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I sounded like a zombie.
Just.
Yeah.
In order to grow, you got to have like some kind of goals.
Don't stop.
Don't stop.
Don't stop.
Don't stop.
Put it out.
And it doesn't matter.
It doesn't have to be videos.
You want to rap?
Put it out.
You want to take pictures?
Put it out.
Practice.
But don't focus so heavy on being a professional.
You'll get there.
Just put it out.
What's up? What's up, man? Good. Welcome back to I Will Not Lose podcast. Good morning. Good
evening. Good night. Good afternoon. Whatever time you're listening in, wherever you're listening
from. Shout out to my YouTube listenership, Google, Apple podcasts. Thank you for listening
in, whether you're running, working, driving, playing, creating some content. You know,
that's a dope dude taking content in while he's creating content. I don't know. I usually switch
to music but we got a very special guest for you today i know i say that every week but
this uh this interview i'm calling it right now it's gonna age so well we caught you right uh
mid i wouldn't call it mid-struggle but you're in it right now minute minute you're you're in it so
i'd like to introduce christopher urina he is a entrepreneur content creator uh made a big name
in the photography business, still doing things with that. Recently got into content monetization
and everybody says, Oh, I pull engagement. So I could do that. You know, when they see you post
the numbers, everybody's like, they could do that. It's not just posting, you know, and I appreciate
the fact that you go into what it actually takes and the investment, you know, you're the little
toy you're walking around with it's like eight hundred dollars for the kit six to eight hundred
dollars so you're serious about this i am i am um and the thing is like you know me i have all the
gear i have three different mirrorless cameras i have my cell phone i have a another cell phone
that i paid off and i just use just to have i have cameras on cameras that you can think about
i get them for the ease like the usability the ease of use i want to make things easier for me
if I'm going to try to take this serious. Yeah. Now that makes sense. I mean, sometimes that
little technological gap can get there. I mean, we were talking before you got here, everything I
grabbed was eBay gifts, sponsorships, and just putting piece by piece together until next thing
you know, you're sitting in a studio and it's like, I've even pushed it to the limit of trying
to take this and i mean not trying we did it we we shot a video in a jujitsu gym like with the
with coach yeah shout out to evan robinson at uh that's dope exalt jujitsu but everything goes in
that case right behind you it can all be set up moved somewhere so have a portable studio yeah
so i mean speak on that the ability to take a tool and make it work for you for you know a lot
of people get into i can name how many hobbies that you've monetized between the camera between
the 3d printing you know what you're doing now with the content so like what kind of a mind i
know people want to get into your mind like how does he have all the time uh honestly i i i don't
know i don't know how i have the time i get sleep i don't get a lot and i think it's my wife hates
it and i think it's because i spend so much time researching it's not just uh mindlessly scrolling
on tiktok or anything like that like if i'm get invested in something i'm invested and so i'm
googling i'm youtubing i'm tiktoking i'm researching what to do how to do it how can i
make money off of this and what can i like it's just it's the mind of of business where it's just
like how can i make this money how can i monetize this but not be scummy about it at the same time
and uh i i spend hours on hours and hours just trying to like find new ways to do things
that's good i mean i have i i have like if i'm gonna buy a piece of equipment i'll research it
but as far as this this was like two weeks of mania yo this would be a good idea let's jump
into it i i did like i did research what would done i had a background as an audio engineer
so like i did want to talk about how does one experience lead to the next in the journey
or in your journey i think a lot of it like especially like in this case it comes from
you do something one time if you had fun doing it you want to keep doing it and eventually at
some point you're like well how can i make money off of this like i'm having fun yeah but at the
same time i know that i can make money because there's other people who are doing what i do and
they're making a living i enjoy this i enjoy paying my bills so let's mix the two together
yeah it's nice when that fun comes first and then the paying the bills comes um i always i
thank god all the time that i haven't lost the fun in what i do just because i make money i mean
graphic design was my hobby passion since like eighth ninth grade and I'd say my whole life I
was just distracted from my purpose like everything else I did was like so that I could do the the
design I mean like it's it's interesting so that's cool that you said that but tell let's go back a
little bit about yourself for the people who don't there's going to be a lot of people that listen to
is that follow you yeah but for the people just discovering who you are uh all right how would
you describe yourself artistic we'll start back um used to make music back in the day uh from like
high school right until like a little after high school and i realized at some point that like
music really wasn't for me but the business side of music was more so for me and i started to gear
more into like management. And then it turned into creating because it was just like I had
ideas in my head and I was just like, well, this is how A, B and C should look. And they couldn't
produce it the way that I wanted to produce it. And so I started to create those things. And that's
when photography came into play. And it was I want something to look a certain way. I'm going to
shoot it. I'm going to do it. And then I really enjoyed that in general. Like I like what I was
doing photography wise and then not long after i knew people got paid from it so i was like well
how can i make money off of this yeah how can i invest in myself so that it can pay me and uh so
yeah i started back in the day i started with music it transitioned into photography and then
transitioned into being on the other side of the camera which is where we're at today yeah we're
at now and where do you feel more comfortable is it like uh are you relearning the like obviously
being behind the camera gives you some instance on how to be on the opposite end but where do you
have more fun or feel more comfortable like i still at the end of the day i still feel more
comfortable behind the camera yeah but i've been feeling more comfortable in front of the camera
and it's mostly because i shoot for myself so i'll throw something on a tripod or i'll hand
hold something and so it's just it's usually just me in the room by myself yeah so i feel fine i
don't really care what's on the other side i'll review it if i like it it's going up um still i
would say if anybody would ask me like where are you most comfortable behind the camera i'm more
producer side okay um but i still like being in front of the camera yeah it's uh it's something
that i'm still trying to get over there's still like that shyness where it's just like you got
of break through that to to be what you want to be well you said it's about ignoring the cringe
absolutely that was the best advice that i had you know what i mean even getting into
having to do this for video because this this the audio the mic the headphones i love that shit
i love having the audio come through super creamy like pause it's just like uh you have to love it
I've taken pictures.
