Latest / The Scene Projects / Zach Moder's Journey: Creativity, Growth, and Community Engagement

Transcript

Zach Moder's Journey: Creativity, Growth, and Community Engagement · The Scene Projects

• 0:00
  Appreciate you.
• 0:02
  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  With me today is Zack Motor from the brand Motivation.
• 0:08
  What's up, brother?
• 0:09
  Hey.
• 0:09
  Yo.
• 0:10
  How you doing, man?
• 0:11
  I'm doing great, dude.
• 0:12
  Great to to be on with you.
• 0:14
  It's always nice to talk to guys with as much energy as I have or maybe even more.
• 0:20
  So excited, man.
• 0:21
  Before we get too far into the interview, I know you're into a lot of things and motivation
• 0:26
  is is a big idea.
• 0:28
  So why don't you kinda take us through it a little bit and tell us what you do?
• 0:32
  So, you know, long long story short, do a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
• 0:37
  Short story long, I am an actor, model, musician, politician now, author, speaker, and
• 0:47
  just another human being trying to figure out what's going on while I'm on this earth.
• 0:51
  A creative.
• 0:53
  Exactly.
• 0:55
  And motivation is it's pretty much like I was telling you.
• 0:58
  It's like turning your shit into sugar.
• 1:00
  It's taking your life experiences and making good things out of bad and making the good
• 1:05
  things great.
• 1:06
  It's about finding your purpose, cultivating that, and bringing it out to the world.
• 1:11
  It's about helping other people.
• 1:14
  It's a lot of things, and it's still growing.
• 1:16
  But I am blessed.
• 1:18
  Brother, that's like that's like me trying to describe what the scene projects are.
• 1:22
  I'm like, you're
• 1:23
  just gonna have to tune in.
• 1:25
  Exactly.
• 1:27
  Mode two one a on socials.
• 1:29
  That's m o d e r, not like a car.
• 1:32
  Nice.
• 1:33
  Nice.
• 1:33
  So I know that you kinda so what came first?
• 1:36
  Was it the music first or was it kinda acting and modeling that led into everything?
• 1:40
  Or
• 1:41
  It's the music.
• 1:42
  Yeah.
• 1:42
  I've been doing music a little over a decade, and I've I've been doing acting and modeling,
• 1:48
  like, the last four or five years.
• 1:51
  But, through music, I got into it was more acting first.
• 1:56
  So I I just was an extra on somebody's video.
• 2:00
  Not even the same genre that I do, so it's kinda it's kind of a whole new experience for
• 2:04
  me.
• 2:05
  But I I did the role, I was supposed to be yelling at someone.
• 2:09
  And even though I was yelling gibberish, they were, like they got actually scared, and people
• 2:14
  were pulling over thinking I was about to, like, go in on this person.
• 2:18
  Like so I'm like, okay.
• 2:21
  Maybe I should see what this acting thing's about.
• 2:24
  And then did a couple indie films, and then that took off from there.
• 2:30
  I just shot a commercial down in the city commercial down in the city just yesterday.
• 2:33
  I
• 2:33
  can't I can't tell you for who yet because, you know, all that stuff works.
• 2:37
  But
• 2:37
  it'll be coming out.
• 2:38
  You'll see it.
• 2:39
  It's a it's a major brand.
• 2:41
  Motivation got it good.
• 2:43
  Motivation got real familiar with NDAs.
• 2:46
  Yeah, man.
• 2:48
  You gotta.
• 2:50
  I biggest one, I was just, like, regional in the Super Bowl with, Arrowhead Transit.
• 2:57
  That was the last commercial I did.
• 2:59
  Sick, man.
• 3:00
  Well, yeah, you're staying busy.
• 3:01
  You're you're all over the entertainment industry.
• 3:04
  I know you're working with with another guest that we had.
• 3:07
  Kayla Kaye was on with us recently.
• 3:10
  And Oh, yeah.
• 3:10
  Yeah, man.
• 3:11
  Love it.
• 3:11
  So around are you all the way up in Duluth then?
• 3:15
  Yep.
• 3:17
  Yep.
• 3:18
  Awesome.
• 3:18
  Go anywhere.
• 3:21
  Well, yeah.
• 3:22
  And and that's kind of the beauty of the Internet Internet these days, especially for
• 3:26
  creative guys like us.
• 3:28
  Like Yeah.
• 3:28
  We don't necessarily have to be where the action is.
• 3:31
  We create the action.
• 3:33
  And
• 3:33
  That's right.
