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The Think Media Podcast
380: How He Built a $400K YouTube Business While Working the Night Shift!
01:13:54
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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Hey, before we jump into today's episode, I've got a question for you. Is your YouTube channel failing to bring in consistent leads and sales? If you'd say yes, then we are hosting an event that's probably perfect for you. I want to personally invite you to join me and the Think Media team this February in Las Vegas for an exclusive in person YouTube growth mastermind seats are limited, so make sure to secure your ticket today@thinkmedia media mastermind.com and over an intensive day and a half, I'll show you my proven strategies for creating videos that attract the right audience, generate real revenue and drive more sales. You'll craft your next winning video, learn the latest strategies for leveraging AI and attracting high quality leads, all without the complex funnels or expensive ads that can be so frustrating. Since we keep this Mastermind small and intimate spots are extremely limited and and filling up fast. So secure your spot for February 21st.
- [00:59]
Chana Day Silva
Through the 22nd, 2025 and you can.
- [01:02]
Sean Cannell
Apply for this event at thinkmediamastermind.com before the seats are gone. Now, as of recording this, we're looking for about 10 more people, so grab your seat now. All right, let's jump into the podcast.
- [01:15]
Technodad
People always say, like, I want to go full time to get to that. A hundred thousand. I got to 100,000 subscribers in my spare time.
- [01:24]
Chana Day Silva
You took the niche of your channel and you eventually came up with a creative idea that has now generated over $400,000. How did the economics break down? Tell us the whole story.
- [01:35]
Technodad
I was working like 20 an hour at a graveyard shift three nights a week. I actually got to double dip and I've shot a lot of my older videos. It's me in that lobby, it's me in the back office. Nobody's there to 2 in the morning. I'm shooting a video and in some of them I'm making the background music that you're listening to in the office in the back office of the hotel. And I have the camera here and you're hearing the music and it's saying, making this track you're listening to right now.
- [02:01]
Chana Day Silva
I think one of the biggest trends in 2025 is the revival of Rank videos, evergreen content and search based content. And actually getting back to some of those fundamentals. A video he posted seven years ago still brings in views daily. While his unique product generates over $400,000 thousand dollars. And in this episode, he's going to be sharing why he thinks most creators are focusing on the wrong things. He's also going to be talking about surviving seven years on YouTube and why ignoring platform changes made his creator career actually more successful. We're going to unpack the set and forget content strategy and how one basic tutorial turned into consistent revenue. And we're going to touch on some of the mindset stuff, including maybe having an unsupportive partner and the mindset shifts that can change everything. My guest today on the Think Media podcast is Chana Day Silva, known as Techn Techno Dad. He's a prominent voice in the home theater and immersive audio space. His career has evolved over the years from side hustles doing YouTube, from DJing to now, not just launching a very successful product. As a creator, that's really different than what anybody else is doing, and I think could be very valuable for you to be inspired for maybe a product you create. But even towards the end of the episode, we'll be talking about how he's evolved and reinvented himself and even launched new business ventures, all because of the power of YouTube. Channa, welcome to the podcast.
- [03:44]
Technodad
What's up, Sean? What's up? What's up? Hey, I just want, before we start, I want to let everybody know this guy, this guy here, this guy changed my life. So big ups to you, Sean. You know, vra was what, 2017 for me. I started the channel in 2016, and, man, that, that first. I got through the content in October 2017, and then we went to Vidsummit. You had some super, super discounted tickets. I was like, oh, la, I can do that. And then that, that Black Friday strategy for videos. Like, I was able to get 400,000 views that Black Friday that November because of the strategy and the tactics I learned in VRA back then. And that obviously not four videos getting a hundred thousand views. No, it was like four videos got a whole bunch of people looking at all my back catalog stuff. But, you know, only for a year. But that was. That was huge, man. That was huge.
- [04:44]
Chana Day Silva
Well, I appreciate the kind words, and I think this conversation is going to be so rich because there's a lot of people that want to start channels. But you mentioned, I mean, you took our program video Rake IT Academy, like seven years ago, six years ago. You've been on YouTube for a while and you have reinvented yourself and also pivoted and adapted. And so I actually. Let's start off talking about evergreen content, talking about ranked videos. Your most successful video is seven years old, and it's still getting views. Walk us through exactly what made this simple tutorial have so Much staying power.
- [05:20]
Technodad
It's the fact that, you know, I, I knew how to do this. It's very simple. It was actually a viewer requested video. Imagine that I'm looking in the comments. The guy asked the question, hey, can you make a video about how to plug or how to connect speakers to amplifiers? And in my head, I'm. I just shouted at the screen, I'm like, you plug it in. You know, And I'm like, okay, hold on. You know, I've been doing this since I was 12. I was like, you know, in my late 30s at the time. So I was like, okay, hold on. Let me, let me make something like this and let me encompass all the different, you know, things they might run into, right? The different type of connectors. Because there's spring connectors, there's binding posts, there's, there's this, there's that, there's spade connectors, there's all this kind of stuff that you can use. So I just did this very thorough thing. And, you know, this is back when I was shooting on. This is a new. This is an iPhone 15. But I shot 417 YouTube videos with my iPhone 7 Plus. And I didn't buy this fancy camera, this Sony FX3, until I got to a hundred thousand subscribers. So for those of you that are thinking like, oh, I need all this camera. No you don't. No, you don't. And if I go back to some of my videos from back then, oh, man, my skin tone's all wrong, the lighting's wrong, but the audio was sound. So 70 mic lav mic that plugs right into the phone. And your money, like, don't, don't spend any money on that kind of stuff. I think I finally got a DSLR when the channel was making steady money. And it was like at around 28,000 subscribers. So there's that too. So it was a basic video. I used my cell phone and it's just me and I'm cracking jokes, you know, while I'm like doing the, you know, stripping the wires and this, that and the other. And people are just kind of chiming in. Last year, someone was like, hey, I'm just getting new to this. Me and my son are doing this as a hobby. This video was huge. And, you know, I get comments like that, like, you know, once a month, twice a month. So it's, it's pretty cool since it's so old.
- [07:23]
Chana Day Silva
Yeah. And it's. I, I mean, if you're listening to this, I mean, just imagine having a video that you Posted seven years ago. You know, that's still getting views to this day. And it makes me think of a couple things that we teach. We teach tss, teach specific skills. You were just sharing something really simple and practical. And then we also talk about our ASQ framework, but sometimes we joke and we call it the a SSSQ framework. Answer simple specific, stupid questions. Like sometimes you mentioned you're like, you just plug it in and it was just common knowledge to you, but it's not common knowledge to people that are just getting into it or people that just bought something online. Now they're trying to figure it out at home. And so I know that everyone listening to this has different niches, but sometimes some of the most basic and simple videos that are properly, properly optimized, properly set up can get views for literally years to come. Is there other videos in your channel that you've seen? Maybe they didn't last that long, but that has ranked videos been helpful for your YouTube journey?
- [08:30]
Technodad
Ranked videos for sure has. Do you want. Hold on. Do you want to just. Do you want to know how much that video is made in his lifetime?
- [08:36]
Chana Day Silva
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [08:37]
Technodad
Seven, nine hundred dollars.
- [08:39]
Chana Day Silva
Dang.
- [08:41]
Technodad
One video.
- [08:41]
Chana Day Silva
So $7,900, one video that you posted that was super basic and like not super hard for you to shot it with an iPhone 7 plus still ranked videos. So you've, you do a mix of content. I mean that's. I think what's also is sometimes when people follow our stuff, they think like, oh, the only thing you got to do is rank videos. It's like, well, no, you might have a show, you might have a video podcast, you might cover some trending content. But like how much have you focused on? Maybe especially in the early days on like searchable ranked videos and things like that.
