Ep. #171 B-side with the Man, the Myth, the Legend Steve from Rideshare Rodeo

Connect with Steve:

https://uberlyftdrivers.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@RideshareRodeo

Join us as we catch up with Steve, an experienced gig worker and creator from Denver who started with rideshare in 2015 and now juggles 12 different apps. As we talk about his favorite platform, Curri, which comprises over 80% of his earnings, you'll learn about the importance of understanding the market and conducting thorough research when investing in a vehicle for gig work.

What's it like starting a podcast and a YouTube channel during a pandemic?  We celebrate the evolution of Steve's channel, from focusing on tip transparency to now covering a variety of topics. We also get real about the state of the ridesharing industry and discuss how various CEOs have impacted drivers and the market. As we wrap up, we share our gratitude to you, our listeners, and announce a short break for Thanksgiving. So, get ready to navigate the ins, outs, and in-betweens of the gig economy, podcasting, and more!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Hi guys, welcome to the gig economy podcast episode one hundred and seventy one. It's the B side. Today we have one of the probably most important person in the gig economy as far as like news. I I'm I'm actually going to say this live on the stream tonight. Steve is above us, you guys.

Speaker 2: 0:53

He's below. I'm a Michigan boy, just like you guys.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I'm just saying like, honestly, you got the ride share guy and then you got Steve, honestly from ride share rodeo. I mean that guy. You put out so much content and, like we were just looking at all your podcasts, I saw that you scheduled with Sergio for episode 300, which is insane that you're going to have 300 episodes. So congratulations on that. That's just such an accomplishment.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Thank you yeah amazing.

Speaker 1: 1:19

So, as you know, on the B side we interview a creator or a gig worker, and Steven for me a couple weeks ago that I had not had him on in this format. So I'm like what better to finish out November, because we are lazy and we're taking next week Wednesday off because it's Thanksgiving, and I thought what a good, good opportunity to bring Steve on to just to catch up and then for people to hear you know Steve's progress as a gig worker and then as a creator as well. So let's just do the, the, the, the run down, tell me about your market, your primary gig, fuller, part time and how long to get started.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Just get those basics first. So I've been on the podcast, on your podcast, many times. I want people to know that, oh God.

Speaker 3: 2:06

Yes.

Speaker 2: 2:06

Yeah, I just made a joke about not being on B set and then I also wanted to say that these guys have like the best intro to any podcast, and if you don't think so, you're a chode. So if you know, you know, you know.

Speaker 2: 2:24

But yeah, so I'm in Denver. I've kind of you know, I started in 2015 with rideshare. Obviously that's all that was around then and did I still have to go back? But honestly believe it was left. First it was pretty close because I onboarded to both pretty quickly, but then I onboarded to Uber. Then I kind of still stuck with Lyft. Then, when they started being like Uber, I moved over to that and then all these other apps started coming in food first and they weren't. They had no volume, even here in Denver. I don't know about you guys, but they had no volume when they came around. Nobody was using these until the pandemic, pretty much. But so I knew about them.

Speaker 2: 3:01

I wasn't really doing much with that. I was still doing rideshare. Now there's apps for everything. So I do a lot of last mile courier stuff. Now I do dispatch, I do drop off, I do freight. I'm active on like 12 apps. My favorite hands down is Curry. You guys know that already and for those that don't, anybody that knows me knows this Curry's my favorite. It makes, I mean, out of the gig work portion of the stuff I do the app based gig work, because I also do independent contractor gig work, but the app based stuff that I do. It makes up probably for sure over 80% of what I make on all the apps.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 3:42

Okay, so it's not only primary, it's. However, there's a bunch of ones that I'm, you know, like yesterday I just did, you know, I just did two back to back pair of works. Okay, you know, catering orders are becoming big because DoorDash isn't doing a good job and so delivered and easy cater and deliver that and food fetched and food up and para works and para pass, and there's so many things where you can make money. Now it's just not the giants anymore.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Yeah, right For the last mile, duff, sorry. Yes, we're real quick with Curry. Are you still using just your personal car, or have you?

Speaker 2: 4:18

bought it. Yeah, I still use my personal car.

Speaker 1: 4:20

I just want to make sure because I know for a time you and Hannibal were talking about like the van stuff, so I didn't know if you had bought like a van.

Speaker 2: 4:28

I still, I still am. I mean, it's still something that is definitely all the time ringing in my head. Yeah, but I actually know like I can't say for the other apps because I'm not as like I actually know the team at Curry, yeah, all of them know, and so, like I know for a fact, I've asked should I get a cargo van or a Sprinter van? They're like in any market you'll do better with those. But of course that makes sense. But I was like so that's a good idea. They're like, to be honest with you, it's market to market and in this market right now in Denver, and not just right now, they were saying, like, in general, what we really need is a pickup trucks with Piper X. No, so they if you. They were like if you have a pickup truck with a Piper, we can keep you busy all day at the highest pay, wow.

Speaker 1: 5:13

So I was like no, maybe.

Speaker 2: 5:15

I'll just do that, can you can?

Speaker 1: 5:17

you put a Piper hack on your RAV4.

