Ep.11 - I Almost Didn’t Record This

In this episode of Captains Log, I start off by breaking down the recent moves from the Washington Commanders and what they could mean for the direction of the team. I also give my thoughts on the Washington Wizards and why it feels like they’re not focused on winning right now.

From there, I shift into something more real—talking about what it actually takes to be in the media space. From podcasting and content creation to photography and videography, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t see.

All of this while balancing a full-time job, being a husband, and a father.

This episode is about discipline, time management, and what it really takes to stay consistent when you’re trying to build something.

Transcript

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You are now tuned into the Captain's Law Podcast with your host, Rob Marbury.

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We back in the lab, we back in the studio. This the Captain's Love Podcast. Home for your sports, NFL and NBA, culture, perspective, and uh free thoughts and rant. Um, I appreciate you guys uh tuning in today, man. Happy St. Patrick's Day to those who celebrated. I for some odd reason I ended up wearing green to work today, so I guess I'm celebrating and I don't drink though. So, but you know, celebrate it if you celebrate it, man. Uh so a couple of topics tonight, man. I'm gonna keep it quick because I'm running late. So, number one, we're gonna be talking some uh NFL stuff on the sports side, commanders update. We're just gonna talk about the players that they picked up, uh rank from high to low, you know, what they bring to the table and you know what the team still may need. Um NBA side, we'll do some Wizards talk, man. Pretty it'll be pretty cut and dry there on what I'm gonna speak on that. And I have some uh a free thought slash perspective moment, which I'll I'll get into that. Um, and again, for those of you guys tuning in, I always want to thank you guys. Thank you to the community. You know, thank you guys for taking time to either watch or listen. Whatever you're doing, what whether you're listening to me or you're watching me, you know, I will it's always appreciated. And if you feel like you know the things that I talk about resonate with you, I'd appreciate it. Like, follow, subscribe, or share with somebody that you think may relate to you know the things that I talk about. So um I will so let me just go ahead and and just um let me start the episode by saying this to say that I was not gonna record this week. Um, I didn't watch any sports this week. Only sports I watched was motorsports. So I watched like F1, I watched VA Supercars, I watched Porsche Cups here. I watched, I watched racing. I didn't watch NASCAR. Um I watched that's all I watched this week, and I don't cover that because that's a whole nother lane that y'all really don't want to get into with me. I probably know just as much about the racing stuff as football and basketball. So I'm not gonna get into that. But um, I almost didn't record, man. And stupid stuff, man. This is this is kind of like a bad habit that I had when I was podcasting a while back. A real bad habit to where I would go the whole week and not really stand up on you know the things that I needed to cover in order to, you know what I'm saying, come and record. I'll be waiting to the day of trying to put some stuff together. It's a real bad habit, y'all. If that's something that y'all are doing, I recommend you stop and I'm gonna give you some some tips and tricks on how to avoid that, you know what I mean? So um, um, so usually the way my format is when the football season is in, I wouldn't record until either Monday night or Tuesday, as soon as I I will record Tuesday and then I will put it out right after that. But since football is over now, I'm gonna start recording Sundays. Yes, I'm gonna try to start recording Sundays because that's that's my day to kind of do whatever. But usually Monday has been when I've been recording, but you know, life be life, and you know, I'm married with two kids, so you know, we're a bit we're a busy family, so I tend not to be able to really get in there and and do what I need to do. So I'm gonna try to push for Sunday. Um but um Sunday I just wasted time, man. I sat here and I played the game. I played PlayStation for about three or four hours, and I played PlayStation for about three or four hours Saturday. And Monday, you know, I took off, I had a dark appointment, but then, you know, they they they sent the kids home for a two-hour delay because of this bad weather we just had go by. So, you know, instead of you know taking that little bit of time I had in the morning, you know, I played the game. Or I just sat watched TV, you know. So really, really bullshit at that time away, man. And now I'm kind of like scrambling. Here it is, uh 9 o'clock, you know, on a Tuesday night. I'm recording an episode, and then I gotta edit and edit it, and it's gonna come out today. So shame on me for that. Uh but um I'll do better next time. All right. I I got I got a little, I got a setup, you know, and I got some best practice stuff that I'm gonna do that. Hopefully, it's gonna help me. So let me put it down so y'all can see my face a little bit. I noticed this mic a little close. Alright, that's better. Bear with me, y'all. I'm just making some adjustments.

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All right.

