Studio Sessions
Discussions about art and the creative process. New episodes every other week.
Links To Everything:
Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT
Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT
Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT
Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG
Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG
Studio Sessions
63. Build The Foundation, Lose The Costume, Keep Your Soul
We sit down for our annual year-end conversation, reflecting on 2025 and mapping out intentions for 2026. The discussion moves between practical revenue planning and deeper questions about identity, authenticity, and what it means to build a creative life without losing yourself in the process.
We explore the tension between chasing grandiose visions of success and learning to be present with who we actually are—people who source vintage records, make photographs, create videos, and build websites. The conversation touches on the difference between "playing the part" of a successful creator versus doing work that genuinely reflects our interests and values. We discuss building infrastructure: getting websites live, returning to photography, potentially publishing short stories, and establishing outlets for work that's been internal for too long. Both of us grapple with the pull of consumption and distraction versus the slower work of being present, disciplined, and engaged with the actual world.
The episode ends on the idea of returning to being generalists rather than specialists—people with broad interests and connections across different areas of life, people who haven't traded their souls for narrow visions of achievement. -Ai
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We read and appreciate all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Links To Everything:
Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT
Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT
Matt’s 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT
Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT
Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG
Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG
It had been a golden afternoon, and I remember having the familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with someone's hands.
SPEAKER_00:2026. It's coming. Morning episode. These beautiful Christmas cacti behind you.
SPEAKER_01:Morning. It's 1.20 in the afternoon. Brother. It's the illusion of season. Feels like morning. Um, okay, but wait, did you mean morning? Morning. Or morning.
SPEAKER_00:Or morning. So I think what I mean though is this is I like these episodes. Like this is a weekend episode. Obviously, we usually shoot during the week. This is during the sunlight. We have a bit of a different energy in these things. We've had coffee.
SPEAKER_01:You need the light, by the way. Do we ever turn it on during the day?
SPEAKER_00:We can.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I don't know. I I can't remember if we did or didn't.
SPEAKER_00:Let's see them. It'll give you a little bit of a line.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, give me a little key over here in the darkness all the time. Oh yeah, that made a huge difference. Oh yeah. Light me up. Sorry I interrupted you.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no. It's actually turned all the way down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, crank it up so I'm not in silhouette. Give me a little key here, buddy.
SPEAKER_00:Should we just crank this thing all the way to a thousand?
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Alright, it's at 100%. Let's go. That's pretty.
SPEAKER_01:A B. Yeah. I'll take it. I need all the light I can get over here. Anyways. Hopefully these flips can take care of that.
SPEAKER_00:Daylight episode. Yep. Good energy. Coffee. Cheers. We've so we've been doing this. Were we close enough for coffee and hangs in 2019 for this, or was it 2019? We definitely were because I was 2019 the first year we did this?
SPEAKER_01:Oh god. I can't I don't think it was that early.
SPEAKER_00:I have a picture of me and you on your couch in like 2019. I was wearing super tight pants.
SPEAKER_01:Was that um doing that interview doing that like sit-down talk after we did the spec commercial, though? Not that that photo was. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, the 2019 thing probably could have was like you and Cody over and we're like screwing around with a camera check testing some lenses or something that Cody got. But no.
SPEAKER_00:Anyways, yeah. Yeah, I don't think anything so at least five years, maybe six. But we would have done, you know. It's really, did we do 2019, 2020? So this is at least year five or six. Yeah. So maybe year seven.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I'm sorry, I was thinking you were referencing not like filming a podcast, but yeah, doing conversations not about this, but like this. Yeah. You're talking about more of like the annual, we used to call them kind of goal setting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. So sorry.
SPEAKER_00:So that just kind of how long we've been doing these. And I guess we you could almost say that the last couple of years we haven't done them to the same extent. We kind of have this conversation every year.
SPEAKER_01:I think you and I kind of do it, but um in the past, just so everyone knows, we would after the new year, we would all meet for coffee. Um, me, Cody, DJ, sometimes you, um, and then we would go over what our goals are. I started shifting less from like all these um metric-based goals, like I want this much revenue, I want this much work, I want, you know, to sort of like you know, designing what I want my year to look like, both personally and professionally, and then saying, what are some of the things that you have to do to have that? And that could have been like a certain amount of revenue. And then on my own, I I wouldn't necessarily get into the specifics with you guys, but on my own, I'd be like, well, if you need 100K annually in revenue to have your life like this, both personally and professionally, like what are some of the things that you're gonna do to achieve 100k in revenue? And I would try to, you know, come up with what my plan was to do that. And that's similar to what you know I would bring to this conversation is um much more focused on what I want my life to look and feel like, and then um and then what's like the plan to actually achieve that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:This might, yeah, it might, it might we it's just something we've kind of done for a while. And it might be a totally cliche episode. It might be a episode that kind of like I I don't know how together it'll feel. Yeah. Some of our episodes are just completely wandering though, so I'm sure this will be fine within that framework. But yeah, I think it's fun something that we have been talking about, we have talked about this, especially the last few episodes. It's just like bringing in more like being able to use this platform as like a bit of an accountability. Not that we need to use this for anything, but like obviously we want to use it as a I think the the biggest reason that we did this in the first place was we wanted to do something consistently over time, just that ritual quality of it, and then also as like a almost like a time capsule for our kids, family, whatever, putting away our thoughts at at a time. It's almost like a digital journal. Yeah and it uses a medium that we both enjoy, um, audio and video. So I think, you know, a great way to almost book in that or give little chapters to that. Um, you know, we don't like to do things that are very time specific, but I do think, yeah, talking about some goals, accounting for those, or not not necessarily the goals, but just like outcomes that we want to to pursue, and then accounting for those and accounting for the process. I think it's interesting. I think it's helpful, I think it totally fits the ambition of this podcast that we originally had.
SPEAKER_01:So Yep, agreed.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, yeah. I I think so one thing I wrote was check-ins. I think we check in like either monthly or you know, once every couple of months and just yeah, you know, bring it back up. Hey, this how's this going? How's this going? Yeah. Hold each other accountable, use the you know, all 12 people that are watching to hold us accountable.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think that would be that would be helpful to have um sorry to lay things out a little bit. And I I don't think we'll get hyper specific in the time that we have to talk today, but um to have conversations about, you know, based on you know what you the design that you laid out for your year, how is it lining up with that right now? Where are you not um experiencing personally and professionally what you were hoping for and what's causing that that shortfall? Is it discipline? Is it too much indulgence? Is it, you know, I think yeah unexpected.
