Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
Speaker 1: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,
Speaker 1: and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals
Speaker 1: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,
Speaker 1: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.
Speaker 1: It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated
Speaker 1: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is
Speaker 1: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P
Speaker 1: and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly
Speaker 1: Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of
Speaker 1: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank
Speaker 1: National Association Member FDIC.
Speaker 2: Erness What's Up?
Speaker 1: You ever walk into a small business and everything just
Speaker 1: works like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital,
Speaker 1: tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before
Speaker 1: the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square? We
Speaker 1: love supporting business that run on Square because it just
Speaker 1: feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor
Speaker 1: at a pop up market, or even one of our
Speaker 1: merch partners. Square makes it easy for them to take payments,
Speaker 1: manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from
Speaker 1: one simple system. If you're a business owner or even
Speaker 1: just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down
Speaker 1: one of the best tools out there to help you start, run,
Speaker 1: and grow. It's not just about payments, it's about giving
Speaker 1: you time back so you can focus on what matters
Speaker 1: most ready. To see how Square can transform your business,
Speaker 1: visit Square dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn more.
Speaker 1: That's Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait,
Speaker 1: don't hesitate. Let's Square handle the back end so you
Speaker 1: can keep pushing your vision forward.
Speaker 3: How much does it cost a book of like session.
Speaker 4: You could pay anywhere from sixty dollars to to fifty
Speaker 4: Our average client spends about three hundred per hour.
Speaker 3: And what's the difference between sixty and three hundred sixty.
Speaker 5: Is just audio. You're just starting out right.
Speaker 4: Different studios also have different prices, always a little more
Speaker 4: expensive because of the landscape. But we kept our prices
Speaker 4: low on purpose because we know that the average podcaster
Speaker 4: that's watching us or wants to start up, they may
Speaker 4: not have all the bread. Then we got y'all who
Speaker 4: may spend four figure numbers when you need mobile shoots.
Speaker 5: But you know what I'm saying, your podcast is bringing
Speaker 5: in more.
Speaker 4: Horrible spends more as well because we need more bells
Speaker 4: and whistles. But if you just need baseline audio, sixty bucks.
Speaker 4: If you just want one angle one fifty, Like we've
Speaker 4: made it pretty easy, and we never raised.
Speaker 5: Our prices either.
Speaker 6: Oh okay, so like if we have a four camera
Speaker 6: set up here, but if it was like a two camera,
Speaker 6: that would fluctuate. Yeah, all right, So I remember when
Speaker 6: you guys were starting, it was just that one studio,
Speaker 6: and then this was getting built out.
Speaker 2: You went over on that one. This is the biggest studio.
Speaker 6: Is it the same price point or was like all right,
Speaker 6: now I know that the price that I need to
Speaker 6: be at to make sure that.
Speaker 2: This is functional. We kept it at the same price point.
Speaker 2: So it's fifty again.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so we never raised until now our newest location
Speaker 7: in Midtown, and that one's even larger than this. It's
Speaker 7: a little bit more premiere, and I think the only
Speaker 7: reason why it's a little bit more is just too offset.
Speaker 7: I don't want everybody rushing to the new one. So
Speaker 7: it's like just to keep a balance where it's like
Speaker 7: we still have clients that love coming here, but then
Speaker 7: also you know, when something's sparkly and new people want
Speaker 7: to try to go there.
Speaker 6: I would assume, and this is probably right. The cameras
Speaker 6: are the most expensive piece in here, cameras, computers, like,
Speaker 6: so like if for the people who can't see, like,
Speaker 6: what are the things that are needed to make this
Speaker 6: things functional? Obviously cameras, So we got to show sm
Speaker 6: seven pps what else.
