were dedicated to Omen. And so they were able to do a lot of the day-to-day stuff as well.

And that's super-duper important if you want to continue to have a very strong presence and actually connect with the community that's in those local markets, right? like as good as you guys could do from here, you know, drumming up a strong following in Germany and getting them to love us, you know, it's not going to beat having someone there that speaks the language and understands the culture better,

but it also works with us. So that's also, you know, when I close my eyes and think about us five years from now is like how our team expands geographically as well. Super stoked for that. Yeah. All right. So to kind of go back a little bit,

I want to ask you, so as you were going to transitioning away from HP Oman, what made you want to work at NST? Like, did you hear about it from like a Twitter ad or something? Or did like someone bring you in or like, did you know about us before? I mean, definitely knew about you guys before. I mean, you were considered a competitor in some areas. So, you know, kept my eye on NST to see what you all were up to. had some team members actually dropped by the pop-up shop, took some notes.

They had great things to say. But yeah. So, I mean, the job itself was actually brought to my attention from a friend who just saw the listing. I think it was posted online somewhere and said, hey, you know, what do you think of this? It was really just one of those. Like, I wasn't actively looking either. They just kind of threw it my way. And it was at a time at HP where there was just like a little bit of a lull.

You know, HP was going through like a lot of organizational changes as a company. And so, you know, things were kind of slowed down from a production standpoint from like a product launch standpoint. And so, you know, when that came across from my friend, he just kind of like DMed it to me on Twitter. Like something went off and I was like, you know, having not even thought about it, I was like, huh, this is interesting. Let me look into this. And so, you know, it took some time to learn more about the company as a whole, familiarized myself with things like, you know, the core values and, you know,

people like Johnny and where he came from and what he's all about and what he wants to do. And there was just something very interesting about that. And it resonated with me. I mean, I knew ultimately if it was something I want to, wanted to pursue that it would have to move. And I kind of understood that, you know, there would be a change in pace and scale. But all of that continued to be very exciting to me.

And so I was like, sure, why not? Let me give it a shot. And so just, you know, reached out, applied, and went through the process. And here I am. And we had to deal with Ivan and Wes and a lot of people. Yeah, I mean, it was, I think I spoke to eight or nine people. at one point it was the day I came into the office

I kind of referred to it as the gauntlet because they had set up like a series of I think it was six one hour meetings back to back to back to back to back to back to back. So I just kind of like sat in one of the conference rooms and people just rotated out we came in we talked but yeah West and Evan were one of those

meetings. Who was the harder interview? or Wes or Ivan? I'd be honest, it was Ivan. It's funny because out of everyone I talk to, not just those two, but between Long, Justin, even Johnny. Like, I left at...

You think Ivan's harder? I, yeah. Well, Lama and I, I don't know, I'm still feeling them out. I feel like him and I could be bros in real life. Plus, we share anime roots from previous jobs, but... As long as you,

You do keep in Oakland. You'll get along with Long. So, yeah, we, and we have a lot of, I mean, just due to, yeah, our histories in the anime industry, we had a lot of, like, similar friends. So we spent some time just kind of reminiscent about that. So we were pretty comfortable around each other. But yeah, it was funny, because at the end of the day, you know, I had to get back in my car and drive back down to San Diego. And I was just like, I called my wife. And she's like, hey, how to go? How's everyone? I was like, oh, it went great. But, you know, there's this one guy.

I don't think he liked me very much. And it was Ivan. And I think it was like, yeah, dude, you were like very, very proper, very serious. Like your questions were, I know we, I remember we kind of cracked jokes a little bit and had a little bit of fun. But yeah, you were definitely very like poker face. And I was like, oh, I don't think he liked me. So, jury's still out, right? I mean, we'll see.

I take a very, like, different type of approach to job interviews, I think, than most people. Because I definitely don't ask the type of question of, like, you know, so tell me about your qualifications and when you were into school and, you know, like, where do you see yourself in five years? Like, to me, that that is just, like, what every job interview is like. So for me, I try to just get to know the person to do. be honest and more than anything, try to just listen. And the one, I only look for one thing, like, rather I'm hiring someone above me or below me is like, is this person going to actually solve a problem for NZT? And with Josh, I definitely got, you know, I thought he could. And, you know, if I was being serious, it's literally just because I was like trying to listen to you

and hear what you were saying. But what I like about you, Josh, during the interview is, right away, I think right when I met you, you said, oh, you're the guy from the podcast. I think you had to listen to the podcast before. And then I think you said you were in the server and everything. So to me, that was already a good sign. Said a stroke your ego a little bit. Yeah. Like, oh, a fan.

This is going to go on. I mean, you signed a puck. That's funny, though, you thought I didn't like you. Yeah, I honestly did. I was like, you would, but yeah, you and Wes were the, the hardest interview I had, honestly, which says a lot to you guys. So you said you did a lot of research. So I'm going to test you on that a little bit. What is your favorite NXT product?

And why? I feel like this is becoming. a cop-out answer, right? I'm going to say the H-1. But specifically in white, I just think it's so beautiful of a product. It's so, and it is engineered so intelligently. And, you know, just seeing like, even some of like the aftermarket stuff, you know, I know we have like a Slack channel where we're like sharing things the other day of like

people who are doing like wood paneling and all its other stuff. Like, it's just so much you can do with it. And it's just such a beautiful product. but prior to that I like the H510 I think there's just something to me it's almost like the perfect PC case

like it's clean it's beautiful it's minimal but it also is very and that's just the outside right and then you get to the inside and it's just set up and structured in a way that just makes sense and makes things easier and so there's something to that simplicity

that I really love I'm not that big of an RGB guy. I know. I know. I'm sorry. I like a good solid color. Let me put it that way.

Give me a good light green hue or maybe even like white and just kind of keep it there. I like lights, but I don't want to like rotate through the color spectrum every five seconds. Like that's not my jam. So, yeah. All right. What is your least favorite N60 product? No, I'm going to. I'm going to say it's got to be the sling bag.

That thing is so useful. I love that sling bag. Maybe I'm showing my old age here, but like, I'm not down with streetwear that well. You know, I do like a good... You know, I do like a good... Somebody clip that. Look, I like a comfy pair of joggers as much as the next guy, But yeah, I think the comeback of, let's be honest, it's a fanny pack that you wear across your chest.

Like, I grew up in the age of the fanny pack where it was like legit, right? And so, and, you know, I think the, you know, that everyone knows that picture of the rock, right? From like, what is the 80s and the 90s wearing the fanny pack? Like, that was the height. But now it's coming back. And yeah, $250 Supreme sling bags that people wear it. yeah, I don't get it, right? I'm not a boomer, but if I were,

I would be a big hater on the sling bag. I probably sounded like one. But even then, like, I if I were going to have one, I probably would have a more subdued color, like, just like an all black or something, bays, not purple. It's a bit too flashy.

Back in my day, people were bags on their fannies. Yeah. So yeah, not a big swingbag guy. But, you know, to each their own, right? I'll show there are people out there rocking it today that are killing it and looking good. The steambag is probably one of my all-time favorite in leicty product. It's so useful.

If you have a switch and also double especially if you ride a scooter or like a bike. I swear, because I do all three, you know. I'm always like on the same time. There you go. I hope I didn't offend to many people. You offended all the scooter bros.

