Speaker 1: Welcome to the mentor, and I'm Mark Boris actually welcome
Speaker 1: to the mentor.
Speaker 2: Mate, thank you so much for having me on. Mark.
Speaker 1: I'm get a lot of energy from you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Tuesday, so.
Speaker 1: Tuesdays with me, Juesdays like Sundays every other day. But
Speaker 1: your business called Common Entertainment. Yeah, so you're the founder,
Speaker 1: co founder? What's the deal?
Speaker 2: Co founder? Me and two other people? Yep.
Speaker 1: And if you just take you back like you've got
Speaker 1: an English accent, I think.
Speaker 2: I'm holding on for dear life though I'm almost.
Speaker 1: Aussy almost Well, uh, I tell you, mate, it's going
Speaker 1: to tell you why to becoming ausy. I'm sure your
Speaker 1: family tells you a Naussey accent when I go.
Speaker 2: Back home all the time sounds souzzy. I've been here
Speaker 2: for fourteen years now, so where we're seeing on? You
Speaker 2: from East London? East London bornum raised and then moved
Speaker 2: here when I was fourteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so fourteen. It sounds like an East.
Speaker 2: Ender I'm putting on now, aren't I under pressure?
Speaker 1: Yeah? They have any centers these days? Is the same
Speaker 1: deal as it used to be?
Speaker 2: I actually don't think they do. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's still it was one of the was the thing
Speaker 2: longest running sitcoms, not not part from the show. But
Speaker 2: then you're talking about the East in London geezers. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: they're they're about. There's loads of them here as well.
Speaker 1: Really, so there's a deal, I still think.
Speaker 2: I think so, yeah, I just got to go to Couldie.
Speaker 2: There's loads of them there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow. Well we're in this building here, we got
Speaker 1: quite a lot of them actually a residence upstairs. Actually
Speaker 1: they turn into be our best party is actually be honestly,
Speaker 1: they're pretty good at a party. You're getting to know me, Well,
Speaker 1: they don't mind drink, so let's get to know a
Speaker 1: little bit. So you came from London, so you're a
Speaker 1: London boy. You arrived in austral when fourteen years ago,
Speaker 1: what do you do?
Speaker 2: I So, to go back to the start, My mum
Speaker 2: came back backing around here when she was younger and
Speaker 2: basically spent her whole life trying to convince my dad
Speaker 2: to come out here on holiday. Probably when I was
Speaker 2: about year seven in school, so actually probably a bit younger,
Speaker 2: maybe thirteen. We came on holiday, loved it, fell in
Speaker 2: love with it instantly, and then about nine months later,
Speaker 2: my mom and dad sat me and my sister down
Speaker 2: at the dinner table and said, we're moving to Sydney. And,
Speaker 2: as it's called stroppy, fourteen year old that thought they
Speaker 2: knew how the world worked, you can imagine I was
Speaker 2: overjoyed with that decision.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 2: Exactly you're just settling into school. Yeah, just a volatile age,
Speaker 2: but made the move. My mom and dad living Rubra,
Speaker 2: So you'll be sadden to hear that. My affiliation with
Speaker 2: rugby League is more rabbit shaped than yours, perhaps, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it's well.
Speaker 1: Least on the east side. It's sort of on the
Speaker 1: coast anyway.
Speaker 2: I was hoping would get along. I wouldn't want to
Speaker 2: reveal that too early, but it's come out. So the
Speaker 2: hewll a, have you been living here since twenty eleven?
Speaker 2: So yeah, thirteen years.
Speaker 1: Sorry, So you went to school he for a couple
Speaker 1: of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to Waverley in the East and Suburbs
Speaker 2: and yeah.
Speaker 1: Well that is us Waverley sas BONDI. So you are
Speaker 1: a really Rooster.
Speaker 2: I know it was a tough decision to make. My
Speaker 2: old man is a big Roosters fan, is he? But
Speaker 2: there's a divide in the family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that happens when someone's gone for the bunnies
Speaker 1: and someone Unfortunately, that sort of can't happen in the joint.
Speaker 1: But you so you wave me boy, And what did
Speaker 1: you do when you're at school?
Speaker 2: When I wasn't at school, I wasn't. Part of the
Speaker 2: reason probably why we moved here is I was messing
Speaker 2: about at school in the UK when I came here.
Speaker 2: Tried to knuckle down. But that knuckling down didn't mean
Speaker 2: I was necessarily good at anything, sciences, maths, all that.
Speaker 2: But one thing I could kind of do was right.
Speaker 2: I was a decent writer, had a bit of creative flair,
Speaker 2: so I went straight into journalism at uts Ye enjoyed that.
Speaker 2: I felt like it kind of whipped through, really got
Speaker 2: chewed up and spat out the other side. And I
Speaker 2: was kind of wondering what to do with myself later. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know, tell me about it. The hext day is real.
Speaker 2: And and then I was one of those weirdos that
Speaker 2: was checking their kind of university emails after you get
Speaker 2: after you graduate, and there was a job for Fox
Speaker 2: Sports on there, so I thought, I love sport. I've
Speaker 2: come to love rugby league, love football, and I've just
Speaker 2: thought that was the kind of role for me. So
Speaker 2: when in there as a journalist, it initially started as
Speaker 2: a video kind of editor and then quickly kind of
Speaker 2: moved into writing and yeah, journalism really reporting, Yes.
Speaker 1: And you started to practice what you just learned at university,
Speaker 1: but in a sports environment. What happened after that?