SPEAKER_00:Accounting for like personal obviously separating between agency and uh just uh, you know unplanned, yeah, you know, right, uh fairly unfortunate or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Um but yeah, I mean, especially I think a lot of times it does come down to agency or yeah. And sometimes you just have changes, and you know, I think that was one thing that we used to make these really specific goals, and then yeah, your interests or your whatever would change over the course of the year, or like the way you saw a situation would evolve. So I think the evolution of this discussion has been more towards that grand design to get away from that. Um, like you're probably like none of the stuff we're gonna discuss is is really probably gonna shift interest-wise or whatever over the next year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, so and before we start, I just for the you know, listeners and viewers to be thinking about as we go into this, um, you know, be thinking, how did your year go from what you thought it was gonna be leading into January of 2025? How did things go personally and professionally? Um, what happened that you set out to accomplish? What didn't happen? What were the causes of that? What were the symptoms of things not being the way that you wanted to? Maybe you were lacking discipline or focus or whatever it is that maybe led to I don't know, not earning enough money or not having certain projects, you know, come to fruition, you know, whatever. You don't have to uh, you know, put anything in the comments or anything. But I I I just would want you to kind of have that in your head while we go into this because I think that would be if I was listening to this, that would be helpful for me to understand my own context as I listen to two people talk about what they're thinking for the next year. And I don't know that we need to summarize how we feel our 2025 went.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I so I just wrote a couple of quick little points.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um so and I've I've mentioned this, I think I've mentioned this on here before, but I've definitely mentioned this in the conversation. Um like this year, obviously, it went by quick. Every year goes by quick, whatever. I think that's a silly but this was the like the slowest. I don't know if if I would say eventful, but just like it it was the slowest year for me, and I mean that in like a really good way. It was the most aware and like in the world I felt, probably in recent memory, yeah. Like in a decade. And I think I would I would uh share that experience. Really? Not I think you were that way. You felt yeah, no, I I know that's like so I I felt that way, and you know, last year I think we we talked a lot about being more in the world and like experiencing things less in the magic correct, like I it's kind of this conversation last year that was a big thing, and I think that that has really attributed to this feeling that oh, this was a very eventful year. And I mean it just it I there's all of these little moments that I have, and I'm like, man, this was a full year. Like if if this is the kind of year that you look back on and you're like, man, like I just give me 10 of those, and that's a that's a good that's a good life. And I don't mean that in any way like like I didn't, you know, I don't mean that in any kind of commerce way, or like I didn't win an Oscar, or like there's no achievement or anything that I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01:But there was a lot of fulfillment from feeling like you were reality and present.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and just relationships, like not a lot of like new relationships or anything, but just really indulging in the ones that are there and seeing people I care about and you know going places you care about going places and you know, trying different things and just being in the world. Yep. Um, you know, whenever I did consume things, uh it a lot of times it were things that especially towards in the last in recent months, like things that I really sought out or wanted to, not a lot of wasted. I mean, s obviously there's still some, but definitely less than in years past. And yeah, I mean, just pretty positive year too. I I didn't really feel you know, didn't get into these like negativity loops or anything. Kind of stayed out of the whole noisy world and just focused on and it was uh yeah, it was good, it was a good year. It was fulfilling in that way. So good. Expand like you said, you kind of felt the same way. I'd love to why.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think yeah, it's it's uh uncoupling the internet from every not every aspect of my life, but it being sort of accessible and present and uh kind of nipping at my heels all the time, since especially since so much of my work and revenue relies on the internet. Um, being, you know, I I was out in the world a lot more just because of the the shift of how I'm earning revenue. So, you know, you know, part of what I discovered this year was wanting to incorporate um retail and e-commerce more into the foundation of the revenue I earn doing what I do. So sourcing vintage stuff and putting it in my friend Josh's shop lost here in Omaha and selling there on consignment and selling clothing and cameras and other small interesting things, like a VC, you know, VHS movie or something like that on eBay or Depop. And then getting vinyl records and taking them to the record shop and selling them for a profit, all of that stuff had me out in the real world sort of disconnected from the internet um a lot more. I also sort of like went, oh, I could be documenting some of this, you know. So I I did bring the internet back to it a little bit, but not in not in an entirely intrusive way. So for example, uh, and I won't spend a ton of time on this, but like I want, you know, I want to record the vinyl record flip throughs I do when I go to a thrift store or an estate sale for two reasons. If I look back at it later that night, in case I missed something, I can go back and get it. But then, you know, this is another aspect of making content that might be useful. Um, and can I make videos about these vinyl record adventures? So um luckily that's not like vlogging, hey everyone, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's it's like a low, a low um low key, low, low-key kind of thing. Yeah. Um so I'm not wearing my Apple Watch anymore. I am getting closer and closer to some kind of like track phone for when I go out, and then I will kind of just uncouple my phone and have like a digicam. And if I want to take a picture that I want to share on Instagram, I can take the picture on the digicam and share it later. It doesn't have to be right that second. I don't have to be like, oh, hold on, plugged in at all times. I gotta go post that we're going to a movie on Instagram, which you know, generally I like doing. Um and then just, you know, you when you're out in the real world, you meet people and you chew the fat.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, a lot of synchronicity, a lot of interesting little topics pop up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and so you do like get you you you are having a real world experience with people. You're caught up in something actually happening right then, and you're not drawn to your phone. You're not thinking about getting on the internet, you're not setting up your computer at a coffee shop, you're treating it more like a third place instead of just a second second office.
SPEAKER_00:You start to appreciate the little idiosyncrasies of life too, just of humans and break it breaking up monoculture in in a in a in a almost it's completely organic. Like you start to just appreciate, oh, this person does this. And that's interesting, and I like that about them. Yeah. And that's like the start and the end of the of the whole process there. It's like, oh, this person always does this, and I know that about them, and I I appreciate that about this, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think you too, you start getting longer stretches where you're not think you're not sort of like affected by the magic rectangle. And you sort of kind of go, oh, this is nice. Yeah. I rem you know, especially me being older, like I remember what it was like to just be out all day and like just be out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And not doing stuff with computers and screening.
SPEAKER_00:You're not concerned about anything that's outside of your immediate realm of focus, I guess. Yeah. That's interesting. That's I think that's a big win for when for 2025. I'd like I mean, I absolutely wanna I want to take it up at even another level. And like I I'd like to work on my my correspondence ability. Like, I'd like to kind of start to dial into that anxiety that I have around like an immediate correspondence, or like I don't know what that is. That's just uh some kind of psychological thing, yeah. Where it's like I have a hard time, especially it builds up and it causes this massive anxiety. I'm just like, oh, like getting back in a timely manner, like losing losing contact and making plans and things like that. I need to work on that. I'm like, I mean, you know that that's uh just something I'm terrible at, but that's a definitely you know a story that I'm telling. Um, but yeah, just continuing to double down on that, that real experiences in the real world.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think too, you know, something I'm interested in doing more in 2026 is having those experiences, and then if I am going to look at them for a source of making something, like con you know, a video or whatever, I want to start just writing more about those experiences. So instead of creating a vinyl record project on YouTube and documenting everything that I find out there, how can I write articles about just what doing things related to that brings up just in life? Is it relationships? Is it a rare record I found? Is it, you know, sort of how does doing that hold up the mirror to who I am as a person and how can I explore that stuff through, you know, articles um or essays or whatever that are written and shared. Um to develop just you know, my voice as far as like relaying what my experience was and sort of what I took away from this moment or, you know, whatever it is that I come up with. Because I think about, you know, titles and uh a sort of a uh a point to an article or essay all the time. And it's sort of like, well, it's not a video for, you know, it's not like modern content, so I'm just gonna keep putting it on the back burner. But I indulge in those moments more. I just want to make like a point of actually carving out time. To create work that's not always harvesting real world world experiences for videos where you have to actually be doing the work of making the content while you're having the experience. Yeah. Whereas with an article, the worst case scenario is I have a conversation with someone or go to an estate sale or randomly go, whatever I do, and like have a thought in the truck and just like jot it down in a notebook.