- [09:10]
Technodad
I had this trick, man. I would make the longest title possible, right? And this is when tags were like a huge thing. And so what I wanted to do was I wanted to hit multiple 3, 4, 5 keyword tag strings in my title and pull out a whole bunch of things. I was also showing people how to set up their Xbox series or Xbox series S X. No, this is before that. And then the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 4 Pro. But I knew that people that were searching for I. It was the same steps for each tv, the Sony whatever or the LG whatever, same steps. But I know that people aren't people with an Xbox aren't searching the PlayStation and the people PlayStation aren't searching Xbox. So I do two identical videos. But you Know, I'm showing the Xbox One and this, I'm showing the PlayStation one and this. Same steps and the titles and the tags are all, you know, specifically for those consoles. And that was huge. I'm getting 12,000 views on each video. You know, especially in the holidays, right, when people are buying these things and buying new TVs and, or buying the consoles and trying to figure out how to get 4K HDR gaming going on, all that kind of stuff, having those things ranked. Each tv, I do used to do a lot of TV reviews, as you know. Each tv, I would make four videos. The unboxing, how to set up arc, the Dolby Atmos. Also, what internal apps are using Dolby Atmos that you can get from the tv? Is it only Disney plus or is it not Disney plus or, you know, Netflix or Hulu or whatever. Whatever it was, I would just kind of go in depth in that and then show people how to set up the 4K HDR and then I would make the full final review video. So I was kind of maximizing the product a because at the beginning, none of these companies wanted to deal with me. So I'm buying it. Luckily, I had a very successful DJ business where I had all this extra money. I was just like, oh, I can buy this 600 TV, right? And then people are asking, why did you buy the LG over the Samsung? I was like, oh, okay, oh, let me buy the Samsung. And then I compared the two and. And then, you know, ranking the videos. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom was just the way, I'll tell you this. I got the most hate on the Samsung video. And that video ranked number one for nine months.
- [11:36]
Sean Cannell
Nine months.
- [11:36]
Technodad
And it was 2018. It was the Samsung's new QLED TV. And I just. The thumbnail was just the TV and it was this white letters with red background warning like, do not buy the Samsung QLED. So if you Googled or Googled or went on YouTube and typed in Samsung QLED and hit enter, my video was number one for nine months.
- [12:02]
Chana Day Silva
Is that why'd you get hate? Because people love the TV and you were kind of had a contrarian perspective.
- [12:07]
Technodad
Yeah. You know, the Samsung fanboys came out in droves. And like, there's people that, you know, wrote in ALL CAPS 3 or 4 comments in the same minute. I'm like, dang, you were angry. This really triggered you.
- [12:21]
Chana Day Silva
All right, you know, sorry. It's an interesting key to virality that, like, things that are neutral just typically don't get great views. But things that are polarizing, that, you know, just take a stand in one regard and trigger a conversation. So that's fascinating. I think it's also interesting. I love the principle of maximizing what you have. You know, newer creators would look at a channel like yours, you get free headphones and speakers and amps and TVs and like life seems pretty good. But you hustled your way up. You had the DJ business, you put in the work, you shot the videos. And so while of course a newer creator can't compare to somebody who's getting a lot of free gear or has big budgets or companies are sending them free stuff, take whatever you have, split it five ways with different videos on it, grab one other thing, compare those things and growth, hack your way up. That's very similar to my Think Media mindset. Before anyone was sending me cameras, before any of that stuff, I just was very resourceful with whatever I could get my hands on. And you know what's interesting is you're talking about like the longest title possible. I see this trend so clear going into 2025. I actually think there's a pretty big revival of search based and evergreen content. It's never gone away. VRA continues to work, it continues to really help people. But there's been this era of like curiosity. Titles that just don't reveal anything, you know, like this, right?
- [13:45]
Technodad
Yeah.
- [13:45]
Chana Day Silva
This TV is the craziest TV thing you gotta see. And it is not search based because it doesn't have the Samsung or the model number or the QLED or whatever. And the idea is that it might go viral and it might, you know, get that more suggested type of traffic. But I think what's happened is there's been so much as competition rises and maybe as people get fatigued with clickbait a little bit or they don't know what they're clicking on. Like they have like I also kind of want to know what I'm going to watch. Like at some point it's like there's all these just unclear what's going to happen on the other side of it. I think one of the biggest trends in 2025 is the revival of Rank videos, evergreen content and search based content. And actually getting back to some of those fundamentals because it's also the practicality of maybe it doesn't have a huge spike at the beginning, like a more clickbaity title, but these are the, this is the type of content that builds legacy, it builds up a library and it ranks longer term. So throughout the year, for nine months When a search based video keeps getting views, then you're playing an entirely different game than what 99% of creators are ultimately playing.
- [14:54]
Sean Cannell
Every day you want to start your YouTube channel is another day of missed opportunities and untapped potential. Here's the truth. YouTube reaches more 18 to 49 year olds than all the cable networks combined. The opportunity is massive and the Think media team and I want to help you seize it. I'm excited to announce our YouTube 1K challenge, a free 5 day of event that will give you the exact blueprint to start and grow your YouTube channel in 2025. Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, or somebody ready to grow their personal brand, this challenge is your roadmap to success. To register, just go to tube1k challenge.
- [15:32]
Chana Day Silva
Com.
- [15:33]
Sean Cannell
We're going to be doing one training session a day for five days and you're going to learn how to get your first 1,000 subscribers and start earning real income. Insider strategies that make viewers want to click on your videos and keep watching multiple different ways to earn money from your YouTube channel, even if you have a small audience. And how to build an authentic personal brand that truly connects with people. But it gets even better. We are giving away prizes every single day of the challenge. You could win professional microphones, lighting kits and premium content creation software. And during this challenge, you're getting access to the exact training that we offer in our $4,000 coaching program.
- [16:11]
Chana Day Silva
Program.
- [16:11]
Sean Cannell
But you're getting it completely for free. And you can start with just your smartphone. So if you're Ready to turn 2025 into your YouTube breakthrough year, go to tube1kchallenge.com to register. That's tube1kchallenge.com or click the link in the show notes or YouTube description to register for our upcoming challenge.
- [16:34]
Chana Day Silva
I'm curious, what's your philosophy on creating content that lasts versus tracing chasing trends? You kind of talk about like you don't really chase trends, have you, before? Or what's like your balance?
- [16:44]
Technodad
Oh yeah, I've made Black Friday videos. Yeah, you know, I actually just made one the other day and it's, you know, honestly it's, it's really just a way for me to promote my product now. I, I don't really care about the affiliate sales or the adsense, the ad revenue, you know, so I do it, I do it to, to help my viewers try to figure out, hey, you know, what receiver should I buy? What should I stay away from? And then I ended up buying one for my brother because he just got into a new place and it was 550 on sale for $300. I was like, oh, you know what? Let me buy this for him and see what it's like. Because he got some speakers, a pair of speakers from his, from his, from my cousin. So was just like, oh, he just needs one more thing. And then he's got sound. Right. And then I also, I'm making that video separately from the Black Friday one where I, you know, when you go with a lower end AV receiver, the room correction is not good. So using my product to manually calibrate is actually better. You'll get a better experience. So it's kind of a way to, you know, kind of link a few different things together. So I do a little bit, you know, I'll make a holiday. I have a sponsored video working on this thing came yesterday. The video's got to be out Friday. You know, giving the gift of sound of Music. You know, another one's going to be giving the gift of audio. That's the one. I'm. I'm making the video with my brother at his place and you'll see me stripping cables. I even, you know, I do this silly thing where, you know, I got this, you know, in my mouth, you know, and I, you know, doing all this fun stuff. And I think a lot of.
- [18:29]
Chana Day Silva
Break that down. You've got. For listeners too. You've got a teeth grip for your GoPro for perspective shot.
- [18:36]
Technodad
Yeah. For like hands on. Yeah. This one, this is actually. I was shooting it last night. This one's actually a necklace mount so I can talk. And, and it'll be, you know, kind of like right here. I got to put it underneath my shirt so it stays. But like. Yeah, you'll get the idea. Yeah. And then the mouth one is if I don't need to talk. And this is actually not the GoPro. This is the DJI Action Cam. And as much as I love my fancy Sony FX camera, I've been using the DJI Pocket 3.
- [19:11]
Chana Day Silva
Yep.
- [19:12]
Technodad
All the time. I shoot this 10 bit. And since this has the same color science, everything matches up with the color grading. So. And then it's which action cam? It's the DJI Action 5 Pro.