Speaker 7: So it was important for me to like, you know,
Speaker 7: how new tech startups they want to disrupt the market
Speaker 7: or whatever. So I working in production for as long
Speaker 7: as I have been, I saw all the things people
Speaker 7: were doing wrong. And I saw also how like Kyllywood
Speaker 7: and other places overcharged for a lot of stuff. So
Speaker 7: like I just found that middle where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 7: let me get the highest end let's say camera, but
Speaker 7: I can go for a cheaper lens to offset the price,
Speaker 7: and then the quality doesn't really drop very much and
Speaker 7: I can keep costs down. So that was like one
Speaker 7: of the things that was very important. And it's like
Speaker 7: a lot of other studios they look cheap and I
Speaker 7: didn't want that, so I wanted us to look premiere
Speaker 7: because like that's going to be the main thing that
Speaker 7: sells the studio. But then also I can't have like,
Speaker 7: you know, red cameras like shit that you use for movies,
Speaker 7: because then we would just beat go broke.
Speaker 4: But Alex making the choice to spend that much in equipment,
Speaker 4: I think is the biggest reason we flourished.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we thought about that a lot.
Speaker 4: I'm like, we only have this much to spend, why
Speaker 4: are you spending that? Just get some cameras. We cool
Speaker 4: everybody for the come tows anyway, And he was like, no,
Speaker 4: but nobody has these, and it's true when you look
Speaker 4: at other studios they almost have like that webcami look sometimes.
Speaker 4: And so I was like, but we're going to take
Speaker 4: so long to pay ourselves back. And he just had
Speaker 4: a lot of faith in volume, and he was right
Speaker 4: because it's true true a lot of studios don't have
Speaker 4: this because it costs way too much. Having ten thousand
Speaker 4: dollars cameras is ridiculous. One camera, like it's crazy, but
Speaker 4: no one else could get it for that price. And
Speaker 4: so instead, whereas one fifty was kind of cheap, now
Speaker 4: we've got ten people a day at one fifty, whereas
Speaker 4: if another studio had that, they may have been charging
Speaker 4: five hundred a session, which is probably what you should
Speaker 4: be paying for these, But we ended up just getting
Speaker 4: people to come in. And so it's great because you
Speaker 4: could see a podcaster like yourself have your show on
Speaker 4: a set like this, and then someone who may only
Speaker 4: get one hundred views, but they're happy to be able
Speaker 4: to do that too.
Speaker 5: So the fact that they.
Speaker 4: Could work up to it is really the thing. That's
Speaker 4: why it's like low key a little fuobu for us,
Speaker 4: like four podcasters by podcasters, because we knew it costs
Speaker 4: too much to make something look nice, So.
Speaker 3: What about what's the other revenue models you have? Brand partnerships.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that actually worked out for us really well
Speaker 4: because we started learning what we were spending money in
Speaker 4: and what was costing us the most monthly, quarterly, and annually.
Speaker 5: One thing that was happening was lenses.
Speaker 4: So al and Mike's so Alex literally started reaching out
Speaker 4: to all of the companies that you know, we're big
Speaker 4: in cameras, big in audio and being like, yo, this
Speaker 4: is our studio, everybody's going to use it. You need
Speaker 4: to be giving us free shit.
Speaker 5: Shout out to Tiana, she was managing exactly like that.
Speaker 7: But basically whatever, Like I went to a lot of
Speaker 7: those conventions where it's like you have all of the camera,
Speaker 7: audio lighting, all those playbill and just face to face
Speaker 7: and it's the best thing. And then you tell them
Speaker 7: about the studio and then they want to have a
Speaker 7: relationship with you because they know that, hey, if you
Speaker 7: have a show like Eil and Net bringing all these people,
Speaker 7: people are also looking at how it's being done. And
Speaker 7: so so we have a brand partnership with Sigma, black Magic,
Speaker 7: even Water, our soda, Like we have partnerships like that
Speaker 7: because people know that people are going to come in here,
Speaker 7: look around and see what's being used.
Speaker 2: Signal for the lens, black Magic's the camera.
Speaker 6: Yeah what about we are we here? And I'm not
Speaker 6: even mentioned them for them, No, not not yet.
Speaker 7: Not you had road, I thought a road for our
Speaker 7: wireless mics. This pH water.