I know. It fits your lifestyle. I haven't that skateboarder switch player dad type. Yeah. I'm actually older than you. And for me, like,

I'm not into streetwear at all either. Like, I don't care about anything fashion-related. So I don't see the sling bag as a fashion statement. I really see it like a utility. I use mine a lot. I love it.

We should get Josh one now. I would wear it every day if you did. It's function over fashion, I guess, is your approach to it. Yeah. It's pure drip, man. It's pure drip. Okay. What non, I feel like we always use this question every single week.

And I don't know why. What non-giming product would you like to see NX-D make? Fanny packs. Yeah, let's take another crack at that one. Snap bracelets No, I mean we kind of touched on it earlier With you know the coffee thing I need to see what a $250

Coffee scale looks like first of all But I think we would make a pretty dope like coffee maker Like a good one like a high quality one not like There was some folders in it I don't know if you guys have seen like the siphon Coffee makers have you seen those where it actually extracts the water vertically and puts it through the beans.

Like something like that, you know, maybe put a little flash on it to make it cool but clean design. I just think we have like the engineering chops to do something in that realm. But yeah, if not that, I think a fridge. I think we make a pretty dope fridge too. Like throw some tempered glass on it, some RGB. That would be fun. A lot of holes. Right.

A lot of holes. You need to get airflow in that fridge. So your milk stays cool. All right. And finally, do you have a special shout out for anybody? Anybody in the company that you want to get some love to? Oh. Unsung Hero.

Yeah. I'm not going to pick anyone on the marketing team just because I don't want to play favorites. And I love you all equally. But, you know, I had mentioned earlier, but I would give a shout out to Jen. I think he, because, you know, the marketing and creative parts of any organization always worked very, very closely together. And so, you know, him and I have been spending a lot of time together, just talking, getting to know each other, trying to align on our respective visions and seeing how we can help each other out. And, you know, we've, I think we've gotten pretty

comfortable with one another. And, you know, I'm super excited about working with him and his team. Everyone seems super talented. I've always kind of had a bit of a fondness for creative types and designers and things like that. And so, you know, I think him and I are going to be best friends. And so it's been great. No, I mean, he's, and he's just been like super good about like asking questions and asking my opinion and being like, hey, you know, what are some things that you want to try out? And I think that's super awesome, right? Because, you know, sometimes you get people, you know, this isn't everywhere. But I think it's, it's, maybe a bit more prevalent in creative circles,

where there is a sense of like ownership or protectiveness around their process and how they do things. And he seemed like super open and collaborative, which is like 100% what needs to be happening right now. And so I totally appreciate that and stoked to like be working with him. So yeah, shout out to Jen. Shout out to Jim. I think he's on vacation this week.

So hopefully he's relaxing. He's definitely not relaxing, but I don't want to out him, but he's definitely not relaxing. You can DM him later if you really want to know. Oh, Lord. All right. So how are you feeling so far, Josh? Great. Feeling good?

Cool. Yeah, yeah. Now it's time for the real questions. Let's do it. All right. So the first question I want to ask you, Josh, is, What video game or video games are you playing right now? Are you a real gamer based on the test?

Yeah, am I real gamer? Yeah, absolutely. So I'm trying to finish Final Fantasy 7 remake. I, for some reason, like, it's just taking me a while to get through it, which is super weird considering, like, that's one of my favorite games of all time, the original. Like that, I grew up in, like, that was like a game changer, you know, for lack of better word, for a lot of people, big JRP guys.

So, you know, getting through that right now. But, you know, I have a solid, like, friend group I play games with in a regular basis. And normally we're playing League of Legends or Warzone are the ones that were kind of been bouncing around right now. But I did start over the weekend the new XCOM, chimera squad, which is all right. It's okay.

For somebody, I forgot that Guilty Gear's, or not guilty gear guilt I'm blank on it oh gears sorry gears a war tactics came out this week so I need to try that

because I can only really handle like one strategy game at a time and so I need to see what that's like yeah I know Josh is a real gamer because in our meetings whenever he shares his screen he has every single game launcher known TN

on you know what's that yeah He has Steam. He has BattleNet. He has Origin. He has Wright. His whole task bar is just like game launchers. It's kind of funny. He has you play open. I mean, you play. Yeah. A lot of them are just like the one game it takes.

Like for you play, it's like what you got to play division. Right? So, yeah. I'm really into that rabbit's right now. All right, Josh. What is your favorite printer brand? I mean, I got an allegiance to HP. They do make some pretty amazing printers. I actually have from my time there. I don't have like a big home office printer or anything like that,

but they make this thing called the Sprocket, which is like a pocket portable printer that you can just take pictures with your phone and send it to it wirelessly and it kind of prints it out in like a little, I don't know, it was like a three by two or something like that. And like good quality. It's one of my favorite printers. We use it all the time. So big.

This is not a boomer, but prints out photos. Prints out photos. Yep. I know, right? Since you brought up HP, we were curious. And you mentioned that you had some people spy on us, I guess, at our pop-up. But what are the people at Omen, like, what did they say about NZXT? I mean, they had great things to say.

I mean, you guys. No. I mean, like, from a... Let's got really high pitch there for a second. Guys, things are right, right? No, I think the... I mean, there is definitely a appreciation on the Omen side of your guys' just overall brand, brand perception, and just how much people love you and, like, genuinely.

And, you know, that's something that I think a lot of companies, ours included. are, you know, it's kind of like the holy grail for a lot of companies out there. It's like, how do you have something that, you know, a lot of people love and are super passionate about, but you're also able to grow it and scale it without having to compromise that at all. And then from a design perspective, I mean, I mean, the writings of the wall, right? I mean, the products are beautiful. The designs of like the PCs and everything that NCXT makes is just very clear. clean and beautiful. And so, again, another level of appreciation there. So yeah, I mean, no

smack talking, no bad things to say. Everyone's pretty impressed, to be honest. Right. I'm sure not on the podcast now. No, no. No. Next question. This is actually kind of serious here. Why did you get a haircut during the quarantine? Why? Yeah, what makes you think you're so special that you don't have to pay the home. Well, I, I, it's because I can. I'm one of the very, very few people who are lucky enough to be married to a very talented person, who is also like a licensed cosmetologist. So my wife's a creative director in a hair and beauty company.

And so she also is like a licensed professional to do like haircuts and things like that. So, you know, when I say like my wife cuts my hair, it's in a good way, not in like the way you normally hear when guys say that. She's a professional who knows what she's doing. And so, yeah, she can keep me clean and keep me touched up here during the quarantine. So I, and I recognize I'm lucky. No, I trim my own beard. I can manage that. I'm a big boy.

I can do that. Do you have any beard trimming trips, the tricks? Just get the right trim. You know, it took a while. I think I tried three or four different ones and then finally found the ones that that worked for me and find the length that you like and stick with it. I think it is actually growing a beard before you trim it. Yeah, that works too.

Just that directed at. I don't know. It can't be me. My hair is so long now that I can actually put the whole top part in a ponytail. Believe it or not. Yeah. Top knots. It looks ridiculous.

All right. No. Yeah. I think next team call, we're going to press you into seeing a top nut. We'll call it a man bun. Get it? Oh, God. Sorry, guys.

My computer isn't working anymore. Got to go. All right, Josh. Next question is, why the heck are you in a? a different room for each meeting. And you're not a lot of meetings. Every time we have a meeting with you, like you're totally in a different room in your house.

