Latest / Caught on the Mike... / The Outspoken Artist- Jean Carlo

Transcript

The Outspoken Artist- Jean Carlo · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entity today.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Referees at listener discretion is advised.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Joining me on the podcast today is a visual artist who specializes in underwater photography, and he himself is a recent podcast convert.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: He hosts the Outspoken Artists Podcast, and we have a great conversation about that transition.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to welcome John Carlo to the show and what a great conversation we have.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, ladies and gentlemen, I have talked about it multiple times in my journey of podcasting.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: How big of a fan I am not of the Facebook podcasting groups.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: But every once in a while, there's a diamond in the rough.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I am a man that is all about vetting the talent that's going to be on Caught on the Mic.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And my next guest is a photographer.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: He specializes in underwater photography.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is that correct?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: All about the depths of artistic expression.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: He is the host of the Outspoken Artist Podcast.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: John Carlo, how are you doing, man?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I am doing great.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us what you were doing in Kentucky.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I launched my podcast.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: My God, it's only it's not even been a year, it's July of last year, and I started interviewing a lot of photographers and different artists across different parts of the United States, and even a kid from Australia, which is a different story.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome kid.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I convinced Imaging USA, which is normally hosted by the Professional Photographers Association, and told him, hey, I have a podcast, and would you be interested in me coming by, recording some of the speakers, some of the expo folks, and whatnot, and see what comes from it.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he said yes.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: They gave me a press media pass, and that was it.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: There was no direction, no nothing for me to do whatever I wanted when I was up there.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, I ended up originally scheduling 11 different speakers, different guests that I would have.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of them being the president of the organization, some of them very well-known photographers.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And after that entire time that I was there, I actually ended up talking to 16 different people.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and for perspective, 2023, I only had 10 interviews booked on my podcast.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: In like a matter of three to four days, I had 16 people recorded.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's crazy because in my three years of doing it, it feels like it's constantly feast or famine.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: You'll go through those moments where you're like really trying to vet your guests out.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: You want to make sure there is maybe it's not the most linear thing in the world, but there's a little bit of a spiritual connectivity from one guest to the next.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's like leading a trail with cookie crumbs, you know?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you want it to make sense, but sometimes you can overanalyze it and create these big gaps between episodes, or you can have what you just experienced where you record a shit ton of stuff in a short period of time.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was, man.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it was.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And talking about that whole thing, the vetting aspect to your Facebook comment, I completely understand.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because, first of all, I think, what is it?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: At least eight times out of ten, somebody's a some sort of speaker motivational.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you've had trauma in your life, which if you didn't overcame it, kudos, man.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Kudos to you.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's hard to find good guests in there.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I've only had one person who was an author, and she was fantastic.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Outside of that, it's my god, it's hard, man.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to be careful because there are some people that are kind of involved with multi-level marketing and the mark multi-level marketing grift.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm not gonna say who, but I got caught up in one on an episode I did not too long ago, and it's crazy because I didn't vet that guest as much as I normally do.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I was just I took them at face value, who they said they were, and then stuff started coming out online shortly after I released the episode, and I was like, oh shit, to the point where I was almost like, should I poll this episode?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't blame you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't blame you because even I'll get messages from people, even within the photography space, that'll tell me, hey, I've heard all about your podcast and will love to be a part of it, especially because I'm you know, I I'm the organizer or creator of blank program.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And immediately I'm like, okay, what what what is this what is this about?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you wanting to talk or are you looking to sell?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I get it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the educators that I speak with have some sort of program, and that's fine.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're gonna give somebody value and I feel that my listeners, whoever else, may actually get something good out of it, then by all means, but I'm just not gonna bring somebody on who is gonna probably take someone's money away because everybody's trying to make it in the art department.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely, and that's a good segue because I want to dive more into your experience starting this podcast and getting it rolling because it sounds like it's gonna be rolling through like a freight train very soon with the number of interviews you've recorded.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Let's actually talk a little bit more about the genesis of your photography and kind of this path that brought you to where you're at today.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: As you mentioned, I I do specialize in underwater portraits.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I'm in a bit of a hiatus because the person that had the pool that I utilized left.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of put a uh a pause in the work that I do because it ideally you want to have a salt water heated pool because this the subject has to stay warm and you don't want chlorine in their eyes.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I also specialize in high volume headshots, which is what led me to that imaging convention last year, which was my first one.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what, there's this perception, or at least it feels like in everything's Facebook, by the way.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: It goes back to dang Facebook, yeah.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Where if you post something like I'm looking for a photographer within 10 to 20 minutes, you just see it.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you can start, oh, I'll charge 500.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you wait long enough, you'll get that person like I'll do it for free.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's it just becomes like a dog eat dog type of thing.