Story Beats Gear | Chad A. Marshall | Full Battery Media

For this episode, I sat down with Chad A. Marshall, founder and creative director of Threat Culture Media, and we got into what actually makes content connect in a world flooded with polished noise, AI shortcuts, and empty branding. 

We talked about why so many creators get stuck overthinking gear, budget, and production value when the real issue is usually confidence, clarity, and having a story worth telling. What hit me most in this conversation is how often people chase views, followers, and the appearance of success while forgetting the one thing audiences can still feel instantly: whether you’re being real. Chad brought such a grounded perspective on creativity, filmmaking, storytelling, human connection, and why intention matters more than aesthetics alone. We also got into content creation, film production, authentic branding, social media, Hollywood, independent creatives, and why the future belongs to people who are willing to show up honestly instead of hiding behind polish. 

For me, this episode is a reminder that the best content doesn’t start with a camera or a strategy deck. It starts with truth, humanity, and the courage to actually say something that matters.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

No, I love I love I love your interviews, man. I I I I uh been taking these last couple of weeks and just catch up on on your style and what you do. I really I really dig it. It's a very um like nomadic approach. And uh It's all over the place. No, but I but it's it's human. It's it's human, you know? It's human, and I and I and that's it. I appreciate that, man. Yeah, that's missing a lot in in today's uh right.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Like so many of the podcasts are like very sterile. And I mean, granted, like, hey man, they're doing their thing, you know? It's like, but shit, man, like if I got any of these famous people on, I'd be asking them some crazy shit. Like, you know, like I'd I'd go straight for the the the meat and potatoes. And like like I mean, serious. Like, you've got the chance, like mic's on me.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Like, some of them um some of the questions are just very, you know, like how how was your how did you feel when you got cast to play Superman? It's like of course I was elated, I'm paid for the next few months.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

That shit was lit, man. You know, like that was amazing. You know, I mean, did anyone not believe you were Superman? And you had to sit there and go, No, I really am. That's some crazy, you know. Did you call up any of your high school bullies and say, you know what? Screw you. I'm Superman now. So, well, I I hope I'm gonna keep this in the interview so some of you guys can watch it. I'm an open book.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

You're good.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Me too, man. Welcome everybody back to Full Battery Media Podcast. I've got an awesome guest with me today. Would you like to tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:42

How's it going, everybody? My name is Chad A. Marshall. I'm the founder, creative director of Threat Culture Media. Uh we are here to service creatives uh and try to allow creatives to not worry so much about the the technical aspects of things, whether that be um the equipment, which is like I'm I know I'm sure we'll get into that, but uh the equipment and also just the fear of uh responsibility with regards to managing the equipment. Um all of all of the gear is insured. And that's not a flag to be reckless with it or anything, but you know, everyone has their different skill sets, and sometimes a creative just needs to be in a space to create. And when you throw the, you know, the technical aspects of of of production at them, it can really can just really throw a rock in their in their creative process. And so we just try to eliminate that, man. We just, you know, hey, the we have our gear, you know, what do you need and how can we help you, you know, bring your ideas to life.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

I love that. I I have some clients that I I'm doing some videos for, and bless their hearts. They are doing the best they can, but you know, they send me the content they film, and I'm like, dear God, what did you shoot this on? Is it you know, and you're like, and she's like one of the clients is like, bless her heart. She she's a financial advisor, right? So she sent us stuff and she's like, I got a webcam, and I, you know, and I hook it up to Zoom, and I was like, okay, okay. I'm first of all, I'm not gonna throw any hate at you because you're making stuff. And like, way to go. Way to go. But you know, I was like, but at the same time, let's talk about how we can make this easier for you. Because I like what you say there. Like, people have a story to tell, and I think great creative teams can allow people to tell their story in an easier way, you know, sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Or at least a more clear way. Sure, 100%. And and you know, in our space, it's very interesting because, like, for example, we've had uh law firms and we've had a lot of real estate uh clientele over these last few years, and these guys have crazy budgets no creative uh input or out or output, I should say. And and and and like what is their gold standard that doesn't work in the film and television space. And then on the on the reverse of that, you have creatives in the film and television who have these phenomenal ideas, they they understand lighting to a to a degree and they understand shot composition and things like that. They have no idea how to find or generate revenue. And it's a very interesting you know, you go to a multimillion dollar firm's website and they just have the most, I don't know, uh unappealing eyesore for a website, but they're they're making profit every month. You know, you'll go to a creatives website, you know, beautiful website, the the reels are up, the photography, boom, boom, boom, and they're like sharing a sharing a two-bedroom with like three of their friends, you know. So it's a win the world, man. Trying to blend the world and allow everyone to just exist in their in their specialty, man, like be you. Right. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