Why is that? I wish we were on camera right now. I actually did this on purpose just for you, Dennis, but I am in a different room of my house right now to record this. But I just need to change the scenery. You know, I work on a laptop. I don't have an NTXT PC yet to use for work. I'm not necessarily tethered down to a desktop.

And so I like to move around from room to room, maybe go outside, just kind of change things up a bit. You'll see, once we're back in the office and working there at a regular basis, I do move around a lot. I pace when I talk. I do stand up with standing desk. I know. But yeah, I just like to move around and keep it interesting.

And at this point, it's just fun to mess with Dennis. as well. It is pretty fun to mess with Dennis. Yeah. But you mentioned you're on a laptop, so when are you going to actually build your computer? What's that? The parts are at the office. Yeah, I just...

Well, no, it's just that one time. So, like, I was there, and they, like, wheeled out all the parts and, like, hey, you can build your computer, and I'm like, cool. But then I'm like, where am I going to... Like, I'm not going to be here to use it. So I'll just have to build it when I get back. So it's kind of, like, waiting there. for me, which sucks. I've thought about it a few times like, oh, I should drop by the office

and grab it and just build it and bring it home. But I just haven't really gone out of my way to go that far to the office yet. But yeah, I'm excited to build it. Like, I've built PCs in the past, like growing up. I think it's been at least probably like eight years since I've actually built a PC. So I know things have evolved quite a bit, but it's actually easier. So I'm not like worried about it. I'm actually looking forward to not going back to the office because I do enjoy watching you on those meetings. Another thing that, another interesting thing you do during our meetings is you're always petting your cat like an evil mastermind.

That's, yeah, that's his fault. What is your cat's name and why are you actually evil? I, the evil part depends on who you talk to. I consider myself a pretty nice guy. But my cat's name is. is Krauser, and he is 12 years old. I've had him since he was a kitten. So he's like one of my best friends. And I just, we've kind of been together, well, his whole life, at least, most of my adult life, I feel. It's like he's seen it all. He's like moved multiple times. But yeah,

he's also very super, he's like super needy. So obviously, right? Like he, and he, he's old, so he just doesn't care. So he'll just jump up, uh, on the desk and just kind of, there and want to be pet in the middle of a call and I just got to kind of roll with it. If you love your cat so much and you call yourself a cat dad on Twitter, why is your profile picture on

Twitter of you and a dog? Yeah, I've been wondering this. I've been wondering this. Well, because Frauser's my, he's like my pet. So, like, you know, when you get married, uh, and you,

you, no, there's a marriage. All right, so there's dating. Right. And then you get married. And then some people have kids together. And so kid, that's a shared thing between two people. But when you get in a relationship and you like move in with someone, you come with baggage, right? And some things are, no matter how long you are together with somebody, they're still considered yours. And some things you just kind of like adopt as ours. And especially in my relationship with my wife who's allergic to. cats. Krauser is definitely mine. Whereas Porter, our Porter collie is more of like an ours thing, which I also love him and love him a lot. But, you know, it's kind of like a cat dad first. And so I've always been like a big cat over dog guy if we need to get into that

divisive discussion. So yeah, that's why. Yeah. I don't know if you're in the podcast, text chat, Josh, but Dennis just posted a picture of you with your pet. Oh, no. Yeah, too. And then another cool thing about being in meetings with Josh is, you know, like I said, he's in that was in a different room. And one thing that I noticed in one of his room is he had a Peloton bike. My question is, you know, why did you buy a Peloton bike instead of a bicycle?

I, well, I got it as a birthday gift. last year. And part of it was just, I, you know, I like, I'm about, you know, the fitness, right? I try to stay in shape. I, I'm not like Jerome levels buff or anything like that. But, you know, I'm like, okay, I need to make sure that I stay healthy. And, you know, one of the things that I just despise more than anything is running outside or running in general. Me too. You know, like I'll lift weights and do what I can do to kind of get some cardio in, but I just actively dislike it.

There's no amount of like hype music or podcasts in the world to get me through a run. And so I was like, I need to try this cycling thing. And so I actually tried out like a Peloton and one of their competitors, I forget their name, just like a couple times, like either at like a gym or actually went to like a Peloton studio at one point. to do one of the courses. And I was like, okay, I think I can get behind this, like the whole spin class kind of motion. And so, yeah, I just got one for my birthday and kind of fell in love with it.

You know, same old story you hear from everyone else, right? And you kind of get into it and get into that community. And so I've been, yeah, right on it, you know, at least three times a week, sometimes more. Is it true that you are the husband from the commercials? I'm not horrible. man. Yeah. You mentioned you're into fitness.

Do you think you ever will get buff enough to be cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I would love to. I know what you're referring to. I think I made a tweet some time ago about that. Both be your superpower.

My superpower? Yeah. I want to know. I don't want a lame one. Well, don't make it lame. Yeah. You're right. I guess it's up to me, right? I've always been more, so like I grew up really big into like X-Men, X-Men comics and just that whole universe.

And so I was always a big like telepathic, telekinetic kind of guy. So, you know, like the Gene Gray's of the world. So like I would love to be able to both like read minds and like plant thoughts into people's minds, but also use my mind to move objects. I think that would be super dope. Interesting. Okay, taking notes. What does this say about Josh? Well, I mean, if you think about it from a marketing perspective, like part of our job is to, you know,

the psychology part of it is to kind of like subconsciously plant those thoughts into people's minds and build brand affinity that way as well. So in a sense, we all have a little bit of Gene Gray in us, I think. I would have a super power would be being a weeb. That's more like a super weakness. Yeah, I mean, it's just part of who I am. I grew up with all that, yeah. So what's your favorite anime all time?

Oh, man, that's such a tough question. Because I have a few. I would say if I had to pick one, so there's the safe one, right? Which for me would be like Gurin-Loggin. That's like hands-down one of my favorite. I think that came at a good time. And like I have a really close relationship with my younger brother. And so there are just kind of like notes in that with like that Simone and Commona

relationship that kind of spoke to me. And it's just overall like enjoyable. And like I think it's probably one of the best anime that encapsulates like an escalation of hype and scale that you've never seen. Right? Because like you start episodes. one where it's just like people living underground and they're like fighting in like these little mechs and then you get to the last episode where you have like galaxy size mecks throwing entire

planets and universes at each other and it's just like insane but also a really good story but I also like um there's an anime called Steinsgate which is like a sci-fi time travel one um I see that's one of my favorite ones as well really good what about a current enemy that you're watching right now. You know, I don't watch as much as I used to. I mean, I still keep up with like my, yeah, I mean, look, it comes in waves, right? Like, there are like golden eras of, of good anime.

And then you kind of have, you can go seasons without anything that's, that's really that good. You know, I kind of keep my eye on stuff. At this point now, I just leave it to like my friend group who are still like super Weaves to be like, okay, what's a recommendation for me versus like sampling everything like I used to? But, you know, I still keep on top of like My Hero Academia. I think that's a, that's a really, really good show. I always been like a fan of like the long running like action Shonen type of stuff.