- [19:27]
Chana Day Silva
Okay, so you got the, you got the DJI Action Cam, the DJI Pocket 3, which is like, that's my favorite camera of the year. My favorite camera of the recent era. Anyone using it, people using it for vlogging. But it's so versatile. You don't have to vlog with it. You could do all.
- [19:41]
Technodad
I use two. I Bought two. You bought two? So I have two microphones, and at CES or any conference, I have a dual shot.
- [19:49]
Chana Day Silva
But you also have a two angle then. So, like, for. You could just. Yeah, I was thinking about that. I was going to. For doing like, the podcast in person. I was like, man, that's a podcast studio that fits in like two pockets.
- [20:00]
Technodad
Because literally, do I bring a satchel? And like, the key are these little $20 selfie sticks from Amazon that are kind of like.
- [20:11]
Chana Day Silva
They've got the. Try at the bottom. So you can then stand. Bring those up to like, eye level.
- [20:17]
Technodad
Oh, yeah.
- [20:18]
Chana Day Silva
Two angles. Do you turn on tracking?
- [20:21]
Technodad
No.
- [20:21]
Chana Day Silva
Okay, so you just get the shot framed up?
- [20:24]
Technodad
Yeah, I just. I frame it up and it's great in editing. And in one time, the DJI messed up and we were out of focus, we were blurry. So I used the second cam because it was a great interview. Right. I used the footage from the second cam and took a bunch of B roll of the TVs. TCL had. You know, they're NFL sponsors, so they had cheerleaders. So I had the girls go shake their pom poms at every tv. That was part of the B roll.
- [20:52]
Chana Day Silva
Part of your. Yeah, the whole thing. At ces, which is the Consumer Electronics show in Vegas, we got a little bit geeky there for anyone that stuck with us through that part. But what's kind of interesting here is that even this is very tactical. Does the DJI Action Cam 5 also do the 10 bit?
- [21:08]
Technodad
Yes, 10 bit and shooting D log. And they have a LUT that you can just download. Boom. Pop it in. Colors are amazing. Got it.
- [21:16]
Chana Day Silva
And then so you do 10 bit on both cameras. It's all DJI, so it all matches all three. Then of those cameras are all very small. You can do a perspective shot. The microphone setup is also all integrated on each of those pockets that. It's actually pretty wild that that is an entire studio that almost could fit in like a six liter chest bag. Like. Oh, yes, crossbody. Like a very small backpack.
- [21:40]
Technodad
I. I have a satchel that I take. I used to have a big. I had that Peter McKinnon, the largest bag. Yeah. And now I just. Now it's just a satchel with. I do have like these little. These little lights here.
- [21:52]
Chana Day Silva
This is like fanny pack creator culture. Like you. You don't. It's getting so small and you. And then when you're shooting in 10 bit and D log, which if you're new to what that's saying, that's Just a camera setting that really makes the stuff that your footage look a lot better in editing.
- [22:05]
Technodad
Here, here's the. These are. These are with me as well. It's another selfie stick with this Amaran light. I have two of these, two cameras, two lights, four tripods. Well, four little selfie sticks. This is actually my hair light for right now. That's just off to the side and they're all app controlled. And yeah, it's. It's amazing that all the stuff I used to spend money on back in the day, I don't need to spend. You don't need to spend a lot of money anymore because the technology is so great. You just need to know the settings. You need to know how. How to operate it. And yeah, it's great, man.
- [22:44]
Chana Day Silva
This Think Media podcast video just turned into a Think Media video. But the cool thing is we'll actually, we'll. We'll go ahead and create like a full, simple list if you want to see that setup of gear. Because you just blew my mind understanding all of those pieces uniquely, that whole setup makes sense. Like, that's like, and. And relatively affordable, all things considered. You're shooting 4K, final results, beautiful. But it's all small, streamlined. So the question started with you. You do chase. Well, no, it's great. And I love where this is going. You. You do. Like, you might jump on Black Friday, you might jump on some holiday stuff doing sponsored videos, but you also create ranked videos, which just speaks to the idea of like having trending content and evergreen content as both part of your strategy. Where I want to go next is actually you just mentioned though, that you created a product and I remember you came to our event. You've been there a couple times, but our most recent one in Las Vegas, and actually that was.
- [23:42]
Technodad
That was the first time I went to grow with video.
- [23:44]
Chana Day Silva
That was the first time you were there in person. Other than that, I guess we ran. We've hung out at like, consumer electronic show. Yeah, yeah, we met up in a couple times in person. Okay. So that was your first time ever coming to the event. And I think we. We ran into each other in the hall by the elevator. And you're like, bro, I launched a product and it's done 300 grand and now it's over $400,000. And what's so interesting is, you know, everybody in the creator economy. Like, the main mindset is like, someday you're going to create an online course. Like, that's like the thing, you know, but what's. What's so crazy is I want you to talk about this product and it ties into the fact that you've done all the different things and we'll break down a list later on in the episode, but you've done of course ad revenue and affiliates and sponsorships, but you took the niche of your channel and you eventually came up with a creative idea that has now generated over $400,000. And to your point, if you go, if you do a Black Friday stream, you get to serve people maybe a few affiliate clicks, but it's nowhere near creating your own product. I've learned that your income is directly correlated to the amount of buy buttons you have on your website and that 99% of creators don't even have a website and they have zero buy buttons and that's probably why they're broke and they don't have very much income. But sometimes productizing it might be a multi year journey. It's not something you do instantly. But once you figure that out, tell us the story. What is the product? How did it come about? What was the first version? How did the economics break down? Tell us the whole story.
- [25:10]
Technodad
Okay, so the product is called the Spatial Audio Calibration Toolkit. And essentially like I, I've been into music for a long, long time. I've been a music producer. I have original music, I'm getting like royalty checks like very small for original music in TV shows in Australia. You know, like I've been doing this for a long, long time. So with Dolby Atmos, I've been covering Dolby Atmos since the channel in 2017. If you don't know what Dolby Atmos is, Dolby is surround sound. So you got like speakers around you. But now Dolby Atmos is like atmosphere. So they add speakers above you on the ceiling. So in the movie when the plane flies over you, you hear it. And in the superhero movies it sounds, you know, people flying around sounds really cool, right?
- [25:57]
Chana Day Silva
How many? So is it 7.1? Is it more than that?
- [26:01]
Technodad
So 7.1.4 is the kind of standard, so 7 ear level speakers, the 0.1 is the one subwoofer and then the 04 are four height channels or four in ceiling speakers.
- [26:13]
Chana Day Silva
Wow.
- [26:13]
Technodad
So so now we're at like an 11 speaker system.
- [26:19]
Chana Day Silva
And, and is it, is your, is one of the ways you were able to get your own music is because you create 7.1.4 music which is more, is that more rare? And that this, this, this, this is.
- [26:34]
Technodad
Actually what I'm, I'm moving into now, but before to create this stuff, I just created in the same music production software, Logic Pro that I've been using for years, even before Apple bought, bought it from Emagic. Like I've been producing music for a long, long time. And my buddy was doing remote calibrations and he's like, hey, can we, can you, I, I, I did drop like going backwards a little bit. 2020 came and channel was doing great, growing by 4,000 subscribers a month. My channel talks about upgrading your TV and your sound system. Well, guess what? Everybody was at home. What are they doing? They're doing all that. My old TV videos from years ago, people are still buying the older models because they're super discounted. And then they're watching all the connection videos. And so my ad revenue is going up, but my affiliate commission's going up. So it was great. 2021, I tear my Achilles dancing in Vegas, actually. Anyway, different story, but I was out for a good two months and during the 2020 a lot of smaller creators started building up their home theater based YouTube channels and they were doing stuff I was doing in 2016 and 2017. And so once I started, you know, I couldn't move a tv, I couldn't move this, I couldn't move speakers. So I had to find a new way because I couldn't walk, you know. So I decided to be like, oh, hey, I can, maybe I should start trying to like make Dolby Atmos. If I, if it's just music and it's in the music software. I ended up dropping like a lot of money on like an 11 channel speaker system in the studio. I already had a nine channel upstairs in the living room, that's where I was doing all my reviews. But in the studio, in the downstairs, I dropped about a good like $20,000. Like it was, it was pretty rough.
- [28:32]
Chana Day Silva
Can you do it on headphones? Is there headphones that mix?
