MEDIASCAPE: Insights From Digital Changemakers
Join hosts Joseph Itaya and Anika Jackson as they dive into conversations with leaders and changemakers shaping the future of digital media. Each episode explores the frontier of multimedia, artificial intelligence, marketing, branding, and communication, spotlighting how emerging digital trends and technologies are transforming industries across the globe.
MEDIASCAPE is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. This online master’s program is designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.
MEDIASCAPE: Insights From Digital Changemakers
Navigating Neurodiversity in the Digital Age with Jimmy Clare
Jimmy Clare, the digital changemaker behind Crazy Fitness Guy, shares his inspiring journey from overcoming early challenges with autism and a nonverbal learning disorder to becoming a prominent advocate and influencer. We dive into Jimmy's unique perspective on the intersection of autism and fitness, and how his personal experiences shape his advocacy. His passion for technology and media, nurtured by his family, has led him to create a platform that champions health and wellness without judgment. Through his story, we explore the potential of technology to empower individuals with autism and the importance of designing accessible user experiences.
As an autism advocate, Jimmy sheds light on the growing complexity of autism diagnoses and proposes new ways to understand the condition, such as the term "autism web." He envisions innovative tools to help recognize social cues, highlighting the gap between current technology and the needs of neurodivergent individuals. Our conversation also touches on the critical need for direct human support over impersonal chatbots, and how technology giants can better meet the needs of diverse communities. Jimmy's insights call for a more inclusive approach to technology design, one that values and supports all users.
Transitioning from keynote speaking to podcasting during the pandemic, Jimmy recounts his initial hesitations and eventual growth in this new medium. Balancing podcasting with education and keynote engagements, he shares valuable lessons on self-investment and maintaining mental well-being. Our discussion also covers optimizing website design for user-friendly navigation and the importance of continuous learning. We wrap up with an invitation to explore more about Jimmy's advocacy work on his website, encouraging listeners to join the digital changemaker community. Tune in next week as Annika Jackson introduces another inspiring guest, keeping the momentum of empowerment and insight alive.
This podcast is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. An online master’s designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.
Welcome to Mediascape insights from digital changemakers, a speaker series and podcast brought to you by USC Annenberg's Digital Media Management Program. Join us as we unlock the secrets to success in an increasingly digital world.
Speaker 2:I am thrilled to have Jimmy Clare on the podcast today. I had the opportunity to be on Jimmy's podcast and live video show and really enjoyed it and knew that, Jimmy, that you could make such an impact by coming on the Mediascape podcast. So thank you for being here.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. I appreciate it and I'm so sorry again for my internet troubles and I'm so glad I can make it because I hate when I have internet troubles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we all do. We all do, and you're not the only one today. I'd love for you because you truly are that. You know. This podcast is Mediascape Insights from Digital Changemakers, and I do see you as a digital changemaker. You are a keynote speaker, podcaster, live stream host and autism advocate, and you were diagnosed with autism and nonverbal learning disorder. Can you tell us a little bit about what that means? Together and separate?
Speaker 3:Basically what that means is I didn't speak at an early age for basically a lot. Basically, my parents were told that I may never be able to fully speak, might not be able to clean, cook, might not be able to clean, cook, and some people listening might be wondering clean, who likes cleaning anyway? Because I don't Every time I have to put my to-do list, clean the bathroom. I was like why can't this be some automatic cleaning feature? That'd be great Self-cleaning. And so basically, the list goes on and on and on. And my parents got me speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and you're probably wondering, like, what does that have to do with talking? Not everything has to do with talking. The speech does, but the other stuff was, I guess I wasn't reaching my milestones in walking tying shoes. My coordination was not the best Well, still not, depending on my nice new wrist issue. So I'm prone to injury. So you might as well just wrap me up in bubble wrap while I walk, can't you? So basically, to make a very, very long story short, basically because I was not reaching some kind of milestones some may set in place. I still don't know who is in charge of those milestones.
