Latest / AI for Founders with Ryan Estes / What 50 founders taught me about innovation

Transcript

What 50 founders taught me about innovation · AI for Founders with Ryan Estes

0:00
Hey, friends, welcome back to AI for Founders.
0:02
I'm Ryan Estes and today we're flipping the mic for a special
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50 episode check in with the heart and hustle behind the
0:09
show, the amazing Fernanda. That's right, no guest today,
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just two podcast fans reflecting on how we went from zero to 50
0:17
episodes in six months. We interviewed brilliant minds
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from Singapore to Sao Paulo, building 22,000 plus strong and
0:24
community and launching weird little AI products along the
0:28
way. We talked AI trends, startup
0:31
philosophy, stoicism, thumbnails, batteries, ES camera
0:35
batteries, and what it really means to connect with people.
0:38
Founder to founder, human to human.
0:40
This episode is fun, insightful and full of the same curiosity
0:43
and creativity that launched the whole show.
0:46
Let's go. But first, some business.
0:48
This episode for AI for Founders is brought to you by Kit Caster,
0:52
the podcast agency that helps founders turn conversations into
0:55
conversions. If you're building something
0:58
amazing, you should be talking about it.
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Kit Caster gets you booked on podcasts that matter, podcasts
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your ICP is already listening to.
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With over 15,000 interviews under our belt and a network of
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800 plus founders, we've built the momentum machine that turns
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your story into impound influence and opportunities.
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You build booklearnmore@kickcaster.com and
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tell them Ryan sent you. That's kick caster by MO Burst.
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OK, everyone loves to talk about vision, the pitch, the funding
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2:34
Tremendous. Fernanda, how are you?
2:36
Everything's great. Thank you.
2:38
How about you, Ryan? Excited for the 50 episodes?
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Yeah, I really am. You know, I, I we're talking
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about it and I, I thought it was a, it was good to do.
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Maybe just a check in episode on the podcast.
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We hit 50 episodes really, really quick.
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I mean, we started this in what, February I think?
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I think so, yeah. It's cool.
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So and it's maybe a good opportunity just to to
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reintroduce ourselves to the audience.
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You know, I'll just kind of start, you know, I'm Ryan Estes.
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I am a funded startup founder and entrepreneur with exits.
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I am an investor and I am in a creator and I am an enthusiast
3:17
for podcasting and technology. And of course Fernanda from the
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very beginning has been right in this building the show, booking
3:26
the guests, getting all the momentum going for the show.
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And I, I feel like we've done a pretty good job.
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I'll put it this way. We've, you know, we've worked
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with 800 different founders and booked them on 15,000 plus
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podcasts. And one thing I always tell
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everybody because it's nerve wracking putting yourself out
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there, it's nerve wracking creating content is that don't
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judge it until the 100th episode.
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You know, don't just go out there and do that.
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So I've had to, you know, take my own medicine a little bit it
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because, you know, we've we've definitely iterated, but you
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know, we're halfway to that hundred hundred episode mark.
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And so I thought it was a good time just to check in and talk
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about what we've done so far. Sounds like a very good thing.
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Yeah. So maybe some statistics.
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So it's 50 give or take. But we started originally we
4:17
were going to call the show lift and we talked to founders about
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ways that they they lifted their business, they lifted, you know,
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their lifestyle. But really it what what happened
4:29
is the AI height bubble is so vast and so big.
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It was really the subject we kind of kept coming back to.
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And so, you know, when we talked about it, it's like, hey, let's
4:40
just jump in. Let's just have these
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conversations about AI. And so we kind of pivoted and
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rebranded the the show almost right from the very beginning
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and started going after founders that are launching products,
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especially, you know, we've talked to a bunch of people that
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are in like just the very beginning launch phase, the
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first dozen customers or so and see where they're at.
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You know, so you've been kind of on the front line of doing reach
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our outreach to the different founders.
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How is that process gone and what what's been people's
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reaction? Well, I must say, like most of
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them get very excited to know like their product is breaching
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people and like they feel very honored for us to be in touch
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with them and letting them know. Like we would like to know more
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about their journey and make an interview so that like we can
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know more about their stories. I think like excitement is the
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the main word I would use for them once we reach out.