Speaker 2: 5:20

No, I mean get a pickup. Yeah, I know I'm just kidding, you know, I mean I go snowboarding stuff too, like I've had pickups before in the past, for sure I mean I didn't know If I like again. This is where people need to do research, because you can't just take somebody's opinion and go hey man, you're doing Curry, if you get a cargo van you'll do a lot better Cuz they might find out, dude, I had a pickup truck in my garage that I just don't use and I just found out I would have made more money with that.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Yeah, is Curry somewhat responsive? If you said, hey, I'm looking to like make more money on this platform, um, are? Would they tell you, like in the market that you are, that maybe it's a good idea If you're active? If you're active.

Speaker 2: 6:00

Some people pull that crap of like, hey, I've been on the waiting list forever If I get a van or a pickup truck. Can I get off? And it's like no, even though, to be in all honesty, I won't speak on any market. But honestly, if you did, you might get off. But they'll tell you. No, Of course, right, but they. But yeah, they'll tell you, because if they're, if they're short, if they're short, 10 sprinter vans, they'll tell you. We need sprinter vans in your area, yeah, right.

Speaker 3: 6:28

Yeah, so are you full time. Am I really hot, Jason?

Speaker 2: 6:33

Um you're like a nine A nine when I'm shit.

Speaker 3: 6:38

My audio is deep, but thank you, I'm dead. That's very very kind.

Speaker 1: 6:41

I feel like you're fine, I feel like you're okay.

Speaker 3: 6:44

I think it's okay now. So, Steve, are you? Obviously you're doing all these other things, but are you, are you considering yourself full time gig worker?

Speaker 2: 6:52

Yeah, I mean I, you know, so lately I, I'm doing. I got to tell you guys I'm doing mostly schedules these days, which kind of is funny because we always talk about flex time. Yeah, right, but it's, but it is still flex time because the night before I'm seeing it. So it's, I'm making it flex to my time, right, like, yep, that works, I can do those. But so all for the last four months, every like four out of five mornings, monday through Friday, I do a 530 and a 7am Curry schedule, one of those every morning.

Speaker 1: 7:24

So you're you're getting that much work on Curry that you're able to do that, and then I get another two or three through the day.

Speaker 2: 7:30

Right, hot shots, yeah Dang. I mean, like last week I probably saw 40, 40 to 50 plus a day orders Dang.

Speaker 3: 7:41

And about how many hours a week do you drive then?

Speaker 2: 7:44

So that's, that's what I'm saying, though I get up at five, and so I know, jason, you've been doing something where you got to get up early too. That's a whole life change for me, because I used to be a bar guy. I used to get home at five, yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:54

I get up at five.

Speaker 2: 7:55

Yeah, and I'm a single parent. Yeah, so it's, but I don't mind it, I've, I've acclimated to it. Um, the roads are empty. I mean, I know you guys live in Grand Rapids, semi big city, but Denver's traffic is just ridiculous these days. So, like when I, when I do get out at 530, the one nice thing is there's nobody there. Yeah, you're driving, you're like this is the life I don't have to go. Oh, it's 1030. I got to take this route because, like I can take the fastest route.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Yeah, that's amazing, that is a bonus. I mean you want to shoot yourself in the face when you wake up and the alarm goes off, but like yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:30

So I mean, usually the way I look at it is I am usually done, I'll do the, the 530, I'll do the seven scheduled, and then Curry sees me out and the more courage you do, you know they, they love that and they'll see out, and so the offers go to everybody. But there can be like a priority order that you only have eight seconds to respond to and then it just goes in the general queue. Yeah, so I'll get those sometimes and like, as I finished the second one up and I always look for that because I always love making a hat trick out but I love a third one that backs up to that second and then I'll usually go home for a couple hours and around. Or you know, if I just have the two, I'll go home for a couple hours and around 10, 10, 30, I'll get another hot shot run. And I'm to be honest, I'm usually done with Curry by about noon and I've made what more than what most gig workers make who are working 12 hours from like noon to midnight.

Speaker 1: 9:21

So what I don't understand is are are you, when you're booking those at night I know this isn't a Curry podcast, but I'm just curious now because I've been seeing a little bit more Grand Rapids but when you're booking those at night, are they already worth it or are they surged? I don't understand because, like I, when I get an initial request for Curry it's like less than 50 cents a mile.

Speaker 2: 9:41

Um well, I mean, that's just probably them. But to be honest, I remember when you weren't getting any in your market.

Speaker 3: 9:47

No, no, I totally get it.

Speaker 2: 9:49

So that's so. Here's the thing with Curry. I actually created a customer side profiles because they told me to. Curry told me why don't you do this? Cause I was asking questions where they're like it'd be easier if you just created a customer account and saw how it works. The customer places an order like I need you know, like okay, let's take Sherman Williams out of the mix, cause they actually have a deal with them on how they work.

Speaker 2: 10:13

But like the average company that just wants to start doing some work with Curry, yeah, you, you say I have this to move here, and then they make sure it fits in your car. Curry does take the order. They make sure it fits in your car and then they put the items there and they and they'll take any amount that the person puts. But like Curry had, like if, if Curry knows now what jobs are worth. So if if you're a company and you're asking somebody to do $50 worth of work and you put in a $20 bed, they kind of they're nice about it but they respond to you with, we'll put that out there. But we do increments. We need to. You know, if nobody takes it within five minutes, we will increment it X amount and it changes depending on what you put in there.

Speaker 2: 10:59

For the order yeah, but we'll increment it up to $50 or 60 or whatever it might be, cause they already know what the driver's probably going to take it for. Yeah, exactly, the drivers really take the lower ones. Or when they're new, yeah, and that's the only time. And so when they and this, so they do onboarding in like once a month for whatever market they might onboard. So there's like a once a month, you'll see a pocket of like two or three years when, like, people are taking more on orders, yeah, okay, and so, yeah, I mean other than that, though they Curry knows that they'll be like dude, it's almost like a slap, like nobody's going to take that you can go to Rodey or something, but it's interesting.

