In this Pokemon interview, we have PhilofAustin, a pioneer in the Pokemon GO community who started his own Raid Bus in Austin, Texas. We'll be discussing his experience with Pokemon GO and how he transformed his passion into business.
PhilofAustin is a passionate Pokemon GO player who turned his love for the game into a successful business venture. He founded the Raid Bus in Austin, Texas, a unique service that takes players to participate in Raid Battles across the city.
PhilofAustin offers some tips for anyone interested in starting their own Raid Bus. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the local community, building strong relationships with players, and creating a unique and memorable experience.
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with PhilofAustin: Discord | Reddit| E-Mail: ployd89@gmail.com
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
In this Pokemon interview, we have PhilofAustin, a pioneer in the Pokemon GO community who started his own Raid Bus in Austin, Texas. We'll be discussing his experience with Pokemon GO and how he transformed his passion into business.
PhilofAustin is a passionate Pokemon GO player who turned his love for the game into a successful business venture. He founded the Raid Bus in Austin, Texas, a unique service that takes players to participate in Raid Battles across the city.
PhilofAustin offers some tips for anyone interested in starting their own Raid Bus. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the local community, building strong relationships with players, and creating a unique and memorable experience.
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with PhilofAustin: Discord | Reddit| E-Mail: ployd89@gmail.com
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns. Welcome to the episode of As the Pokemon Ball Turns. Today is episode 18 of Trainers Eyes. A segment where we get to hear from you, the community, on how your Pokemon Go journey started, where it has been, and where it is currently going. With the new year on the horizon brings feelings of change and possibilities. Phrases like"New Year, new Me" or"Day one or One Day" float around Social media circles inspiring the idea of self-improvement. This idea is far from new and its origin can be found by our very existence. While yes, new chapters begin, it also means that other chapters must end. If we are honest. New Year's not only represents the possibility of change, but it also presents us with the realization of our own mortality. Each year may signify new beginnings, but it also inches us closer to death. It's this realization that drives change and stirs people's call to action. When we look at this in the scope of Pokemon Go, one day there will be a time where we don't pick up this game anymore, whether it's out of frustration with Niantic, life changes, or simply a desire to pursue other adventures. For my guest today, July 6th, 2016, was not only the start date for Pokemon Go, but also the catalyst for the start of his business that would eventually be known as the Raid Bus. Just as it sounds, it was a bus that would take people around the city to do raids and had reached many cities across the U.S. However, due to the pandemic and some self-reflection, the RAID bus has reached its final stop in today's episode. Here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go, and both the start and end of the Raid bus. This is PhilofAustin. Today I'm joined by the former owner of the Raid bus Phil. Phil, welcome to the show!
PhilofAustin:Hey, hey, how's it going?
David Hernandez:It's going pretty good, man. I know we talked before recording that you have a lot of experience regards to just doing RAID buses. I think for maybe some of our listeners, that might be a little bit of a foreign concept because we're in the age of remote raids where people play at home a lot. But the RAID bus was unique in regards it was just a way to bring people together under one bus and traveling, raid to raid and you did that across states?
PhilofAustin:Yes, sir.
David Hernandez:So before we do get started, we gotta start with how it all began. So how did your journey in Pokemon go start?
PhilofAustin:So actually the bus started in 2016, right whenever the game came out. I was just driving around with my nephew in the car and he had the game up. He was, what, what the hell are you doing Catching Pokemon. I was like,"all right, that's dumb." And then like a day later, I'm right in the back seat with him like,"all right, I'll play it with you." We're driving around playing Pokemon. I was like, all right, all right, seems fun, but I kind of don't like walking around to do it because I didn't have any spawn points from where I was living, so when you open the game, there's nothing around you. Instantly, you get bored of it. So anyways, I was like, all right, this is obviously a game for driving, but I can't drive and play. I need someone to drive me around. Let's, book a bus. Let's see how many people can get on a bus and just play the game together. Originally it was just for catching. Pokemon. Raiding wasn't around until the next year. So it was not as popular as you'd imagine. But since it was like the hype of when Pokemon Go came out and everyone was talking about it, I did end up getting on the news, which was kind of cool. We just tried going to catch Pokemon and it was a tourism thing. So it was Pokemon Go City tours to start. We tried that for a while, didn't really go anywhere and then, gave up. The next year Raiding came out and was like, okay, now people are into it. Now there's an even better reason to get on a bus and now it's because, you need people. Right?
