Travis (1:40)

Okay?

Eric (1:42)

When Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he submits blank forms with just a picture of himself crouched and ready to attack. He. He's never paid taxes ever. Chuck Norris doesn't need money. His beard is accepted currency in over 30,000 countries.

Travis (1:57)

These aren't it. It sounds like AI wrote these.

Eric (2:00)

No, these are from. It's showing me the sources. These are from like Facebook and these are terrible. So far, Chuck Norris doesn't get pre approved for loans. Banks pre approved themselves in fear.

Travis (2:12)

Okay,

Eric (2:15)

Options are a zero sum game. Except for Chuck Norris. He always wins. All right. Yeah. If you have $5 and Chuck Norris has $5, Chuck Norris has more money than you. I've heard that one before. Okay.

Travis (2:27)

I'm underwhelmed by these.

Eric (2:29)

What a sad legacy.

Travis (2:30)

So far, zero laughs per joke.

Eric (2:33)

All right, well, let's get into this okay.

Travis (2:34)

Okay. All right. What you got?

Eric (2:37)

So I had somebody email me a question.

Travis (2:39)

Okay.

Eric (2:39)

And I thought I would just ask you on the show so I don't have to deal with it.

Travis (2:46)

Thanks for the candor.

Eric (2:47)

No, somebody said we're going to start a podcast. Can I ask, if you start with video from day one, did you release a trailer? Did you edit yourself in the early days? If so, what software? We are pretty overwhelmed. We're using Riverside and have our mics. But the. The person we got advice from said we should stick to just audio. We're hoping to do video. They don't know what to do. Travis. They're starting a show. What do we do?

Travis (3:11)

Turn into Jerry Seinfeld.

Eric (3:12)

See, that was a good impression.

Travis (3:13)

What do we do?

Eric (3:14)

What's the deal with all these microphones? Is there any good Jerry Seinfeld jokes about podcasts? Yeah, there probably are, actually.

Travis (3:20)

Probably.

Eric (3:21)

What's the deal with all these podcasts? What's the deal with these high school pickup lines anyway? No, I gotta.

Travis (3:29)

Wait, so you didn't respond to this?

Eric (3:30)

I didn't respond. It was 10 days ago. So listen, if you were to start a podcast right now, if we're going to be practical, where do you recommend someone get started?

Travis (3:41)

Well, video. Video and podcasts are synonymous now. So you should be releasing something on video if you can. The only thing. The only caveat that I would say to that is if you are not an experienced video editor and you do not have a budget to pay somebody to edit your videos for you, then that does add an additional layer of complexity. And if that is enough to prevent you from getting started, then you should not allow that to prevent you from getting started. And so you should just release, like, capture the video, regardless of what you're doing. But you. Does not mean that you actually have to release the video. You can just do audio only. Like, this show, Travis makes money. We basically only post on audio platforms. We. We record everything on video just in case there's good clips, and we want to share those clips. But. But it is not a requirement. You can start off just with an audio podcast if you really want to, but you should absolutely be capturing the video there. There's been times where, like, we've tried to reference early interviews that I've had on the show, and back in the day, I did not record the video. I only recorded Skype audio, and that was it. And I regret not having the video footage from those early interviews because I think it would have been cool to look back on and archive and then like pull clips from now. So I think you should be capturing everything on video, regardless of if you're actually able to edit, turn it around and release it. That's kind of the beautiful thing. Beautiful thing about podcasting, though, is that like, you don't. It doesn't have to be crazy polished and super professional and have all this like crazy edits and things like that. You could just make it as simple as possible for yourself and have like an intro that you just drop into your timeline and you have the body of content that you drop into your timeline. You have an outro, you drop in your timeline and then you export and publish to YouTube. It's not crazy complicated to do that, especially with the AI tools that exist now to help you with that process. So you should absolutely be capturing video. Should you be releasing it? Yes. But again, if it, if, if some of this is just like, well, that just sounds like too much. We're just not going to do anything then, like, don't fall into that trap. Basically, start with whatever you have available to start with and then. And then adjust as you continue to release episodes or create content. But for me, I never edited a single episode of my show. I brought an, I brought an editor on basically as soon as I started it, because I just felt like my time was better served doing things that would help me cover the cost of the editor from the beginning. So. And I was doing three episodes a week and AI tools didn't exist at that point, so. And there were frankly way less options for editing that made it not like we had to use like three different softwares back in the day to like transfer things over here and then clean up audio here and then edit timeline here and then export and then tag and then upload over here and then write show notes. And then that's all done manually. And then we got to. Now it's like you can get to an AI tool that you basically just record the audio, give it to the AI tool and it will chop, it will. It'll balance all your sound levels so that your guest isn't yelling and you're super quiet, and it will take out automatically like ums and ahs or whatever, and then it will transcribe the episode, write show notes with timestamps and key takeaways and tweetable quotes, and it will do all of that for you with a click of a button. So a lot of that stuff is, is stuff that you can do on your own now, or at least for super, super cheap. So I guess the real answer is basically, start and don't make it to where you have way too many obstacles to get started.