• 3:34
  I'm in the middle of the cornfields out here in South Dakota, brother.
• 3:37
  There ain't nothing around me.
• 3:38
  I live in a thousand person population town, and I absolutely love it.
• 3:43
  But I love it.
• 3:44
  You got more cows than people?
• 3:45
  Yeah.
• 3:47
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:47
  Well, South Dakota, yeah, there's there's twice as many cows as there are people over here.
• 3:53
  But that's why I I've been very fortunate to connect with a lot of people in the Minnesota
• 3:57
  music scene.
• 3:58
  And a common theme, obviously, that we've had up there is we had much different much
• 4:04
  different experiences through the last five years.
• 4:06
  Right?
• 4:07
  South Dakota didn't shut down during COVID.
• 4:09
  We were still able to do something.
• 4:10
  If we did, it was for a few months.
• 4:12
  The gigs never really stopped, and and it wasn't different.
• 4:16
  But I feel like with a lot of Minnesota, the creatives got obviously, you couldn't play live
• 4:21
  shows anymore.
• 4:22
  So a lot of people got, you know, kind of pushed inside to either write and record new
• 4:28
  music or to take up maybe some other some other hobbies or or now professions.
• 4:34
  Right?
• 4:35
  You said you started acting about five years ago.
• 4:37
  That's kind of right in that same timeline.
• 4:40
  So Yeah.
• 4:40
  I went on tour during COVID too, though.
• 4:42
  Epic.
• 4:43
  I love it, man.
• 4:44
  I was I was in South Dakota, Sioux Falls, and then I think one other spot.
• 4:49
  But, yeah, I just it was nice not having a mask up there.
• 4:52
  That was a refresher.
• 4:53
  Right, brother.
• 4:54
  And and I know, it's such different time, and it's you know, I've been educated to, like,
• 5:01
  what y'all went through.
• 5:03
  And, obviously, in Duluth, there was probably a little bit more lax than it was in the cities.
• 5:07
  I talked to a lot of people in Minneapolis that, I mean, it shook them.
• 5:10
  Right?
• 5:11
  It's taken them till now to kinda come out of their shell a little bit.
• 5:15
  And so it's an interesting, you know, interesting kind of different, you know, where
• 5:22
  there's there's just an imaginary line between us.
• 5:25
  Right?
• 5:26
  But how Well, yeah.
• 5:27
  I had been living there.
• 5:28
  Like, co up to COVID, I was doing security at first half.
• 5:32
  But after COVID hit, I ended up just yeah.
• 5:36
  I I wasn't trying I just kept it moving.
• 5:39
  So I had opportunities back up here in Duluth because I, you know, came originally from
• 5:43
  Duluth and helped a couple of homies start some businesses and started, you know, doing more of
• 5:48
  my own thing.
• 5:49
  And then, yeah, just from being back up here, that's where I got asked to do the acting gig,
• 5:54
  and then that that all started.
• 5:56
  I started doing some modeling because I got a couple of homies who own, like, a media
• 6:00
  company, and they work with, like, big brands in the weed industry, like C Cell and all that.
• 6:05
  So I was a weed model and, like, hitting the pens and started doing that and then more and
• 6:10
  more.
• 6:10
  But it's it's my life is literally just a bunch of random coincidences where I said yes, and it
• 6:16
  ended up something coming from it.
• 6:18
  You know?
• 6:19
  Right.
• 6:19
  Well and and that's not a coincidence.
• 6:21
  You have to be open to that.
• 6:22
  You have to be open to saying yes and stepping out of your comfort zone.
• 6:27
  And you'd never acted before when you took the first one.
• 6:31
  Right?
• 6:31
  And then at least five years of continuing to be and it's only gonna grow.
• 6:36
  Like, the the more that you want to do it, the more opportunities you're going to have.
• 6:41
  And then if you're kinda putting it out there that, hey.
• 6:43
  I would like more of these opportunities, they're gonna come to you.
• 6:46
  So Yeah.
• 6:47
  Has the acting career taking off, has that kind put the music career on hold, or are they able
• 6:53
  to kind of run parallel to each other and be married up a little bit?
• 6:57
  Yeah.
• 6:57
  I would say they they coexist.
• 6:59
  I would say that as I've been developing so I've been working on some other stuff too,
• 7:04
  building my brand and working on my book series and going doing business cohorts, you know,
• 7:10
  really trying to get all the back end stuff in check.
• 7:14
  But I was talking to some A and Rs and stuff, and they didn't want me dropping music for a
• 7:20
  while, so that kinda put a damper on it.