But at the same time, it's like, I think, is there an optimal way to help someone be you? You know, that's one of the things I keep coming back to when working with clients because it's like one of the things I was thinking about is like a lot of creatives have ideas, right? Like, you know, think about it. Like, I have great ideas all the time, you know, like yeah, yeah, I'm gonna open this restaurant, or I want to do this idea or something else. But there's a difference between having a great idea and then doing it. I had this movie idea for a couple years about this. It was like, because I live in Vietnam, I had this Vietnam War movie, and I was like, dude, and I was like, about this story, about these people, come back to Vietnam, and there's all this thing. And then I was just like, but you know what? I never ran with it, I never did anything with it. And then a couple years later, five the five bloods came out, and I was like, That's my movie. It wasn't like, yep, you know, and it was such a good movie. Like, and the crazy part was is like the ideas that I had were circling, but like you can have ideas for day, but you know what? Spike Lee makes movies, right? And like, you know, and so it you know, and so that this is my point. Like, my question, when someone comes to you with a project, uh-huh, what is really like usually the thing that's holding them back?

SPEAKER_00 6:33

The main thing that holds a lot of these individuals back is belief in themselves. You can have an idea and you can have people excited about your idea. But if the help shows up and they're more excited about your idea than you seem to be in your idea, you're gonna you're gonna side rail that momentum media. You can have your doubts and you can have your concerns, but uh it would be in your best interest to not allow that to spill over into the individuals who are open to helping you. Because the moment you start sounding unsure about what you're trying to do, and and you're literally looking at all the tools being laid before you to do it, yeah, the team is gonna start questioning if you really know what you're doing, you know. Uh so I would say most importantly is have that confidence, even if you just have to like wear a mask on it, and just have a clear vision written down or or storyboarded out. It doesn't have to, again, the money is something that is always negotiable. The money is something that can always be, you know, like that's its own monster. You can figure out how to generate funds for the thing, but you gotta have a clear vision of what the thing is. Right. And if you know what you want to shoot and you know where you want to shoot it, and you have an idea of the actors or like like what the time scale is. I think I could do this in a month, I think we can do this in 14 days. You have your checks and balances, you've crossed your T's and dotted your I's outside of the financing, it's it's it's it's a smooth, it's a smooth sale.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

One of the things too that I see a lot of is people do get hung up on gear, get hung up on pricing, on all this stuff. We had this um this project that I did for my wife. My wife is a famous singer here in Vietnam. Okay, and so we did a bunch of these big music videos. Yeah, we got a wild life, man. But we did a bunch of these big music videos. We did one that was flashy and it was a great music video. It was beautiful, right? But the return on that video wasn't as great as one of the little ones that we said. I said, hey, let's make this video that just we got good components, it's got great editing, it's really simple shots, and we put together this thing, and man, like we've done eight of those videos. I edited eight of those music videos in the last two months, and we put up eight videos and combined, they crushed the other music video that was like higher, higher, you know, like budget. And so, but my point being, like, not that everything has to be cheap, like that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying don't let something hold you back. You can find a way if you you know it this leads me to ask you another question. Like, you work with all types of budgets, which is really cool. But what are the first one or two decisions that actually make or break a piece of content, like regardless of how much money someone has?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

You know, it's so the intention, right? And I'll I'll I'll I'll expand on that. But I was doing a music video um back when George Floyd had been murdered, and there was a band, and I'm not gonna say their name, but they were they were adamant on shooting a music video about white guilt. And I I I I've I've had the pleasure of you know, my grandmother was born in 32, 1932 and stuff, and and she told me when I was very young, like Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad would not have been successful without good white people, right? Emphasizing the the importance of humanity beyond the color of our skin. We're human beings at the end of the day, and you have good people and you have bad people, and and and that is not skin tone does not reflect a person's character, right? And my grandma made it a point to always instill that in me and my and my siblings. So I say that to say to your question, this band was really adamant on making this music video that centered around feeling guilty for being white. And I was trying to explain to them as a person of color that the m like I appreciate the intention, but that's not you're you're trying to you're trying to monetize uh a tragedy and and and you're trying to this reverse psychology of like we feel really bad, but also the albums on Spotify for 99 cents or iTunes for 125, go go download our album. We feel guilty for being white. That's a project that I don't care what the budget is. I'm not interested in doing it because the intention is in the wrong space. Um and so when it comes to projects and it comes to people's budgets, I try to encourage clients to just connect with the people. You have people who love Transformers and Macha G and all that, right? And then you have folks who love A24 and you know The Witch or you know, the Ritual and like these sort of it everything doesn't have to be a shootout downtown. It doesn't have to be Heat or Robert De Niro running through the airport with uh Al Pacino. It doesn't have to be that. Sometimes people just want to know that there's a project out there that um that has some humanity that that the rest of the world can relate to. And and and one more thing on that note, um, Iron Lung is getting a lot of praise, right? And I've been seeing so many different articles on on, like LinkedIn specifically, about how this movie is challenging Hollywood status quo and and it's already made, you know, seven times uh uh its budget and this is gonna shake Hollywood, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I sat there and I said to myself, well, yeah, the budget was 5 million, right? I I if, and this is no shot to celebrities, but like if we don't pay Robert Downey Jr. 30 million to play Iron Man, you know, and Mark Ruffalo another 18 million to play The Hulk, Scarlett Johansson 28 million to be Black Widow, right? Like, just those three actors alone were already reaching$100 million. We still haven't paid for crew or location or equipment, or like, you know, lower the cost of your film across the board, pay everybody a decent wage, but just we could do a lot with a million dollars or half a million dollars or a quarter of a million dollars. This is more than people make in a year. Make a good movie with a you know a nice amount of change, and and you'll always have a positive return. You know, it it it's this guy did this project for five million, he's made almost 30 million back for his own take home. And if this was a Marvel film, they would say that he flopped.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Right?

