Slabnomics
Finance-Bro turned Card Bird explores the intersection of collecting, investment, and market theory for sports cards.
Think Financial Analyst meets Sports Card Collector.
New Episodes drop Tuesdays @ 7 AM CST.
Slabnomics
Creating Hobby Content Ft. Stockn_trade
In this episode of Slabnomics, Matt sits down with Raul Bustamante — better known as Stockn_Trade on Instagram — to talk about sports cards, content creation, and the evolving market. Raul shares how his background as an actor helped him bring authenticity and humor into the hobby, why being yourself always wins against the algorithm, and how he went from collecting baseball and basketball to diving headfirst into soccer cards.
We explore:
- Raul’s content journey, from COVID hobbyist to one of Instagram’s most creative voices in the card world.
- The importance of authenticity in content and collecting, and why younger audiences spot fakes instantly.
- The rise of soccer cards, Erling Haaland’s “Shaquille O’Neal effect,” and how market cycles around the World Cup create unique buying and selling opportunities.
- Insights into the delicate ecosystem of the hobby — collectors, flippers, breakers, and repacks all playing vital roles.
- Why timing, liquidity, and strategy matter more than hype when navigating card markets across sports.
If you’re a collector, flipper, or creator looking to grow in the hobby, this episode is packed with lessons on authenticity, market cycles, and building content that resonates.
👉 Follow Raul on Instagram & TikTok: @stockn_trade
👉 Subscribe for more episodes of Slabnomics covering sports cards, investing, and market psychology.
sports cards podcast, soccer cards, Erling Haaland cards, Messi rookie, sports card investing, content creation tips, Instagram sports card creators, StockN_Trade interview, card market cycles, World Cup card investing, Raul Bustamante
Weekly Newsletter Signup: Slabnomics.com
🎥Youtube
📸Instagram
Hello, everyone. Today we're welcoming a special guest, Raul Bustamante, also known as Stock and Trade, on Instagram. Raul, how are you doing, man? I'm doing good, man. How are you doing? Doing fantastic. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to have you on. Some of your content that you put out is some of my favorite stuff out there, to be honest.
SPEAKER_01:Oh well, thank you. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. I think uh it's nice to see other creators taking advantage of the algorithm and kind of knowing how to go in and out of that because a lot of times in sports cards we're a little bit backwards from where modernity is. So I respect that you do that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh I appreciate it. At least I will I that's a little bit more uh that's a that's a little bit smarter than I still am. I try and do my best to just fight the algorithm as much as I can and have the basic idea of what it may or may not like. But in the end, we're all uh we're all at the mercy of it.
SPEAKER_00:So it's kind of like being in a relationship with a woman, really. You know, you think you know what she's doing and thinking, but at the end of the day, you just kind of give up and say that she's always right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's just like the more you fight it, the worse it's gonna be for you. So just go along with it and hope for the best, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Help happy algorithm, happy life. Couldn't find a right. Cool. Well, let's talk about your contents a little bit and your journey to get to where you are today. So tell me the story of how Raul came to be.