I know the camera and video and photography are two different things.
So do you think that people have to be nasty with the camera to get into content creation?
What's your thoughts on that?
Absolutely not.
No, you just, you can use your phone, front facing camera, throw it up in the air and
you're good to go.
So you don't need to be a professional to make videos, but to make audio, you need to
be good.
you can't just throw on a mic and then think oh this is gonna sound perfect it's gonna sound
terrible um but it sounds good and it brings it's funny because it brings me back to my rapping days
when i was in the booth and i can you know check check check check let's go it feels good it puts
you in the mode yeah yeah no people always come in they're like hey can i do no headphones i'm
like no you're gonna want to put the headphones on like not just that but it it stops you from
yelling. It keeps you really locked in. And these are the conversations I wanted to create. The
reason I wanted to pick your brain was because we have an idea now. Most of the people that are
getting the numbers that we see, they've been doing this for two, three years. They've been
figuring out the game. It's not something, and I think part of the reason why I didn't go deep
down the photography route is I have the respect for, like you said, how much research, how much
you have to go into it like you can't just pick up a camera you can't just do anything i mean
i'm seven eight years into editing and like i'll look at it at the end and be like all right that's
dope but when i'm doing it i'm like i don't know what i'm doing i don't i think i'm cutting on
motion and you just pick up stuff along the way and from other uh dope videographers but
i remember when you were first getting into that end of it and you shot that music video
shout out johnny bills yeah shout out johnny bells my guy um yeah i got into it for a little
bit i recorded the video i had fun doing it um i produced the one video and i was just like
music video shooting and editing the music video isn't for me producing it what's in my head is
there so whoever knows what they're doing i can give them the shots i can tell them this is how
we're gonna do it shoot it this way edit it this way and we'll create a masterpiece but if it's me
on the other side maybe down the road but no I'll leave that up to people like Nick Asenjo
yeah shout out to Nick shout out he's on he's on he's uh on the calendar that's my guy Nick
by in February guy he was actually supposed to be by this week but um I forget what happened
somebody else grabbed it up but um yeah no done stuff with with Nick and he'll be the first to
tell you you know Nick's got a degree in this stuff he's got monetized YouTube thousands I mean
he what I enjoy about Nick is he'll just be like all right I want to do a one mic he loves hip-hop
you know he's doing stuff for the dealerships and everything like that and he's always done
corporate work and corporate video but he's able to do what he likes and what he wants you know um
but a lot of i watch a lot of creators shout out to angel we've had him on the podcast and that
was before we didn't even talk about him going down the sports photography he may have just
gotten it you watch what he does have what he's done with that actually pop up where like uh he
just went down that lane and started having everyone know him as as that guy so his episode
was called keep creating it's a matter of like you said this is the journey where you're at now
who knows maybe you end up linking up with somebody who says hey we love your content
we just want you to produce this we got the next kai sanat coming up so uh jump on this team like
do you do you like working with teams or i mean i don't really mind it as long as like we could
mesh together i'm cool working together um but if we're if we're not really like if it's just more
of a business yeah transactional we're just not really meshing it's just not it's not really for
me oh man so i get uh that it's not just turn the camera on i get that it's a lot of practice you
know these are along the things with the theme that i like in the podcast but you actually put
out whether it's content while you're working you'll put something out like look i worked last
night just like you worked last night and people think you need to be either creating content all
the time or you're not a content creator because you do a job or you're not a business owner
because you have a job or you know you're not a job you're not a good employee because you have
a business it's always like you know what are your thoughts or comments on that like how would
you address that um i think it's a lie uh honestly i feel like you can do whatever you want as long
as you're good at it you can do it i mean i'm a manager at my job so i i manage people and i think
that translates well into business as well because i manage my business and again i manage people
through what i do and you can have a job create content you can have a job and make videos you
can rap you can do a podcast you do whatever you want as long as you have the time to do it
you don't need to produce every single day it's hard to because we have lives outside of it and
it's just doing what you're doing on the side ends up becoming a second job and especially when you
have a family you're trying to find a way how can i do all three of these excel in all three of these
and that's when it becomes that point where it's just like how can i make the one in the middle
that i really enjoy yeah how can i have that be the number one that makes me money so that i can
drop this one and take care of my family off of this so it's just dedication as it comes down to
dedication of like what do you want to do what's your goal at the end of it if you're just trying
to have fun with it have fun with it post when you want to post don't put pressure on yourself