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I really don't like this chair setup, man. I wanna I wanna change it. I feel like I'm I'm either hunching back or I'm not comfortable. I'll figure it out. Uh anyway. So on to the NFL, man. Let me let me get my dumb. Hold on, what are we at? Always gotta hit the bell, man. So I'm only talking commander stuff today, man. So I'm really just gonna go over some of the recent pickups we had over the last week and some change and how I feel about it and what we what we still need. So I'm just gonna first by saying that Adam Peters is definitely setting the tone that we're trying to make that house call next year. We we trying to go back to that, we're trying to get back and deepen in playoffs, maybe even make a uh a house call to the Super Bowl. Who knows? You know what I'm saying? I can I can we can always dream, but right now I think we are definitely addressing, you know, the defense per se. You know, we we picked up a few offensive players, but we really addressed that defense, though, man. So I'm gonna go through. So I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start with low impact players, and then I'm gonna work my way up to what I consider to be probably the biggest pickup that we've had so far. So um we picked up Jerome Ford, running back from the Browns. We got him in the trade, probably uh we probably gave him for a late round pick. Um I considered him to just be a depth peak, a depth piece. Um I don't I don't expect him to really do too much, you know what I mean, in the offense. We got four running backs right now, so who knows if he if he even stays on the team. We may have picked him up and uh let him go. So I consider that to be a low, a low pickup. Next, we got Van Jefferson, wide receiver, played for the Falcons and the Rams. We got him for the veteran, the veteran deal, the cheap, cheap pickup, you know what I'm saying? Low risk, you know what I mean? He's he's more of an assurance player than impact. You know, we still got uh Trey Burke. So we, you know, we still we we we already got receivers, but I mean it's like if you can get him for the achievement, he's gonna give you some production, why not? Uh we re-signed uh Diami Brown, you know what I'm saying? So we re-signed him, we're keeping him, he's already in the system. I just think we just need to give him some more time to prove himself. Maybe he can we can just try to get him the ball a little more. And since we, you know, we we signed Laramie Tuncil, we gave him the bread, you know, maybe my man will keep doing, continue to do the good work. We pick somebody else up, too. So definitely the goal is is to keep keep my man Jay, keep JD5 protected, man, so he can do what he do. Because as we can see last year, he was running for his life per usual. As every every quarterback that played for Washington, they be good that first year, then they run it for their life the second and third year, then it hurt, and then we on to the next. So we'll see how it goes. So now let's move to some mid-level pickups. All right, so we got Nick Cross, safety from the Colts. We signed him in the free agency, young, athletic. You know what I'm saying? He's still a I consider that to be a mid-tier uh pickup and definitely feels the need for safety because of safety we getting torched. I mean, we well, who is that Sand? No, that's not Sanders still. Uh was that Jeremy Reeves, whichever one in the back, they're not doing bad, but you know, we we need some help, man. We need as much help we can get. So next, Tim Settle. Y'all remember him? Used to play for us. You know what I mean? Tim Settle coming back. He was with the Bills for a couple years. Um, we got him on a cheap deal, and he he's good or he'll be good to help stop the run. So I'm definitely glad we can get him. He can get the other guys some help, man. But we we teams running all over us every game. I I think every team, we very seldom we stop the run. So I like that. Um next mid-tier pickup, Amique Robertson, cornerback from uh, they say the Raiders, but if I'm not mistaken, he came from Detroit. But I don't know, it's Chat GBT. So we signed him free agency. This is another mid-tier pickup, and this is a versatile uh defensive back, man. He he he they they had they they show his highlights and when he was locking down Justin Jefferson. So that's huge. That's huge for us, man. So let's let's see how that goes. You know what I'm saying? Now I ain't sold on nobody yet. I I gotta see the gameplay, but I am excited though. Um next person is I don't want to jack this man's name up. It's Kalayvon Chasen, edge rusher from the Jaguars. Signed. Prove it T Gotta Prove It type of deal. That's what they're calling it. Another low risk, and he's an upside player. And uh we we just we just betting on improvement for him. So he he's still an up-and-coming player, man, still developing, and we hoping that he he do something good. So now we can move to our strong additions, all right? Strong additions again. I may jack this name up, man. I apologize, but I fool with you. We picked up the tight end from the Tennessee Titans, Chig OK O N K W O. On I don't know. I I'm I'm gonna figure it out. I'll figure it out next time. So we got him in a trade, and this is huge for the offense, man, because even though Zach Ursay coming back, man, he's still an old guy. So we we definitely will probably start rotating this dude there. And we still had Bates, too, man. But I don't know why that just Bates just ain't, you know, I just think he's just better at blocking, you know what I'm saying? But having a guy like this, uh, you know, a younger