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I must say as well, like it's a bit of a challenge to coordinate
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the time zones. That's the one thing that I
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think we have bumped into the most.
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But other than that, like, everyone's thrilled to come into
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the show. It's really surprising, right,
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How many founders are, are HQ in Europe and are launching to
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American markets. I mean, I get it from their
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standpoint, but they're, this is probably the biggest surge I've
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seen of like kind of creators outside the United States.
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And I wonder I I'm assuming that we're going to see a lot more of
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that, you know, prior. Yes, and go ahead.
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You can see it like you can see it every week.
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Like I think in the past few weeks there were a lot of
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founders based in Europe. But then I don't know, maybe for
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the past three to four weeks it's been a lot of like Asian
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countries that we get to get in touch with.
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So times definitely get like a little bit more tricky.
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But yeah, I think AI is like reaching everywhere and we're
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like getting in touch with so much people that I don't think
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we will be getting in touch with otherwise.
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AI is like making everyone be friends with everyone.
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Yeah, and it's like really democratizing the tech stack
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because, you know, Silicon Valley has resources to
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unlimited capital, essentially. And so the closer you are there
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and also, you know, it also has like all of the offshoots and
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all the, the big shots from the Googles and all the Fang
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companies that are, are looking for deals.
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It's I mean, it's the optimal place to be.
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But now with, you know, the, the cost of development for AI
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products coming down so fast, pardon me, it really opens up,
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you know, it's going to be interesting.
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I mean, I'm, I'm really waiting to see like Africa come on
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board, you know, because there is so much talent in Africa,
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Nigeria specifically, that like once they're start to, to
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contribute and they start launching products and they're
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able to like market into the US could be a complete game changer
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for the entire continent, you know?
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Definitely. I think we'll be seeing that
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probably very soon, probably more than we expect.
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I know, I know, it's so cool. I mean, especially the way that
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like successful AI tools are developing because it, and we've
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talked about this a lot, but it's like there's kind of two
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components. 1 is that you just hit one button and automagically
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it just works, you know, and, and then the other, it's like
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very single use cases for a specific task.
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Now, of course you got like the big vibe coding platforms, you
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got the big automation platforms, you got people that
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are integrating all these different things.
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There's those players too, but a lot of the software is like,
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hey, it's this little thing that solves this one little thing.
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All you got to do is hit the button.
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And I think if, if that really proliferates, then you're going
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to see like truly like, you know, the entire world, you
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know, mobilizing to create resources for everybody to, to
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enjoy. It's such a cool time, you know?
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Yeah, definitely. I think you touched like on a
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very important point. I think I'm amazed to see how
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specific apps have been getting like people is so creative, you
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know, like they are developing so many new tools that I
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wouldn't even like never think of.
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But for very niche publics or very specific tasks, as you
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mentioned, it's just amazing to see how creativity can like
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actually get exploded with the help of AI and just like sort of
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make our lives easier. Yeah, I know.
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It's amazing. I mean, we started Vibe Coding
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on the podcast maybe three months ago and it was like Bolt
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was new, Lovable was new, all the these platforms are new and
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we're just kind of seeing what we could do.
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And you get kind of sophisticated with the prompts
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and like you're pulling prompts from different ways.
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But boy, now it's like it's moving fast.
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I mean, I'm, I kind of challenged myself to do, to ship
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one product a week. And I've been on that pace 6-7
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weeks, you know, So I have like all these little tools, all
9:48
these little things, I'm putting them into the newsletter like,
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hey, check this out, check this out, check this out.
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Because to that point, it's like you have one little, it's almost
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like novelty products. It's like pet rocks for
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technology. It's kind of what I'm really
10:01
interested in right now is just like, here's a little thing to
10:04
if I can brighten someone's day for 90 seconds, play with this
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thing, you know, and see if you have something like that pop.
10:10
Because ultimately like it just some easy hit this button and
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something cool happens that pops.
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Then you put a login on there. Then you can monetize the
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product. Then you have a community based
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around it, and then you have a brand, you know, which is, you
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know, it's a lofty goal more than anything else.