David Hernandez:Especially for these tier five raids. Yeah.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah, everyone was just so pissed. I'd be on Reddit and everyone was like trying to coordinate groups to get together and just getting pissed off whenever no one showed up. So it just made sense starting the raid bus originally or like after at this point, I revamped the concept, changed the name to Raid T X. We started doing the Legendary Birds and those were just wildly popular and it just kept growing. After like the second bus we did in Austin, I started getting requests from Dallas. So I was working with a few organizers there to put it together. That took off. It was selling out buses immediately, then it just kept growing. I went to Dallas, I went to Fort Worth, went to San Antonio, I went to Corpus Christi. I was just looking at the list because it's hard to remember. Uh, we were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that one was fun in New Orleans. We did a couple buses in Biloxi. That's Mississippi, close to New Orleans. Then we went out to Charlotte, North Carolina and Raleigh, had some in Houston. Oh! And we did a couple in Jacksonville, Florida. There may have been one in Phoenix, Arizona, I can't remember now. But it was just steadily growing, it was kind of crazy time, like I was just busy outta my mind trying to organize all these buses and working with volunteers to run them cuz I couldn't be 20 different places at once. So yeah, wild times.
David Hernandez:And this expansion wasn't like all in one day, this was like over a couple years I would imagine, right?
PhilofAustin:Whenever we first started doing legendary raids, so it was like 2017 July, through September like I was running in five different cities like every weekend.
David Hernandez:Oh wow. That's a lot.
PhilofAustin:Yeah. And
David Hernandez:Did you go to visit, I know you didn't go all at once, but did you ever try to go to every single area at some point? Or was it just like you kind of relied on the volunteers to make sure the buses ran well?
PhilofAustin:I did try. That was one of my goals because, part of the reason why I loved this business of just, you know, running raid buses was like,"all right, I have an excuse to go and travel." I got to go to all the ones in Texas, all the ones in Louisiana, but didn't make it to Mississippi or Raleigh. I wanted to go to Raleigh for sure.
David Hernandez:Right.
PhilofAustin:Those always sounded fun. But Louisiana was probably like the party bus. You go to New Orleans and you'd be led by Officer Jenny. She would go up in costume.
David Hernandez:Really, somebody would go out, dressed up as offer Jenny, and she would lead the bus.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah. She was so into it. She got into character, but she was in costume. She looked like Officer Jenny. Also, I don't know if this was legal, I was kind of like worried about it, but they also like gave out jello shots in Louisiana. I was like, well, it is New Orleans. I guess that's kind of normal
David Hernandez:Right. Well, that's very cool. So it's amazing how it started as a concept to where it was just to do spawns, and it wasn't popular of course, based on what you said, but it sounds like it evolved mainly due the raids and you've got to go to different states. Did you ever expect it to get to that point when you first started in Austin?
PhilofAustin:Oh no, absolutely not. I mean, after the first year of like really struggling, it's like, all right, we got on the news, but that didn't really help there just wasn't the product market fit where people didn't really see the need to go and catch Pokemon in a bus when they didn't need people. So whenever Raids came out and we're like all of a sudden, yeah, that's it. That's a great idea. That's all get on a bus.
David Hernandez:Do you remember what your first bus was like doing the legendary raids?