Speaker 2: The pandemic hit. The pandemic came about and Fox along
Speaker 2: with other you know, big businesses, small businesses, corporations around
Speaker 2: the world. I need to let a lot of people go,
Speaker 2: and I found myself being one of them was let
Speaker 2: go people did stay. I don't think I was thought
Speaker 2: I was probably a bit too one dimensional. Was just
Speaker 2: a writer.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2: I was just a writer. I was a content producer
Speaker 2: as opposed to what you know, offering to get myself
Speaker 2: in front of CAM, offering to go into the commercial
Speaker 2: side of things and exploring sales. It was great for
Speaker 2: me at the time coming out of university. And maybe
Speaker 2: I've got a bit too comfortable, but even in terms
Speaker 2: of the codes I was writing about, I was just
Speaker 2: writing about football. I loved loads, So yeah, I just
Speaker 2: felt that I was kind of yeah, a bit one
Speaker 2: dimensional or not diverse enough. And when push comes to shove,
Speaker 2: obviously a load of people got to let go as well.
Speaker 2: And I loved my time there. It was you know,
Speaker 2: they took a shot on.
Speaker 1: A Yeah, But on reflection, what would you say to
Speaker 1: a young person today who's going into those environments to
Speaker 1: make sure you're a bit more ballerproof because you know,
Speaker 1: shit happens. I mean the world changes. Look at now,
Speaker 1: right now, we're going through all this drama at the
Speaker 1: moment economically, I don't know what it all means, but
Speaker 1: people are going to start looking at well, hanging a
Speaker 1: minute and may go and do a shitty period. Should
Speaker 1: I start putting my managing my costs and you know,
Speaker 1: they've got to work out who they're going to move on.
Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily mean they didn't like you in particular.
Speaker 1: What would you say to people?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question. I think what I've always
Speaker 2: found and with that, and I've been made redundant since
Speaker 2: then as well, is diversifying making yourself unfirable when regardless
Speaker 2: of whether it's pandemics or redundancies, people cutting costs. As
Speaker 2: you said, we're going through that a lot of the moment,
Speaker 2: especially in the media industry, just making yourself bringing your
Speaker 2: skills up to a level that yeah, it's going to
Speaker 2: be a really hard decision for your employer when those
Speaker 2: kind of tough decisions need to be made. I think
Speaker 2: I always, even at a lad Bible, I was always
Speaker 2: telling people, you know, if you say it was, get
Speaker 2: in front of the camera, try and try your hand
Speaker 2: at different kind of things. If you're in content, explore sales,
Speaker 2: explore commercial, explore monetization.
Speaker 1: What makes yourself available.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, make yourself available. Don't go hiding, put your
Speaker 2: hand up, be involved, and it's white belt karate mentality
Speaker 2: a lot of the time. But show that you're interested,
Speaker 2: show you want to be there, and make sure you're diverse.
Speaker 1: For younger there's a lesson in that. I guess maybe
Speaker 1: the first lesson is perhaps be aware of what's going
Speaker 1: on out there. Just don't think I've got my job
Speaker 1: and I get paid. I'll go home on Friday, go
Speaker 1: and get on the pis of my mates. You know,
Speaker 1: I've got enough money pay the rent or I'm living
Speaker 1: at home. One of the case, I might be saving
Speaker 1: for a deposit. Whatever the case I be. But I'm
Speaker 1: safe because I think these days, no one's really safe.
Speaker 1: So I think that perhaps maybe one of the lessons,
Speaker 1: and like's your opinion on this, particularly in the media game,
Speaker 1: but I think one of the lessons is in any game,
Speaker 1: is to be aware of the landscape, what's changing out there.
Speaker 1: And am I a category of risk as opposed to
Speaker 1: me personally? You know they're going to get rid of
Speaker 1: me in particular, But am I in a category risk?
Speaker 1: Am I only recently joined the joint? Am I in
Speaker 1: an industry that's getting bashed up? Is my industry something
Speaker 1: that is one of the first to dump costs, including
Speaker 1: which includes stuff when things get to be dodgy out
Speaker 1: there in terms of revenues. I mean that that means
Speaker 1: you've got to keep up to date with the media.
Speaker 1: You've got to be reading shit final what was going on?
Speaker 1: Is that a lesson that you've learned as a young.
Speaker 2: Man, absolutely one hundred percent. Just being across things. I think,
Speaker 2: like what you alluded to before, you can often kind
Speaker 2: of not that you're getting in a rupt but you
Speaker 2: get comfortable, right, you know, you're happy doing your day
Speaker 2: to day stuff, but be on top of things, especially
Speaker 2: as a young person. Ask about if it is a
Speaker 2: small business, Ask about p and ls, yeah, ask about
Speaker 2: where the businesses invest in money. Ask about hiring, is
Speaker 2: they're hiring freezes, the use your company open hiring. I
Speaker 2: think being across things, and sometimes maybe because I was
Speaker 2: young and a bit naive, wasn't across kind of states
Speaker 2: of things. Again, this is all with the backdrop of
Speaker 2: the pandemic with Fox, but.
Speaker 1: Those of these happen more often now. But just I
Speaker 1: don't know. I just think shit happens a lot now.
Speaker 2: I agree, But it might not.
Speaker 1: Be a pandemic, but it'll be could be another global
Speaker 1: fin it's crisis. Who knows everything's on the cars today?
Speaker 1: Last fifteen years of I looked back, whoever thought it
Speaker 1: was GFC? Lots of people said they knew it was coming,
Speaker 1: But like, whoever thought of that? Not many? Most of
Speaker 1: us didn't. Whoever thought there was going to be a pandemic.
Speaker 1: Nobody whoever thought it was going to be a vaccine
Speaker 1: for the pandemic. Nobody like whoever thought that inflation would
Speaker 1: be raging around the world because we're going to have
Speaker 1: a supply chain problem. Nobody whoever thought injurraders are going
Speaker 1: to go down to in Australia zero point one percent
Speaker 1: and then within two years get up to four point
Speaker 1: three five percent, which were out today. Nobody. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been around on the time. I've never seen these
Speaker 1: the volatility as we see today like ever before, and
Speaker 1: I think it's here to stay. So good point that
Speaker 1: you're and we'll talk about your BIS relative these things
Speaker 1: at a moment, but a good point is young people
Speaker 1: just got to get their heads around this stuff. And
Speaker 1: where would you say that the best place for him
Speaker 1: to find this information is? I mean, what do you
Speaker 1: look at you're still young, what do you look at
Speaker 1: the keep in touch? I just read what is it social?