SPEAKER_00:Like that's the extent of there's more of you in that too, in the sense of like it's you're it's autobiography. There's more of a literary element, like you might not remember the exact, you know, intricacies of a of a conversation or of an encounter, but you you're translating it. Right. And so by way of that, it's not that you're not doing that with a camera anyways, but you know, it it it's even a little more, especially you who's written a lot before.
SPEAKER_01:But there's something about that translation of the experience rather than just like transferring the experience to someone else, like, hey, you guys wish you were here going through all these records at this thrift store. I'm gonna film it so you can feel like you are, but it's not gonna have any deeper discussion, meaning, translation into something, you know.
SPEAKER_00:It's you're essentially creating like step-down virtual reality. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah. Versus like, you know, um, I don't know. Like uh it could be something as simple as I'm gonna challenge myself to pick a record that would have been a record that I would have never bought, and I'm going to listen to it all week long and write an article. Write notes about what I feel what I feel, what I think, why do I like it? Why don't I like it? See, that seems yeah. Like that's just a little interesting hook, you know. The you know, I listened to the last record I would have ever chosen. So mad strip staff dropping in 2026. Yeah. So, you know, so I I want to diversify how I make what I make because I I just don't want it to all be just endless video stuff because while I enjoy it, the the diversifying the format to me is is interesting. And that's the same thing with you know, making photographs, you know, um, even if it's not something that is shared on YouTube or whatever, but just creating a body of work that I don't know what if it'll be a zine, I don't know if it'll be a photography book, I don't know if it will be a little gallery exhibit that I do. But again, being out in the real world and making things based on those experiences, sometimes while I'm there and sometimes after I've already had the experience. Yeah. And I have that here as sort of like the the three pillars of how I'm going to both earn a living and make work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well then I mean let's let's so let's I guess lay out that and just get into some fun specifics then. Um I think the one thing that we kind of the I guess the it's not like a dramatic conflict. It's like the the two sides of this coin at of this table right now are Matt is definitely like his goals are gonna come from more of a I mean obviously there's like a way he wants he wants to engage with people in his life and he wants personal relationships and consume things that are interesting to him and family, and I think like I think there's a through line there. Yeah. Um, but I think like the specific goals are very like revenue oriented, and I I don't mean that in like a like a dried-down way. It's it's Matt is trying to build something that is sustainable and long term and effective, and you know, I mean, yeah, that's gonna support him and his family, and right so that the goals are around that, and I'm less in like a building mode, more. I mean, obviously, like these goals are building, but it's like I don't know, I don't I don't want to really boxes in. I think we just yeah, there's just there is an intricate, a very interesting like two sides of the same coin dynamic going on, and I think that might be enjoyable. So just something to key in on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, and the interesting thing too in approaching it is, you know, when you talk about what your 2026 is gonna be or what you want it to be, etc. You know, while you you know your job isn't guaranteed every single day and you have to work to keep it and all that, you at least don't have like a a uh sort of a uh uh a hole that you're staring at of nothing that you have to figure out how to fill.
SPEAKER_00:The revenue number isn't like the thing I'm staring at each month. Right, right.
SPEAKER_01:And and so while you have to dedicate obviously a lot of time during your week to maintaining that by working, obviously, um you're knowing that that's sort of taken care of, there's a dip, I would imagine there's a different feeling towards what personal and personal professional, non-revenue based, which could be revenue, but non-revenue based things you want to do, whether it's a writing project, a photography project, a website you're building, all of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, literally you just you yeah, I mean, it's not like a secret. I mean, obviously we spend a lot of time together and you kind of know where I'm oriented, but yeah, yeah, it it is. I mean, instead of doing the whole like oh, you know, when we tell you how to sell these 10 products, we're gonna tell and then we the whole 60-minute thing is about telling people how you're gonna tell them how to sell something. Right. I mean, I'll just jump into the goals. It's like I want yeah, like from a very basic level. Like, I I want to get my website live. Um, I'd like to have that kind of going at the beginning of the year, um, and being able to get content on there. I'm I'm pretty close on that. It's taken a back burn the last couple of months as I like get other routine things together. Um obviously, I I kind of want to bring the photography back into focus. Um and I think it's gonna shift like more from like I mean, I definitely want it to be more location, like traveling based, and kind of integrate that into it. Um so we'll see, like we'll see what comes from that, but whatever that iteration is. Um and then I also it I think it's gonna be more digital stuff for for for the time being because I I kind of got into this. If I could find a dark room, uh that would be exciting. Um, so I might go downtown and like inquire about like like some of the darkroom options in town, but you know, I I when we had this discussion a couple of year or a year ago, I was like, oh, we're gonna be in a house by this time next year. And you know, we just kind of discussed it and we figured out, yeah, we you know, the apartment is kind of where we want to be um for the time. And like this space especially is where I want to be, and um this is where the magic is right now. And so we didn't end up, and you know, it's easy, it's you with the computer that you were getting the MacBook, right? You couldn't write with or the Mac Powerbook. Right.
SPEAKER_01:The iBook until my sister sent it to me. I couldn't get any work.
SPEAKER_00:Couldn't get any work done. And it's like I've got all this dark room equipment. Which by the way, I just bought that laptop marketplace for 20 bucks. Can't get any work done until it comes. Is it just gonna be a writing computer? Yeah, I'm gonna sell the other one because it's the 14-inch model. But it's the exact one that you're the exact one that I sold in LA. You're gonna have to we're gonna have to bring that and like do a little show that you've told that. We've told that story.
SPEAKER_01:I almost brought it today, but I was worried about it being to the death, so we gotta at least bring the she when she took it out of the bag at the gas station we met at, I was like, Oh, I mean, it was like immediately just jolted you back to the yeah. I gotta install a solid state drive on it and then dude, it's on Mac OS 9.2. That's gonna be sweet. But I'm gonna put it on Mac OS 10. Gotcha. I like 9.2 better for writing, but go Linux. Linux.
SPEAKER_00:We'll see. Linux. We'll see. We can we can talk about that. It's in my goals here. Let's do Linux. Um, but yeah, I mean, I want to get the website live, photography. Obviously, though, I've been doing that thing where it's like, oh, the dark room isn't set up, and so it's like I haven't used the four by five, I haven't used the I mean, I I have a you know, yeah, I had this like vision of going into this like analog kind of thing and whatever.
SPEAKER_01:So Josh has space available downtown, it's cheap.
SPEAKER_00:That's still pretty we'll talk about that off off, yeah. We'll talk about that off camera. Little gallery, little dark room, little I didn't even think about that to be honest with you, until you just mentioned it. We'll talk about it. Yeah, we'll talk about it. Damn. Okay. It's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01:He hasn't no, he has it till April, so we if if if push came to shove, we could at least just do it for a month and put all our work in there. Anyway.