Speaker 1: 11:35

I yeah, rodey, geez, I have. I have missed out on a couple of curries because I was like I just need one more increase and I think that's enough. And then somebody takes it Like it's like I'm one level away from taking it, but I was like I need just a little bit more. And then someone grabs it. So Well, like what?

Speaker 2: 11:56

and so for you like, I understand what you're doing, but like what I Tony the driven dad, you guys know same thing he was going through when he got on to Curry.

Speaker 2: 12:05

He's like dude, I was like right there and I was going to take it and somebody took it Same thing you're saying. And I was like, Tony, just start taking it, Get five under your belt. Once you have five under your belt, you have a driver's score. Till you have a driver's score, you're missing one section of what determines if you get the load or not. I don't know how many. I don't know how many, Because because the if you go into Curry and you touch your picture, it'll show your driver's score.

Speaker 1: 12:30

He doesn't like touching his picture, so I know I have done more than five.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Maybe not, since they started doing them.

Speaker 1: 12:39

Oh no, not, since they've started doing them no.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Yeah, I don't know. But so once you have five, though, then you have a score out of five. Okay, like I have a five start and it actually. It's awesome because Curry's rating system is done by the customers. It's only are you on time to the pickup? They don't, because traffic can be a factor. So the drop off is what it is. You do your best. I mean, you got to be on your way. You can't be like stacking and going out a route. But but you know you, they. It's based on vehicle size, proximity to the pickup and then driver's score. So if you only have three Currys under your belt, you don't have a driver's score. So if you, if you were thinking about it like a school grade, you're missing a third of the grade out of on every one. So you're going to be like the bottom person to get it.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Oh, to get the notification for like if you, if it gets to you, it's already been through a bunch of people. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2: 13:38

That, like if it's low. See, this is where it kind of sucks for me, but that's why I like that every five that you do, it erases. So if you do one and get a one star, if you do five more, that one star is gone. Oh okay, it pushes it off that quickly. It's not like out of a hundred, like Dordash and others, so, but once you have five, then now you have a driver's score. So now you're weighing in and you can. Now you can weight out better off.

Speaker 2: 14:02

Right now I would just grab them. Okay, I would get five under my belt, even if they like dude. To be honest, like Tony ended up doing it Now he's seeing a ton here, like he's like I don't see, like you do, now he does because he didn't have a driver's score but he had to take five that he wouldn't have taken. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3: 14:19

I just want to say so we actually have a comment or who had some problems. He said he wasn't seeing anything, so maybe, maybe he should try about getting a driver's score.

Speaker 1: 14:27

I know, but he said he's not seeing anything but he's seeing four offers a day. I mean that's more than what I see in a week.

Speaker 3: 14:33

Yeah, but. But. But he might see them, but he may not take them.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 14:38

So he needs to take them right.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Right, yeah, I would say that you know. Let me see if I can. So, have a can't pick up truck in the and the and he's in Denver.

Speaker 3: 14:51

Yep.

Speaker 2: 14:51

Yeah, wait a minute bro.

Speaker 3: 14:55

Man pick up truck with a pipe wreck and then my relative officer and curry.

Speaker 2: 15:01

You know what I would do. I Would email Reactivation at currycom. Because here's another thing if you don't do a curry for 90 days, you are soft deactivated. You're not deactivated, but you have to email them and say, no, no, I'm still interested in there. Like okay, and they push a button and you're reactivated within a minute. Hmm, because they're smarter than the other companies. Why send out data to everybody, right? If somebody hasn't taken one in three months?

Speaker 1: 15:29

I mean, I guess, but they're, they should also be want to have no matter what this. I want this taken, so they should send it out to everybody.

Speaker 2: 15:38

Well they that's in my opinion Well they do, but it becomes a cost, and the more cost that they can, even the little things that they can bring down, mean and they actually do apply that back to the drivers, yeah. So again, this is where other apps fail. If you keep doing that, you know what I mean? Yeah, you're gonna, you're just gonna. What'll end up happening is what we see on every app the pay goes down right because they're wasting money. It's like cost the cost of running a business.

Speaker 2: 16:05

You got to bring them down, yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:08

Well, at least maybe that means that they're not interested in just driving down the money for us.

Speaker 2: 16:13

Well also, too, they need an accurate so to bring to be the top shelf. I mean, like, let's compare it, because Jason left you and I always laugh at it. I don't know how you feel. Yes, we're about roadie, but roadie sucks, sucks. I mean just absolute worst. So, like, do you want it to be a roadie or a top shelf? To be a top shelf, they have to accurately know, actually, who is driving in the market, not who's signed up for the app, right, right, because they need to know, dude, if that guy's not driving, let's onboard another one.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Yeah, it's true. I mean, it makes sense.

Speaker 2: 16:47

Yeah, I mean to be honest, like I've said this before to people, people don't love it. I I now way prefer Even if I get on one. You know, of course, at that time I don't like it, but I love wait lists because wait lists proved to me that the pay will be better. Yeah, because they're actually watching what's going on right, and that's true.

Speaker 3: 17:08

The other side of that too is so how many? What do you do? Three, maybe four a day of.