Speaker 1: What do you look where?
Speaker 2: You're looking scouring social anyway for work? But try and
Speaker 2: get across even things I don't like reading some traditional newspapers.
Speaker 2: Still try and read, like just trying to expand your
Speaker 2: your your knowledge in that sense, really your scope. It
Speaker 2: might not be stuff that you're it might not be
Speaker 2: a beautifully written opinion piece about something you really care
Speaker 2: about is you're passionate about, but it's good to know
Speaker 2: these things stuff about you know, if you're not interested
Speaker 2: in finance, want you should want to learn about finance.
Speaker 2: If you're not massively interested in entertainment and what's going
Speaker 2: on in there, you should kind of want to learn
Speaker 2: about that. Again, it comes back to like diversify and
Speaker 2: really making sure you're kind of covering covering your backside.
Speaker 1: It is the max is the what maybe is the
Speaker 1: word words phrase be curious? Absolutely, yeah, continue to be curious,
Speaker 1: totally down, Just fucking put your the sands say nothing
Speaker 1: as all good. I'm sweet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, some people, unfortunately do and well.
Speaker 1: Our parents did. They got a job and they stay that. Well,
Speaker 1: your dad might have because he come to Australia. My
Speaker 1: dad neither, because he comes a straight but generally speaking,
Speaker 1: he stayed in the same job for most of his
Speaker 1: life or in fact his whole life. And that's what
Speaker 1: people did in those days. You got a job and
Speaker 1: stayed there, and you're probably there fifty years later and
Speaker 1: you've got a watch or something, and you paid your
Speaker 1: house off and you've got some super and yeah it's
Speaker 1: all good, you retire sixty five. That model has changed
Speaker 1: completely for everyone across the world. And then just on
Speaker 1: the other thing, which I thought was very interesting you
Speaker 1: said was be accessible to do other things. So you know,
Speaker 1: there's no point being a one trick pony. You've got
Speaker 1: to have a few more tricks up your sleeve, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really important lesson today. Like
Speaker 1: you know, if you're a journalist, like a content writer
Speaker 1: in your case, you were a writer, you've got to
Speaker 1: start to learn be curious again, learn it at filming
Speaker 1: social media sales totally. It might be it might not
Speaker 1: be a bag, but still have a crack at it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're not going to be amazing that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not going to come in and change the game.
Speaker 2: But you've got to be got to be a sponge.
Speaker 2: Got to learn and then you can start to implement
Speaker 2: and quickly you'll find that you're kind of well mine,
Speaker 2: you're spinning plates by yourself, but also that you're cross things.
Speaker 2: And it relates back to what you were saying about, Yeah,
Speaker 2: just knowing the business inside out?
Speaker 1: How much of that this is taking risk? So have
Speaker 1: have do you think? I mean you do a lot
Speaker 1: of young people. Do you think that our appetite for
Speaker 1: risk has increased or is less for younger people? For
Speaker 1: young for the younger generation, for the twenty to thirties,
Speaker 1: is do you think our risk appetite is less or
Speaker 1: more than it was, say years ago, when you first
Speaker 1: kicked off work.
Speaker 2: It's a good question. I think people are more inclined
Speaker 2: to take risks. Again. A lot of it plays into
Speaker 2: social media. You see people that you want to look like,
Speaker 2: you want to be like, you want to be as
Speaker 2: successful as people have got a very very high benchmark
Speaker 2: of themselves and where they want to.
Speaker 1: Get to, well, certainly where they present absolutely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not all of it is your bang on. Not
Speaker 2: all of it is.
Speaker 1: I'm presenting my best self on Instagram. Now when when
Speaker 1: when people see on Instagram whatever, there's lights, there's a
Speaker 1: look at my best Actually. You know, something said the
Speaker 1: other day I was in where was I in Bingley
Speaker 1: or some Harvey Norman? I can't remember. Two there's two
Speaker 1: free ads and some Blue Blake comes and he goes hey.
Speaker 1: He said, you're my Boris and I said, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to buy I was going to fridge and
Speaker 1: he said, he said arm and walks brogue. He said,
Speaker 1: I love what you're doing. Said, you know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: you look older in real life. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the fuck he realized When he realized that you talk
Speaker 1: a big gulp, but it's probably right because you know,
Speaker 1: my team to make sure I'm the best possible version
Speaker 1: of myself when I'm on camera, and they'd be thinking
Speaker 1: about social media today, everybody just presents the best version
Speaker 1: of themselves. And we're going to talk about this because
Speaker 1: you know, common entertainment is has a certain thesis about
Speaker 1: it and and I want to talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: the nice, nicer version of people today relatives to say,
Speaker 1: let's look at lad Bible, which is your next fora
Speaker 1: that was lad Bible next, the next business you went
Speaker 1: into it? So it was follow lad Bible.
Speaker 2: Guys, Fox into lad Bible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, check me through that lad Bible was I followed them.
Speaker 1: But some people here who don't follow that Bible talk
Speaker 1: talk to us.
Speaker 2: What about So lad Bible was arguably one of the
Speaker 2: biggest youth publishers on the planet.
Speaker 1: Youth publishing being which age I.
Speaker 2: Think it's eighteen to thirty five year olds. Was there?
Speaker 2: Was there kind of go and what a company like? Again,
Speaker 2: I was cut to go back to Fox come out
Speaker 2: of the pandemic, redundant at twenty something year old, down
Speaker 2: tools on everything else. So it's funny I saw Lad
Speaker 2: Bible's job on Seek. I kind of moved back home
Speaker 2: with my parents, was flapping around a bit concerned, as
Speaker 2: I'm sure everyone else was, but saw the the ad
Speaker 2: for it, for the job on Seek, and obviously being
Speaker 2: from the UK, I know, I know their bag, I
Speaker 2: know that they're all about so I kind of down
Speaker 2: tools on everything else and knew that that was the
Speaker 2: role for me, and it involved I think I was
Speaker 2: higher in Australia, higher number eight or seven or so.