Speaker 3:Eventually I started to learn how to talk, tie my shoes. And what's really funny though, it wasn't really that necessary for me to learn tying shoes, because now we have slip-on shoes. Anyway, it's not the old. When they first came out they were like, oh, this is what your grandparents would wear. Now it's style gym shoes, shoes wearing slip-ons. So I was like, yeah, really great milestones. This was like when I was born in 1993. And it's like we're going to set all these limitations on you and yet, fast forward, we have slip-on shoes. That does not look like grandparent shoes, not making fun of my grandparents.
Speaker 2:So your platform is Crazy Fitness Guy. I'd love to hear how you went from being diagnosed, finally hitting your milestones, to becoming this keynote speaker, podcaster, host person who is really advocating for health and you know through your platform of me not putting any judgments or not limiting to me of based on data, because you know how data is so accurate.
Speaker 3:I have proof on that. Just go if anybody who won, and so I just I have to make a reference, but if anybody who runs a website, you know what I mean. Google Search Console does not go along with Google Analytics. And one thing, just one other thing I want to add on there. Those two will never match. So I just wanted to point out how accurate data is. Not at all. So, basically, because my friends, my family members, and didn't put any limitations on me due to being autistic didn't treat me any differently. I mean, I needed some extra help in school. I still need some in college, depending on what the course is. If it's something about media-related or tech, I'm good, but if it's math, well, I'm never going to be an accountant. Not that I want to be an accountant and I'm not going to find any of accountants. Of course, me and numbers do not go together whatsoever. I mean, I can still do math, but it's going to take me a while to equations and formulas Not my thing.
Speaker 2:Or science? Yeah, did media and tech come to you naturally? Or you just found you had an affinity for it, and so the more interested you were, the more you kept learning.
Speaker 3:Yep, that's pretty much what happened. I got into my brother and my dad taught me a lot about all the some stuff about media. My dad I was in charge of it when for his work and he basically taught me stuff that he knew, my brother knew. But then there was a certain point where they couldn't teach me anymore. So I just started playing around with buttons and you might probably think, well, are you going to blow up the computer or something? And it's like no, it's pretty hard to do that.
Speaker 3:Most of you are going on suspicious websites and I'm keeping that PG. So whatever you want to fill the blank in in your own mind, go right ahead. But basically what I did I was like, well, there's really no way to screw up a computer unless you know where to factory reset and go into suspicious websites. And so basically I got more comfortable with everything I wouldn't say.
Speaker 3:I know the computer inside and out, I know what kind of specs to get for computers, but basically and I know what kind of stuff, but I'm more of a software kind of person, like I can tell you that the software to stay stay away from software to go after one of the software I use is for my own business, for my streaming platform I highly do not recommend is by Logitech. So and you might say that's a personal preference but my last 10 guests I had on my show they'd been having a lot of troubles logging in on the guest end and so I told them. So basically I kind of just been throwing them under the bus every single episode. I know they've never sponsored my show anytime soon. I was like thanks, I will never be backed by Roger Tech, I'm okay.
Speaker 2:So your family treated you like an equal. They helped you understand technology, computers, all the ins and outs that you would need. But now you're a podcaster, a host, and I understand you also were bullied a bit by other people, but now you're a fitness enthusiast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and how I got into the whole Crazy Fitness Guy was? It started off with a project that I did after my first English class in college. It was going to just be a self-improvement kind of project to keep writing, because who's going to write in a Word document every single day? Not me. Then I decided to go to you know what could I possibly do to continue my writing, to be a better writer? So I said let's start a website. And like that was an idiot idea of mine, because the reason why it was an idiot idea because and I want to make it clear that I'm not bashing this company, I say is I went to WordPress like everyone else did.
Speaker 3:And, for those who may be familiar with WordPress, the reason why it was a bad idea for me is because, even though I've come from a technological background, technological background plus website is a whole different ballpark of crazy plugin does not work with this plugin and vice versa, and I was like there's no way that the whole internet runs on.