Speaker 2: 17:13

Curries, yeah, I mean most I've done in a day is seven.

Speaker 3: 17:17

I mean, it's a very, very different, different beast than with right here, right where. You know, when I drive a Saturday I do 40 right.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Also, dude, I have a go bag ready though too. I mean, you guys got to remember I did two out of statement, not I do out of state to Cheyenne, wyoming, which is only two hours. Sometimes that's not counted for me, but I did to pass Salt Lake. That was 10 hours. I did to Vegas.

Speaker 3: 17:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:43

So when those orders come through as a hot shot at four in the morning, five in the morning, and you see it come, and it's like If seventeen hundred bucks, and you're like you got to make that decision right, then are you? Here's my thing with it, though. Are you ready, are you on a on an instance notice? Ready to jump in the car and be gone?

Speaker 1: 18:02

I'm not because I have an electric vehicle and I'd run out of juice, right, but I'm saying anybody though, yeah, right, I'll even the people who do gig work every day.

Speaker 2: 18:10

Are you ready, like I have a go bag. My son understands about this. He knows that if a banger comes through, I'm taking it a banger.

Speaker 1: 18:20

All right, well, let's move on from curry, because this isn't the curry podcast.

Speaker 3: 18:24

Um what kind of fun though.

Speaker 1: 18:25

I mean I do love career. Let's talk a little bit of rideshare. Are you doing any rideshare at all? I'm just curious, because all that I'm back on uber.

Speaker 2: 18:33

I'm not back on left. Okay, but I'm not doing any yet, okay, yeah, I just was I just wanted to make beef. I'm and I'll tell you guys before the next year. I would make sure to you know Kim side money plans always says on board to every app you can Right now and I always say, dude, on board, slowly pick up an app. You'd actually do that on board. I'm now on Kim Kim's camp till the end of year on board everything right now, because in January everything's gonna change.

Speaker 1: 18:58

Yeah why is there's gonna be caps?

Speaker 2: 19:00

There's no fines for the companies if they're oversaturating. The new legislation coming out in different states is gonna totally trash things and they're gonna be very slow to onboard people. Huh, interesting.

Speaker 1: 19:13

I'm happy I'm back on both the reason I asked for uber, because you know they just came in with a bunch of those new app updates and and deactivation things and stuff like that. I was just curious if what your opinion on that was.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Oh, For the up. I don't know, I'm gonna be talking. I'm gonna be talking to Sergio about that.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Yeah, no, I was just curious he actually was with Dara.

Speaker 2: 20:08

I was like, yeah, and if I don't, if you saw that, picture me as I'm around me. He had his right hand. I actually had to text Sergio and say, did you just have it? Even an instance where you just wanted to throw that punch into his.

Speaker 1: 20:19

No, he doesn't want to keep, he's not gonna answer that, he doesn't want to get kicked out of the club Answered it to me. He said well, yeah, no, I started watching the uber event and then it was 52 minutes. I said you're not getting 52 minutes at the time of my time. So then I went to the rideshare guys YouTube page and watched the 10 minute one that Sergio put out.

Speaker 3: 20:36

So I'm pretty excited about it.

Speaker 1: 20:39

I like the new aptitude. Well, yeah well. I heard Sergio kept saying in 2024. They were gonna start doing the trend, the verifying rider thing, but then I I heard uber say 2025, so I was confused about that.

Speaker 3: 20:54

But One, then. How quickly is it gonna come to our market?

Speaker 2: 20:58

But the other thing too, jason. I mean like you've been doing, and yes, for two, you guys have been doing this long enough to know how many times Do we see things like this and then they don't happen on the schedule or or that a lot of times is just for PR.

Speaker 1: 21:09

Yeah or that, or it only goes to four markets and then it dies there and never goes anywhere else.

Speaker 2: 21:15

So right, one money wasn't a good, literally just do Boise Idaho and then make it sound like it's coming out everywhere.

Speaker 1: 21:21

But they go.

Speaker 2: 21:22

Yeah, we're testing it right now.

Speaker 3: 21:25

Six drivers there. What made you say Boise?

Speaker 1: 21:29

That's hilarious. So let's jump into the creative end and and for for new people. Steve and I I don't even know how we connected on Twitter. I know that we connected on Twitter when I was big into Twitter and not so much anymore, but yeah, so we connected on Twitter. Then we kind of figured out that you were from Michigan and then I don't, I don't even know how it even went from there for me saying hey man, you should start a podcast, and then I actually do do you know this is you still, you still had the girl.

Speaker 1: 22:03

Samantha.

Speaker 2: 22:05

Samantha, is she the only one that's? Yeah, Sam, yeah, yeah, Sam yeah so you still had Sam and we were you, you were Jason is awesome about being very Audio, like he's an. He's an audio file or whatever you want to call him.

Speaker 3: 22:24

I have for podcast, you, if you have bad Audio oh, absolutely every time I.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Continue every time I get on a stream to watch yours or somebody that has bad audio, and I just want to.

Speaker 2: 22:35

I Think I think I've I've contracted it from you because now I'm like so I'll get so fixated on it, like I know, I know, like strict instructions before you get on the stream.

Speaker 1: 22:47

Like listen, like just a pair of headphones would be, let's, let's start baby steps there, but anyways, but I know that the initial idea was the grind my gears.

Speaker 2: 22:56

Yeah, oh, okay, and we did like three of them, but you were like dude, your audio sucks.