Speaker 1: They were launching you in Australia.
Speaker 2: They were launching and they needed someone to help version
Speaker 2: of their Bible. Yeah, Lad Bible Australia Ossie UK. Very
Speaker 2: similar culture, very similar sense of humor, a few differences,
Speaker 2: but there was a massive appetite. They've got a huge
Speaker 2: Ossie audience. Anyway, kind of tested the market here and
Speaker 2: we're like boom, We're in. So they needed someone to
Speaker 2: launch Sport Bible really so looked at me for some reason,
Speaker 2: liked me, I don't know why, but liked me and
Speaker 2: gave me a shot and it was amazing. Such a
Speaker 2: good team. I mean, it's all people kind of my age,
Speaker 2: people who are ambitious, growing a really really good brand
Speaker 2: in Australia.
Speaker 1: And how well did together?
Speaker 2: So what what?
Speaker 1: What give me some mytries some of.
Speaker 2: The numbers they reached almost I think the main kind
Speaker 2: of number that we put in our pitch decks was
Speaker 2: two thirds of all Australians is what they reached, which
Speaker 2: was a huge number. Massive forgetting that young people, you know,
Speaker 2: every demographic as well, So it's huge numbers that they reached.
Speaker 2: Great content, great brand, and just being involved with that. Again,
Speaker 2: it referred back to what I kind of mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: I started off as my role as journalist, but I
Speaker 2: was never really.
Speaker 1: A journalist content writer.
Speaker 2: I was more of a writer writing for website, and
Speaker 2: then I kind of pivoted and wanted to do a
Speaker 2: bit more on social so that that needed some love.
Speaker 1: But did you ask for that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, you know. I had a really good report
Speaker 2: with the boss is there and the general manager is
Speaker 2: now my current business partner, so we have a great relationship.
Speaker 2: My old head of content, she was amazing, and they
Speaker 2: really had their thing was you're here for a reason
Speaker 2: and we have complete and utter faith, go out and
Speaker 2: do what you think. Yeah, and not just me, but
Speaker 2: the whole pretty much everyone.
Speaker 1: No, with you know, some exceptions, some exceptions.
Speaker 2: Not every bad idea is, you know, a great idea,
Speaker 2: but they definitely wouldn't turn their nose up at ideas,
Speaker 2: and we saw really good success.
Speaker 1: Why do you think something of that takes off so
Speaker 1: well so quickly in like in Australia for example, Like
Speaker 1: how why is it they grab the audience so fast?
Speaker 2: I think it's a good question. I think to do
Speaker 2: with the brand itself straight away. Because the brand, people
Speaker 2: know the brand. It's so cool. Sometimes people don't even
Speaker 2: realize that they were looking at the brand because you know,
Speaker 2: we're all doom scrolling on social media. Oh that's led Bible, Okay, cool? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know you guys, people don't even realize that they're
Speaker 2: kind of looking at it. It's a great brand, it's
Speaker 2: our whole thing was kind of steering away from the lad. Obviously,
Speaker 2: a lad in the UK is a friend a buddy,
Speaker 2: whereas here it's teens and train stations. Yeah, so we
Speaker 2: kind of always tried to steer away from that, and
Speaker 2: we had a very.
Speaker 1: Bag shoulder in the bum bags was a lad bag?
Speaker 1: Where were there things are there? Yeah? Yeah, he's a lad.
Speaker 2: And our thing was yeah, always kind of we had
Speaker 2: a very gender neutral kind of it was like fifty
Speaker 2: to fifty split. Like we had a really really strong
Speaker 2: audience base. And to answer your original question why it
Speaker 2: kind of took off good hiring. We hired some amazing
Speaker 2: people who were who just helped it, just elevated it
Speaker 2: really and the brand was quality so so good. It
Speaker 2: was a great I went. I went to just the
Speaker 2: opportunities as well. I went to WrestleMania in Dallas. I
Speaker 2: don't even know what I don't even know what wrestling is,
Speaker 2: but I was surrounded by middle aged blokes with two
Speaker 2: plastic belts around there are I was honestly crazy. But
Speaker 2: covering Women's World Cup, covering NRL, had a really good
Speaker 2: relationship with some amazing companies and amazing brands NRLB and
Speaker 2: one of them a bunch of betting companies that we
Speaker 2: kind of worked with on commercial campaigns. And yeah, honestly,
Speaker 2: such a such a great environment to work in.
Speaker 1: And what happened.
Speaker 2: Redundancies again, Really you.
Speaker 1: Know it's do they close closed shop.
Speaker 2: Closed APAC region? Yeah, so closed Aypac region. We were
Speaker 2: making money, But there's bigger markets, there's US markets that
Speaker 2: you can explore. And the Australian market was Yeah, we
Speaker 2: just end up getting all of the Apac kind so
Speaker 2: we had offices in New Zealand, one in Melbourne and
Speaker 2: Sydney as well. So yeah, we were all yes.
Speaker 1: And then lad Bible it's still it's still comes from Minescriber.
Speaker 1: It's the English version version.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's still Australian pages. So they' they've brought content
Speaker 2: in house, right and still people running the pages. It's
Speaker 2: just the team got kind of stripped back. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to go the break. When I come back,
Speaker 1: I want to know how you decided, why you decide
Speaker 1: if you remember the day where you sit down with
Speaker 1: your co founder and you decided to build this thing
Speaker 1: up called Common Entertainment. By the way, before I do
Speaker 1: gather break, how long has it been around for?
Speaker 2: So we've we're brand new, just launched about a month ago.
Speaker 2: That a month ago, wow, But we've been working on
Speaker 2: it in the background for how long about six seven
Speaker 2: months now?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 2: Yeah, since the redundancies.