PhilofAustin:Oh my God. it was a party. It was like, So I was running that with, Pogo Plate 12 here in Austin, like the local Discord. You know people would donate to pay for the bus and then anyone could come and get on. And as you can imagine, there was a lot more people that wanted to get on than we had room for. And it was a literal party bus, like there was like standing only. There may have been like a stripper pole in it somewhere. Yeah.
David Hernandez:Austin knows how to get down. That's for sure.
PhilofAustin:Well, when you're getting a party bus, you get a party bus, actually. Ooh, I do remember it. It was this bus company here in Austin called Fly-Rides and they don't have AC in their buses, and it was the middle of summer.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. I must have been sweating in there.
PhilofAustin:It was so sweaty, but no one really cared. They're just having such a great time.
David Hernandez:it just sounds like you mixed Pokemon Go with bar hopping in Pokemon Go, if I could say that.
PhilofAustin:Oh, yeah, definitely.
David Hernandez:Do you remember when you started to branch out? I'm assuming Dallas was the first one, or was it a different city?
PhilofAustin:It was actually Arlington, and it may have been, just a strategic choice because like, all right, we have requests in Fort Worth and we have requests in Dallas. Let's split the middle and do Arlington cause that's like dead center in DFW.
David Hernandez:Right. So how would you go about trying to get people to do a bus in Arlington since you were in Austin? How would that work?
PhilofAustin:So I had a one pager for like zero to take off how to launch a raid bus in a week. All of these buses, we didn't have any time to organize them because we were on pogo time. They just announced another bird and it's only gonna be around for a week. So, okay, we have to just really get moving and schedule this thing. So if you break it down by seven days, Monday, like you just found out, you need to organize this event. I was trying to work closely with Discords, so PoGo512, make friends with people there, ask around like if we were gonna run a bus, who would be interested. If there was enough interest, I'm like, all right, let's do it, and while you're gauging interest, you're also trying to find people who would want to volunteer and help run the bus. Basically you're just trying to make sure the event would even be feasible. Like Yes, we have interest, yes, we have people who run the bus and then those that are interested in running it, you know, would give us some like, ideas on where we would want to pick up. Someplace with good parking, obviously You know, part of town that has plenty of stops and gyms around, that sort of thing. So after that, Tuesday start promoting, get the event up. I was using Eventbrite to start, which I think still is probably the better solution cuz they do all the marketing for you. Wednesday still promoting, giving out reminders, coordinating with The volunteers, the organizers, trying to coach them into how to run the bus from when you pick up helping passengers on things like that and like, giving directions to the driver because he has no idea what's going on. There's also like stops in between because people can't sit on the bus for eight hours and not go potty
David Hernandez:Yeah. Kind of need some, uh, leg stretching at that point.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah, of course. I think I've ran over, 300 events.
David Hernandez:That's a lot man. I want to ask about the volunteer part real quick about people, you know, eventually you brought onto the bus. Did you have an ideal experience that people who came on your bus that you wanted'em to have, and how did you communicate that to them?
PhilofAustin:Yeah, so the ideal experience is a community experience. You're getting together with others in your community, you're gonna make friends along the way, you're going to exchange friend codes, trade Pokemon, and of course level Up. Cuz a lot of this is like, all right, I can play Pokemon Go alone and it's kind of fun, but I can't actually get past a lot of these hurdles. You know, all these challenges and catching these Pokemon, catching a shiny legendary was really difficult for a lot of trainers. So yeah, excelling in your, gaming experience and also just relaxing, having fun, meeting people.
David Hernandez:Definitely, and it sounds like you had a lot of fun, especially with the early Austin bus is that's for sure.
PhilofAustin:I mean, it did get progressively better. After the hype of Legendaries, coming out, we had to get a little bit more creative. The little things inside of the events that I learned along the way started making it an even better experience. At some point I started connecting my laptop to the monitors. We would get these 56 passenger charter buses, and some of them come with, an H D M I input. So I'd be playing Pokemon movies or music videos and just keeping everyone entertained, like to the max.
