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Faith, Comics and a Calling with Alejandro and Noah Caballero · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, welcome to Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm here with Alejandro and Noah.
• 0:05
  They're with Edge Comics.
• 0:07
  They're a Christian based father and son duo that wrote a comic book.
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  How cool is that?
• 0:13
  So tell us, gentlemen, how did you get started in business?
• 0:17
  Well, um, it came by God closing a door and then opening up a new one.
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  I was I'm I'm still am, a professional musician, orchestral musician and an educator.
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  And after being in an orchestra for fifteen years, uh, with during the Covid era and all of that, with there was a lot of change up with uh administration and leadership and
• 0:41
  whatever, and over half the orchestra was fired.
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  I was among those that were fired that were let go.
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  And for an entire year, uh all the people that I knew in the industry, uh, all my connections to like the opera and all those other places, they all changed.
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  So I had literally no performances.
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  I had nothing for an entire year.
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  And during this time, my son, Noah, is he's he's coming up with these ideas and uh with of these characters.
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  and one in particular.
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  um And me being a huge comic book fan since I was a kid, I just asked him questions.
• 1:23
  Okay, great.
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  So why would he want to do such and such?
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  So what would his outfit look like given what he's trying to do?
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  What is his name?
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  All that s type of things.
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  And he just he just just to get him thinking, and he just developed his character based on the questions.
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  And it got to the point where he started developing this little world of characters.
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  And he came up with this with this whole other character that was more angelic in nature, uh, that fit out of the box of what he was already creating.
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  So I created a character when I was in high school, and I decided, well, hey, that I took that out of the drawer, I dust blew the dust off of it and said, Take these are all of my
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  ideas that I had back in the day.
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  See if there's something you would like to do with any of it.
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  It's yours.
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  And I I honestly I had two dreams in my life.
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  One was to be a professional musician at any capacity.
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  And or the second one was to be an artist, a comic book artist back when I was in middle school.
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  Um obviously I chose the path of music.
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  I figured that was long gone.
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  I I looked at this as a you know, a David moment where David wants to build the temple, but God says no, that's for your son to complete, not you.
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  So I kinda figured this is this is his thing.
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  So I gave him all my ideas and a week later I asked him, So is there anything you can use?
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  And he says, you know.
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  I want you to do it.
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  That's what I said.
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  Exactly.
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  And that threw me for a loop.
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  I I I said I I don't have time for that.
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  And I pre
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  about it and God said you're wrong you do have because that's done.
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  So all of a sud I started to redevelop the story and make and then long story short, you know, here we are.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Um, really I mean for me it really just started out um because I've from a young age I've really liked, you know, sketching and drawing and
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  I would just replicate comic book pages and I'd be in math class and I'd just be sketching in my math journal because that was my least favorite subject.
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  Always will be.
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  I'd zone out and start sketching.
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  And I came up with a really cool character sketch that evolved into what we have today, and I showed him, and that's really where it took off.
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  Because to me it wasn't like I don't want to take your ideas.
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  I want both of us to develop our ideas together and make something cohesive.
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  And what was interesting about that is
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  that our stories are our characters actually very different.
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  On the other hand, as we started writing our stories, just to give you a quick idea, our number one issues where we start unknowing at first, we didn't do this on purpose, they
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  both deal with the same thing, but at different capacities.
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  You know, uh, you know, they're superheroes, right?
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  And all that, so we're dealing with
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  things in the world.
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  So he's talking about human trafficking, the more in the you know, in the city and minds more international.
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  And next thing you know, we we just saw some similarities and then we just said, well, wouldn't it be cool if they you know somehow crossed over.
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  Right.
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  And then we kind of just imagined it it's like somehow we were on our separate creative tracks, but they met together.
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  And it just supernaturally came together.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  God doing right now with your comics and your impact in your community and with the people you talk to?
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  So um right now we
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  Just been introduced to this really new, convenient, and affordable way of marketing, which is like one of the most important things you can have in the business world.