SPEAKER_00:Why didn't you mention this often? You just Matt just ruined the postscript of this. Um I'd like to publish some short stories, yeah, or at least shoot towards that. Self-publish or try to get them published? Uh I don't know. I've never so I've never played around in the world of writing. I so I've talked about this before with photography, and I'm still not here with writing, but I'm like I've been writing so with photography, like the first three or four years of photography, like everything I did just made me sick in my stomach when I look back at it. And that's kind of happened with every artistic endeavor that I've had. And I mean, as I like my tastes have grown, and obviously it's like I heard this great Pauline Cale quote. Um she was like, you don't have to, oh, what was it? Oh man. Um essentially, like, you don't have to do the thing to uh know when it's it's good, but it was like you don't have to you don't have to go through the birth can I don't know what the quote was. I'm the bomb at some writing, yeah. But yeah, yeah, I for some reason birth can it might not even be related, but it was it was essentially um yeah, it was like you don't have to like do something to to know that anyways. Um but yeah, I with writing I've never really reached that point where I feel confident in the work or what or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And I feel like I've kind of gotten to a point where you know I'm I'm at least semi-there in the last year or so. And so I I wanna I mean now it's just attrition, right? Over time. It's like um yeah, I'd like to, I'd like to, you know, publish some stuff though, and just go through and take some of those licks and just see where that goes. Um obviously, you know, I've got a couple of screenplays in in progress. I'd like to finish the the one that I've been working on forever. Um kind of the Nashville project and just get that done and see. I mean, who knows? It might just live in a drawer for the rest of its life, but it really won't. Like it's it I've been working on it long enough, but and and just kind of move that into a production. I don't know if it'll if it'll go in there, but yeah, just see where that goes. Um I mean, yeah, the screen thing, like getting away from screen, like uh I don't feel like there's a big leap for me to take. It's just kind of continuing to iterate in that. Obviously, health and running and travel and family and down and down and meditating and all of like there's all these things, but but the big thing with this is like to sort of um cement the outlets the website, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Cement the outlets for your body of work, yeah, and then the body of work that is still being worked on, maybe not not to finish it, but to get to a stopping point on a few projects and then just have them ready to be shared. Put you know, whatever's gonna happen with them. Like a screenplay is weird because you can't do a lot with it. You can go produce it, you can submit it to a uh screenwriting competition, you can share it with your friends, you know, versus you know, uh, you know, uh 36 photographs that you think you know are a project you have on your website.
SPEAKER_00:You're you're spot on though. It's like um it's the infrastructure. Yeah, it's the infrastructure side of things. It's it's like all of the all of the buildup to be like, okay, I want like I want to own the stack here, or like I want to control this. And like like in reality, it's just me waking up in the morning and like making sure I'm in good health and making sure I'm in a good mental space and like sitting at that table and sitting in that chair and reading, and like right. That's the and you know, having experiences, travel, dah dah dah dah dah like all of that feats, but yeah, it's just it's okay. You know, dark room, um gallery, like um website, like yeah, it's the infrastructure, it's just starting to build that physical kind of outlet and digital. Yeah, but yeah, I think that's if I that's a great way to sum it up. Yeah. And yeah, it's that's kind of the it's also like involving that audience. We've been doing I've been I've been not we, but all of my work is kind of internal, and it all it has been. And I mean you you see I you I'll share glimpses and bits and pieces with you, and obviously like with certain people and with Audrey and da-da-da. And but even then, like I don't share a lot of anything. Like I've burned more work than I've shared in the last few years, and it's like starting to involve the audience a little bit, and not necessarily from like a building my brand, that's not how I think about it, but just from like uh like work is only 50% uh the responsibility of the artist. It's like the sharing that also not that I'm an artist um in in any sense of the word, but like just the stuff that I'm creating or making or whatever, starting to put that out and then also yeah, just continue to refine that creation process and be more disciplined about that. So that's yeah, that's where I'm at. Okay. Um I mean, I would like to do the no buy thing we talked about on the last episode. Um, I think that I that's just a really interesting thing. Plus, you know, taking some of my mental energy away from that consumption of things um and putting it towards like yeah, this infrastructure and like feeding this infrastructure is And the consumption of things could be like not getting some work done on this stuff because you got sucked into like movies all day or uh maybe on rare occasions, like fucking off with Claude for three hours.
SPEAKER_01:Uh not saying you did that, no, just as an example. I mean the types of things.
SPEAKER_00:Even even worse, just like yeah, watch like or learning all about some new thing because it like I love learning about new things. Yeah, and I don't necessarily want to stop that. Right. But like like last year, like I learned how to maintain motorcycles, right? Right, right. And like I'm super glad I did that. That's a good experience to have. But like I went from like not knowing anything about motorcycles to like owning a motorcycle, owning motorcycle, like maintaining it, like all of that. Yeah, that takes a lot, especially you know how I kind of am on things. Like that takes a lot of my time and energy. Yes. And yeah, that's just pulling from this. Yeah. And not that that's a bad thing. And I want like it has value, but if I had to do something this for this next 12-month period, I think it is kind of and it's a big year for me too. Like in in a in a funny way. Um, it's like this is I, you know, on January 5th, I turned 30. And holy shit. I know that's funny.
SPEAKER_01:Like we never talk about age, and it's like I just I just generally see you as late 20s. Yeah. 26 to 29 is I love that.
SPEAKER_00:Is sort of where my head goes. Most people see me as like the old man.
SPEAKER_01:So Well, you are old sold.
SPEAKER_00:I have a lot of old man tendencies. Um, but yeah, I turned 30 and I mean Dottie turns 10. That's insane. See, that's more than than yeah. That's more insane than the my daughter and uh Alex share a birthday.
SPEAKER_01:Um which is so helpful because I would forget your birthday.
SPEAKER_00:Um but yeah, I mean Audrey's birthday. That's a no clip. That's a weird, you know, milestone. Yeah. Um not that it it changes anything or that any year is any different than another. I don't really look at it as like, but it is an interesting, like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:It it it is. I mean, I I don't know if it has as much impact as you know, this sort of stereotypical midlife crisis kind of thing, like that 40 to 45 kind of thing that happens, which happened to me, of course. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But um well, it's like for my family, like my granddad, my dad, my uncle, like that is midlife.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Right. But there is sort of a sort of a, you know, uh, I believe whether it's highly perceptible or not, a shift in your your perspective on where you are in time starts to shift, I feel like, in as you get into your 30s, especially as I don't want to say pressures, but other forces come at come at play just from society and culture, whether it's kids, you already got married, um, is you know, culturally homeownership, this thing, that thing, and you're either pushing against those things because you're still connected emotionally to being young. Yeah. Not that you're getting old, you're old when you hit 30, but there's sort of like a different energy to your 20s than there is your 30s. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um well, it's like we wanna we want to have kids soon. And like that's gonna happen. And so it's like part of the reason where I'm like, okay, like I want to focus on this for the next 12 months is influenced by the idea that like it is much easier to quote unquote build infrastructure. Right, right, right. When you don't have that. Yes. Like I can wake up in the morning and sit down for you know X hours and create and like travel, like you can do that with kids. Obviously, there's like different dynamics and things like that, but like it's hard to build infrastructure, like it's hard to get a first film made. Yeah. With you know, with toddlers running around.
SPEAKER_01:Or like it's hard to it's just extra, extra things to have you go, eh, fuck it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I I yeah, it's we talked uh on the last episode there was that quote where it was like momentum is a spiritual thing. And um, yeah, it's like so. I'm trying like this year is getting the ball momentum rolling in a way where it's not gonna it's not gonna stop. Yep. Because like even it's funny, like we were traveling a lot the last couple of weeks, and we got back, and I'd been really Running hyper consistently for the last couple of months. Yeah. And it's like I stopped for a couple of days. It's so hard to get that engine going again. Yep. So, anyways, yeah. What do you what do you have? I don't want to drag all this.