player, you know what I'm saying, pretty quick, good hands, you know, this will be good for Jada when he needed to get he need to get sorry, when he need to get rid of the ball. Oh, the receivers is locked up. The tight end always gonna be there for you, man. The tight end is the quarterback's best friend, man. Next to the offensive lineman. Um, and next we got Leo Chanel, uh linebacker from the Chiefs. We got him in free aid. We got him in a free agency. You know, we gave we gave him some money, you know what I'm saying? But he got championship predicree, bring the toughness, and he's fast. So this is a good, good pickup for us, man. Defense might be looking solid. If they can all gel together, bro, like I'm yeah, definitely. Probably the biggest move that we got is we picked up an edge edge rusher from the Ravens, uh Adafe Uwe. We signed him to a huge deal. I don't got the numbers, you know what I'm saying, right there. But this was our this was our big, big, big pickup, man. So this is the type of person we expecting to get in there and get straight to it. We expecting him to be the difference maker. We expecting him to get in there and be like whoever, whoever the main guy is on defense, you're at your job might be took. You know what I'm saying? So I think overall, man, these picks are not random. They seem to be very strategic. I I still don't, I still don't think that they're done. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like you still got Bobby Wagner, are you gonna keep him? This is my thing with Bobby Wagner, bro. Like, I think we can keep Bobby Wagner, but he just don't, he just don't be the starter, right? I mean, what y'all think about that? Y'all think that y'all think Bobby Wagner be like, look, man, I want to stay on the team, you know what I'm saying, but like I'm not gonna be the starter, you know what I'm saying? I man, look, well, 14, 15 years in the league, still shit, still had the most damn tackles on the team. I mean, if I'm him, I'm staying. I take less reps. I mean, that means when he comes in, he's fresh. You know what I'm saying? So I it don't outside of him maybe not being as quick, he's still getting tackles. So I I would hope that we would keep him. I it'd be I'm gonna go on the women and say low-key say it'd be insane if y'all cut him or you trade him somewhere else. So um overall, I'm cool, but we st we the balance is still not there, man. We the offense still needs some attention, man. We still we still trying to figure out who our our dedicated number two receiver is gonna be. And you got some receivers out there, you know what I'm saying? I know it, I know the big the big talk is is brand IU from San Francisco. And you know, I think that'll be cool and all that, man. But I mean, he's also kind of been labeled, you know what I'm saying, a problem, a problem child player. And uh we don't really need that. We need we need we need low maintenance players. We need low maintenance players that's gonna get that's gonna get to it. Stefan Diggs is is he ain't play for nobody either. And again, you know what I'm saying, you know, he got lawsuits and stuff going on right now that ain't been resolved, you know what I'm saying? I don't consider him to be a low maintenance player. If he didn't have that going on, and we was able to get him for, you know what I'm saying, cheap, I would say go ahead out there and get him. Why not? But I I don't think that's gonna be the case, man. And you know, once these lawsuits be coming up about, you know, whatever it is, I ain't we ain't gonna get into that. But that shit usually takes a while. So I would pass up on him. And it's still a couple of folks out there, but we need a we need a dedicated number two receiver, man. Terry McLaurin is great, you know what I'm saying? But he ain't getting no younger, and he needs some help. So just a tight end is not gonna be enough. Um I'm still I'm I'm willing to take the chance with Brandon Ayu, though. I'm willing to take it. I'm willing to say, you know what, man, you know, if him and JD cool, man, maybe maybe he can stay in his ear. They just keep him keep him doing what he needs to do. You know what I'm saying? And he can just get out there winning some games. But we need another receiver and we need him now. So uh I will keep y'all up to date on that. You know what I'm saying? And with that said, we're gonna move on to basketball. We're gonna bail that. Okay. Among other things, I'm just gonna cover the wizards today. You know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna get on the state of basketball or how it just looked crazy, or how Adam Silver, you know, is really considering, you know, reducing the league to from 82 games to 60 or 70 games when these guys is already taking rest and the all-star weekend went from three days to a week. And we're not even gonna get into that, how these players just making all this money and just and just really giving us the most piss poor show ever. You know what I'm saying? We're not gonna get into the fact that, you know, I feel as though if you want to solve the problem with tanking and the load management and all of that, that you just switch the contracts and how to do the NFL to where, oh yeah, you we give you 200 million, but you only got 120 or 100 guaranteed based on performance. I ain't I'm not, I'm just saying, I keep saying this. If you want to solve the problem, if you want these guys to go back and play every night, you gotta start digging in them pockets. But because, number one, they say that a lot of these players that's coming to the league is not from not from the bad neighborhoods. They're not them