Speaker 3:Wordpress is like I'm economic. Basically, it only came in my mind where I just saw somebody just picturing something, just like banging their head on the desk all day, just from all the frustrations that I I was working 90 plus hours a week doing that. So then I jumped to Squarespace for five, four years and then on my fifth year that I was going to renew, I jumped to PodPage, where I'm happily at because and not bashing Squarespace either but just my needs changed. So I'm not saying don't go to Squarespace or anything, it's changed. So I'm not saying don't go to Squarespace or anything and I'm not saying don't go to WordPress. It is that if you're not somebody who's familiar running the websites and stuff, go to somebody who does or hire somebody who does.
Speaker 1:But I didn't have the resources to hire somebody.
Speaker 3:So I was like I'd rather go to somebody who knows who runs it like an actual party, not the person, because, let us say, someone in my family and I'm not going to name the title or who it is to keep it discreet but let's just say the person I know is being taken advantage by a certain someone in that department because he relied on a certain person and it's like you're doing it with a company and it's like this guy is taking advantage of you, but of course no one listens to me. It's like well, what do you know, jimmy? It's like, well, it's only my mom must study that flippant study in college. I know nothing. No one takes my advice, though.
Speaker 2:So you started out with the website first, but how did you become a fitness enthusiast, an entrepreneur, the crazy fitness guy?
Speaker 3:Well funny. Basically I've had family members who's been in entrepreneur mindsets, played a lot of Monopoly growing up and pretty much every time when I hung out with my cousins growing up just playing games, being an entrepreneur always came to mind. My imagination ran wild. And how I got into fitness was after I lost 30 pounds with P90X. I was like there's not many people who speak about autism and fitness from their point of views.
Speaker 3:Now, I'm not saying I'm the world's leading expert in fitness and everything, because I know I'm not, but I understand why it has worked for me and that makes me an expert of me. I'm not saying saying hey, go do this. I'm just saying, hey, if you want to try it, go try it. But I'm not saying, okay, go recommend this, because you and I don't have any degrees in fitness. But I'm just sharing from my autistic point of view. It's like, well, if it worked for me, it could work for somebody else. Yeah, but what got me into the whole autism advocacy was I got frustrated. I'm still a little bit frustrated. I don't say frustrated, but I'm inspired to shape Like I'm going to speak at the top tech conferences at some point and say I'm going to speak at the top tech conferences at some point and say, with all this technology, we have AI now and everything else. I was like we need to create devices that basically support people with autism and extra challenges. And I was like we probably could make something more affordable. At the moment, we have the top $4 billion companies in the world that have and it's like we probably can make something more affordable. At the moment, we have the top $4 billion companies in the world that have all the money in the world at the moment. And I'm not saying that to preach or anything, I'm just stating a fact. And I'm only saying that because I don't care about politics, I don't care about any of that stuff, but basically because, like much to say, the start of this week was very emotional and I was thinking to myself if only I can read social cues better.
Speaker 3:And it's like wouldn't it be cool to have some kind of James Bond glasses that would take something that would basically say, not like it doesn't show on the front end, but just on the back end for myself, and it's like, oh, this person's happy or he's sad or mad, because, like I said to my parents, I said to my brothers, like I can hear the tone in people's voices, but just because somebody is mad doesn't mean doesn't share with me, me, what are you mad at? Was it something I did? Was it something it was like? All I know is like okay, I entered the room. Person's mad. Okay, are you mad at me or did I do something wrong?
Speaker 3:I can't read minds and then if I ask, then I'm prying. So it's like what do I do? And so it's like why can't google come up with something like this? And so it's like what do I do? And so it's like why can't Google come up with something like this? And then it's like in Apple, but the only thing that two seem to come up with like, hey, you know what? We just created? Like 10 cameras on a phone. And it's like how many more cameras can we put on the phone? Let's try 30. How about that?