SPEAKER_01:Well, a lot of what I've thought about in the last maybe three months, I keep thinking back to a stretch of time where things just felt a little different and better in the areas where now, you know, where this year things didn't feel good, mostly revenue and just like consistent um earnings and sort of a foundation of dependable revenue. And there was this stretch where I think Dottie and maybe even Goldie were in preschool. So they were there from like 7:30 a.m. till five o'clock in the in the evening. And so I, you know, you just mentioned, you know, uh working on things when you have kids. Well, it was really easy to get a lot of work done because I had the house to myself. I would usually go to the coffee shop later in the day and just like power through a little bit of admin stuff, maybe write an article for Medium, you know, and I was the most disciplined I've ever been, the most consistent I've ever been, and had the most momentum I'd ever had. And it had manifested in channel growth, sponsors coming to me, um, sort of my pick of what I wanted coming at me revenue-wise, and the work that I wanted to go out. I mean, I could write an article on Medium before they changed their partner program, and it wasn't like um automatic every time, but like an article about five tips for Mac OS, blah, blah, blah, could make like 400 bucks. Yeah. And I could write that article in 45 minutes, put the pictures in, you know what I mean? Like, so I was like, I was in this state of like, I can just like have ideas and make money from it. I can just do, yeah, yeah. I can just do things. There's no friction, snap my fingers and earn revenue and have sort of have my choice of where I wanted to be coming from. Now I wasn't like low, you know, making all this money and like paying things, you know, paying things off, and my salary was great. There were still issues that needed to be dealt with, but that baseline of When was this period?
SPEAKER_00:Just so people can go back and like watch episodes from that time too. It might have been before we were doing it. So it was a couple years ago. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, this is probably like I mean, this is when I mean Goldie's in first grade right now. So when they were both in, I mean, this is probably three between three and four years ago.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So pretty definitely a little bit before, but and so I mean, I I literally remember sitting at the coffee shop going, I have 18 minutes before I have to leave. What can I do in 18 minutes that that will have an impact? And I mean, I was like on it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But then, you know, and this is you know, the podcast is part of what led to, I mean, it wasn't the the big thing was the sponsorship money like starting to evaporate and then going, I'm way too I'm over-leveraged on this, on the sponsorship money being the bulk of my revenue. And I am if you know, if it, you know, it's like uh the housing market, you know, like if it if this thing crashes, then like you're you're in real trouble.
SPEAKER_00:When the when the when the tide goes out, you see who's not wearing any pants kind of situation. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then um, you know, as uh our relationship grew stronger because of the podcast and working together and all that stuff and getting introduced to cameras and photography and this and this, you know, sort of all that upheaval that was created. Um I let all that discipline, consistency, and momentum fall away and started experimenting with how do I reconfigure this whole thing to be more of who I am, rather than I wrote this down, an idea of uh um uh this idea of me rather than me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Sort of like, oh, I'm a YouTuber. Well, like a brand rather than it's sort of like a role. I think honestly, as from an acting. A role, yeah. A role. Yeah. Not a brand, but like, okay, well, if I'm a YouTuber in the tech area, I should look the part. So I should get a short haircut, I have a beer. And I I didn't literally like embody hustle culture, like write this down. It's sort of like it comes at you in the city.
SPEAKER_00:Like I'm sure you're like Casey Neistat, like kind of like Gary V, Peter McKinnon.
SPEAKER_01:More of those guys, you know, like you sort of like you sort of see the people that are doing well, and you're and you you think about emulating them, you maybe you shift your wardrobe a little bit, you you do like look at, you know, stuff like Gary V and different stuff about you know yeah, hut hustle culture, work, and all that stuff. Yeah. And there was there was, you know, I I'm sitting here talking about having thought back on that time because there were a lot of really good feelings from having been consistent and having that momentum and all that. Now the downside was I was pretty much alone all the time. Yeah, we would go to coffee or this or that every once in a while, but I wasn't having enough. I wasn't having enough experiences in the real world where the internet wasn't a part of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, or social media, my content creation, whatever. Um so with typewriters and vintage cameras and changing my wardrobe and all of this stuff, it was it sort of like this shedding this role, this role that I thought I had to play to be successful, and sort of, okay, well, I gotta do a little bit of what Gary says, I got to do a little bit of what Peter's doing, got a little bit of what they're doing, and like like putting all these this costume on to like play a part, um, started going, you know, doing these things, photography, fashion, all that stuff. Like this is what I used to do. You know, I used to do things like this. And photography, while I didn't go out and do photos, I was always cultivating my experiences and grabbing moments to use in my screenplays. And I'd personally rather make photographs than have screenwriting be like the big way to take what I'm seeing in the real world and translate it into a poetic moment or a scene or a movie or story or whatever. Yeah. So in continuing in 2026 to sort of like be who I really am rather than this part I'm gonna play in order to be a successful YouTuber and to, you know, to get the gold star from Gary Vee and all those guys, um, how can I kind of take the best of what that experience was? Consistency, discipline, momentum, and what I love about the last year and a half, two years, which is meeting more people, being present, not not making so much of it be internet and social media based, um, and really marry them together. Yeah. Uh, with still focusing on diversifying revenue, but figuring out a better way to create a foundation of revenue that's more natural for me to make. Um, which it feels like this combination of e-commerce and retail um feels like it it gives me um the the best chance at that right now. And that could change. Um so if I'm able to set that foundation of e-commerce and retail based revenue, if I'm able to then make the work that goes on YouTube that's more that's more from a place of curation, and I'm not seeing videos like this, and I want to make a video like that because I'm not seeing it. It is gonna have value and not just be weird and and um uh esoteric and all that stuff, but but something that I think my audience will enjoy, I can I think do much better with generating revenue on those platforms, attracting sponsors and all that stuff by creating videos that I want to make rather than videos I need to make. Yeah. Um so if I'm able to do all that, the outcome is you know, and I wrote a few things down, you know, that I'm focused but relaxed.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um it's it's like you spent all of this time. And it's funny because it it sounds like, oh, you spent all this time just to get back. But you really spent you, it's like you uh you had a house and the foundation was really poorly done. Yeah. And you had to literally tear down the house, rebuild the foundation, yeah, and now you don't have a house. Yep. But at least the foundation is still like whatever comes up now, we'll will have that. And that's kind of what we were talking about when you were in the middle of your upheaval.