Speaker 4: But like that's the thing. We found out how much
Speaker 4: we were spending in like beverages alone, and it was
Speaker 4: like what, like we this is too much money. So
Speaker 4: now we probably saved twenty thousand dollars a year across
Speaker 4: the studios just having free beverages for clients, which is
Speaker 4: just it's a small little thing that you don't think about,
Speaker 4: but like, truly, that was it. I mean the next one,
Speaker 4: like I'm working on as a wayfair partnership. We spent
Speaker 4: mad bread in like furniture, and I learned that from
Speaker 4: even you know, working with Kenya Barris. Rich niggas don't
Speaker 4: pay for nothing. They don't pay for who was nothing.
Speaker 4: They put them credits right in your account. And the
Speaker 4: more I've been around wealthy people that strategy. And it's
Speaker 4: not like Kenya Barris, the one hundred millionaire times over
Speaker 4: is hounding down Uber. Your team is figuring out how
Speaker 4: to use your platform, your influence and be like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you want this person to be writing in these types
Speaker 4: of SUVs, they should have this. It's like that's the thing.
Speaker 4: So Alex and I kind of had to learn how
Speaker 4: to do that. We've never paid for marketing or prs,
Speaker 4: so it's like, okay, how are we supposed to do this?
Speaker 4: So using our own profile to kind of leverage everything else.
Speaker 6: So let's talk about Kenya Barris. I mean, this is
Speaker 6: obviously a relationship. When I think of you, I mean
Speaker 6: the first time I met you. It's always been about
Speaker 6: the business of podcasts. It's always been business with you
Speaker 6: and in podcasts, and specifically, how did you develop that relationship
Speaker 6: and what did you do?
Speaker 2: You currently exist in in the Keny Barras Yeah world.
Speaker 5: So I was at a party.
Speaker 4: I walked in and Keny was the first person there,
Speaker 4: and he was like, yo, are you Are you horrible decisions?
Speaker 5: Are you easy? And he said I'm Kenny Barras and
Speaker 5: I'm like, uh.
Speaker 4: Nigga, I know, And he asked me to take a picture,
Speaker 4: which I thought was hilarious. He's like, bruh dubbed me
Speaker 4: because he asked for tickets to his show in LA
Speaker 4: and I like wrote back or some shit, and I
Speaker 4: said it was sold out and he wanted to bring
Speaker 4: people from his office.
Speaker 5: They loved horrible. So we start vibing.
Speaker 4: He tells me about an audible deal and he's like, yo,
Speaker 4: I need someone to run it, like I'm film and TV,
Speaker 4: I have my music division, Like I want someone to
Speaker 4: run it. And I honestly believe that WTF Media. If
Speaker 4: not for being built that six months prior, there was
Speaker 4: no way I could have done that job.
Speaker 5: So and Alex helped me so much.
Speaker 4: So basically took on the job making podcasts easy, but
Speaker 4: when it came to building the landscape difficult. And it's
Speaker 4: great because I've literally funded all my businesses down to
Speaker 4: my TV show through the others. So Horrible brought me
Speaker 4: to Kenya Barris. Right then we've got to build studios.
Speaker 5: I hire Alex.
Speaker 4: Alex becomes you know, the audio producer for all of
Speaker 4: the projects and building out structurally how things will look.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: We created a sound system for him in his loft,
Speaker 4: which was the studio that Gangster Grills was filmed out of.
Speaker 4: WTF Media then produced Gangster Girls because I had to hire,
Speaker 4: you know, a team.
Speaker 5: So it's been great.
Speaker 4: Right now, I mean I'm working on Kenya's other podcasts
Speaker 4: for Audible and producing all them, eping them, and it's
Speaker 4: an amazing relationship and partnership because what he really showed
Speaker 4: me is that you can you can't exist outside of
Speaker 4: your element. Kenya hired a podcaster to run his podcast division,
Speaker 4: and it was the smartest thing he could have done
Speaker 4: because whenever I was on zooms and meetings for him,
Speaker 4: it was all film and TV people, and they're talking
Speaker 4: in movie and TV language. They're thinking, we have to
Speaker 4: spend twenty thousand dollars a shoot.