Speaker 1: 23:06

I was such a hard ass.

Speaker 2: 23:09

We met through Twitter, but you were seeing my. I was seeing your post for your stream, which I had seen on YouTube before we ever talked. You were seeing my posts about from the website, which has been around since 2017. Okay, and you were getting a lot of news that you were talking about from the website, right?

Speaker 1: 23:27

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:28

That was like a way that we met to like. I'm reading your website, I'm like I'm watching your podcast, so let's say I started talking we thought, said let's do this little segment of grind my gears, that's right.

Speaker 1: 23:36

Okay, I totally forgot about the grind my gears thing. Oh.

Speaker 2: 23:41

My, and for those that don't know, that's a, it's a play on. I mean that we didn't think that thing. No, we were trying to like redo the family guy thing and I wonder if they're the original.

Speaker 1: 23:51

I swear that's got to be somewhere else, like no one ever came up with grind my gears like anyways.

Speaker 2: 23:56

I, I would. I do think it's theirs. Yeah, you think so do it like we was like you know, really grinds my gears. Yeah, I know. So funny so, anyways, that was that was okay.

Speaker 1: 24:08

I'm glad you brought that out, cuz I totally forgot about that. I have terrible memory of stuff. I don't even know how I met. Yes, bro, I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 3: 24:14

I don't know. Yeah, see so anyways.

Speaker 1: 24:17

So then then you're you're. You were. You were on YouTube or no. I was on YouTube, and then I don't even know how that got started. But anyways, I encourage Steve to start podcasting. And were you doing YouTube before you started podcasting? So you did it right, you did it right.

Speaker 2: 24:32

Well, I was gonna start, in January of 2020, audio podcasting and I had no. And it wasn't that I didn't want to, I just YouTube wasn't even on my radar right. And now that you're.

Speaker 1: 24:43

I mean, your podcast is amazing too, but like you put so much content, like you You're so involved in the community which some days I'm jealous of cuz like I get on there and I try to. You know what I mean. I just feel lost a little bit. But it's also. You have to really invest in YouTube honestly, and as a creator and in to be part of the community that you're in. But yeah, so you started the podcast and that but I didn't start it in January.

Speaker 2: 25:05

Oddly, I waited until the day I decided to do. It was the day after the cares act passed in March and they'd stay at home. Orders happen. Oh you know I'm gonna start it.

Speaker 1: 25:15

Oh yeah, you might as well. I got nothing to do. Yeah, yeah, for sure, you might as well.

Speaker 2: 25:21

Yeah, that's it. I think a lot of podcasts started during the pandemic, right, but I mean it was like three weeks after, yeah, like it was like the last week of May, so the or the the last week of April, okay, hey, what's up? Yes, so like in March, you know it was March 29th was the cares act, march 30th was stay at home orders, yeah, right so.

Speaker 2: 25:41

I was like, okay, I can't go anywhere. So I started kind of thinking about it and then I even started asking you a bunch of questions before I actually did it. Yeah, and you gave me some good advice about you know, we'll play like one of the. You know Just basic tips that I probably wouldn't have thought of, though, like how, how, how often are you gonna do it? Yeah, because I was like, oh, I don't know, I'm just gonna do it sometimes and, you know, hopefully I don't miss weeks. I can tell you to this, because you told me, don't miss weeks unless you inform people up front and right rarely, like how you guys are missing because of Thanksgiving, that's. That seems totally reasonable, but I have never to this day. Since you told me to start, I've never missed a Tuesday drop since April 2020.

Speaker 1: 26:21

But it doesn't surprise me, I was gonna say the reason I say that is one. If you're gonna establish a channel, you have to be consistent once you get consistent, people are like, okay, they're taking time off of vacation, it's like whatever. But yeah, you're, you're nuts like I, don't I. The amount of content you put out like is insane, and I so appreciate that, and I'm sure that your audience does too. So you started the podcast and you started the YouTube channel and then over time, you got that what I started the podcast.

Speaker 2: 26:49

There was a piece missing there though. I started the podcast, then I met David Pickerel During some of the PUA stuff. It was, oddly, wasn't even connected through through Gig work. It was about the what, how we were all gonna live and stimulus checks and stuff. That's how we met through a NBC news article. He was in it, I was in it and we both kind of were quoted as almost word for word and so I got in touch with.

Speaker 2: 27:15

I Got in touch with David because the the writer of the article is Was somebody who had approached me. So I emailed her and I said this guy, david, where is he? I'll find him on my own if I have to, but can you, can you help me out? Yeah, and she's like I can't tell you Zimpo, but is it okay if I give him yours? Oh, yeah, absolutely sure. And so she sent him mine. He called me the next day, okay, and he was like what's up? And I was like we were both in that article. He's like, oh, you're that the guy, okay? So then we started doing some things and he was autonomy jobs, no, that's. And then about three, four months later his partner, jeff Tang, tripped over, I mean literally stumbled on to tip transparency, which is what para became known for and now has nothing to do with what we do at para right.

Speaker 2: 28:03

I mean in Paris, blowing up.

Speaker 2: 28:05

Yeah it's, it's nothing to do with that anymore. But he stepped and stepped in, trump Like fumbled with that and then all of a sudden, you know are the growth went from like a couple thousand to two hundred and forty eight Thousand active users in four months. Wow, that we're using it and so we. You know we had a couple of cease and desists. David asked me to step into YouTube world and help with some of the bashing of tip transparency. So I was almost going in there like, with my bar attitude, my bouncer attitude, I'm like I'm gonna go knock some clean this up people around.