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And I like that blows my mind.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

One of the things that I think that people, especially we're talking big industries, yeah. You know, if we're gonna if we're gonna throw a little like I I I wouldn't mind throwing a little shade on the bottom. Hey, well, I'm open, but you know. Well, I throw a quarter thing for a reason, you know. Yeah, right. The um one of the challenges I think is that Hollywood is so quick to capitalize on a brand or a or a theme or a cause that they're like, oh, we can get on that board of that and like be like, we're we're part of this. Yeah. But they abandon storytelling, which is like, I'm gonna pull out a movie that should I hope this we're year wins everything. Sinners, one of the best movies I've ever seen. Yeah, okay. And like it was a I love Sinners. One of the I love Sinners because, dude, it was a great, great, great um vampire storyline. Like, I mean, if you get out of it and you know, and you in Michael Jordan playing two characters at the same time, my God. Like, I love that. Now, whether you like the movie or not, there was a solid story, and people like the story in the movie, right? Now, is that story for everyone? Doesn't have to be. You might like it, I might hate it, or the opposite might be true. But the red they focused on a story to start the day. Now, you get some big brands now these days, and like sometimes, like, you know, there's been some Avengers and definitely been some Star Wars that they're like, let's just throw a bunch of characters together and let it ride, you know? Yeah, like you know, and I I I hated the new Star Wars trilogy.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

They destroyed, yeah, they did they they need to redo it.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Star Wars trilogy, and it's oh my goodness, and they love to throw all the fans under the bus, like oh, you guys are stupid, you know. But at the same time, it's like, man, Finn should have been a Jedi, like straight up, you know, because it was it was a story arc. Yeah, they were going down, you know, he like picks up the lightsaber, and they were just like, Yeah, we're just gonna drop that story in the third, you know, movie. Like, what? Where did that go?

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Then the adopted kid, we thought now maybe she's a skywalker. We're watching just adopted. It's like everybody has the force. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Oh, that one makes me crazy. But it's it's you know, it it what why I think it's a relevant side topic is because whether you are making a TikTok reel, highlighting your business, whether you are making a short film, whether whatever you're doing, you gotta have a story. You gotta have a hook. I I had one financial advisor who came to me and he was like, we were talking about something, and I said, Well, if I was you and I was making some videos, I'd go to a baseball game. He's like, What do you mean? And I said, I'd roll up to a baseball game and be like, first shot, walk into the baseball game. You know what? One of my favorite movies was Moneyball. And I'm gonna tell you why. Next shot, he's sitting there eating some popcorn in his seats. You know, he's like, Moneyball was a story about Billy Bean. Now, Billy Bean didn't have the money that all the big teams had. Next shot. He's out there, you know, like, yeah, cheering him for the game. All right, back to his seat. He's like, All right, Billy Bean didn't have a budget, and so he had to figure out ways to get ahead. Yeah, and he used his smarts and he said, the best thing that you can do is get on base. Now, boom, cut to another shot of the game. Someone hits a home run. He's like, Yeah, he's like, now, just like that, he didn't hit a home run, but he got on base. Now, I'm telling you that if you want to get ahead financially, all you need to do is get on base. Boom, cut to the next shot. The guy's sitting there, he's like, the game's gone. Now, just like my team, we won, but we didn't win by a bunch of home runs. We won by getting on base. Now, same thing goes for you financially. You can start investing a little bit at a time, but you do that one step at a time. And if you want to get advice on that, you call me. Boom, you have a hit reel that blows everything out of the water versus the one. Hi, my name is Tom Johnson, and I'm here to tell you why a 401k is important for your dude. No one gives a crap about that. No, no, no, no one wants to see that. You know, you have to entertain, you have to be telling people stories.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Stories, and you and and and people have to know that you're still existing in the real world. We have so much AI, we have so much um, and again, like when when when the COVID thing went down, remote work became such a such an awesome concept to embrace. Um, but the the cost of that was like people don't go outside anymore, man. And like I'm I was born in the 80s, came up in the 90s, like I I I I was outside. My friends were outside, everybody was outside.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

