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X and Bluesky Launch Vertical Video Feeds · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that
• 0:08
  shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neurolink.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Will Walden. How is Tik Tok's uncertain
• 0:18
  future in the United States fueling competition in social
• 0:22
  media right now? Also, what makes Blue Skies
• 0:26
  decentralized model a unique approach in video?
• 0:29
  And can X and Blue Sky truly attract Tik Tok's user base by
• 0:33
  mimicking its short form video format?
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  Now X has unveiled a new vertical video feed added to
• 0:42
  their X United States app. It's accessible via a dedicated
• 0:47
  video tab in the bottom navigation bar and it's very
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  similar to TikTok in some ways. There's a continuous scroll
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  through short form videos similar also to YouTube and
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  Instagram and all the other short form TikTok style video
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  platforms out there right now, and it integrates into Axis
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  video first multimedia approach. They've had live video for a
• 1:10
  while. They used to have live video a
• 1:12
  long time ago too. When I was doing my Space news
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  pod channel on YouTube, I specifically went over to
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  Twitter when it was Twitter to do their live video streaming.
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  You couldn't make any money on it.
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  It wasn't like it is now where it's all monetized.
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  You could get things called stars, I believe, and you could
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  earn stars, which then turned into something which we didn't
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  know what it was, but it was kind of like magical fairy dust.
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  Nobody really got any money from it, but you could become popular
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  if you did a bunch of live stuff on Twitter at that point.
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  But you know, because it was all there's always video is called
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  Periscope back then, but now short form video has taken over.
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  TikTok is in the dumps because of the new administration and
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  because of the Supreme Court. But are they going to come back?
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  Well, Apple's App Store has kicked them off.
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  We don't think they're going to go back in the App Store because
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  why would they risk it? Also, Android App Store out of
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  there, too. There's huge, huge penalties if
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  you break the law. And Apple and Google would both.
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  The Google Play Store would both see huge fines for this.
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  So the these new additions to X aim to attract Tik Tok's user
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  base during its period of uncertainty.
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  So even if they could capture some of that millions of
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  followers, that's a plus for X right now.
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  But here's another thing. Blue Sky, the kind of direct
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  competitor to X Basically it's it was what Twitter used to be.
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  Blue Sky now features a vertical video feed under the Explore
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  tab. Users can swipe through training
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  videos, pin feeds to their home screen, or create targeted feeds
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  based on specific hashtags. So when you do that, you don't
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  have to worry about an algorithm.
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  Videos are capped at 59 seconds, so under one minute.
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  And it's built on Blue Skies decentralized AET protocol
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  enabling developer customization.
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  It's customizable and user driver driven video experience
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  tailored to individual preferences as opposed to them
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  feeding you a bunch of stuff like TikTok used to do.
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  Now TikTok faces on scrutiny or scrutiny now and uncertainty in
• 3:37
  the United States over data security concerns and ties to
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  its Chinese parent company. Excuse me, it's kind of late
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  here. So if I stumble a little bit,
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  that's why Chinese parent company Byte Dance.
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  US ban narrowly avoided in the past, but future restrictions
• 3:56
  remain possible in the coming months.
• 4:00
  You know, platforms like X and Blue Sky are responding to Tik
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  Tok's ban by basically mimicking TikTok features that other
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  people might want to use. If you don't think you'll ever
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  be. I mean, the, the App Store is
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  you can't download the apps anymore.
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  You can't download TikTok anymore and if X can get some of
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  that user base because they do something very similar to
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  TikTok, it's not the same. It won't feel the same.
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  And Blue skies doesn't feel the same either.
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  But it is vertical short form video, so some people might move
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  over. Social media giants accelerating
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  their rollout of short form video features increases
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  competition. It's not just TikTok against
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  Instagram anymore YouTube Shorts jumped in X, of course, a little
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  bit late in the blue sky, a little bit late too.
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  But X and blue sky positioning themselves as alternatives for
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  TikTok users that haven't migrated over to YouTube Shorts
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  at this point. But YouTube Shorts is kind of
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  like the graveyard for TikTok videos.
• 5:03
  So the short perform video tools becoming central to platform
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  development is key for people to move to these platforms.
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  Cap cut is huge on TikTok. What does X offer?
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  They don't offer anything like that.
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  Now that does Blue Sky YouTube has the YouTube app, which you
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  can record in and you know, they don't have anything like cap cut
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  though. So you can record and do some
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  very simple editing. But X and Blue Sky don't have
• 5:32
  anything compared to what TikTok has.
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  Companies adapting to the potential absence of a major
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  player like TikTok are going to see a short burst in new users
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  when users cannot download TikTok, So we'll see how that
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  works out for them. Blue Sky is built on the AT
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  protocol. The AT protocol, which allows
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  developers to create custom video and content feeds.
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  Independent tools like Grey's Social and Skyfeed are being
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  developed to enhance video capabilities.
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  So not only is this open, unlike Elon Musk's X, which we all
• 6:10
  love, but you can have independent tools attached
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  directly to an app that you use. You don't have to use Blue Sky
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  because it's on the app protocol.
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  There's more analytics, blending of text and video on Blue Sky
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  and personalized user experiences.
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  You can personalize everything on Blue Sky.