Speaker 1: Okay, so when we come back and then we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about something that's just brand new, look.
Speaker 2: Forward to it.
Speaker 1: I'm back from the break. I'm here with Max Sherry.
Speaker 1: Now Max is the co founder of Common Entertainment. And
Speaker 1: you did say Max that your co founder is your
Speaker 1: ex general manager or something like that. Tell me that.
Speaker 1: Tell me about however that all worked.
Speaker 2: So I've actually got two co founders. One was our
Speaker 2: head of sales at lad Bible and one was the
Speaker 2: general manager. Joe was the man who brought lad Bible
Speaker 2: out to Australia yep, tested that market and kind of yeah,
Speaker 2: it was the big boss in APAC. And then Rachel Hall,
Speaker 2: she was our head of sales, so responsible for some
Speaker 2: huge client campaigns, commercial stuff, and both just bosses in
Speaker 2: general amazing in.
Speaker 1: Terms of sales. Helped me out eat. So how does
Speaker 1: how did lad Bible supports Bible? How do they commercialize
Speaker 1: their social content or their social media.
Speaker 2: It's all ad space. Really. If you can guarantee a
Speaker 2: company a campaign a million eyeballs on a product, then
Speaker 2: brands want to kind of throw money at that. And
Speaker 2: digital it is a new space, but it's essentially advertising.
Speaker 2: So we would run we would explore commercial campaigns as
Speaker 2: bigger activations. We I mean, you seem to remember us
Speaker 2: doing an escape room for I think it was Amazon
Speaker 2: in the middle of Sydney. So there's big picture stuff
Speaker 2: like that. There's also you know, articles that can be
Speaker 2: written that can live on your channels, posts that can
Speaker 2: go live, interviews that we can do. We loved a
Speaker 2: vox pop.
Speaker 1: I was all about that and this moment of box
Speaker 1: pop is.
Speaker 2: Giving an idiot like me and Mike and going outside
Speaker 2: absolutely and just random. You get some amazing characters and
Speaker 2: get to rub shoulders and some cool people. But we
Speaker 2: did it at the Women's World cart that was amazing.
Speaker 2: Is ramming around the streets depending on the campaign. Really,
Speaker 2: we flew to Brisbane for with McDonald's for the Women's
Speaker 2: World Cup and did some cool vox pop stuff there
Speaker 2: And and.
Speaker 1: Why do you and what and why do you think
Speaker 1: there would have been you this? This is when you're
Speaker 1: a lab Bible supports Bible. Why do you think like
Speaker 1: big brands would employ you guys to do boxing, Like
Speaker 1: why would they do? That's what's good? What's in it
Speaker 1: for them?
Speaker 2: Well, it kind of comes down to the media and
Speaker 2: your competitors as well, Right Like lad Bible is such
Speaker 2: a cool brand that you want to align with, not
Speaker 2: regardless of reach reaches speaks for itself as a brand.
Speaker 2: It was brand just wanted.
Speaker 1: To brand alignments. Yeah, a little bit of reflective glory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for your audience, for their audience at the time. So
Speaker 1: Common Entertainment. What's the deal with the name? What I
Speaker 1: mean is that house commons? I don't know what. Tell me,
Speaker 1: what are we talking about? What's common Entertainment means? Where
Speaker 1: their name come from?
Speaker 2: The name? It was actually my co founders that came
Speaker 2: up with it. Joe is actually from East London near me. Also, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's Rache's Ossie. So we're bouncing out a little bit there.
Speaker 2: But he's always he's always been called a commoner. His
Speaker 2: wife calls him very common, which is to go back
Speaker 2: to the very start, a bit Cockney and a bit street. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that was kind of it. But it has loads
Speaker 2: of other meanings. I mean, even our logo the sea
Speaker 2: with the kind of line on top, it's the common denominator,
Speaker 2: the thing that's left, you know, And just the name.
Speaker 2: There's there's so many other parallels that we're drawing with
Speaker 2: the name and the brand common Good, you know there's
Speaker 2: but yeah, that's kind of where the name started. There's
Speaker 2: been some ropee previous names. I think I'm going to
Speaker 2: out them here, but my co founders were thinking of gaggle,
Speaker 2: like a gaggle of geese. Horrendous, I know, shock. So
Speaker 2: I've outed them there nicely. But we land on common,
Speaker 2: which is good.
Speaker 1: So clearly your whole thesis is about entertainment. It's been entertainment.
Speaker 1: Is there is there information in there too? Is there
Speaker 1: education and information? There was a just entertainment.
Speaker 2: So our thing is really it's it's a multi media publisher,
Speaker 2: brand new one. We want to sell it. Our main
Speaker 2: thing is celebrating humanity, celebrating the extraordinary, every day people
Speaker 2: doing extraordinary things. As you well know, social media is
Speaker 2: a pretty it's a pretty dark place to hang out
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: Tiring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's pretty poor and.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say tedious, but I would say tiring.
Speaker 2: Tiring's a good way to describe it. I agree. You
Speaker 2: come away from it after doom scrolling and come away
Speaker 2: from it feeling disengaged too.
Speaker 1: Flash No, you either feel like fuck me, like everyone's
Speaker 1: killing it and I'm not, which I know is not
Speaker 1: the case. But you either feel that way or eternally,
Speaker 1: Why aren't I Why don't have their numbers? How the
Speaker 1: fuck do they get their numbers or who's this fucking imposta? Yep,
Speaker 1: Like I know more of it than they do. How
Speaker 1: they how they getting in there? Or it's just like
Speaker 1: shit news, like leave me alone, stop telling me the
Speaker 1: same damn thing over and over again. I yes, they this,
Speaker 1: and I don't know when this podcast going to go
Speaker 1: to it, but I could just go back to early
Speaker 1: in August, I was getting hit up on Instagram by
Speaker 1: the disaster was going on the Japanese stock ex changed
Speaker 1: and the US stock ex change and transaction change. But
Speaker 1: like literally I get it, but like everything I got
Speaker 1: was the same because obviously it worked out who I am,
Speaker 1: and it's like what I like I should say, and
Speaker 1: it's just algorithm rhythmic process that just hit me up,
Speaker 1: picked me up in the n I thought, I'm not
Speaker 1: looking at this anymore. It's like depressing me.