Speaker 2:Right, but they're not solving issues that affect a large part of the population. Right, I was talking to a guest and we were talking about how 28.7% of the population has some kind of disability or different ability, as I would prefer to state and that's a huge market segment that's being overlooked. A lot of consumer power, a lot of buying power for organizations and people that need to have access to these tools that you're talking about.
Speaker 3:Well, here's a stat for you from the Autism Painting Magazine. When I was born, there was one in 150 diagnosed with autism back in 1993. 1993. Now and today, just as last year in 2023, it was one in 36 people being diagnosed with autism today and the total stat is 247% 247% since 2000. So I was like, okay, so autism is not just 1 in 150 anymore. It's not rare.
Speaker 3:It's like everything is literally falling on the spectrum and I didn't even consider a spectrum anymore. To be honest, I really feel like they need to be, because at some point you would think that the spectrum has to end. So I thought of a creative term that I actually know a couple of people with autism and as adults, and I ran it by them to see. It was like what do you think about them, about this? And so, based on my idea for it and feel free anybody to take this idea, but you have to give me a a little footnote in it and my brand name next to it that's my exceptions and basically my idea was being the autism web, because at least the web would be autism in the middle.
Speaker 3:Whatever goes from this and this, and we'll think of a bit one of those mind maps that comes to mind. So because at least it can keep going and keep going, and keep going where the spectrum is like when does it run out? Does it run out? Does it hit one of the you know in the cartoons growing up, and it's like does it just keep going to infinity until the road runs out somewhere? I don't know.
Speaker 2:When it comes to websites technology. What are some things, factors, perhaps, that people should be thinking about when they're thinking about how are we going to have the right user experience and interface for somebody who's neurodivergent or autistic, or both?
Speaker 3:So I have to give this example and make sure that it's easy to.
Speaker 3:I think the easiest way possible is to make it easy for it to contact someone from customer support live chat either a live chat box floating or a link to it so that if you can't find something, somebody can just give you the information.
Speaker 3:But do not use a stupid chatbot, because and here's why when I contacted my internet provider today, I noticed a few chatbots did not like my voice. I mean not saying they programmed specifically for me, but basically since sometimes my voice gets monotoned and I talk like a robot sometimes which I know it's not really always the case but if I'm just like speaking like blah blah, blah, blah, just quietly to my parents, but basically the robot like when I say home, it's like oh, I'm sorry, I don't understand you. I'm like how do you not understand? It's like I literally just had the word home and, uh, it still doesn't understand. It's like oh, like, oh, she's coming through an agent and it went back to the robot a few times and it's like, I swear. It's like they're just truly like okay, you know anybody named Jimmy and Claire, just give them the robotic voice and we don't give a crap.
Speaker 2:So voice recognition technology still has a long way to go is one thing that you're saying. And then having a nice user experience where it's easy to find the information you're looking for or it's easy to communicate with somebody in customer service who can help you navigate that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and somebody who knows what they're talking about, so like if I had explained something. Let's say, oh, I used to be able to do such and such, let's say just using Logitech. Example my guests can't come into the studio. It says loading. Please wait or join, but nothing happens. Then there's like, oh okay, we got to go fix this, and they just go fix it. Or they know what you're talking about, but so far all I got was an autoresponder and all, and I paid a lifetime tool for it and all I get is a lifetime wait for it. So I'm like so that's where I stand, that's good yeah I don't know, money back.
Speaker 3:so crazy fitness guy started as a website when did you move it to being a live stream platform and a podcast? It started to after just having like just writing articles for it. It started to become a podcast once I got into. It started going to a podcast when I started being a keynote speaker Because at the time when I had very peccable timing and by very peccable timing I'm being very sarcastic I started my keynote speaking career right at the height of the pandemic and I was like that's great timing. And so my college professor told me, who I still stay in touch with today and because she's been going to bat for me, helping back in my credibility I got voted literally voted out of about 20 people in my public speaking class as the most persuasive speaker and I was like I don't take that for granted, I wear that as a name tag, but basically, yeah, so you were keynote speaking.
Speaker 2:You started during the pandemic and did your professor encourage you?