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It's just cool to like, put something into the world and see
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what people think about it software wise, which prior to
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now was just extremely cost prohibitive and time
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prohibitive. But, you know, now it's like you
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spend 10 minutes on a thing, you're like, that's pretty cool.
10:41
Let's see what people think, yeah?
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Absolutely right. Like we have even like created
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so many things during like our conversations, like if you can
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multitask that, you know, like create an app while you're
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talking to someone. And it, it was just so fast.
10:57
It's so interesting. Like to think of where it'll get
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us. Like it's so much fun just
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messing around and creating new tools to make even like your own
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life easier to make tools for yourself and just like, have fun
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with them. Totally.
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Totally. Yeah.
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I mean, it's, it's really interesting and I'm really
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grateful to you, Fernando, because we've grown so fast.
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I mean, right now we've got probably 22, maybe 23,000
11:26
subscribers, which is unbelievable for starting in
11:30
February. You know, yeah, that's the law.
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It's, it's, it's wild and very grateful for the, for our
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listeners too, and the readers for the, for the newsletter.
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And of course, that's at AI for founders.co.
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You can go check that out, but I'm also going to go through a
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little bit of like kind of what we've done.
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I mean, we've done let's say 50 podcast episodes plus we've done
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a bunch of Tik Toks and stuff like that, which is fun.
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We built out the workshop series, We built out the
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newsletter. Let me go check out the website.
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What else do we have on here? I think that's about it, but it.
12:09
For the time being. Yeah.
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Oh, absolutely. But people have really
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responded, you know, and the, the appetite for this is, is
12:15
very great. And I, I feel like the, the
12:20
temperature is changing a little bit.
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In the beginning, I, I really wanted to spend a lot of time
12:24
thinking about should we do this?
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Should we not do that? And just, I think I've been
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overwhelmed with the enthusiasm and energy of like what people
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are building. You know, there's like some kind
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of apocalyptic future that's always in the in the mist out
12:39
there somewhere. And it's easy to get enraptured
12:42
with that. But what you don't see is that
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like, there's also a utopia and there's also just the world
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we're going to end up in. But what you don't see is all
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the little steps ahead of like everything that's coming and
12:53
that we're seeing right now at this accelerated pace, you know?
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So that's been really, really cool.
13:01
What else have we done? You know, I wanted to mention
13:04
too, there was a great podcast with Theo Von and Sam Altman
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that came out yesterday. And I don't know if you checked
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out much of Theo's stuff. Have you?
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No, I haven't, but I'm sure you're going to go and check
13:16
them out. He's a comedian and he's a total
13:19
goofball and kind of thinks very childlike, you know?
13:23
And he's interviewing Sam Altman.
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I mean, he interviewed Trump on the podcast.
13:28
It was talking about Trump's brothers cocaine addiction.
13:31
I mean, he's pretty, he's a wild guy, but he's interviewing Sam
13:35
Altman, you know, and I could hear a lot of like Theo's kind
13:40
of anxiety and like uncertainty and fear about this whole thing
13:45
that's coming. And I, I really related to it,
13:47
you know, because as much enthusiasm and excitement I have
13:50
there is like, the pace of this movement is like staggering, you
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know, I mean, the folks that we talk to all the time, you know,
14:01
when, when you're looking at products and you're looking at
14:03
tons of products, you know, reaching out to a bunch of
14:05
different founders, what are, what are the products that are
14:07
really like interesting to you? All of them I need like
14:14
something new amazes me everyday.
14:18
Like I said, as I mentioned, I am surprised as how creative
14:23
people is to create like so specific tools and like every
14:29
time I look at something, I think of someone, you know, like
14:32
with every product and I go and look, I, I can think of someone
14:37
that could use that tool. I even like text you every once
14:41
in a while like, Hey, check this out.
14:43
I think this could come in super helpful.
14:46
And I'm like that like 90% of the time, like with every tool I
14:50
go and look, I send it over to someone because I'm sure like
14:54
someone could benefit from it. And I think that's the thing
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that amazes me the most, like how specific and how creative
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people is to think of new tools. Not not like the creation of the
15:07
tools, which is also amazing I'm sure, but like of thinking the
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problem it could be solving. Yeah, totally.