Eric (6:59)

I think that's what I would say is, like, if. If I were to respond to this email, I think what I would say is do everything. Unless it's something that will be a barrier from you actually getting the show out. Like, do video. Unless you will never record an episode because you can't fit video in. You know what I mean? Like.

Travis (7:17)

Or like it overwhelms you to think about how to set up a camera in your studio. Like, okay, well, then just start and you can figure that out on episode 12 or whatever.

Eric (7:27)

The real question is, what's the deal with these podcasters? You know, back in my day, if you want to talk to yourself for an hour, you just stare in the mirror. No downloads required. Now everybody's got a mic, a USB cord, and a big dream. I'm starting a podcast. That's not a career, it's a cry for help. First episode, My Journey. Second episode, More Journey. By episode 10, it's why isn't anybody listening? And the ads. Oh, the ads. Every five minutes, go to manscaped.com jerry for 20% off your hedge trimmer. What is this, a show or an infomercial? I mean, come on, you're not broadcasting. You're just whispering your grocery list to the cloud.

Travis (8:10)

Wait, so is this is something that AI came up with?

Eric (8:13)

Yeah, I asked AI, can you write

Travis (8:14)

a Jerry Seinfeld joker style of. There's actually a couple in there. That sounded fairly Seinfeld esque.

Eric (8:20)

If you close your eyes, it almost sounds like me impersonating Jerry Seinfeld.

Travis (8:26)

Well, that was fun for you.

Eric (8:29)

I was sitting there on that, waiting to do that for the last minutes.

Travis (8:33)

I could tell you how to cut.

Eric (8:34)

I hope you said some good stuff. Ready to go.

Travis (8:36)

You weren't listening at all.

Eric (8:37)

No, no, no, I. I was. That's why I put in the thing about the obstacle. Like, it's like the release schedule thing. It's like release as much content as you can until it's too much, where

Travis (8:46)