SPEAKER_01:Man, so I got into like trading cards and stuff like that during the the same old story that I hear probably 90% of the time. Is like during COVID, had more time on my hands. I loved trading cards, I love sports, so I started getting back into it. And then I saw people online that were like posting about cards, so I started doing the basic, like, here's my trading card, here's a photo of it. And then I was like, here's some videos. And then I started like have trying to have a little more fun with it and transitioning. And my full-time job is I'm an actor. So at the end of last year, I kind of I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but I was just like, why don't I lean into what I really enjoy doing is my career and just do actual social media content that kind of blends it all. And um, it started clicking. My my followers grew, people were really engaged with what I was doing, they they really liked it, and it's been fun. Now it's now it's just a matter of trying to keep up with things and not rehash something that I talked about two weeks ago and have completely forgot.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Hitting the content wall is a real thing.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So doing what feels natural, what feels authentic is something I hear a lot about.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man. So like, you know what it's funny. I was talking to my wife about it uh a couple weeks ago now that you mentioned that, and we were talking about like content and things like that. And she brought it up. She's like, I she's like, I think that things are going well right now because like you seemingly just don't care and you're just authentic with whatever your stuff you're doing. Like, most of the stuff that you see me doing and talking about on any of my skits is all stuff that I actually am doing and thinking about in my daily life in like this the hobby, you know. So yeah, I think that hopefully resonates with people knowing that I'm not putting on a show and I'm not just faking it and don't actually do any of this stuff. I'm breaking, I'm ripping into hobby boxes, I'm collecting cards, I'm selling cards, I'm you know, doing all this stuff. So I'm all I'm all in on that world right now, too. So hopefully hopefully it resonates. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it does. You're tapped into the pulse and that comes through with the content because it shows I I think that we see these days authenticity as reward in any kind of marketplace, and especially young people are really tuned into it. Yeah, if you try and be inauthentic with a young person, they're gonna ferret you out real quick.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they they've they got a real good sniffer. Those kids scare me.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, they do. Because they've been looking at fake stuff their entire lives. They've been looking at YouTube from like two years old.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's crazy. So good for them. Good for them to be able to figure it out. But yeah, I'll I'll try and keep uh being as authentic as possible if it's gonna help and make people happy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:When we enter into our boomer days, we have to have a lifeline with the young people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I gotta have somebody to take care of me when I can't move.
SPEAKER_00:For real. So content, we talk about journeys. Let's see, you've come through the acting path. Do I know you from anything?
SPEAKER_01:I always say I've done uh small things on big big shows. I've done a lot of TV and commercials. Now that I've gotten more into this, occasionally I meet see people that are like, Oh, I just saw you in this show, I just saw you on this commercial, which is fun. But uh for someone to recognize me on the street based on something that I've done would be a very tall task, I always say. I've had some runs on some TV shows the last a couple seasons, but it's always, like I said, small parts. I'm moving a scene along. And uh yeah, if you're a giant fan, then maybe you've been like, hey, wait, but it would be a tall task. But it's fun. I I love it. I'd rather keep this version of my career than uh a famous version of my career that I can't do anything about. So I'm happy to be where I'm at.
SPEAKER_00:So if I told you I had a bunch of bobbleheads of you and like a life-size poster and things like that, you'd be like I'd be like, Wow, you made all those yourself, so that's kind of weird because I know no one else is. Yeah. All right. Well, luckily this isn't a big reveal that I do because I don't.
SPEAKER_01:So you move your head and it's just me behind you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just a bunch of posters and everything else. Cool. Well, there are some similarities that we've talked about off-air as well between you and I. We both are big fans of Erling Holland, and we recognize that soccer is going into some good days, some solid days, I believe. Anything you want to talk to in that regard, since you don't really strike me just first blush as a soccer guy.
SPEAKER_01:I know. Well, I was so I grew up, you know, in that world of, you know, I playing baseball, basketball, football, US sports, you know, it's like, so like I didn't really get into soccer until I got into the hobby. And then I was turned on to it because of the cards. And then I started like watching the games and like meeting the community that is the soccer community, and I was like, wow, this game is amazing. First of all, I was like, these are true athletes, and fully enjoy the soccer card world more than any of the other sports card worlds, like for multiple reasons, but it just became like a really fun, fun way to collect. And yeah, Holland was just uh, we talked about it. He reminded me of like what people look for in like a prototypical like football or basketball, like major sports star, but was playing a sport that I really wasn't familiar with, and it seemingly was a little bit different comparatively to some of these leaner, smaller guys that are just quicker and just have these skills. But he had all this skill set and is 6'4, you know, 200 and something pounds muscling people around, which is very interesting. But yeah, I I I fell in love with that way. Plus, like, not for nothing, for better or for worse, for my collection. Now it's seemingly he scores two goals, people remember him again, and now his prices are going back up. So I tried to buy a card that was relatively the normal price for the last six months, and it went up by like 400 bucks. And I was like, Well, I guess I'm not buying that card now.