We were feral, man. I grew up and like my parents turned us loose and they were like, yeah don't die today. Don't die today.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Come home after you couldn't um you couldn't just text your friend to see if they were home. You had to ride your bike however far you go. If you knock on the door, maybe they're home, maybe they're not. I'll come back. Find them at the park, you know? Yep. Uh so this this um this era that we're in right now, um, especially with the content that's being made and the verticals and all of that, it's I I would say the main thing that's lacking is just is just humanity. I don't believe the people who are trying to sell me something, whether that be a story or a product, like I don't believe that they're actually living it. And your example was phenomenal because okay, we're gonna talk about money ball, but also I'm here at the game. Right. And I'm gonna like I have these ideas, but also I wanna just show everybody that I do exist in the real world. Right. Not an AI indie.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Should I eat the popcorn? Eat the damn popcorn, man, because that's what you do in the baseball game. Get a hot dog, dude. Get do the stuff. Do the stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

Yeah. And I don't wanna I I don't want to hear about why you think I should sign up for this plumbing certification.

unknown 20:11

Show me.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Show me. Right? Oh, my my business increased, you know, 30, 40% since I signed up for this. Yeah, but how does that help me? Yeah, right. Well, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

For for my year-end party, me and my team, we went out to um, we went out to like a little like restaurant slash bar. Everyone was having fun. Sure. And I didn't hire any professional photographers or anything. And I just bought two rolls of 27 insta insta film cameras. And I tossed them out. I was like, guys, here you go. Toss one this one this way, toss one that way. I was like, have fun. Yeah, those pictures were horrible, but they were horribly perfect. You know, nothing was like real. It was like they were real. Yeah, and like watching my Gen Z employees try to figure out why they couldn't see anything on the back and the display and they didn't know how to roll the damn camera. I was like, give it to me. Gotta roll the film, gotta roll the film. And they're like, wow, you gotta roll the film.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Yeah, you don't get to you, you don't get to see what the picture looks like. You just you just take it.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Just take it, just take it. Do look and see, and that's what the thing is one of the things that I tell we were getting at that earlier on with content. You know, when when we make videos, like that music video that I just made, the the couple that I made for my wife, I haven't watched them on YouTube yet. And everyone's like, why don't you watch them? I'm move, I'm moving on, I'm focusing on the next thing. Like, you know, for me, I try not to watch the numbers, I don't watch the metrics. I know everyone's like, see what your numbers are doing, make sure that I was like, man, if it was a good video, if it if it impacted people, if we told a story and we connected, move on, move on to the next one. Like, hit record post, be cool with that and move on.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

100%, 100%. Because again. What are we making the stuff for? Is it is it to stroke our egos and and um you know feel better than the next creative because we got more more clicks? Or or is it just to share the art? Now, if something positive comes out of it, that's amazing. But that shouldn't be the driving force for your product, man.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah, many creators like overthink things, especially gear, you know. But from your perspective, like when does gear matter and when is it just a distraction from actually making the thing? Because I mean, I'm on the fence. I think get out and make something, but you know, I recently upgraded to a new Sony because for me, I was running gun and man, that that autofocus is so nice on the new Sonys, and like I was using Lumix and I just like ah, you know, I old school Lumix, it did good for what I was doing, you know. But like as I was upgrading, I'm normally rented, but I was like, finally, I just was like, I was shooting so much, I was like, man, I need to get myself a new camera. Yeah, and you know sometimes so but I want to hear your perspective, man.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Uh yeah, so uh sometimes you have to upgrade your gear. I I I totally understand that feeling. Um, with regards to people's fear or you know, frustration um or overthinking uh of gear and like when it is or isn't a good time to I'm probably gonna get a little like pushback from this, but the whole reason why I decided to build out the truck the way I did and and and sort of scale it to the size that I did was because I was working these projects as a key and uh I gaff a lot now, but back then I was doing a lot of key ripping and uh I I don't mean to offend any DPs watching this, but always it is so frustrating to be on set- Well, what's it gonna get good right here? Um it is so frustrating to be on set with a DP who is more focused on adding something to his or her reel than they are about the project that they're working on. If we're doing a uh a conversation just you and me at a coffee table, yeah, there's no reason that we need the entire G and E team setting up half of the fucking truck of lights just because you want to do something that looks good for your real. It could be a conversation about a breakup or heartbreak, or maybe you're about to tell me you're getting married, or whatever. Everybody can relate to that moment. Visually, are the characters lit enough that we can understand what's going on? There's no reason why we need to have an hour and a half setup because you want a 20 by over here or another 18 over here, and then you want the 600 doing this and two, 300s doing this, and you want a snoop coming up top, you also want a spotlight on the coffee cup, and like it looks beautiful. I'm not taking away from it being beautiful, but people have signed up for a 12-hour day minimum, and chances are they're probably not getting paid their day rate as they should be getting anyway, just because of the the times that we're in right now in the production space. So have a little have a little empathy for the cast and crew. Understand that we're doing 12 hours today. If we're lucky, we'll probably do closer to 13 or 14. Probably gonna ask for grace on a lunch, probably gonna give people, you'll promise them an hour, but it'll really be more like 30 to 45. Um PAs are getting underpaid, you know. Everyone's not getting their rate for the most part. Um and and and that's nobody's fault, but be mindful of that. And so, what do we need to shop for? How many pages is this scene? If it's half a page, we're just doing a page and a half, maybe even two pages, let's just light the thing and move on. Because we have 180 pages to go. We have 90 pages to go, and this is 30 to 40 seconds, maybe a minute tops of the final product. Let's wrap it up. Um now you have moments where the gear is like vital to the scene. If if uh you know it's a major character arc, a main character is dying off, or it's the closure, we're at the the climax of the film, or the opener, or the ending. Like those three moments are vital to the film, but the the in-between is important on the script. It's important in the acting. Um, and the lighting is very important, but it doesn't have to be so stylized that it that it pulls us out of the moment. And so it's a long-winded answer, but to to your question, the gear is there to to to uh enhance what's already on the paper. It's there to help uh uh bring attention to what the actors are bringing to the set, but it's not there for the DP to balls out, you know, or tits out to just add stuff to their real. That's not cool. The everyone below the line doesn't get to use your work for their real. So let's be mindful of that and let's you know utilize the gear as it needs to be. And if and if you don't know how to do that, at least try your best to surround yourself with teammates who can help maybe tap you on the shoulder and say, hey bro, this is just, you know, or hey sis, this is just a quick little hate and a half scene. Like let's, you know, let's make sure we have this lit and ready to go in the next 15, 20 minutes. We don't need to, again, it's not Transformers, we don't need to Michael Bay this out. We're not blowing anything up. Like, let's just get the dialogue off and let's keep the story going. A good story is gonna keep people attached, regardless. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