• 7:23
  And so I just focused on some of the other stuff more while I was talking with them, but I
• 7:29
  ended up not not going with anything they were talking about.
• 7:32
  And so now I'm free to drop music, but now I'm about to run for city council.
• 7:38
  So I gotta be careful about, you know, the kind of music that I'm dropping.
• 7:42
  But luckily, I got the motivation line.
• 7:44
  And so I do I you know, I tell stories from my past because I definitely have not so perfect
• 7:51
  past.
• 7:52
  I've made my fair share of mistakes.
• 7:54
  And so I try to tell stories and help people and, you know, at least entertain them with it.
• 8:00
  But I also make motivational music too that can help uplift people and, you know, be be
• 8:07
  enlightening without trying to be too, like, horny, I guess, is the best way to say it.
• 8:14
  Right.
• 8:14
  Still be authentic.
• 8:16
  Well, authenticity is king right now.
• 8:19
  And and I just got a I listen to a lot of Andy Furcella.
• 8:23
  He's got a podcast called real AF, real American freedom.
• 8:27
  And, you know, he it changed my life.
• 8:30
  Listen to him.
• 8:31
  Listen to somebody I'm the oldest in my family, and we kind of, like, picked up family's
• 8:36
  originally from the Chicago area.
• 8:38
  It's where all my cousins and stuff were.
• 8:40
  People that would be big brother to me, right, my cousin Jason and people like that that would
• 8:44
  check me and be like, no, man.
• 8:46
  Like, you're you're fucking up.
• 8:47
  Right?
• 8:48
  Yeah.
• 8:48
  I've never had that.
• 8:49
  So I've just kind of been floating through life, making all these mistakes and learning as
• 8:52
  I go, and then started listening to to Andy Frisella's podcast, and it was immediately just
• 8:58
  that check.
• 8:59
  Like, hey, man.
• 9:00
  If you're drinking every single day and your life's a mess, maybe stop drinking.
• 9:04
  Stop putting shit in your mouth.
• 9:05
  And it was woah.
• 9:07
  Woah.
• 9:07
  And that's kinda set me on that whole path.
• 9:09
  I wasn't even a podcaster a year ago, brother.
• 9:12
  I I had beard on a couple with some friends of mine, but I wasn't even on this path yet.
• 9:18
  And, really, I wouldn't say, like especially this one that I'm on right now where we're
• 9:23
  turning more towards coaching other podcasters or people that are just have the inkling for
• 9:28
  it.
• 9:28
  Right now, there's a massive calling.
• 9:30
  People that have a story wanna get it out there.
• 9:33
  They know podcasting is the way to do it, but they don't necessarily know how to get there.
• 9:37
  So we're we're talking coaching programs and getting people started.
• 9:41
  What I say is we're gonna get you off the sidelines and into the game.
• 9:44
  What you what you end up doing from that, that's all up to you, man.
• 9:48
  I can't tell you that you're gonna be a star, but I can get you in the game and get you
• 9:53
  moving in the right direction.
• 9:55
  And then where you go from there is all dependent on your work ethic, your
• 9:59
  determination, your grit, right, to get out there and make shit happen for yourself.
• 10:05
  That's really yeah.
• 10:06
  It's on everyone, and that's dope that you're giving people, you know, the blueprint to get
• 10:11
  started.
• 10:12
  That's big ups
• 10:13
  to I've found being in this being in this space for, you know, the the few months that I've
• 10:18
  been here now is that, like, this is a podcast.
• 10:21
  Right?
• 10:22
  Like, we're on Zoom.
• 10:23
  I don't we don't have a ton of fancy equipment around us.
• 10:25
  We ain't, like, literally turn on the computer, have a conversation with someone really cool
• 10:30
  that inspires you or vice versa.
• 10:33
  Right?
• 10:33
  And Yeah.
• 10:34
  And just go have a conversation.
• 10:36
  It's not that hard.
• 10:37
  I think people build it up to be something, you know, like, you're not gonna be Joe Rogan's
• 10:41
  show.
• 10:41
  Joe Rogan has all the money and all the famous friends and access to anyone he wants to.
• 10:46
  Your show's not gonna be that, but you can serve a community.
• 10:49
  Right?
• 10:49
  You for me, it was musicians.
• 10:51
  And then it grew into, well, there's a lot of people out there that just wanna have some real
• 10:55
  talk, right, that that wanna be inspired by someone else kinda sharing their shit.