SPEAKER_00:One thing that you mentioned was that you got into soccer and then you saw this guy that was built like he was breaking the mold, yeah, and you were attracted to that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I think that's really interesting because most people that have been in soccer for a long time, they get used to the archetype, like the prototypical version of the score and the prototypical version of the past or messy with his his left foot magic. And so they they get accustomed to loving that prototype. But then new people come in and they love the new stuff where it's like, man, can't you see this behemoth trucking people on his way to scoring hat tricks all over the place? Yeah. And they're like, Well, that's not real soccer. And it's like, yeah, you kind of got to get with the times. You know, modern soccer is gonna change from how it used to be, and who knows what it's gonna be like in 10, 20 years.
SPEAKER_01:But it's I wonder, so I think about that a lot because I think about I equate him especially because uh the same player brought me into basketball, is I equate him to like Shaquille O'Neal, right? So I started following basketball because of Shaquille O'Neal. He was this superhero of a human being that showed up in basketball that no one had ever seen before, not the prototypical center. Everyone remembers Big Shaq, but at the time he was lean, he was quick, he was strong, he'd tear down backboards, you know. And then I expected that that was gonna be the prototypical center going forward. I think it they tried a couple things. Dwight Howard tried to be the same guy, and it never really fully came to fruition. Like that that world said, then the NBA changed over to what currently is now the Steph Curry era, the LeBron versions, you know, all these things guys. So I'm wondering, will this happen in soccer? Is is Erling gonna be this outlier of a player, you know, that is just like, well, he wasn't prototypical, but you know, and it was a monster. But since he wasn't, since nobody else followed him up, then the the world of soccer is like, see, he wasn't what soccer was gonna become. So I'm just I I hope not, but we'll see, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, is it gonna become giants running around trucking each other? Probably not.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:But it might open the door to people that thought, well, I'm too tall to play soccer, you know? Yeah, for sure. Gives those kids someone, something to hope for, an idol. Yeah. Yeah, right. And I I think it changes the sport a little bit and makes it grow and develop, which is something that we need, especially within the hobby for soccer. It needs to develop and it needs to get other people coming in from other sports card collecting. So, how long ago was that for you when you moved on from you said you're what were you collecting before soccer?
SPEAKER_01:A lot of so when I got back in in 2020, I immediately went back into baseball and basketball. Because those are the two sports I really collected as a kid. And Marvel, like I jumped back into like the Marvel world. I went backwards in time and started grabbing a bunch of like the older boxes. Um so I'd probably say like right around 2022, 2020, end of 2021 is when I kind of found some like soccer breakers online, and I just started like listening and watching and like learning from what they were doing and learning about players and who was popular, who was doing what. And then I just like I realized the chat was just different. And I I don't mean to say that like you know, baseball, football, or basketball chats are like uh like worse. I'm just saying they were just slightly different. It was just a a different conversation. It was a lot about legacy. People just remembered people's stats and seasons like differently. It was it's hard to explain if you're not in the chat, you know, because I think I say this and then people are like, Well, they do that in baseball and football too and basketball. And I'm like, right, but it's just it just there's something different about it, and I can't explain, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. The soccer community is unique and it's a special community. It's what really drew me in. Whenever I start talking to soccer guys, they're always welcoming, and I say this until I'm blue in the face. But those guys are amazing. Being at the Soko Expo and vending this year was a a truly remarkable experience. Got to meet all of those names that you get to see on Instagram. Yeah. And just talk to the guys and see their collections and just bro down.