So there's that one. I'd say one of the more recent ones I watched is an anime called Vinland Saga, just kind of like a Viking one. That's super good. Haven't seen it yet. Good action. Yeah. But, you know, I grew up. watching that stuff, right? Like back in,

I mean, it's just like in the 90s and 2000s when like finding anime was very difficult to do. It was like, Fanny packs. Yeah, it was all like Fanny Packs and waking up at 3 a.m. to watch Dragon Ball Z on a Saturday because that's when they aired it. It was the same 32 episodes of like the Raddits arc

over and over and over again. Like that level, like that, those days. So, you know, you kids got it easy these days with your, your crunchy rolls and your funimations and all that. VRVs and everything like that, right? Yeah. What's, actually, a follow-up,

what's your, what's your anime guilty pleasure? Um, why's it K on? Let's see. I like, you know, I'm not a big slice of life guy,

but I do like some, I feel like some sports anime. So like Kurokos basketball, was one I was really into. And Ice Shield 21, right? So like you give me a good, like you take a premise that is just, you know, whether it's sports or even like cooking to some extent,

not like food wars, but there's like there's an anime called like Yakitaki Japan, which is all about like baking. Like you just take a premise and do a good job of like storytelling. And character. development and I'm like really into it. So yeah, I think like I like some sports anime as long as it's done done right. Yeah, I've been meaning to watch this show called, I think it's called Walk the Runway or Smile on the Runway, something like that.

But it's literally a show about fashion models. And it sounds super hype because they basically style it in this in the, they do it in the style of like a sports anime where like the main character is getting like stronger, right? But they do it based on like Instagram following and stuff like that. It seems like a really hilarious idea, and I can't wait for it to be completely done, so I can just binge the whole thing. Yeah, that sounds awesome. Let me know.

I would check it out. It's good, but it's a huge jakes. Yeah, one of the, you know, the first thing I think we did at the team was play Scribble I.O. And just want to know why you're so bad at it. I think you were, like, last place. No way, dude. I did good.

I think Emily beat us all. She, like, dominated us. She was spanned it. She was crazy. She was crazy. She was cheating. Someone would draw a line. Then she would, like, say.

I do remember, I, I had a hard word. So I, what did it? I think I had, like, fireball. And so I made the mistake of drawing an entire wizard first. Before getting to the fireball he was shooting out of a set. So you guys were sitting there for 20 seconds as I drew this wizard, being like, yeah, it's a wizard. It's Harry Potter. It's whatever.

And then I start drawing the fireball. And I'm like, okay, maybe I should have started there. I get it. That's why I lost, because your drawings were so bad. It's all my fault. I totally. I will take that because it's tough around with a mouse, too. There's a special skill when you're doing those kind of games

where you don't want to draw it too quickly, but you want to kind of lead them to it. And sometimes you go a little bit too far out. So instead of drawing the fireball, you draw like a wizard staff or something, and then people just start writing down stick and it's not a stick as we finish. Our next group activity is actually going to be tomorrow. We are having a happy hour. And the media invite just said happy hour.

There's no detail whatsoever. Can you tell us a little bit about what we're going to be doing tomorrow? Sure. So, yeah, exclusive for you guys. but I'm trying to kind of gamify our happy hour a little bit. Outside of actually playing some games, we'll see if Scribble makes the cut or not, but trying to inject some sense of fun into the Zoom meeting,

kind of like rat race that we're in. And so there's going to, let me put it this way. I'm still trying to keep it somewhat of a surprise, but there will be a point system and points will be awarded for such things as creative virtual backgrounds. And if you, you know, having a drink does not have to be alcohol,

but having a drink with you, having your camera on, maybe bonus points if your hair is up in a knot. Oh, I'm not going to be going. Sorry, it's too busy, going to be working. And yeah, so ultimately, you know, said points will go towards. And then, yeah, playing some games and, you know, assigning points that way. And then the winner will get a nice prize.

So you basically ripped off the Pucci Cup idea. Pretty much. Yeah. Hey, you know, where's my credit? I'm everywhere. Where's my credit? Since you brought it up, Josh, why the heck are we using Zoom instead of Google Hangouts? Nobody likes Zoom. It's all about that touch up my appearance button, dude.

That's what it is. That's what some people will tell you. I don't know. I think everyone just started gravitating towards Zoom versus Google Hangout. So I'm like, all right, we'll just use this. I mean, I use Zoom a lot at my last job, and so I'm comfortable with it. I think it does a good job of what's the gallery mode. So like if you have more than four people in a meeting, you know,

it kind of gives you, you know, you do like the Brady Bunch kind of view where you see everybody at the same time. I think that's super good for larger meetings and collaborating and still being able to see people. So that's a cool feature. I think it gives them. But yeah, I mean, also like virtual backgrounds are fun, dude. Like lean into that. You know what's not fun is having your data stolen. Facebook already has everything they need.

Trust me. They don't need anything else on you, Ivan. That's true. I got to think I don't know it. You know what else is not fun, at least for me, is Airtable. So I'm curious. Do you like Airtable? No.

No. I don't like it. So we're going to stop losing it. I agree. No. So for those of you don't know, Airtable is like a project management software. So, you know, depending, at any company you work at, there's something and some former fashion in order for people to keep track of the various projects going on in a given

department or a company and like the status of them and you know who's collaborating with whom and so you know some people if they're still stuck in the dark ages they keep all that in like a spreadsheet uh us being a you know a look look further type of company you know we are using a product called Airtable, which is online digital kind of project task management. And it's actually, I mean, from what I've seen, like people who know how to use it in the company, like Hinata, her just kind of like pros at it. Like, I'm like, oh, wow, this is super useful. For people who are new to it, it can be very intimidating.

But I feel like we're all going to get comfortable with it eventually. And so, yeah, we just got to keep using it. It takes practice. It's like a new muscle, right? You just got to work it out. True. I don't know anything about muscles, though. Yeah, same. Last question for you, before we start getting to the community questions, is what is the first thing you're going to do when you start working at the office? Oh, man. Well, besides building my computer, I think,

I honestly, it's just going to be like, I want to have a face-to-face meeting with, the whole team. I want to shake some hands if that's something we're allowed to do. No, no. I know. We will bump elbows or whatever the new etiquette is

after all of this, but yeah, it's on. I think I'm happy if I need to packs. So, oh, there you go, right? Get your sling bag at the door and you tap them. But yeah, I mean, it's going to be like getting all of us in a room face-to-face

as much as close and or as far as we need to be away from each other. And, yeah, just try to implement, like, some sense of normalcy into, like, team meetings and things like that. Like, I'm really looking forward to it. All right. So, with that, I'm pending the last of the community questions. And I don't want to go over time.

So I think I'm going to stop the questions here if you all listen in. I think we've got more than enough, right? We've got a good amount. Actually, I think I think so. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, we can definitely expand on some of these. Okay. So first question is from Yoni Wolf.

How has your work experience been thus far? So I think that one's for you, Josh. Yeah, I mean, it's been interesting. I mean, it's never easy starting a new company at a new job, period, let alone under the circumstances we're in now where it's completely remote. So, you know, like we talked about earlier, many of you, I haven't even met face-to-face yet, right? outside of Ivan and Wes in terms of like the marketing team, I have not seen any of you in real life yet. So I'm sure Dennis is very tall.

But yeah, so it's 8.11. But yeah, it's been very interesting. Just having to both adopt to this just 100% remote digital working lifestyle, while also like onboarding at a new company and then, you know, doing it at like a director level position where you're interacting with quite frankly everyone in the company. It's, you know, it's been a lot. But also I feel like there's plenty of time as well

to kind of like internalize things and just kind of learn. So super grateful for that. All right. So I was making sure that we didn't break the coins before I start unpinning stuff, because I can't say organized if I don't unpin. Okay. So how is quarantine affected to work in particular? I think you kind of really spoke about that all throughout the podcast. So special wants to know, is there anything that you want to change with the current way of marketing if you can share it? Ooh. Ooh. I guess would that be like? for our company or like in general? Let's say in general. Let's just say with the community and social media team.