• 11:00
  That the get better together project started from that, that, you know, through the
• 11:04
  political discourse of the last six months.
• 11:07
  Right?
• 11:08
  We're hitting through this election cycle, and I'm going, you know what?
• 11:11
  I got some things I wanna say too.
• 11:13
  Right?
• 11:13
  Like, want my voice represented, and nobody else was gonna give me a voice, so I took it.
• 11:18
  I took that microphone and I said, no.
• 11:20
  I'm here.
• 11:21
  And then I found out real quick that there's a lot of other people that think similar to what
• 11:25
  I think.
• 11:25
  Do we agree on every single little thing out there?
• 11:29
  No.
• 11:29
  I don't think anyone does.
• 11:31
  I don't expect anyone to agree with everything that I agree with.
• 11:34
  I'm probably one of the only registered Republicans in South Dakota that votes for
• 11:38
  legal weed every time it comes up.
• 11:40
  Right?
• 11:41
  But, you know, it it's it's about expressing ourselves as human beings.
• 11:46
  Right?
• 11:47
  And that's what these podcasts do, man.
• 11:49
  And it's so and that's why I've turned to, okay.
• 11:52
  I know I can do this.
• 11:53
  Right?
• 11:54
  I I know I can have conversations and I can do this, but I think it can also inspire other
• 11:58
  people to want to do that.
• 12:00
  So that's kinda become my service to my community And and something that you just hit
• 12:04
  on, speaking of politics and serving our communities, you're running for city council,
• 12:09
  man.
• 12:10
  That's right.
• 12:10
  It's for I could put
• 12:11
  this on all three networks, brother.
• 12:13
  Like
• 12:14
  Hey.
• 12:15
  I I announced my candidacy real soon.
• 12:18
  So, yeah, like, you're one of the first people that I don't even, like, officially tell him
• 12:23
  that this is going on.
• 12:24
  But I'm I'm going independent.
• 12:26
  So part partially for, you know, some of the same things you were talking about.
• 12:31
  I see things that aren't getting done.
• 12:33
  And even even on a local scale, there's too there's too much, like, one side or the other
• 12:40
  mind or whatever.
• 12:41
  I'm just trying to help people.
• 12:42
  So I don't care who's right.
• 12:44
  I'm about what's right.
• 12:46
  And so if things aren't getting done and, you know, anyone that's listening, if you see
• 12:51
  something that isn't getting done, don't be one of the, like, millions of people that'll just
• 12:56
  sit there and bitch.
• 12:58
  Start being part of the solution.
• 13:00
  Run for, you know, run for office if that's what you feel like you need.
• 13:04
  Start a program.
• 13:05
  Help somebody.
• 13:06
  Each one, teach one.
• 13:07
  If you know something and you can make a difference, you need to find a way to do that,
• 13:11
  and that's important.
• 13:12
  Yeah.
• 13:13
  Stop bitching about it and just be about it.
• 13:15
  Like
• 13:15
  Exactly.
• 13:16
  Quit.
• 13:17
  And I think that, especially with the way the election went, the grassroots nature of the
• 13:22
  Trump campaign, the way they used podcast, and the way that Trump was finally humanized by
• 13:29
  podcasts, right, regardless of how you feel about him, if you'd been paying attention to
• 13:34
  the media for the last decade, you only had one version of this man unless you were in that
• 13:39
  camp.
• 13:40
  Right?
• 13:41
  Yeah.
• 13:41
  So the fact that Rogan had him on, you have JD Vance on, like, you have these conversations,
• 13:46
  that's what it's about.
• 13:46
  And I don't really care what you
• 13:47
  think about
• 13:48
  the man, but you finally got to see him speak for two and a half hours of just talking.
• 13:54
  That that was a major shift for me.
• 13:56
  That's when I knew what I was voting.
• 13:58
  Right?
• 13:58
  I was already Ari was a fan of RFK.
• 14:01
  Ari was a fan of Tulsi because they'd been on Rogan's show, and I had heard them speak.
• 14:06
  I had heard their heart.
• 14:07
  I had seen them as human beings, and we all realized, you know, especially I'll be 39 in
• 14:13
  May.
• 14:13
  Right?
• 14:14
  Our generation, we've kind of been fed nothing but lies and bullshit our entire And as the
• 14:22
  USAID corruption comes out and you're like, oh, it was all bullshit.
• 14:27
  Okay.
• 14:28
  Now knowing that, how do we fix it?
• 14:30
  How does this generation be the greatest generation of our time, and how do we fix this
• 14:35
  stuff?