David Hernandez:So, when you started doing the raid buses, what kind of challenges did you face? Were there any kind of hiccups that you didn't expect to encounter?
PhilofAustin:Yeah, for sure. You know, I can't be in all the buses you know, all the time. I guess I take for granted like parts of hosting a bus that maybe I just have too much experience and I don't see how it's difficult but like keeping the tour going like at a manageable rate. We were hitting like four legendaries an hour, right? That takes a lot of juggling and you have to be on the scanners if those are even still around. But looking for legendaries, plotting a course in real time can be very challenging. It's really hard to communicate and help future organizers, to get that. They just have to be doing trial by fire. Any new organizer's gonna run through that, trying to do everything all at once. We started doing a division of labor, so there'd be three team leaders on board. So you get one person who's just in charge of finding legendaries, and giving directions to the driver. If you don't have a navigator, then you're not really getting anything done.
David Hernandez:Right. right.
PhilofAustin:And then, someone who's the party leader is what we said. Someone who's on the mic, entertaining people, telling them what's going on. Just being an entertainer and then having a third role that fills in the gaps, like a support leader. You know, maybe they're doing contests throughout like raffles, checking on people, just helping out where we need it. So having those three roles really helped. Oh, what to do whenever you go down the wrong road and you get stuck. That's always a good challenge.
David Hernandez:Would that happen pretty often or is it kind of depend?
PhilofAustin:Oh god. Um,
David Hernandez:That often. Okay.
PhilofAustin:I mean, whenever it does happen, it's just kind of traumatic. I remember I got a call from, Arlington, or maybe it was Dallas and they were stuck under some bridge
David Hernandez:Oh wow.
PhilofAustin:Oh, the navigator was telling'em it's right there, it's in there, and they had to go under this like bridge and the bus couldn't make it and got stuck.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh.
PhilofAustin:So that was fun. Uh,
David Hernandez:I bet.
PhilofAustin:But thankfully, and part of the reasons why I never bought my own buses is I don't want to deal with the insurance policy that goes along with that. If anything happens on the bus, it's their fault.
David Hernandez:I gotta ask real quick about the bus drivers. I'm assuming y'all didn't really have a route cuz you're kind of reliant on the spawn rate of the legendary raids. Did you ever like talk to the bus drivers or were they pretty chill about it? That they would be going in random directions at the moment's notice
PhilofAustin:Once we got into a cadence and we were doing this like every weekend. The bus company would know who we are and prep the drivers accordingly. And the ones that really liked us and like having the chaotic nature of it, were gonna pull up to a stop. And sometimes like, just put on your hazards, pretend like it's broken down for a minute and move on to the next one, do it again. When we started, it was eight hours long, so it was like a marathon for them. But some drivers actually liked that, others complained and we never saw'em again.
David Hernandez:it sounds like he had a very good relationship with people who ran the buses cuz it was a third party, correct?
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah. I mean, I had just a Rolodex of bus companies because you can't depend on just one. You know, we'd have some like Mewtwo raids that are happening. Meanwhile, there's a music festival going on and all the buses are taken. So then do you have to just call around? I mean, if anyone ever needs a bus company in Austin, Dallas, or any of the other cities they were running in, like, let me know. I probably know someone
David Hernandez:Well, very cool. Now I gotta ask so, at first Niantic would do legendary raids, I think on a monthly basis, which made it pretty easy for you. But eventually they kind of decreased the time to like either biweekly or weekly. Was that a challenge for y'all to be able to advertise that quick of a turnaround to the buses and to try to gain interest?
PhilofAustin:No, actually whenever it was too short, that was perfect because it's a lot easier to fill a bus if the hype is there. But we had more of a challenge whenever the Legendaries were around for like three months at a time.
David Hernandez:Really?