I um I got to work with this one producer once, and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Um, it was uh what do you call it? It was in uh uh for a movie here in Vietnam that I was developing with a production house, and I was a new director. Okay, and they didn't have faith in me, and understandably, because I hadn't done a bunch of stuff. But as I was developing this project with them, and eventually they didn't run with it, but it wasn't because of the script. The script was great, it was because it wasn't a project that would have sold here, and I I appreciate that. Like it was a drama, and just dramas in Vietnam don't do well, they are hit and miss. Yeah, yeah, dude, it's comedy here. Comedy is king in Vietnam, comedy and horror are the two go-to things. It's wild like that. Different countries like different things. Europe and uh drama is like, you know, those dark dramas especially are a big thing, but US as well. But I got to work with the top producer from this company for a while. And what she did is she sat me down and I was like, I've got this scene. I have this mom, she's dying from cancer, her daughter comes back, her daughter's been like out of the picture, but the mom's been caring for her granddaughter, and she's gonna have to get her daughter realigned and re-engaged so that she can hand off you know, back. And so I was like, I want to shoot in this hospital, I want a hospital scene. And she looked at me, she's like, No, no, you don't want to shoot in a hospital. And I was like, why not? And she's like, Do you know how hard it is to shoot in a hospital? Do you know how like many places that you can make look like a hospital? Do you know all the gear that you're gonna need? Do you need all of this that you're gonna need? And I was just like, and she went through every scene in my movie and told me, all right, this is too expensive. What can we do instead? What can we do instead? And so I had to start sitting there thinking about it, and she she helped me spin the whole movie in a different direction. And I started thinking about that. And now as I started producing my own projects and being the producer and getting directors in, I had to also at the same time go, oh wow, hey, that's a nice thing that you want to do there. But can we do something else? But you know, it's interesting when you're on the other side. But I wanted to ask you this too, because you started up Threat Culture Media to help underground artists get exposure. What does help actually look like in practice when someone is early in their journey? How do you help people? Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Um so interesting story, and I'll I'll I'll try to make it fairly quick, but uh I always had had friends who were creatives with but nobody had any resources. And um when I was really young, my mother was a super amazing woman, she she bought me a uh a camera, a a film camera. Um it was uh a Nikon FM10 film camera. And so uh that enjoyment that I had standing behind this thing and watching people open up to me, feel safe to open up to me, as long as they couldn't, you know, make eye contact or like see my face, it it really like piqued the curiosity. And so being around a lot of friends who did music um and and were like my my friend uh Sal Blanco did this piece behind me. Painters and and and and people who recorded music, uh I had a camera. And so the help that I could bring to them is is well, it depends on your perspective, right? You have this platform and you're interviewing uh individuals um to hear their story, right? And in exchange for that, we get to share our stories and we get to have this connection with you and interact with you, and there's a fulfillment in that, but it also helps build your branding company. And and so it's a it's a it's a it's like a give and take, and it's a it's a beautiful give and take. And so for me, I was very interested in learning about people and learning about their stories, and in exchange for that, people were willing to open up to me and share their work with me. So full circle moment, I'm like, I know how to build websites, I know how to shoot, I know how to edit. Give me the pleasure of doing these things for you in exchange for you not giving up on your dream. And what ended up happening was that um my peers were no longer worried about how am I going to make my dream come true? Because the the stress of how am I gonna shoot a video? How am I I I need a photo for my album cover? I need an editor for this, like that was now removed from their thought. And now the question just became Did I record enough music this month, or did I paint enough work this month? And you know, is chat available to meet up so that we can document this? And it was a give and take. But you have to be someone who enjoys connecting with people. If you didn't enjoy learning about people, connecting with people, you probably wouldn't even be in Vietnam right now. You would have never met your wife. You would have never you would have just stayed at home and I don't know, just like worked out a cubicle for the rest of your life and just worried about the money. Right. And that's a it's a sad life. Um so yeah, to, you know, again, just to just to answer that question, like I think if if you can respect and honor someone's individual journey and make it a point to acknowledge their goals while also staying true to yours, I think that that creates a beautiful environment for for things to to thrive and and blossom in the unexpected achievements. But it ha it has to be mutual. If you're just worried about money, or if I just want to know like how many views this video is gonna get, or you're just worried about, well, I only want to interview people who have, you know, a hundred thousand connections or more on LinkedIn or something, you know, it's gonna be a very like awkward, wash and dry kind of interview. And and your product is gonna look shitty, and I'm gonna come off as uh a leech or uh or an opportunist. And people can see that. Right? People see that. I think that one of the dude I was almost worried about doing your interview, man. Like, I'm not gonna No, no. Honestly, like it wasn't you, but it was like the the man, you reached out to me, and and I was like, there's no way. I mean, like the the number of people on this planet who are just like good-hearted people is like fair to none, you know. I I believe there's more love in the world than hate, but people who have like pure intention, it's like part of none. So when you reached out to me, I was like, this guy wants to interview me, like for what? But then I s I like I took totally these last few weeks to just like look at what you've done and what you do, and I'm like, this guy is genuinely interested. I mean, of course, you want to build your platform, but like you you have real conversations. And I give a shit, man.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