you're not gonna release any quality consistency. This episode of the show is brought to you by Wayfair. It's way day at Wayfair. From April 25th through the 27th, you can score the best deals in home, like, up to 80% off with free shipping on everything. Wayfair makes it easy to find exactly what fits your style and needs, from furniture and decor to home improvement and outdoor essentials. And it's all on sale during Wayday. Best part, everything ships fast and free during Wayday. Plus you can shop with Wayfair Verified, AKA your shortcut to the good stuff. So their team of product specialists vets everything by hand using a 10 point quality inspection so you know that you're actually getting a quality piece no matter what your budget is. Look, I we basically have redecorated our home with Wayfair in the last few months and at every time we use a site, I'm always blown away by how easy it is to use the platform itself. Also to find like the craziest stuff. Like if you think for a second that there's something that's not on Wayfair that you could put inside of your home for something, just test me out on this. Go to Wayfair and search for it. I promise you you're going to find it. It's crazy whether regardless of your aesthetic, if it's mid century modern or farmhouse or contemporary or eclectic, or you're looking for outdoor furniture or home upgrades, or you want to upgrade the kids room or you need a new shoe rack, whatever it is, Wayfair has it. They make it simple to narrow down to exactly what works for your style and for your budget. Plus they have great reviews, filters, visual tools to help you make sure that it's the right fit. Um, and then, you know, installation and assembly could be available depending on what you buy. Uh, it makes the process easier. Their shipping always blows my mind because you can get some like a literal Our dining room table that we just got came from Wayfair and they shipped it to our house fast and completely for free. So they have thousands and thousands of five star reviews to help you shop with confidence and find things that fit perfectly into your home and lifestyle. Wayday is the sale to shop the best deals in home. We're talking up to 80 off with fast and free shipping on everything. So head to Wayfair.com April 25th through the 27th to shop Wayday. That's Wayfair.com W-A Y F A I R.com Wayfair Every style, every Home this episode of the show is brought to you by Factor. Look, everybody who's listening to the show is busy. I get it. There's kids, there's distractions, there's businesses, there's side hustles, there's podcasts, there's everything to prevent you from eating good quality food all the time. So for me, eating healthy isn't necessarily a willpower hour problem it's just more of a setup problem. It's just easier to pick the processed food because I know I can just grab it and eat it really quick. Well enter factor with factor. I'm hitting my nutrition goals this season. Without the planning, the grocery runs or even the cooking, they have meals built around your goals, whether that's weight loss, overall nutrition, more protein or GLP1 support for strength and workout recovery. Check out Factor's Muscle Pro collection. Every meal is crafted with functional ingredients. Lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole foods, healthy fats. In fact, they ban 175 plus ingredients. So no artificial colors or sweeteners, no high fructose corn syrup, no refined seed oils. Just nutrient dense food. It's fresh, never frozen. And they have over 100 rotating weekly meals including globally inspired flavors like Mediterranean and Asian. Mediterranean is my favorite, so there's always something new to look forward to. Try the newly launched Ready to Eat salads with vibrant ingredients like elote corn and miso edamame. Plus there's over 70 add ons to round out your your nutrition from like all the snacks and stuff that you grab throughout the day, from green juices to, you know, peanut butter, energy bites, things like that. It's ready in two minutes. Factor shops, preps, cooks and delivers straight to your door so you have more time for everything that you love. This spring I use this and you should too. Head over to factor meals.com TMM50OFF and use code TMM50OFF to get 50 off. 550 not 1550 off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until 9-27-2026. That's FactorMeals.com TMM50OFF and use code TMM50OFF to get 50% off and free daily greens per box. Factor Meals.com TMM50OFF. You're your scam or your sanity or

Eric (13:24)

your scam or your or your or your scam.

Travis (13:28)

You don't want to sacrifice your scam.

Eric (13:29)

Yeah and and okay, starting.

Travis (13:32)

Yeah and then I think probably the biggest thing that would be generic blanket advice for basically anybody that's looking to start a podcast is record your first two months of content before you publish a single episode. If you can't dedicate the time to record two months of batched content before you hit release, then you probably aren't going to keep up with it after you hit release. So that would be the only like caveat that I would give to my original piece of advice to say that like just do it and get started and keep it going. It's just that when you. A lot of people will just do it and then episode three, they're like, I for, like, I don't have anything else to say right now. So they just don't ever release another episode again. And now they only have three episodes out. So if most, if 90 of podcasters never make it to episode 10, then the guaranteed way to be top 10% of podcasters who've ever released a podcast is to record 10 episodes before you hit the publish button. Not to mention batching is the key to consistency, in my opinion, and one reason why this show has never been live. You know, there was one time there was a radio company that reached out and they were running like syndicate show across like these radio platforms that they had. And I asked them like, well, if I have that particular slot, does that mean I have to like show up at Tuesdays at 5 or whatever to record my episode? And they were like, yes. And I was like, well, I'm out. Like, maybe that was a bad decision, I don't know. But I just, I. That was one of the benefits of doing the show to me is that I could batch record. I don't feel like release episodes in advance. What? That somebody came to me. Yeah, I was, I don't know, five years ago.

Eric (15:07)

I'm actually angry retroactively.