players that they came from came from the hood or came out the mud or whatever that whatever that quote quote shit they be using to try to label you know these players, man. Apparently they're saying that these players is coming, you know, from Silver Spoon homes, and they ain't really tripping on all that BS. And they're just like, well, if I can get paid, I don't have to really put out as much. You know what I mean? Whatever. But I'm not getting into that. I'm just here to talk about the Washington Wizards, booty, booger, platoon. Um I don't I don't I don't think I can watch no more games this season, man. Trey Young or not, I don't think I can watch no more Wizards games, man, because I'm I'm just tired of the embarrassment, man, because I get it that you know they they're 16 and 50. You know what I'm saying? Like they're literally on the cuss of like a 15-game losing streak. And some of these games they losing by like five points. Some of these joints they lose them by 25, 35 points. This is with Trey Young in there. All I see is is little highlights and look, look, little sports center ESPN highlights with Trey Young, they're still losing. You know what I'm saying? To the point where it's like, I mean, they just played Golden State and they shot like 51% and they still lost. Like Steph wasn't even playing. Like, how are y'all losing these games? So it's just like, I ain't saying that y'all losing on purpose, but like y'all being real strategic to make sure y'all can get that top pick, man. And I'm sorry, as a as a diehard Wizards and a diehard basketball fan, I it's kind of hard for me to respect this whole like uh tanking or just losing on purpose or just playing for the draft pick shit. I get it, you know what I'm saying? Like you trade for Trey Young, you know what I'm saying? You you trade for Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis not playing, but you bring Trey Young in and he done had plenty of rest. He's supposed to he supposedly came in and played after the all-star weekend. He's he stayed out additional games and now he's playing, but you got him on minutes restriction. So if he's not gonna play the full game, then don't play him. I mean, what are you what are you trying to you just what are you trying to do? You just trying to see what he can do. We already know what he can do, but why put him on the floor at all if he only gonna play, you know, if he's gonna play 20 minutes a game. Explain to me. Like, what what are we doing? You know what I'm saying? Like, if if what you if what the plan is, if the overall plan is to lose the games and try to get the top pick, don't put him in the game. Leave him out the game, let the youngins keep going out there and let them, quote, develop, which means they're getting 30 put up put up on them every night, don't waste their time. But this is horrible basketball, bruh. And it's been identified. There's been several, several analysts. I mean, they just got 83 points put on them by bam out of bio by one point. That was an ugly little 83 points, but 83 is 83, and you should be embarrassed that y'all let somebody who who he who bam out of bio is an all-star, you're an all-star player. But you're talking about somebody who probably give you, you know what I'm saying, 15, 20 points a night. This isn't some, this ain't even somebody who averaging 25, 30 a night. So this randomly just come out the blue and give you 83 points with 43 damn free throws. It's insane, bruh. Like, it's insane. It's really hard to, it's really, really hard to look. I'm like, bro, at this point, you can put anybody out on the floor, dog. These niggas is not gonna fucking win, bruh. So here we are, we probably about to end the season with the worst fucking record that we done ever had. We'll be lucky if we win 20 games. Again, we are, what did I say we were? We are 16 and 50. At this point, the only way we're gonna win games is we playing teams who already go into the playoffs and they sitting all their starters. Them be the only games we win. So at that point, we might make it to 20 games, and who knows, man, we may fuck around and lose them games too. Or and they will make it. Well, what's crazy is we're still not guaranteed this shit. We're still not guaranteed the number one pick. You still got the lottery. How many times the Wizards have had the worst record or top three worst record, and still ended up with like the sixth or seventh pick? So it's like y'all really, really fucking gambling right now, and you can mess around. And I mean, who knows? We had the second pick and we got Alex Sarr. He ain't doing shit. So you're really gambling right now. Now, I will say that the Alex Sarr, that draft was weak as hell. So I get it. I'll give you, I'll cut you a little slack on that. But man, look, we just want to see y'all hoop, dog. Like it, I get no joy in going out here and spending, you know,$12 to sit courtside and yell at y'all. I get no joy in that, bro. I want to see the stadium pack, I want to see the people shouting. I want to see y'all winning games, man. Now, in a couple of years, I'm gonna give it how long, how many, how many more seasons am I gonna give the Wizards before they uh before they actually turn that corner? Because I I think what's gonna happen with the Wizards is what's gonna happen with OKC. OKC was terrible for a minute and they kept getting all these first round picks and look at them now, flopping unstoppable. So um I'm gonna give them two more, I'm gonna give them two to three, maybe three more seasons, and then they're gonna be back in the mix. But yeah, I would say, I would say go ahead and sit Trey Young. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next four or five games they decide to sit him out for the rest of this season. I would not be surprised, bruh, if they mess around and say, well, you look, you know what, we seen enough. You can go ahead and sit out. And that's it. And at that point, they're gonna be they're gonna be putting a whole bench in there. But it's just it's it's really disgusting basketball, man. I wish I just right before I got on here, I seen this clip. It was Richard Jefferson. He was going off on the NBA as a whole, pretty much saying that y'all was soft as hell. Um, I really wish I would have caught that clip, man, but I'll have that for for for uh next week. But now I want to get to my last segment. What my bell. Let me get a sip of water real quick, man. Let me slow it down. I know sometimes, man, I be talking a little fast, but you know what? When I'm into it, I'm into it. But let me know what y'all think, man. What y'all think about that sports segment, man? I felt pretty good about it. If you liked it, man, you know, let me know. Send me a comment. Send me send me a comment. You know, you can send messages if you listen on Spotify. Or if you if you're catching me on Buzzsprout, which is that's that's my my RSS feed provider. You can leave, you can send fan mail and messages on them. I I would love to hear what you guys think, man. Just about basketball, football, shit, life, you know what I'm saying? All that. Now, this is my last segment, man. So this this is when I can be honest with myself, and I can be honest with y'all. I want to talk about what it takes to be in the media space. All right. What is it what it takes to be in this space, all right? This is media space, all right. Not not just this my basement studio. I'm talking about what it takes to be in front of a microphone, what it takes to be in front of a camera, you know what I'm saying, lights, LED lights and shit, you know what I'm saying? It's nice, right? Yeah, yeah, I like that. Um, it takes a lot of work, bro. Especially if, you know what I'm saying, you, you know, man, woman, you know, you already got a full-time job, you know, you got a full-time job, you got a family, you know what I'm saying? You active, you know what I'm saying? You travel a lot, whatever you do that require you not to be in the house that often, like, this shit is hard, bro. Like, for those who don't know the story of Captain's Law Podcast, bro, like it didn't used to be Captain's Law uh sports, culture, and culture and perspective. It was just Captain's Law Podcast, you know what I'm saying? And I did a hundred, how many episodes did I do? I did a hundred and let's round it up. I did, I did about I did about a hundred and seven episodes, bro. I I podcasted for four and a half years straight. Every weekend, no break. And when I say the level of mental exhaustion was through the roof, dog. Number one, I was doing it by myself. All right. Everything. I was doing audio, editing videos, making clips, searching for guests, you know what I'm saying? Was doing interviews here at here at my home studio, you know what I'm saying? Was going around the places. Man, I was doing a lot, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like, just had to learn, had to learn about, you know, microphones, audio interfacing, you know, uh um cameras, or, you know, just computers, video video editing, had to learn how learn the SEOs of YouTube and Instagram, and had to go out here and spend time like commenting on other like-minded individual stuff, just to just anything to gain some traction, bro. Like, I wanted to blow up so bad, bro. Like, and I don't get me wrong, I still stand by it. I thought I think I think I'm really good at this. You know what I'm saying? Execution might be a little off sometimes, but I think I'm really, really good. I think I got a knack for it. I think if I'd have done this like 10, 15 years ago, I'd probably be doing it full time. But um, a lot of effort, dog. And um it could take a lot out of you, man. Um, even then. So this is just one thing that I do. So I do this, I podcast, and I'm a photographer slash videographer. So we even gonna get into that. You know what I'm saying? So they go out, buy the camera, do the research, what camera I need to use. Then take the camera, buy the lenses. These lenses are thousands of dollars. This lens that I'm on here on here, right? I'm just I'm recording this on a Sony A7 IV right now. I'm using a 24-7 G Master Mark II lens with a uh a black ProMis filter. And the lens, the camera, 2500, the lens, 2000. You know what I'm saying? The tripod that it's on 200. You know what I'm saying? The MacBook that uh that I'm recording this shit on, MacBook M2, 1500. Lights. Man, come on, bro. Spend that money, right? Now you gotta go out here, you gotta learn, you gotta learn the camera, you gotta learn the triangle, you gotta know what ISO is, shutter speed, you know what I'm saying, with F-Stop is, you gotta learn what that is, you gotta figure out what you like to shoot. You know what I'm saying? You gotta go out, you gotta do free work, you know what I'm saying? You gotta build a portfolio. You gotta mingle with people, you gotta really, really promote yourself if you want to get some gigs. You know what I'm saying? So you doing this, so now you're doing podcasting and you're doing camera work and then you and then you're doing gigs for folks. Bro, all of this shit will take a toll on you, bro. And the best advice I can give to y'all is preparation, dog. If you don't have a plan, it's not gonna work. Prime example. Again, I did everything I did Friday and Saturday. After