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  we got hooked up with this platform AWIN, and um I was sending invites upon invites to all these affiliate marketers, and there's this one, this big one, a huge following and um
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  super um focused on our niche, and he responded he accepted, so now we're happy to be
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  Business partners with them, and um we've been going to cons for the past few years, uh conventions, and we've met a bunch of indie creators.
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  And one of our things was we know the challenge of building a uh a business for comics, and we want to make sure that we can help creators in the future.
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  We want to scale so that we can soon help other creatives.
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  And it just so happened that a bunch of um independent comic companies we'd come across were now collaborating.
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  with to make this huge anthology and so now what we thought was just a dream of helping others, now it's already this community of comic book people and it's amazing.
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  Yes.
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  And um it's it it really is a great thing just being able to connect to the compu community and all the readers that we actually end up meeting at our at our conventions
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  where they you can see the interfaces when they buy the first issue, they're like and then they come back either later that day or the next day
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  And it said I want more.
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  I want more.
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  I want to buy everything because the stories are really impactful, especially when we're talking about other countries or other things, and then the people say, I'm from that
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  country.
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  I this is this is it.
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  Yeah.
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  And just connections that we never thought um we'd be making and it's it's amazing.
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  Yeah.
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  So tell me, how has faith impacted what you do?
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  Like when you're having these conversations, does that ever turn into a faith conversation?
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  Sometimes.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Um, I went to uh
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  I first started out at a uh an arts high school.
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  It's called New World School of the Arts.
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  Um, that was an interesting experience for me.
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  I'm not there anymore.
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  I left.
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  But um in my time there I was taught a lot of things.
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  not academically, but just in terms of faith in life.
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  Um, and there my faith was really tested and there people would be like, Oh, this business, what what's making you do that?
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  And, you know
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  We go to we go to this church called New Life Sanctuary and this wonderful couple um they're super you know in tune with the spirit and one day they came up and you know
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  they're talking about you know the book and they're like continue this because God's gonna use this Yeah and I told them I was like I don't have to know when or how it's gonna work
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  but I know it's gonna work and that's why I'm doing this.
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  Mm-hmm and I know God's gonna use it in some way, so I'm just gonna keep going.
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  And I have a peace knowing that
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  somehow, somewhere, something's gonna come out of this.
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  Yeah.
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  That that that school being being in the arts industry at any uh capacity, having been a professional musician for so many years, um th let's just say you encounter a lot of
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  different aspects of the world in those spaces.
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  and uh the
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  The school that he was going to, although it was a very good arts school, it really was, especially uh what was going on or what happens to be going on all over the world, uh,
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  it's it was just a I think God put him there because it was a good microcosm of everything that's out there.
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  But being a good microcosm also made it very concentrated.
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  So it um the growth that he had in that year was
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  Incredible because it you s really see him firm up in his faith and be able to really articulate himself very well.
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  And then on top of that, it it changed both of our writing because I had to sit there and help and and and listen to what he was going through and let him understand what that art
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  space has and be able to help at least guide him through.
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  Uh in some cases, counsel, but in other cases just kind of help just
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  This is what you're gonna be dealing with.
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  Right.
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  Um, and it let us change even our writing 'cause uh just the the way his character, the scribe actually brings about the truth and what he has to go through to to put it out
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  there on social media and everything else and how he gets attacked for it.
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  Um i and the way he's putting it in, it's you can tell is totally derived from those experiences.
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  Right.
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  And for my character even, as he's going throughout the ages and now is in these situations where he has
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  he has to literally speak the word in order to make a difference.
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  Um it's we've become more unashamed of what we need to share.
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  Right.
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  And that's that's something people don't realize how impactful story is to culture.
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  And when you get around artists, I I went to art school myself, and when you get around artists, there's there's a whole different mindset.
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  There's a there's that creativity and you go you pull it back to God and God is a God of creativity.
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  And when you tap into that, God does amazing stuff with your stories, with your impact.