Travis (15:09)

But it, it would have been different if the radio syndication was like pumped big numbers and things like that. I would have carefully considered it, but it was, it was one of those ones where it was like, we can put your content on all these different stations or whatever. It was like, okay, but nobody's listening to these stations and I have to like start doing something live at 5 on Tuesdays or whatever.

Eric (15:27)

I'm so mad right now because. Can I tell you one of the things that I literally said to Tara the other day?

Travis (15:32)

What?

Eric (15:32)

Because I would love to have a local radio show.

Travis (15:34)

Really?

Eric (15:35)

Yeah.

Travis (15:35)

Never.

Eric (15:36)

I was so. I was so mad retroactively.

Travis (15:38)

It never appealed to me because I don't. Like, one of the beautiful things about podcasting to me is like, I can go on a two week trip.

Eric (15:46)

Yeah.

Travis (15:46)

And then episodes are still going out.

Eric (15:49)

I would just love to be able to say, like, if I would love to do it for a year and be like, you know, he was a syndicated radio host. I feel that. But can I tell you the other thing that I've always. I. It's like, it's like a dream job that I just know would never financially make sense is I'd love to work for a local paper.

Travis (16:08)

Really?

Eric (16:09)

Not necessarily like local local where it's

Travis (16:11)

like be a journalist or something.

Eric (16:12)

Yeah, like, like when I watch, like

Travis (16:13)

when you watch the paper.

Eric (16:15)

No, I don't watch. Nobody watches that.

Travis (16:17)

I did.

Eric (16:18)

I thought it was what's the deal with the paper? It's the office, but boring. That was the original. No, AI was used in the creation of that joke. And you can tell that was Eric Slop. We should do a segment called Eric Slopper AI Slop. And I'll just present Premises and jokes and you guess what?

Travis (16:35)

Funny.

Eric (16:36)

But anyway. But no, like when I watch like, like I watch the Boston Strangler with Keira Knightley or I watch like Spotlight. Like I'm like to be in a newsroom and working on a story. But I guess that's not local paper. I don't know. I used to, I, when I was in South Carolina, I would drive past the local, like it was like, had like moss on the side of it was like this old. And I was like, I would love to work for the Gazette.

Travis (16:57)

That would just be so, that's, I,

Eric (16:59)

I think that would be really cool.

Travis (17:00)

Local high school sports.

Eric (17:01)

Yeah, like, I, I don't know. I, but I, I would love, I mean, it would be really cool to work for like an actual paper. Like, I don't know. To me that's like radio or paper like that. I love that old school broadcast casting in journalism. It was, you don't appreciate it.

Travis (17:15)

It's much millennial coded glorification of, of what it was that was actually offered to me. This was not like a big, you know, potential.

Eric (17:24)

I can't believe you turned down a Sirius XM deal to appear after Howard Stern. That was it, right?

Travis (17:30)

Yeah, Yep, yep, that was exactly right.

Eric (17:32)

I don't know, I just think it would be neat. You know what I mean?

Travis (17:34)

I, I, I, if, if it were the right opportunity, I would consider it. But like, yeah, anything that makes me show up at a certain day on a certain time, I just am sort of opposed to it because I like being able to just decide that we're gonna go out of town this week.

Eric (17:50)

That's why you curse me out when we have these on the calendar.

Travis (17:53)

I, well, no, that's different, actually.

Eric (17:56)

We just, we're pretty flexible with these. Exactly.

Travis (17:59)

That's my point anyway. But yeah, batching is great, is the key to consistency. You gotta be able to batch and, and stay four to six weeks ahead of schedule. And you won't ever be at the position where you're gonna run out of stuff to release, right? So.