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And interacting with these wonderful folks that I met made me realize, man, these are some really cool people.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Artists in general tend to be pretty cool.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's always gonna be pretentious people, there's always gonna be those that are trying to push you down.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to highlight these folks, and additionally to that, I wanted to create a safe space where, for example, Mike, I feel like I can talk to you about anything.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't get the vibe that you're gonna be pinning me in a corner and I'll be I'll be judged.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted to recreate: a place where people can speak whatever they wanted to without judgment, as long as they weren't, you know, belittling anybody.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: But my listener as well feel like, heck, you know, I can relate to these people because in school, I went to an art school here in Florida, and there was some uh an interesting group of people that had this high art mentality where art was only art if it fell within their preconceived notions of what art is.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was the kind of guy that admired trash art.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if it's art, it's art.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's worth admiring.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want people to feel that way.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I created the podcast is because of the fact that I wanted to create a safe space for people to just either listen, tune in, watch, and get introduced to people that otherwise wouldn't be highlighted because they're not the some of them are popular, don't get me wrong, some of the folks that I got are very popular, but there's also other ones that are very unknown that should be highlighted.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And being able to give them that platform to talk about their form of artistic expression is really important.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Myself coming from the arena of music, I think about back when I was a kid, when I was like a 16-year-old, and I was just getting into music and how everything was segmented.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you had your heavy metal kids, you had your punk rock kids, you had your hip hoppers.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And over time, those lines have blurred a little bit more, but also we've grown and I've grown up and become more mature where we come a little bit more open-minded to other things.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: But I had that same exact experience where you'd have people almost take a very pretentious stance on what they were doing versus what other people were creating, but it's the same form of expression one way or the other, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you went through this because you've been doing this for some time.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: What when I started this podcast, this could have started a long time ago, and it started exactly when it should have.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've come to accept that.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: One of my biggest hurdles, and I'm hoping to convey this down the road to people that I speak with and see my my podcast, or even your listeners.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of my biggest blockers was perfection paralysis.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Everything had to be perfect, and that's where photography came into play.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: As a photographer, everything has to be perfect for me.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: My lighting, my background, everything.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: That literally translated to everything because I do video podcasts.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So before I even press record, oh no, my lighting has to be perfect.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, my background has to be perfect.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: This has to be perfect.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I waited and waited and waited.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I posted on 2020.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna put a channel.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like everybody was born in the pandemic, right?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna post a channel.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: It took me three years, three years to put something out there.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, it happened when it needed to happen, but nonetheless, that pursuit to perfection held me back so much.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if anybody's out there listening and you're thinking about doing something like this, just start.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter because every single little thing that I was so adamant about when before I started, you look at my setup today, none of it, none of it I apply because I've learned on the go.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that that's so funny because I think I first conceptualized the idea of doing my show around 2018, like long before the pandemic.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: But the pandemic kind of forced me to pull the trigger, and I'm the same exact way.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm the same exact way with the podcast.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the same, I was the same exact way with music.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Last few years I was doing music, I had another album for the band I was in at the time, pretty much written, except for my parts, because I would overanalyze every single detail, and I would write something, then I'd scrap it, and then I'd write something else, I'd scrap it, and that's kind of how I came to terms with the fact where you got to make a decision whether your heart is in it or not.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna pull the trigger on this thing or not?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes forcing yourself into that decision is the best decision you can make.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Go taking back a couple of days ago when I was over there in Kentucky.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, I was originally scheduled for 11 people.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you the fast track of what happened.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was supposed to do all my recordings in the hotel.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: They gave me the clear, everything was good.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I get there the day off.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was about to hit record, and my first guest, short little person from the hotel, comes by and says, Oh, I'm sorry you can't be here.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: They gave me all these different excuses at the end.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Oh no, yeah, no, I just you just can't be recording.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, crap.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now I gotta tell all my guests, we gotta move this somewhere else.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't wanna I don't want to cancel anybody, so I made it work where I could do it at the expo place.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: But where I'm going with this is to the point of perfection and preparation.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I pre- I prepared.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I did my research on people, I did my research on 11 people.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Then there was those other five ones that were just that happened to be because people felt like you gotta be on the show, you gotta interview this person.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you a story.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Marg is her name, and she is a wonderful boudoir photographer.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I sat down with her, two people told me you gotta talk with her.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was gonna be virtual, but it worked out that I had a 20-something minute gap and somebody brought her to where I was set up and like, oh, here's Margot.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, let's do this.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: She sits down, I sit down, I'm like, Margo, this is gonna be great because I know nothing about you, and you know nothing about me.