Speaker 2: Like not really, but you know what I mean, No, totally,
Speaker 2: you just good. There's a reason and there's so many
Speaker 2: stats behind it. But people's mental health, not just in
Speaker 2: this country but globally it's deteriorating, and sadly social media
Speaker 2: plays a big role in that, like.
Speaker 1: Young people worse. I think that couple worse. The only
Speaker 1: reason why for that is I say that and I
Speaker 1: don't have any evidence. But the only reason I say
Speaker 1: that observationally is that they're not equipped to make proper
Speaker 1: judgments on things because they're young and they're not experienced.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing. Second thing, is there much more
Speaker 1: glued to this, So they have less options because most
Speaker 1: of the options the older people like me have they
Speaker 1: would consider they would consider as boring or just shit,
Speaker 1: like who's going to watch the Channel nine news on
Speaker 1: a Sunday night That the younger people definitely aren't. But
Speaker 1: I have more options in my kit bag, or I
Speaker 1: might not look at social media at all, you know,
Speaker 1: I might just have no media, just maybe go for
Speaker 1: a walk. So unfortunately they're getting hit up all the time.
Speaker 1: It's just repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. Then this probably takes me
Speaker 1: to your thesis, you know, a common entertainment. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just want to open up one up here. I
Speaker 1: mean I was, I was looking at it like, there's
Speaker 1: one here. It says you never know, but the interaction
Speaker 1: possibly saved his life, and there's a young boy I
Speaker 1: think it is. What's your favorite legend of it? Zelda game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that post in particular.
Speaker 1: We two point three million, and by the way, Stylebnder
Speaker 1: like yeah, as analys like, yeah, like that's pretty fall on.
Speaker 2: That's pretty crazy considering at that point we hadn't really
Speaker 2: launched yet, no one knew who we were. Chloe Kardashian
Speaker 2: actually recently comment commented on that post as well, But
Speaker 2: you're right, Stylebnder Usain Bolt, I think.
Speaker 1: As well, Yeah, but this is Ashraf. You're a good man.
Speaker 1: Kindness and understanding can change your life, man like, and
Speaker 1: you've given the credits. Tell me about that. What's the
Speaker 1: thinking behind not just that particular post, but that that
Speaker 1: post sort of embodies most of the stuff that I
Speaker 1: was quickly looking at. Totally tell me about it, So that.
Speaker 2: That post in particular, I mean, our our thesis, like
Speaker 2: you say, our kind of proposition is we want to
Speaker 2: combat negativity. There's so much clickbait, sensationalism, negativety, like you
Speaker 2: said refer to before, we want to combat that. People's
Speaker 2: mental healths are declining and people are ultimately turning off
Speaker 2: social media. But social media realistically should be an amazing tool.
Speaker 2: It should be like a global showcase of everything good.
Speaker 2: And we're only you know, a decade and a half
Speaker 2: into this social media game us as humans, but we're
Speaker 2: getting it wrong already. There's, as we refer to, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of rubbish on their algorithms and negative comments sections.
Speaker 2: But I feel like there's a massive sea change coming.
Speaker 2: We need to be better. We want our audience to
Speaker 2: feel enriched, feel enlightened, feel educated, feel entertained, proud. We
Speaker 2: want them to laugh, we want to cry. We want
Speaker 2: them to come away from it from a doom scroll
Speaker 2: of our content, feel happy, feel good, feel like in
Speaker 2: our way of doing that is celebrating humans. We did
Speaker 2: a branding session with actually with my old man. We
Speaker 2: were pretty tight on cash at the very start. We
Speaker 2: roped him in and his team and did our branding session.
Speaker 2: We were like, if we're going to do this post
Speaker 2: lad Bible, we want to do it, you know, me
Speaker 2: and my co founders, we want to do it right.
Speaker 2: We want to do it positive. I want to bring positivity.
Speaker 2: But we quickly found out that positive is can pigeonhole.
Speaker 2: You can sound like you're kind of shoving it down
Speaker 2: people's throats a bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit. Also a little bit sort of
Speaker 1: trying to talk about.
Speaker 2: Your virtues, trying to preach a little bit you're right
Speaker 2: virtues and like the signaling, absolutely, and we wanted to
Speaker 2: avoid that. So our kind of in our branding session,
Speaker 2: our way around that was celebratory.
Speaker 1: Of somebody else's attitudes.
Speaker 2: Celebrate humans like doing amazing things. I just think it
Speaker 2: gives you more scope. You know, there's whether it's the
Speaker 2: Olympic Games or on at the moment, we can celebrate
Speaker 2: that someone does an amazing deed, like that guy that
Speaker 2: you're referring to in that video, reaching out to that
Speaker 2: guy who was struggling, or to you know, young ossies
Speaker 2: want to launch a podcast, Let's celebrate that just gives
Speaker 2: you more scope. And in relation to that exact video,
Speaker 2: I saw it on my own algorithm. I reached out
Speaker 2: to the guy and said, do we have your permission
Speaker 2: to use this? It's incredible. You should keep doing this stuff.
Speaker 2: He's a he's a streamer in the US. Should keep
Speaker 2: going down this positive route, in this celebratory route. He
Speaker 2: gave us permission, and is that we kind of provided
Speaker 2: that on screen caption because it's true, and he gave
Speaker 2: the credits, gave the credits, and that on screen caption
Speaker 2: of you know ever know this, this possibly saved his life,
Speaker 2: this interaction, And it's true that young kid actually commented
Speaker 2: as well, the guy in the video and said, wow,
Speaker 2: this is me. Look at this support that I'm receiving
Speaker 2: so not I need. Did Ashraff love that we shared
Speaker 2: his content and it, you know, showed him an amazing
Speaker 2: which he is. But the young kid actually kind of
Speaker 2: stumbled upon it himself and reached out and said, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for sharing and appreciate it. And the
Speaker 2: caption's right, we never know, like it might not have
Speaker 2: he might not have been struggling, but he could have been.