Speaker 1: 28:40

Right.

Speaker 2: 28:41

I got in there, I started meeting some of the YouTube crowd. I really didn't and I had, so I made a YouTube channel. The first video I made, jason, was with you. Oh yeah, if you go back to my very first, it's with you. And actually it got like 1500 views because it was about para. And you were like how the hell did you just make a YouTube channel and I didn't know anything about it? So I was like I don't know, and it was just because it was about para, tip transparency.

Speaker 1: 29:06

That perfect time the day you learned about keywords and titles. I mean literally.

Speaker 2: 29:12

I think I I'm not kidding I think I had like 25 subscribers, oh my gosh, and got like 1700 views on that video. That's correct. It was a long form, it was an hour video.

Speaker 2: 29:22

Yeah, you do a long from so but I mean, like, so that happened and then I, you know, then I was I was still go moving with the audio podcast Because I mean I still to this day, I mean I, that's my baby, that's. I love the audio pack podcast. I know Jason does too like I love that. I I'm glad, to be honest, if I had started YouTube in May 2020, I'd probably, even maybe I'd have a bigger channel, but I don't think I'd be when I am. I might have like straight and followed some of the way that they other creators do things and that might have not made my channel what it is.

Speaker 2: 29:57

I think starting audio first made a very slow start for YouTube for me, but yeah, right, it made it so that, like I know all the big channels come and watch me. Yeah. Yeah, it's like maybe I don't have as many subs, but you know they're all watching what I'm doing, so what?

Speaker 1: 30:14

I. What I like about YouTube is the interaction and and I don't get enough of it on our channel I know a lot of those channels do and they're just bigger channels. I love that. You know the the audio format is very Private and personal and like this, so we have. You know you get certain amount of downloads. You know that many people are listening and then you're like, but you don't hear from them. You know what I mean. There's no, there's no. I get a lot.

Speaker 2: 30:38

I get it, but I put, but I say my email in every. I say if you, if you agree, disagree or just want to even Shoot your mouth off, yeah, I'm like, email me and I give my email in every episode, audio episode, and I get a lot of emails Really, oh yeah, we don't sometimes I get like wait, I get stories, even sometimes like really you gotta read this.

Speaker 1: 30:59

But I but when I yeah but what I'm saying? Is that's why I love YouTube, that's why we live stream. I mean we we could stop the live stream and nothing would really change in our statistics in the audio portion of it.

Speaker 2: 31:11

But I just because you're way bigger on your audio.

Speaker 1: 31:13

Yeah, oh yeah. But we just, I just love talking to people, like I love comments, I love having fun with people, even if we're just dicking around, not even talking about gig work, it's just fun.

Speaker 2: 31:24

It's funny, yeah. So yeah, you were probably the only one that I knew who did Live YouTube streams then moved it to audio. Other people I knew were doing audio. They were either doing just YouTube or they were doing audio and then doing premieres on YouTube. Oh, interesting, okay, I was always amazed by that, like okay, you're doing these live, then you drop it the next week on a podcast, right? So I was like that's interesting and I actually like that way better.

Speaker 1: 31:52

To be honest, yeah, I don't, I mean yeah. I don't, like I said, I'm not in the YouTube, like I literally, if I remember, to go back and edit you talk. We talked about the long intros.

Speaker 1: 32:01

But, I actually do go into the videos after I'm done streaming them and I do shorten it, but like that's the extent of my input into YouTube. Other than that, I don't know what the fuck's going on. So I was just looking at some of our data, or some of our information. It's got an old link in there that doesn't even work and in our info I'm like what is wrong with me? You know what I mean, but that would never happen on our RSS feed you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 32:25

So anyways, all right, moving on. I know we like to keep these a little bit short, but so the reason you for creating the content is just kind of the pandemic kind of spurred it right. You, just like I. I will.

Speaker 2: 32:36

I mean honestly you were, you really were a big jumping point for me on the next side, the website going and I wanted to do?

Speaker 3: 32:42

I was gonna say you, you had uber lift drivers before that right 20s.

Speaker 2: 32:46

27 March 2017 was when that's I still and still to this day, just like the audio podcast. That's still my baby, too. I post every day on there.

Speaker 3: 32:55

So what was the original idea behind uber lift drivers? Compared to, what made you start then? What made you go into the podcast?

Speaker 2: 33:06

so you guys were doing rideshare. Then you know, and March 20, march 2017, was right around the end of the Travis Kalanick era.

Speaker 2: 33:17

Okay and right before Dara came in and things were getting so, I mean I was like. I was like this is this, is this is worse than like World War news. It's like, oh, 59 million people's data was leaked and and did they tell anybody? No, they hired a kid to try and hide it. Oh, we did this and we were. We were anybody that had a blacked out account. We were making sure cars never showed up to pick you up and I mean they just that all the different things they were. I mean they still do weird things, but not like then. Then there was this craziness of like what you guys doing? Yeah, and I had been doing it for a while, and if you remember that January to March of 2017 was like the first dramatic drop For like art, for for a non-California rideshare market, yeah like Colorado, michigan, like you probably felt it too.