Speaker 3:She basically encouraged me to go into podcasting to get my name out there, because she's like, right, right now, we don't know when you can go back into speaking in public, because you know I saw so many no offense or anybody listening but there were some people, so many people, online during the pandemic and it kind of cracked me up on some of these people. It was like, yeah, you know, speaking is easy and yet they're just talking to your camera. It's like this is not public speaking and it's like the reason why people are afraid of public speaking is because they have to speak right in front of an audience and see what their reactions are to on people's faces, and that's why public speaking is the number one fear. So, basically, so she encouraged me into the podcasting and I like to describe it this way. When she told me it's like jimmy, has it, start the podcast I basically looked at her like my, how my dogs look at me, like I had six heads and she basically and I was like a podcast on top of everything else I do I was like are you totally nuts?
Speaker 3:Well, my very first podcast interview that I got on luckily for me the person's host at the time and I'm not going to say who the host was, because they rebranded and I'm not trying to bash anybody and I'm not trying to bash anybody, so but at the time it was a good start for me because I was like, well, this person, like on the hosting setting, there was like a way to hide a logo or show the logo of the host, and basically she kept it front and center and basically, which I didn't mind, because it's like basically was kind of handing me on a silver platter. It's like, well, now I have a host, now I don't have a way for me to back out of podcasting now. So I was like, well, I didn't have to do any research.
Speaker 3:No, I don't mean, I don't do any research but, just because I'm still figuring how am I going to do this and still do a podcast? How out, how am I going to do this and still do the podcast? How much research am I going to have to do to figure this whole thing out? And I figured let's get started, even if I mess up a few times. I'd rather just get started, figure my way out, versus I could read every single article on the planet Earth and still won't get started because I I ran into this person not gonna do many names, but they's like I'm gonna do this a, b, c and d before I do this.
Speaker 3:You know what happened.
Speaker 2:Never heard from them, ever again yeah, yeah, that's often what happens, I think. We get excited about something but then we don't start acting on it, and if you don't start taking action, then it's easy to let it fall behind and then just to let it die. So today you monetize. This is your job podcasting, keynote speaking. You're also a student.
Speaker 3:Yep, currently not in this semester just because, let's just say, I had a science course for my degree but since science is not my expertise, I need some extra help. Let's just say I didn't have anywhere to go for extra help this semester, so, and my tutor, who tutored me in statistics, who did much better than my stats professor, who didn't teach anything whatsoever I mean it was not my course, to be fair, but I mean, let's just be honest, he was non-existent. So basically, we. So, even though I could have asked my friend for help let's just say the directions of the course I couldn't figure out the assignments and I was either staying this course and figure out how to get help or drop it to get my money back, and was like, okay, I'm gonna drop it because I also had the opportunity to go to Japan with my brother for 10 days.
Speaker 3:I was like, take this course or go to Japan and I'm like and plus, my parents were going through knee surgeries and hip surgeries, so they couldn't help me with science either. So I was like, you know, I'm just gonna take the semester off, I'm gonna go into japan and join myself. I mean, I mean I didn't drink or anything, but I mean I was like, but I was feeling just tense, stress and everything else whatsoever. And so I was like, okay, maybe a time away from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, because in New Jersey I go back and forth on the shore in the summertime. But I was like, maybe I just need to completely get away from everything. And so I was like, okay, let's go. And I was excited.
Speaker 3:But I was also just nervous because like, okay, I don't really want to mess up when I get my associate's degree, so I can get to move forward, continue moving forward. I'm telling you, everybody put so much pressure on me. My parents are like when are you going to graduate? When are you 60? I'm like, well, if you keep trying to keep from more trial opportunities underneath me?
Speaker 2:Well, I'd love to hear more about how people can support your podcast, your YouTube channel, your keynote speaking.