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah. Well, I mean we already did that one. why would I get another bus ticket?" But that was probably us being. over zealous a bit. I'm like trying to do every weekend, but a lot of people are doing it for different reasons like, you know, there was the hardcore gamers that were already level 40 and just holding out for whenever they're gonna double the level cap and all that. I would say like the bulk of the people who would come are more casual like, all right, I would go out raiding, but I don't wanna deal with the bullshit just take me. But those same people don't want to redo a legendary they've already caught, you know? I mean, some people are excited, like, every weekend, let's go, come on, but that's maybe 20% of the people who would come on.
David Hernandez:Right and you had to go with the times where you could get people to fill the seats, cuz obviously, you know, you're not paying this out of your pocket all the time.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah. and that honestly was the crux of running the raid buses where it's not possible to do it if you don't have a certain amount of people. I had a great formula that was all right, if we sell out half of the bus, which is 25 seats, then we can run it and it'll be paid for." And then I thought that was a decent goal to have, but some weeks it was really hard.
David Hernandez:Yep, cause unfortunately, not every Raid boss is as popular as others like some people will love to raid Mewtwo until the cows come home. When it comes to Pokemon, like maybe Registeel, uh, you might be pushing your luck a little bit.
PhilofAustin:You're right. Everyone hated that
David Hernandez:Poor Registeel. I love it, but I'm probably one of the few
PhilofAustin:Yeah and just to close that crux down like a lot of people would ask like, why don't you just get smaller buses? Why don't you just get like a 12 passenger sprinter or like a half size charter bus? Well, here's the thing. It's gonna cost exactly the same
David Hernandez:Really?
PhilofAustin:Yeah. It's ridiculous.
David Hernandez:That's crazy. So it'd costs the same price to get like a small 12 seater compared to like what you had were like, I don't even know what to call'em, like they're regular size buses really and they fit like what, 50 people?
PhilofAustin:Yeah. Those are just charter buses. They're more now after Covid, but if you're gonna get a smaller size one, that's 30 passengers at maybe like a hundred dollars an hour. And then if you get a Sprinter van, that's$80 an hour, but if you're trying to sell tickets to it, because no one wants to pay for it all themselves, you know, the price per passenger goes up. So it's just not realistic and I feel like anyone paying more than 20, 30 bucks is kind of getting ripped off personally.
David Hernandez:That's fair. Cuz around that price, then, yeah, you could, might as well just be Raiding by yourself or just getting a group of friends at that point, but maybe that's the power of convenience. People are willing to pay more for something as simple as just riding around on a bus
PhilofAustin:yeah, I really tried to make it, you know, something reasonable that you can go to the movies or you can go get on a raid bus. I didn't want it to be like something you do maybe once a year, cuz that's not really fun. You wanna create the community and have a place that you can always go to. but it's, a challenge. You have to get a large group of people and whenever there is a large group of people, it's so much fun. but whenever it's not, it's like really hard.
David Hernandez:Now speaking of community, so I think you mentioned it earlier, you had some regulars with this raid bus. What was the community aspect like for the raid bus?
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah. I mean, there was people that would show up every weekend, you can count on'em and everyone knew them by name. There's this guy Bob, he showed up every weekend. We actually ran a community day bus and had like special prizes for that one and one of them you know, it was Eevee community day and he ended up winning like most Eevee caught and got an Eevee hat. Every bus after that you will not see him without this hat.
David Hernandez:That's his trophy.
PhilofAustin:I know, Eevee Bob. There he is. There was so many people, there was a family we called the Deadpool family that drove in from Corpus Christi every weekend up on the bus.
David Hernandez:Austin?
PhilofAustin:Yeah, in Austin.
David Hernandez:Wow. Okay.
PhilofAustin:That is a hike.
David Hernandez:Yeah!
PhilofAustin:And especially if we're doing it every weekend. You know, we'd have at least one bus on a Saturday or Sunday.
David Hernandez:Real quick, correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's about what a two and a half hour drive between Corpus and Austin.
PhilofAustin:I think it's like four hours.
David Hernandez:Okay. I wasn't too sure.
PhilofAustin:I mean, it's, it's on the ocean.