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we are gonna get to know each other.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: She tells me, first off, I'm really nervous.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm really, like, really, really nervous.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I said, look, don't worry about it.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look at the cameras, just look at me.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Pretend they're not even here.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna have a chat.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like you and I are having one right now, Mike.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, she tells me the story, pretty amazing what she does with some of the victims of Kenya and some of these other African countries with some non-voluntary surgeries they do on them.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: It got a little deep at first, and I was able to also bring it back, make it a little bit also uplifting towards the end.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: She tells me how in her boudoir session, some of her customers and her clients get transformed.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some women feel like women for the first time in decades because of how she makes them feel.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think the the interview ends, or the conversation ends.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I take off the headset and say, How was it?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: She said, It was amazing.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, thank you.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people have been telling me I should do this, and I never felt like I was capable of doing it.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: But now I understand how my clients feel when their life is transformed.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, holy shit, that's in my mind.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that out loud.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, holy shit.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the power of just talking to people, right?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, it was talking to people and also being part of a show.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But that was one case, and then the other one was someone who was on their bucket list to be on the podcast.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea, but they told me afterwards, I'm like, oh snap.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was this person's, you know, first podcast experience, and they felt now compelled to do other ones.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I I mean, I don't know, man.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: This this this medium is it can be transformative to some folks if if you get the right ones.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: There is a power in being able to draw out that humanity in people, but then it kind of quantifies itself forward when somebody gets to listen to their story and experience and take something from that and apply it to their own life and experience it in their own life.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, man.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm curious.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited actually for these.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of editing to do, right?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I am very excited about what this is gonna happen, what's what's gonna look like at the end of it, because I'm already planning on recreating this as it become it has become like a little package that I'm now pitching to some of these expos because these expos are great, but there's this weird old guard and new guard kind of situation where the old guard are the older photographers, they've been doing this forever, they've always ran these conventions and expos in a particular way, and you know, the clock is ticking, like it is for us.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting older, they're getting much older, and the newer guard is coming on board and wanting more of a refreshed type of feel for these conventions, otherwise, members are not gonna join.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, podcast is big, it's actually pretty big with the newer generations because you get to hear people, you get to talk to people.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about what they are presenting from their name brand, it's the true authentic person, and it's becoming an interesting niche that I'm tapping into because there's a few other expos where I'm coming to them saying, Hey, I did this at imaging and they loved it.
• 16:45
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Would you like me to recreate it?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I can go over there and just do the same thing.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's great for networking too.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I've said this on a million episodes already where I talk about two things I don't discuss on my shows.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: I refuse to discuss politics and I refuse to discuss religion because my viewpoint is you are an individual, so is everybody else.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: We can have a difference of opinions and still be friends at the end of the day.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: The power of podcasting is we have the ability to prove that we have more in common than we do different in a world that's constantly trying to divide us.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Again, going back to that humanity element that I was discussing a few minutes ago.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: You mean isn't it?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: That is so true.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's that is so true.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many people I spoke with that if you were to paint it from like the mainstream media, we would be on two completely different spectrums.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: We are more alike and we are more similar than we are different.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, the perception that's put out there doesn't make it so because people make money off of the malice, you know, the the bad.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the unfortunate part.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the great thing is is that when you look past that, buddy, we're just everybody's just trying to do the same thing, right?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're just trying to live their life, trying not to do bad onto others.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's always going to be bad apples, but I would agree, man.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would agree.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can sit down with people, have a wonderful conversation, and it's perfectly okay.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Being that your cornerstone of experience is in photography, you're obviously having a lot of photographers on your show.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let's kind of get into the range of guests that you have had on your show so far, who you're looking to have, and where you're wanting to go with it in the future.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: I started interviewing the people that I knew.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first guest that I had is a gentleman named Jay Rosen, and he, ironically enough, was a cosplayer when I met him, and he would create these wonderful prosthetics, but he had this really cool project that he's been a part of for I think going on 11, 12 years now.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was one of the first to work on the it's called Mirrorverse.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially, it's the stuff that Apple's doing now with the augmented reality.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's been doing this for like over a decade.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that to the point that I think Barizon, I think they offered, I don't know if they he sold it or not, but they offered to buy his technology because he was trying to do it from a approach of I want to make this available for the masses, where he was able to create an augmented reality headset for only like 12 bucks.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I think Barizon was offering to buy it to keep it off the market.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: At twelve dollars, you know, at twelve at twelve dollars, uh, that's not really profitable when you have Apple and all these other companies selling headsets for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: So he does he does that.