Speaker 3:Well, the easiest way for people to support me, I have a premium version of my podcast called Crazy Fitness Guys Premium Podcast. It was either that or changed the whole logo and everything else. It's like I think people will know what premium stands for. So I mean, I wasn't saying that sarcastically, I just like I was like I don't know what else to call it Crazy Fitness Guy Plus. It sounds boring. So basically, there's a premium version of my podcast. You get extra bells and whistles, ad-free, of course. It's all listed on the site, so just go to that. It's under the mall link. It tells you what you get in each version. And if you don't want the extra bells and whistles, there's just the ad-free version on my hosting platform that it's $4 a month. It's either $3.99 a month or $30 a year, but basically at the moment the hosting will not only let me do it monthly, so that's why it's $4. It didn't let me do it $3.99. So I was like like I'm just gonna probably argue over a penny right yeah, I tried it.
Speaker 3:So if you want to hire me from keynote speaking, there's a form on my site under speaking. It gives you a quote. Let me know. Yeah, budget wise can negotiate, I don't care, I'm flexible. So you can hire me for speaking and just subscribe to your YouTube channel. You can listen to my podcast everywhere. You can get your podcasts. I always like to say at the end of my show if you can't find me on your platform, reach out to me. I'll put it on your platform and I'm still working with SiriusXM on how to get my podcast on the show.
Speaker 2:Fantastic.
Speaker 3:It's like well, they haven't reached back to me yet, and it's like any day.
Speaker 2:now I'm also wanting to know how having a podcast and a platform has changed your life.
Speaker 3:I think how it changed my life is I met a lot of amazing autism advocates around the United States, around the world. I get to meet all these amazing people I have never would have ever meet otherwise. I get to talk one-on-one with an expert for a whole hour. Otherwise, I get to talk one-on-one with an expert for a whole hour without having to charge me a dime. I mean, I'm not being sarcastic on it.
Speaker 3:These people's expertise a lot of them I talk to they've gone through hours and hours of work to get their degrees and a master's and doctorates and whatnot. They would cost me like thousands and thousands of dollars for a whole hour and yeah, or by the hour, and so to get them on your podcast. That's pretty crazy. I mean, it's exposure for them, but it's also exposure for you. It's like guess what? I'm having a bunch of experts coming in. They're not a bunch of newbies. Some of them, I mean, are other podcasters who sometimes are serious, sometimes they're not serious, but those I've gotten better at figuring out who's who but not naming any names, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:I don't mind if somebody's a hobby, but tell me you're a hobby or whatever. But if you're serious, you better show up on time and be serious, and I'm not saying you personally, andrew.
Speaker 2:I know. Yeah, it is important. It is important to be able to kind of separate. I've had the same experiences that you have had with some of these issues, depending on if somebody is more of an obvious or it's taking it seriously as part of their business and thought leadership. If they're just trying to get as many episodes to get it ranked on a chart, that may or may not mean anything.
Speaker 2:Jimmy, I also was wondering for the people who are listening, many of whom are students getting their master's in digital media management. We do talk about accessibility, we do talk about equity. We talk about designing a great user experience. So earlier you did say if there was something that could help you. We talked about some website things that could help customer service, and you also mentioned, of course, if there was a tool or device that could help you read people better, because I do know it can be hard for anyone, but, particularly if you're autistic, there's another layer of complexity with people's varying tones and all of that. What are some recommendations or other things that you would like to see come out in the market, or things that people should consider if they're neurotypical and that they are really thinking about design in an accessible way?
Speaker 3:I would say, put the most important links at the top of the website. Like I know, it kind of depends on the platform, how it's built, but, like for my own stuff, like I put, I put the mall, I put the about a way to contact and the the best way to contact. So I, uh, because by email, emails are not the best way because I mean, depending on how companies are set up, but like emails, they can get lost in trash spam, depending on security, it might be lost in cyberspace and then you have to think about that. But I would say, put your most important stuff on the top If you want. At the bottom you have extra stuff. Maybe repeat the stuff that's at the top or add some stuff that you wanted to add, but put it down there.