David Hernandez:I know that's a bit of a drive. Just trying to get some insight to people who may not be from Texas. That's why I was asking.
PhilofAustin:Oh, right.
David Hernandez:So they would drive every week from Corpus to Austin.
PhilofAustin:Yeah.
David Hernandez:That's some dedication! But why were they called the Deadpool family?
PhilofAustin:Well, the dad loved Deadpool and really he was the one that really wanted to go on all these buses and he just drug his family all along and they were just having family time.
David Hernandez:Oh wow.
PhilofAustin:Yeah, man, I met so many people like it's hard to believe like I've been on over a hundred buses myself and then we've run 300 plus just between all the cities like it's hard to keep track.
David Hernandez:I mean that's the most impressive part is that this isn't just within Austin, this isn't just within Texas. You went across state lines and you were able to expand your reach out there. And to me that's just so impressive on not only your drive, but how much thought had to go into it because you don't cross state lines and have some form of success by accident. That takes a lot of skill, takes a lot of preparation, that clearly you had.
PhilofAustin:I appreciate you think that. I do development, right? I do product management, so my goal was to build a system that works and we tested the model in Austin, it worked, and then I was just trying to share with others and really all you need is a Discord Channel with Pokemon people. You know, talk to the organizers, just throw out the idea like,"do y'all wanna get on a bus and like, maybe have a fun time?" And that's it. I'll put up an event, we'll sell some tickets to pay for the bus, so, I mean, it's, really easy. It's just, I don't know. I feel like a lot of people, at least early on, there's just so many blockers. like, oh, we need to have an llc. It's like, why? You haven't even done anything yet. You know, don't get caught up in all of the, like, money and, whatnot like all you need to do is organize an event. What needs to happen for that? Get some money to pay for the bus, find a bus, find a location, find people who can help you run the bus, and then have a good time. It's really not as complicated as people might think.
David Hernandez:It may not be as complicated, but I think for people to kind of see it that way takes a certain mindset because you know, yes, it's simple, but not everybody can do it cuz otherwise it'd be a whole bunch of raid buses everywhere.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah. No, I know it, just a step by step process. If you get past like step two of finding enough people who are interested like you're already halfway there like put up an event, sell the tickets, and then host an event. It's gonna be fun. I'm still available to help anyone who wants to go on that journey. I'm not doing it myself anymore, but I do have a lot of knowledge and can answer any questions you might have.
David Hernandez:Well, very cool, so you've already alluded to how, you've stopped the raid bus at this point. What made you want to have to stop it at this point?
PhilofAustin:Well, I didn't make the decision at first. It was 2020 and we had a bus in February and then we had something scheduled for March in Austin, but, COVID happened and I remember thinking like well, that's not really gonna be a thing, like they're not gonna shut down South By Southwest for this flu.
David Hernandez:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
PhilofAustin:It's like, oh, that's never gonna happen. But it did, and everything started shutting down. So it's like, well, I guess we should actually cancel this bus. Huh? 2020 shut down everything, but yeah, so after that we were just on standby and a month turned to a year and then two years. Covid really just stifled everything. But to be honest, at this point, I had been running the raid bus for three, like four years, I've been doing Pokemon entrepreneurship. And I was feeling burned out but just plugging away anyways. Whenever Covid happened and I like had to shut down, I was like, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe we needed to like press pause and reevaluate. I thought that time was really good actually, just to take a break and pay attention to other parts of my life. Shortly after that, I reconnected with this girl I was actually dating in high school and she was looking for a place in Austin, I just happened to have a room available. I was like, well, if it's not awkward, you could stay here and then things just evolved and um, now we're married.
David Hernandez:Aw, congratulations.
PhilofAustin:Yeah and also with twins on the way in a week or two. Twin girls, man. Mave and Juniper. Mave and Ju knew the world. Yeah.