SPEAKER_01:So and um excuse like the really yeah, basic metaphor. No, it's great. Because that that is a lot of it. And um, you know, when you're when you realize that the foundation is gonna eventually cause the house to collapse, yeah, and you decide to be proactive and kind of take it out and rebuild it the way that it needs to be, you know. And I am just like a few months into, maybe two months into there being like this, okay. There's like this foundation of revenue for the e-com and from from retail at Josh's shop where I'm like, I feel like I can relax. Well, there's and I can be like, okay, I'm not gonna scramble to make this video and sort of like not half-ass it, but just like rush it. Like, oh, I gotta I'm gonna rush this video because I need to get it out. Like, I want to be more mindful. I want to deploy more craft. I watch this video, and I won't spend a lot of time on this. I watch this video about blue jeans, Japanese denim, and these men looming denim, and then another man dyeing the denim with indigo, real indigo, which is why they're so expensive. And I'm like, And they're saying, like, he has done this for 40 years. Yeah. There's something about like wanting to deploy a higher level of craft on what I make, not feeling like I gotta rush things out there because this made up idea that the audience is like waiting for you to put something out, like, hey, dude, it's been a week, like, what the fuck? Like, let's go. Um and if I can have that foundation of revenue where I I am able to have breathing room with just how intense I feel about meeting my financial obligations, I can have room for that stuff, which I think then will lead to better work, more consistent work, uh, more consistently better work, and ultimately get me uh the results I want rather than just like rushing stuff out there because like some whatever stupid thought um uh I have. I also wrote a note here too to exercise, like the exorcist exercise grandiosity and failure. Yeah. Um we talked about this before, I won't spend a lot of time on this, but I've been plagued with you know, we had this in the narcissism conversation, just sort of plagued by just this idea that I am like I I deserve some huge successful thing in my life. Yeah. I don't know why it's there, but it is. And then like there's all these moments if I'm out digging for records or I'm grabbing vintage clothing or I'm making a YouTube video where I have these moments where I go, You're a fucking piece of shit. Like you're looking through a sta a box of records right now, like you're supposed to be like sitting on some Hollywood back lot, like taking meetings, or you're supposed to be, you know, in Paris, like hanging out. Um, like you're supposed to like be way above this. And then I just have these like crushing thoughts of how much of a failure I am. And I just like I want that to be over with. Yeah. Um and and and hopefully this idea of the difference between the idea of who I am rather than who I really am. Yeah, if you can shed that this idea you have of who you should be rather than who you really are, you can just be like, okay, I just am who I am and I do what I do.
SPEAKER_00:You start to almost like form a relationship with yourself in a sense where you're like, hi, I'm Matt. Yeah. Like, yeah, I like that guy. Yeah. Like there is no like, what are you kidding me? Because that's not useful nor is it accurate, right? You have this voice, and yeah, you you when you exercise that or just talk to that, and you embrace it and you're just like, okay, hey.
SPEAKER_02:Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think I think that's I don't know, that was that was moving. Yeah, something I think a lot of people can probably relate to.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and I think to wrap it up, it it's like I'm ch I'm like chasing the things that I think are going to achieve that are gonna like make my life line up with the grandiosity, like this this feeling of I'm I'm supposed to be a big deal. Yeah. So it's like, oh well, uh screenwriting's a tool that will get me there, or this is a tool that will get me there. You're actually doing things that you like. And you know, in the photography, sourcing vintage, I sit there and I go, I love doing this stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Well, the irony is like a a lot of that is some falsified vision, anyways, of like the Hollywood backlot. Yeah. What's more artificial than that? Right. It's lit, like the best metaphor for that. But then also you have this idea of like you're you're seeking out this thing, and as you get as you know, time moves on and you get closer to like, oh man, like midlife, you know, three-quarter life, whatever, you start to like in order to not rumble, like for that internal personality, or that you know, that that internal um I mean, yeah, person persona is a good is a good way to to to talk about it, I guess. For that not to crumble, then you have to start cutting corners to falsify this achievement. Or to like like, oh man, like I can't actually I I'm out of time to put to build the to do the groundwork. So then I have to cut these five corners and just jump in at this top level. And obviously, like that's already an artifact, like anything that's good takes takes that. Yeah, you have to do the the groundwork, you have to lay the foundation. Hate that we keep going back to that, right? Yeah, and then you start cutting all these corners, and so then you're just you're in you're this fake, like, oh, like you know, you have people that are yeah, that are 55 and they start a company, right, and it's a total yeah, illusion, but you know, they have to continue to believe that's real for them not to crumble, and right it just gets more and more dangerous.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and and and you're chasing an idea of who you should be or where you should be in your life, and you're clamoring to use these things as tools to achieve that. And as you get older, you you do there is a sense of like panic or falling behind, or you know, whatever that then throws craft and care and time and patience and all that out the window, and you're just then you're just yeah, flailing, you're a mess, you're drowned.
SPEAKER_00:The irony is like, yeah, you'll then you've completely defeated like dude. Audrey and I will listen to podcasts sometimes, and it's it's especially you you hear artists, and like the way that they approach their work is so culturally driven or so like comparison driven, you're like it's like it's almost interesting to call it because my intuition always says like if that's the way they're looking at it, like their whole view of the thing is off. Right. So like there's there's no way that they'll ever achieve a great whatever it is, because their entire perception of how the thing works is fraudulent. Yep. And yeah, you get the same, the same kind of result.
SPEAKER_01:And so think about the things that you're doing when I was 29 years old, approaching 30. Not only let's say I had those goals, but I'm sitting there like this stuff has to happen, like ASAP, because this grandiose thing in my brain says I'm supposed to be at this level. Like, you know, Kurt Cobain by the time he was 27 was like, you know, had all these act, like I should have my version of that by now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And all these people accomplish these amazing things by, you know, in their 20s. I'm behind. Yeah, I need to. And I want all of the stuff that happens when you achieve that. I want the attention or I want the wealth or I want, you know, all these things because I I just whatever whether I was born with that feeling or it did happen um through through probably yeah, all that stuff. Um and so I I want to get to a place where, and this is part of my design for 2026, where that that part is exercised, and I can just be what I am, which is someone who makes videos on the internet, yeah, writes articles, great dads, sources, great husband, right, sources, community member.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it's it sounds really goofy and like cliche, and right, but it's like those are the things that are bringing the value, anyways. If you're on a back lot, you have to give that up. Yeah, you're not with your kids because you're on a fucking backlot, right? You're not with your wife because you've never invested any time into that relationship, and it's like it some people that's all they need, and that's what they want, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So so that um I talked to uh wrote down you know the return of discipline, but the allowance for spontaneity and impulse, as long as it's exploration, expansion, um, new ideas, new people, new opportunities, versus you alluded to this a little bit with like the consumption thing, and at least this is what I felt you meant, um using spontaneity as a way to get out of having of doing the disciplined hard work that builds momentum and all that.