Speaker 3:Yes, I look top and bottom of websites to say, oh, okay, like, look at amazon, it's a little crowded but at least it's labeled nicely. Like, oh, this is this, this is that I can find something. But, for example, example, I have a bad website. Look at Verizon. It goes from Verizon Miles, verizon Fios, and then trying to figure out, trying to log in, and it's like, oh, what's your account number? I was like, really, why can't we just go with just an email and password like everyone else anymore? So it's like what makes you guys special?
Speaker 3:And so my point is that you know there's so many people making chatbot softwares and it's like they all chatbots are stupid. It's like, yes, you can create a whole database, train it, but at the end of the day, if somebody types in something that the chatbot doesn't recognize, it's going to be stupid. It's going to be a stupid bot. And the reason why I know that is because I tried making a chatbot and it was stupid. I thought it was the way to go, but I was like this is really stupid. It's like chatbots need to go. But I was like this is really stupid. I was like chatbots need to die.
Speaker 2:Wow, and, of course, I want to ask you for a piece of advice that you would also leave the audience with from your personal professional life that's helped you move through the world. One thing that you had shared with me was always invest in yourself, and it definitely sounds like you've continued to believe in yourself, to invest in yourself and not be limited by what other people's expectations are.
Speaker 3:You know, I do believe in investing in yourself, because if you don't invest in yourself, like if you don't continue learning well, what do you have to offer? If you don't continue to educate yourself? What do you have to offer?
Speaker 3:If you don't continue investing in business, what do you have to offer? If you don't continue investing in business, what do you have to offer? And if you don't continue investing, like in your podcast host, what do you have to offer? You know there's freebies out there, like free hosting companies, but if those companies go on the wayside, what do you have to offer?
Speaker 2:Nothing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I get it. Money is tight, especially these days. I feel it, everyone feels it, but you know, who knows, maybe it will get better, hopefully. And basically what I say to people you know, just because you can't get to the most fanciest house whatsoever, don't go to the like all the ways. Freebie may start free before the first, maybe the first year, just until you get the hang of it and what, what you want to do with it, how you plan to go forward. But invest in some stuff. I mean, don't go into the most inexpensive tools and go bankrupt. But you know, if you can get some good deals, like you know, go go on app sumo.
Speaker 3:They have life. There's certain companies that start off with life like lifetime products. I mean keep them on there for like forever and ever and ever, because then they need to make money. But yeah, I got a few lifetime tools the Logitech one, which I think has already been a lifetime, it feels like. But then there's other ones like Vista Social, my favorite marketing tool whatsoever. I'm like hands down, it has AI. I mean I don't use AI for everything. It's kind of cool that what they have, they have, they create this brand voice thing, so you can basically take how you say stuff and do stuff and what you would normally say, put it in the tool and basically spit back like close enough, and if I have to re-edit some stuff, I'm like, okay, you know.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 3:And it goes everything to my social media. I can schedule stuff out. I mean, I love this tool.
Speaker 2:I used to use HelloWolfie, but oh well, yeah, there are so many tools and thank you for sharing a couple of your recommendations. We're gonna have everybody go to crazyfitnessguycom. I'll have it in the show notes so that people can get all the information how to follow your show, how to support you, how to book you for a keynote. But I really, really appreciate you coming on sharing, sharing your perspective, a little bit of your story and how you've become an advocate, not just for yourself, but for many others.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me and please do go check out my website, because you know there's nobody backing me. I mean, I have a few sponsorships, but they're not paying my bills. I can tell you that they're saving me on some stuff, but they're not paying my bills. I would love them some. Just give me a million dollars a year, I'll be great.
Speaker 2:And, with that, thank you to everybody who's watching or listening to this episode of Mediascape Insights from Digital Changemakers. I'm one of your co-hosts, Annika Jackson, and I will be back, or my co-host, Joseph Attai, will be back next week with another amazing guest to share their story, their insights and how you, too, can think about becoming a digital changemaker.
Speaker 1:To learn more about the Master of Science in Digital Media Management program, visit us on the web at dmmuscedu.
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