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: He is an astrophotographer too.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: He picked that up during the pandemic and became fantastic at what he does.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my first one.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I guess he was a photographer, but also a jack of all trades.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, from there, I had a cosplay photographer, I had a few photographers, I had a trade show expo expert who primarily, although she does photography, her thing for the last couple of years has been actually setting up these expos and all the work that goes behind it.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had a race car driver who's now a high performance coach.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's uh fantastic and interesting because racing is art.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I had a book author, she was really good.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: She's she's really good to check out, uh, Sarah Page.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: I had that 11-year-old kid, that prodigy from Australia.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was a fun one, man, because my barber was playing some music and it was handpan music.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, this is really nice.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hold on, man, hold on.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's this kid, it's like a 10-year-old kid at the time.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: He is a prodigy in the hand pan.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: He pulls them up, puts them on TV, and I'm like, damn, this this kid is badass.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed that he only had like 9,000 followers at the time.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, hmm, I'm gonna I'm gonna comment on one of the videos to see if maybe, right?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think I only had maybe like 30 followers or less at the time.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And well, I sent it and I didn't think anything of it.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Went on about my day.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then one day I saw that there was a response to my comment, and they said, absolutely, we'd love to do it.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, holy crap, yeah, this is really cool.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: At this, at this point, he was already past the 10,000 followers and ended up figuring it out.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And right a couple of days before Christmas, I got a chance to first meet them before the podcast just to talk and understand logistics and whatnot.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Ended up having an hour-long conversation.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're in Australia, I'm over here, and wonderful people, wonderful family.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Did the interview, wonderful.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: He played an original song, which was fantastic.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then after we stopped recording, we then spoke for another hour or so.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it was it was great.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was really great.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I made that's the wonderful wonderful thing about podcasting is that you can make friendships from across the globe.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because of the fact that you're just talking and interacting with people.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: This here's the sweet part, man.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I've supported his work.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I bought his albums.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people to buy it.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I bought some merch.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because why not mean to support an artist?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I got a letter in the mail, and it was my merch that I ordered.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic stuff.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: My wife goes in and she takes out from the package a letter.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: This letter is a handwritten letter from him, and his his sister drew my my outspoken artist logo on the on the cover of the letter.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the sweetest thing.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually going to be handwriting him a letter, sending it to Australia, and probably gonna do some sort of hand art myself.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: But look at that, man.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, dude, gosh, I know, I know, it is insane.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing is, is like for all the ways we want to vilify social media, this is a prime example of how it works in a good way, and how like serendipitous things can be.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've had the same exact experiences, those one in a million comments you leave on somebody's social media turning into this great podcast episode, turning into this great relationship you forge, and that's what life is all about, man.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: I love this.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is, it is.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And now in Kentucky, one of the guests that I had was a very talented photographer.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of them are.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, is John Gress, and he was the guy that truly, through his YouTube content that he freely put out there, I changed my style and learned how to properly light photos.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a chance to interview him.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I said thank you, right?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: For of course, you know, dude, like you changed my photography, so thank you.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: But had a normal conversation with the guy, and the guy's like a big history nerd like me.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he made a joke of like, look, when you're hitting your 40s or so, there's things that happen when you're 40 as a guy.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: One, you probably get either a grill or a smoker.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Two, you pick up photography, or you start to learn about like history, specifically World War II history.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, damn it, man.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like everything except the grill and the smoker.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: But he he was he's the kind of guy that would sit down, and I think I'm the only guy that's gonna have this in the podcast.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's the kind of guy that will sit down and watch a nine-hour long Canadian history video that's black and white from the 50s, and he'll sit through the whole thing.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, I I would do that.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like I have friends that are like, how do you how can you watch something that's three to four hours long?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I just I just can't.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just that's what I do.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So going back to your to your question from earlier, what I'm looking to eventually get to, right, for future guests.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So photographers, yes, being one of them.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: To me, art varies, it goes in many different ways.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: There is a knife maker over here in the Tampa Bay side that teaches people to make knives from scratch.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's fascinating.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, stained glass artist.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, art's like whatever.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it could be really anything.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: It could be somebody who makes sand castles, it could be there's this guy in Europe that does these weird installations where he makes people like they're vacuum sealed.