15:17
It's incredible. We, we spoke to so many amazing
15:19
people that are, they're using AI native tools to build AI
15:23
native solutions, which is cool. We've talked to people that
15:27
build platforms so other people can build on top of it.
15:32
You know, we've met people that had existing businesses that are
15:35
now using AI as a wrinkle and, or as like a selling point, you
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know, to, to amplify what they are already doing.
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It's really, it's just so fascinating.
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I'm, I'm enjoying it so much. It's so cool.
15:47
I mean, I'm putting out like two or three episodes a week, which
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is a crazy clip. I don't know how how long we'll
15:55
keep this, this rhythm up, but probably forever because I, I
15:58
mean, I just love it so much. It's so cool.
16:01
And I also want to give shout out to our sponsors because
16:04
we're getting a lot more inbound inquiry about that, you know,
16:08
shout out to kick caster, shout out to MO Burst, shout out to
16:11
code story. What's up, Noah?
16:14
You know, and we're getting more and more inquiries about
16:16
sponsorship opportunities and, and honestly, you know, I think
16:20
we've been very selective and we'll be very selective because
16:24
I'm kind of protective of the audience we have, you know, our
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audience is probably 90% founders.
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You know, I'd say at least half of those are funded.
16:32
You know, so it's like these are folks that don't have time for
16:36
McDonald's ads or GEICO ads or something like that.
16:39
But really I want to be able to find resources that can serve a
16:43
founder community. You know, I think people come to
16:46
the podcast because, you know, they're looking for tools that
16:49
will help their life, you know, and so I think there's a little
16:53
responsibility of with that. And I think as we kind of grow
16:56
and build out more sponsorship opportunities, that's going to
17:00
be considered pretty heavily, you know, so the sponsors we
17:03
have now, you know, super happy to, to have that support and,
17:07
and to be able to, to create content.
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I mean, it's, it's great. One thing I wanted to do is I
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was just going to go through and do a little recap of some
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highlights, at least from me. So go ahead.
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So probably my favorite episode so far, and no disrespect to
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anybody else, was Nikhil from Vapi.
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And I'll I'll tell you why. That dude just look cool, man.
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I was like, God, I I wish I had cool long hair like that and he
17:36
had a cool shirt. It's just like a great energy.
17:39
I mean, it's been cool to get to know him and, and, and bro down
17:43
a little bit and the, the product that he's using.
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I think we've probably interviewed two or three people
17:48
that have actually built tools with VAPI.
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I mean, he really is on the, the forefront of audio agents with
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AI. So that was a really cool
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perspective and especially our conversation because for
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whatever reason, I was feeling extra philosophic and like
18:03
catastrophic. So I kept hitting him with all
18:05
these doomsday scenarios and he was just like laughing it off
18:08
and rolling with it. And it's so.
18:09
Fun, it sounds like. Yeah.
18:15
Another one I really liked was Mariana Padilla.
18:19
She's with Hackerverse dot AI. And largely that was because I
18:23
thought it was a cool like Inverse where she creates teams,
18:28
like red teams that will go attack the AI to see if they can
18:32
break it, you know, and then deliver the results back to the
18:35
product so that they have kind of a seal of approval.
18:37
Like Hackerverse couldn't get into our product.
18:40
But I just love that idea 'cause you were so accustomed to seeing
18:43
like, oh, the machines are attacking the humans or
18:46
something like that, the bots. But in this case, it's like
18:49
revenge of the humans. The humans are attacking the
18:51
bots. I just, I love that kind of
18:53
angle. It sounds very interesting as
18:57
well. Yeah, couple other.
19:01
It stood out. Aaron Painter was fantastic.
19:05
Every once in a while, you know, we'll interview people that are
19:08
absolute true pros with podcasting or interviews and the
19:14
his ability to to speak with clarity and brevity and
19:20
concisely was incredible. I think one thing that I love
19:23
about podcasting is you get to become kind of a connoisseur of
19:29
conversation, you know, where you can hear people that have
19:34
real virtuosity. And I, I truly believe that
19:36
that's a capability. Like in the same way, you know,
19:41
you could happy boss or like Beethoven and have virtuosity
19:45
with the piano or your Prince or your Jimi Hendrix, you got
19:48
virtuosity with a guitar. I think that some people can use
19:52
their their conversation virtuously and you, you can
19:58
probably everybody can relate to this.