SPEAKER_01:Those collections were crazy. Like the the amount of uh money that was sitting in some of those cases just from these massive collections was just bananas when I saw this stuff. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And it hits a little bit different too, because especially with the messy market doing what it's done in the past few months, which is pretty much double. A lot of people are are starting to say, well, messy is overpriced. And it brings up a lot of price discovery mechanism talk because soccer cards just don't sell like basketball cards. Messi silver, the last one in a PSA 10 that sold publicly was 2024. So it's like nobody knows what to buy them for, and they come in and they're like, the silver's that price. Well, what do I compare that to?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So is that something that you've noticed while you've been going around buying soccer cards? Is it something that's changed since you started in 2021, 2022?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I I mean, I've noticed that like so for me, like I mainly just buy Holland, but like when I'm looking at other players like Messi, these bigger players or Ronaldo that have particular cards closer to their rookie years that don't sell publicly, that's when you start seeing, like, well, what is this actually worth? But yeah, with the soccer market, I'm seeing an increase, which is very nice. And I think it's because the World Cup is coming up, and that tends I was thankfully in the last time the World Cup happened, and I saw the same thing happen. People just either hold or are selling as the time gets closer to the World Cup, which is always nice to see as collectors. But yeah, I I tend to see that there's there's always there is a drop-off though, right? Just like any other sport. There's like the top tier players with the command the money, like the Messies, you know, the Ronaldos, the still like Jude, Lamine, but then once it once it hits, then it just is a a steep drop-off, and it's like, yeah, I know you're I know you're still a good player, you know, but we don't you don't command as much money on the markets. Here's your$75 for this card. Should be seemingly probably more money. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think to the that's a really salient point because what I've noticed is when you have smaller markets, they tend to be less liquid. And when they're less liquid, then they're very top heavy. So you got Messi doing messy things, you got Ronaldo, as you point out. Holland had his time where he was the tippy top. There's also all these second rate players who come in super clutch at times. And there's one person that comes to my mind always for that, which is Mbappe. Yeah. That dude just knows when to score goals. So I think when I look at those markets that are like soccer, there's a lot of opportunity to buy the goats and then just ride them to the top and then sell them out for kind of a hype-driven player. So if you buy Messi right now and then you sell out at the beginning of the World Cup and buy Mbappe, then he scores a hat trick. There's all these little kind of elevators that you can ride. And I guess you said you're more of a collector, and that's more of a flipping appetite.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I that's a perfect point, right? So in soccer and other sports, there's always a cycle. And I do buy and sell other things for the cycle because I want to have money to purchase the cards that I want for my collection. So soccer in itself, I found last last World Cup was like you said, the big name players going up, great time to sell. Don't try and sell during or after because you're gonna be burnt really bad and you're not gonna get as much money. But the players to buy are those those those second-tier, third-tier players that all of a sudden score the game-winning goal or score or score, like you said, the hat trick or two goals in a World Cup game that were selling for 50 bucks, and now they're selling for 150 bucks because everyone is jumping in on this player that they think is going to continue to do this in the World Cup. So those are the guys that I would recommend buying previous to the beginning or something like that. So even if nothing happens, you can get out, you know, your money that you purchased, or maybe a little bit less, but because those are the guys that have a higher upside for gaining some money during the World Cup. Whereas like same thing for like football. Like if you're selling in the offseason, you're crazy, like for football. Like the time to sell is preseason or playoffs. Like the you better or you can keep your fingers crossed that your player makes it all the way to the playoffs and does something. It's the same thing for basketball and it's the same thing for baseball. It's all this weird cycle, you know. And I guess if nobody sold in the offseason and nobody sold during like the dead time of the regular season, then we'd all be screwed. But you know, there's always going to be sellers. But if you really want to make the most of your money, I find that those are the best times to be selling.