Saturday, about 3 o'clock, I have nothing to do for the rest of the weekend. Here I am on Tuesday. I just put notes together when I was at work today on my lunch break to record. This shit was supposed to come out at midnight this morning on St. Patrick's Day. Here we are. It is now almost 9:30. And it's gonna be another at least another hour or two before this joint is ready to come out. This this episode it'll be out before midnight, but still, you get where I'm coming from? Like, again, doing is heavy on doing everything by myself. So this is my advice, all right? This is my advice. Number one, gotta have a strategy, all right? Whatever tools that you have, you gotta have a strategy. If we're talking just podcasting, your notes, you should be, whatever your topic is, you know what I'm saying, whether it's real time or it's planned stuff, you should you should have be jotting down notes daily. Whether you're writing it down or you're using your notes app or like Notion or something like that, or whatever, whatever you whatever is on your phone, you should be jotting that shit down. You it should not be if you record uh Thursday night or Sunday night. You should already know what you're gonna do. If you still jotting down notes, the day that you're supposed to record, you should really should just be just be putting the icing on the cake. Everything else should be done. You should have your paragraphs or your bullet notes, everything. You should just be wrapping it up. You should not be starting from scratch the day before because you're gonna miss something. And then you're gonna mess around and be like, oh, well, uh uh uh what something I seen. It was something I seen. Uh uh uh it was no, it's gone, bruh. Just skip it. You had all week to get it, you ain't got it. All right, that's number one, you know what I'm saying? Number two, um, get with like-minded individuals, bruh. Heavy on number two, bro. Like, I got pause, pause on that. Um, I got a handful of buddies, man, and we all in the same space, and we able to bounce ideas off each other. We able to back each other up whether we when you know when we need it, you know what I'm saying? Like, whenever I'm running dry, I can I can hit two or three people up and be like, man, I'm running dry, bro. What you think about this? Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, and boom, I'm back. And vice versa. Because if you look at some of the biggest podcasters, you look at some of the biggest photographers and videographers, they are not doing it by themselves. They got a team. You know what I'm saying? You can still have your own brand, and they can still have their own brand, and y'all can still do shit together. All right. So, heavy on the collaboration, man. You know what I'm saying? And number two, I mean, number three, bruh, like just make sure you know the reason why you're doing this. All right. Like, what is your reason? What's your reason why you podcast? What's your reason why you take pictures? You know what I'm saying? You you you your number one answer be better be because you love it. All right. If I ask you why you like podcasting and you don't say you love it, I don't, I mean, it better be your reason, it better be better be just as good. But if you don't love this shit, you're not gonna last. All right. Podcasting is a slow burn, it's the slowest burn. All right, it's the slowest. You can go out here and you can look at look at some of the biggest name people out here. I ain't really talking about these celebrities, but if you you can use them, you know what I'm saying? But I'll you I'll use an example. I like always like to use Kev on Stage. When I when I see an example of someone who, now granted, I wasn't following Kev on Stage when he first came out, but I love I love to hear a story like Kev on Stage. If you go to his YouTube, he got a couple of YouTube's, but if you go to his original, man, Kev on Stage got YouTube videos and podcasts and stuff. Them shits is like 15 years old, bruh. Another one, um, this is Nikki's. All right, I follow her. I remember when it was Nikki and Moose, you know what I'm saying, and they was just and they was starting out, you know what I'm saying? And now it's just her, and now she she be at the podcast summits and she be giving courses, she be dropping gems, and she still go live like shit a couple of times a week. But she's been doing that shit years, bruh. So if you're not willing to put that time in, bruh, just don't waste your time. Kev on stage said, are you willing to make a hundred episodes that ain't nobody gonna watch or listen to? 100. That's that's a hundred times that however however you set up your space, or you sit in your closet, or you ride in your car, you put your earphones in, and you gotta come up with something to talk about. Can you do that shit a hundred times and have no downloads or no views? Because that's what separates, you know what I'm saying? The folks, the folks who just doing this shit because it's a trend, to the folks that's here for the long haul. So and again, I made it 170 episodes, but I didn't really, really truly understand that meaning. The biggest the the second biggest mistake I made, we we we can jump back on me. We we get I'm I'm gonna keep getting on myself tonight because I should have been did this. The second mistake I made was I didn't know when to take a break. Listen, unless you're doing it full-time, trying to record every week, once a week, or or multiple times a week, it's not sustainable. Unless you ain't got no job and you taken care of, and and whoever you supporting you saying, hey, go ahead and do that