but if you're trying to like make something you're gonna have to grind and it's just it's
you're going to have to put the work in. Cool. Yeah. I don't like to paint the picture any other
way. I tell people I'm lucky. Like I know I work hard and that's not taking away from anything,
but there is a bit of luck involved with everything. You know, I didn't, I wasn't
born knowing the people I was knowing. I was in a room somewhere and got considered for something
that is a dime a dozen. Like, let's be honest, if it wasn't 10 years ago, everybody has Canva app
or something like what I do is a commodity. So finding some way to say, okay, how do I create
the value? I just look at it that I've been lucky enough to everything that I've made money off of.
I look at it as a game. I inherently want to get better. I think back to like working at Taco Bell
at 15 i wanted to memorize all the recipes i wanted to know the stuff i wanted to get faster
and it was funny i remember leaving there and seeing somebody who when you're first training
someone it's the worst it's like you know this is so easy for you it's like no no you push this
button to make the hose go yeah no you know it's like ah that is uh no that's the honest truth man
it's it's the funniest stuff training somebody because you know what you're doing you already
You have everything up here.
And so when you're just trying to like put it out and show them and then you see them do it different, you're like, what are you doing?
It's not the way I showed you.
Don't do it that way.
And just like you said, if it's transactional with business, if you have a job that you don't enjoy or want to do, you know, you're not going to, I don't want to say always have to stay after, but like, you're just going to make it so much harder on your managers.
So it's funny.
I'll say this.
I'm going to look at this camera when I say it.
you don't need to suck up to be a good employee.
You should like your job.
Obviously you applied for the job.
You should like your job,
do your job.
If you come into work and you do your job and you like your job,
you could move up.
But if you come in a job and it's,
you don't like,
you don't care.
You're just there for a paycheck.
You're going to be stuck at where you're at.
And that's just across the board.
Like if you pick up a camera and you're doing it just because you want to
get paid,
it's gonna be hard to get clients and like i've learned this through uh alex garcia shout out to
alex garcia um garcia photography he told me we were talking years ago and he said people don't
buy what you do people buy you they like you and if they don't like you it doesn't matter how good
you are they're not buying it and that's since he said that that always stuck with me and that
will always stick with me for the rest of my life they will they people buy you they don't buy your
product yeah that's right along what i said with it being like a commodity you know but that's
interesting man i uh i just wish everybody can do something and i think what i try to drive home is
they don't realize how much time there is in a day like does it suck if you um no spoiler you
work night shift but i saw you had posted about getting off at five um something had happened with
oversleeping or the daughter was late and then my wife my wife overslept i didn't want to call her
out that's exactly what i had no she uh she had overslept accidentally alarms she didn't set the
alarm overslept and then at the same time i get home my youngest and my oldest wakes up at six
o'clock in the morning and i'm like oh okay sweet like this is this is the kind of day that it's
gonna be uh i gotta get my son on the bus by eight o'clock in the morning and then i gotta bring my
daughters to my mom because she watches the kids while i try to get sleep but then on tuesdays i
have a work meeting and that lasts till like 11 o'clock in the morning i gotta try to cram in like
a nap to get him off the bus by your body's probably thinking yo what if i did this angle
over here and that's a problem yeah because like while i'm doing all these different things i'm
trying to think how can i what can i create tonight when i'm in my office tonight or when
i'm at home tonight what can i create to put out because i have to put something out today
because i've made a promise to myself put the content out daily put something out every day
so now i'm trying to run around do all these different things but at the same time i'm trying
to create some type of content in some part of my brain where it's just like all right what am i
gonna put out tonight and it's it's it's a madhouse in there it's madhouse but it's like
that's not every night but that's what comes along with it um every night this week i said
i'm gonna go to bed early so i can get that seven eight hours i'm usually good on six and a half
but if i can get eight that's a treasure so i it didn't happen 12 o'clock monday you know what i
mean two i i was up till uh maybe 2 a.m and it's weird not only having clients that are in different
time zones but some of my clients are dreamers just like us they have jobs they have lives they
have families so if 10 p.m is the only time we can screen share to go over you know the thing
that's going to get them out of their individual rat race you know and i'm up anyway it's like okay
so i said uh i have i have you coming over today i was unloading these sd cards like literally as
i was like oh shit i didn't unload the sd card so i'm transferring stuff i'm checking mics like as
you came in i made it look good but i just got off of two client meetings and i have to do what
we talked about right after this so it's like if you want it there is a lot of time in the day
like that and we'll make i'll make the joke with people where it's just like oh there's not enough
time in a day uh my wife loves to say she's like i wish i could just pause pause time and do what