19:59
When you're having a conversation with someone like
20:01
that, the back of your neck starts tingling and you're like,
20:03
whoa, whatever is in your brain is vibrating through your, your
20:08
vocal cords into the air. And it's like affecting me like
20:11
I can like, I'm getting it, you know, And I'm not saying I was
20:15
getting chills listening to Aaron Painter to.
20:18
Speak almost sounds like. But I was very impressed with
20:24
his like poise and his ability to like deliver on an interview.
20:27
It's really cool and kind of inspirational, you know?
20:30
Yeah, And I think that's something that's very hard to
20:33
achieve online. You know, like, it's way easier
20:36
to like sort of have a presence when you're like face to face
20:41
with someone, like in the real world.
20:43
But then to have the presence online, I think it's something
20:47
to be respectful for. It definitely is a virtue.
20:52
Yeah, You know, a couple of other things that stood out.
20:55
You know, I just interviewed Seva.
20:57
He was fantastic, great guy, but a little bit older, you know,
21:01
and I love speaking to people that are like generation above
21:04
me, you know, or a generation or two.
21:07
I feel like the perspective is, is really, really interesting.
21:10
And when he was talking about really kind of being in Silicon
21:13
Valley from like the late 80s all the way till now, I mean,
21:17
what he said really stuck with me because it's like, it's like,
21:20
OK, you've seen the rise of personal computing, the birth of
21:23
the Internet, the.com burst Web 2 Point O cloud, and now AI.
21:30
And the question was like, you know, what's been the most
21:32
exciting time like in technology with all of that advancement,
21:37
all those leaps and bounds? He's like, right now.
21:41
He's like, all right. Yeah.
21:47
You know, cool. Another thing, I think it's been
21:49
really cool that we've had so many women founders.
21:53
You know, I, I there, there's always kind of a trope and I it
21:56
maybe it's true, but that like women are somehow overlooked in
22:01
STEM, in science, technology, you know, entrepreneurship, like
22:06
all these things that somehow women aren't being represented.
22:10
And I always was kind of like, man, I know so many cool women
22:14
doing so many cool things in, in business and in STEM.
22:18
And I feel like the podcast has really represented that.
22:20
Like we've had so many women founders that are like dynamic
22:24
and strong and smart. It's just I, I wonder, and I'm
22:28
not discrediting people's experience because I'm sure
22:30
there are, you know, still pigs out there that make it weird for
22:33
women. But man, the the creativity and
22:38
entrepreneurial spirit and women is alive and well on this
22:40
podcast at least. Man, we've had some really
22:42
strong ones, especially the last couple of weeks.
22:48
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24:01
defining together. And, you know, I actually try
24:07
and look for women when I'm looking for products and I try
24:10
like to e-mail them first because I know, I know it's like
24:13
hard for women to like get their boys out there in every
24:18
industry. So it's it's amazing.
24:21
Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that because it's
24:24
it's important. You know, it could become the
24:26
Bros Club really quick and nothing wrong with the Bros club
24:31
either. But it is really cool.
24:32
You know, Emma or L was amazing, Jenna was amazing.
24:37
And that was just last week. There's so many the Europeans
24:41
that's been really interesting. But I think more than anything,
24:43
too, it's digging deeper. You know, I think one thing
24:47
about learning how to be a good interviewer, which I feel like
24:51
I'm a student of, I want to be good at this is, is that just a
24:55
simple question of like, tell me more about that.
24:58
Tell me more about that. And what happens is then you get
25:01
to really the, the, the, the bones, the, the scaffolding or,
25:07
or we'll say the, the marrow of the bone, the empty bone, you
25:11
know, what's in the middle. And so many times there's been
25:14
so many stories of like, oh, yeah, I grew up in the jungle.
25:18
You're like, what? Or oh, yeah, I got some
25:22
presidential award from the president of Italy.
25:24
You know, that was Al, you know, had great.
25:28
It caught conversations about meditation, one, because I
25:31
really like that subject matter. But people will talk about
25:34
meditating. It's like, no, no, no, tell me
25:35
more about that. And then that becomes the whole
25:38
episode because, you know, it's it's really interesting
25:41
experiences. I mean, what was his name?