Eric (18:13)

Okay, so let me ask you this, let me ask you this, let me ask you this. What are we doing? What are we doing? What's going on? What's going on when. What's one piece? What's something that you did in the beginning of your show that you regret doing? What's something you didn't do at the beginning of the show with your knowledge now that you wish you would have done, or it could be advice you gave or whatever, but old Travis, back in 20, 18, 17. 17. What's something you did or gave advice about that you wouldn't now? I mean, I guess starting with video

Travis (18:47)

is video, and YouTube is definitely one of them. It's just. We talked about this a couple times, but at the time it was just not the way that it is right now. It was. They were two opposing forces. It was like, are you going to start a YouTube channel or are you going to start a podcast? And they did not exist together on the same plane at all. Which, again, if I had, if I were a little bit older and wiser and had a little bit more insight, I would have looked at that as a potential opportunity to be one of the first people to put podcasts on YouTube. And maybe we could have gained a ton of traction doing that. And there are a couple episodes early on that gained traction, even though it was just like a zoom interview. And so I should have looked at that as like, oh, that is working. Maybe we should just do that more. And we didn't do that. So that's, that's definitely, definitely one thing that I regret not doing from the very beginning. And we've had to now work overtime to try to gain some of that. So I just don't view it now as, like an option, really. Like, if you're, if you're doing all this other stuff, you should also be posting it or you should also be capturing the video. Because I think we're sort of an eclipse centric world where everything's consumed short form for the most part. And I think I've seen some podcasters talk shit about that and say basically, like, short form is ruining podcasting or whatever. And it's like, maybe. But also, what potential exposure would you have had on your little, you know, podcast 10 years ago that now you can get for free by posting a clip of it on TikTok and it happens to take off? Well, it's still exposure, it's still eyeballs, and eventually it'll like, funnel into Podcast listeners. But, yeah, they. They exist on the same plane now, so there's no reason to not capture the video.

Eric (20:33)

Well. And the amount of people that see, they. Like, if your goal is exposure at any level, like, it doesn't matter where people see you.

Travis (20:42)

Yeah, Right.

Eric (20:43)

It's just that they see you or hear you in the context of podcasting. But it's like. Like I was telling you before we hit record, like, this last month, there's been 12 million views of my stuff. And I think. I think, like, I was looking a couple days ago. It was like, unique accounts that viewed my stuff on Facebook was like, 2 million unique accounts.

Travis (21:02)

Yeah.

Eric (21:03)

And I told Tara, I was like, that's crazy that 2 million people saw my face. You know what I mean? And, like, that's. What's the direct ROI of that long term? I don't know.

Travis (21:13)

Like, what's the percentage of those people who tuned in to the RSS feed and subscribed on Spotify? Who knows? Yeah, but it's not a bad thing.

Eric (21:21)

Well, and the thing is, the next time they see me, they're gonna be like, oh, I saw that guy.

Travis (21:25)

Exactly.

Eric (21:25)

And he said that. And then they see me again, and, like, maybe at the end of a year.

Travis (21:29)

Right.

Eric (21:30)

15,000 of those become fans.

Travis (21:33)

Right.

Eric (21:33)

But, like, a great example of this,

Travis (21:35)

even if it's a thousand.

Eric (21:36)

Right.

Travis (21:37)

That's a great case scenario. Yeah. Right. People who didn't know about you before, who now know about you.

Eric (21:43)

Well, that's. And I was gonna say this is a great example in the comedian space is like, you and I talk all the time about comedians that we see that have podcasts that are hilarious, and we'll send each other clips and be like, did you listen to episode. I've never listened to a podcast. Rick Glassman, you know, like, you watch so much of his stuff in short form.

Travis (22:05)

It feels like I watched the whole thing.

Eric (22:07)

Right, and then you ended up buying tickets to go to one of his shows. Right. Just based on the fact that you'd laughed at so many Instagram shorts.

Travis (22:15)

Exactly.

Eric (22:16)

You know what I mean? Like. Like, it's.

Travis (22:19)