SPEAKER_00:And even that, be careful, you'll spend a month learning about motorcycles.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. And then that's I have to watch that. Um uh you know, as opposed I wrote as opposed to quick hits, dopamine, avoiding responsibility and hard work, but like feeling productive because. You did this or did that, but it's it's it ultimately is a is a step away from um what you're trying to achieve, uh a distraction. Um curation, not promotion, which we've talked about plenty of times. Um I do want to sort of like outline my weeks a little bit. Like I don't want it to be rigid like it was this time I'm talking about, where like I had every single day, like not blocked out in like 15-minute increments, but really, really regimented. I I you know, I want to do things where at the end of the day, I'm kind of like, here are some ideas for what I should do tomorrow to continue to stay on track. I could write an article, I could shoot, you know, um, a couple tutorial videos and just have them banked in the bank so I can edit them at when I when I want to, um, and just have a little bit more focus on what I'm gonna do at the end of every day. Um really have nights and weekends for family because in this state this year of sort of like reworking everything, being in a place of scarcity and a little bit of desperation on the financial side with the business, it starts really cr encroaching on nights and weekends where I am like literally working all weekend, whether it's cleaning some vintage thing and getting it ready for resale or being at Josh's shop or going to estate sales or thrifting or whatever, like I have enough inventory, I have enough little cool products and cameras where I'm good for a while. Like, I don't need to let this stuff take up the time that I want to carve out dominate your life, yeah, family and uh and friends. Um you know, things too, like um updating the website. I want to, you know, get that done. Um, but I want to feel more peaceful, more open, more flow. Uh uh less, I mean, I'm all you're always gonna have anxiety, but I want to I want to dissipate the the anxiety that came from uh a lack of a financial foundation, um and a little bit of anxiety from like, is what I'm doing to reconfigure all this gonna kind of work? Like, is this actually gonna play out the way I I think it will? Um, but reduce that pressure, stress, the feelings of desperation and and and the chaos. Um I wrote down too when you were talking about something like a lot of times this year, like the story of this year was I had an amazing day, but I didn't know it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you didn't recognize it until you like looked back or or like you didn't recognize it, period.
SPEAKER_01:Pro probably, period, because you're so caught up in this feeling of scarcity and this like I gotta get this figured out. I have to get this stuff sorted.
SPEAKER_00:Just on a personal level, like I definitely especially on some podcasts, like you'll come in and yeah, there is like a high level of anxiety. It it's it's a it's uh and I'm like, oh man, like we gotta go.
SPEAKER_02:We gotta like we gotta like I don't have enough.
SPEAKER_00:And like I'm all about like you know, I sometimes, especially the two of us, we have the tendency to just like blow a bunch time, yeah. But sometimes there is like almost like not a negativity, but just like a like a scarcity, right? Just like, oh absolutely, dude, everything in my life is not like the revenue's not there, and it's like I hate seeing that because I'm like, man, like look at all this cool stuff. Like there's so much good stuff, or like yeah, yeah, yeah. There's even just like sometimes you'll be like, hey, check out this thing I found today, but then you're like, I'm not making enough to and yeah, it's just part of that gets relieved once that becomes less of an issue. But yeah, I definitely think I I'd like to see a point where that's like not the driving mindset.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and that's and like that that again is the goal too, is is in contrast this year to next year, I want to show up for every podcast, sort of like managing a different level of problems in life. Like, because we're always gonna have problems, we're always gonna have issues, stresses, anxiety, all that stuff. Right. But like to me, the worst, the worst one for me, and this is probably still a place of privilege, right? Like, hey, at least you have food, you know, and like I don't I don't want to um sound like I don't acknowledge the fact that um there are people that have even more crisis chaos. Wait, I mean there's some people that literally they don't know where the next meal is coming from. Exactly, especially with things that are happening with SNAP and all that kind of stuff. The the um healthcare thing, the subsidy healthcare possibly lapsing. I've got people posting about what their health insurance cost is gonna be. Yeah. I you know, I'm very fortunate that that that that isn't a big deal, and I'm just talking about revenue for my content creator business, right? Um But um, you know, I want to be able to show up and and not have that it's not even just anxiety, it's honestly like a like a little buzz of panic all the time. Yeah, like you're just like there's like a fire in there all the time that might catch the fuse. Right. And then that the deck, you know, the the kind of the the the the house of cards that you've built to kind of get by what you're doing to reinfigure isn't gonna collapse.
SPEAKER_00:Because I I feel that way about everything all the time. Okay and I think you and I probably have similarities there. Like I but I I there is a difference, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I yeah. So um so if I can show up and have you know stresses and frustrations and all that stuff, fine, but I just don't want to have that energy like we gotta get this going and get this wrapped because I gotta get back to like doing all this stuff that I'm hoping is gonna level things off for me. Yeah. Um so that would be nice. And then, you know, the other thing with the financial foundation that'll be part of um 2026 is just getting back to exercise. I think a lot of my stress and anxiety and that little buzz of panic, you know, while uh having a little uncertain financial foundation for the business is part of, you know, a part of what causes that. Something that helps medicate that is exercise and um these 30-minute walks I used to do. And for a year and a half I was doing them. Yeah. And I look back on that time as well, like I was talking about being at the coffee shop and being disciplined and getting something done with the last 18 minutes of the day. Um, but I'd always come away, at least from the 30-minute walks, with such a feeling of accomplishment that I didn't give in to my indulgence and wanting to just I can't do it today. I've got too much to do. But then also just like the meditative power it had to be able to organize your thoughts and relax and you know, just all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00:When I'm running like periods of time when I'm running, it's so much better, like creatively, yeah, so much more just so much more intensity and like uh just your creative process and your the things that come to mind, like just that that it's like a cornerstone habit to everything, right?
SPEAKER_01:And just starts there, and then and what I'm grateful for was that two years where I was really disciplined and consistent with work, too uh uh to the point where I feel like it was pulling away from my personal life and time in the real world and being present and all that a little bit too much. But then also with the exercise and the walking, not doing it for as long as I have not done it, now I have something to compare and contrast between. Yeah. And I can go, okay, wow, now I I like extra know how important these things are because I've gone without them and I miss them and I see what their value was. And my hope is that as I make that shift for 2026, that it's even easier than it was back then to do it consistently. Yeah. Um just like this year has shown me how important it is to take time to jump into, you know, stop by Stefan and Trey at workshop and chop it up with them a little bit, or to go see a movie with Alex today, or uh, you know, to do those things, which we're still on track for. To do those what time is that? Uh 3 30. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We're good. We're good. Yeah. Um, to do those things and um and say, okay, you know, this is important and I'm gonna make room for this. This is important, make room for it. I'm gonna meld the two together and have some boundaries on, you know, this doesn't encroach here, this doesn't encroach there, um, and and have that be what 2026 is like and feels like. Yeah. Um the synthesis year. Yeah. So on a on the personal side, and this isn't a whole big other 20-minute thing to go into, but some of the things I want to see result from it is you know, less stress from my wife just about our overall financial situation. Yeah. Um a feeling of more freedom as a family or me with the kids to, you know, go to Colorado to visit my buddy or um travel regionally, uh go out to eat here or there with the kids, you know, like just sort of like do a little bit more experience-based stuff. That's a bigger bite. Yeah. And not always financially. It could be time or whatever. Because this year I've felt so panicked for time that it's like, well, I can't, I can't go to LA and visit Nick. I can't take my kids out to Colorado and then go home to visit my mom.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I'll lose my routine, it'll throw everything off for a month.
SPEAKER_01:Or this thing I'm building, I'm gonna get set back too far, and I'm not gonna be, you know, sort of in a position to create the thing to me that's most important, which is the that that base financial foundation. So I just want to feel like there's more room to do that stuff. And the last time that we did have that was that time where the sponsorship money was there and all that stuff was going on. And then the last thing I'll say is I just broke down um sort of the three areas of making stuff for the internet between articles and videos and whatever you know I'm doing there. I'm gonna have, you know, my Final Cut Pro kind of retro tech uh pillar. There will be like a camera and photography pillar, and then this sort of like vintage reselling vinyl little world. Um, and those things will come out in the form of YouTube videos, e-commerce, writing on medium. Those will be sort of the places where I put that stuff. Obviously, little stuff like Instagram or whatever for for that.