25:45
Steven, you know, talked about his UFOUAP experiences, you
25:51
know, and that he may have been channeling them in his
25:54
meditation. I'm like, dude, I'm opened for
25:56
that. But I think that's the other
26:00
thing that oftentimes gets overlooked is there's like a a
26:04
Linkedinification of like business where you're supposed
26:08
to be like some kind of, you know, robot that has that has
26:14
pithy quotes and is like gung ho capitalism.
26:18
But especially founders are creative, sensitive people and
26:22
they have interesting lives and interesting backstories.
26:25
And like, I think as we get into the next 50, that's going to be
26:29
the, the challenge I put on myself is that, you know, let's
26:32
really go in and find out who these folks are as people, Like
26:35
what, what are the inner mechanisms that make them tick?
26:39
And a lot of times I think they're probably a little bit,
26:41
they might be a little embarrassing, they might be a
26:43
little weird or whatever. But I think we all could relate
26:46
to that because we got the embarrassing and weird things
26:48
inside of us that, you know, when you hear people relate to
26:52
that, then it's like, wow, look at this guy, you know, raised
26:55
$88 million and has a blockbuster product, but he's
26:58
got the same little weird quirks that I do.
27:00
I think it's inspirational for a lot of founders and a lot of
27:03
creators that, you know, in the beginning, you got to really
27:06
overcome. You got to really be brave, I
27:08
think. Absolutely.
27:10
That's so true. Like every time you get, like,
27:14
to relate to someone that you admire, it just feels so much
27:18
more real and like, yeah, you get like, the sense of like, you
27:21
can accomplish a lot more than you could everything right,
27:25
Like. Yeah, to relate to someone, I
27:28
think it's very powerful. And not everyone has that
27:31
ability to like get to the core of the story.
27:34
And I think definitely that's something that you you have you
27:38
have on yourself. You ask the right.
27:40
Questions. Thanks Fernanda.
27:42
I I got room to improve, but it's, it's a fun process to
27:45
practice, you know, like being able to be introduced to
27:49
somebody and then connect deeply by the end of a 45 minute
27:53
conversation. It's magical, you know, it's,
27:57
it's, it's amazing. It's, I think it like brings out
28:00
like our, our highlights, really kind of our most noble human
28:04
characteristics, which is the ability to connect, you know,
28:08
especially when we're in, like you said, we're talking to
28:10
people that are in London, we're talking to people that are in
28:13
Singapore, we're talking to people that are in Israel.
28:15
We're talking to people all over the planet.
28:18
But because of this weird world we live in, you can actually
28:21
make genuine connections. And I really felt like I have
28:24
with, with a lot of these folks, you know, the, the other theme
28:29
that keeps coming up and I'll be interested to see if it
28:31
continues is just Stoicism. And I, I suppose it's maybe it's
28:37
no surprise, but for people that come across Stoicism as like a
28:41
philosophy, it's very liberating, you know, and I, I
28:45
think probably the people that are looking for, they're looking
28:48
into the world with their eyes and with their hands and their,
28:52
the, their sounds, the tendrils of like, how can I make this
28:56
thing that's so hard? You know, being a founder is so
28:59
hard. Being, putting yourself
29:00
creatively into the world is so hard that you, you need fuel.
29:05
And like, if you find stoicism, my gosh, that's the fuel you
29:10
need because it's, it's unapologetically neutral.
29:15
It's just, it's like, yes, it is hard.
29:18
So what there's always kind of this challenge.
29:21
It's not trying to like solve any problems for you.
29:25
Rather it's like, yeah, problems exist.
29:27
What's up now? You know, So it, it's really
29:30
cool to see that. I would say 90% of the guests
29:35
have talked about Stoicism as being like an important thing in
29:38
their life. And there was probably for a
29:40
while I was asking everybody, you know, if you could live in
29:43
any era besides this one or the future, which era would it be?
29:49
And like half of the people were like Rome, ancient Rome.
29:55
And then and then another 25% were like the 70s.
30:00
I was like, wow, so many people wanted to live in the 70s.