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  It's it's cool to see how you went to a school that impacted the way you looked at the world, that impacted the way you wrote your stories.
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  I love that that line through there and everything.
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  Yeah.
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  He doesn't absolutely one thing that you'll learn when you know, you you're on your your uh Christ journey is that it's it's never linear.
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  Humans are always linear.
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  It's I'm gonna buy a house, I'm gonna do this, I don't wanna do this, and I have a schedule, I'm gonna meet it this way.
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  But nothing about what he does is linear.
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  You look at nature, it's not linear, it's a system.
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  So that's where you have to have faith.
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  Well, Alejandro, you did a good job.
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  You raised this young man right.
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  I love his story.
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  So we're gonna take a switch and we're gonna talk about some business growth tips.
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  I know you guys are heavy on Instagram.
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  So tell how you how are you using Instagram to influence people and impact the world?
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  So for Instagram, you really want to put out like this is how I envision it.
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  Your Instagram should be your booth at a Comic-Con.
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  So someone's walking by your profile and they should see everything you're about, everything you can do, everything you're doing, mm-hmm, and immediately be hooked.
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  That's how we're we're using that.
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  You want to put your best visuals, you wanna make your elevator pitches and your in the captions and in the bio so that they see exactly who you are and they don't have to
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  question.
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  'Cause when people don't have to think, it makes it way easier to just relate to a business.
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  And so that's how we're using Instagram.
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  But we have other just like
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  Business growth tips like affiliate marketers is a big thing.
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  Because marketing it is so expensive and it's and there's so many different ways to market.
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  And it's the most important thing for anyone.
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  It really is.
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  Because you need to make sure that especially with when you're coming to something, you know, that's artistic, the the biggest thing is the visual.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  It really is.
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  and so it's getting out getting it out to people's faces.
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  So thinking outside of the box and
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  being able to look at things not just the traditional ways that are they they they they accomplish what they need to accomplish, but it it it it robs you of everything that you
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  could possibly earn.
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  And let me catch our readers up right quick.
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  Affiliate marketing means that you're having links to another product and you may get an extra little bit of income for sending people to that product.
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  And it could be anything.
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  You could be like a computer that you draw on or something, something that's related to your specific industry.
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  What are some affiliate products that you guys have aligned with?
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  Well actually we we are not selling other people's affiliate products.
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  We've actually gotten to where we are selling our product through affiliates.
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  Through affiliates.
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  That's that's the growth tip.
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  Yeah.
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  So
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  you're you're maximizing your cells by allowing others to be affiliates for you.
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  Yeah.
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  we figured, you know, it's a great thing to put the our product, our stories and everything in front of other people's eyes when they themselves can also profit from from
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  our product.
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  Yeah.
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  So we we wanna help, you know, we can prosper if we can also help other people's pro people prosper.
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  Yeah.
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  So
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  using Instagram to leverage these relationships, tell us if somebody's like totally new, they've never heard of Instagram and they're like, I want to get started.
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  How do you get started?
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  What are those three things that you should focus on to get started on Instagram?
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  Instagram?
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  Okay.
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  So on Instagram and really any social media.
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  Don't position yourself as I'm selling this.
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  You're not selling a product, you're not selling your business.
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  The the customers or consumers are joining what like what we do is join the edge comics family, join the edge comics universe.
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  They're join they're becoming part of something bigger.
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  They're not making a purchase.
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  Yeah, they're not making just a measly little purchase.
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  They're it's more than that.
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  So positioning is a big part of that.
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  Um another thing is just yeah, it really is all the visuals.
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  And a big thing is CTA, which is like um one that we do it it's also positioning.
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  You don't wanna just sell something.
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  And that's the most important part.
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  'Cause on Instagram you have retention rates and if you have a bad CTA, you'll see your retention go way down.
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  People will just
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  who are listening.
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  CTA, if you're not up with us, it means call to action.