- [28:35]
Technodad
You can, you can and it's okay. But to really like balance levels to the point of you need to actually.
- [28:42]
Chana Day Silva
Be in the environment with the actual speakers so you can actually mix for it. That's interesting. I'm also curious, what were you saying in 2021 you tear your Achilles so now you're kind of like sidelined physically a little bit. Meanwhile, small creators are coming up which are essentially competitors. Small creators, they're, they're pumping out videos and you're like, shoot. Like I gotta kind of pivot and adapt because of this challenging season I'm in. Is that what I'm hearing?
- [29:08]
Technodad
Yeah, yeah. And since I have a background in music production, I was just like, okay, this is easier for me, much harder for them, right? Whereas, you know, they're doing the same thing I was doing. You know, when the channel back in the day was making 600amonth, I would take that 600 and I would buy an AV receiver at that price point. And then the next month, one of them month, I'd buy the Sony. The next month I buy the Onkyo. The next month, I buy the this or the that. Just so I know, you know, how the menus work. Whereas Denon Morantz, I knew the menus by heart, right? So I know, like, okay, this is not. Because the other thing about all these videos, you end up being customer support. They're not calling customer support.
- [29:49]
Chana Day Silva
They're.
- [29:49]
Technodad
They're asking me questions, you know, and yes, I'm from that. You know, I was like, yo, this is John. How can I help you? You know, I'm from that part of the world. So I kind of, like, felt like it was part of, like, what I was doing. So that was another thing, you know, like, they were starting to do that. So once they started doing that, I was like, okay, I can't do that anymore. And then I'm at the point where, like, dude, I don't want to buy any of this stuff anymore. Like, I've been doing this for five years now. And that's when, like, Sony, Samsung started sending me TVs, you know, and then I'm like, Send me the 55 and they send me the 65. And they're like, yeah, we sent it to you. We sent you the bigger one. I'm like, no, now I have to have somebody else to move it. Like, like, it's, you know, growing in that. In that sense, you know, I was.
- [30:36]
Chana Day Silva
You know, listeners might be like, you know, you're obviously not complaining. You're humble and grateful about it. But, like, it's like a real issue. Like, I just have too many TVs. Like, my house is just too. Too cluttered with tens. Empty boxes.
- [30:53]
Technodad
Empty boxes, bro. I. The guest room was filled with empty boxes because I had to ship the stuff back. I had.
- [30:58]
Chana Day Silva
Again, listen, it's kind of that, like, it's. This could sound super out of touch, but it almost. It almost becomes a burden there. There's another tech YouTuber I won't even name. Like, his entire house, like, to the ceiling of every room is, like, full of tech. And he, like, is. Wants to be very secretive of even where he lives. Because he doesn't want to get robbed. And he's trying to think about, like, it's. It's like, it'd be hard to give away. You could give it away, but, like, it's hard. Like, you gotta ship it. And then, like, you're also still trying to, like, keep the. And so we are not complaining, but that is one of the burdens that is also a benefit that can come with being successful. I want you to continue your story, but I do wanna highlight, I think, actually a really huge lesson. You pivoted because all the small creators started, like, doing all the tutorials. You're like, why even do that? They're doing it as well. And you're reinventing yourself plus your circumstances. But you said a huge nugget when Your channel was 600 bucks a month. You reinvested all $600 a month back into your channel, and that's because you kept DJing. Right?
- [31:56]
Technodad
I. Well, I actually. I actually had four jobs, man. I was hosting karaoke every Tuesday. I had a. A graveyard shift at a. At a hotel three nights a week. Great.
- [32:07]
Chana Day Silva
In karaoke. How much money did you get paid for karaoke?
- [32:12]
Technodad
150 a night.
- [32:14]
Chana Day Silva
Dang, bros. Okay, so you're hosting karaoke. What was the second job?
- [32:18]
Technodad
I was working, like, 20 an hour at a graveyard shift three nights a week. Where. Where I actually got to double dip. And I've shot a whole. My. A lot of my older videos. It's me in that lobby. It's me in the back office of, like, security. No, no, it's just front desk.
- [32:34]
Chana Day Silva
Front desk.
- [32:35]
Technodad
But yeah, yeah, so, like, nobody's there. Two in the morning, I'm shooting a video. Like, I'm. I'm writing a script. I'm editing. Or I shot the video and I'm editing it all there. You know, I. I walk the property twice a night. I do their paperwork, and then I have, like, six and a half hours to just not sleep. They don't want you to sleep. Okay. You know, and then. And the. And boss man was like, yeah, yeah, totally do. Do whatever you want to do, dude.
- [32:59]
Chana Day Silva
That's a hack. I mean, that's an interesting niche job, but people are trying to wonder, like, you're bringing in nuggets in the practicals. Okay, so you got graveyard shit. Front desk doubled.
- [33:09]
Technodad
I'm DJing at the ski resort in winter. On the weekends, I'm DJing weddings at. Also at the ski resort in the summer. And then I, like, people wanna. People always say, like, I want to go Full time to get to that hundred thousand. I got to 100,000 subscribers in my spare time. That's also something that like, don't rush it, don't run like it'll happen. It's like, it's not a matter of if it'll happen, it's a matter of when.
- [33:35]
Sean Cannell
This episode is brought to you by Streamyard. Streamyard is our go to platform here at Think Media for live streaming to Facebook and YouTube and for recording our video podcast. It has an incredibly easy to use interface for built in branding, transitions, text, lower thirds and seamlessly bringing on guests. And they just added an awesome new feature called Local Recording.
- [34:01]
Chana Day Silva
This allows you to take the quality.
- [34:03]
Sean Cannell
To another level by separating out your audio and video from your guests, giving you more control over your content for later use. This feature is perfect for video and podcast creators. And so to get a special deal on streamyard right now and to see all the features that are included, just go to stream with think.
- [34:24]
Chana Day Silva
Com.
- [34:25]
Sean Cannell
That is stream with think dot com.
- [34:28]
Technodad
Evan Carmichael. I met him at a vid summit. You know, he sat next to me and he's like, you know, you know, he's asking me where my channel is. I'm like, oh, like 30,000 subscribers. He's like, you know how to, how to get to 100,000. Like, how? He's like, answer every comment. So I did. I had my graveyard shift. Three hours of answering comments, right? Sometimes I upload, you know, you know, this, I'll upload a video next day. I got like a hundred comments asking questions. I got 30 people on my Facebook page asking questions. I got 20 people in my email asking questions. Twitter, like, it's just, you're bombarded by all this. Luckily now, like, you know, you can kind of, you know, hack it a little bit with like AI being like, you know, Chad, yo, I got all these questions. Give me some quick answers and it'll go through it. But back then there's not, you know, it's just plugging and chugging.
- [35:18]
Chana Day Silva
What was the fourth job? I love that tip about answering every comment but karaoke, graveyard shift, DJing.
- [35:28]
Technodad
Oh, yeah, I was teaching music. I was teaching guitar and piano.
- [35:31]
Chana Day Silva
Geez. I mean, coffee, like you don't need much sleep. Like, what? How'd you do it?
- [35:38]
Technodad
I, I, you know, I, I am a machine, bro. So, like, I wanted to. And this is like just when I started with you guys because you and Benji did an audit for all the new incoming VRA students on the channel, and you're like this vlog stuff you're doing. Don't do this anymore. Stick to the home theater stuff. So I tried to be like a Casey Neistat. I'm like, let's see how far I could go. And my goal was seven days, one week, right. I ended up 49 days in a row. Right. And I not only did the seven day vlog, I did. I stayed up with three of my home theater slash tech videos per week. So 10 edited videos per week for eight weeks straight in 2017 while working four jobs. Yeah, well, that's that. You know what Gary Vaynerchuk says, you document, you don't create. So the first night I was DJing Monday night at the bowling alley. So that's the vlog. I'm doing this. Then Tuesday night, and then it's like I started doing timestamps of like, when this is happening, people are like, dude, when do you sleep? Because it'd be like, how much sleep.
- [36:49]
Chana Day Silva
Do you typically get? Like, how much do you need Back.