30:04
That's interesting. And that, you know, like
30:07
understood like a pattern there. Like why did they choose those
30:11
two eras? I don't know.
30:14
I mean, I think the Rome thing comes from the Stoicism thing,
30:18
you know, like they're like, Oh yeah, that was, you know, I want
30:21
to be around Seneca and all the, you know, Pablo Augustus and all
30:27
these guys that they want to be around the Stoic.
30:29
So that makes sense. Plus there's also that meme that
30:31
went around that, you know, men think about ancient Rome like 25
30:35
times a day. Yes.
30:37
So it could be part of it too. Probably.
30:42
But you know, it a couple of things too.
30:44
I want to talk about some experiments I've been doing as
30:47
far as YouTube. YouTube's really hard to build
30:50
an audience on. You know, the, the, the whatever
30:54
20,000 plus Subs we have, I mean, 300 of them are on
30:58
YouTube. And we've had some shorts that
31:00
have done really well. We've had certain episodes, the
31:03
Fernanda episodes, I'm not surprised, do really, really
31:07
well for us, but some don't. And so it's like trying to
31:11
figure out the algo of YouTube has been kind of a fun nut to
31:15
try and crack, you know. So a couple of things I've done.
31:18
I did kind of a standardized classic pointing at words thing
31:22
YouTube thumbnail. I was doing kind of this cartoon
31:26
motif with robots in the background and that did pretty
31:30
good. And then I alt I changed that to
31:32
like a hyper realistic image. I think there's something kind
31:35
of, you know, you know, finger on the nose about like using all
31:39
these AI generative things for the AI podcast is kind of a wink
31:43
at everybody. And, and so I would say like,
31:46
OK, you know, where would you be?
31:48
And then like the 70s, so I put them in the 70s for the
31:51
thumbnail, you know, and then of course, I'm always like making,
31:54
you know, myself much more attractive in the thumbnail than
31:58
I am because why not? You know what I mean?
32:03
It's like I'd put a picture in there and do like OK, regenerate
32:07
this hyper realistic and it would give me this image back.
32:09
I'm like make him 25% more attractive.
32:13
Like what are we doing so then? It's I'm definitely I'm there
32:19
and paying more attention to those images because I don't
32:22
think have notice like that much detail on them.
32:26
Yeah, so, you know, I'm really playing with and experimenting
32:29
with the thumbnails because I know that has a big, that's a
32:33
big thing on YouTube, you know, And when you go back and look, I
32:36
try and thread like, OK, what are our big hits?
32:39
You know, with the subject lines?
32:42
I'm doing a lot of hooks on the subject lines just to get people
32:45
in the front door. You know, AL's podcast had a
32:48
bunch of spins. James Flynn, he was in what?
32:54
He was in Ireland. He had a bunch of spins.
32:58
That was really cool. Our podcast had a big one.
33:03
I mean, shout out to Jake and Vince.
33:05
We've done a couple of episodes with with Jake's an old buddy of
33:08
mine, but like that dude just speaks in pure poetry.
33:11
He's like one of the most musical persons I know and an
33:14
experienced podcaster and just so fun because he's got just
33:17
enough of a sardonic take on everything that is he.
33:21
He is also one of the whole most hilarious people.
33:24
So shout out to him. We're going to have Jake back
33:26
on. He always does.
33:26
Well. Who else did we have?
33:31
Oh, Omni Key, He was amazing. Hikaru, you know when he was
33:35
talking about like his grandfather and stuff.
33:38
Unbelievable. So cool.
33:43
So like, I'm amazed at the how detailed you remember the
33:47
conversations with each of your guests.
33:51
Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're so unique and
33:53
distinct that our number one most highest performing episode
33:59
was with Ledge. And he's from what's the name of
34:03
his company? I don't want to say it wrong.
34:04
I'm going to find it real quick. It's listen Network and he does
34:09
podcast advertising. So he turned on the juice for
34:13
for the for the interview and boy, did it work.
34:16
I mean, it was a massive spike of listeners for that episode,
34:19
which was really cool. Shout out to Ledge.
34:21
I love that guy. He was, it's cool.
34:25
So, yeah, you know, I, I mean, I feel like that's a good recap of
34:29
the 1st 50 episodes. We could call that a season.