i need to do and then come back and i'm like we have the time we don't we don't realize that it's
there but we have the time and like it could be you can come up with ideas or work on something
where you got to drive to a location anyways so while you're driving there think of it think of
what you need to do think of what you need to create so when you get there you either jot it
down or you get to it you big on chat gbt i am i am i just i find it uh i think like on monday i
just like signed up and i like got a subscription on there i was using the free version no i got
you got you i've been using the free version and then it was like no i would put in too much
information and it's like you use your limit for the day and i'm just like you know what what's
twenty dollars no it's it's it's bad it's like the the cheap version's bad but we're not gonna
get too much into that now that you have the paid versions use the voice when you're in the car
just click the little mic icon and tell it you're about to brainstorm and it'll poke questions
rather than give you responses like google's yeah you know what i mean it'll be less how's your day
and stuff you'll just say look i want to talk about this piece of content what are you thinking
go and google this and when you get to where you are that whole thing will be in the chat so you
can go back and pick out stuff it's like a crazy voice note record but didn't know that yeah man
i'll put you on sorry just yeah not from his school what people don't just to fill the time
while you check that what people don't realize is like i drilled home we have lives and things
going on you know even if you're a teenager you don't have all day to just sit there and create
content you have homework you have things that you have to do and you might have chores and and
let's be honest who's maybe it's different nowadays but at least when we were coming up
you couldn't tell your parents you're gonna chase your hobby and not do like you couldn't drop out
of school you couldn't like you know even if you were on a disney movie and everybody knew your
name they'd be like all right we'll work on your homework we'll get a tutor we'll get a homeschooler
If you like look at the interviews of celebrities like that, they'll talk about how they had homework on set.
Like they would do schoolwork on set and then get to get to recording or whatever the case may be.
Yeah.
So, you know, Valerie Bittner.
Sounds familiar.
She's a actor, voiceover artist, but she's like a spokesmodel in this area.
She's got like 13 feature films.
I've most likely seen her name.
you'll see her check out the interview we have with her coming up but she's explaining how
one what she said that thing that stuck with me was you're only employed till your next job
you know it's it's fun when you get the paycheck it's fun when like i told you i'm booked out for
a little bit but if i don't start doing stuff now then when march hits it's like what's next
is that the end of the line do i go and post something on facebook you know thank god i've
been blessed. I don't get work through Facebook. It's just not something. And that was somewhat
liberating for me and my content creation. Shout out to Alex Cologne, but he asked me,
you know, congratulations on getting monetized. How'd you do it? I said, I have no idea, bro.
It's just the button was available one time. Like I, I, I literally, I got a check in the mail and
it was like meta or something i was like what's this like this looks weird it wasn't crazy at all
but i was like oh like that's right i can receive stars or whatever so i'm gonna research how to do
it but it goes back to what you said if you if you love it the money will come i can explain
you want to get you want to get monetized on facebook yeah let's go the first thing you need
to do is turn your page into a professional page if you don't have that ability then you need to
gain followers you need at least a thousand followers and it's not friends like they need
to be following your page yeah once you turn your page into a professional uh mode and on
professional mode you need to post post post post it doesn't matter what like post your content but
post there's a lot of times that you'll see me just write random things it's because i like i
get paid for whatever i write but the thing is like in order for you to get to that point you
need to post and then at some point facebook will realize oh he wants to be a content creator
and so they'll offer you that option of get paid with bonuses and that's when you get paid for your
videos your posts your photos whatever the case may be um and then as you're doing that and you
start to grow in that and get more followers they'll start to release more to you and the
hardest one to get into is uh ads in the reels so i have ads on reels what it's uh i wish i had
ads you know i'll look right now which which one it was because this one i'm not in yet
you need i think it's like 10 000 followers or 100 000 minutes viewed and that's the one i'm
going for the minutes viewed like you got to know what because uh i put my whole back catalog of i
will not lose on uh 50 episodes hour-long episodes and you're getting views on facebook
so it's a new market it'll load up eventually yeah i have looked i do have mine set up and
i've looked in where it's like like levels like gamified it and stuff yeah i mean i've even taken
it to the level like that desk there with the they can't see it on camera but that desk with
the white background, that's just there for lighting. Like that's just there so I can get
a static background, sit down. I mean, I have the space, but even just coming, throwing a camera on
and doing this with the background, like I overthink it. I know I do, but it's not like
I'm sitting there. If I was sitting there playing video games for four hours and then like, man,