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he speaks English, but I want to talk to that guy because he's been doing this for over a decade.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Things like that, Mike.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of people that I want to talk to and just get to know them a little bit and understand their why.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, and that is so important because everybody's why is different and unique to them, but there you have this tremendous opportunity for somebody else to hear that and it resonates with them and it clicks inside of their head.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it's another beautiful thing about podcasting.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely, and it's not about me anymore, which is kind of I almost like that for so many years, right?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's oh me, me, me, right?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nowadays, I get to showcase people, and it's so much more rewarding because you get to see people in a different fashion.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: They get to tell a story that maybe somebody else doesn't know, and I don't know, to your point, it's a good way of using social media for the positive, not for all the negativity that's out there.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you're kind of on a high of getting all of this going.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: What's been a challenge that you've experienced so far that you didn't foresee before you started it?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it's I mean, it shouldn't be any surprise.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a one-man team at the moment.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh time is always challenging because if you think about it, right?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have my I have my job that pays for most of the things that I do.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I have my photography business as well that I maintain.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: So those two in itself is already going to be a lot.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'm also a family man, which I have to make sure that I give ample amount of time for that.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, throw in the podcast where you're uh having to schedule guests you know already, betting good guests and whatnot.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: That takes time that I didn't think it would, right?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to find a guest, coordinating schedules, fitting everything in so it works.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been that's been the biggest hurdle.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I I learned how to use a calendar.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've never been so great with a calendar in my life, never in my 20s or even in my early 30s.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was not a calendar guy.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now I live by a calendar.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, like you're asking me, when can we record?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, we have like a window of like one hour at this at this time.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's good.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's good.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: It actually, you know, even though it's a hurdle, it gets you to be more efficient and more effective at what you do.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I've just been clever enough to utilize technology as well to my advantage.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I use AI for a lot of my video editing that is for podcasts because there's great tools for that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm making my reels, I use AI because otherwise it'll take me too many hours that I don't have.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just getting creative with the little time that I have to be able to do this.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what what has been your experience with AI so far?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know that's something that's somewhat like divided the artistic community between people that want to embrace it and people that fear it.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is it is divided.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is divided.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those that embraces it to help me with my workflows.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: If it allows me, for one, to simplify my systems for my clients to give them a better experience by all means.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: For my podcast for editing, I mean it's fantastic.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's I mean, I can edit.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I have the background.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what I also went to school for.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: But if I can press a button and this thing automatically syncs up my video, my audio, and my multi-camera setups and does a 90% of the edit in less than three minutes, I'll take it.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take it.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'll go and do something, come back, and it's practically done.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, it's there, it's not gonna go away.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um as I mentioned, I do high volume headshots.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: For for me, it doesn't affect me too much because when I photograph 100, 200 people, companies need someone who's dedicated for that.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: But for the photographers out there that are doing single headshots, it's it's challenging because it'll take selfies that you take and give you a really good looking headshot for a 10% of the price.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna that's gonna that's gonna disrupt the market.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just photography.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know people that I know within my networks that specialize in educational platforms that utilizes AI to teach kids based on their likes and dislikes.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a kid that's into basketball, it'll create a curriculum for both science, math, and whatever around basketball.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then the kid will be able to understand it, or if they're into music or into whatever, that's great.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: But some teachers are terrified because, like, shit, what what am I needed for?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: You have AI software that allows you to review legal cases.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are paralegals gonna do?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's a powerful tool that unfortunately is gonna hit a lot of markets, and either you can embrace it and adapt and pivot, or you're gonna get left behind.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's no different, it's the next stage of the industrial revolution.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it it is.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of maintain a duality on it because I see everything that you're presenting here, but I also kind of see the flip side of it from a you know, that was largely what was behind the writer's strike and the actor's strike this last summer because of likeness reproduction, you know, writers fearing that it's gonna render their jobs obsolete.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: But then you have somebody like Dan Aykroyd that says, Hey, after I die, use AI, replicate my likeness.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: Let's if this keeps the Ghostbusters franchise going forever, so be it.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not gonna go away.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing with us, right?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: With with humanity.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Once we tap into something, it's just gonna be gonna be explored, explored.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll take one invention and just see how far we can go with it.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in my case, for what I do, I found things that help me right now, and as the time passes, I'll have to figure out what else I may have to adapt to.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: But not everybody thinks of it that way because I mean it's scary.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's scary.