SPEAKER_00:I was just talking about that with Ryan Seaver, and we were talking about how you can simply time market cycles in buying and selling. 100%. Buy in the offseason, sell right before the season starts, and then rent and repeat for all the sports. And it's interesting that you bring up that journey of you buy in the offseason, do I sell, or do I think they're gonna go to the playoffs? And then it's almost this constant battle of self-doubt. They have a couple bad games, you're like, oh, maybe I should have sold them in the preseason, and then they they get back on the horse, and then you're like, oh, okay, that feels good. It's like this constant bad and good that you oscillate between, and then hopefully you get into the playoffs. Then you get into the playoffs and you're like, all right, we made it. It's been a journey. Do I sell now? Do I sell in the divisional? Do I wait till they get to the championship? Are they going it's it's such a kind of a head case?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right? I mean, there's always that it's like because every year there's somebody, right? Every year there's one QB that tends to, especially in football, if we're going that route. It's like last year was Jaden Daniels. Like he kept going further and further along, and I knew people that were just holding, holding, holding, and instead of because they were gonna sell and then push it all away because they were like, well, what if he makes the Super Bowl? Well, okay, if you are gonna sell and you don't want to hold on to him, I would just let him go now. And they didn't, and then you know, you watch the dip and then you hope for a rise and you hope he doesn't have a sophomore slump. CJ Stroud was a perfect example. People that held him into a sophomore year and got burned bad because his numbers never made it back up to where they were before, unless he makes a huge run this year and goes into the Super Bowl, I doubt you see that number rise up again. You know, it's like it's it's always that crazy gamble. And for me personally, if if if it's all about buying and and selling, if it means me losing a few hundred bucks, but I'm still gaining money off my initial investment or what I what I put into it, then I'm just gonna sell. Like I I don't worry about hindsight as much. It's like I understand there's always gonna be stuff that like really goes crazy, but I I tend not to get too upset over a couple hundred bucks, like because it could have gone the other way super fast.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Hindsight's 2020, right? But it's also good to know your risk tolerance, your risk aversion. When I'm thinking about it, it's like, man, maybe I should do those strategies where you buy five cards and then you sell out three, buy five in the offseason, sell three at the beginning of preseason because you think they're gonna go into the playoffs, you hold two, and then I think it's just having a strategy and having the confidence to believe in that strategy no matter what happens. So, say in that one that I'm saying I bought five, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna sell three immediately and take maybe twenty percent profit or something in the beginning, and then ride those other two. And then you don't have to worry about the the in-game swings and the game-to-game ups and downs.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And shoot, you might get lucky, and even before the end of the season, like your guy goes off for three weeks in a row and you're like, well, I can actually release now, like if you're really looking for that money. You know, and obviously everyone's different. So some people need the liquidity for whatever reason. Uh so you have to sell at certain times or you don't. So it's just everyone's everyone's game plan is gonna be different depending on their current situation, too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just buy and sell with confidence, that's all. Yeah. Did you ever play Pokemon? I didn't.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't play Pokemon. I've been around the Pokemon Worlds. I always tell the story that like when I was a kid, I grew up uh my first job was at KB Toy Store. So I was selling Pokemon when the first like 101 came out, and it was crazy. Like kids coming in, parents, all this stuff. Yeah. And I just never got into it. I was like, I probably were thinking I was too cool for it being in high school, you know, what is this game? And now, you know, obviously we talked about it before Einstein's 2020. I really wish I would have just played at that point because I would have had those cards and it would have been amazing. I'm sure at some point I would have pulled a Charizard with the amount of Pokemon cards I could have bought at KB Toys being the first person able to get first option out of them, you know? Do you remember what those boxes went for? They were nothing. I mean I mean, look, not nothing. I mean, they were at the everything is inflation-based, so I'm sure they were, you know, not crazy expensive, but uh expensive enough. Because I remember parents coming in and being like, oh, we can only get like a couple packs, you know. So I think for cards at the time, they were probably still like, oh, it seems it's a little bit pricey for a pack of cards, but even then I'm sure you could have probably bought them for 10 bucks a pack, you know, 20 bucks a pack, maybe max, you know, at the time.