- [36:52]
Technodad
Back then it was like five hours if I'm lucky. Okay, Right. And it's. It got to be quite the struggle. But it got me so good those so 10 edited videos. Now, I'm not talking about shorts, I'm not talking about live streams that you cut up on top 10 edited videos. And in some of them, I'm making the background music that you're listening to in the office, in the back office at the hotel. And I have the camera here and you're hearing the music and it's saying, making this track you're listening to right now. So it was just a whole bunch of like, I was just, I was creative and I was just letting it all out. Monday night I'm at the bowling alley. Tuesday night I got music, music, music lessons, music lessons. Then I'm doing karaoke. Wednesday, it's music lessons, music lessons, graveyard shift. Then music lessons, graveyard shift, then graveyard shift, DJ in the morning, graveyard shift at night, dj, like during the day. Like, it was, that was the first week and it was just. I was like, holy crap.
- [37:49]
Chana Day Silva
What was your family situation, though, responsibility wise?
- [37:53]
Technodad
It was, you know, my ex wife and my stepson. And he was, he's 20. He's 21 now. So eight years ago he was what, what is that, 13, 14.
- [38:07]
Chana Day Silva
So he wasn't a baby? You weren't, you know, like. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Different seasons of life. I think that's kind of interesting. You know, I. What I love about this though, is a couple things. One, it's like to each his own. You know, people need different amounts of sleep. I actually, I'm. I need a little bit more. Like, I'm a. I'm a big, like, shoot for seven or eight guy, or else I get pretty grumpy. There's certainly been seasons of crazy sacrifice. There's also been this pendulum swing, though. And I think there was this era where hustle culture cut, quote unquote, kind of spearheaded by Gary Vee, dipped into like all kinds of. There was huge articles and people were like, oh, it's so toxic and all that stuff. Which maybe there's an argument to be made for that. But I think there was something that's lost and that's. There's a lot of stuff lost on the extremes. There's actually in the NIV translation a Bible verse that says, the man who fears God avoids all extremes. And so it's like, we get into these things where it's like, oh, but it's mental health. You gotta rest, like, for sure. And so it's like in hustle culture is bad, bad. But it's like, yo, if you don't work and if you don't put in the. The hustle, if you don't actually put in some, you know, the grind. Thomas Edison said opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls and it looks like work. And a lot of times the people who are getting results in YouTube and online business in any area are maybe working 4x8x10x harder than you. And yet you're wondering why you're stuck. But I think it's like, if I look at your story, I want every listener to at least feel this. Maybe it's not 10 edited videos scored while working four jobs like you did, but I want to encourage every single listener. You can, you can put in a little bit more, you can grind harder, you could get a little bit more focus, you could get a little bit more disciplined, a little bit more dialed, and you can do so while also working your job and hanging out with your wife or being in whatever situation that you like. You can, you can just do it like, and, and I like kind of what you brought up. Like, you clearly sacrifice other things. I'm imagining there wasn't really a lot of leisure. You certainly were sacrificing sleep. I mean, you did it for a season. Yeah, but look at you now too.
- [40:24]
Technodad
Like, at the same time, I'm DJing, dude, like, when I'm DJing, it's. It's not work. You know, a four hour exercise too fine.
- [40:32]
Chana Day Silva
You're moving.
- [40:33]
Technodad
I'm moving. Yeah, yeah. People are buying me shots. Like it's, it's a party. Like, like what leisure, what party am I gonna go to where now I'm getting paid and I'm just. You kind of designed your whole lifestyle.
- [40:45]
Chana Day Silva
You sort of were like doing a lot of different stuff. Like you like to dj, you love music, teach a guitar and piano. The graveyard shift allowed you to get paid while editing videos, which is a crazy hack in this equation. And then karaoke. That's gotta. Dude, you just designed your whole lifestyle around like music and the stuff you loved.
- [41:03]
Technodad
Yeah, essentially. That's, that's. I, I found a way to monetize a lot of my hobbies, right? The, the DJing, the guitar, and then, and then this whole home theater thing is now helping me do more with music now. Now in the situation I'm in now, which I'm sure we'll get to in a little bit, but.
- [41:21]
Chana Day Silva
Okay, well we just side quested. This has been a fun conversation. So that was 2021. You tore your Achilles and you, you know, set up your own 11 Adobe.
- [41:33]
Technodad
Atmos mixing studio in my room and where I was shooting my YouTube videos. Since I still had that room, I still had small 10 by 14 space small. And I started understanding how it was working and I started realizing that like things aren't, aren't happening exactly as Dolby's, you know, marketing department is trying to get all the consumers to believe. And so my friend needed some files and I was like, oh yeah, I can do that in my sleep. So I gave him, I made these files and sent it to him and he used it to do these remote calibrations where they dial in all your speakers and all this, that and the other. And he's like, hey, you know, if we put something together, people would buy this. And So I made 160 Dolby Atmos tracks for this product. About a 200 tracks all together just to like figure out how it all worked. And then my buddy came up 40.
- [42:29]
Chana Day Silva
So you did like two and then the 160 best ended up on the actual.
- [42:34]
Technodad
So here's, here's how we did it because we didn't want to spend money. So the way we launched it was that we did it as a pre order. So if you buy this, and this by itself is 99. The digital is also 99. The bundle digital and physical is 149. So that we had the digital and physical bundle on a Pre order for 99. When you ordered it, you got the immediate digital download and the disc would ship in. This was in December 2022. The disc would ship in February of 23.
- [43:06]
Chana Day Silva
You're kind of getting easy to throw it in your Blu Ray player.
- [43:11]
Technodad
Right. You have just more compatibility. Because there were compatibility issues with the files coming in. You had to have the right player. There's all this kind of like it was a little bit of a headache for those that are like super in the niche. They already had all that equipment anyway. Right. It was just. So we just, you know, for mass appeal. We also didn't make it 4k. We made it 1080p just so that more people, you know, that don't have.
- [43:34]
Chana Day Silva
DVD or a Blu Ray.
- [43:36]
Technodad
It's a Blu Ray. So blu ray is 1080p. DVD is 480p. If you didn't know.
- [43:42]
Chana Day Silva
Got it. So. Oh, okay. So. So blu ray is 1080p. And then it also can contain the data to be able to do this higher level Dolby Atmos audio.
- [43:50]
Technodad
Correct, Correct.
- [43:51]
Chana Day Silva
Blu Ray can also be 4K.
- [43:54]
Technodad
It can. Yes.
- [43:55]
Chana Day Silva
Yes.
- [43:55]
Technodad
Yeah, we just, we, we made it. We also didn't know how much space we would have for all these files because video takes up more space.
- [44:03]
Chana Day Silva
Yeah.
- [44:03]
Technodad
So it was also one of those things. So we ended up doing a. We launched it at least.
- [44:08]
Chana Day Silva
Did you get a business partner?
- [44:09]
Technodad
Yeah, my friend Joe and tell. He's also on here. He's the one that created the guide and like, kind of like the whole like, okay, we should have these sections and those sections. And then he also thought of, instead of doing a Facebook group, doing a Discord community to help people. That. That was kind of how we did support. Right. Was through the Discord. And through the Discord, we only had 120 files on at launch. Through the Discord and through our regular guys, we found out that we should add certain sections. We found out that one section was actually kind of not right and we needed to tweak something. So what's on the disk is actually version three. So we were able to do a release mid. We did the launch mid December. In January I did another update mid December 2022.
- [45:02]
Chana Day Silva
Okay.
- [45:03]
Technodad
Then in January 23rd, middle of January 23rd, I. I redid a bunch of files, add a new section that apparently one of the favorite sections of all our customers is this one that was suggested to us from one of our patrons. And so. And it caused me to, you know, straight up four days of work. Luckily I had the graveyard shift to do it. Making 16 of these files took about 8 to 10 hours.
- [45:31]
Chana Day Silva
And could you make the files at the graveyard shift? You weren't in your studio.
- [45:35]
Technodad
No, no, no, no. That was the beauty of it. Once I figured it all out, I could do it visually. I didn't have to listen to it at all.
- [45:42]
Chana Day Silva
Oh, my goodness.