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's completely understandable that it's a bit scary.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right, absolutely.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Real quick, as we start to wrap this up, kind of tell me what you wish you would have known back when you started photography and this podcast that you've embarked on that you know now.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Photography-wise, I would say that in reality, a lot of the photographers are more supportive than I originally thought.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much they tend to help each other out.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example where I've seen photographers that have a job, a headshot job, for example, and they can't do it.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: So they'll go ahead and hand the job off to a photographer they trust, and they help each other out.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had friends that have gotten jobs from the same person, so it's like this back and forth.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than thinking that you're by yourself, there's actually quite a bit of a community that exists out there, but only is available if you actually put yourself in it.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a corner by yourself, you're you're not gonna you're gonna be by yourself, right?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I wish I would have known that earlier because I think that would have helped me grow as a business person and as a photographer and as an artist.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And for podcast, podcast, I I think I go back to what I said earlier, which is I wish I would have just started.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would have started messy, I would have just made mistakes because I was so concerned with screwing up, not reading off the script or fill in the blank.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: I now embrace it because you know what?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a generation where it doesn't have to be perfect, and that's what I grew up with, where the labelier mic had to be hidden, the this couldn't be shown, you couldn't see the microphone, you couldn't do all this.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: That was how it was before.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now people don't care.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: They don't care if you have a a DJI mic on your on your shirt, they don't care about that stuff.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: What they really care about is what's being said and what's being presented, because that's what matters at the end.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not how good it looks or how professional you were in hiding stuff.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you have good content, if you have something of value, then that's really what matters.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll say this.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I forgot who it was, I think it was Chris Doe from The Future or somewhere.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: You have to think about social media and everything that you put out there in two simple ways.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are you one giving people value, or two, are you taking their time away?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're taking their time away, if you're just posting something that's got no meaning and somebody scrolls through and it's like, uh, okay, cool, they'll go on to the next.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: But if you truly want to be successful in social media, give them something of value, and that's what people share, and that's what people will save.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish I would have known that much sooner, but again, you learn it when you have to.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's a fantastic mindset to have.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: That leads me to my closing question that I ask every guest, everybody from UFC fighters to heavy metal musicians to psychics to anybody that does my show.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what is your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a great question, right?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's such a simple answer.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where I'm gonna just encapsulate it into two things.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: One, it's easier to be upfront and honest than it is to be deceitful and lie.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't have to keep track of anything if you're being honest.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's number one.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Be honest, be yourself, be authentic.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, man, just be kind.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everybody I mean, we all have good days and bad days.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you had a bad day or you see the world in a certain way, uh doesn't give you the right to treat people unkindly.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, man.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just be kind, and I think good things will come to you.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not that you should be expecting that they should, but by being kind and being authentic and being yourself, you're gonna surround yourself and people are gonna gravitate towards you that's sharing the same mindset.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: But have a good vet, but have a good betting process like you do on the Facebook groups, man.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you, man, I I don't care where anybody exists spiritually.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: If there's not anything that's more true in the world, it's karma.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Karma exists, karma is real.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: What you put forth in the world will come back to you tenfold always.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: I agree a hundred percent, Mike.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, where can my listeners find you and your podcast online?
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is your opportunity to plug your stuff, my friend.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, easiest place would be to check out my website for the podcast, uh, outspokenartist.com.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is probably the best place to go because you'll have access to my YouTube, Spotify, all the other social media channels.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, if you want to check out my photography work, you can go to Katz Meowtampa, that's C A T S Meow, like the sound, Tampa.com.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a little bit less exciting than the podcast, so just go to the podcast.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds good.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I'm so glad we got to connect, and I hope we cross paths again here in the not too distant future.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, Mike, man.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was a pleasure.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing the show today, John Carlo.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: The world's a much better place with you and it.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Same here, man.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Same with you.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank my new friend John Carlo for doing the podcast today.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: That was a really great conversation.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was just listening to it again for the second or third time, and I really enjoyed that.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can find the Outspoken Artist podcast on all podcasting platforms.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Check him out on YouTube and visit his website, outspokenartist.com.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in the mood to serve some websites, make sure you visit www.cotonThemic.com.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Follow CaughtheMic on all social media platforms.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you are giving me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can rate me now on Spotify as well.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: Please share my shit.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: We are trying to grow the show.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Michael Clark.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, thank you.