SPEAKER_00:Probably once a week I think about game planning going back in time and what would I would buy when. You know, if I go back to like being five years old, I'm like, okay, so I'm five, it's nineteen ninety-five. I'm gonna save up my whatever money I can make from my allowance, not gonna spend any of that, and then I'm gonna buy this, and then I'm gonna sell this, I'm gonna keep these packs, and it's just a fun little exercise to do when I'm bored. But yeah, the reason I brought up Pokemon at To go back to that, is one of the first gym leaders you fight, actually the first one is Brock, and he has this Onyx, and all Onyx does is use bide. And then like he uses bide and then you go and you try and attack him, and then after two or three turns, he unleashes all the energy you did to him double. And I kind of think of that sometimes with cards. You can buy your card and then you can hold on to it. You can hope that the value or the energy becomes more and more, and then you can kind of unleash that, aka go back into your dollars by selling it. Or you can sit there and wait for this certain thing, but small little tangents that I just got reminded of with that Pokemon and what you were talking about with waiting for events to happen.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, look, it it just depends on where you're at, right? The one thing I like about this whole like hobby in general is like everyone gets to collect the way they want to, right? So it's like you have people that want to buy and sell, you have people that just truly want to collect, you have play play people that play the games, you know, if there's if it's Pokemon or Magic. So it's like all this really cool different levels to it all. And I don't really get very upset when I think when I see people that get upset at one area or the other. I'm just like, it's all part of it, you know, and it's like I hate to break it to you. If if one of these things disappeared, you'd see a massive downfall of probably everything. It's a very delicate ecosystem of buying, selling, collecting, and playing all within this world. So I think if one disappears, you're like, wait a second. That's not this is not how it all, that's not how it works, guys. It all is all works together whether you want to believe it or not. Yeah, we're one ecosystem, one big Jenga tower. It really is. You know, it's like imagine. Imagine if hobby boxes disappeared, or imagine if if repack buyers disappeared in the current market. Like, what happens to the market? Like, yes, you can buy cheaper cards, but that means your current cards go down in a massive amount of value.
SPEAKER_00:So, you know, we'll have to say when people are like, I want to go back to the late nineties, it's like, do you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, let me let me let me I don't know. I was old enough to remember the late nineties and how little cards were worth. So, you know, it was how little people cared.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. They're just stacks and stacks of cardboard everywhere that were worth little to zero and no one cared.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you would only want to go back to that so that you could buy them and bring them back to here where they're valued, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure. You know, it was definitely Yeah, it was a definite trade world, right? You know, I was actually in my LCS the other day, we were looking at like 97 basketball cards, like inserts, and how pretty they were, and I was like, man, these look so good. And you would think from today's world, you'd be like, man, these must be worth so much. You're like, these aren't worth anything because there are 5,000 of that card right there floating around the the world, you know, if not more. So you're like, they did a good job of making these, but they made a lot of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they always made a lot of them. And they still make a lot of them. They just got smarter about how they make a lot of them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, look, for not for nothing. They've they realized, well, if we try and create some sort of scarcity by putting numbers on them, you know, that'll that'll make this better. Whether or not the picture is the same, the color's different.
SPEAKER_00:So and now you got the wave and the ice and the thousand things.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there's still the same amount of cards. They're just they're just a little bit different to make you feel a little bit better about it.
SPEAKER_00:That's it. It's it's too much, I think, when you're trying to do rainbows now. You can't even fit them all into one picture.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But I'm there's a couple Holland rainbows I'm trying to do, but that's only because they go to like 25. People are like, why haven't you tried to do the rainbow for like wait for Chrome or something like that? Because there's a million versions of this. Like, I don't want to get the out of 499 and 399 and 175. By the time I try and find the one of one, I'm already thousands of dollars in on this product. I'm good, guys.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I only rainbow when I already have the one of one. That's kind of my rule.
SPEAKER_01:That's kind of the way like at that point, you're like, well, I found the hardest one. Let's uh let's try and find the rest.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like it's fate. Fate ordained that I was supposed to rainbow this. So oh well. So speaking of fate, you've been fated to be one of the greatest creators in the sports card Instagram world. Tell us more about content. Just how have you found the content journey? How, when you wake up, do you have an idea around content or does it flow naturally? Tell us about the process.