- [45:43]
Technodad
Well, I mean, I'm a clever dude, so you should have seen some of my Instagram stories. I would have three computers at the graveyard shift. The one at the front desk, my Mac laptop making all the Atmos, and then my PC with another mouse and keyboard, and I'd have, like, three mice, three keyboards on the desk for all this stuff. Yeah, yeah.
- [46:07]
Chana Day Silva
Like, because you just love to. I mean, I needed.
- [46:12]
Technodad
I honestly, like, at the end of the day, I just. I. I didn't want to be at home.
- [46:19]
Chana Day Silva
Got it.
- [46:20]
Technodad
Is what I realized.
- [46:21]
Chana Day Silva
Oh, I see. Okay, so. And. But multiple flows. You got all kinds of flows of income. You're still doing it to the second, though.
- [46:32]
Technodad
No.
- [46:33]
Chana Day Silva
Oh, no. Okay, got it.
- [46:34]
Technodad
No, no, no.
- [46:35]
Chana Day Silva
Did you go through a recent area where you're like, you know what? I don't have to DJ anymore. I don't have to karaoke anymore. Or are you still doing some stuff?
- [46:42]
Technodad
Karaoke stopped teaching music. Stopped at Covid. Karaoke stopped at Covid. DJing stopped a Covid, and DJing came back. And then I didn't start karaoke over again. My friend who was helping me host, he called me. He's like, hey, do you mind if I do it? I'm like, no, dude, go for it. And he now does it, like, multiple nights, and he's all huge over there. And it's great. Last year in October, I decided to take the leap and, you know, move back to LA and file for divorce. And so I don't do a whole lot of that, actually, at all. Now it's all promoting the product, selling the product, working on a new product, making more YouTube videos. Started another business to. You know, I've been doing this thing where I would mix Dolby Atmos music for my viewers and give them a file to download, and they stick it in their home theater, and they can hear all the sounds. And I give them a visual representation so they can see what's actually happening and where the sounds are in their room, there's this little box, and they're like this little head, right? And you see these little tennis balls, like, moving around and stuff like that.
- [47:54]
Chana Day Silva
So is there a specific software that allows you to mix it that way and, like. Or create the visual oh, oh, yeah.
- [48:00]
Technodad
It's called a Dolby Atmos renderer. So it's like a proprietary Dolby, but.
- [48:05]
Chana Day Silva
You can export the file and then give it to. Yeah, okay. So let me lock in on this timeline, though. So you launch it mid December. That's the 1.0 version of it. There's some huge nuggets. You started a community, super smart. If you're going to create a product, you have customer support, but you kind of hacked it by doing a discord, which creates a community and support and a whole kind of little mini movement around people that are passionate. You also have a Patreon. And it's a huge key, I think, that people get overwhelmed thinking about launching a product, even if it is a digital course. I think about Video Ranking Academy. Like, we don't really, really number it anymore, but we've reshot it multiple times. But it was like 1.0 and then 2.0 and then it was other like. And getting your product to market, it's a very like Silicon Valley mindset called Shipit. S H I P I T. Like ship it, get it in the mail. Because once it gets in people's hands or get it digitally sent out once people start using it, the user feedback loop helps you improve the product. Once it's in the hands of the community and you're listening and you're engaging and so just realizing that everyone's trying to make it perfect on their first try, as opposed to realizing there's going to be version 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and just get your product out there good enough. Of course, like minimum viable product MVP would be the goal to get a product into people's hands. And so it's really inspiring to hear about how that happened. But from 2022 at the launch, like, how did sales roll in? Like, how much money did you make? Maybe in that first year?
- [49:33]
Technodad
Second year, first two weeks was like 20K. And then once we did our first like $30,000 a month, I was like, whoa. First year was 227,000 and then that was 2023, and then now we just crossed 4,000 units sold. I think like two weeks ago, going.
- [49:59]
Chana Day Silva
Going pretty well over 400K now. So going into 2025, basically it was 2023 all the way through the year, 2024 all the way for the year. So essentially in 24 months you have generated like $400,000. And your other. I mean, what's so. So then how does, like you're still doing ad revenue, like, oh, that's garbage.
- [50:22]
Technodad
Garbage. 700 bucks.
- [50:24]
Chana Day Silva
Okay, but so, like, but now. And that's where sometimes I don't think people understand. They're like, I heard like Roberto Blake said ad revenue could be like your tip jar. Ad revenue could be like, it's, you know, it's, it's nice.
- [50:36]
Technodad
Look, I'm not, I'm not dissing on ad revenue. I'm just, you know, I say garbage. It's just like now to get that thing to move up is. It takes so much, you know, and.
- [50:48]
Chana Day Silva
Is that a month, though? I mean, 700 bucks a month?
- [50:50]
Technodad
700 bucks a month.
- [50:51]
Chana Day Silva
Yeah, 700 bucks a month.
- [50:52]
Technodad
Affiliates, affiliates, like 200.
- [50:56]
Chana Day Silva
Okay.
- [50:57]
Sean Cannell
And then.
- [50:58]
Chana Day Silva
And then sponsorships. Ah.
- [51:03]
Technodad
This is where, this is where things, you know, are a little bit better. I go out and I go to the trade shows and I don't know what it is about me. I just follow my nose and I run into somebody that knows me from the video. Dude was. Dude hits me up. Dude from India. Da, da, da. We love your content. We love your Dolby Atmos mixes. We played for all my, you know, we played for all our customers in India. They love it. I'm like, oh, here, Boom. And I had like five USB sticks with my brand newest one. And so anybody who meets me at a trade show gets like, my newest, newest Dolby Atmos mix. And then this other guy's like, so if, if that guy hadn't stopped me, I wouldn't have met this other guy who I ended up. They flew me out to their place in Texas. They paid me very well to just hang out with them, listen to their, listen to their equipment, listen to their speakers. They sent me three items that are like, you know, valued at like 26K. And I gave them a shopping list of videos. That video you're talking about, this company makes amplifiers. They want to redo that video that's got over a million views, but using their amplifier and, you know, having that in the video. And so I was like, okay, yeah, that'll be $10,000 for me to redo that. They're like, okay, right? And so it's, it's almost like, like if you want to get those big brand deals, like, what, what did, you know, they sell. They say it all the time. I've heard it. A bunch of entrepreneurs say, first things first, sell to the rich. They have, they have the money, they have the means.
- [52:50]
Chana Day Silva
But explains like, what I mean. So, like, here's what the influence first, though. I mean, because now, like, you're Saying you can go to a great show, they recognize you from a video, maybe maybe speak to like, when was your first sponsorship?
- [53:01]
Technodad
First sponsorship? I don't even remember. Like couple hundred dollars, like 250, like what year? Like 2019.
- [53:15]
Chana Day Silva
So maybe like two years after your channel started, you get like 250 bucks and maybe some free products in that era as well.
- [53:23]
Technodad
Yeah, yeah, we're not talking anything expensive. Nothing over like 500 bucks, you know.
- [53:28]
Chana Day Silva
Okay, so you get early days, you're, you're hacking, but now you're talking about, okay, now you're a techno dad, right? And you've grown your channel and you've got more influence now. 132,000 subscribers.
- [53:42]
Sean Cannell
Plus you've got.
- [53:43]
Chana Day Silva
This also speaks to like just staying power. I mean, same thing at Think Media. Obviously Think Media has pulled some decent numbers. There's something also just about not quitting. There's something about being around. There's something about. There's also something about being around. I know people pivot, but when you stay in the same niche, your brand goes so deep. YouTube, tech and cameras to where you're recognized at trade shows. Let's like make it a goal to be recognized at trade shows. And you don't have to be big for that to happen. Sometimes it's just I think about even the CES culture I was there for so long, now we're more in Seattle with family and stuff. And I think probably like coming up, Craig and Nate and other people will be there. But the bottom line is like you just start something about building your network, something about getting your face out there, something about. And the compound effect. People are trying to go there like one time and they're like, why aren't deals coming my way? It's like you're consistent year after year you've been doing this. We're talking a seven year journey consistent with good content, consistent with being techno dad and being atmos and audio, just going deeper and deeper and deeper. And I think you sometimes have to kind of like reinvigorate your passion for it. I would love to hear about that because I just think about, there's times where I'm like, really? I mean, this is my self talk like, okay, I've been to the, you know, the thing before. Is there really going to be that much new cool stuff? But I have to remind myself that even though I might be really familiar with my niche, it's new to other people. And I have to find ways to like reinspire myself to like get just as like Opening up a camera on Christmas Day. Geeked out about. About cameras, about gear and.