Speaker 2: 34:10

That was like when it really took that first dive, yeah, hey. And I was like, okay, this is enough. This news is crazy. The pay is going down. I'm gonna start a website on this, okay. And so I think the website ran for about six weeks of Travis being CEO and we didn't even know what. The day I started it I we didn't know that Dara was gonna be the get that and that Travis would be leaving. I thought I was gonna be writing for years on this Travis guy and and then six weeks later he was replaced by Dara and I was like, oh, now things are gonna get cleaned up and boring. And they stayed crazy. And I was like, okay, I'll keep it going, right, okay.

Speaker 1: 34:48

Do you feel? You feel it's got a little cleaned up, though? They've got a lot of Travis's boys out of there and it's less of a shit show.

Speaker 2: 34:57

Some people won't like this, but I preferred Travis oh really Okay.

Speaker 1: 35:01

I didn't know enough about.

Speaker 2: 35:02

I mean, look at you know, do I like the parts about him that people brought up like the Sue Susan Fowler, and like his way about acting around women in the office. Yeah, no but do I like the way that he treated drivers better. Yes, yeah this Travis actually did care about the drivers.

Speaker 1: 35:18

Yeah, I mean we made the most money we did with him in charge.

Speaker 2: 35:21

So I mean I mean he wasn't he did, he had his mistakes too, but how he dealt with the team on how important the drivers were, yeah was a lot different than the, the corporation running it.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Well now, with the Go ahead. Yes, sir.

Speaker 3: 35:35

I was just gonna do you think that's why we lost the multiplier.

Speaker 2: 35:39

No, cuz we had the multiple, the multiplier at least me here in Denver. Came went, came back, then they tried flat and they went back to multiplier them flat. Everything's been it.

Speaker 3: 35:51

I know we I mean, as far as I remember back we didn't go back and forth, we only had the multiplier and then it was gone. So at least in when I drove. But I was just wondering if you think that they had to connect it. It was connected to the fact that Dara took over and it's kind of dead.

Speaker 2: 36:07

Well, I'm sure on some level, because Derek came in and heard price cutting, I mean right, no pun intended either, cuz Dara was the CEO of price line when he came in.

Speaker 3: 36:18

What one of the things that I always hated about Cutting the multipliers. It was a. It was much more a game for me back when the multiplier was on. There was much more. There was much more of the what's the word I'm looking for like excitement and and this whole. It was just a trip. When you out at night and when, when people, people hit the street and the bar was closing, it was just, you know, it was just at its best and it was just fun to to kind of wait for that and we had all this this. Yeah, I remember many a night. Me and Jason and all the other guys are waiting at the parking lot downtown. We're just waiting for the boss to come out. Right, I'm, you know, okay.

Speaker 3: 37:00

Oh yeah, I told the apps off and, yeah, we wait till 5 after we turn it back on again. It was like this whole routine we had going on, so ever since they everything, they killed the modifier, that's that multiplier. Sorry then, that kind of went downhill.

Speaker 2: 37:15

So I want to be careful with my answer here, because I hate the gamification on the apps. But I do agree with you, jesper. In those days the gamification was worth it. It's like I would never, once it went to flat surge. I would never, ever drive towards a surge. In fact, if I saw a certain God, that's urge. I actually would go to where there's no surge, because I know that's gonna have a lot of people needing rides.

Speaker 2: 37:37

Yeah and the surge is gonna have the overload of everybody driving there. So, but with the multiplier, you could see, and if you knew your market, like you know yours and like I know mine, we knew like, oh, that's the end of this, that's the highest. Yeah, yeah, you start figuring out starting the events about to let out.

Speaker 2: 37:54

Yes, we knew how to read it, as is there enough time to get there and make it work. One thing I used to do I think you guys even know this was I used to go up to Summit County and snowboard all day and I'd throw my board at my friend's house and I'd drive all night. In Breckenridge I just go downtown park and I drive. I'd wait for it to be 10 times, 11 times Mmm surge, so I would do $80 rides for two miles going up ski hill road. Oh yeah, they're 18 million dollar Airbnb. Nice, yeah, you know. So I mean, I would just sit. I was like making $500 a night after snowboarding. Yeah, those are the good old days, and that's.

Speaker 1: 38:32

You bring up a good point. Talking about the, the chasing of the surge. I never thought. I just don't do that anymore.

Speaker 2: 38:39

I don't think anyone does like it used to be you would chase the multiplier.

Speaker 1: 38:43

But now it's not even worth it. But no, on a flat surge.

Speaker 2: 38:46

It's not worth it. Plus, like I mean I don't know about you guys, but like sporting events and things like that, like it has to, it had to be. Like I even had levels Like I would go to this area for three plus times, but like if it was a Pepsi Center event, I needed to be eight times because you had to get in there. Oh yeah, so I mean the likelihood of your ride being what you thought it might be was gonna be three times as long.

Speaker 1: 39:10

Yeah, that's such a good point, yeah, and now they get one, maybe two rides, and now they give you this flat rate of $5, but they lowered the regular fare to to compensate for that.

Speaker 1: 39:20

Like it's not even it. It went from multiplier to flat rate, which was like, okay, my ride was $10. I get an extra five. Right Now it's like it should be $10. It's still like it's like $12 now because they've reduced the rate and added some of the flat rate. It's fucking scam. I hate it and I'm so frustrated and I got a terrible offer for this weekend and I have to drive this weekend. I'm pissed, that's my rant but you have.

Speaker 2: 39:46

But see, jason has his other gigs too. When I knew when I met Jason, he was doing I mean, yes, but you have another gig too. Both these guys do. So Jason was doing lawn care, so he had another. Like in the summer he, he almost wasn't, he was barely doing any.