Let's just say with Dennis's day to day. Let's go for it. Let's roast me. I'm ready for it. That's what I'm preparing for. I would love more than anything in the world for us to have a TikTok channel. like an active daily lip syncing to some T Swift from Dennis TikTok channel All right

No I mean seriously though Well partly joking right I would like us to Expand our presence into other platforms and You know sample the water and and play around an experiment, regardless of how well or not well it may perform. I think there's always some fun in doing that and learning.

So, and that's across like any platform. That's just like one of my most favorite things to do. Like I mean, I come from a marketing background, you know, going all the way back to like doing social media marketing community management when I was back in my agency days.

And so I think, you know, That's still kind of like in my blood in terms of like the necessity to continually stay on the forefront of how technology and communications like evolving as well. And not just like the existing platforms we're on, but even like the new emerging ones, no matter how niche they may be today, they may be massive tomorrow. And then so just kind of like, you know, keeping your your finger on the pulse, if you will, as to like what's going on. and then getting in there early and trying it out. Just a huge, huge fan of that. So I'd love to see us do more of that.

Dennis, for sure. Sure, just I can full time on TikTok. We will clone you. Yes. That'll be your superpower. It's actually funny. I was on TikTok this morning because I actually do use it quite a bit because I kind of have to.

That's my excuse that I'm getting paid to be on TikTok. But I saw this, these people were doing like tech reviews. And like we're mentioned like actually a lot. for BLD. It's actually pretty interesting. When TikTok first launched, I tried to snag up our NZXT username, and someone I already had it. So I reached out to TikTok through their website. No one replied. And then I messaged the person that owns it. They didn't reply. So I kind of gave up, but I did register NZX TikTok as a username.

So we have an account there if you ever want to use it. Like me personally? You can be the first. You can be the first. You can get your cat. It's like me and my cat watching anime. That's what it is. That wouldn't be a bad idea.

Okay. Ex-Lavir, I think so you pronounce that. What work experience do you need for a position like this? Oh, that's a good question. Who knows? I mean, a lot of, you have to see. Well, yeah, I'm not trying to like make it sound like. You definitely need to have from a time.

perspective, like an experienced perspective, like it takes a lot. And I mean that in the way, like, you need to have been exposed to and have seen as much as possible that's out there amongst various different companies, industries, you know, have been doing it long enough to see trends in the market evolve and how you adapt to that because, you know, marketing is one of those parts of an organization that is, you know, alongside like the tech and engineering side, it is constantly changing. And it is very easy to fall behind the times and become relevant or to become irrelevant, I'm sorry, or to become like complacent. And so, you know, I think one of the things that is a sign of, you know, a good

marketers is someone who is able to do that and open to doing that. But I think, you know, having enough time and seniority in there. So I've been doing this for 14 years at this point. You know, and I've been in companies from, you know, I mentioned the agency side earlier. I spent six years at Funimation doing surprise anime stuff. And then, you know, tech companies as well. So, you know, you kind of get a good taste for everything that's out there and how the industry acts and behaves. And so I think that kind of helps, you know, create a good baseline of experience and knowledge. And then, you know, on top of that, you just stack on passion and willingness to learn and skill sets. And here you are.

There you are. There you are. There you are. All right. Next question is might have already been. asked, but would it be beneficial to do television marketing? So basically,

outside the TV ads for the XT? I don't believe so. This is, I'm going to steal this one from a marketing I guess a person. I don't call me a guru or whatever, but anyone who's familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk

and his methodologies, but I think he does say it best, which is everything except the super is probably a waste of money from a TV perspective, especially, super, especially in our industry and what we do, because there is so much sophisticated marketing that can take place online, and there's so much of the attention of our fan base and our audience

and the people we're trying to get in front of online and on the phone and across multiple different social media platforms and even places like Discord and Reddit, But that's where we need to be focusing our attention because that's where we can have the biggest impact. And TV is just such a, you know, kind of a bit of a crapshoot at this point in terms of, is someone going to actually see your ad? Or are they going to fast forward through it or turn away and look at their phone or go do something else? But, you know, when you look at the Super Bowl, right, like that has evolved into a cultural milestone for everyone. whether you like football or not, right? How many people do you know that that's just say, yeah, I just watch for the ads.

Like some people actually mean that. And then, you know, just the sheer level of exposure and press and conversation that happens around Super Bowl ads in that time period is just massive. It's unavoidable. And so, you know, that would, that's, you know, and I agree with that 100%. So like, you know, once we have the $3 to $4 million to buy a Super Bowl ad, you'll see us there. we'll just get approval for that but until then

you will not see an NZXT ad on the television no fortunately that's a big bummer TBH you have a good name for a television set if we ever make one they just write themselves aren't they

I've made a few TV ads in the past And it is a lot of work. But, you know, and it's always rewarding to kind of like see the thing that you make on the TV, right? Like every kid growing up, like, hey, I made that. And it feels cool. But, you know, outside of like that very personal feeling, like just from a sheer like strategic marketing decision, like right now. Yeah, not a good idea.

Yeah, like I don't remember the last time I watched anything on TV. like I think other than the Super Bowl you're just saying and I think I watched like the John Elton special on Fox because I haven't told me about it which was like a big waste of time because it's like wait what special? The Elton John thing that you told me about? Yeah he was doing like a charity

benefit concert thing on TV and it's funny I didn't even watch it on TV I watched it on my phone on my computer because I have Spectrum, and they have like the TV app or something. I'm like, all right, let's watch some John Lohn sing, and he sings for like 30 seconds, bring someone else on that I don't care about.

I'm like, oh, okay, cool. That was great, a whole hour just to hear him sing like half a line from one of his least popular songs. Thanks. Yeah, TV's a big rip. Yeah, TV is quite disappointing. Is John Elton, John's brother? Yes, he is.

It's very, very, very, very important. surname first. Yeah. You know, he is a knight, you know, sir, John Elton. John Connell. Yeah, that's how we in, you know, in the club refer to him as, you may not know, you know, you're going to be as big a fan as I am. Yeah, true, true.

Okay. Next question is, what is a good way to get started in marketing from Butterlock? To getting started is, it's actually not that hard. I think a lot of it just involves around. Well, it's not necessarily like go to school and get your MBA. I mean, that's, you know, the more traditional route about doing it. But I think nowadays with the internet and the fact that, you know, social media is so rampant,

you know, anyone can, if they have like the passion to do so and some bit of, of know-how can launch a business or, you know, start marketing a product. You know, I would say the most important thing for anyone wanting to get into marketing is to identify what industry or industries excite you the most because there's no amount of college or courses or studying that you can do to make you a good marketer if you're going to be working in an industry or a job that, you know, you're selling a product or a service that you just do not care about. because, you know, passion kind of like seeps through into everything from marketing perspective.