shit. But if you got a full-time job, this this message is for the full-time job. I ain't quitting my job. I'm just doing this shit to see what, see what if I can make something shape. Yeah. If you don't know when to take that break, you know, they call it seasons and shit like that. Yeah, I'm a firm believer in that shit. I used to go all year. Now my format is I go week one NFL to NBA Finals, and NBA Finals ends in June. So that's June to September, no podcast. And if I am podcasting, that's me. That's me just taking that time to have guests and batch recording a bunch of episodes with guests and then putting them joints out in between episodes. But ain't gonna be no all-year round no more, bruh. It's not sustainable. I ain't got that much shit to talk about. So uh what else? Oh, social media. Let's let's get back to that, man. Bruh, like, you got to be a social media person. Like, I I've ran into quite a few people who who want a podcast, right? But they they're not on social media, or they're not on it like that. I'm like, well, how's that possible? Like, how's that gonna work? Like, you have to, you have to, and you gotta be everywhere. You got to be on Facebook, you gotta be on IG, you gotta be on fucking Snapchat, you gotta be on YouTube, you gotta be on Threads. You know what I'm saying? You gotta be on TikTok, you gotta be on all of these sites because you just never know. Like for me, I have uh, let me see, I got one face, well, I got one Facebook page, and then I got my photography little shit, but I'm probably gonna delete that. Ain't nothing popping on there. I got two Instagrams, one personal and one for photography. I got one TikTok and I got one YouTube and I got one thread. Dog, when I go to post a video, depending on what it is, like if I'm just talking into the phone, let's just say I'm just talking into the phone, because that's most of my most common uh uh uh stuff. I literally have to go, boom, post on TikTok, then post on TikTok, then post on Instagram, then it's Instagram is linked to Facebook and threads, so we're good there. And then I gotta, and then I gotta go post to YouTube. I gotta post all these shits differently. The wording, the hashtags, if hashtags are still a thing, all that shit gotta be different. Sometimes I gotta format it differently. All for TikTok may give me two or three hundred views. You know what I'm saying? Instagram may give me, you know, maybe 20, 30 likes, a few comments, you know what I'm saying? Facebook probably give me half of that. Hey, Facebook just gonna give me a lot of people looking at it and scrolling. YouTube may fuck around to give me a thousand views because it'll be a YouTube short. All of that shit is different, dog. It's all different, but you have to do it. If you're trying to grow, you gotta post, you gotta post not all the time, but you gotta post quite often. And you gotta comment on other people's shit too. So I always say, find other like-minded individuals. Now be careful with that, right? Be careful with the filing and like-minded individuals because what you don't want to do is you don't want to start like gauging your stuff to somebody else's stuff. I know, I know it's easier said than done, but it will happen. You will get on this joint and be like, Well, damn, this dude post wasn't even that good, but he got like he got 500 likes for that. Like, man, I said the same shit. Or man, he his shit not even in 4K, man. It's in 720p. Don't do that shit, bro. I'm telling you. Don't do that shit, bruh. Don't don't compare yourself. Rule number four, don't compare yourself to other people, dog. You are your own person. It's cool if you want to admire somebody, but don't compare yourself and don't ever adjust or mimic what somebody else is doing. Be your own person. All right, your podcast name ain't Bite Off of Them Podcasts. It's called whatever the fuck you named it podcast. Right? One more thing, man. One more thing, and then I'm gonna head out. All right. Oh, another thing, man. Like, as far as um when you juggling these, you know what I'm saying? If if it's somebody out there that's doing doing both in the field, or somebody else in the media field, running the business, you gotta know how to do that too. That's and that's something that I'm still learning. You gotta know how to run the business, man. You out here trying to get clients, you gotta know how to price yourself, you know what I'm saying? You out here podcasting, you trying to get sponsors and all this, you gotta you gotta know how to navigate that stuff, bro. If you get when you get to that point where you can monetize, when you got when you got the numbers, or when you've been doing it for a minute, you got a steady stream or you got a Patreon or buy me a coffee or something, you gotta know how to set all that shit up, man. You can mess around and be charging people 99 cents a month, and you giving them$20 a month worth of shit,$100 worth,$100 a month worth of exclusive content. You gotta be on top of all that, man. Now, this is this is you've been doing it for a minute. Now we we get into advanced shit. We getting into, oh, now some money is coming in or it's potentially coming in. You know what I mean? You you getting ready to monetize on YouTube, you know what I'm saying? You blue checking, you already there. So this is the other type of stuff, you know what I'm saying? So again, got to have people in your corner that's that's gonna help you out. You know what I'm saying? Unfortunately, it's probably gonna be some free labor. You know what I'm saying? And another thing, your audience, all right? Hear me out, hear me out, hear me out. Your family