Speaker 2: And that celebration of that interaction is kind of encapsulates
Speaker 2: what we do. And obviously it's reached celebrities, you know,
Speaker 2: you mentioned Adasanya and Chloe Kardashian and stuff, but it's
Speaker 2: good to we want to bring people back onto social.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's there's a change in how publishers
Speaker 1: are going to operate? Is it coming or is it
Speaker 1: already here like you're you're because you know, generally speaking,
Speaker 1: the general view is bad news cells okay, unfortunate good
Speaker 1: news doesn't sell. I guess the corollary of bad news
Speaker 1: cells is that good news doesn't sell and your journalists
Speaker 1: know this stuff but than I do. But I'm only
Speaker 1: thinking about this loud. But maybe it's not good news
Speaker 1: as much. It's maybe human stories that still cells you
Speaker 1: bang on. Yeah, so that's the difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't say we're good news essentially, we're a
Speaker 2: community that celebrates humans. Yeah, And you're right, Like, I mean,
Speaker 2: look at the kind of media industry. It's there's we
Speaker 2: refer to it at the start. There's redundancies. People can't spend,
Speaker 2: people can't cost left right, and that's with traditional media
Speaker 2: and with kind of digital publishers, new age stuff. People
Speaker 2: are leaving Australia. There's a void that needs filling and
Speaker 2: clearly something's not going right. Like, pardon the term. I mean,
Speaker 2: I've already been kind of made redundant twice and the
Speaker 2: common denominate here is probably me. I'm probably rubbish. But
Speaker 2: it shows that there's something not quite right in the
Speaker 2: kind of landscape of things, and I feel like there's
Speaker 2: a big kind of shift come in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think people would agree with you,
Speaker 1: but we don't know what's happening. But what's going to
Speaker 1: happen but it feels like something has to change because
Speaker 1: we can't we can't get beating ourselves up. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like we're sort of masochism, just bashing ourselves up.
Speaker 1: And the media is part of that and where all
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of journalists who are actually
Speaker 1: really good guys, but they're in that fucking frame where
Speaker 1: they're always trying to come up with a headline and
Speaker 1: headline to get you, you know, this sort of click
Speaker 1: baity stuff that's sort of sort of what's that about?
Speaker 1: You know, Mark Boris has done something, you know, like
Speaker 1: what I better read about that? And then there's nothing.
Speaker 1: There's nothing in it either, there's nothing really malicious in there.
Speaker 1: There's nothing, there's nothing, it's just the headline.
Speaker 2: I know exactly, I know exactly what you're talking and.
Speaker 1: Your headlines are different.
Speaker 2: Well, it's so detrimental stuff like that to your brand
Speaker 2: as a whole, because you could write, I could interview you,
Speaker 2: do an amazing opinion piece, and then in the column
Speaker 2: next to it, you've got something really trash, or the
Speaker 2: following week they're trying to go after you. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you know, I've built this relationship with you, or I've
Speaker 2: built this relationship with a brand, and then the next
Speaker 2: week it's it's tarnished and you're constantly chasing your tail
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 1: And I'm always avoiding you as a result of that
Speaker 1: relationship's done. I won't talk to you absolutely, or I
Speaker 1: won't talk to anyone again. I mean, I just say,
Speaker 1: staying away from these dudes like this is no good.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people are sort of
Speaker 1: a very negative on media, mainstream media, because I think
Speaker 1: they've all jumped in on the bandwagon clickbait, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: number clips, because I mean, I've heard of journalist who
Speaker 1: get rewarded for the number of clicks they get on
Speaker 1: their article that they're getting a small retainer and then
Speaker 1: bonus bonusing up based on the number of people hit it.
Speaker 1: But by definitely just encouraging them to write this shit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and look, maybe there's room for that, I get it.
Speaker 1: But I think also you've carved out a really bloody
Speaker 1: good niche like it's funny. Do you think that people
Speaker 1: like the Cdshians for example, or is he they they're
Speaker 1: all sort of showing their support to you, because they're
Speaker 1: all becoming a little bit jaundiced about the way the
Speaker 1: world is.
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah. I can only think that people are sick
Speaker 2: to death of it opening social media and there's there's
Speaker 2: something negative, they want to open up their phone and
Speaker 2: if you are subject to the odd doom, scroll for
Speaker 2: half an hour before bed and you want to come
Speaker 2: away from it feeling feeling better about yourself and content
Speaker 2: like that. At the core, it's the content, and you're right,
Speaker 2: Lack there's For us, it's we're not measured really on
Speaker 2: website clicks. It's not a kind of revenue stream. For us.
Speaker 2: We don't see ourselves as news, so it's not something
Speaker 2: that we value and we actually see a really smelly article.
Speaker 2: It's so detrimental to a brand. And for us, brand
Speaker 2: is number one. We've got such a strong brand. Our
Speaker 2: messaging is clear and people it's you know, the kind
Speaker 2: of content speaks for itself and the love we're getting
Speaker 2: speaks for itself.
Speaker 1: Who your major audience age, so.
Speaker 2: We're probably eighteen to thirty five year olds as well,
Speaker 2: but we've got a massive audience in Australia.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: We've got a huge audience in the US, I think
Speaker 2: mainly due to population and the UK as well. But
Speaker 2: our audience number in Australia. We're starting to kind of
Speaker 2: tailors content towards more Aussie. Yeah, Ossie natured and it's
Speaker 2: getting a good reception.