you know, I just can't seem to get my business off the ground or do this. You know, it is what
it is but I know what I'm doing when I'm not posting the only reason I mean I just got off
like a month break of Facebook now that I know okay there's a check there and it's with things
like the you got to think down to the psychology of people so if you see a thumbnail you see one
of my videos even this video let's take this video people will see the thumbnail they'll be
like oh shit he was on that I'll watch that later and they'll see a clip they'll be like oh that's
right i wanted to watch that maybe they'll go and hit watch later on youtube but on facebook
the video just starts playing there's no thumbnail it's there's the thing so as long as i have that
hook as long as i cut something out of the video that gets people to say there it is they don't
even realize they're watching the beginning of it it might just set the phone down and start
listening i mean at least they could save it in their app but people are so weird like if you're
if your podcast is on apple podcasts and not on spotify i'm sorry bro i can only see the clips
that come to me through facebook i'm not going to search it out outside of my native app and
that's part of what i had to stop caring about like i wanted to drive people to youtube because
that's that oh that thing's got a couple hundred views that must be a good conversation but
there are people that'll see a few views and if it's been up for a while and has a few views
they're just not going to watch it you got to look into the psychology of like what we'll do
so maybe hiding views is better for you if that's the case people are weird people and you'll you
you'll notice this as you post content the more likes and shares are on something people are
intrigued to find out why and so like they'll sit there and watch it and then they'll make their own
judgment off of it but if there's nothing on there they'll watch it but they're not going to react to
it no they won't and they'll just scroll on by when they're done and no they'll watch the whole
thing but they won't say nothing and uh that's one of the things that like people have to get over
that as well like if you're going to create content because there's a lot of times i post
i'll have 42 reactions one share and it's like i should have had 42 shares but like you got to get
over that or it's just like everybody's like they don't they just want to fulfill their need
i create i create a content to fulfill your need you're happy ha ha laugh keep it moving they're
just swiping swiping swiping swiping swiping and that's just the way the world is and it's just
like once you get over that like okay it's not like they're not doing it on purpose like i'm
not gonna share this just because it's chris like you know there might be that person but
there's a few and far between now you and tamela well first off your stuff's entertaining but you
and shout out to tamela gross i know you guys do this and take it seriously i know drake gets paid
in some way, shape or form when I comment on his stuff, but I have no vested interest in seeing
him go crazy, but it's, it's nuts how we do this with celebrities. And I'm one of the, I don't want
to say I'm one of the only people, but I keep running into this thing where it's like, I'm
supporting be it local music or entrepreneurs. And then I post something that I did. And now
there's 180, 200 likes of people from all walks of life, all different sort of, you know what I
mean yeah shout out to like the city councilman and police chiefs that said this is what you do
like we support it or we've been watching you never know who's watching too you get 600 views
you ever sit there and wonder dude i got 2300 views and six comments and like you said 100 but
like who were those 3200 people like there are people and i've learned this through everything
that i do there are so many people who watch you they won't react or like engage with any of your
content but they watch you and it's funny because like when i when i shoot a wedding or something
like that and i see somebody that knows me they'll tell me oh chris i love your stuff you're so funny
i watch all of it and i'm like who are who are you yeah and then i finally hear their name and i'm
like who is that i've never seen their name pop up never seen i have like i have a good memory
and it's just i will check i don't know what it is but like i like to check who's liked my stuff
who's like to share who's commented it's a great habit and so i remember everybody's name so if you
have like if i hear your name i'm like you didn't like something and i know you didn't or maybe you
liked one thing and that's that so you're not engaging with the content which hey it is what
it is you're not forced to but it's funny when people are like they're just like they're watching
there's a lot of people watching you do what you do they might not engage but there's a lot of
people watching and that's why it's it's important to go hard because just because you see two three
likes doesn't mean that two three hundred people didn't watch your stuff for sure and it's it could
be very local you look at your your insights you'll see it's all local the people who are
watching you so just at some point something will hit it'll stick keep keep pushing at it
For sure, man. That's great advice. That's great advice. I think it's never the content either. Like you syndicate content to different, like you go to TikTok, you go to a bunch of different stuff.
Like one thing I do is I post my reels to TikTok, but I don't know how to scroll TikTok.
I don't know that app at all.
I don't even know how to get out of it when I get in it.
I have to like go back, back twice.
See, that's what I've heard.
And it's like, it's just another path to go down.
But the amount of people that say, I see your podcast on TikTok, like that's where the exposure
is.