David Hernandez:Yeah, that's a very fun way to tie up, your experience with Pokemon Go to where you kind of move on to a different stage of your life. I think a lot of people get scared leaving Pokemon Go, and I know you haven't officially left, but there's next chapters beyond a video game is what I'm trying to say.
PhilofAustin:Yeah, of course. But also like I've, feel like I've, I've seen a lot of people come and go and it'll be like a year later I'll see them like, whoa, what happened? Like, I just needed to take a break. Like, good for you man! good for you like a lot of people just don't have the power to do that, but you shouldn't be a slave to a video game. It sucks the life out of it sucks the fun out of it. I'm probably gonna come back and do it at some point. It's been a good break. I still at times feel like I'll open it up. I mean, I do still open gifts. That's like the one thing I do. But yeah, it's been nice to take a break. It's going to feel really good to come back whenever I feel ready.
David Hernandez:So it sounds like your story's not a the end, but a two B continued kind of thing.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah! Honestly, in that gap in time, I started getting really into crypto and NFTs. So I'm just holding out for Pokemon NFT. When's that happening? Niantic?
David Hernandez:Right? Well, it'd be the Pokemon company has to do that. So, but yeah, that could definitely be true. That could definitely be a future.
PhilofAustin:Hey, I can't think of a more collectible NFT than a Pokemon
David Hernandez:Hey, don't, don't give them ideas they get enough of our money as it is.
PhilofAustin:Right.
David Hernandez:Congratulations moving on to the Married life. Congratulations on becoming a father. It's a wonderful experience I've heard. You know, you're gonna be busy nonstop with twins on the way. I gotta ask you this real quick like looking back at your experience with the Raid bus, was there anything you wish you had done differently?
PhilofAustin:Ooh. Not doing every weekend. Actually, when we started, it was Saturday and Sunday. We were running eight hour buses both days. Just 16 hours every week really killed it and I shouldn't have done that. I wish I had just done one event and then like let the hype build before doing the next one instead of trying to like do too much all at once. Every week is really hard, especially like with volunteers like I was paying people in Pokecoins because, like, I wasn't even really paying myself. Just paying off the bus, any slush funds just was holding out, in case, there was not enough people to run a bus and cover costs. It just would've been a lot better if it was maybe once a month.
David Hernandez:If somebody was interested after listening to this episode of doing like the Raid bus tours or picking up the mantle, if so you will, what advice would you give them?
PhilofAustin:Ooh. I would say try it out, but post into your local discord, try and get some hype around it, like get interest. Don't just organize this event without talking to anyone cuz you don't know if anyone's interested. You know and then you've wasted all of your time and then you're all bitter and whatnot. Reach out to the community, make it a community event, and not about yourself. Of all the events that I've ran, those are the ones that actually really succeeded. Also, maybe you want to try Community Days, because Hear me Out, community Days, you can actually drive really slow everywhere, catch more Pokemon, and also do some raids.
David Hernandez:It's a two in one deal, if so you will.
PhilofAustin:Oh yeah,
David Hernandez:Well, thank you Phil, for coming on the show. If people wanted to reach out to you to gain more wisdom and advice, like what's the best way for them to reach out to you?
PhilofAustin:Well, I'm on Discord. Like I said, I'm Phil of Austin. I guess you could also email me plloyd89@gmail. I'd be happy to talk to you, you know, if you're actually interested. You wanna like figure out how to do it. You know, I have some resources that available, especially if you're in, any of the cities that'll be ran in. I know everyone there, so yeah, I'm down to help. I'm not doing it myself, but down to help.
David Hernandez:Definitely, definitely, and for those who are interested, I'll make sure to include all that information into the description of today's episode. Thank you for listening to another episode of As The Pokeball Turns. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your podcast streamer of choice. If you wanna support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by going to patreon.com/asthepokeballturns or by sharing the podcast with your friends and family. Feel free to follow me on all my socials by clicking the link in the description of today's show and I'll see you next time! On the next episode of Trainer's Eyes.