Speaker 1: 40:03

Driving it off in the other. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:06

So you know, To the full timers, it's different. Yeah, the part time it's like and it almost becomes scary, because it's almost like I'm too tired to go out tonight. If you're a part-timer, you could just oh gosh.

Speaker 1: 40:18

Not doing yeah, when you come home or something to eat a lot, eat dinner and then you're like you're gonna, I'm gonna go back out. Yeah, the fuck you are. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 40:26

Like there's been a couple of times where I would get up at you know five o'clock in the morning on Friday morning and work my normal job, and then I eat my dinner, whatever, and then I go out to Uber and then I won't actually get to bed until five o'clock. So I I mean, I know I know I shouldn't say this, but yeah, I only drive for 12, you know 10, 12 hours, but I've been off for 24.

Speaker 1: 40:52

Yeah, yes, that's crazy. All right, we're wrapping up here, Steve. What do you got coming on the horizon? Like I know, you got your 300th episode though epithos episode. Yeah, I got a little list there. All of a sudden was Sergio. What else you got going on so?

Speaker 2: 41:08

first of all I want to tell I see a couple people in my chat and I see some people I know in here. First of all, subscribe to these guys. Yeah, I appreciate their channel name. I don't even know.

Speaker 1: 41:17

I don't even know.

Speaker 2: 41:18

I mean post it in the chat.

Speaker 1: 41:19

Yeah, I don't ever push that I shouldn't be economy show.

Speaker 2: 41:22

I'm gonna yeah, I know you subscribe to these guys. Subscribe to this channel. It's the gig economy podcast. So, right, if you're on my channel, come over here. If you I see some of you are in here Subscribe to these guys. I would appreciate it. But I do every Wednesday. I do the last mile, which is what I was finishing up with before this, which is just kind of the courier stuff that I talked about.

Speaker 1: 41:41

Yep yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:43

Thursday nights still do the round table. Saturdays the my 13 has blown up like that's become like one of the biggest things I do. It gets like 14 to 1700 down your 13 minutes of news.

Speaker 1: 41:57

Yeah, nice.

Speaker 2: 41:58

And that's of like the last three or four weeks. I mean it used to do like two to 350 views.

Speaker 1: 42:04

Yeah, you just never know blown up.

Speaker 2: 42:06

You never know, but I've also gotten a lot better at thumbnails, though, too. Yeah, and that's and that is huge. I had a lot of people tell me you gotta get into the thumbnail thing.

Speaker 1: 42:15

I was like yeah, I know I Get in can, but it takes me like six seconds.

Speaker 2: 42:22

But I, tonight we do have something extremely random going on. At 10 pm Eastern, 7 pm Pacific. I have Tremaine hey ho from hey ho studios, I have Ryan Welty from Welty, I have Tony, the driven dad, and I have my son, max. So we have ages 17 251 talking about cancel culture. Oh, oh, that should be interesting. It's not a gig related thing, guys, but come watch it, it's gonna be fun. It's like the third one we've done like this. Max and Tony have never been on, it's just been well teaming and and Tremaine doing this just random thing that we stumbled on to, yeah for sure, and we did one in March, we did one last month, we're doing one this month and we're doing one next month. Next month, next month is on AI in the future of work in America. Okay, this one is cancel culture. I don't know how this will go. It'll be interesting.

Speaker 1: 43:15

Oh man, you're just God, you're like on the mic. Oh, you become like a regular, like Radio guy.

Speaker 2: 43:22

I don't know, it's not radio, radio is dead, but like you're doing three shows tonight, so well, and then I, and then I record on Mondays, and all this is always after I work to. I work every day.

Speaker 2: 43:32

Well of course, so it's. I mean, you know, but Mondays I record the podcast that drops every Tuesday. Oh okay, and if and if, like, if it's youtubers, or if I think it's totally worthwhile and I did it, like this video, then I bring it to YouTube. But it's not a weekly thing and I'll drop it on Tuesday. But nice, sometimes I, sometimes I don't on purpose because I want people to go to the audio side too right?

Speaker 1: 43:59

Yeah, I would prefer people download the show, but you know, I'll take what I can get, all right guys. Thank you guys so much for listening. Check out Steve's show, right, your rodeo anywhere, just Google that I mean I, I can see all over the place. Yeah, I mean when you're, when you post so much like you don't really have to like give a specific website. But I mean the Uber lift drivers, calm or ride your rodeo. Just Google that shit. You'll find Steve, all over the place you can go to ride your rodeocom too.

Speaker 2: 44:25

It just takes you to Uber lift drivers. Yeah, it's all redirected right to Steve's wallet, so don't know.

Speaker 3: 44:32

Anyways, guys, bank with you.

Speaker 2: 44:35

Guys only do what the real not you guys, but the other people really knew what the what we make on these. Oh. I mean, there's some people who bank, of course, but but the most of us like no, just know if you're, if you're planning on it. It's a hard road.

Speaker 3: 44:50

Good luck. There's very few mr Beast out there.

Speaker 1: 44:55

Yeah, all right, next week Wednesday we will not be here. We're taking off for Thanksgiving will be the following week and yeah, guys, thanks so much for listening. Thanks for Steve's peeps that came over. I really appreciate that, and have a good night. This podcast is produced and edited by hey guys media group. Want to start a podcast? Check out hey guys media group. Calm.

Speaker 3: 45:45

You.