They may not translate into actual views or listeners of the long form content, but just
in terms of broad reach, nobody cares that I do design or run a successful business and
that I'm a podcaster now.
So what's up, man?
Got me and my mic.
It's just me and my mic now.
You know, what's funny is like, there's so many different social media apps and they
really are like at the end of it, the bare bones, it's a social media app.
It's the same, but they're different in so many ways.
like on facebook it's me it's it's it's christopher urena they know me and like i'll put out the
content or whatever the case may be but like it's me and i'm me across every social media yeah but
you still get something different like on instagram i'm starting to use it different today
but for the past like eight years it was business to me so on instagram you only got cu imagery you
got photography you got business you didn't get family life yeah what you got was photos and on
tiktok tiktok was just more of like this is me like this is the real me i'm raw i'm posting
i'll make a joke i'll do a stupid dance playing around whatever the case may be yeah because this
is tiktok is strictly well now they've embedded like photos but it's just strictly videos and
it's just a quick swipe another video but it's nothing it's not based on comments and photos
it's not based on business it's reminds me how snapchat was like but it has comments like i
really love snapchat my new addiction right now is threads just because i don't even know the path
to monetization i have to know in 2025 whether i want to put like as much work as i put into the
podcast because if this is part of my content do you know how much work it is to be on apple
youtube spotify deezer have the clips on youtube shorts post to the facebook story the facebook
reels the instagram story the instagram reels tiktok youtube shorts it's like it's a whole
it's a whole other job it's 20 30 minutes like per platform till you chat gpt what it is and
nowadays people are like like for my anniversary episode i fell back for a little bit and i tried
some new things that i was gonna do had some new ai tools but now if i don't got the time stamp
exactly to where you want to go in the image and also in the Facebook description. It's just so
hard. And I appreciate people for their attention. Yo, shout out to you if you're watching this right
now, because I say you could be anywhere else in the world right now. And that was a saying before
you could literally go into a portal to be anywhere. So if you're giving the attention,
there's something that you're pulling in, something in the message that they understand
with the guests that I pick, because if you're not on the journey, I don't think there's so much
to hear. I think it's actually misleading to say, okay, I'm not saying you don't get like,
say an Elon Musk, or you get somebody who has the perceived highest level of success in whatever
field. Yeah. You can learn something from them. But my audience is like, yo, I may not pick up
that carriage. You don't have any people told me, yo, I can start a podcast now. Like I'm passionate
about this. They're stuck in that rat race. They don't like what they do. And they're like, yo,
you're telling me for less than a hundred dollars, I can get what I need to just put content out.
And all I need to do is have the drive. And then next thing, you know, for a year, they're happy
when they come home from work, you know, happy. It makes you at work to know that you can do
something after work like it's fantastic it's great it's a great feeling to come home and it's
just like i can't i can't wait to go home and do x like i can't wait to go home and and and take
care of this knock this out or or create a podcast like i just i can't wait to go home set my camera
up like i just worked 12 hours i'm gonna go home and spend four hours doing this content but i'm
gonna be happy yeah for sure man well that's dope anybody that wants to get into content creation
anybody that even wants to get there's people that listen um for whatever reason this week i
had a bunch of people reach out and just it wasn't like hey good job i seen what you've been doing
it's been like i've known you from years you've never changed or other than in a good way and
stuff and i'm like yo this is so dope near the the holiday because i didn't get into it for any of
that like i'm still doing this two two and a half years later and there's people that say
i was never interested in the conversations but i'm interested in you and you've been consistent
so the fact that i still see it coming i may go and like dude if i had as many views for as many
people like they'll be you know i've seen episodes 26 shares 13 views i'm like i mean
i appreciate the shares appreciate that or you'll have one where i'll go i went viral once on
instagram and i haven't used the app since no lie i just got scared like that's a lot of
notifications but um i had like 13 000 likes 50 60 000 views and it was on it had nothing to do
with like what my show is about like the journey the struggle it was about like chat gbt i think
it was mid journey at the time i had like just tried out mid journey and whatever hashtag hit
hit and i didn't have i will not lose branding i was just a guy in a sweater at a mic it was
funny but it went nuts so i'm like i didn't know how to capitalize it on the time i don't think i
had any monetization at the time but it's funny what what takes off and you'll be surprised on
what takes off it sometimes it's
the most random thing that
just blows up and you're
just like what
and then you don't know how to like
translate it over to something like I've
had videos blow up
millions of views no way
to translate that over into what I do
because it has like I don't
want to say it has nothing to do with what I am but it's just like
it was the
shoot that I did the pregnancy
the paternity shoot blew up
multiple times it's blown up
i can't convert that what if i would go back and do another shoot no there's no way to convert that
but uh i had other videos do really well so it's just kind of like following that recipe if i follow
that recipe that i can i can monetize so it's it's real funny on what can blow up because it'll
just be something as random as let me talk about mid journey and it's uh it's it's it is
over over stimulating when your phone is just you're looking at your phone you're just like
what the hell's going on what it's a notification after notification after yeah and then you want
to reply to people and stuff i uh yep and it becomes it's just like yeah let me stop let me
leave that alone i had someone uh threads is my shit because i almost i want to say i feel like
nobody knows me even though i'm still at to the designer it's such a it's more photographers and
stuff and i don't have to prove myself to any graphic designer i don't care if whatever so
i'll do stuff like i posted about sandisk's new logo some people liked it some people didn't i
said you know this affects my buying decision this dude jumped and this is the only energy
you're getting at whatever it is that he was like this is the absolute worst reason to consider
trusting your data with the companies because you like the logo so i'm like homie chill i wasn't
thinking about SanDisk on Monday. They dropped the logo on Tuesday. Next time I get a disc,
I may research what they're doing. Like to think that low, I don't give a shit about the logo.