So, you know, definitely if your passion is gaming or e-sports or, you know, anything like that, you know, there's no lack of local groups or companies or small startups that are looking for people to kind of help get the word out. So, you know, I think starting there is really important. it. And really just, I would say put a lot of focus, if you're kind of coming in blind, put a lot of focus on understanding social media marking as much as possible, getting a good understanding of all the platforms that are out there, what they're capable of doing, how you, you know, make content for them, whether it be organically or ads. You know, YouTube's a great resource for that. Like there's videos and everything to kind of learn. But that's kind of a, this point in the modern age, like that's the baseline level of marketing know-how that people need to have coming into the industry. I was funny that like you watch these videos on YouTube about marketing and all this

social media stuff and they have like the worst possible microphone and the worst like video quality ever, which is like probably the exact opposite of what you would tell someone when they're doing any kind of marketing, make sure your content looks good. That's something kind of funny. Yeah, I feel like there is, you know, the, the conversation around like production quality versus authenticity and keeping it real. Like that's, that's a current like really hot topic depending on who you talk to.

Some people say like it's more about the message in the medium, not like what it looks like. And some people are like, yeah, well, you know, you wanted to make it look approachable and some polish on it. So it depends on who you talk to.

But, you know, I'm a big fan of I would rather do a thing. if you have something important to say or something insightful to talk about, I would rather just do it and get it done versus not doing it at all because you don't have a $200 microphone or a $300 camera, right? I think people are probably a little more forgiving these days because of that.

You're here first folks. You want to start streaming, just do it. Just to start it up. Yes, do it. Do it from PlayStation, from Switch. Sayy LaBuff said it best, right? Don't let your dreams be dreams. Just do it.

I think we just end the podcast on that. That's like a perfect... I'm done. Good news guys. Hi. Bye. All right. You only who wants to know,

what education levels do you have? How smart are you? That's a good question. How smart am I? I mean, formal education. I have a bachelor's, but it's actually not even in marketing. I actually have a bachelor's in IT.

So way, way back in what it almost feels like a previous life at this point, my background was actually in information technology. So I spent four years in the Army. So I was in the military for four years out of high school. And in the Army, I got into IT. That was like my job there. And so I was like network engineer, network architect. So just setting up.

computer networks maintaining them from a security perspective, things like that. And so when I got out of the Army, that's why I went and got my degree in. And so I spent like the first, I'd say two to three years outside the military on the professional side doing IT work. But it was during a time where social media started to emerge. So you had like Twitter launching and Facebook and, you know, things like 4 Square, yell for say, call back. And then you started to see businesses adopt them.

And so and work them into like, how do we use this to communicate with customers? How do we use this to support our business? And so, you know, being on the IT side and always very, very passionate about like tech, emerging technology, things like that. I kind of leaned into that a lot and started taking over some of those responsibilities for the company I was working for. and eventually kind of pivoted that into full-time marketing. And then Claire went on to do, you know, just kind of cascaded from there. Going into the agency side, going to Funimation, HP, a lot of side stuff, side projects, just freelance working with startups

or, you know, some like emerging e-sports organizations from marketing perspective. So, you know, it's just continually compounding, you know, knowledge and experience that way. But yeah, from a formal perspective, you know, I still have a bachelor's in information technology, right? Which I don't use very much today. So it goes to show you that, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean, you know, it matter too much where you start. It's just more about like what you do with it and where you want to end up. I think most people say that, right? They're like, I got a degree and I barely even use it. Like, I know like Jen and the creative team do because like they literally like, you know, all one to like this really nice

schools for design, but like, you know, things like marketing, social media, you know, you don't really need a degree, right? It's just can you find your way in? Can you do the job? Can you learn as much as you can more than the next guy, right? And just keep at it. And there's a, there's like a certain point where like you don't know if it's like working anymore.

You're like, okay, do it just get like a regular office job or do I keep going for it? And that's when you kind of make that decision to kind of just go all in on it, right? and either you you either do it or you don't but I do a follow-up did you end up with the Dodge Charger after the Army? No.

I don't know what kind of question that is. No, that's a standard issue, right? Yeah, yeah. It's like a thing you get when you join the military you get a Dodge. No, I did not have a Dodge Charger. I actually drove a

Han to Civic for a long time. I'm surprised. So yeah, no Dodge Charger, though. I hear you go, yeah. DeCon says most people leave with a charger or a challenger. So one of those two. I think you might have gotten fleeced on that. I remember when I was like just about the graduate high school,

I kept getting calls from this Army recruiter, and I don't remember how he got my number, but he kept calling me in my phone number. And he's like, hey, man, you're going to send up being a son of him? Like, nah, I'm going to stay home and play video games. Like, that's literally was like my just like butthead answer. And he's like, well, you know, you can't spend your entire life playing video games. I'm like, pretty sure I can, dude.

You know, it's 2007, man. Watch me. Watch me. Look at the video. Yeah. Yeah. I've been like you hear like that like pro players are like getting signed up to like fly drones and all kinds of crazy stuff. I'm like, I always wonder like where is that guy now?

He's just like, you know, does he like hate his life or something? All these kids playing their fortnights get jobs in the military? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a huge recruiting tool now. I saw something on Twitch like a week or so ago with like the U.S. Army streaming. Esports, right? Yeah, yeah, the street fighter and stuff.

Yeah, the Eastry Fighter and stuff like that. It's really annoying. It's interesting. I don't like it. Why not? No, I can only pick Gile. That's why they only let you. Gile and Charlie, right?

Those two. Okay, next question. is N60 is more like hardware-focused companies since y'all make computer parts and stuff but do y'all have

like a more software focused field we do that would be the CAM team and I believe firmware team as well right they work on all the software

stuff I don't have anything else in the works what's CAM it's our anti-valorment detection software okay

anti-ringe that we We, before we used to be a hardware company trying to make software. And I'll be the first to admit, you know, we failed at that. But that's the reason why I think it's over a year now, maybe like a year and a half ago, now almost two years ago, we purchased a software company called Forge specifically for that reason. You know, we wanted to take software seriously. And, you know, for people that have been using CAM for a really long time and it's seen the evolution of it,

Although it's not perfect, I'll be the first to admit, but once again, no software is perfect. I do think CAM is the best it's ever been currently. And I think anyone that's used it throughout the years will say the same thing. Do you agree with that, Josh? Yeah, that's spot on. All right. It's making sure we're all on the same page here. Yeah, like, I don't know for like really bringing on more people for that, but I mean,

if that's what you're asking. But, you know, we do have some software component to it. You know, we have our RGB devices and our cracking and, you know, our fans. You can control that stuff with, with Cam, you know, and it's, I use it every day. I've never had a problem. I also don't play Ballarat anymore, so, you know, I don't know with that either. Yeah, that's an annoying thing. It's not just as either.

Yeah, it's like, it's like IQ, I think MSI is having issues with it. Obviously, anything used like CPU, CPUZ has issues. I just want to go away so you can have a more fun timeline on our Twitter mentions. Okay, next question is what are you excited about working at NCXT? I'm really excited about just how

quickly the company is growing and the roadmap that I've seen from like a product perspective, like what we have coming out. Like it's always cool to be inside a tech company and kind of see like, hey, you know, yes, here's what we're coming out with in the next 12 months, but, you know, here's what we're looking at

for the next three to five years. And, you know, this is where you get a lot of the really smart people from like an engineering and data science perspective and just like a cultural, taking a look at like culture and how culture's evolving and saying these are the types of products that, you know, we are going to be making because we see people using them in the future.

and so just kind of getting a taste of some of that inside the company and what we're working towards in the long term is like super duper exciting because there's some like really really cool stuff in the works and yeah I just can't wait to get to it. Anything you want to share? That's your week? No, no leaks from me, man. Anything that you're willing to risk your job for? All right.