Speaker 1: That probably gets a good reception everywhere too, because people
Speaker 1: overseas love that. People love and asie, excuse me, people
Speaker 1: love do love an Aussie as far as I'm aware
Speaker 1: where too from now? I mean, so I saw you're hosting.
Speaker 1: We're not hosting, but you're including other people's podcasts on
Speaker 1: their late dilan or do you what's that? What's that all?
Speaker 1: Bet So?
Speaker 2: It's actually the kind of this is the brainchild of
Speaker 2: my co founder of rach. It's called House of Common
Speaker 2: and it is essentially a production house. We want to
Speaker 2: be the Netflix of social kind of be cool, but
Speaker 2: we want to do that and by doing that, we
Speaker 2: want to kind of have our original shows. We want
Speaker 2: to start launching original shows, not just on the celebratory
Speaker 2: kind of theme, but everything can be sports shows, can
Speaker 2: be entertainment shows, and we want to work with there's
Speaker 2: so many good creators in Australia, you know that like amazing,
Speaker 2: but we want to kind of be the middleman between
Speaker 2: them and brands. A lot of these people were, whether
Speaker 2: it's uni students or sports stars, need need a brand
Speaker 2: attached to that in order to keep it going.
Speaker 1: Do you produce it for them?
Speaker 2: We can help produce it. We can just faci edit,
Speaker 2: we can facilitate, we can connect them with brands, we
Speaker 2: can create shows with them. But being the kind of
Speaker 2: middleman between. We've just got a mainly thanks to my
Speaker 2: co founders, we've got a massive contact book and a.
Speaker 1: Bunch your business model then and relationship finance financially like economics.
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: So advertising again.
Speaker 2: Advertising commercial partnerships would be one. The second obviously would
Speaker 2: be what that like House of common working with creators
Speaker 2: on shows and going you know, ip split fifty to
Speaker 2: fifty if as long as we can find a partner
Speaker 2: youtubeing it sorry youtubing it, Yeah, it can, and that's
Speaker 2: the thing we would amplify it across our live anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it can go across them, can go across.
Speaker 1: YouTube, do commercial deals of them.
Speaker 2: Commercial deals and then and that's why we've signed up
Speaker 2: people like Dylan Orkar with listening Able, which is so
Speaker 2: in line and on Brown with us. Yeah, and then
Speaker 2: this platform revenue as well, is these big kind of Facebook,
Speaker 2: the Metas and youtubes of the world will pay you
Speaker 2: to be on their platform. Again, it's ads because.
Speaker 1: They they place the ads, but they pay you to
Speaker 1: give them the content.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're experts in monetizing content. Instagram's tricky one because
Speaker 2: everyone uses it and they won't pay anything.
Speaker 1: But but it's a good intro. It shows you, it shows
Speaker 1: the world who you are exactly, and it's too How
Speaker 1: to start advertising on Instagram's people turn off pretty fast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be pure.
Speaker 2: It's a fine line and you don't want to cross it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's right. So where to from here?
Speaker 2: We've got We've got big plans the House of Common
Speaker 2: I think we'll take off as we start signing more,
Speaker 2: more shows up, and more creative.
Speaker 1: Just notice you've got just on I saw we've got
Speaker 1: two bro Chicks, Dinners, Listenable, small Talk, fairband podcast. What
Speaker 1: else have you got? What else you got? Now?
Speaker 2: That's they're the main they're the kind of the core
Speaker 2: of what we've got, and we've got a bunch of
Speaker 2: kind of originals as well. Common Voices is where we
Speaker 2: kind of vox popp and and speak to people we've
Speaker 2: spoken to, domestic violence, survivors, people who have been in jail,
Speaker 2: and people again, ordinary people who have got extraordinary stories
Speaker 2: and celebrating their their comeback.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. I love it. I've
Speaker 1: been a young bloke. I love the fact that you've
Speaker 1: sort of recovered plus much much more from your third redundancy.
Speaker 1: But it's just it's pretty cool. You've learned your lessons
Speaker 1: and in fact you've taken those lessons and you've turned
Speaker 1: into something well. I love the fact to managed to
Speaker 1: collaborate with your colleagues. That's pretty fucking cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this is.
Speaker 1: Different. That's what I like about it. It's not what
Speaker 1: everybody else is doing. In fact, it's nearly diametrically opposed
Speaker 1: to what works for everybody else, And what works for
Speaker 1: everybody else means everybody else is going to do, which
Speaker 1: means it's a very crowded market and you're diametrically opposed.
Speaker 1: But it's also nuanced because, as we said, as you
Speaker 1: said earlier, it's celebrating great human stories, not you trying
Speaker 1: to preach or you know, try and sort of virtue
Speaker 1: signal about what's good in the world all that shit.
Speaker 1: But you're talking about other good stories. In fact, I follow.
Speaker 1: This is a thing called Humans of Newark, New York.
Speaker 2: Yes have you seen that? I know exactly. It's pretty cool, incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's sort of along your lines. Is a bit
Speaker 1: broader than that. But it's actually interesting because they just
Speaker 1: put interesting people from New York and it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a celebrity. It could be just some old
Speaker 1: dude sitting there who's been there, sitting on the same
Speaker 1: seat for twenty years, and they take a photograph of
Speaker 1: him or her and they put up it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: They're amazing.
Speaker 1: It hasn't worked anywhere else in the world. I don't
Speaker 1: think lots of others have tried it. I saw some
Speaker 1: tried humans a Sydney distance at the work. But what
Speaker 1: you're doing is really good. I really love it, and
Speaker 1: good luck to you, and thank you. Give Dylan Orcock.
Speaker 1: Give Dylan Orcock a good smack on the chin when
Speaker 1: he comes back for the Olympics, because he's the cheekiest
Speaker 1: bastard on this planet. He really is.
Speaker 2: I've heard some amazing is an incredible.
Speaker 1: He's a cheeky barsard, but I love him.
Speaker 2: He's great, amazing, really nice meet Yeah, lovely to meet
Speaker 2: you too, Thank you for having me appreciate that