Dude, some people care about marketing, not care, but like if SanDisk didn't have a rebranding
campaign, there was no commercial they could have done with their old one that would have had me
talking on my podcast about it. Like clearly they knew when they were investing in that,
where to split the money between research and development and whatever but i'll just be like
i like that you could put your voice on threads because i don't care so much about like i say to
people i grew my hair out i i've reached a point in my career where it's like i'm good enough to
get hired with long hair in my 20s i was like if i'm not in a suit if i don't have a tie people
aren't going to consider me and stuff and does it help yeah like you said people are buying you not
the stuff, you know, but I have a question for you. This is for me, not my listeners.
Is it like, I don't want to chase trends. Is there somewhat of having to be like up on pop
culture or at least up on social media trends? Like, I think it's good to be up on social media
trends and pop culture, but it doesn't mean to follow it. As long as you have the knowledge of
it you you could be quick to react or quick to like you have that information tucked in your
back pocket to not have that information could hurt you but i'm not gonna say it will hurt you
it's just it's just there um but it is good to have that like at the ready just in case
now that makes sense like we had i remember when andrew tate was when everything was going nuts
And the guy I had cutting my clips at the time was like, we need Andrew Tate clips.
We need Andrew Tate clips.
I'm like, okay, I'll start to get familiar.
As I did, I'm like, I don't want to talk about this.
Like, I don't want to have a take just to have a take.
Just to have a take.
And that, at that point, I feel like I'll lose the passion for it.
I'll feel like I'll have to be reading the news not to know about a new logo that's in
my industry but like what's going viral on instagram like that even my podcast i listen to
and they're like such and such they say the person's at name like it's a celebrity and they're
like they're dating this person and i'm like i get that that's a whole machine i just i i don't
yeah that's different that's i feel like that's trying to reach a different market like you don't
need andrew tate style clips to to become a good podcaster or anything of that nature i think
that kind of stuff puts you in a box and i mean we saw what happened with a local podcaster who
put himself in that box he created one type of content went on somebody else's podcast
it didn't turn out good for him i don't know what he's doing now i'm sure
maybe he lost a little bit of followers and then gained it back i'm not sure i don't follow it
Yeah. I don't, I'm not up on it, but like definitely not up on it enough to speak on it. But I'd imagine, and I did think about this for myself, is the goal numbers, you know, like if I, if I wanted to, I could have been on, no, I could have not been saying shout out to my listeners, Spotify, Google pipe.
I could have just did YouTube. If the only place you could find it was YouTube, yeah,
I'd sacrifice more overall listeners, but I'd have two or three times as many views in the
stuff. There's people that download podcasts, you know what I mean? So do I take those thousands of
downloads and count them as, oh, they weren't views? I'd rather have somebody download me
because I know you're going to listen to it, even if I don't get the analytics on how far
you listened, anything like that. I now have people after talking into a mic for myself for
a while, reaching out like, Hey, what do sponsorships look like? So now I'm like, okay.