- [55:18]
Technodad
Yeah, so. So there's a big home theater show called Cedia. It happens in September. Denver, Colorado. Right. I've been there plenty of times, and I. I had, like, some of the best coverage and. And the best interviews. I've never interviewed anybody in my life. My first interviews were a CD of 2018, you know, and even the guys from. And I'm talking to engineers, right? These guys, you really have to, like, control the conversation. Otherwise, it's crickets, man. People falling asleep. It's boring, right? They're engineers, right? And they're talking about all this. Like, oh, my gosh. And sometimes I watch these videos. Like, if they're like trade show video. Five to six minutes in, out, fast, clean, done, right? When does it release? What's the price? And, you know, is this a big. Is this a better upgrade from the previous year or the previous model? Like, those are the main questions. I would. I would. I would always have that plan and just kind of steer the conversation into that direction, especially when we're trying to wrap things up. But I've been doing that so long, all these other guys are doing it now, you know, and I had that injury I couldn't do. I couldn't go in 2020 or 2021. I went last year or no, sorry, this year. This was my first year back. And that's when I was just like, wait a second. I don't want to run around and shoot. And I used to. I remember running into you years ago.
- [56:40]
Chana Day Silva
We shot a video.
- [56:41]
Technodad
I was like, yeah, no, this was. I think after that, maybe when I told you, no, we're not just running around covering everything. We're going to the booth with our whole. My wagon of studio gear, and we are charging companies to shoot a booth tour at the show, but make it like the studio, right? So now we're charging, like, 1500, 2500 per booth. And I'm there for, like, two, three hours. I bring everything. I bring my Edelkrone sliders. I bring my fancy camera, my.
- [57:19]
Chana Day Silva
I remember you.
- [57:19]
Technodad
Tripod.
- [57:20]
Chana Day Silva
You know, the business model. Because. Okay, because we. We shot a video together one year, either CES or nab, but I ran into. You were like, bro, no, I'm not just, like, doing interviews now. And I think that's the evolution of wisdom. You also, like, even reinventing yourself, finding a way to make even a trade show fresh when you go in. Am I just gonna do the same thing I did last year? But like, bringing some freshness to it.
- [57:41]
Technodad
Right, right, right.
- [57:42]
Chana Day Silva
How about you charge for a booth tour?
- [57:45]
Technodad
It started at 1200, got up to like 2500. And they. It would be like same day edit, right?
- [57:53]
Chana Day Silva
Who edit? And then you just do it that night or.
- [57:55]
Technodad
Yeah, yeah. And then that's, that's. That's the other thing. I never had fun at these things. It was all just work, work, work. Oh, here's a big tip, pro tip. Wi fi at hotels suck. You're trying to upload a 4K video. You're trying to be like me and upload six 4K videos. No, no, no, no. Put that sucker on a hard drive. Look up the local, nearest Internet cafe. Go there like a. The, Like a lan. They have like, the land games, you know, like whatever, you know, go there. They've got like a one, you know, T1 upload. Boom, 12 minutes, you got all your content.
- [58:31]
Chana Day Silva
Upload everything all at once. That's a genius hack. Whenever I go to like, Vid Summit VidCon, you have no prayer of, like, uploading anything on WI fi anywhere. Your LTE is weird. If you try to use hot spots and all kinds of 5G even. That's the hack. I mean, this. There could be a whole other. This is such, like, niche advice. And I think any creator listening to it that made it this deep. And so far, I think it applied this because you might be like, okay, these guys are talking about, like, maybe shows that aren't relevant to me, or I don't do tech or audio or whatever, but it's like, there's trade shows in, like, home and garden and sourdough and farming and. And there's flat earth conferences. I don't know why I went. Like, even everything, like, go create content, shoot some interviews, get creative, cover the booths, biz, dev sponsorships, brand deals, hustle, get out there, go to the Internet cafe to upload the footage, right?
- [59:26]
Technodad
And then. And the best part is they open at 10pm I'm. I'm like, oh, great. Because I'll be done at like midnight, you know, editing, and then just go there, upload, then try to get some rest for the next day. I've. I've stopped doing that because I want to have fun. And I find out it's more about the connections and the networking at these events. And in this last one, I had this, like, situation where a lot of people started asking me. A lot of these wealthy people are asking me, like, hey, this is my space. What kind of speakers? What kind of sound systems? And these are like nice looking places. And I was just like, oh, wait a second, I know. And, and at this home theater show, they're, these are like, Sean, we're talking three $400,000 home theaters. We're talking $800,000 home theater. We're talking about. Yeah, a pair of speakers that are 150k, right? Like, this is not, this is not the cheap stuff and they look like art. And so now I got, that's when I started this consulting company where people can come to me and you know, I have a consulting fee and they'd be like, look, this is my space. What's out there that will fit this space look cool and not a bunch of black boxes all over the place, right? Like they want something that they're. I, I, I coined this phrase on my channel. Everybody started using it waf, wf. The wife Acceptance factor. Right, right. What, what can you put in your home that they're not going to be like, no, no, no, no, this can't. Like if it's in a living room or in, you know, whatever fancy dining room, like, there's so much like, there's speakers made out of glass, bro. There's like, like, oh, yeah, you know, it's cheap. They're like, it's cheap. I'm like talking to the dealer. Yeah, it's cheap. This is the cheap pair. It's 15K. This, this, this, the flagship is 75,000, you know.
- [61:11]
Chana Day Silva
And you know what's so funny is like we were remodeling a house and my wife was doing it more like antique and vintage and like there's the, the JBL series. That's, that's the Sam's, the Samsung Art piece TV or whatever, right? Oh, the frame.
- [61:29]
Technodad
Yeah, the frame, frame.
- [61:30]
Chana Day Silva
Because like more than anything in the main, in the living room, she wanted like more of the vibes and the look, even though it's like not the greatest TV if you want to watch movies or whatever. Bottom line was I started looking for like bookshelf speakers and found like white to match, like kind of like the antique shabby chic and like some Polk signature with kind of gold, you know, accents on it or whatever. And so I hadn't heard the term before, but that was my mindset. It was, what was the wife, except acceptance factor was my filter for what I could come up with and find. And it's interesting because it speaks to just the evolution of this career. I mean, if we are thinking about, you know, how you have really turned your knowledge and Your experience into a six figure and multiple six figure business. You've launched multiple different products, but you've also become just deeper expertise. I think the path to consulting is something anyone could. Should consider once you have real legacy under your belt. And it also ties into that big idea of selling expensive things to rich people. Do you also do any kind of affiliate? Like do you get commission depending on what you sell or do you keep your fleet, your fee flat?
- [62:40]
Technodad
No, no, no. So like it would be a flat fee to, to charge the client, but then I would work, I work with whoever's supplying the gear to get, not to get a commission, not an affiliate commission because that's Amazon's like 2% garbage.
- [62:58]
Chana Day Silva
For a TV or for higher end. You're not an affiliate. You're, you're, you're like a.
- [63:04]
Technodad
It's almost like I'm not a dealer. It's, it's. I'm not a d. I'm not any of those things and I don't want to be any of those things.
- [63:10]
Chana Day Silva
I mean technically, but, but the markup that a middleman would have is that kind of your markup.
- [63:16]
Technodad
I would get it from the, you know, the, the dealer getting them the, you know, so I, so I charge the dealer and I charge the client.
- [63:25]
Chana Day Silva
Got it right? Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cost of the product. But the fact that you're there is the same as a distributor would be though. Distributors got to make money in the middle. Yeah.