That shit I think that all these people I think people got cool things to say. And I've taken this stance, a heavy stance, in my own life against certain types of people, these transactional types. Like on this podcast, if you respond back to me and I bless your heart, love you to pieces, but if you respond back to me immediately, like, and yeah, I'm gonna do the same thing when my numbers are huge. But if you come back and be like, where's your show streamed and what are your numbers? If you ever, if anyone who ever says that to me, because some of my podcasts do really well, this one is new, but if anyone ever says that to me, I'm like, dude, we're not a fit. We're not a fit. Because you're looking at this, you're looking at this purely from a transactional point of view. And I'm looking at this as can we get together and for a moment in time have a conversation that creates fucking magic. And that magic might might be able to maybe one of your friends or one of my friends listens to this and someone's like, God damn, that's right, man. I can do that shit too.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Like, that's it. It could be it could be as simple as like, I want to go to Vietnam. I didn't know they even had a I didn't know they had a film space out there. And you know, Sean looks like he's living the best life he can. He's got guitars and art, and he's got a wife, and like he, like he's I'm I'm just used to old pictures from Vietnam War, you know. I didn't know that there was like life happening that like people are still thinking that, you know? So yeah, there's there's just the human know, man. You never know, and and like like the life experience is so much more important than whatever, like, dude, again, the iron lung situation is doing amazing. Next month, no one's gonna give a fuck, dude. I mean, they're gonna care, but like that, that's you know, I'm watching people fucking political on the on the socials, and I'm just like, guys, you're losing track of like the humanity of it. We're like 100%. Fuck this guy. Don't worry about what he's talking about. Check in on your friends and your family and make sure everybody's like good.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Yeah, it's we we are. I think that our job, I love going to to Reddit and Instagram comments because after all of the BS out there, I go to those platforms and I'm like, all right, most of the people out there are just like me. Like, we all want to laugh. We all like call people on their BS, man. And like at the end of the day, you know, the the majority of the people out there just are like, whatever, man. Calm the hell down. Yeah, man. Get off your whatever, and you know, and just be real. Because, like, and I think this is something that people are not getting right now. And like anyone who's like, like, I'm gonna sell an AI avatar and have this, man, get over it, dude. It's not gonna happen. I don't want, I don't wanna see that. I want to see like this. When I work with customers and they come to me and they go, like, I want this polished thing. I'm like, I can clean you up, but honestly, I I honestly I want someone who looks a little dirty. You know, I want someone who looks like a little bit beat up. Like someone, I had a client requesting the day, they're like, Can you remove the hair from my collar? I'm like, we can't do that. Like, I can't do that. Like, I can't remove a hair from your collar. Like, and even if you wanted to, why?