is not your audience, all right? This is for the people that's new coming in, all right. Not all your family. Some of your family will be, but all the family you think it's gonna be, they are not your audience. They're gonna be excited for you in the beginning, you know what I'm saying? And once you get to them first 10, they're gonna be like oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Once you give out 30, 40, you hit episode 50, you're on your own. All right, your audience is whoever you bring in. Do not depend on even a person that you see every day, your best friend, you know what I'm saying? Your husband, your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend. They are not your audience, bro. Like your audience is organic, your audience is the people who don't know you. Your audience is the people whose attention you grab based on your message, all right? It's not your family. I'm only saying this because you don't want to have them unrealistic expectations, and you sitting there like, damn, Ma, damn, dad, y'all don't even check my shit out. Like, what's good? And they're gonna be like, uh, well, shit. I mean, you know, they got lives. So there's not your audience, all right? And the last thing, I keep saying it's the last thing, but it's maybe maybe this will be the last one. Numbers, the analytics, all right. Do not get twisted around about the analytics, bro. This goes back to what I said. Uh what Kevin on stage said. Can you make a hundred episodes that nobody gonna watch? All right, for a long period of time. I had episode, man. I think the most the most views I had ever got on just audio. This was Spotify, Google, Google, Apple Music, Amazon, whatever. The most views I probably ever got, or downloads, they call it audio is downloads, video is views. The most downloads I ever got was probably it was less than 100, I'll tell you that. Four plus years, and I probably I had less than a hundred downloads on probably the one of the best episodes I had ever made. On the video side, I think I probably had I think I may have cracked a thousand views a couple of times on some. But again, this is this is this is 170 videos. So you see what I'm saying? See how the math ain't mathing. And honestly, that's what crushed me. Because I was like, damn, like I feel like I'm doing this for nothing. I'm talking to myself. Just like I'm sitting in a room right now, talking to myself, well, talking to y'all, but really talking to myself. You cannot, like, you cannot let that shit deter you, man. Like, as long as you know that this is the long haul, there is no quick way to get there. I don't care what person DM you on Instagram and say, oh, I can optimize your page and I can get you this and I can get you there, or these little agency companies they say they can they can get you there. The only thing gonna get you there is time and effort. Your success is only as good as your effort, bro. I'm telling you that now. So you giving it 110% every week, or every other week, or every month, or however you do it, you know what I'm saying? You continue to improve your stuff, but you don't you don't stress yourself out, you don't mentally drain yourself, you can make it. We can make it, you know what I'm saying? This and I and I'm I'm saying this, I'm speaking this because I'm right here with you. This is only episode 11. As far as I'm concerned, them other 170 episodes is gone. I can't, you know what I mean? They still on YouTube, but like as far as like audio and all that, they don't exist. You know what I'm saying? And and to me, this is just me, you know what I'm saying? Take it or leave it. If your podcast don't got an RSS feed, it's not a podcast, it's a YouTube show. Let me take a sip of water on that. If I can't go to any outlet where it plays podcasts, which is just audio, and I can't find your podcast, it's not a podcast. It's a YouTube show. And that's perfectly fine. But stop calling it a podcast, though. I know this is controversial, I know some people like to go back and forth, but hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just telling you. I mean, I'm I'm a vet, so I got enough time I think I can say it. You know what I'm saying? So um, I mean, there's there's a lot more shit that I can I can, you know, put it out there. But I feel like I gave y'all enough to number once, number one, you know, just point you in the right direction, you know, set you up for success as best as I know. You know what I'm saying? Maybe I should make a fucking course. But um, and also just you know, being honest with y'all, be being transparent. You know, I take pride in being honest and taking accountability, you know what I'm saying, for my platform and for my audience because you know, y'all mean a lot to me. Like, I'm I'm doing this for me, but I also do it for y'all, you know. So I always say, I appreciate it, man. And I always say, you know, if if you felt like just any part of this conversation resonated with you or somebody you know, always say, hey, you know, send it to somebody or share it. You know what I'm saying? Like I'll do better at making clips. You know what I'm saying? I'm I definitely interact. I respond to them comments, good or bad. You want to go back and forth with me, we can go back and forth. If you want to say what's up, I'm you know, all good. But um, that's just me, man. It's just me in a nutshell. So, again, I appreciate it, man. It's 9.36. I got some editing I need to do. So again, if you like what you heard, man, please show show brother some love, man. And you're listening to the Captain's World Podcast. I'll see y'all next week. Captain O'Keefe.