How do you use the market behavior to help with NZ? This is from Queen Money. I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean, it's, if we talk market behavior in the sense of like current trends around communication, so we'll kind of like dig into it that way. So it's really important to understand like the adoption of new platforms and ways that people are communicating with each other as well as who exactly is doing that. So, you know, you're always going to have like your more mainstream mass platforms like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and

Snapchat, something that where like every, like quote unquote, like everyone is on it to some extent. But you do see like spikes and growth around certain age groups or certain parts of the world. And so really understanding like why that's happening and knowing that it is happening is is really important because if that is matching up with the same type of people that you want to communicate with from a marketing perspective because we have something to offer them, then what better opportunity than to, you know, kind of talk to them on the platforms that they're on. You know, and then when you start digging into it in a smaller level,

because it gets, there's a lot of niche communities and, you know, places on the internet, where you can find people. I think Discord is a great example, right? This is heavily utilized by the gaming industry and people who play games in that whole community, right? So just being able to adopt it as a platform that we use on a regular basis because we know this is the way that people communicate

with each other today, right? It's very smart and super progressive of us. And if the next Discord or whatever is eventually going to replace this starts to emerge in three to four years, being able to see the trends shift in terms of people trying it out and sticking around and having good things to say about it, you know, we need to keep our eyes and ears open for when that happens. That way we can be ready to shift and we can be ready to move over there and kind of established roots the same way that we have here. So it's like that, but times like 100 because you're doing this in many different ways and many different parts of the world. That's actually a very good answer. Thank you with that.

I feel like I'm learning things too from just from just this questions. Here's a good one for Minnie Cuddle. You like for a movie right now. I know, right? Is this a meeting? Last time. Mini Cuddle wants to know what has been your biggest challenge at NZXT and how did you overcome said challenge.

You know, six weeks in, I honestly don't think I've been faced with any significant challenges. I'm killing it, dog. Crag a little. As I lean back and put my hands behind my head. Yeah. No, I mean, it's not, it hasn't been easy by any means, but I, you know, I honestly don't think I've come face to face with anything that I would say is like a challenge I need to

overcome yet. You know, a lot of it right now is still in the planning. I'm kind of like done with the intake phase of the company. I kind of like got an idea of everything that's going on, who's who, who does what, what we're trying to accomplish, how we're currently doing things. Now it's part of like the, okay, how are we going to make improvements? How are we going to change things? How are we going to elevate and evolve to meet all these goals and wants and needs of people

within the organization. So that's kind of like where I'm at now. I feel like the challenges in the form of, be it adversity or roadblocks or maybe misalignments with other people within the organization, I think that's all going to start happening probably in the next month or two when we start actually trying to like implement change and do more. So happy to come back on and talk about that.

when it happens, but I think I've got to say, it's just no real challenges just yet. Besides just the macro challenge of adopting the work from home lifestyle. All right. Big pivot. What do you think of Evangelion? I think it's great, except the last episode, the last, it's, it did the, like, you was like one of the, like, like classics, right? I love it. I actually had the joys of working on it at my time at Funimation

during like the movie, like the three series when they're kind of re-releasing it in the movies. But, you know, I, that series for me actually, to this day, is the one anime series

I've spent the most money on because I was so into Evangelion during the time where it was only coming out on DVD three episodes at a time every like month, month and a half. This was like when ADV was putting it out. And so I would like go. Right. No why. I think it's one of the reasons. I was keeping it alive with my money. But I was going. Yeah, I would be like going to like Sam Goody or whatever like every month and a half to get that dude. I know, right? So get in the time machine with me. And I would go by the DVDs and watch the three episodes, like over and over,

and then be like, oh, now I've got to wait for the next ones. And, yeah, I loved it just because it, like, played a big part in my life, right? I think if you start stacking it up against other shows, like, it definitely has its flaws. But, I mean, memorable characters, whether you love them or hate them, and really dope mex. So, but, yeah, I mean, I do think, like, the last. four to five episodes got a little, little weird. But we did get some good memes out of it.

So I think win-win. Who is best girl? Indy Magillian. Question for the ages. I know. I'm a big Aska guy. Oh, wrong answer. Yeah. Sorry.

I just, she's fun, man. What does this mean? I have to hear, man. I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I think I just got booted from the server. Hold on. No, I'm just kidding.

And insuban. And why? Honestly, I think it was just her attitude. Like she was very, I mean, compared to someone like Ray who barely had one for multiple purposes. But she was very vocal and energetic and kind of like love what she did. So she was like a very big. contrast to like Shinji and Ray

who are just like super email all the time plus I think like her you know getting in there's no way you can spoil Evo because it's so old so no complaints in the chat but like her scenes like in the end like in the movies like when she died like her it was so good

I think they did a good job there so yeah I just liked her character a lot all right all right I'm sure everyone's who's listening right now, and we'll be listening is like, this guy's so wrong. This guy's so freaking wrong. Oh, I know.

That is that and is one of the probably more divisive questions in the community for sure. To bonus, I think we should ask those during the presidential debates. I think that I'll really get down to the real issues, who is best girl in Ava. Yeah. Are you a Goku or Vegeta guy? You know, it's just like, that really tells a lot about a person. Yep. He's flat, dude.

Goku's flat. It's so boring. It's the worst. Anyway, many Blade wants to know. If you can speak to your younger self, just starting out as a worker, what advice would you give him or her? I think that last part's hilarious, like assuming that you would be like a her. Well, it could be for Amanda as well, right?

Oh, yeah. So maybe it's for us. I was assuming it was like for her. Oh, my God, I'm a girl. I assume it was for you. We're just asking you questions. Who would have thought that there'd be questions for all of us? I know, right?

It's been like pretty much all. All Josh questions, which I'm totally cool with. Like, the less I have to talk, the way better, way easier my job is. Okay, so let's go with Ivan first. Ivan, if you can give yourself advice on you or younger, what would it be? Probably to always do my best and not worry. All right. Typical poppy advice.

That's the same advice I give you guys all the time. I would give myself, just do your best, you know. That's all you can do in life is just do your best. and not worry. And if you do that, I think good things will come of it and you will leave a very happy and meaningful existence. Very deep. Amanda, advice for your own yourself? Oh, man, there's so much. So much I could say. I guess... Put your hair in a bun. Oh, God. Never have Ivan Azbasna. I guess when like the first door closed for me to

not take it as hard as I did, because I took it really hard because my next job after that was the best job that I was going to have. And I think, like, yeah, I just, I, when I lost my first, like, real, like, what I felt was, like, that pivotal, like, industry job, I was, like, super, super upset by it. So, yeah, just telling my guy yourself, like, take it really as a win, because what came after was a lot better. So, yeah. I would say start. sooner. Because I didn't really start until like 2016. And I've always wanted to work in gaming in some way,

shape, or form, but I never did it. I took like sales jobs and retail jobs. Like I was a, I was a, what you call it, a retail rep for HP and then for LG after that. And I absolutely hated it. You worked at HP too? Yeah, I did. I did not know it.

Actually, I was my idea. I was working as a rep for HP at Best Buy and like Obis Depot and Staples, stuff like that. And I told my boss, I'm like, hey, I have a great idea. She's like, what? I'm like, these HP computers suck. Nobody's buying them. Nobody cares about them, right?

Can't play video games on them. What's the point of a computer? You can't play video games, right? So I was like, why doesn't HP bring out a brand of computers that's literally designed for gaming that uses good parts? and has a, you know, a cringy gamer name, and people will buy it. He's like, that's a great idea.