34:31
Maybe we'll be in call this season 2.
34:34
But if we did, you know, February, March, April, May,
34:36
June, July, 6 months, 50 episodes and six months is
34:39
pretty crazy. You know it.
34:41
It's not. That's a lot of recording.
34:44
I have a question. How many camera batteries do you
34:49
use per day? I mean, recording 50 episodes in
34:52
six months, that must be like a number.
34:55
I think the record is five. I went on to the fifth battery.
35:01
That's amazing. Yeah, I, I tried to move
35:04
everything to Tuesday. So now I'm doing 4 interviews on
35:10
Tuesday. But which, you know, the first
35:15
week I looked at the calendar, I was like, whoa, this is, this is
35:19
a lot. But I was so jazzed and like, I
35:21
just, it just feeds me, you know?
35:23
So that seems to be better to block one day and really bang
35:27
out a bunch of episodes as opposed to kind of putting them
35:32
in between, you know, the rest of my day.
35:34
That seems to work pretty good. How about goals?
35:37
What do you have for goals for the next 50 episode?
35:40
What would you like to achieve? Oh, I think getting more like
35:49
getting in touch with more people and being able like to
35:54
reach like bigger founders. Yeah, bigger.
36:00
How do you like bigger? Like bigger companies?
36:04
Yeah, it's going to be kind of hard.
36:06
I mean, we've got some. It would be cool to have
36:10
founders from unicorns for sure. That would be great.
36:12
And I feel like we're in striking distance, of course.
36:15
I mean, if we had 0 listeners, and we certainly did and signed
36:18
a bunch of interviews. Shout out to those people for
36:20
believing in this right from the beginning.
36:23
But even with with 0 listeners, I feel like I can put on as good
36:28
a podcast as anybody. And I would love to have those
36:31
conversations because we have had, you know, companies that
36:34
have raised hundreds of millions of dollars and have billion
36:36
dollar valuations. But to really lock in on some of
36:40
these, like major players would be really cool.
36:44
I think that that would be like one of my main goals for the
36:47
next 50 episodes. Like now I think a lot of people
36:50
like, well, I, I, I don't think like lots of people know the
36:55
podcast now. So I think he will be like
36:58
easier to reach, like beat your companies.
37:01
Yeah, look at that little horse. Yeah, she wanted to come say hi.
37:08
Totally, Yeah, that's a great goal.
37:10
I, I would love to get the audience up to 50,000, but I'd
37:15
also like, I'm going to put a little bit more effort into the
37:18
social aspect and getting some of those clips out.
37:21
That's, that's been the hard thing to do with like kind of
37:23
the, the production that we're putting out is getting the
37:26
shorts published. So I'm going to work on that and
37:30
really work on a couple of different things.
37:32
What I've been doing the last few episodes too, is I'll talk
37:36
to the guest before we air and I say, Hey, we're going to, I want
37:38
to hear your story. We're going to go into your
37:40
story. But also we could do this little
37:43
short on YouTube where it's like, give me a step by step
37:46
instructions of something you're an expert in that can help other
37:50
founders. And we, I did one of those that
37:53
was with James and like he, he 10X the, the viewership on, on
37:58
YouTube with that, you know, because it's like, I think it
38:01
was what, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes.
38:04
But then everything, all the content you're getting isn't
38:07
necessarily a podcast. Rather it's like, Hey, do these
38:09
things like this. And you can expect this outcome,
38:13
which I think, you know, for the listener becomes just like super
38:15
valuable because, you know, because our listeners are so
38:20
many founders and entrepreneurs and they're all looking for tips
38:23
and tricks. And I'm talking to people that
38:24
are so successful. It's like, why not just add that
38:27
like extra little bit Now? So far everyone's been really
38:30
enthusiastic about it. And that sounds like a very
38:34
interesting like sort of clips to listen to and short like if
38:39
you get like that out of every interview, it would be of great
38:44
success. Totally amazing.
38:48
Well, Fernanda, this has been so fun.
38:49
I I think we'll get to another 50 by Christmas and then we'll
38:53
we can then we can safely judge ourselves to see what kind of
38:57
show we've created. Let's find out.
39:01
Looking forward to it. Thanks Fernanda.
39:05
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