Like I said, everything I do is to just justify my hobbies. Now I could be like, all right,
Nika, I'm making money down here. You guys got to keep the volume down before that they're on
the phones. They're like, ah, you know, dad's just in the basement doing his thing. But no,
you uh everybody respects the cringe once they see six seven eight thousand dollars a month
absolutely and that's the thing like as a as a creator i don't want to just call it content
creation but as a creator if you want to put something out you want to put out a podcast you
want to put out content you want to make videos whatever you want to be a model you need to get
over that cringe it everybody i don't care who it everybody looks at your stuff and they're just
i'm like what's chris doing yeah they see me 35 year old married father at three on tic on on
facebook dropped the video yesterday playing around dancing and then you know what's funny
that has got more con like more engagement than most of my other stuff but if you would have been
trying to dance to follow a trend that you know 13 14 like my my daughter's 16 she'll say let's
do a tiktok and it'll be like the one where two people dance and then the music stops for the
like she's playing me i know i'm the old dad that's gonna get laughed at by a bunch of stuff
you know what i mean like i know i can't leave my ass crack showing around my own house because
i'll end up getting passed around the school like that's fine play that part it's when like we had
this problem in hip-hop it's like when you're 37 38 shopping in the kids department and you don't
have a kid's body like that that's one thing if you're shy if you're a woman you're petite you're
shopping size zeros like i get it but if you i mean i don't know and this is not going against
crocs or pajamas or any of that sort of stuff but if you're trying to fit into that market
there's got to be some like weird motive like that's yeah there always is you know but um i
I know you got, we can start to land the plane.
I know you got to run around, do a couple things today.
If you want to just kind of lead with what you're, I mean, you did kind of say what your
day looks like and what goes into it.
You went into how much research is involved in doing what you do.
You said you don't need to have a ton of behind the camera experience to get into it and stuff,
even though that does help you.
You know what I mean?
And I would say the same with podcasting, like knowing what this stuff does.
It's okay to put out 30 shit episodes where the audio is not great.
Do you know how much stuff I still figure out?
I think until I have a hundred episodes, I can't say this is what I do.
That's just been my thing.
I'm like, I need at least a hundred videos.
And then people at YouTube will be like, okay, you figure it out.
We had Alany on here.
I forgot to turn on the backlighting.
And you know what?
when i looked through that camera and i saw the back of your shirt was dark
i was like oh backlighting like it's never gonna happen again
you have to put like so what a lot of people tell me what people like for content creation people
will say the editing the editing is hard they let the editing stop them from creating content
and it's just like you just put it out just put it out learn it down the road learn it learn it
along the way just put it out you want to make a podcast put it out learn it along the way because
like we said earlier people are watching that you don't know they're watching they will watch
your progression and when you get to a certain point that they wanted you to get to that's when
they'll engage with you and then they'll put it out to people and so on and so forth and it's just
put the work out don't worry about what it looks like don't be a perfectionist put it out work on
it later work on it continue to work on it but make sure that it's out because somebody's always
watching yeah or if you have the budget you know hire someone like chris hire someone like tony and
uh no i mean if you're i have nothing no problem with if there's a passionate and some of the
things i'll shout out my clients as we're closing up like the reality tv show we're working on
he's learning editing learning cameras invested in the equipment like this is not a
okay i just wanted to throw together something like this you know what i mean like this is
camera switching this is a production this is an actual show and it's driven by someone who
took the time to learn the stuff you know shout out to ron speakman on fed up's podcast
he learned how to he's got 60 70 000 downloads in like the first year just off of okay i'm gonna
get this equipment i'm gonna youtube how to learn it i'm gonna do this and he's still calling me up
hey what can we do with this i actually owe him a call after uh today actually but that's what's
gonna make me want to team up and work with you like it can't just be transactional i can't just
be the guy that switches the cameras between it you know what i mean i could be making a hundred
thousand dollars get around two hundred thousand dollars hit me up i'll switch between camera a
camera c i'll run the clapboard like but yeah but not for no twenty thousand dollars you know
they'll want somebody to be we're in a market where there's always somebody that's gonna do
it cheaper. So where do you set yourself aside? But dude, great gems. This is awesome. Appreciate
you. And so people know me, I've known Chris for years and I've been podcasting for two. We just
got around to getting on this. So I knew what you did and you were always somebody we could have had
this at any time over the past two years. And it would have been a dope interview, but, you know,
I wanted to specifically document this now because I've seen you do it with so many other
things. Like you're going to take this content creation to a whole nother level. And then you're
showing and teaching me as we go, like behind the scenes, people don't know I'm in Chris's inbox for
equipment recommendations, reviews. Um, I'm not sending him memes or stuff like that. He's allowed
me to use equipment for shoots you know i've recommended him and tagged him we've even got
clients where they've come to me for branding and then come to you for brand headshots and stuff you
know what i mean shout out to unique glow wellness med spa so um yeah it's good stuff man you got
anything else you want to land the plane with um don't stop don't stop don't stop don't stop
put it out and it doesn't matter it doesn't have to be videos you want to rap put it out you want
to take pictures put it out practice but don't focus so heavy on being a professional you'll
get there just put it out let people see the baby steps you don't need to just introduce yourself
to the world as like look at me i i do this and i do it really good put it out there put it out
there and let them see the let them see the growth. People love that. People love seeing the
growth. And there's going to be some people who don't like the growth. And it is what it is.
They'll help you regardless, though. Their views will help you grow. So don't stop.
Here we go, man. Get your haters up. I will not lose podcast. Christopher Urena. Thanks.
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