- [63:35]
Technodad
It's almost like I found them the. I found some clients that want to spend $70,000 and then they, they'll give me like whatever percentage of that. Yep, that's the new, that's the new business I started this year, which also under, under the same umbrella is my mixing atmos. Because now, you know, I'm getting to this thing where my atmos mixes. All my viewers are like you. This is better than any of the stuff I'm hearing on Apple music, you know, which is a huge compliment. And this just goes back to the fact that I've been doing music since I was little. You know, I've been producing music since I was two, you know, 2005, you know, so like all this stuff is just me being me. You know, the home theater thing I was doing when I was 12. Like, it's, you know, when you talk about like staying power, it's just, I'm just, this isn't a job. Like, I don't, I don't feel like, you know, this. All these things are just things I'm Doing, because this is all just part of me. So I think I'm unique in that aspect. Like, I'm not trying to find a niche. The niche was already there. I'm the niche.
- [64:37]
Chana Day Silva
You are. You are the niche. Yeah, I. I've heard some people teach that before, and, I mean, if you could be blessed. Sometimes it's not as clean or as clear for others. Plus, there is an evolution. But, like, man, you just said, I found a way to monetize my hobbies. And you continue to do that as well as.
- [64:51]
Sean Cannell
As you evolve.
- [64:52]
Chana Day Silva
As we land the plane, I just want to touch on a couple things. Let me get here. If I got this right, you do have, like, five income streams and maybe a couple more, but right now, you've got ad revenue, you've got affiliate marketing, you've got product sales, which would be your spatial audio calibration toolkit. You're doing sponsorships, you're doing coaching and consulting. Really, more consulting and kind of mixing under that through Atmos AV consulting, which is your business. Did I get that right? Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, like, you've broke down so many tactical tips in regards to your journey. If you had to start all over right now with what you know, and you were speaking like, a friend came to you and was like, hey, I'm trying to get into the YouTube game. But I also have seen that it's changed. I don't have seven years, you know, Runway like you do. How would you maybe approach it, considering your perspective from everything you've been through and everything you've learned? If you were giving some advice to a friend that's trying to make their way and cut through the noise, the sea of sameness, the competition.
- [65:57]
Technodad
I think anyone in their 30s or 40s is probably. This is probably a good time for you to do something, because you have experience, you have knowledge. Like, you know, I hate the word influencer, although I fall underneath that category, because when I hear the word influencer, I imagine some girl, like, dancing around on Tik Tok or something, you know, or like, some, you know, wannabe models that are now models because they have a big following on Instagram, Right? Like, if you actually have a way to provide value to a large number of people, you know, start building your audience. I met this guy on my birthday at the gym, and I just ended up sitting in his car talking to him for, like, two hours. He said he has a book on mental health. He's a doctor. Dr. Doug. What up, Dr. Doug? He's like, yeah, I'm gonna have to start running ads to this. I'm like, no, no, no, no. Do you need money from the book right now? He's like, no. I was like, okay, take the next year. Build up an audience and give all the little things in the book at different points. Do some content about yourself. Like he was doing this thing where he's riding a bike 10 miles every day for 30 days. Like, do that, do that. You know, sprinkle that in with your content. And like, once you've amassed a bunch of people, you know, then you say, hey, I have this book. Otherwise you're just, you're just, you know, and then people will buy the book right then and there. Like, build the audience first. And then, you know, he already has the book, but he's going to spend a whole bunch of money on ads. Nobody's going to know. Oh, book release, okay. It's like, it's like if you don't have an audience to sell it to, then you're not going to make any sales and you're going to be in this thing where you're just pumping in your own cash just to pay for ads. And nobody's going to know about this book. Right? Like when you and Benji made YouTube secrets, right? If you would have made that and not had an audience, it wouldn't have been the best selling YouTube book on Amazon. Right?
- [67:57]
Chana Day Silva
That was the preemptive move. We literally like thought exactly what you just said before the book comes out. We thought it was only gonna be one year. It ended up actually being four years. But it's the number one best selling YouTube strategy book in the world right now. And so that's really great advice. And I agree with you too. In your 30s and your 40s, 50s, shoot, 60 plus. The world, I think we all know the world is overwhelmed with information, but is starving for wisdom. And so the advantage you have if you're in your legacy years, midlife legacy years. You said it. It's experience and knowledge and if you can learn these skills, be patient, provide real value, build up an audience. That's a great advice. I do want to deliver on our promise and, and have you share. I do. I've got to take my kids to get some haircuts here in like a second. I only have a few minutes, but I do.
- [68:51]
Technodad
I gotta eat lunch, man. I just came straight from the gym straight to here.
- [68:55]
Chana Day Silva
You know what it is? We're out here on the podcast Life just hustling midday. But you know, you mentioned dealing with like negative support system early on, how did you maintain focus, building your business despite that resistance? And, you know, you realize you're the only person that can change your situation. And like, what was that? Depending on what people are going through, Some of the mental stuff that like.
- [69:17]
Technodad
You went through, you know, I finally just. It was a matter of I could see all these things that are happening and there's just, you know, me going in this direction. But it was always like, you know, somebody bringing you down or the situation where it's just like, this isn't an ideal. Just my location wasn't ideal. The situation wasn't healthy anymore. You know, it got to a toxic point and I don't know, you know, I made sure that, you know, the kid was over 18 because I. It was my duty to, like, raise this other person's child and to be a functioning member of society. So I stuck it out till that happened. And then, then now it's just like, well, I don't think I want to be with this person anymore. I don't think they're adding any kind of value and just kind of draining me to the point where, like, there's a picture that I took when I went to Sri Lanka. I went to go see my dad and, you know, went with my mom and went to a wedding and all this kind of stuff, like earlier this year. And oddly enough, the little photo thing did a 2019 and then a Now, oh, my goodness. If I show you that picture, you know, like, like, I just. I looked drained. I look like a totally different person. It was just like the life was like, sucked out of me for so many years that, like, something had to change. And, like. And just seeing that picture was pure validation that I, I made the right decision. And it was, it was not easy. Like, I. It was very traumatic too. Like, I left with my fancy camera, one laptop, two hard drives, and the clothes on my back.
- [71:09]
Chana Day Silva
That's. I appreciate your vulnerability. Sharing that and everyone's, you know, going through all kinds of different situations, but sometimes toxic relationships, being, you know, in a location, relationships, your support system sometimes making a major shift and a major change is such a key point to getting into the right mindset, not just for YouTube, but for your own health, for your future. And I appreciate you sharing that. Well, if people want to check out what you're doing and check out your channel, give a few shout outs as we land the plane here. Of course, we'll link your stuff up in the show notes. And I just want to acknowledge you for sharing so much. Tactical.
- [71:46]
Technodad
Yeah, oh, dude, my YouTube channel got hacked in June, bro. Crazy stuff, like, all kinds of crazy stuff happened. So, like, you know, that could be another. Huh?
- [71:56]
Chana Day Silva
You got it back.
- [71:58]
Technodad
I got it back in eight hours because. And Google didn't want to help at all. But my friend who's also a YouTuber because we just finished our podcast and it happened like right after. Yeah, he contacted YouTube Creator Support and I have the link. I have the like, hey, this is the like, you know, the oblip link to like actually fill out the form to reset everything, all your stuff back to you. I have, I have saved it. So if anybody wants. Yeah, I'll share that with you, your team, because that's something that you're definitely going to.
- [72:31]
Chana Day Silva
Well, we got hacked. It took us like 11 days. It's kind of stressful. Think Media podcast channel got hacked. I'll link that video up in the show notes. We actually. And not only the story, but we have had some guests on that share some tips, must know information sometimes too, about having like your login info on the USB drive that helps you like only locally be able to get into the channel and things like that because it was a pretty sophisticated hack. But anyway, shout your stuff out if people want to follow you, connect with you.
- [72:58]
Technodad
YouTube.com technodad I also had to restart my Instagram. So if you guys want to follow me up and hook me up, go to Instagram. Doc. I'm at the Real Techno dad because there is some. Somebody else has my account, so. So I'm now everywhere. Yeah, right. So yeah, and Facebook as well. Facebook as well. Got got deleted. My personal Facebook got got. They did something. It got me banned for life, so I had to redo that. So at the Real Techno dad on Facebook, at the Real Techno dad on Instagram and techno dad on YouTube spatialcd.com if you want to check out the product. I know probably none of you may have need for this, but check it out. Check out the website, see what we got going on.
- [73:40]
Chana Day Silva
Well, I just appreciate you. Thank you for adding massive value and Think Media podcast like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. And I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.