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  So at the end of your post, you have some kind of call to action, go to my link, go to my store and buy something.
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  It's a specific call to action based on what you're posting on your social.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Correct.
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  And the great thing is that when you're looking at Instagram, I guess you really should just couple it it's just meta, right?
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  So you have Instagram plus Facebook.
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  So uh and so Instagram is that storefront that allows you to see everything that's there.
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  You have the and if you couple that with Facebook, that's a similar thing, but that can give you a little bit more of a story behind it because it's more people do more reading
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  on Facebook than they do on on Instagram.
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  Um and then you have we just started even uh a TikTok page.
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  Yeah, like just yeah.
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  Just recently.
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  There's not a whole lot on it yet, but there's there's we're we're putting some material on there.
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  And that's literally the poster.
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  Yeah.
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  TikTok is a poster that
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  see splattered on a wall somewhere, uh when you're walking on the street or or at the bus stop and it's happens to be right there.
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  But that's that's what that is.
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  So it's just leveraging all of those types of things there.
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  the paid ads, uh all I'm gonna say is that if you venture into that category, do it strategically because it can get it it can be very draining.
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  Yeah.
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  Don't don't put your faith in the ads.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah, and it's AI's taking over the the way ads run nowadays.
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  They're all looking the same.
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  They're all managed the same.
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  So you're gonna that's a whole different ballgame.
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  We need to get somebody on here to talk about ads on another day.
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  Exactly.
• 16:20
  So as we start to end up here, what are some what's the final tip of wisdom you want to leave our audience with and how can we get in touch with you?
• 16:27
  So um one tip I really have um is
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  It it's based off this quote The devil can't take what God gave you but he can get you to put it down.
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  Mhm.
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  So just h hold and um hold fast to your calling and just keep going.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  And um, you know, just venture and and dream big.
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  If you don't dream big, you don't dream at all, right?
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  And just right have a good work ethic.
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  That's really all it comes down to.
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  Yeah.
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  Hard work beats talent every time.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  uh musically speaking, I know for a fact that I have
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  known many people in that industry that just practice more and outplay everyone else, no matter how talented they are.
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  And artist-wise, it's the same.
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  so keep at it.
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  And when it comes to the quote that he gave, which is a really good quote, the um he's gonna get the enemy gets you to put things down.
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  By just delaying the success, by putting enough things in front of you that are gonna have you fail a few times, and you're going to, we all make mistakes.
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  But don't let that discourage you to the point to where you just decide to abandon what God has given you to do.
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  And I think s and we've heard this in in uh at our church many occasions or getting counsel uh elsewhere, and that is
• 17:56
  you're people always quit or just decide to change what what they're doing right before the breakthrough.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  So don't stop.
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  Have faith because God can do all things and just keep your eye on him and he's gonna see you through it no matter what.
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  So that's what we gotta say.
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  That's a good word.
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  I love that because it's so easy to get distracted, especially in today's world where so many things are coming at you.
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  But if God gives you that goal, keep that goal in front of you and focus in on that.
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  Keep moving forward towards that goal.
• 18:27
  So how can somebody get in touch with if they're listening in on this?
• 18:30
  Um
• 18:31
  First and foremost, Instagram.
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  Instagram, Instagram.
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  our website, we have a bunch of ways you can contact us on our website and our beacon that'll be on there.
• 18:41
  And then soon on Instagram and on our website, you'll see that we're gonna promoting promoting our Patreon.
• 18:46
  Yeah.
• 18:47
  So that's another big thing.
• 18:48
  And of course, even though our emails and all this stuff are are on all of those different platforms, especially our website, edgecomicshub dot com, um, but our email info at
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  edgecomicshub dot com.
• 19:00
  Okay, Edge Comics Hub and you find them on Instagram with edge underscore comics.
• 19:05
  Thanks for being with us today, gentlemen.
• 19:07
  Of course.
• 19:08
  Thank you.
• 19:08
  You have a great one.
• 19:09
  God bless.