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Why no point in that?

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I want to know you're human. I like the air, like airbrushing and all, like, it's like I just I want to know you're human. It's okay. I I just I I traveled to uh Belgium and I went to Germany and I came back, and and it's not to harp on the politics too much, but like my mother's stuck on TV. Like she's just like, and I keep telling her, like, turn that shit off, please. Like, talk to people on the wall, like there's real human beings out there. Go travel, do what you gotta do, but like go to the source. But anyways, I traveled, I had a great time. I come back, and her big thing was like, you didn't have any issues with customs. And I said, there's too much money in rotation on a daily basis for the world to stop existing. Whether that be with tourism, whether that be with production, uh uh uh creative writing, uh news, whatever. Like, like pe like people are gonna wake up, they're gonna have their coffee or their tea, they're gonna check in on their friends and family, and and and they're gonna get through their day. 24 hours is gonna pass, whether you're in a good mood or whether I'm in a bad mood. It's like the on a universal scale, it doesn't fucking matter. So just look out for your people, man, and and and and and do the best you can to get through life.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

There was um, I was a philosophy major, a history slash philosophy. Hell yeah. And so I was big into it. Like, this is maybe why you see who I am and what I am all about. Because I studied Buddhism and Taoism and Eastern philosophy. And there was a powerful, like one of the sutras, I believe it's the Diamond Sutra, and it says, Gate, gate, paragate, parasam, gate, bodhisur. Now, what does it mean? Gone, gone, further gone, forever gone, enlightenment come. Now, we we we we can't get back the past. Think about like Singing of the Rain. Now that movie was that that movie was powerful. Those people at that time, we watch it now, and we're like, wow, what a beautiful classic. And no one knows who these people were, but at their time, that was the Dwayne Johnson, that was the you know, the Henry Cable of the time. And like everyone knew it, and it was like a culturally significant thing. I talked to my my employees, like they're all Gen Z about a movie that's a little bit old. I'm like, uh, you know, old for them. Like, I talk like, uh, let's talk about none of them even watch the Harry Potter movies. They haven't watched the or Iron Man One, they're like, that's so old. And I was like, something like uh what was it, Forrest Gump, and they're like Forrest Gump, they're like, oh, my grandpa watched that. You know, it's like Jesus. You know, but but my my point being, like, everything is a snippet in time. And one of the beautiful things that I think we can do is one of the powerful, one of my guests came on recently and she said that social media is the exact same thing as cave painting thousands of years ago. It's simply people trying to, for a moment, capture their hand. Think about that. Some of those earliest cave paintings, someone put a hand on the wall and spit the paint onto that hand, and all it was was like I was here. I was here, I was here, I lived. Someday I started all of my podcasts because I know I got really sick in the past. Okay, and I know that life is finite, and I know that someday I won't be around.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

And I pray that my daughter can watch this content and say one thing. That's my dad. He made a fucking difference. Yeah. And if that's all that we can say, and so if you're making content to just be famous, to just get, man, make content to do something in this world. Do something, man. Make content to make it to bridge that humanity gap, to bridge those barriers that people try to tear us down. Because right now, they are trying to tear us down. Hey, you want to talk politics? Like, remember before all this stuff went off a couple of years ago, that 99% movement where black people, white people, Latino people, everyone was out in the streets together. We were all standing arm in arm saying we need to make change. And then they started trying to separate us again and bring back those lines, man. People want to come together. Yeah, people want to stand side by side, and all of the other stuff is just noise. It's just noise. So get out there and tell people stories that bring us together that show humanity at its best.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

And you can and you can do that and and and and not be dismissive about the negatives because it's all balance, right? But that doesn't It doesn't have to be your like I'm not. I mean, this might be too deep into the to the thought bubble, but like I'm really upset that they're pushing like Avengers Doomsday. I think this is a terrible time to be like pushing Doomsday. It's like you know, not MF Doom, that's one of my favorite artists, but Doom in general in the comics. Very intelligent man, you know, very intelligent man and and very um insightful individual. And uh, yeah, I don't, I I could spiral into a whole different thought process, but I just feel I just feel that uh if people if people had a better understanding of villains in comic books, even um, they would understand that like unity and like power to the people is even the intention of a lot of villains.

unknown 44:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

It all comes back to like people being mistreated and how they chose to to react to being mistreated.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

That's what I loved about the original Black Panther movie. Like uh Mike W. Jordan's character had the right intention. Yeah. Like, yeah, it was just how he went about it. Yeah. But I think one of the things too, I want to ask you this. Yeah. So for someone watching tonight that wants to use content to get out there and make a difference, sure. What do you think? Where does where should they start?