SPEAKER_01:For me, the process makes no sense. I honestly like people ask me like, how do you come up with ideas? What do you do? I'm just literally like, I'll think of something and then I'll shoot it. You know, I don't have like I don't even have a backlog most of the time of I used to bulk shoot, and then I realized that was just nonsense because I was like, some of the stuff wasn't funny, or at least to me, some of the stuff like was outdated by the time that it came out. Um my process is just basically when I get any downtime, I just start thinking about things that are going on in the hobby or that have happened in real time, and I'm like, how can I try and make a joke out of this? How can I, you know, in the template that I've already created of different versions, which has been nice. So I was the one thing I wanted to figure out is like kind of like a sketch comedy show. Like, so like an SNL when you have like major characters, like you know that occasionally you're gonna get one of those major characters to come back, you know, and be funny. So I figured, okay, how do I figure out a couple of these that'll hopefully hit and I can just kind of use them, you know, once a week or once every other week, and that'll at least be one or two days of content that I know I can just like basically plug and play. So it was like the eBay content ended up by working out where I just read eBay reviews, you know, which was this worked. The talking to myself has worked because and I can just kind of implement anything that's screwy with the hobby with that. There's been a couple other things, so I was like, okay, now that I have this, that's kind of my almost like my bulk shooting in a sense, because now I just have to come up with some thing that we're all kind of semi-complaining about or happy about in the hobby. So that's kind of been my way. I I wish I could give somebody a better answer of like, it's very precise. I have a book, I have like sketches written out, and it's not. I literally come up with something and I'm like, cool, let's shoot it. And if it doesn't, if it takes me any more than like 15 minutes to shoot something, I'm not doing it. At least right now. I have ideas about doing stuff down the line that are more like planned out and scripted in in a studio setting or at least in some sort of setting. But as of right now, it's I need to get it, get it done.
SPEAKER_00:Having done having spent eight to ten hours on some of my reels, I know what that feels like. It is pain. And sometimes they do well, but the thing I consistently hear from creators is the best content that I ever created in terms of traction was something that I had no idea was going to do well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's like it's it's it's really interesting. I always say the same thing. The ones that do the worst for me are the ones that I'm like, that's a good one. At the end, I'm like, you know what? That's a good one. I think people are gonna like that. And every single time, it just does not catch on. And I'll I'll look, I just posted one yesterday and I ended up by figuring out that chat GPT, all for anybody listening, chat GPT will actually run skits with you. You can give Chat GPT a a script, tell it to them, and then give it give them a line that lets them start running the script, and they'll go back and forth with you. I did it yesterday and I was like, this is gonna be great. That's gonna people are gonna love the idea that ChatGPT is talking to me. One of the worst ones I've done recently in regards to views. And I and I was just like, I start cracking up. I was like, every time that I think that something's gonna do well. But the good thing is, it took me 15 minutes to make, so it doesn't matter. You know, I think the hard part is when you put so much time and effort into something, and then it doesn't do well, those are the ones that you're like, well, fuck man, why did I do all this work? It's like the the less time it takes, and the and the you can move on from it, and when it doesn't do well, you can move on from it and and so on, because otherwise you get caught up in that world and it becomes really easy to get down on yourself and not create content. I just I'll keep pumping it out and some will work and some won't, and oh well, it'll it'll just it's all it's all a means to an end at the at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure that you've spent countless hours on creating content.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, by now for sure. It's all added up for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Sleepless nights, man.
SPEAKER_01:My big thing now, and I talk I talked to a bunch of people at the national about it, was I was like, because they're asking about content and stuff, and I was just like, look, the end of the day, if I think it's funny, I don't that's what I care about. Like yeah. I if I think it's good and I think it's funny, great. Like I'm I'm happy with it, and then we move on. And some people will, some people won't, and so what?