So I wrote out email and send it to her. She told me she forwarded somebody. Wait, wait. You're that Dennis? That's me. Look, in the origin bio of our company, we accredit the adoption of it from Dennis, but I never know who that was.

You can send my checks to Ivan and he'll forward to me. Yeah, I have so much to owe you. Thank you. Welcome. Anytime. Josh, advice for yourself? Yeah, I mean, I think advice to your younger self should always be looked at through the lens of your own life because I know everyone's circumstances are different depending on who you are and where you're at.

But for me personally, it absolutely would have been saying yes to more things and being just more open to a lot. I did spend, you know, I'm not the most extrovert of people. I think that's changed, you know, as I've gotten older. But when I was younger, I did spend a lot of my time just kind of like shying away from either certain social situations or, you know, just flat out being just too lazy to commit to, you know, doing things that I was interested in or probably would have enjoyed had I followed through with it, but just decided to stay home and play wow instead kind of thing. And I think, you know, we are all guilty of that at some extent.

But I think as I continue to actually put myself out there more saying yes to more things, you know, showing up to social events, building up the courage to talk to strangers and get to know people and, you know, find some sense of commonality because we're all going through the same things. Like so many doors and opportunities opened, so many friendships were formed. I learned so much more just about so many different things in general. So, you know, if I could, I would have also taken your start sooner approach to that and just saying yes to more things and just doing more things. And it's just overall exposing myself to more in general, not waiting until this late in life to do that.

All right. Next one is what is your favorite Shonan? anime slash manga. There's only one that is the best of all time, which is One Piece, hands down. Your Animal Crossing character looks like the One Piece guy. You know, the character One Piece from the show One Piece. Oh, yeah. I've never seen One Piece.

There's like so many episodes, I just don't even want to start. It's hard to. But, you know, again, going back to my Funimation Days had the opportunity to work on on one piece, which was a big, big bonus for me because I was always been a fan of it, like reading the manga and, you know,

so getting able to actually work on it and work with, like, the voice actors and the studio creating it and producing it and all that was mind-blowing. But, yeah, it's just so good. It's so long. And yeah, there's a lot of filler.

And yeah, it can get a little weird. But in terms of just like character development and relationships and friendships, like it is unrivaled, in my humble opinion, from any other Shonen show out there. All right. I'm going to skip a couple of these guys.

Sorry, we got to get going soon. So the last question, which is from Lena, Lena. I don't know how to pronounce that. I just see the names and text. I can't read. What is your guilty pleasure game? Let's see. I feel like TFT is kind of like a guilty pleasure game.

It's actually a really good way of describing that game. Right? Because it's like, I mean, auto chess in general, I feel it's kind of like a weird thing that emerged. But it's so fun. And it's like a, you know, it's a good mix of, you know, it's a good mix of, you know, and RNG and adapting to literally the hand that's dealt to you in some sense. And so I think that's, that's always been a fun one. But yeah, I, you know, I have in my.

in my times kind of succumb to whale-like addictions to certain mobile games, some of which can be heavy on the anime influence, but I've since cleansed myself from that and have promised to never go back. So I will not name names. Those gotcha games are scary. Like, no lie, you buy one thing and like, oh, look how much quicker I'm getting this stuff done. Let me just spend a little bit more. Yeah, dude.

The, yeah. It's a slippery slope, my friend. So, yeah, kids, stay away from the gotcha games. I don't care how cute the characters look. Yes, wifos are not worth that much. No, I don't know. You get it for free on the internet. All right.

So moving forward, we have our final, but the most important segment, the community roundup with the one-only mom, Ammda. Amanda. Stop calling me that. I've had it off. Yep.

It's round up time. So I'm just going to go over a few different things that's been happening in the community. And then we might have a special announcement at the end. Not so sure. We'll see. We'll see. Maybe if I like you guys enough. First up, a reminder that we're still taking submissions for gamers at home.

Head on over to our Instagram and record a video showing us your quarantine companion. make sure to use the gamers at home hashtag and at NZXT. Don't forget to include your Discord handle also if you'd like to win 300 Pucci Cup coins. And I'm just going to drop the link to the highlights. You can take a look at what we've done already for some inspiration. Pretty cute video in there of Ivan and his daughter, if you want to take a look. Shout up. Next up are the winners of our recent design contest.

Congratulations, Nibler for having the most popular design. with 142 votes and congratulations to our other top five winners, Yoni Wolf, Doodle, Money, and Prodigy. If you guys don't know what our design contest is, every month, we task the community with creating their own NCXT themed artwork, and the winner receives their design on limited edition stickers, which are then given away to our very own club members. Lastly, we also have our winners of the wallpaper and the setup of the week contest. Congratulations, money again. and the caucini, caucini, caucini. I don't know how pronounce it.

I don't know. I kind of want to be Italian with it. The cauchin, yeah. We're having the most popular entries. And then I think we have an announcement. I think we do. I think we have one for Poochie's Pick. What is Poochie's Poochee?

What is Poochee's Poochee? Is essentially community member of the month. So we're showing our appreciation for special community members. who are going above and beyond to follow our core values and just be helpful, respectful, and just awesome in the Discord server. And can I get some drum rolls, please, in the Discord chat? Everyone? Drum rolls.

Probably that wasn't super annoying on the roll mic. Our first ever, Poochie's pick for April, is none other than It's the Money Row! Woo! Yay! Money again. Let's go. You may be asking why, and I'm going to tell you why.

Money has shown a great example of what we look for in our poochies pick. She's kind, helpful, and she fosters community within the server. We couldn't be more excited to offer her the following prizes. Yeah, actually, I'm the real poochies pick, by the way. The poochies pick role, and emo of her choosing added some. the server, a $20 steam gift card or optional she can also get Nitro if she would like

if she's not looking for anything on Steam. 200 cup coins, limited edition stickers, and a Pucci's Pick T-shirt designed by the one and only Nibbler. Oh man. Congratulations, money.

And if you're wondering how you can become the next Poochie's pick, show us that you can embody the NTCC core value. and become a great community member. Do your part in making the server a fun and safe environment for all. We'll be announcing the next winner on May 31st, so stop being a Pepega right about now.

Follow the rules. And yeah, that's all for the community roundup. And if I have any advice, I would say, you know, ride your Peloton, join your Zoom meetings and get yourself a quarantine haircut. And yeah, that's all. I am kind of highly considering asking my mom or my sister to just give me like a mohawk or something crazy. Oh, I'm having Julian just shave like the sides in the back of my head just all off. I don't even care what it looks like.

It's actually getting so long. It's growing over my ears now. Like, I got to get rid of it. We're going to office on Monday. You guys know that right? I'm going to come in looking fly. I'm going to cut my hair like Luffy from one piece. I don't know what looks like.

He was where to have. You go ahead and do that. Put a hat on, dude. Okay, cool. Easy. All right, guys, and with that, thank you for joining us, Josh. Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you. This is awesome. Oh, I'm glad you thought so. And thank you to everyone. Thank you to everyone who tuned in. Remember to tune in next week at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NZXC Discord server and follow at NZC on all we're looking social media.

And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Also, if you wouldn't mind, if you'd be so kind, This is a poochies pick type thing to do. Leave us a positive review if you like what you hear and even if you don't. And with that, thank you very much. And we'll see you next time. I haven't get some music going.

Bye.