Speaker 5: I know that's not true. You're giving me millions of
Speaker 5: dollars in a budget.
Speaker 4: I'm like Niga, but like it's really that type of shit.
Speaker 4: These big entities and these big companies don't understand how
Speaker 4: rat gros grassroots podcasting is.
Speaker 5: So when I came in, I.
Speaker 4: Was able to really reinvent that for him and really
Speaker 4: show like, hey, like this is what we should be doing.
Speaker 5: And it's been amazing. Like I mean, I.
Speaker 4: Posted a picture with Malcolm gladwellman him the other day
Speaker 4: and I'm like, I cannot believe podcasting brought me here.
Speaker 5: Brouh, Like it's it's.
Speaker 4: A trip, because what's happening now people like us that
Speaker 4: were normal people that became famous from podcasting are the outliers.
Speaker 4: Word to Malcolm Gladwell but like, seriously, now it's the celebrities,
Speaker 4: and the celebrities are getting two million dollars to make
Speaker 4: a show and they're probably going to spend half a
Speaker 4: million in production.
Speaker 5: That's crazy. Making a podcast for a year does not
Speaker 5: cost that much. But you give me half.
Speaker 4: Of it, I'll tell you where to do it. And
Speaker 4: that's really what's happening, you know. So Alex and I
Speaker 4: have made our most money from the largest deals like that,
Speaker 4: not particularly Kenya Barris, like I'm.
Speaker 5: Salaried, right, But but it's stuff like that.
Speaker 4: It's the big company that comes in, Like, Yo, let's
Speaker 4: just say it's a bank. We had a meeting with
Speaker 4: a bank, right, huge bank. I would say, we all
Speaker 4: probably have the card in our wallet. They were given
Speaker 4: a certain amount of money a year to make financial
Speaker 4: videos for kids, so they know exactly how much they have.
Speaker 5: Hey, what do we do with this? It's a six
Speaker 5: figure number. I'm gonna tell you what to do.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna probably give you fifteen hundred to go home with.
Speaker 4: So you felt like you saved.
Speaker 6: But at the end of the day, like you didn't
Speaker 6: tell them your leisure What do you mean, Like you
Speaker 6: said you know what to do with it?
Speaker 2: Like you didn't tell them, Oh, I know the guys
Speaker 2: you should call.
Speaker 4: They already had their It was a sponsored podcast by Bleep.
Speaker 4: But it's it's things like that. It's like being able
Speaker 4: to be trusted by companies. So that type of partnership
Speaker 4: is like, really what makes us money? Granted, being in
Speaker 4: here is amazing and making people's dreams come true by
Speaker 4: them having their own show and finding voices dope too,
Speaker 4: but it's the big fucking bucks.
Speaker 3: So when you say that, when you are consultant to
Speaker 3: people companies to consult on their podcast divisions.
Speaker 4: Pretty much, I mean as a production company, that's what
Speaker 4: we do, and we take a call, right, it's like,
Speaker 4: we figure out your needs, we figure out how you're
Speaker 4: gonna build something. And they probably asked two other companies, so.
Speaker 2: You're shooting it for them.
Speaker 7: Shooting is start to finish, like they just have an
Speaker 7: idea and they're like, hey, can you make it happen?
Speaker 7: So we'll come up with concept, how it's can be shot,
Speaker 7: the look of it, shoot it, edit it deliberate though.
Speaker 5: It might even pair you with a co host and
Speaker 5: you might say, we know.
Speaker 2: People you make social clips. Yeah. Everything.
Speaker 8: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
Speaker 8: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
Speaker 8: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
Speaker 8: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
Speaker 8: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
Speaker 8: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States
Speaker 8: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
Speaker 8: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
Speaker 8: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
Speaker 8: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly
Speaker 8: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will
Speaker 8: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
Speaker 8: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Speaker 8: Do what's right.
Speaker 5: Leave now.
Speaker 8: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected.
Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,