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Uh I don't think that your first I I don't think that your first bit of content should be AI generated. Um, I don't think you should even be using an AI prompt. People can tell the difference. Um there's a there's a there's a tone, there's a sort of rhythm when you're speaking from the heart. And uh when these new creative uh creators are not doing that, and uh, you know, unintentionally or not, they're trying to sell you something, whether that be their dream or their product, um it's it's it's obvious. And I and I and I think I mean again, you're dealing with parents, you're dealing with kids who are still trying to figure themselves out, teenagers who are like lost in the sauce, uh, elderly who are just being exposed to how big the world is through modern technologies, right? Like everyone is going through their own transformations and their own individual journeys. So the the last thing you want to do is give them some robotic prompt with the, you know, make sure, you know, click on the like and subscribe. So it's like, hey, hold on, dude. You're in the middle of telling me about the time you were adopted or the time that you got your first heartbreak. Let's stick to that and talk to me as a human about that. And then at the end of your video, if you, you know, you want to like and subscribe, like that's cool. But don't throw an ad. What is our what is our um oh, I'm forgetting his brother's name. He's uh our top sniper. Uh he's retired now. Um, not not not not the American sniper, not Kyle's. He's a he's a black gentleman. I'm forgetting his name, but he he he has locks now. But long story short, he just did this, he did this beautiful interview um about one of the most traumatic shootouts he had in uh in Iraq. And in the middle of this guy talking about how he was pinned down and he he he was able to get out of that jam because one of his teammates, a guy who didn't even know him, turned around and started like shooting at the enemy or whatever. Like this guy ends up getting shot twice in the leg and he bleeds out. And he was he was telling this story about how he only survived that fight because this stranger risked his life for him. The interviewer cuts the interview and they they a Bluetooth ad starts playing. Like content creators now, they see the streamers, they see the folks on TikTok, they see a lot of what's going on with the Instagram um partnership program and all of the endorsements, and they and they think that if I can just get that first, then then my brand or my company will be successful. But what they don't understand is if you come out the gate telling the world that you're that you're uh you know, you you there's a price tag on your integrity, that's gonna be your rank. Out the gate. So to content creators out there, to creators who are just getting their foot on the ground, please like bear your heart first. The success will come, but you you have to be consistent, you have to know, you don't have to know everything, but you have to at least know where you want to end up and just stick to that program. And the endorsements will come, the fans will come, the the work will come. As long as you stay true to yourself and your vision. I promise you, you're not the the views, don't matter, how many subscribers you have, how many followers you have. You're old enough, I'm old enough. We remembered when MySpace first came. Well, first we had like the AOL and all that stuff, right? But the social element wasn't really connected to that. But to these kids, when MySpace came out, it was all about who was in like the top eight and who had the most friends. And then Tom sold it. And then Facebook came and it became friends, and then Facebook did Facebook pages, and then that was important. How many how many likes do I have on my on my page? And then that got sold off to an extent. It went public, and Instagram became a thing. And then that was like, how many followers do I have? How many? I'm the best photographer. We had Vine, we had Snapchat, we had um um um Behence, all of these social platforms where people thought, as long as I'm popular on these platforms, I'll be important. And then at some point the company sold, or your account got deleted, or you said something that was, you know, controversial or didn't really fit the guidelines, just bullshitting with your friends, and you're, you know, 3,000 or 30,000 or 60,000 or 102, you know, 2 million followers are just gone. And overnight, you don't fucking matter because the people who are following you didn't even care about you. You were just entertainment for their day. The only way to circumvent that is to be human and to remind people that you're a real person. Because when people are connected with you on that level, it doesn't matter what platform you exist on. They're gonna follow you. You know, and they're gonna be a part of whatever it is you're trying to do. People talk John Lennon all the time, more than they do the Beatles, but at some point John Lennon was like, hey guys, uh like beyond the music here, there's some shit going on that I need to just express myself about. Or they didn't like his wife. And Yoko Uno was, you know, fucking up the band. He's like, Yeah, but I love her. I understand you guys don't understand why I'm bringing her to these events or why I'm, you know, but at the end of the day, like I love her. And when my life is over, I want to have beautiful memories with this person that I love more than the platinum records on my wall. And and to this day, that is why people like him are celebrated. The Muhammad Ali's and the because they were like I'm human. Yeah, I'm Cassius Clay, this amazing fighter. Yeah, I'm Muhammad Ali, this amazing fighter, but I'm not going to Vietnam to fight somebody that I we're gonna put you in jail. It's like, yeah, hey, take the belts, take my title. I don't care, I'm not doing it. That is how legacy is established, whether that be individually or with a brand. You've got to have some kind of integrity and you've got to remind people that you're human. All that other shit is temporary. That's that's what I got to say to the to the to the kids getting getting started, you know.