• 14:36
  How do we kind of root out the old guard?
• 14:38
  How do we bring in new ideas, new ways of doing things, new ways of communicating with each
• 14:43
  other, and fix it?
• 14:45
  And getting guys like you into city councils are the first start to that so that we can
• 14:50
  elevate you through there or other people to, you know, state legislators.
• 14:54
  And and that's what's been fun for me with the Patriot Broadcasting Network, which is my kind
• 14:59
  of political branded side, is that I now have an excuse to talk to legislators.
• 15:04
  They're calling me like, hey.
• 15:05
  Can we be on your show?
• 15:07
  And and I got, like, 17 followers on YouTube.
• 15:10
  But I would love to talk to you.
• 15:12
  I would love to know about the legislative process.
• 15:14
  I would love to know a lot of shit that I was never taught about and that nobody's gonna come
• 15:18
  out and teach me.
• 15:19
  So I I love it.
• 15:20
  Really are.
• 15:21
  Yeah.
• 15:22
  Yeah.
• 15:22
  Tell me what's really going on, and it's all grassroots.
• 15:26
  It's all independent independent media, and it's cool, man.
• 15:28
  We're riding this wave right now, baby.
• 15:30
  It's a lot of fun.
• 15:31
  So I'm
• 15:31
  I'm proud of you.
• 15:32
  I'm proud of you sticking your neck out there, man, and we wish nothing but the best for you
• 15:36
  through your campaign.
• 15:37
  And you'll have to let me know when you officially announce so I can release episode
• 15:41
  and not spill the tea early.
• 15:43
  But
• 15:44
  Yeah.
• 15:44
  You know, it's it's in March.
• 15:46
  I still got some paperwork to do, and it's not you can't even really do it yet.
• 15:50
  Otherwise, I would've already.
• 15:52
  But I just, you know, was working.
• 15:55
  So once even my paperwork with the party goes through, I just got the, you know, the
• 16:00
  endorsement from the forward party so I can let you know that I will be running as a forward
• 16:04
  candidate.
• 16:06
  But it's it's coming up soon, and I wanna do you know, I'll be throwing events and doing the
• 16:10
  same stuff I already do.
• 16:12
  I do community events.
• 16:13
  Like, people like you and me are just here to help people, and it's great that we're able to
• 16:19
  do that.
• 16:19
  It's a blessing.
• 16:20
  Right.
• 16:21
  It's almost like the campaigning is the easy part because we've been doing nothing but
• 16:26
  campaigning our whole lives.
• 16:28
  Right?
• 16:28
  You're like,
• 16:29
  oh, you want me to go on tour?
• 16:30
  Okay.
• 16:31
  Let's go.
• 16:32
  Yeah.
• 16:33
  Yeah.
• 16:33
  You want me to go step on stage and perform?
• 16:36
  Alright.
• 16:36
  Yeah.
• 16:37
  Sounds like it should be a time, man.
• 16:39
  Well, hey, brother.
• 16:40
  I gotta get you out of here today.
• 16:41
  We got a busy one, but we're definitely gonna have you back on.
• 16:44
  I'd love to bring you on the Patriot Broadcasting Network when you announce or if
• 16:48
  you wanna use us to officially announce it, and we can turn that episode around real quick.
• 16:52
  We'd love to do that for you.
• 16:54
  I appreciate you, man.
• 16:56
  Awesome, man.
• 16:56
  Well, hey.
• 16:56
  Go ahead and, tell people where they can find you online, and I'll let you get out of here.
• 17:02
  So due to people randomly taking usernames on, like, the best place, just Google MN Motor, m o
• 17:10
  d e r, or motivation, and that that'll show you everywhere I'm at.
• 17:14
  IG is motor two one eight.
• 17:16
  Facebook is MN Motor.
• 17:18
  I did get motivation on TikTok, though.
• 17:21
  I don't know.
• 17:21
  Some dude took motivation in 2015.
• 17:23
  I'm a get him because I'm trademarked now, so I can I can be like, yo?
• 17:27
  That's mine.
• 17:27
  Give it back.
• 17:29
  I love it, man.
• 17:31
  I love it.
• 17:32
  Zach I'd
• 17:33
  love to talk to anyone.
• 17:35
  Yeah.
• 17:35
  Call back.
• 17:36
  Yeah.
• 17:36
  We're gonna do it.
• 17:37
  Well, Zach Motor, motivation, thanks for being part of the scene.
• 17:40
  I appreciate you having me, man.
• 17:42
  Blessed.