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  So Speaking of decentralization, it fosters innovation and
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  diverse use cases now. So what were we talking about
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  before? The developers can develop on
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  top of the platform, unlike X where you can't because it's
• 6:49
  owned by Elon Musk. It's a closed garden.
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  You know, it's kind of a kind of a mood point, but also a little
• 6:56
  bit funny is that Elon Musk is a bastion for free speech and it
• 7:03
  oh, so I think of software as speech.
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  I'm a web developer by trade. Check out my website,
• 7:10
  willwalden.com if you need any help or any work done.
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  And also, I believe in open source, I believe in open source
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  software. And I'm sure Twitter and X have
• 7:22
  used parts of open source software.
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  I believe language is code and code is language.
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  So I don't understand why Elon Musk hasn't opened up X to, I
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  mean, there there's an API, but he charges for it.
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  It costs money. So that's not free speech in my,
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  in my own opinion, if you have to charge for something that's
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  not free anymore. So think about that.
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  So is Blue Sky doing free speech better than X?
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  Just think about it for a second.
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  I don't know. I don't know.
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  It's a, it's an interesting topic to think about though.
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  So integration of vertical video on X though, it's part of the
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  larger multimedia ecosystem that Elon is building.
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  So he's building an everything app.
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  It's similar to Facebook in many regards.
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  Facebook has Reels, Facebook has a news feed, Facebook has
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  favorites, Facebook has live. They've had it for a while.
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  They had payment integrations. And Elon Musk, a lot of people
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  are thinking that he's just copying Zuck, you know, and
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  that's, that's an opinion from some people because Facebook
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  kind of has everything already. And Elon is trying to make
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  something that's similar to Facebook.
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  And he says it's going to be more than that where you can
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  hail an Uber or hail a Tesla, things like that, which is going
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  to be very cool when it does happen.
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  So then let's go back to the integration of this vertical
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  video. And I'm not a Elon heater, by
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  the way. I love, I love the the companies
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  that he's built. So I'm just putting some points
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  about the apps and the way that things are structured just so we
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  can think about this together. It's seamless navigation though
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  on the X app bottom bar, super easy.
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  Tap it real quick. I don't like things in the top
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  bar. I don't know about you or like
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  on a sidebar or anything like that in your apps.
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  Put it at the bottom where my thumbs already at because if I
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  have to reach over, I have a kind of, I have a bigger phone
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  with iPhone Pro Max and it's like kind of a big phone.
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  So if I have to reach like up, the phone gets a little floppy
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  in my hand. So at the bottom is perfect spot
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  for that. It's focused on simplicity.
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  The the interface is very simple.
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  So it's really easy to pick up and use.
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  And it's going to be a comprehensive content platform
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  in the future. Because of vertical video, we
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  had horizontal video. You can upload as long a video
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  as you want to as long as you pay for it.
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  So think about that too. If you have to pay to speak
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  freely through video on a platform, is that still free
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  speech platform? I just like to think about these
• 10:12
  things sometimes I like to think about them, but I want you to
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  think about them too. So that's why I bring them up.
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  It's not about hate, not I'm not hating on anybody.
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  But so far, they both had a positive reaction.
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  Many users appreciate the added functionality and the TikTok
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  like experience on X Suggestions for improvement from a bunch of
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  users. Extended video length limits and
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  editing features. That's one of the big ones.
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  The editing features, TikTok has a lot of those which these other
• 10:40
  apps don't have yet. But this is version A1.
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  So in the near future, probably going to get some extended video
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  lengths maybe and some TikTok like editing features as well.
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  So let me know if you've used these app in the comments on
• 10:58
  whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now.
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  I'd like to hear what you think about it.
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  I'm a big proponent of XI love free speech.
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  I think it's a great thing. I love short form video.
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  You'll find me some mornings when I wake up earlier than the
• 11:12
  wife. Then I'm just scrolling through
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  Tiktok or skipping through some YouTube Shorts and you'll hear
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  me talk about them here and there.
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  So I'm a huge proponent of short form video and I can't wait to
• 11:25
  dig into all the short form video that I can find on X and
• 11:29
  also Blue Sky and check out our Discord.
• 11:32
  If you want some other information, we can continue
• 11:35
  this conversation over there and there's a link in the show notes
• 11:39
  for you. Also, I'm going to leave a link
• 11:41
  to my Venmo because I'm going to try to fund this podcast with no
• 11:46
  ads in the future. If I can get a good user base of
• 11:50
  people helping me out through Venmo, I will cut off all ads to
• 11:54
  the whole show. You'll never hear an ad again.
• 11:57
  If we can start getting user base, a monthly user base of
• 12:00
  people that donate through Venmo.
• 12:01
  So I'm going to leave my Venmo in the description below.
• 12:05
  Please take a second. A A1 dollar, $5, whatever you
• 12:09
  can do would really help out. If you're a fan of the show and
• 12:12
  you've been listening for a long time, I would appreciate some
• 12:15
  help. So thank you so much and take
• 12:18
  care of yourselves and each other, and I'll see the next
• 12:20
  one. Hey, thank you so much for
• 12:27
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 12:29
  support. If you could take a second and
• 12:31
  hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
• 12:34
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• 12:37
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• 12:47
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• 12:53
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• 12:55
  And I'll see you tomorrow.