SPEAKER_00:You should think the website. You should think about sub. I don't know if they do video now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I I'm just thinking from like a I'm gonna talk because isn't it subscription like I you know, I don't know, but I'm gonna talk to um I'm gonna talk to Chat GPT about it just to like yeah, just to see like what the differences are in the platform.
SPEAKER_00:The big thing with the I don't know, it just I feel like it it does a bunch of those I don't know how competitive it is to YouTube, but I know that there's people that have like podcasts on there and yeah, I'm gonna I have no idea though gonna gonna figure that out.
SPEAKER_01:The big thing with media medium is I already have like 500 followers, I already have an audience there. Um, and then all the body of work is all on that medium page as well.
SPEAKER_00:So um, but but you know, I it's like I think we even uploaded a couple of these episodes to SubSty. Oh, we did? I think so. Okay. This was like a year ago, and we were like, oh, we're gonna slowly build the archive, and I think we yeah, we I just didn't keep going. But I mean, yeah, I think it was like because we got like one view or something. We put like four episodes up, we got like one or two views an episode. Yep. I'm gonna check, they're gonna be like, oh, this is actually the majority of our listeners substack. But yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:All right, two more things and I'll wrap up my stuff. Um and this is you know, I'm sharing this stuff because I want the people who are listening that are kind of doing what I'm doing. They're developing multiple streams of revenue without sounding too commercy, but they're people that are creative, but they're running their own business.
SPEAKER_00:So they're curious what our audience is because I I bet there's like there's definitely probably some of that like entrepreneur. There's definite I like I I don't know. Like, there's definitely probably like I honestly don't know. Like, I don't I'm very curious as to what the segmentation is. Um but yep.
SPEAKER_01:So um, you know, I just listed some stream, you know, the different sources of revenue, you know, AdSense on YouTube, sponsorships from brands, affiliate revenue, e-commerce, which could include my own digital products, which I I have one primarily that I sell through my YouTube channel. It could even be something like photo prints through my website, you know, uh as I develop my photography work. Uh and then, you know, e-com and retail. And with e-com and retail being something I can very easily, I don't want to, I don't want to some say this, say this in the negative sense of the word, but something I can be in control of rather than sort of like hoping a sponsor wants to give me money to feature their stuff on my channel. I can have a little bit more control over the e-com and retail element, but then I can also feel better about what I'm putting on there because it is more about curation and that thing speaking for itself rather like a car heart coat, you know. Like I don't have to like convince you to think it's a good thing or like it's a quality-made product or a pair of Levi vintage Levi's jeans. Like it's just that people already know and they want it. I'm just finding them and bringing them to market rather than like, hey, you've never heard of Authonic before, but I'm gonna tell you why you have to have it and it and it have it feel very um promotional rather than curation. Um and that I that those streams of revenue to me, I if I can hit a hundred thousand dollars in gross revenue with all of that work next year, I'm going to like that that is what is have a parade. That's what's gonna make this up. Yeah, excellent. This is working, you can do this, and now just now just grow that, but don't ratchet up the intensity of your time and inputs and all that. Just be just continue to hone the craft of doing it.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, that's a great mindset, though, is you're just like, I don't need to, I'm not trying to build a million-dollar business here. Right. You're just like I just enough to not have to worry. Yeah. And it's something sustainable and I enjoy it. Yep. And you're like, if I can get there, then it's a healthy way to look at it, I think.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I think the second thing I was gonna bring up was if I'm able to achieve all of this, then I'm making time for exercise and my walks and reading in the morning. And all of that's gonna make these podcasts better because I will be able to contribute new ideas, I'll be reading new books, I'll be, you know, um expanding just my understanding of the world, my nature, consciousness, all of that stuff through the things that I'm reading, whether it's a John Updike novel or a uh, you know, a book that you share with me about philosophy. And I want I want all of this stuff to feel good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's just so funny how everything is integrated. Yeah. Everything's integrated. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Like because I literally don't feel like I can even spend a second exploring new ideas that aren't related to or videos that aren't related to researching my stuff.
SPEAKER_00:I was reading a book about finance. It's like about the House of Morgan. I was reading it when I was uh at the beach, and um it talks about like the transition, and I think this is fascinating, but it talks about the transition of like the everyman, like tycoon or bit like whatever, like just the American, the I evolution of like the American financier. Like obviously there's a lot of people that think a lot of things about that, but just I think it's a fascinating it's fascinating from like an aesthetic perspective, and it's fascinating from like a but they talked about you had these people who were you know jack of all trades, like they they traveled, they were well read, they listened to music, and they you know knew people from all different groups, and like there were like they had this broad skill set that crossed industries and it crossed um genres, and like they could play the piano and they wrote and read poetry, and at the same time they're like business people and tycoons and da-da-da-da. And it's like and then at a certain point you specialized, yep, yep, and the whole world went to like specialization, yeah. And you could they the the book talks about like at one point you could literally draw a line, and it's like before you had these people who were these just you know the generalists, right? Yeah, yeah, generalists in in the best way possible, and they had these visions of the world, and they could kind of see how everything connected and that influenced everything else. Then at one point you specialized, and then I mean you it I'm not saying it was like good then, yeah, like I'm not saying it was great, but like yeah, there's definitely a change and like it lost its soul. And that's the big thing they talk about is it lost its soul. And I mean that's you could honestly good microcosm for the rest of the world. Yeah, and like yeah, you get your soul back when you kind of generalize.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that's honestly kind of a good that's a great way. I hadn't thought about it, but that's a great way, not to make this back as a thing on me, but no, it's yeah, I feel like that's kind of what this has been like the idea of me versus who I am. It's almost like I sold sold my soul to the grandiose like to achieving that, to to whatever was I was born with or nurtured me into just like, oh, well, if you're not a big deal, yeah, what then then what else is there? And chasing that, I mean, from acting school to screenwriting, Hollywood, moving to LA, failing out there, all this stuff, still clinging to like, okay, well, what can I do from here or what's like the next thing, YouTube, all that, and like I am hopeful that part of what's happening with reworking all this isn't okay, well, I'm gonna come up with a new tool to achieve this grandiose result, this grandiose outcome. It's actually the opposite. It's I'm going to do all these things to re Really figure out who I am and what I like and what I want to do with it.
SPEAKER_00:There's not there's not a solution that you're gonna buy or find. Right.
SPEAKER_01:The solution is the it's how you look at there isn't a solution that you're sort of gonna like play the part. Yeah. And like, okay, these are the things that you're supposed to do if you're this person. You're supposed to, okay, you're supposed to do this, wear this, talk like this, write these things, make this stuff, read these books, like you know, like uh so if um if everything that I'm doing is just sort of reconnecting the to soul, yeah, for lack of a better word, then that makes me feel even better about what could happen in 2026 um with the work and just feeling better.
SPEAKER_00:I think general, like the the like getting back to just being a human, a generalist or whatever. Yeah. Excited to see where it goes.
SPEAKER_01:And I wonder if like wanting to detach from the internet more is a part of that. Like, well, the internet was such a great tool for acquiring better tools to achieve this.
SPEAKER_00:And it still is, but it's like we've kind of learned what it's really good for, yeah, and what it's terrible for. Yeah. And it's like now you now with that knowledge, we can kind of just