This episode of the show is brought to you by Shopify. Starting something new isn't just hard, it is terrifying. So much work goes into this thing that you're just not entirely sure that's going to work out. It'd be hard to make that leap of faith. Trust me, I know. When I started this podcast, when I've started several of my businesses, I just wasn't even sure what I was doing. Like what if nobody listens to the show? What if I make a fool of myself? What if I embarrass myself? Nobody buys my stuff. Now I know that I was right in believing in myself and launching my podcast and several of my businesses despite all the fears and hesitations. But it also helps when you have an amazing partner like Shopify on your side to help. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all all e commerce in the US is using Shopify. Like this is the place that hosts all of your favorite products and services. So if you are considering this, then Shopify is a must. Especially, especially, especially if you're going to launch some sort of an E. Comm product. So get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that actually matches your brand's style. But Travis, what if I get stuck? Well, Shopify is always around to share advice with their award winning 247 customer support. Which is very very important to people like me who are still some for some reason like caught in the 1980s and I want to talk to somebody when I actually have a problem and instead of just relying on an AI system. And did I mention that the iconic purple shop pay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world, that's from Shopify. It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Helps boost conversions, meaning less carts going abandoned and more sales for you. So it's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com TMM go to shopify.com TMM that's shopify.com TMM. This episode of the show is brought to you by Chime. Chime is not just another banking app. They unlock smarter banking for everyday people with products like MyPay giving you access to up to 500 of your paycheck anytime and getting paid up to 2 days early with direct deposit. Some old banks still don't do this, so forget overdraft fees, minimum balance fees, monthly fees. Chime turns everyday spending into real rewards and progress. Plus they have this new credit card which I'm a big fan of, this Chime card. It's the new way to build credit history with your own money and actually get rewarded every single day. So a lot of cards like this, they require you to put some sort of money down and then they will give you a credit card based on the money that you put down. But when they do that, because it basically is working off of the cash that you have down as collateral for the credit line, you don't get rewards on it. Well, Chime changed the game with their new credit card as well. There's no annual fees, there's no interest, no strings attached. And when you get qualifying direct deposits, you get 1.5% cash back on eligible Chime card purchases. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. So join the millions who are already banking fee free today. My younger self would have benefited from this, and I know you will too. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.com travis that is chime.com Travis still drives the same result that you want it to drive.

Eric (25:43)

And you'd still say, like, I'm a fan of his stuff, right?

Travis (25:46)

Exactly.

Eric (25:46)

Even though.

Travis (25:47)

Yeah, I would say I'm a fan of Rick Glassman and his podcast, even though I've never watched a full episode on.

Eric (25:52)

His full podcast is like the most hateful, like, anti Semitic, which is weird because I think he's Jewish, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Which is. It was out of left field for sure. No, it's. He just puts his really lame, like, milk, you know, milk toast stuff on Instagram, but it's like pure propaganda on the. On the podcast. That'd be really funny, actually.

Travis (26:12)

You're just endorsing something if someone only

Eric (26:14)

clips their wholesome stuff.

Travis (26:16)

Yeah.

Eric (26:16)

You're like, I'm a huge fan of them. And, like, they just held around. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, whatever. What are we doing? I'm defaming Rick Glassman right now. Let's not do that.

Travis (26:24)

It's. There's no. Again, there's just no reason to not do it at this point. And it, like, even somebody like Zach justice, who we've had on the show a couple times, like, that's how Dropouts, his first podcast, became massive. It was like, it was doing really well on YouTube. But, like, when I found it, I think it was maybe a hundred thousand subscribers, something like that. And then I didn't know they actually

Eric (26:43)

had a. I thought they were one of those accounts that just sets up like a podcast and does clip farming.

Travis (26:47)

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. But they had so many clips go out and it got so many impressions that it just, like, kept driving more and more and more traffic to their actual main thing, and it turned into a massive show that's literally set him up to have a production company and several subsequent shows and be on Netflix and all this other stuff.

Eric (27:04)

So I guess you could say it did him justice. All right, well, I just did the outro justice with that, so go ahead and close this out.

Travis (27:13)

Well, that's it for this episode show. If you genuinely are interested in more podcasting things, advice, questions, things like that, then just shoot me an email travischappel.com or at Travis Chapel on Instagram, shoot me a DM with any questions. Because we talk about this stuff all the time and we've done this for a living for several years now. So yeah, that's it for this episode of the show. Remember, money only solves your money problems, but it's easy to solve the rest of problems with money in the bank. So let's start there, here on the Travis Makes Money podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you next time. Peace. And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

Eric (28:03)

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

Travis (28:04)

Anyways, only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty, Liberty.

Eric (28:09)

Liberty. Liberty.