SPEAKER_00:It's like your baby. People might think your baby is butt ugly, but as long as you look at it and cherish it, that's all that matters.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my baby's great. Like, I don't know about you guys, but my baby's great. Yeah. I love this baby, man. But yeah, but thankfully, you know, like I said, so I'd say most of the time people tend to like and engage, and other times, you know, I a lot of people want to believe in it's always the shadow ban and it's always something else. And it's like sometimes we just all make crappy content and it just happens some it happens to the best of everybody. Sometimes we just make something that doesn't resonate, and you're just like, uh, I thought it would. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's tough, man. And everyone wants to blame the almighty algorithm. That's the scapegoat for us all. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Stop by I think for better or worse, whatever you think of him, I like Gary Vee, and he loves Gary. He's said it multiple times. You know, it's like they ask him questions about like, what do you do when people aren't watching? And he's just like, make better content, just do better. Like, I don't know. It's it's not it's not the algorithm, it's not this. And maybe occasionally it is the algorithm and it is a shadow ban, like the very small percentage, but sometimes it's just your content isn't doing well because you're not doing well. And that's fine, but it's all it's all a learning process. I've if you if I look back on the beginning part of my content, like, man, it's I'm surprised people even watch some of it. I'm like I'm like, man, that was terrible.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, it can be rough. It's you gotta walk before you can run.
SPEAKER_01:At the end of the day, if I'm if I can make somebody smile and laugh and kind of move on with their day in a little better sense, then that's good for me. I'm happy, you know. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:That's what it's all about. Are there any tips that you would give people who are trying to maybe go into producing content and just don't know really where to start?
SPEAKER_01:Uh, my tip is always just start. It's just as easy as making a video and posting it right away on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all that stuff. So just do it. Like that's that's it. That's the only tip that I have. And have decent lighting and make sure people can hear you. Those are the two, three things that I can always tell everyone. Because other than that, it's like, you know, go for it. See what happens, test the waters, because you won't know until you do it what's gonna work and what won't. But yeah, yeah. And then the lighting and the and the and the volume, make sure we can hear and see you, and that's it. Yeah, that's pretty key. I will say audio is the worst. Audio is the worst out of anything. When you're recording and filming stuff, it is always the worst. And it's been like that from when I'm doing like TV or commercials, the people aren't the worst. It's just the hardest. It's like because you at least for me, like you don't even know it until you're done with it. So you can record something, super happy with it, and then you go back and listen and you're like, the audio was crap, you know? So kind of where we're at with it. Yeah, I hate when that happens, man.
SPEAKER_00:And then the whole thing is tanked.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you're like, I can't, I can't do this. No one can hear me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's hard to get all the little components right, but to go back to your earlier point when you're telling people just start, it's not going to be great the first time you do it. I promise you it won't. But I can also promise you that that's okay. And every time that you hop on and every time that you do something, you get better at it. It's reps in the gym. You're gonna be this tiny little twig man when you first start on the mic, and then you know, within six months, you're you're the giga chad.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_00:But in all seriousness, like you it is tough at first, and I can tell you 100% that you get so much better just by the process of doing it.
SPEAKER_01:That's always the big thing I tell everyone too, is like I know a lot of people that like are like, oh, I get so stressed out trying to come up with ideas or do this stuff. It's like just don't, don't then. Like give yourself a day, give yourself a couple days if you need to. I know it's always great to post everything once a day or multiple times a day when you're first starting, but like if you start to get stressed out, don't. It's just it's all a relaxing thing. The youths.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. All right. Well, we're getting near to the end. I know you got some stuff going on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no worries.
SPEAKER_00:So before we jump off, let me give you the platform here. Anything that you want to promote, where can people find you?
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah. First of all, thank you. And second of all, yeah, you can find me on Instagram at stock n underscore trade. That's where most of my stuff goes first. I'm on TikTok, same thing. I'm trying to get on YouTube more because you can find me there. But yeah, those are the three platforms you really see me at. I have some other things hopefully coming out soon. But yeah, again, pleasure, man. Thank you so much for for bringing me on. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Really glad to have you on, man. And I would love it if we can do some content down the line.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll we'll definitely figure something out. We'll we'll we'll keep chatting with each other and uh figure out something fun to do. And absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:And when you guys see this video come out, head over to Instagram. I'll have Sock and Trade on there, of course, tagged for the video. So come on and give us some ideas of content that you might like us to make.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, tell me. I'll I'll if it's funny, I'll I'll do it. If it's not funny, I'll do it.
SPEAKER_00:All right, man. Pleasure having you on. Thanks so much for coming out. And uh yeah, we'll catch you later.
SPEAKER_01:Appreciate it.
